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So several people people have suggested since im new and just got done building my army that i upgrade in increments of 250 points. So i decided that i would up my army by 500 and just caryr over my gunline army with additional units added to it since i liked the way it already played. So please feel free to leave suggestions. My general playstile thoughts for tau are sit back and shoot and then move in and mop up objectives after i've decimated a decent portion of the opponent and avoid melle combat at all costs. I also am not using crisis suits intentionally because im not trying to outmanuever the opponent merely outgun him.

Tau Gunline 1500 points

Riptide = 225
-Ion Accelerator
-Early warning Override
-Stim Injector
-TL Smart Missiles


Broadsides 73 x 2 = 146 Total
-TL Heavy Rail Rifle
-TL Smart Missiles
-Seeker Missile


Pathfinder Teams 65 x 2 = 130
-+1 Pathfinder
-Shas'Ui


Fire Warrior Teams 103 x 4 = 412
-Shas'Ui
-->Shas'Ui Markerlight and Target Lock
-Gun Drone x 2


Etheral = 50


Hammerhead Gunship = 191
-Longstrike
-TL Smart Missiles
-Seeker Missiles x 2
-Automated Reair System


Sunshark Bomber 168 x 2 = 346
-TL Missile Pod
-Decoy Lunchers
-Automated Repair Systems

Total = 1490/1500




Thisis my revised list. I took off some of the things that were just point fillers and upgraded to two sunshark bombers instead of the razor fighters. I al went with the railgun on the hammer head with solid shot for the AP1. I also took the rail rifles off the pathfinders. I left the markerlights on the Fire warriors so they can have the boosted BS against whatever they are shooting at. I stayed with the Ethereal because the Cadre fireblade only works if you dont move. I tried to modify my list so it only states the options that ive taken and not the things that come standard with it to make the sifting a little easier. Than you again for your valuable reviews and advice.

Ok one question: WHERE THE HELL ARE YOUR CRISIS BATTLE SUITS. Battle suits are the best part of the tau army and can take on anything. I always bring 2 squads and any good tau list should have 2 squads. You have so many useless upgrades like counter defence systems they are not worth it because tau have supporting fire and with that you don't need CDS and why would you put an honour blade on your ethereal it is the biggest waste of points. Make your broadsides have the high yield missile pods they are much better. Why do you need so much anti air you have 2 flyers they are more than enough so you can drop all the velocity trackers and switch razor wings for sun sharks i personally believe they are better and the drones on them are amazing but I wouldn't bring either of them but that's just me. If you are going for the FW and ethereal combo differently get and aegis defence line with a quad gun and defiantly bring the rail gun on the hammerhead.

The Pathfinder Shas'ui does not get 2 ranged attacks. The Attack characteristic is for close combat only. Additionally, the codex states that Pathfinder models exchange their pulse carbines and markerlights for the rail rifle. Even if he could shoot twice, he no longer has another weapon to shoot.

My advice is to lose the rail rifles on the pathfinders. It's an expensive upgrade for a unit that is already going to be taking a lot of heat because of their ability to remove cover.

Also, don't listen to this guy screaming in all caps in the response above mine. If the Heavy Rail Rifles on the broadsides work for you, keep them. HYMPs are not 100% better 100% of the time; that's the Dakka echo chamber talking.

Consider a Cadre Fireblade if your goal is to play a gunline. He gives your Fire Warriors an extra shot at full range, puts a BS5 Markerlight in the squad, and ups their leadership to 9 for 60 points. The Ethereal only gives them an extra shot within half range.

You don't need to list the Nova Reactor in the upgrades for your Riptide. Everyone knows they come with one by default. Similarly, don't list Longstrike's special rules individually. Same for the Ethereal. Just tell us what upgrades you're paying for, not every unit's stock gear and special rules.

I'm not crazy about the seeker missiles on stuff. If all they're doing is shooting at things you'll be shooting at already, then they're not worth the points. What they're good at is getting around line-of-sight-blocking terrain, or firing 6 at a time from a Sky Ray to alpha strike a unit. You're not set up here to do either of those things.

Longstrike with an Ion Cannon is wacky. If you're paying to give the Hammerhead is tank-splatting ability, take the railgun. Give it Submunition rounds for some versatility if you want.

I have edited the list to reflect your valuable advice. Thank you and please take another look and let me know what you think.

One quick suggestion that I have is to drop 4 gun drones (or all) in the FW squads and bring Missile Drones. With markerlight support and target locks on the broadsides, it will significantly add some high S dakka to your gunline.

I haven't tried Longstrike with seeker missiles. Maybe it works, but I have to concens:
1. Won't be dumbfiring because you'd want to be moving Longstrike for the Jink save.
2. If fired by markerlights, then Longstrike has to fire at the same target. This may result in a target mismatch for the Railgun or an overkill and thus a turn wasted on an almost 200 pt unit.

Unfortunately they modified the codex and stated that only broadsides may take missile drones. I also have the gun drones in every fire warrior squad so that they have a decent chance at pinning an enemy when they get within the fire warriors double shot range.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m3170231a_Tau_Empire_v1.0_APRIL13.pdf

That's the link too the amended codex. Someone posted that in my 1k army s review because i believe i tried to take missile drones with fire warriors or pathfinders or something lol

 cbchez wrote:
Unfortunately they modified the codex and stated that only broadsides may take missile drones.

Ohh I know, I was implying you'd put them into the broadside squad. It would then be 2 broadsides, 4 missile drones. Also good for tanking a couple lascannon shots against your broadside team. The broadsides would be able to fire separately with target locks instead of seeker missiles.

 cbchez wrote:
I also have the gun drones in every fire warrior squad so that they have a decent chance at pinning an enemy when they get within the fire warriors double shot range.

I haven't run the numbers but what is the actual probability of, I assume a close combat MEQ squad, taking a wound from the drones and failing a pinning test at LD = 8/9?

Not very high tbh. Your better off having more firewarriors to benefit from the ethreal. Firewarriors are 9pts each,
Drone are 12. Big difference. Also firewarriors have 30' range, drones only 18.

A very good point with the probability of my drones pinning. I originally split the numbers like that because i could only afford two boxes of fire warriors and each box would make two squads of the minimum six which was very convenient but I can tell i will need more soon.

Keep in mind that units cannot benefit from their own markerlights, with the exception of Networked Markerlights. Read the two entries one pgs. 68 and 69 of the Codex; it's an important distinction.

Still, the Shas'ui upgrade with the Markerlight is not a bad buy, especially if your fire warriors are going to be standing still and firing in a gunline-type formation.

Pinning is sort of meh. High leadership is common to the most-often-played armies out there (Space Marines, Eldar, Farsight Enclaves, etc) so while you will occasionally pin a unit with those drones, I wouldn't spend points to do it. Especially considering your Fire Warriors are set up to stand still and shoot, and the drones have a much shorter maximum range than the warriors.

You're in a place where you need to play the models you have, which is fine. Just keep an eye on replacing those drones with more fire warriors.

The advice to add missile drones to the Broadside team is good. They force your opponent to eat through the drones with direct-fire weapons before they get to those 70-point models. Also, with markerlight support, they put out a hilarious number of missiles if you max the squad out. I have often played a 280-ish point unit of 3x Broadsides with 6 missile drones, with EWO on the broadsides, and it's pretty devastating. Assuming they can draw a bead on a good target, they're -always- going to blow somebody up.

Don't forget to fire the TLSMS on your broadside suits. Sometimes my opponent has to remind me. XD

Your Pathfinder teams look good. 2x 5-man teams is how I ran them for a while. If you find that people start to get wise to your markerlight antics and bring things to blow them up, consider the Mark'o commander set up, which is basically:

Commander 152
Missile Pod, Missile Pod, Drone Controller, Target Lock, 2x Marker Drone

Drone Squadron 56
4x Marker Drone
(with additional marker drones as appropriate for game size and other factors)

It's a great use of your HQ slot, as for a little over 200 points you get 6 BS5 Markerlights who can jump-shoot-jump from the safety of cover, and 4 BS5 missile shots at a different target if you want. It's a much more durable unit than the Pathfinders and can really set in motion some serious death for a threatening enemy unit.

You seem to really like Seeker Missiles. Have you considered a Skyray? You can make it out of the same kit as your Hammerhead (there are no conflicting bits; i.e. you can make both turrets and use either in different lists). The favorite trick with that tank is to put 6 markerlight tokens on a unit, then splat it with 6 seeker missiles. It has those Networked Markerlights I mentioned at BS4, so it can help itself out in terms of getting all its missiles off in one turn.

Then it's a mobile markerlight platform with front AV13 and TL SMS. Not bad for 115 points.

If you stay still with your Skyray and fire you networked marker light, you can then fire your 6 seekers all in one go using the marker light to up it to bs5. You don't get ignore cover because your firing them manually, not using marker light tokens, but you get all 6 off at a flyer/monstrous creature and absolutely obliterate it.

That's some really in depth and great advice guys thank you both very much

i find that the best anit air lies in the commander and crisis suits, give suits 2 missle pods each and throw em in with a commander with iridium for fire soaking, CCN and MSSS for twin link and ignore cover and Engram Chip for tank hunters. What you have then is 12 missle shots (hitting on sixes) rerolling to hit and to pen. Should get 3-4 hits so at least 2 pens on flyers. best thing about it is mobility and versatility. great addition to any tau. (you can fnp em all too if you want). Cost ends up at like 156 for suits and 150-200 for commander depending on kitting choices. this plus broadsides negates need for any flyers and are also fantastic at other stuff too