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I'm trying to figure out what to purchase next for my Tau army to bring it up to 2000 points. This is what I currently have to work with:

1 Cadre Fireblade
24 Fire Warriors
10 Pathfinders
2 Devilfish
1 Hammerhead
3 Stealth Suits
3 Crisis Suits
1 Piranha
1 Riptide

So the 2000 point list I came up with is:

1 Cadre Fireblade
10 Fire Warriors
1 Devilfish

11 Fire Warriors
1 Devilfish

11 Fire Warriors
1 Devilfish

10 Pathfinders
1 Devilfish

3 Crisis suits, twin-linked missile pods and plasma rifles

2 Riptides, ion accelerator, early warning override

3 Hammerheads

2 Razorshark Fighters, decoy launchers

Alternately, instead of taking the 2 extra Hammerheads I could get some Broadsides. The reason I bring this up is because the Firebase Support Cadre box is $290 for $385 worth of models. It would give me the second Riptide, then 3 teams of 2 Broadsides. I can wiggle the points a bit to make that come out as 2k.

I'd also love to hear from anyone that uses a Farsight only army. I could make an army with 18 Crisis suits, 6 Broadsides and 2 Riptides - which sounds like fun, but I don't know how effective it would be.

I would vote against a Farsight list , simply because XV8 troops may sound awesome of the surface but cost too many points for a simple troop choice and will be wasting their versatility by holding an objective. Plus more easily killed, especially if a strength 8 weapon comes along and insta-kills them. I have the Firebase Support Cadre myself, in the 3 fair games i have had, i have had 2 wins and one loss. I also have an extra Riptide on top of that like you plan to, and having the 2 has a lot of large blast potential, wiping out squads of whatever you damn want, with high toughness and wounds. What i would say is don't get the Razorsharks. I don't think they are worth their points, the only benefit you get is that they fly, and even that can be a problem, needing to wait until turn 2 at the very least for them to come on. What i like to do with my list, is start shooting everything from turn 1, the 72" of the Riptide and Hammerhead, alongside HRR Broadsides, ensures that by the time he can shoot he can do a little bit less due to destroyed models, making it harder to bring it back. Why not Hammerheads AND Broadsides ? 3 Hammerheads could be your Heavy Support (though i think 3 may be overkill, i would go for 2 but that's my preference). Firebase Support Cadre count as an allied detachment, so the 1 extra Riptide and 2 Broadsides don't count towards your Force Org limitations. And i would also take a Commander of some sort, a Cadre Fireblade is more easily taken out. The Commander could support a Broadside squad, handing out Ignores Cover using a Signature System, as well as Monster Hunter using the Puretide Chip (don't need Tank Hunter as Firebase Support Cadre gives them that anyway). Or you could attach it to a Riptide, give it Ignores Cover AND twin-linked weapons (great as it counteracts the low BS). Whether you take HRR or HYMP on your Broadsides depends on your opposition. Hope this helps.

Yes, that helped greatly!

Get pathfinders. Riptides hit hard, but they're damage is downright dirty with proper markerlight support. My 2k list has three teams of 5. A little on the light side, but I have a farseer with guide and presience, and a support commander to make up for that.

And as an fyi, crisis suits can take two on the same weapon without needing to twin linking them. This allows for a more potent and specialized task for your suits. My recommendation is to decide upon one type of weapon for your suits.

DirtyDeeds wrote:
Get pathfinders. Riptides hit hard, but they're damage is downright dirty with proper markerlight support. My 2k list has three teams of 5. A little on the light side, but I have a farseer with guide and presience, and a support commander to make up for

I agree with this point, i also have Pathfinders, two small squads. However it might also be worth comparing them to Marker Drones. They are cheaper, but remember a Markerlight is a Heavy weapon, meaning you can't move and shoot when using them with regular infantry. Marker Drones, on the other hand, have Relentless due to being Jet Pack Infantry.

Whatever you take will be heavily influenced by the armies of your gaming group, whoever they may be. Currently i'm having problems with survivability as my main opponent has a Wraithknight which deletes Broadsides that don't have Shield Generators off the field. Another player also makes heavy use of Daemon Princes, so it makes sense to take HRR Broadsides with Velocity Trackers to ground them. I'm not sure how i would deal with the Wraithknight in a 1vs1 game, but it doesn't matter so much as both of these players are teaming up for a doubles Tourney, i can ground the Daemon Princes and i'm tasking my partners Shadowsword to take out the Wraithknight


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And Pathfinders give away victory points when killed in the Scouring, so if you chose them take account of that when thinking of your strategy.

My favorite way to use marker drones is paired up with railsides with target lock and a support commander tanking high str wounds. You get 6 twin linked bs 5 markerlights with tank/monster hunter that ignores cover. The unit won't move, but it's an effective way to use two units

DirtyDeeds wrote:
My favorite way to use marker drones is paired up with railsides with target lock and a support commander tanking high str wounds. You get 6 twin linked bs 5 markerlights with tank/monster hunter that ignores cover. The unit won't move, but it's an effective way to use two units

Good idea. I didn't like how my Commander wasn't using all his Support System slots. While the Marker Drones only have half the range of the Rail Rifles, Target Lock means the Commander can still benefit the unit with Monster Hunter from the Puretide Chip and Ignores Cover from the Multi-spectrum Suite, and on top of that 2 Marker Drones that shoot at BS5 that are also twin-linked ! And the beauty is that even though the Marker Drones are joined to the Commander, the Commander isn't actually shooting so he can still benefit the whole unit with the Multi-spectrum suite and Command and Control Node ! All for a cost of 37pts. Not bad at all. Useful with helping to deal with enemy units that get too close.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Damn, I just realised that if the Commander takes Marker Drones, those drones won't benefit from Target Lock, only the Commander himself does. So if Marker Drones were added to the squad, they would have to shoot at whatever the HRR Broadsides aim at.

You give target lock to the broadsides. Who cares aboit giving the commander target lock when he doesn't have weapons. And have the broadsides purchase the marker drones; then there's two per model.

OR
Ally Farsight enclaves with a missile commander, dc, and targetlock with a similarly equipped squad of crisis suits minus drone controller. Same role, less shots but more mobile AND scoring.

Oh yeah, my mistake. I forgot Broadsides could take the same thing.

That is a good idea, but if you buy 2 Marker Drones per model you would need to place the unit where it can actually do some damage, considering the 36" range of ML's.

True, but much of my list plays at the 36" mark, so I have mamy targets for my opponent to choose. Either knock out the easy to kill pathfinders, the 36 shot missilesidr+missile drone unit, my Riptides, or my railside+drone+tank commander unit. I am fortune at my lgs to be the only gunline player, so I do not have a hard time with my list.

So this is my revised 2000 point list:

Commander, 2 Missile Pods, 1 Plasma Rifle

Fire Warriors x 12, Devilfish
Fire Warriors x 12, Devilfish
Fire Warriors x 12, Devilfish

XV8 Crisis Suits x 3, 2 Missile Pods, 1 Plasma Rifle

Riptide x 2, Ion Accelerator, TL Fusion Blaster, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker, Stimulant Injector

Hammerhead x 3, Submunition Rounds
Longstrike

Pathfinders x 10
Pathfinders x 10

Thoughts?

1) You have too many support systems on your Riptides, they can only have two.

2) Crisis suits can only shoot up to 2 weapons per phase, unless you meant to twin link the missile pods, them I recommend sticking to one type of weapon per squad

3) if you're intent on three hammerheads, give one an ion cannon, str 8 ap 3 large blast will eat space marines

Thanks, so if I revise the list to this:

Commander, TL Missile Pods, Plasma Rifle

Fire Warriors x 12, Devilfish
Fire Warriors x 12, Devilfish
Fire Warriors x 12, Devilfish

XV8 Crisis Suits x 3, TL Missile Pods, Plasma Rifle

Riptide x 2, Ion Accelerator, TL Fusion Blaster, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker

Hammerhead x 2, Submunition Rounds
Hammerhead x 1, Ion Cannon
Longstrike

Pathfinders x 10
Pathfinders x 10

This puts me at 1925 points. Suggestions for the remaining 75 points? Throw some equipment on the vehicles? Add a Cadre Fireblade to one of the Fire Warriors?

Also, does this seem to have enough markerlights with the 2 units of Pathfinders? I'll be depending on the 2 Riptides for anti-air support, but my shop tends to run flyer-heavy - think that's enough?