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Now i started tau back in 4th as my second army but traded them off for marines as i was too young (around 9) to understand how to utilize them effectively and i was looking to start them up again and wanted to know the best way to start.

Firstly i do not want to run riptides. I play casually and honestly dont like the look of them. On top of that 85$ for one model is absurd.

Second i plan on running Gue'vesa as firewarriors using some of the DreamForge Games troopers. Wanted to know what dakka thought about the idea. I would be trading off their rifles with pulse rifles or carbines, and i thought it would be a nice cinematic centerpiece to the army.

Battlesuits:how should i trick them out? around here we dont have many tanks but my buddy is going to start up a mech IG with the FW rules and there are the occasional landraider.

The Battle-force. Is it worth it for the models inside? it seems like it on the surface but then the stealth suit team and the piranha seem like units that may be shunned by gamers so may not actually be offering a value.

Budget. I have just over 300$ to spend and i generally buy from discount (20% off) sellers and I'd rather not buy from ebay. Is it reasonable to build a decent 1500 point TAC list with this?

I know its a good number of questions and i thank the Dakka community for taking their time to help me!

I liked the Tau Battleforce - the Fire Warriors and Crisis Suits alone make up the value of the box. If you want to do something neat, use the Stealth Suits ( I like them but I put Commander Shadowsun with a group of 6). I think there is enough value in the box. You are right, the piranna is waste but you can use it to kit-bash.

Buy pathfinders. You will need them.

Suits can be good with several setups depending on what else you have. Our local Tau player uses missile suits in his suit teams while the suit commander + bodyguards generally have more close-up weapons like plasma and flamers. They would be unable to deal with a Land Raider, yes. But the assault phase jump move is really good - if they see anything they can hurt in the shooting phase they take a shot, then get as far away as they can in the assault phase. I don't think my SoB have ever killed all his suits in a game.

Stealth suits are a bit marginal, but if you have a sneaky plan they can be used for a lot of things with the right equipment. They have a lot of options.

The Piranha is the same, really. Leave it with the Burst Cannon to harrass light infantry and generally irritate people, or give it a Fusion Blaster and melt tanks. It can also mount Seeker Missiles which is always good for Tau.

The one thing you'll note if you play casually like my mate - Tau troops are fragile and somewhat skittish. I'm actually yet to lose a game against him, with SoB that are severely outgunned and not much better than Tau in close combat. Annihilate his troops (Firewarriors, sometimes outflanking Kroot) and he can't take objectives anymore.

So you need to be able to put big hurt on enemies closing in, or else be able to evade them (like the suits do). Markerlights help a lot here, when you use them to help the right unit get a good shot. No use taking away cover saves for SoB if you're shooting them with AP4 guns, right? Use it for an AP3 gun or to give a lot of shots better chances to hit.

And increase your durability. Shield Drones (well, any drones) to soak up hits is not a bad idea. Especially not for your precious suit commander who is so busy buffing the rest of the army that he forgot to bring his own guns. ;-)

 doomdreamer wrote:
I liked the Tau Battleforce - the Fire Warriors and Crisis Suits alone make up the value of the box. If you want to do something neat, use the Stealth Suits ( I like them but I put Commander Shadowsun with a group of 6). I think there is enough value in the box. You are right, the piranna is waste but you can use it to kit-bash.

Buy pathfinders. You will need them.

Thanks for the reply. I figured there was a throwaway model in the BF but if the value is more than made up with the rest i guess its worth it. Question about the stealthsuits though: Can they take more than one fusion gun per squad? if so than a six man squad may be worth it but if not i may make two 3 man squads.

I was thinking of starting with the Codex, two battleforces, a box of pathfinders and a third unit of firewarriors or perhaps a second Pathfinder squad. I already have access to the dreamforge models and it would be an easy weaponswap to turn them into more counts-as firewarriors giving me 3 troop choices of 12 models. Would this be a good start to a Tau army?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Spetulhu wrote:
Suits can be good with several setups depending on what else you have. Our local Tau player uses missile suits in his suit teams while the suit commander + bodyguards generally have more close-up weapons like plasma and flamers. They would be unable to deal with a Land Raider, yes. But the assault phase jump move is really good - if they see anything they can hurt in the shooting phase they take a shot, then get as far away as they can in the assault phase. I don't think my SoB have ever killed all his suits in a game.

Stealth suits are a bit marginal, but if you have a sneaky plan they can be used for a lot of things with the right equipment. They have a lot of options.

The Piranha is the same, really. Leave it with the Burst Cannon to harrass light infantry and generally irritate people, or give it a Fusion Blaster and melt tanks. It can also mount Seeker Missiles which is always good for Tau.

The one thing you'll note if you play casually like my mate - Tau troops are fragile and somewhat skittish. I'm actually yet to lose a game against him, with SoB that are severely outgunned and not much better than Tau in close combat. Annihilate his troops (Firewarriors, sometimes outflanking Kroot) and he can't take objectives anymore.

So you need to be able to put big hurt on enemies closing in, or else be able to evade them (like the suits do). Markerlights help a lot here, when you use them to help the right unit get a good shot. No use taking away cover saves for SoB if you're shooting them with AP4 guns, right? Use it for an AP3 gun or to give a lot of shots better chances to hit.

And increase your durability. Shield Drones (well, any drones) to soak up hits is not a bad idea. Especially not for your precious suit commander who is so busy buffing the rest of the army that he forgot to bring his own guns. ;-)

Thanks for the tactics advice! I was thinking going with two teams: An anti-infantry squad of 3 with a plasma and BC on each model, and a Shas'o with bodyguard fitted out for tank hunting with Fusion and MP.

Stralth Suits seem to be the same as scouts for Marines: harassment units. not doing enough to draw too much firepower but able to account for themselves if they last long enough.

I would more than likely not end up using the Piranha for more than Tank Hunting, its an easy First Blood.

Going from marines solid troops (or in BA case, rock solid) to more fragile and less flexable troops id have a large adjustment time but im hoping to have enough others to draw fire away from my Troops, as well as using shield drones as you suggested

Thatguyhsagun wrote:
Question about the stealthsuits though: Can they take more than one fusion gun per squad? if so than a six man squad may be worth it but if not i may make two 3 man squads.

IIRC it's limited to one fusion gun per three Stealth Suits. So a six-man team could have two, a three-man team one. All comes down to how you want to use them. Personally they've never hurt my army that bad but they're damn irritating, hanging back there and picking at you all the time!

Spetulhu wrote:

Thatguyhsagun wrote:
Question about the stealthsuits though: Can they take more than one fusion gun per squad? if so than a six man squad may be worth it but if not i may make two 3 man squads.

IIRC it's limited to one fusion gun per three Stealth Suits. So a six-man team could have two, a three-man team one. All comes down to how you want to use them. Personally they've never hurt my army that bad but they're damn irritating, hanging back there and picking at you all the time!

So would the advantage be to have 2-3 man teams to spread the firepower out (if the elite slots are open) or just field a single six man team to bring the hurt all at once?

Thatguyhsagun wrote:
So would the advantage be to have 2-3 man teams to spread the firepower out (if the elite slots are open) or just field a single six man team to bring the hurt all at once?

That really depends on what you're facing. Losing one guy makes the three-man squad test morale, the six-man doesn't. And ofc, is one shot at two different tanks worth more than two shots at the same tank?

My Tau opponent can use 2 three-man teams vs me because SoB don't have that many units on board when it comes down to it (well, we did get smaller minimum units with the digital Codex so maybe I'll redesign my army). I'm loath to re-direct a full Rhino-mounted SoB squad to hunt three Tau when there's objectives and an army to kill up there. If he tried it against our IG, Orks or Daemons he'd be swamped in an instant with nowhere to run.

Spetulhu wrote:

Thatguyhsagun wrote:
So would the advantage be to have 2-3 man teams to spread the firepower out (if the elite slots are open) or just field a single six man team to bring the hurt all at once?

That really depends on what you're facing. Losing one guy makes the three-man squad test morale, the six-man doesn't. And ofc, is one shot at two different tanks worth more than two shots at the same tank?

My Tau opponent can use 2 three-man teams vs me because SoB don't have that many units on board when it comes down to it (well, we did get smaller minimum units with the digital Codex so maybe I'll redesign my army). I'm loath to re-direct a full Rhino-mounted SoB squad to hunt three Tau when there's objectives and an army to kill up there. If he tried it against our IG, Orks or Daemons he'd be swamped in an instant with nowhere to run.

Generally running against more elitest armies (Marines of three flavors and the Forgeworld all-tank IG soon) so i should be safer with more minimal units causing just little pinpricks but being mostly ignored as the marines dont get many models to an army themselves.

The best way to use Stealth suits, is to put them in ruins for a 2+ cover save, most armies would have a hard time digging them out. or Deep strike them in to try and draw off a problem unit.

I've heard of people having good luck running Piranha, but they need to be a full unit (of 5 I think), and armed with the fusion blaster, to jetbike in position and nuke heavy armor.

Magnatize, bro. That way you can kit your guys out depending on what you're facing and have more options if weapons get nerfed in new editions.

Relapse wrote:
Magnatize, bro. That way you can kit your guys out depending on what you're facing and have more options if weapons get nerfed in new editions.

Can you link me to a decent magnet seller? been having issues finding one and that is ideally what i plan on doing


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ailaros wrote:

Spoiler:

How many squads of pathfinders would you recommend for a 1500 point army?

Really you should look at riptides. They are not super competitive with just one and they are easy to manage. And they are a buetifal kit you will love to put together

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Really you should look at riptides. They are not super competitive with just one and they are easy to manage. And they are a buetifal kit you will love to put together

Another issue is the price however. 85$ on a single model is something i just cannot shell out at this time but perhaps in the future ill look into them. I dont honestly like the look of the model but with some alterations perhaps it may be more appealing. I do however like the look of the FW R'varna riptides and would more than likely get one of them before a regular riptide.

Here is my 1500 point army
HQ - (255pts)
Commander Shadowsun
Ethereal
Troops - (430 pts)
11 x FW w/ Devilfish
12 x FW w/ Devilfish
6 x FW alone
Elites - (370 pts)
6 x Stealth Team w 1 fusion
1 x Riptide w/ Ion Accelerator
Fast Attack ( 177pts)
4 x Pathfinders
4 x Pathfinders
4 x Pathfinders w 3x Rail riffles (playing with a fun unit idea)
Heavy Support ( 318pts)
1 x Hammerhead w/ tons of goodies & Rail
1 x Hammerhead w/ tons of Goodies & Rail

1500 points on the button. Honestly my pathfinder rail guys should be swapped out for a couple of Broadsides or something but this is for fun.

I personally dont play Tau but from playing against them I would suggest to steer away from stealth suits and piranhas.

Whenever I have played against them, they became really lackluster and pretty poor doing next to nothing. I cannot recall I single game where they have earnt there points, not to say they arent useful just from what I have seen they ain't all that.

Pathfinders are awesome, a long with Kroot, Broadsides and Riptides. But buy whatever you think looks good, its yours at the end of the day.

 doomdreamer wrote:
Here is my 1500 point army
HQ - (255pts)
Commander Shadowsun
Ethereal
Troops - (430 pts)
11 x FW w/ Devilfish
12 x FW w/ Devilfish
6 x FW alone
Elites - (370 pts)
6 x Stealth Team w 1 fusion
1 x Riptide w/ Ion Accelerator
Fast Attack ( 177pts)
4 x Pathfinders
4 x Pathfinders
4 x Pathfinders w 3x Rail riffles (playing with a fun unit idea)
Heavy Support ( 318pts)
1 x Hammerhead w/ tons of goodies & Rail
1 x Hammerhead w/ tons of Goodies & Rail

1500 points on the button. Honestly my pathfinder rail guys should be swapped out for a couple of Broadsides or something but this is for fun.

Looks like a really solid list but my only concern is the troop count. I regularly use 4 troops in 1500 points. How does the list play out in objective games (like the one with 6 objectives, cant remember the name off the top of my head)

If your troop count feels low, Kroot are a strong choice. They're quite cheap for an infiltrating Sniper unit and can give you a lot of scoring wounds cheaply.

However, Tau generally don't have to focus on the objective game. Hold a couple on your side, shoot the other guy off of his. You don't need to hold all the objectives, just more.

It does ok. My stealth suits would be better spent as Crisis suits and I should split one of the FW teams up. But I play against assault heavy people so this is to make it a bit more "casual." I could just smoke the Orks with massive amounts of shots from all directions but it really turns off the fun meter.

 GreyHamster wrote:
If your troop count feels low, Kroot are a strong choice. They're quite cheap for an infiltrating Sniper unit and can give you a lot of scoring wounds cheaply.

However, Tau generally don't have to focus on the objective game. Hold a couple on your side, shoot the other guy off of his. You don't need to hold all the objectives, just more.

Fair point. Coming from BA the urge to purge always comes in CQB/CC form but tau are a race designed to reach out and touch you.

Thatguyhsagun wrote:

Relapse wrote:
Magnatize, bro. That way you can kit your guys out depending on what you're facing and have more options if weapons get nerfed in new editions.

Can you link me to a decent magnet seller? been having issues finding one and that is ideally what i plan on doing


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ailaros wrote:

Spoiler:

How many squads of pathfinders would you recommend for a 1500 point army?

A lot of game or hobby
stores sell different sizes of magnets, and that's where I get mine at. I wouldn't reall know who to tell you as far as online retailers would be good. It is worth the search, though. I've magnetized my Riptide and Crisis Suits in pretty short order, and to tell the truth, I think the Tau is one of the easiest armies out there to magnetize.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 GreyHamster wrote:
If your troop count feels low, Kroot are a strong choice. They're quite cheap for an infiltrating Sniper unit and can give you a lot of scoring wounds cheaply.

However, Tau generally don't have to focus on the objective game. Hold a couple on your side, shoot the other guy off of his. You don't need to hold all the objectives, just more.

That's something I have to get for my army. I plan on getting a couple of boxes for a huge arsed unit of snipers in some games and a couple of smaller units in others.

Something you can do with stealth suits is to make a 6 man squad with burst cannons, then give them all the advanced targeting system. That's 4 precision shots per turn. Any kind of squad with heavy weapons or other non character wargear options will not be happy. Alternatively if you don't run shadowsun with them you can make one a sergeant and free up his support system to be something else. I love the vectored retro thrusters, as long as there's at least one drone in the unit. Stealth suit teams you can't lock in close combat are hilarious.

 dementedwombat wrote:
Something you can do with stealth suits is to make a 6 man squad with burst cannons, then give them all the advanced targeting system. That's 4 precision shots per turn. Any kind of squad with heavy weapons or other non character wargear options will not be happy. Alternatively if you don't run shadowsun with them you can make one a sergeant and free up his support system to be something else. I love the vectored retro thrusters, as long as there's at least one drone in the unit. Stealth suit teams you can't lock in close combat are hilarious.

Now that sounds like a beautiful idea. May outfit a squad just like this.
Side note: how are sniper drones? Thinking about getting three squads for one of my HS options as tau dont have easy access to ap3 outside battlesuits

Sniper drone teams are just one squad per HS choice now. Not like the old codex. So kinda sad there. That said I really want to love them, especially because they are a sniper weapon that benefits from the ethereal's abilities to give you 3 shots per model within 24", and they're BS 5 because of the drone controller...

Let's just say that if I could run them as troops I would, but as far as heavy support slots go you can usually do better. Plus just regular pulse rifles will kill 3+ saves reasonably well through weight of fire.

You ever looked at the Sky Ray? It can have a great alpha strike against monstrous creatures and it gives you some anti air as well!

 dementedwombat wrote:
Sniper drone teams are just one squad per HS choice now. Not like the old codex. So kinda sad there. That said I really want to love them, especially because they are a sniper weapon that benefits from the ethereal's abilities to give you 3 shots per model within 24", and they're BS 5 because of the drone controller...

Let's just say that if I could run them as troops I would, but as far as heavy support slots go you can usually do better. Plus just regular pulse rifles will kill 3+ saves reasonably well through weight of fire.

You ever looked at the Sky Ray? It can have a great alpha strike against monstrous creatures and it gives you some anti air as well!

Well damn. the drones look badass too but since they arent 3 to a slot it isnt worth it

I plan to eventually have 2 HH with railguns and a skyray, the only thing i dislike is the requirement of a markerlightshot first, or was that the old codex too? no tau around here mostly marines (i helped start the group and at the time all i had was marines so i gave some of my friends 2 troops and a hq each and now that we've all expanded i feel its time for variety in opponents)

3 Riptides is the way to go if you want to win

The seeker missile is a weapon just like any other weapon on the vehicle, they don't need markerlight tokens to fire anymore!

That makes the sky ray amazing. If it doesn't move it can fire all the weapons it has available. This typically looks something like this:

1. find an aircraft or monstrous creature you really hate.

2 (optional). get a marker-light token on it from something else.

3. fire the networked marker-lights on the sky ray at the target, using the previous token to get BS 5.

4. They both should hit. If they do then you can ignore cover (for jinking or turbo boosting stuff, like I said this is optional. You can fire both markerlights at BS 4 and use one hit to make the next step BS 5)

5. fire all 6 seeker missiles at the target...

6. Smile and feel good on the inside as that target evaporates.

7. Use your hunk of vehicular bubble wrap as an expendable markerlight platform for the rest of its short and happy life.

Yes, a GT. But for casual on Riptide is more then ennough

zilka86 wrote:
3 Riptides is the way to go if you want to win

I dont care so much about winning as i do about having fun. I currently play BA that should tell you all you need to know xD


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 dementedwombat wrote:
The seeker missile is a weapon just like any other weapon on the vehicle, they don't need markerlight tokens to fire anymore!

That makes the sky ray amazing. If it doesn't move it can fire all the weapons it has available. This typically looks something like this:

1. find an aircraft or monstrous creature you really hate.

2 (optional). get a marker-light token on it from something else.

3. fire the networked marker-lights on the sky ray at the target, using the previous token to get BS 5.

4. They both should hit. If they do then you can ignore cover (for jinking or turbo boosting stuff, like I said this is optional. You can fire both markerlights at BS 4 and use one hit to make the next step BS 5)

5. fire all 6 seeker missiles at the target...

6. Smile and feel good on the inside as that target evaporates.

7. Use your hunk of vehicular bubble wrap as an expendable markerlight platform for the rest of its short and happy life.

Just the thought makes me want to cry. We have a guy who just got a storm raven and another guy who is going to use my codex and i guarantee he's gonna take mephiston

I always kind of imagine this in my head when the sky ray unloads.