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I recently picked up 106 Firewarriors, 4 Devilfish, a Skyray, and about 15 Crisis Suits. I intend to try out the old tau gunline with just enough pathfinders for ballistic skill boost and cover save mitigation. I want to run 6 squads of 12 firewarriors, 4 that have only Photon Grenades and 2 that have both EMP grenades and Photon Grenades. The 2 with both grenades are going to have 6 and 6 pulse rifles and pulse carbines. Other option is 1 squad of pulse carbines and 1 squad of pulse rifles that both advance and fire on same target then the assault group can go in for the kill. On light vehicles i see this working well, on hordes or MEQ I am unsure how results will be. The other 4 squads would preferably be behind an ageis line or other cover. Intend to run one group of stealth suits with targeting arrays and 2 fusion blasters. I have 6 total devilfish plus a few other tanks. Thoughts? I intend to expand on this post after some army tinkering on army builder and some actual play time with setup.

Sounds pretty cool I'd love to see how it performs.

Don't expect much out of FW. They're notoriously underperforming because they lack special/heavy weapons. They're also somewhat flimsy with generally poor LD.

Pulscarbines are effectively useless now since you only have 18" range and a Pulse Rifle will get 2 shots at 15". The Photon grenades are generally useless since even IG will wreck FW in a fight, their stats are just that bad. Adding in that they're not very good at advancing because of their low model count of T3 models and the expensive EMP grenades won't get you too far.

Adding Devilfish to the mix and your list becomes extremely points heavy.

Suggestion is just bringing 3 squads of 9 firewarriors with pulse rifles, and spending the rest of the points on Crisis suits. Twin-linked Missile pods go a long way, only thing I'll say on that for now. Finally throw in a Hammerhead or two, personally I avoid the skyray because of it's limited ammo supply.

Spartan_Tau wrote:
The 2 with both grenades are going to have 6 and 6 pulse rifles and pulse carbines.

Now that you can move and fire with rifles there's no point in taking pulse carbines. And there's certainly no point in splitting your squads between the two weapon types.


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Spartan_Tau wrote:
4 that have only Photon Grenades

Never take photon grenades. You want to take as many casualties as possible and ensure that you fail the leadership check and break from combat, allowing the rest of your army to shoot the assault unit. With photon grenades you're paying points to make your unit worse, since now it has a much better chance of staying locked in combat for a turn.

The only reason to take a carbine is to try and force a pinning check, but that's a lot of firepower and range lost for a test that is going to be successful at worst 60% of the time and more likely passed 85+% of the time.

i have some tau i ally to my orks (mainly for broadside support which is AWESOMEEEE), but i dont have enough to run them on their own. Debating on it when the new dex drops though, right now i go through their codex and i just see them falling apart if they dont table or cripple their enemy by turn 3 via shooting and didnt get deepstriked...they have a wopping 2 models that are good at melee and one is an expensive HQ choice the other is bodyguards for a worthless HQ lol.

have to admit though, the way i run my orks if i saw THAT many fire warriors i would be a bit scared, youre going to have a turn maybe 2 of single fire and a turn (2 if i flop my charge, which is possible at that range) of rapid fire. Ouch lol.

i am attempting to post whole army list and it appears it must be to long to post or something because it wont post.

*snip*
I've had to cut this I'm afraid, please don't list each and every points cost, just the totals.Sorry
Reds8n

Total Roster Cost: 3618

HQ: Commander Shas'o (3#, 300 pts)
1 Commander Shas'o, 141 pts = (base cost,Bonding Knife,Hard-wired Blacksun Filter,Hard-wired Multi-tracker,Hard-wired Target Lock,Stimulant Injector,Plasma Rifle,Twin Linked Missile Pod)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 72 pts = (base cost,Cyclic Ion Blaster,Hard-wired Multi-tracker,Hard-wired Target Lock,Twin Linked Burst Cannon)
1 Crisis Bodyguard, 87 pts = (base cost,Hard-wired Multi-tracker,Hard-wired Target Lock,Missile Pod,Twin Linked Plasma Rifle)

Elite: Crisis Shas'vre (3#, 215 pts)X2
1 Crisis Shas'vre, 91 pts = (base cost,Bonding Knife,Hard-wired Blacksun Filter,Hard-wired Multi-tracker,Hard-wired Target Lock,Plasma Rifle,Twin Linked Missile Pod,Team Leader,Shas'vre Upgrade)
2 Crisis Battlesuit, 124 pts = 2 * 62 (base cost,Missile Pod,Plasma Rifle,Multi-Tracker)

Elite: Stealthsuits (6#, 257 pts)
4 Stealthsuits, 160 pts = 4 * 40 (base cost,Targeting Array)
1 Stealthsuits, 42 pts = (base cost,Targeting Array,Fusion Blaster)
1 Team Leader, 55 pts = (base cost,Targeting Array,Bonding Knife,Hard-wired Blacksun Filter)Fusion Blaster

Troops: Fire Warrior (15#, 311 pts)
11 Fire Warrior, 154 pts = 11 * 14 (base cost,EMP Grenade,Photon Grenade)
1 Shas'ui, 32 pts = (base cost,EMP Grenade,Photon Grenade,Bonding Knife,Hard-wired Blacksun Filter)
1 Devilfish, 125 pts = (base cost,Disruption Pod 5,Flechette Discharger,Seeker Missile x2 20)Blacksun Filter,Targeting Array

Troops: Fire Warrior (15#, 311 pts)
11 Fire Warrior, 154 pts = 11 * 14 (base cost,EMP Grenade,Photon Grenade)
1 Shas'ui, 32 pts = (base cost,EMP GrenadePhoton Grenade,Bonding Knife,Hard-wired Blacksun Filter)
1 Devilfish, 125 pts = (base cost,Disruption Pod,Flechette Discharger,Seeker Missile x2 20)Blacksun Filter,Targeting Array

Troops: Fire Warrior (12#, 150 pts)X3
11 Fire Warrior, 121 pts = 11 * 11 (base cost,Photon Grenade)
1 Shas'ui, 29 pts = (base cost,Photon Grenade,Bonding Knife,Hard-wired Blacksun Filte)

Fast Attack: Pathfinder (11#, 247 pts)
7 Pathfinder, 91 pts = 7 * 13 (base cost,Photon Grenade)
1 Shas'ui, 31 pts = (base cost,Photon Grenade,Bonding Knife,Hard-wired Blacksun Filter)
1 Devilfish, 125 pts = (base cost,Disruption Pod 5,Flechette Discharger,Seeker Missile x2 20)Blacksun Filter,Targeting Array

Fast Attack: Pathfinder (11#, 247 pts)
7 Pathfinder, 91 pts = 7 * 13 (base cost,Photon Grenade)
1 Shas'ui, 31 pts = (base cost,Photon Grenade,Bonding Knife,Hard-wired Blacksun Filter)
1 Devilfish, 125 pts = (base cost,Disruption Pod,Flechette Discharger,Seeker Missile x2)Blacksun Filter,Targeting Array

Fast Attack: Pathfinder (11#, 247 pts)
7 Pathfinder, 91 pts = 7 * 13 (base cost,Photon Grenade)
1 Shas'ui, 31 pts = (base cost,Photon Grenade,Bonding Knife ,Hard-wired Blacksun Filter)
1 Devilfish, 125 pts = (base cost,Disruption Pod,Flechette Discharger,Seeker Missile x2)Blacksun Filter,Targeting Array

Heavy Support: Hammerhead Gunship (3#, 205 pts)
1 Hammerhead Gunship, 205 pts = (base cost,Railgun,Gun Drones,Disruption Pod,Flechette Discharger,Seeker Missile x2 )Blacksun Filter,Target Lock

Heavy Support: Hammerhead Gunship (3#, 205 pts)
1 Hammerhead Gunship, 205 pts = (base cost,Railgun,Gun Drones,Disruption Pod,Flechette Discharger,Seeker Missile x2)Blacksun Filter,Target Lock

Heavy Support: Broadside Shas'vre (3#, 258 pts)
1 Broadside Shas'vre, 98 pts = (base cost,Bonding Knife,Hard-wired Blacksun Filter,Targeting Array,Team Leader,Shas'vre)
2 Broadside Battlesuit, 160 pts = 2 * 80 (base cost ,Targeting Array)

Validation Report:
c-1. File Version: 1.16 For Bug Reports/www.ab40k.org; b-1. Roster Options: Imperial Armour, Named or Special Characters; a-1. Scenario: Normal Mission; 1. Enclaves: Tau Empire; b-2. Levels of Alliance: Battle Brothers
Roster satisfies all enforced validation rules

Composition Report:
HQ: 1 (1 - 2)
Elite: 3 (0 - 3)
Troops: 6 (2 - 6)
Fast: 3 (0 - 3)
Heavy: 3 (0 - 3)
Fort: 0 (0 - 1)

Created with Army Builder® - Try it for free at http://www.wolflair.com

If this is not a legal format for this post can a moderator, or some point me to article telling me what I can post on specifics?

Spartan_Tau wrote:
Total Roster Cost: 3618

Are you really playing 3000+ point games?

I will review suggestions in the morning and make a second list from that. I play mostly a Trynid Guy with base 4k available, Orks with 3.5k base, and Ultramarines with 5k Base. So points limits are somewhat out the window with us. I will however shoot for a 2500 point list formatted as previous post with suggestions applied.


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Yes we play on an 8x4 board with plenty of room also we can leave board setup because of my house layout so if we don't finish we can resume later on i will try to get some pictures added this weekend for all of you.

I played a guy today who ran a large number of Firewarriors against my C:SM. I was able to pull a victory by only one point.

It makes me think that full sized squads in Devilfish rushing up to get into 15" range, then lining up to roll piles of dice, could be a vicious way to force a ton of rolls on an enemy. The rest of your FW squads could advance behind the mounted FW line until they got into rapid fire range. Against a charging enemy you'd just line them up and use the Devilfish to either push hard on a flank or block routes of advance to make an enemy disembark/assault the transport, buying you another round of shooting.

Support them with your Crisis suits equipped with missile pods and a flamer squad, a melta squad, and the rest burst cannon squads. All you would need after that would be a few Broadsides or Hammerheads for long ranged support and that would probably be a pretty good little force.

Except that you'd move the Devilfish into Rapidfire position for FW, and they at best kill 1 unit. Then the enemy moves in, ignores the Disruption pod bonus and blows up the Devilfish then cleans up the Firewarriors with the abundance of AP4 weaponry out now. Trading 2 expensive units for 1.

3618?? good grief man thats an insane point level to play on.

Also i though the Shas'o could only take up to 3 weapons or supprt items, you have 5 listed (ignoring hardwired) because twinlinked counts as 2. Only just got my codex i'll have to reread how many he can have but i know twinlink counts as 2 slots.

Spartan_Tau wrote:
I play mostly a Trynid Guy with base 4k available, Orks with 3.5k base, and Ultramarines with 5k Base. So points limits are somewhat out the window with us.

Sorry, I have no idea then. 40k isn't meant to be played at that high a point level and I can't imagine what kind of strategy you could use besides "line up everything and throw dice" when the table is so crowded. I will say that your units have way too many upgrades, it looks like you're trying to make 2.5k of models work in a 3.5k game, so you've got tons of useless upgrades piled on to reach the point level. You should trim it down and play a smaller, but more efficient, list, and tell your opponents to match it.

 Peregrine wrote:
I will say that your units have way too many upgrades, it looks like you're trying to make 2.5k of models work in a 3.5k game, so you've got tons of useless upgrades piled on to reach the point level. You should trim it down and play a smaller, but more efficient, list, and tell your opponents to match it.

I see this issue a lot with people that are new to Tau. They aren't like a lot of other armies where you tack on more and more upgrades and the unit gets better. Tau rely on being cost effective for their volume of fire.

I was going for longevity with fletchette dischargers and the stimulant injectors so what you cut out?

I suggest finding a good point value you can play at.

2k Seems to be fine with what you have and we can work from there.

First off 3 squads of 9 FW (Cost effective and 2 wounds won't cause a morale check) with no upgrades at 90pts per squad for a total of 270 points.

Elites with Twin-linked Missile pods and flamers. 47 ppm and very effective at what they do. Fill the elite slots with thes first then add extra suits to each squad as you want.

HQ can do a number of things. Outfit to your suiting, and feel free to add in Stimulant injectors or Iridium armor. It can be a very difficult HQ to take out.

All that's left if figuring out how many Broadsides and Hammerheads you want. Then you fill in the points from there.

I agree with most of what Savage Convoy had to say, but considering you are playing at 2K+, and you have the troops you might as well play double force organization slots as expected. Basically I would say use the following as it brings everything you need, with answers to everything they can throw at you except for flyers, and Psychers which you should look at Allies or Forge World to solve. (I highly suggest Eldar allies, due to battle brothers and efficient.)

Total: 1995
HQ: 210
2 x Shas El
-Plasma Rifle
-Missile Pod
-Targeting Array
-HW BSF, HW Target Lock, HW Multi Tracker

Elites: 360
3 x Crisis Suits
-Pulse Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker, Team Leader, HW BSF
3 x Crisis Suits
-Pulse Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker, Team Leader, HW BSF
3 x Crisis Suits
-Pulse Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker, Team Leader, HW BSF

Troop: 360
9 x Fire Warriors, Pulse Rifles
9 x Fire Warriors, Pulse Rifles
9 x Fire Warriors, Pulse Rifles
9 x Fire Warriors, Pulse Rifles

Fast Attack: 532
4 Pathfinders
-Devil Fish with Disruption Pods, and 2 Seeker Missiles (Stick your Fire Warriors in these rather than the Pathfinders.)
4 Pathfinders
-Devil Fish with Disruption Pods, and 2 Seeker Missiles (Stick your Fire Warriors in these rather than the Pathfinders.)
4 Pathfinders
-Devil Fish with Disruption Pods, and 2 Seeker Missiles (Stick your Fire Warriors in these rather than the Pathfinders.)
4 Pathfinders
-Devil Fish with Disruption Pods, and 2 Seeker Missiles (Stick your Fire Warriors in these rather than the Pathfinders.)

Heavy: 533
Hammer Head (I haven't lost one of these tanks yet in 6th edition...)
Rail Gun, Burst Cannons, BSF, Target Lock, Disruption Pods

Hammer Head
Rail Gun, Burst Cannons, BSF, Target Lock, Disruption Pods

2 Broadsides
-Targeting Arrays, Team Leader, Target Lock, 2 Shield Drones
-Put a Shas El with them, this gives them the BSF, and makes the unit a little more resistant to attrition, and protects him.

(500 with Eldar Allies for Anti-Psycher, needs Double Force Organization)
Eldrad

Farseer
-Rune Armor, Ghost Helm, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones
-Fortune, Guide

3 Jet Bikes
3 Jet Bikes

(495 points of anti flyer, Imperial Armour Aeronautica for the Barracuda)
1 Imperial Bastions with Quad Gun
1 Imperial Bastion with an Icarus Lascannon
Barracuda x 2

Lets say we don't have allies available do to cost or for someone who wants to stay true to tau codex without them this is a tactics thread afterall.

Tau without allies can still work. Just throw in more of the standard stuff.

Really I suggest holding off on allies until you have a feel for the main army. Then you get to see where you need/want extra units and support.

That is why the first 2K of the list is all Tau and I think a very effective list, I also included 500 points of Tau anti-flyer support for the list at the bottom. If you don't want to deal with Imperial Armour either, I would suggest the following as anti-flyer support.

This is 502 points and while not as effective as the Barracuda due to a lack of Skyfire its still damn solid, and provides extremely solid anti-vehicle support. The flamers can easily be removed they are mainly a staple I like to include for my Deathrain crisis teams due to Wall of Death. This also ends up putting every one of your 15 crisis suits to work, as long as you also have 2 Shas El suits separate.

Imperial Bastion
-Icarus Lascannon

Imperial Bastion
-Icarus Lascannon

3 x Crisis Suits (Deploy inside the Imperial Bastion)
TL Missile Pods x 3
Flamer x 3

3 x Crisis Suits (Deploy inside the Imperial Bastion)
TL Missile Pods x 3
Flamer x 3

106 Fire Warriors O_O

Dang, thats a lot.

Anyway, there really is no reason to ever run Pulse Carbines. Pinning is really lame for losing that one shot at half range.

WILL it let me post. Total firewarrior count is 152, 6 devilfish awiating arrival of one skyray kit. Have 1 skyray and one hammerhead. When I have the other 100 dollars I am getting the other two hammerheads from the lot of models i got.


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My intent is to use the firewarriors as a giant anvil, the devilfish as a funnel, and the crisis suits as a hammer. Tau are hunters my nature, they cannot go toe to toe with a horde or marines and win easily. more shots and better shots are very much necessary to secure victory.

Played a 1k game with this method it worked. It was close but it worked. Ill full battle report and possible youtube video up later tonight or tomorrow. List was a shas'o with a team of three crisis suits. 3 teams of 11 firewarriors. 2 teams of pathfinders 7 models each came out to 999.

The good news is that Tau appear to be getting an update. Hold out for a bit and see what the new codex has to offer.

Hope this isnt necromancy at this point. this tactic may indeed become a valid idea. will be reviewing tactics april 6 through april 13 and adding to this thread.

Sorry got swamped at work. My buddy and I are redoing the campaign first battle since new codex came out. With supporting fire and all the anti-air that came in new codex combined with Hq choices with volley fire. Gunline works! Works to well tabled Nids by fourth turn in 2 games one at 1k and one at 1500 points.