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As per the title really, looking at starting Tau, just wondering what people would advise for the first 500 points or so, and how to use them? From my casual glance at the codex, I'm thinking a couple of firewarrior squads plus a squad or two of pathfinders for markerlights, and the veteran firewarrior HQ and an Ethereal for the 'many shots combo thing'. Sound about right?
Thanks in advance.

well let me first say welcome to the greater good!

at 500points your army is going to be small with any force you take. the two main things tau have going for them is there marker lights and there battle suites (some would say there tanks but hey they come in later!) for me my lists almost always have 2-3 squads of FW with the fire blade, and a commander in a suite. FW squads have great range good ST weps and ok AP (seeing as every 1 and there mom plays an army with 3+ save) but they lack good BS. To fix that you need marker lights or massed shots. i motley put 1 Marker drone in each squad to off set another squads shooting at a scary close target, but that will not work at say 1k+ points because theres much much more out there to kill you. the Fire blade allows a unit an extra shot as well as bringing 2 more drones to the group, i personally love to have him with 2 missile drones as a nasty little boo! to any one. my other HQ is almost always a battle suite commander. firstly I'm proud to say that in over 3 years of gaming he has only ever been killed 3 times (out of 100% luck in most cases he is the last man standing from his squad) the commander can take nearly every upgrade, join most any unites and in our new dex he doesn't even need to shoot to make a difference.

personally i would focus on what you want you army to do, if you like the idea of ranks of FW squads tossing out massed volley's of shots great!! but they need back up that can keep up and have better range/ power. enter battle suites. but in 500 points you don't have to much wiggle room and suites can be pricy.
start from what you want, find out what you lack, then fix it. Its the way any great straggly works.
PM me if you want to ask anything more!

A fun, and overlooked toy at 500 and 750 is a single hammerhead tank.

It is a significant points investment, but it's often the case that folks will have a hard time dealing with it's front armor. The handy thing is that it brings an excellent troop killer along with a reasonably good anti-tank weapon.

@Death Scythe; Yeah I love the idea of ranks of firewarriors supporting each other, with Pathfinders laying down enough Markerlights to light up the Imperial Palace, with a squad or two of Kroot on standby to intercept anything that gets too close.
What would you guys suggest with regards Pulse Rifles vs Carbines? Mix of both? Or purely one kind? How about a Shas'ui? Take him with two Marker Drones? Loads more questions swimming round my head, just wanting to get as many opinions as I can really, see what works for other people.

If going with massed pulse weapons, I would stay with mostly rifles myself.

The Carbine would be best used in a mobile unit, and with the rule changes to rapid fire that has somewhat diminished. Carbines aren't bad per say, but they are really only superior under the current rules between 12" to 18", so only a 6" band, in terms of firepower. The pinning is nice enough, but all taken I wouldn't mix weapons in a squad, go one or the other (and I probably wouldn't max out a carbine squad, 8-10 is sufficient).

How about this:

Fireblade
Ethereal
24 Firewarriors ( in whatever number of squads you want as long as each one is at least 6 strong )
4 Pathfinders
1 Skyray w. Disruption pod

500 points on the dot.
This gives you a stable, reliable (thanks to the Ethereal doling out ld10) and lethal infantrykilling block of Firewarriors with great ML support from Pathfinders and the Skyray.
The Skyray will focus on destroying enemy armour in the first couple of turns, its S8 missiles will be good against most things in such a small game. You wont see many Land Raiders, and if you do the enemy wont be packing much heat other than that.

I recommend kroot over FW. If you want to gunline then FW are fine but gun lining is boring. Also kroot are incredibly versatile while FW are static. And with all the pie plates people have these days you don't want squishy dudes standing in the open on t1. So if you must us FW I would put them in transports for some FoF's. It also gives them some versatility for kiting and objective grabbing. I haven't run any mad fish yet but I've seen two FoF's pull off some very sneaky operations running side by side.

If you're going to be playing 500 point games get a riptide. Very hard to handle at 500.


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Oh and if you gunline you need an aegis. It's not optional or you go squish.

Massed firewarriors are decent, but at that low point value you're going to want a bit more versatility than just all S5 shots.

At 500 points I'd probably take at least a single suicide melta suit to deal with any armor. If you're dead set on taking firewarriors I'd invest in the ADL with an icarus lascannon so your Fireblade has some heavy firepower to use.

Dont get a riptide for just 500 points, its way too much overkill. Also, you will want more ML than just the 4, most times i see tau lose its because they dont have enough MLs. Use missilesides or crisis with missle pods for anti tank over the skyray. You're highly unlikely to see any av14 that'll do enough damage to matter. Oh and dont forget the only ones that can take missile drones are missilesides and the special missile drones for the riptide.

Wolfnid420 wrote:
Dont get a riptide for just 500 points, its way too much overkill. Also, you will want more ML than just the 4, most times i see tau lose its because they dont have enough MLs. Use missilesides or crisis with missle pods for anti tank over the skyray. You're highly unlikely to see any av14 that'll do enough damage to matter. Oh and dont forget the only ones that can take missile drones are missilesides and the special missile drones for the riptide.

Agree on the Riptide viewpoint, keep the big fella at home for larger battles. Taking such a hard to kill model in such small games is not going to win you many friends.
And also remember that the drone controller doesn't work with any type of missile drone.