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Hello Dakka! In view of Christmas and our group getting us into warhammer, my friend and I are aiming to hurt our finances quite a lot yet don't wanna waste money on "wrong" stuff. I have already settled my Eldar order and now he is seeking for advice about his tau. The boxes he would like to surely get are the following:

1 * Tau Empire Firebase Support
2 * Tau Empire Battleforce
1 * Tau Empire Pathfinder team
2 * Kroot Squad

I have suggested him to toss in Farsight and another Riptide (to be used as Ovesa) and his brother to go for 2 Hammered/Skyray that could be used as Devilfish when needed (cause his troops would be footslogging and blablabla.) He doesn't have the money for purchasing both alternatives so, which would be the most smart? Can the Hammerhead/Skyray/Devilfish thingy be delayed to whenever affordable? Is it really so necessary (asking cause they raised the Eldar example, saying that footslogging fire warriors is crazy and such)? Would you change anything to such order?

Thanks a bunch for the answers and sorry for the load of questions but we wanna be sure about getting it correctly!

oh boy...

The current Tau Battleforce is kinda lack luster in my opinion, as your not really going to field the stealth suits and pirhana.

with the amount of money he's looking to put down I think he'd be better served by getting:

the Farsight Enclave
x2 Tau Recon Team
Tau Empire Firebase Support
3x battle suit boxes

Ralis wrote:
oh boy...

The current Tau Battleforce is kinda lack luster in my opinion, as your not really going to field the stealth suits and pirhana.

with the amount of money he's looking to put down I think he'd be better served by getting:

the Farsight Enclave
x2 Tau Recon Team
Tau Empire Firebase Support
3x battle suit boxes

I quite agree with you there bud, why 2 recon squads though? I thought 2 * 5 man Pathfinder teams were already enough! What about the Hammerhead/Skyray/Devilfish thingy if he would go for some fw (or pathfinders)?

Well I will give you my 2 cents here.

I wouldn't go with the Firebase Support unless you are going to field all 6 broadsides (BUT with the package you are essentially getting the riptide for free).

I think the battleforce is good if you are going to use stealth suits (which if you are using Tau with Farsight enclaves will be easier) I think the piranhas are good because they are cheap destraction units.

I also dont really know if kroot are the way to go right off the bat. I would go with more Firewarriors personally.

Hammerheads are solid but broadsides are equally as good in my opinion. You also don't nessecarily need to take lots of pathfinders because you can take a lot of marker drones if you want to.

If you are going to be running strictly farsight enclaves I might consider getting the 2 battleboxes.
I say that just because you can use the XV8's as troops so that means you are free to take the 6 stealth suits and slap them in a single elite slot which would normally be taken up. AND piranhas which you would have 2 would cost under 100 points.

Remember though...don't overbuy right away...that is how you end up with stuff you don't want and ALOT of stuff you have to paint

 Malk wrote:

Ralis wrote:
oh boy...

The current Tau Battleforce is kinda lack luster in my opinion, as your not really going to field the stealth suits and pirhana.

with the amount of money he's looking to put down I think he'd be better served by getting:

the Farsight Enclave
x2 Tau Recon Team
Tau Empire Firebase Support
3x battle suit boxes

I quite agree with you there bud, why 2 recon squads though? I thought 2 * 5 man Pathfinder teams were already enough! What about the Hammerhead/Skyray/Devilfish thingy if he would go for some fw (or pathfinders)?

Getting two Recon Teams has more to do with getting the Devilfish then the pathfinders. In my experience, trying to gunline the firewarriors, even behind an ADL just leads to dead fire warriors. Its better to have the more mobility granted by the transport, to unload them at a point on the table where its advantageous to rapid fire into a problem squad.

I love my Hammerheads, and usually run with at least two, and sure its possible to magnetize them to convert them, but you will want the extra hulls to run both hammerheads and devilfish.


and Chiefbigredman brings up a solid point! You don't want to buy more then you can paint in a comfortable period of time.

What is your short term goal with this army?

are you going playable or balls to the wall competitive off the bat?

How many points to you want to reach?

A strong place to start.
Fire base
1 box of crisis suit
2 boxes of fire warriors and 2 boxes of kroot.
1 pathfinder box
and 1 cheap ethereal for now.

The above should take care of the core of most tau armies.

For now the vehicles shouldn't bee much of an issue considering for the most part the broadsides can take care of the light to medium threats and the anti air. and fusion crisis suits or the riptides can take care of the av 13+

chiefbigredman wrote:Well I will give you my 2 cents here.

I wouldn't go with the Firebase Support unless you are going to field all 6 broadsides (BUT with the package you are essentially getting the riptide for free).

I think the battleforce is good if you are going to use stealth suits (which if you are using Tau with Farsight enclaves will be easier) I think the piranhas are good because they are cheap destraction units.

I also dont really know if kroot are the way to go right off the bat. I would go with more Firewarriors personally.

Hammerheads are solid but broadsides are equally as good in my opinion. You also don't nessecarily need to take lots of pathfinders because you can take a lot of marker drones if you want to.

If you are going to be running strictly farsight enclaves I might consider getting the 2 battleboxes.
I say that just because you can use the XV8's as troops so that means you are free to take the 6 stealth suits and slap them in a single elite slot which would normally be taken up. AND piranhas which you would have 2 would cost under 100 points.

Remember though...don't overbuy right away...that is how you end up with stuff you don't want and ALOT of stuff you have to paint

The crade would offer us 2 extra broadside we could sell on sprue or use for big games, it's quite the shiny package indeed. As for the stealths, we don't know yet if they'll be used, surely tried on the battlefield but still..opinions about them? Also, where to get so many marker drones (at which stick a commander with the controller to make them bs5..mmm, that's the question!)

Last but not least, thank you for your words there, we surely don't wanna overbuy, hence our being here!

Ralis wrote:

 Malk wrote:

Ralis wrote:
oh boy...

The current Tau Battleforce is kinda lack luster in my opinion, as your not really going to field the stealth suits and pirhana.

with the amount of money he's looking to put down I think he'd be better served by getting:

the Farsight Enclave
x2 Tau Recon Team
Tau Empire Firebase Support
3x battle suit boxes

I quite agree with you there bud, why 2 recon squads though? I thought 2 * 5 man Pathfinder teams were already enough! What about the Hammerhead/Skyray/Devilfish thingy if he would go for some fw (or pathfinders)?

Getting two Recon Teams has more to do with getting the Devilfish then the pathfinders. In my experience, trying to gunline the firewarriors, even behind an ADL just leads to dead fire warriors. Its better to have the more mobility granted by the transport, to unload them at a point on the table where its advantageous to rapid fire into a problem squad.

I love my Hammerheads, and usually run with at least two, and sure its possible to magnetize them to convert them, but you will want the extra hulls to run both hammerheads and devilfish.


and Chiefbigredman brings up a solid point! You don't want to buy more then you can paint in a comfortable period of time.

The HS slots would be quite filled by the Broadsides and the choice to go for the Hammerhead/Skyray package was for being able to use them as devilfish and as Hammerhead/Skyray when needed or for a whim. What to do? 2-3 Devils or 2 Hammerhead/Skyray? And yes, he surely was right there, that's why we are seeking for your advice guys!

Desubot wrote:What is your short term goal with this army?

are you going playable or balls to the wall competitive off the bat?

How many points to you want to reach?

A strong place to start.
Fire base
1 box of crisis suit
2 boxes of fire warriors and 2 boxes of kroot.
1 pathfinder box
and 1 cheap ethereal for now.

The above should take care of the core of most tau armies.

For now the vehicles shouldn't bee much of an issue considering for the most part the broadsides can take care of the light to medium threats and the anti air. and fusion crisis suits or the riptides can take care of the av 13+

Having a funny yet competitive army (with some extra pieces to switch when needed or for a change time to time) for a campaign to be played with my group and in the future for some local tourneys. About the points, 1750-1850 as far as I know.

As for your suggestion there, it's what I would have taken if I were him too..what would you add after such load of stuff? Opinion about DT and such?

After all that core: in no particular order and changing depending on your meta.

Hammerheads: Magnetize so you can try out different builds (+skyray and dfish as its in there).
Farsight and gang: does very strong in tornys IIRC
additional crisis suit: i dont think you will ever need more than 6-9 total. not counting the fancy bodyguard ones for farsight.

the Devil fish is so over costed. it could do well in some games but once its gone its just a waste of points. for the price of one you could of gotten another squad of fire warriors.

Speaking of troops he should get a few kroot hounds. one for each of his unit for the acute senses. its nice.

Stealth suits are interesting. i want them to work but often they explode quickly. get like 1 unit for fluffy games or a one trick pony list (like positional relay tricks)

Are you playing competitively? If so, make sure you pick up 3-4 Riptides

Lucarikx

 Desubot wrote:
After all that core: in no particular order and changing depending on your meta.

Hammerheads: Magnetize so you can try out different builds (+skyray and dfish as its in there).
Farsight and gang: does very strong in tornys IIRC
additional crisis suit: i dont think you will ever need more than 6-9 total. not counting the fancy bodyguard ones for farsight.

the Devil fish is so over costed. it could do well in some games but once its gone its just a waste of points. for the price of one you could of gotten another squad of fire warriors.

Speaking of troops he should get a few kroot hounds. one for each of his unit for the acute senses. its nice.

Stealth suits are interesting. i want them to work but often they explode quickly. get like 1 unit for fluffy games or a one trick pony list (like positional relay tricks)

What do you think of this first order then:

Crade
2 * Kroots squads
2* FW squads
2 * Crisis squads
1 * Pathfinder Squads
1 * Riptide
1 * Ethereal
2 * Hammeread/Skyray

How it sounds?

You want more troops on top of the original buy?

Id get the ethereal early on as it helps out starting at lower point games. and is a nice training wheel for low LD checks (god if i had a nickel for every time a unit ran off the board).

 Desubot wrote:
You want more troops on top of the original buy?

Id get the ethereal early on as it helps out starting at lower point games. and is a nice training wheel for low LD checks (god if i had a nickel for every time a unit ran off the board).

It shall be done! As for the troops, I want a nice variety of them even in the view of allying Tau and Farsight Enclave