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I've had Tau since they first came out. I stopped playing about 6 years ago and then picked them back up recently. I'm looking to build a TAC list that will be competitive and fun to play. My main opponents are my brothers who play Blood Angels (assault squad heavy) and IG (parking lot). I'm trying to get more games in at the local GW so my opponents will be whoever shows up. Not sure what I'll see.

So here's what I'd like to bring and why:

HQ:

1x Commander - 177pts
-2x missile pods
-iridium armor
-drone controller
-target lock
-2x marker drones

I'm bringing him because he's survivable, gives my 4 marker drones bs5, and puts out some mobile S7.

Troops:

9x Fire Warriors - 176pts
-pulse rifles
-devilfish
-d pods

9x Fire Warriors - 176pts
-pulse rifles
-devilfish
-d pods

9x Fire Warriors - 176pts
-pulse rifles
-devilfish
-d pods

These guys are all in fish to keep them safe and to allow me to fly up on objectives late game or use the fish for mobile cover.

Elites:

1x Crisis Suit - 81pts
-2x missile pods
-target lock
-2x marker drones

Joined by commander.

1x Riptide - 190pts
-ion accelerator
-e.w.o
-smart missiles

This is my only deepstrike deterrent. He stays towards the front and tries to soak up some fire.

Fast Attack:

1x Piranha - 50pts
-fusion

1x Piranha - 50pts
-fusion

These two are separate units. Will try to keep them safe until I get first blood and then flat out towards enemy armor.

Heavy Support:

1x Hammerhead - 146pts
-railgun
-submunitions
-bsf
-d pods

1x Hammerhead - 141pts
-ion cannon
-bsf
-d pods

1x Sky Ray - 131pts
-bsf
-d pods

My only anti-air support. Will use for alpha strike if there are no enemy flyers.

Total 1494pts

I have 6 points left over. Not sure what the best thing to use them on would be. I like the idea of having 8 vehicles on the board. I'm wondering how competitive you think this list is and what the biggest weaknesses are. Which armies will give me the most trouble? Should I drop some units for something else? I have stealth suits, kroot, sniper drones, more crisis suits, the old broadsides, and an ethereal.

Any help would be appreciated.

Well to make it more compeitive i would drop D fishes for missilesides, but that would mean dropping mech theme...

Would beefing up the crisis team get the same effect? - because adding misslesides would also mean that I'd have to drop a gunship. And won't fire warriors get torn up running for objectives by foot?

I really like the theme With that being said, I would put the Piranha's together. First Blood is written all over them!

I absolutely love Mech Tau, and have always tried to play it in some form or fashion through 5th and now into 6th edition. The core of your list is fairly sound, but a few notes I would recommend:

1.) Ethereals. They are almost mandatory (in my opinion at least) for mid-to-full sized squads of Firewarriors in Devilfish. I was really apprehensive about using them when the new codex first dropped for fluff reasons, but they are just too good for the points to pass up. Storm of Fire (extra shot to pulse weapons at half range) is outstanding, and the 12" leadership bubble really works well with two (or even three) Devilfish mounted Firewarrior Squads. He'll take fire and the extra victory point he gives hurts, but the benefits outweigh that by far.

2.) Disruption pods are nice, but I can't usually stomach paying that high a cost on anything other than a Hammerhead with Longstrike attached. Especially on Devilfish they seem like a luxury to me. They used to be a steal in the old Codex, and they were rightfully fixed in point cost, but I am generally against them. Carefully consider dropping the DPods to free up points for more bodies or gear that acts as a better force multiplier. Also consider Smart Missiles for your Devilfish if you can spare it. Many Tau players avoid them but I've found the cover and LOS ignoring shots can really be nasty against squishy Xenos and GEQ armies (Orks, DE, IG, ect.)

3.) Commander. I really love using generic Commanders in Crisis Suits, and they tend to be one of the best units for me, both by how hardy and how killy he can be. That being said. I either go all out with one or leave him at home. Right now you have him kitted out for some decent S7 shooting and he buffs a few Markerdrones. The Iridium Armor is amazing, I recommend keeping it. However, I think the commander works better buffing other units than killing things outright. Generally, I go all out: Iridium Armor, Shield Generator, and Stimulant Injectors to make him as hardy as possible (I hate giving up Slay the Warlord). The added toughness and 4 wounds with a 2+/4++ and FNP is nothing to laugh at. I also give him the Puretide Engram Neurochip (PEN), Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite (MSS) and Command and Control Node (CCN) and then shove him with a couple of Crisis Suits with dual missile pods and a target lock and throw in marker drones and a drone controller for good measure. It ends up being a bulky, expensive bullet magnet of a unit, but it DOES WORK. I love S7 shooting and 8 twin-linked autocannon shots that ignore cover are can split against separate targets is great. And drones act as a good source of precise and reliable marker lights as well as ablative wounds.

4.) I would honestly drop your second Hammerhead with the Ion Cannon. I love those tanks to death, but you have your IA Riptide to drop AP 2 pieplates left and right. It is nice to have built in redundancies in any list, but I think you can afford to loose the tank and use the points elsewhere.


In your shoes, I would probably run something along these lines:

-HQ-

Commander 232
-Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite
-Puretide Engram Chip
-Command and Control Node
-Iridium Armor
-Shield Generator
-Stimulant Injector
-Drone Controller
-Marker Drones [2]

Ethereal 50

-TROOPS- 483

Firewarrior Team [9] 161
-Devilfish

Firewarrior Team [9] 161
-Devilfish

Firewarrior Team [9] 161
-Devilfish

-ELITES-

Crisis Suit x2 162
-Missile Pod x2
-Target Lock
-Marker Drone x4

Riptide 225
-Ion Accelerator
-Fusion Blaster (or Plasma Rifle)
-Early Warning Override
-Stimulant Injector

-FAST ATTACK-

Piranha x2 100
-Fusion Blaster x2

-HEAVY SUPPORT-

Hammerhead Gunship 131
-Rail Gun
-Smart Missile System
-Submunitions
-Blacksun Filter

Skyray 116
-Blacksun Filter

Total: 1499

Obviously these are only suggestions, but I've run lists very similar to this and had decent success in our smaller gaming group (though we are mostly beer and peanuts players and not overly competitive). If you keep any changes though, the biggest would be adding the Ethereal and trying out the slightly more buffed Commander unit. S7 shooting is great all around in large quantities, and he makes them more accurate, ignores cover, and improves said shooting against vehicles and MCs because of the PEN. Just dance them around and avoid combat and be careful of LD checks if too many drones die (even at LD10 I've had a 400+ unit run off the board Turn 1)

Anyway, hopefully this helps somewhat. Welcome back to the wonderful world of 40K and I hope you make the Tau Empire proud. Tau'va.

I think that this list is so off for any sort of competitive play, I just don't see how it could win. Going up against some good players and armies, it looks to me like you are going to throw some alright troops into transports and go run around from objective to objective with them. I can see this list being tabled easily. I don' mean to sound mean, but I just want to give some hard criticism because being a Tau player myself (who has gone undefeated for the last 7 or 8 games with my Tau) I think that this army is just lacking in too many areas. Additionally I think that Mechdar is much more effective than Mechtau. Tau is better at gun lines and specific types of death stars like Farsight Bomb and O'Vesa star. Sorry if this post offends someone or hurts someones feelings, but I would rather you get it on the forums then go out and feel bad loosing most of your games.

Man, after such a constructive post, I don't think I can follow with any advice....

Since you have some extra points, you can afford some fun toys on your commander. I strongly suggest the neuroweb jammer, it is a flat out steal for the cost. Then maybe a random advanced targeting system on the riptide just to waste points. You could also get an onager gauntlet on the commander if that floats your boat. Just ways to kill the extra.

Your commander is tough, but you might just want to make him a mark'o and have him follow some marker drones instead of a second crisis suit. If you keep him in the crisis team, try to work in a second suit so you have a strong missile team and markerlight team. At that point, it starts to get tempting to get a C&C node, MSSS, and neurochip...so I would probably just go cheap and go drones.

If your planning on using your mech as the main force, why even take 9 warriors? A full squad+ethereal is nice for storm of fire, but if you want the fish and just plan to hide the warriors till you need to score, 6 will do. This would buy another crisis suit, or more toys elsewhere.

Since you are going for mech, I second smart missiles for the fish. You need these to provide the dakka you would have from fire warriors.

The piranha could always be kept in reserve if you have any concerns...then just fly in and kill. Be careful to prevent 1st blood, but once that is out of the picture suicide bomb.

I generally don't take a railhead unless I can spring for longstrike. Ionheads are also good, but I would consider taking a second skyray for more AA and marker support. They are also amazing at getting first blood if you go first and don't expect any fliers. Simply sit still, dump your missiles and then fly around for markerlight fun. Also, I assume you have smart missiles on all heavy tanks but if not, take them.

Mechdar is going to be a challenge, but is beatable. You are also light if you go up against a major horde army. With enough focus you can take out MC spam, but drop pod armies will be very dangerous.

I appreciate all the feedback, constructive or not. As i said earlier, I am just getting back into things and am wanting to learn and build an competitive list that is fun to play so any C&C is welcomed! I've made changes to the list in an attempt to follow some of the input given and added a squad of outflanking kroot to keep 3 troops in my list. I do want to maintain the mech.

HQ

Commander - 192pts
-Iridium, C&CN, MSSS, PEN, Drone Cont, 2 Marker Drones

Ethereal - 50pts

ELITES

Riptide - 190pts
-EWO, Ion Accelerator, SMS

3x Crisis Suits - 207pts
-6x Missile Pods, 3x Target Locks , 3x Marker Drones

TROOPS

9x Fire Warriors with Fish -161pts
-Fish has burst cannon and gun drones

9x Fire Warriors with Fish - 161pts
-Fish has burst cannon and gun drones

12x Kroot with 1x Hound - 77pts

FAST ATTACK

2x Piranhas - 100pts
-Fusion (same squad this time)

HEAVY SUPPORT

Hammerhead - 131pts
-Railgun with Subs, SMS, BSF

Skyray - 116pts
-SMS, BSF

Skyray - 115pts
SMS

My commander is now in support: making the bs5 marker drones now almost auto hitting and giving the 12 missile pod shots twin-linked, ignore cover, monster/tank hunter, etc. (that's pretty cool, also pretty expensive). The Ethereal will join one of the FW squads and the two fish will work in tandem to fly up on an objective and jump out and drop 54 pulse shots + the fishes burst cannons. I have had good success keeping the gun drones and running them in front to act as an annoyance and screen the fish and FW from assaults. I added the kroot which i will keep in reserves to outflank. I have 13 models in the squad for morale purposes. They will try to come in into cover (hopefully in a forest) but go to ground as often as needed or walk in off my back line if there is an objective in my deployment. I dropped the Ionhead and replaced it with another Skyray. Does this get me closer to being competitive while maintaining the theme?

Thanks again for any feedback.

 Commander_Farsight wrote:
I think that this list is so off for any sort of competitive play, I just don't see how it could win. Going up against some good players and armies, it looks to me like you are going to throw some alright troops into transports and go run around from objective to objective with them. I can see this list being tabled easily. I don' mean to sound mean, but I just want to give some hard criticism because being a Tau player myself (who has gone undefeated for the last 7 or 8 games with my Tau) I think that this army is just lacking in too many areas. Additionally I think that Mechdar is much more effective than Mechtau. Tau is better at gun lines and specific types of death stars like Farsight Bomb and O'Vesa star. Sorry if this post offends someone or hurts someones feelings, but I would rather you get it on the forums then go out and feel bad loosing most of your games.

dude dont be hatin' unless you try it out for yourself. you see those three units of fire warriors, you see that etherial. with out the devilfish they are just a gunline, with devilfish they are a gunline that can go get the squishy parts. and of course Mechdar are more effective. wave serpents are completely broken. this an army that focuses on movement rather than total firepower. tau sit in a sweetspot between high firepower, mobility, survivalbilty. you can focus two and leave the third out. this is list that uses its mobility to its advantage. to get its slightly weakened firepower where it needs to be. and the mobililty helps to protect the less survivable parts.

ok... now that defended the army style that i love I can get on to tactics

this is not an army that can just run up and kick the *** of anything it runs up against. you have to be careful how you apply pressure, expose elements, and what to let get shot and what not to. Ripides should be soaking up fire and should have stims (this is my opinion but can reaalllly make it a pain to kill) same with your "tank" commander fire warriors shot not pop out unless they are going to kill what they shoot out. fire warrior are fairly lackluster unless your rolling close to a hundred dice (which is very possible with the etherial) i call it move, move, move bucket of dice. the "why are you jumping out in charge range or my marines? oh thats why" is worth it but be careful because it can open you up to some easy charges otherwise. its going to take some time to get used to but very fun, competitive (just not tournamet competive) once you do

I've been reading different feedback that other Tau lists have been getting on this site for ideas...

Would it make sense for me to ally in the enclave for the ethereal and the crisis team to make the suits scoring? I haven't bought the supplement yet but wanted to see if this was a valid option for my specific list as I'm already running 2 hqs and a full squad of suits. If I did this, would it be worth making other changes as well?

Thanks.

a good stratagy for mech tau is to keep the Etherial with a squad of fire warriors in a devilfish, this for protection of the victory point and for the handy elemental powers like storm of fire