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Getting back into playing but my Tau army is old by how new pieces seem.

Exsqueeze me?

Are you talking about game play or ascetics?

And by pieces Im guessing you mean models or units

Game play and yes models.

I noticed Tau got more alien races with them and now what seem be flying units.

The great thing about Tau is that all our units are actually pretty good (even Vespid...but they're not nearly as good as the other stuff).

Just a real quick rundown: Ethereals are amazing now. Seriously. Buy one. Your commander is better at supporting other units than actually fighting, so attach him to a battlesuit squad of some kind and check out all the awesome wargear he can grab to make them terrifying. You'll probably want at least one riptide (the drones that come with them are a trap though, never use them), but crisis teams can still do some good stuff. Kroot are now snipers instead of assault speedbumps. Markerlights are awesome now. 2 squads of pathfinders is a good start for your fast attack slots. The codex fliers aren't that great but they can be fun. We have an absolutely amazing piece of equipment in the Barracuda (I love mine so much), but that requires you to go down the Forge World rabbit hole. Broadsides can be very nice, but the railguns lost big time in the new book. They have a new weapon that is basically 2 missile pods duct taped together. And our hammerheads got a special character attachment pilot guy that makes them awesome, especially with a railgun.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on them.

Yea I have few Ethereals but I'm guessing hammerhead tanks not good anymore?

I used to use them and greater knarloc.

What are vespid ?

They have been in the tau codex since they came out?
Or maybe they weren't in the 3rd ed codex.

Anyway probably a good idea is to pick up the new Tau codex.

Everything for the 3rd ed codex is still there.

Kroot are amazing the forgeworld kroot not so much

Crisis suits are still useable
Hammerheads are still great too especially with the new tank commander longstrike.

tau flyers are pretty bad.

a few other stuff.

Yes, i'm still using first codex thanks to store that had people playing closed down.

Shame because I missed that store and all card game tournaments..

Wow...you're coming in from 3rd edition codex... dang that's whiplash. There were no vespid in that book. They are basically giant bees with S5 AP3 24" assault 1 guns. They can kill space marines dead, but there are so many other ways to do that in this codex they aren't so great.

Another new unit is the Sky Ray. Just imagine a tank that can launch a LOT of S8 AP3 missiles (were seeker missiles in the 3rd edition codex? I honestly can't remember). It's always nice to throw one in. It can shoot fliers and will usually blow one out of the sky pretty reliably, but it's also pretty awesome against monsterous creatures and it comes with a couple attached markerlights, so it's versatile enough to make its points back.

Yea been gone long time thanks to no place to play the game at.

I still remember when dad got me into playing it. That also why I hate necron.

Thanks for the help you two.

Most of the Tau units seem strong and they are a top tier army at the moment. I wouldn't bring more than 1 or 2 Riptides for casual games though unless you want people to avoid playing you.

All these posts and nobody is giving you the right answer*: Riptides. It's an extremely tough JSJ MC with an awesome gun (STR 8 AP 2 pie plate with full-table range), for way too cheap. And the Farsight book includes an independent character version. Since you can ally Farsight Tau with normal Tau this means that you can take a unit with two Riptides and a support commander that makes their guns twin-linked and ignore cover. And you still have plenty of space to fit another 2-3 Riptides and scoring units. Even if you don't want to bring the Riptide death star you still want 2-3 Riptides in every list if you want to play even remotely competitively.

Also, don't forget about allies. Eldar give you awesome psykers and cheap scoring jetbikes for a late-game objective grab, and a Revenant titan or more MCs if you want them.


*Most likely because people whine endlessly about how overpowered Riptides are, and don't want to let a new player start using them.

 Peregrine wrote:
All these posts and nobody is giving you the right answer*: Riptides. It's an extremely tough JSJ MC with an awesome gun (STR 8 AP 2 pie plate with full-table range), for way too cheap. And the Farsight book includes an independent character version. Since you can ally Farsight Tau with normal Tau this means that you can take a unit with two Riptides and a support commander that makes their guns twin-linked and ignore cover. And you still have plenty of space to fit another 2-3 Riptides and scoring units. Even if you don't want to bring the Riptide death star you still want 2-3 Riptides in every list if you want to play even remotely competitively.

Also, don't forget about allies. Eldar give you awesome psykers and cheap scoring jetbikes for a late-game objective grab, and a Revenant titan or more MCs if you want them.


*Most likely because people whine endlessly about how overpowered Riptides are, and don't want to let a new player start using them.

And for good reasons.
OP, please ignore everything the person above said
Never bring more than one Riptide and don't ally Tau with Eldar unless you like having no friends.
WAAC taudar lists are really no fun to play against.

You should probably get the new Tau codex and 6th edition rulebook to get you up to speed again.
Tau in general are a very good army at the moment. There is not much you can go wrong with.

Alright so get a XV8 commander, 3 riptides and then 2 groups of 16 kroot and some broadsides with missilepods...then ally them with The farsight enclaves and take farsight and XV8s as troops and then another riptide.......everyone will LOVE playing against you I'm just joking lol

I like the XV8 as the commander tho. For troops lots of people like firewarriors and some like kroot I like to bring both.

Elties the XV8 crisis teams are defiantly good and 1 riptide MAX. I sometimes like to bring stealth suits because they can be fun to use.

Fast Attack
Pathfinders for markerlights essentially and thats about it?
Pirahnas are fun to use and cheap points wise but essentially just cannon fotter

Heavy SUpport
Broadsides are really good now with missilepods are sick. I like to bring a hammerhead with longstrike

In my army I'm actually replacing the broadsides and support commander with Shadowsun and a squad of XV9s...but like I said Forgeworld Rabbit-hole.

I just looked at Riptides and man they are huge.

I been thinking getting shadowsun mainly thanks to fact she only female tua piece.

 Dragoonofdarkness wrote:
I been thinking getting shadowsun mainly thanks to fact she only female tua piece.

Well I ordered the Ethereal model and the Shadowsun model (since I never owned an ethereal before, they were so bad in the last couple codexes). I'm doing a head swap where I use the helmet for Shadowsun and the non-helmet female Tau head for my ethereal (since my cadre's fluff has them lead by a female ethereal).

The kit is finecast (if that means anything to you). As far as I can tell it's not so bad, but the stuff is incredibly brittle. I was trying to use a jeweler's saw to cut the basing off Shadowsun since it doesn't fit my army scheme and the pressure I had to put on the saw just to make it cut snapped one of her legs off at the knee. I plan on trying to get a flying stand attached to Shadowsun's backpack somehow just because I think that her model would look awesome on a flying stand, but that's not really important.

What is important is that Shadowsun goes great with a Riptide. Buddy them up and you can do fun things (especially with the heavy burst cannon and the command link drone. Good times).

How far can you custom a model within the rules? I don't mean fighting custom but look custom made.

Depends on where you play and what they allow and to degrees they allow custom builds