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Ehm, so i haven't played since 6th ed came out, and when i played in 5th i had a habit of getting my ass kicked because i chose the cool units over decent lists. Went out in style though ;D
So I wouldn't mind winning a game for once, and thought this list seemed pretty good-what does Dakka think

HQ
-Commander Shadowsun-175 pts
MV52 Drone, C-link drone

TROOPS
-Fire Warrior Team (12)-132 pts
Shield Drone, Gun Drone, Pulse Carbines
-Fire Warrior Team (12)-120 pts
Shield Drone
--Devilfish Transport- 80 pts

ELITE
-Stealth Team (3)-110 pts
Shas'vre: Fusion blaster, Markerlight/Lock
-Riptide-235 pts
Ion Accelerator, 2 S/M drones

FAST ATTACK
-Pathfinder Team (8)-130 pts
P-Accelerator Drone, Rail rifle, Shas'ui; shield drone
-Pathfinder Team (8)-130 pts
P-Accelerator Drone, Rail rifle, Shas'ui; shield drone
--Devilfish Transport- 80 pts

HEAVY SUPPORT
-Hammerhead Gunship-140pts
T.L Burst Cannon, Disruption
-Hammerhead Gunship-140pts
T.L Burst Cannon, Disruption

Comes to just under 1500 points, has about 20 to spare. Atm the models i actually own are the Riptide, box of Warriors and box of Pathfinders.

You should try to focus each individual squad to there initial task instead of point sinking tons of fun stuff in.

Shield drones on your fire warriors are inefficient and add to your model count. you cant fit full 12 fire warriors + drone into a fish. ditch them and keep your troops cheap and easy.

same with pathfinder shield drones. accelerators on them might be ok (i still need a try them) but

Twin linked burst cannons are terrible on any vehicle. switch to SMS until they faq it. i suggest trying to find some room for a long strike on one of those hammer heads and give the other one a bsf.

The rest of the list depends on your play style. how do you like to play and what is your style?

Ideally, take advantage of enemy movements. Hit and run, picking off any stragglers.
Shadowsun+Stealth team would infiltrate further up and DS the Riptide in at an early stage to bust any heavy guns.
Only giving one devilfish to every other squad allows a balance of mobility (getting places quickly) and stationary, defensive.
I don't know how valid any of that is ;p

I don't want to play to aggressively, basically.

Ok than 2 things.

Deep striking riptide means its not shooting. which is bad.
even though it looks like an awsome suit. in reality it is actually a very tall long range artillery piece that should be shooting every turn possible. markerlights can help erase whole enemy squads out of existence quite easily.

second is shadow sun is cool as the warlord though id perfer to stick her with ether regular crisis suits or body guard suits. that way you can get twice the dakka for roughly half price without being forced to take a few burst cannons.

If you need drop suits that can cause problems then you want crisis suits thats what they are designed for.

In addition to what the others have said:

Figure out what your Pathfinders are for. They get some incredibly cool toys, but Tau are best when you make each squad a specialist. Generally speaking, Pathfinders are there as a force multiplier for your army. The way most people play them, they don't fire their carbines unless it's on overwatch because they're getting assaulted.

If you want to do some shooting with Pathfinder rail rifles, put all the rifles in one squad and leave the other squad on markerlight duty. 8 is a good number; on average, you'll get 4 hits, which is enough to crank one squad up to BS 5 and ignore cover, or crank two squads up to BS5. Just keep in mind that with only one Pathfinder squad dedicated to marking targets, that's only one enemy unit per turn getting lit up.

Alternately, since you only have 2 of your 3 fast attack choices taken up, you can break the pathfinders into 3 units to give yourself some flexibility.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
-Commander Shadowsun-175 pts
MV52 Drone, C-link drone

Heh. Cool chick.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
TROOPS
-Fire Warrior Team (12)-132 pts
Shield Drone, Gun Drone, Pulse Carbines
-Fire Warrior Team (12)-120 pts
Shield Drone
--Devilfish Transport- 80 pts

1. Not enough dudes for 1.5k. I like 4 troop choices at this level.
2. Lose the 'fish. Though it can Move 12, and then go Flat Out, I'd still rather spend its points on more FWs.
3. Add the ethereal. In one post, you said,

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
I don't want to play to aggressively, basically.

... so play gun-line. I run two 12 packs and 2 six packs. With the ethereal's Storm of Fire they pump out an obscene number of shots.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
-Stealth Team (3)-110 pts
Shas'vre: Fusion blaster, Markerlight/Lock

I'd switch out the FB, as cool as it is, and focus on BC anti-Infantry fire power. Lose the Vre too.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
-Riptide-235 pts
Ion Accelerator, 2 S/M drones

I've no opinion of these, yet.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
FAST ATTACK
-Pathfinder Team (8)-130 pts
P-Accelerator Drone, Rail rifle, Shas'ui; shield drone
-Pathfinder Team (8)-130 pts
P-Accelerator Drone, Rail rifle, Shas'ui; shield drone
--Devilfish Transport- 80 pts

You do know that PFs are no longer required to take a fish? And as Desubot and CDRAlbrecht said, PFs ought to be focused. I use 3x6 PFs, and no upgrades. That's plenty.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
HEAVY SUPPORT
-Hammerhead Gunship-140pts
T.L Burst Cannon, Disruption
-Hammerhead Gunship-140pts
T.L Burst Cannon, Disruption

I disagree that BCs are bad. Now that they're 4 shots, I'd say keep 'em ... but since you haven't actually bought the models, may I steer you toward b-sides? Hella lot more $, but with their MissileDs and HYMP, they're are my "go to" crew for severe tactical removal.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
Comes to just under 1500 points, has about 20 to spare. Atm the models i actually own are the Riptide, box of Warriors and box of Pathfinders.

Oh, man, you gonna be spending some cash!

B-sides and Crisis Suits. Try e-bay for older XV88s that will be far cheaper.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
Ideally, take advantage of enemy movements. Hit and run, picking off any stragglers.
Shadowsun+Stealth team would infiltrate further up and DS the Riptide in at an early stage to bust any heavy guns.
Only giving one devilfish to every other squad allows a balance of mobility (getting places quickly) and stationary, defensive.
I don't know how valid any of that is ;p

I don't want to play to aggressively, basically.

In that case ditch the pulse carbines. They are only really good on an aggressive FW squad that is going to charge something. Otherwise the rifle is better, espeicailly wiht an ethereal giving a triple tap rapid fire.

Ok, I've made a revised gun-line list-

HQ
-Ethereal-74 pts
--2xShield Drone
-Commander Shadowsun-175 pts
--2xMV52 Shield Drone

TROOPS
-Fire Warriors (12)-132 pts
--Gun Drone, Shield Drone
-Fire Warriors (12)-132 pts
--Gun Drone, Shield Drone
-Fire Warriors (6)-66 pts
--Shield Drone
-Fire Warriors (6)-66 pts
--Shield Drone

ELITE
-Stealth Team-95pts
--Fusion Blaster
-Riptide-235 pts
--2XS/M Drones, Ion Accelerator, Missile Pod

FAST ATTACK
-Pathfinder Team (8)-88 pts
-Pathfinder Team (8)-88 pts
-Pathfinder Team (8)-88 pts

HEAVY SUPPORT
-XV88 Broadside Team (2)-154 pts
--2x Shield drones
-XV88 Broadside Team (2)-154 pts
--2x Shield drones

was thinking about ditching shawdosun entirely for something else, and using the points to beef up my exisiting units some more

There are a few things that you should think about regarding the list.

Firstly get rid of the drones off the riptide, if one of them dies your riptide could be running off the board. I would drop the shield drones off the FWs. You want to keep them cheap plus having an ethereal you will be getting your feel no pain save for free.

My only concern with the list is your lack of AV14. You have a fusion blaster on your stealth team. Maybe if you remove the shield drones and drones off the riptide you can fit in some pirahnas with fusion blasters. Other than that you seem to have a pretty solid list.

ATO

To be honest it is a total mess. Here's the run down on the latest incarnation:

Ethereal doesn't really need shield drones. Gun drones are better you'll rarely use that 4++

Shadowsun is ace but doesn't do a lot for Stealth teams. Should lead a crisis team (giving them stealth and shrouded) preferably in a Farsight bomb.

Shield drones on FWs are just terrible and you can't take them unless you have the 'ui upgrade which is redundant if you've got an Ethereal. Drop all the drones. 12s in general are a bad idea because they become a liability in assault.

Stealth team needs to be bigger and should concentrate on AI. The fusion is wasted here.

The drones on the Riptide are terrible. Where are you putting them? In front of him and their 4+ save is a liability to give him morale checks. Behind him your just paying double for missile drones. Neither is a good option. Stims is cheaper and gives you a survivability boost with no down side. The only config worth it on the Riptide is Ion, EWO and Stims for 225 points. They generally work best in pairs.

Pathfinders are good. The only part of the list I like. They are efficient.

Broadsides with shield drones?!???!?! This is the ONLY place we can get the horendously under pointed missile drones (compare them with a 15 point loota who is considered the best thing in the Ork codex). The config for them is HYMs EWO and 2 missile drones each. 94 points per broadside but you get 8 S7 shots and 4 S5 shots for that 8 of which are twin linked. Units of 2-3 should fill at least 2 of your HS slots. You point them at a unit and it dies.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
-Ethereal-74 pts
--2xShield Drone
-Commander Shadowsun-175 pts
--2xMV52 Shield Drone

I'm with FlingitNow, on these two. In fact, I really don't see myself ever taking ShieldDs again. All drones are T4, serve as ablatives, and yet, the others have guns.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
TROOPS
-Fire Warriors (12)-132 pts
--Gun Drone, Shield Drone
-Fire Warriors (12)-132 pts
--Gun Drone, Shield Drone
-Fire Warriors (6)-66 pts
--Shield Drone
-Fire Warriors (6)-66 pts
--Shield Drone

Again, every SD, toss. Also, you can spend points on other things, besides GDs.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
ELITE
-Stealth Team-95pts
--Fusion Blaster

I think Stealths are best suited to anti-Infantry, and they need to be 6 dudes. Either toss, or get another 3 guys, all BCs.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
-Riptide-235 pts
--2XS/M Drones, Ion Accelerator, Missile Pod

I have no opinion on Riptides, yet.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
FAST ATTACK
-Pathfinder Team (8)-88 pts
-Pathfinder Team (8)-88 pts
-Pathfinder Team (8)-88 pts

Good.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
HEAVY SUPPORT
-XV88 Broadside Team (2)-154 pts
--2x Shield drones
-XV88 Broadside Team (2)-154 pts
--2x Shield drones

FlingitNow already said it:

FlingitNow wrote:Broadsides with shield drones?!???!?! This is the ONLY place we can get the horendously under pointed missile drones (compare them with a 15 point loota who is considered the best thing in the Ork codex). The config for them is HYMs EWO and 2 missile drones each. 94 points per broadside but you get 8 S7 shots and 4 S5 shots for that 8 of which are twin linked. Units of 2-3 should fill at least 2 of your HS slots. You point them at a unit and it dies.

And he's totally right. I ought to buy more B-sides so I can have two of these units. I think they outrank DE venoms and IG PlasmaCutioners for volume of wound nastinest.

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
was thinking about ditching shawdosun entirely for something else, and using the points to beef up my exisiting units some more

Pretty much every drone needs to be tossed. Give the XV88s their Missile Drones.

What other models you got?

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
I disagree that BCs are bad. Now that they're 4 shots, I'd say keep 'em ...

Burst cannons are terrible now that they're twin-linked. Smart missiles are the same number of shots, longer range, ignores cover, and don't need line of sight. Burst cannons are 4 shots with 18" range. No contest, and for some reason they're the same price. (free)

skink007 wrote:

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
I disagree that BCs are bad. Now that they're 4 shots, I'd say keep 'em ...

Burst cannons are terrible now that they're twin-linked. Smart missiles are the same number of shots, longer range, ignores cover, and don't need line of sight. Burst cannons are 4 shots with 18" range. No contest, and for some reason they're the same price. (free)

Oooh. Old 'dex hangover. I missed that they're Twin Linked now. So, yes, you're right, SMS all the way.

skink007 wrote:

 DrownedRat117 wrote:
I disagree that BCs are bad. Now that they're 4 shots, I'd say keep 'em ...

Burst cannons are terrible now that they're twin-linked. Smart missiles are the same number of shots, longer range, ignores cover, and don't need line of sight. Burst cannons are 4 shots with 18" range. No contest, and for some reason they're the same price. (free)

I can't believe that they're free - it must be an oversight.