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Hi guys,

I've been given some tau models (still boxed) and was wondering if I can build a competitive list with what I already have.
I'm in over of my head, have spoke to someone about commanders, but want to build a relatively simple army list that might win me a few games. Practice makes perfect and all that jazz.
I've read most of the book, especially liked the lore and galleries. The weapons and items and stats confuse me a bit though

If you've got a minute, could you see what's possible with these models?
They're all still boxed except the fire warriors, I got curious so I still have all the drones and stuff.

Commander suit ~ support roll? lots of drones?
3x Crisis suits ~ make another commander - all weapons. Give both commanders a bodyguard?
12x Fire warriors
Devilfish tank
10x Pathfinders
Broadside suit

Thanks for any pointers!

1 crisis commander is enough. run the 3 other suits as a crisi team in one of your elite slots, never take body guards if you have an elite slot open.
run the fire warriors in 2 6-man squadas or 1 12-man squad of pulse rifles. run the pathfinders in the devilfish. And finaly give the broadside missles.

Tau are not a gunline army, but a really moble army. look at all of their suits, most have jet packs for a reason, the devilfish is to run up your pathfinders so they can mark them for your broadside and fire warriors. kit out your suits for anti tank/ heavy infantry. with the broadside, devilfish, and firewarriors you have plenty of infantry killing power. this is just some baisic tips, look over the codex, and find what you like, play a few proxy games, and magnetize your suits.

No idea what this will cost, but I gave the army section a read. Any good?..

HQ
Commander
Fusion blaster, Shield generator, Stimulant injector, Vectored retro thrusters
Neuroweb system jammer, Onager gauntlet
2x Marker drones

ELITES
Crisis Team
Plasma rifle, Missile pod, Multi-Tracker
2x Shield drones

Fusion blaster, Missile pod, Multi-Tracker
2x Shield drones

Two missile pods, Multi-tracker
2x Shield drones

TROOPS
6x Fire Warriors
6x Fire Warriors

FAST ATTACK
10x Pathfinders
Sgt w/ 2x Shield drones
Recon drone, Grav drone, Pulse accelerator drone
Ion rifle, 2x Rail rifles, EMP grenades, Bonding knife

Devilfish
2x Seeker missiles, Auto repair system, Decoy launchers, Sensor spines
Missile drones

HEAVY SUPPORT
Broadside
Twin-linked heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked smart missile system, Seeker missile, Velocity tracker
2x Shield drones

EverTheOptimist wrote:
No idea what this will cost, but I gave the army section a read. Any good?..

HQ
Commander
Fusion blaster, Shield generator, Stimulant injector, Vectored retro thrusters
Neuroweb system jammer, Onager gauntlet
2x Marker drones

ELITES
Crisis Team
Plasma rifle, Missile pod, Multi-Tracker
2x Shield drones

Fusion blaster, Missile pod, Multi-Tracker
2x Shield drones

Two missile pods, Multi-tracker
2x Shield drones

TROOPS
6x Fire Warriors
6x Fire Warriors

FAST ATTACK
10x Pathfinders
Sgt w/ 2x Shield drones
Recon drone, Grav drone, Pulse accelerator drone
Ion rifle, 2x Rail rifles, EMP grenades, Bonding knife

Devilfish
2x Seeker missiles, Auto repair system, Decoy launchers, Sensor spines
Missile drones

HEAVY SUPPORT
Broadside
Twin-linked heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked smart missile system, Seeker missile, Velocity tracker
2x Shield drones

So, the pathfinders are in the devilfish? also ignore bonding knife unless you are filling out points, also feel freee to try 1 suit per crisis team so all 3 slots are filled for the versitility, and remove the onager gauntlet, you are Tau, avoid CC

The list just doesn't really work. For a start, you can't have missile drones on a devilfish. Do you mean SMS?

-if you're taking drones on the broadsides, always take missile drones as broadsides are the only thing that can take those

-don't put seeker missiles on devilfish

-HYMP are the better option for broadsides, rather than the heavy rail rifles

-pathfinders would be best taken as two teams of 5, don't use drones ever. The two teams give you two sources of markerlights

-never mix weapons on the crisis suits, taking a fusion blaster and a missile pod on the same suit is ridiculous when one has range 36 and one has only half the range; it wouldn't be able to shoot half the time and having either two missile pods or two fusion blasters would make the suit more specialised to what you want it to do. I'd suggest a team consisting of 2 suits with two fusion blasters each and either two plasma rifles or two missile pods on the last suit (take plasma rifles if you're going up against space marines)

-shield drones are not as good as gun drones (extra firepower is always good)

-your commander is made up all wrong. If you want to use marker drones, or gun drones, take a drone controller so that they benefit from his BS5, and take a target lock so he can shoot at a different unit to the marker drones. Since markerlights are range 30, a fusion blaster is pretty useless here because the ranges are so different, it would be better to equip him with two missile pods.

-also, if you're using the commander as a mark'o then you have a lot of wasted points. Don't take the gauntlet, neuroweb jammer, shield generator or thrusters and just upgrade him with an iridium suit instead

HYMPs aren't that useful as a single unit.

I'd rather take a HRR single at low points to deal with problem units anyways. Maybe with an ATS for power-fist/power-klaw sniping?

Thanks for the advice, here's the amended list..

HQ
Commander :167 pts
Two Missile pods, Iridium suit, Drone controller, Target lock
2x Marker drones

ELITES
Crisis Team
Shas'vre :78 pts
Two Plasma rifles, Neuroweb system jammer
2x Gun drones

2nd Suit :66 pts
Two Missile pods
2x Gun drones

I like the fact that if need be the missile pod suit could join the commander as a body guard. It would swap it's drones with the fusion blaster suit.

Separate Single Crisis suit :76 pts
Shas'vre
Two fusion blasters
2x Shield drones

TROOPS
6x Fire Warriors :54 pts
6x Fire Warriors :54 pts

Devilfish :100 pts
Disruption pods, Sensor spines

FAST ATTACK
5x Pathfinders :55 pts
5x Pathfinders :55 pts

HEAVY SUPPORT
Single Broadside Shas'vre :95 pts
Twin-linked Heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked SMS, Velocity tracker
2x Missile drones

Total :800 pts

My main opponents are going to be Eldar, MoE, Orkz and Tyranids. Do you reckon I'll do well on the tabletop, generally speaking?

I realise it's a game of dice.
I do know the Eldar is a jetbike list. There's a Dark Angels bike list, Space wolves and Chaos lists and a couple of horde orkz and tyranids armies

Auto rep system for the devilfish is basically useless and wasted points

Why do you have a pathfinder shas'ui in each team? Wasted points again

13045273 wrote:
Auto rep system for the devilfish is basically useless and wasted points

Why do you have a pathfinder shas'ui in each team? Wasted points again

I have the weapons and target locks for the shas'ui so they can snipe sgts and enemy commanders. If ive read it wrong please tell me, but I thought it a good idea. And the repair system is on the apc because I want to use it as an apc, so I need to keep it alive.

If you could explain a bit more I could see the reasoning behind your advice. With that in mind I still need to add it all up yet. So if points are an issue I would get rid of the shas'ui.

Thanks

The auto repair system doesn't repair hull points so doesn't keep it alive any longer

The best use of pathfinders is solely to markerlight up targets. If you use them for just that then you can ignore the cover/increase BS of better guns to take out commanders etc. Pathfinders are squishy so don't make them expensive

Fair one, thanks!

No problem

Just a tip, if you have one infantry squad sat holding an objective in your deployment zone and one that stays in the devilfish the whole game, that would be the best way to use your fire warriors because you only have the minimum number in each squad so they're very vulnerable out in the open or moving about anywhere. Your next purchase should be more fire warriors definitely. For the squad in the fish, just keep them in there and zoom to objectives when needed (they don't need to disembark to hold the objective)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Put disruption pods in your fish instead of decoy launchers, this increases the value of your jink save, which is a skimmer cover save as a result of movement


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I still think you need to change your crisis suits. Having two different weapons on a suit is not efficient because one weapon will not be as useful against the target that you're using the other weapon for. Also, don't twin-link the weapons, it is much better to have two single fusion blasters or plasma rifles etc on a single suit than having 1 twin-linked weapon

Just a tip, if you have one infantry squad sat holding an objective in your deployment zone and one that stays in the devilfish the whole game, that would be the best way to use your fire warriors because you only have the minimum number in each squad so they're very vulnerable out in the open or moving about anywhere. Your next purchase should be more fire warriors definitely. For the squad in the fish, just keep them in there and zoom to objectives when needed (they don't need to disembark to hold the objective)

That's exactly what I was planning! I guess it's the obvious option. The Crisis suits are going to zip around at various ranges to harass the enemy. The Broadside bombards the enemy, and the Pathfinders mark everything up with red dots. I wanted the Fire Warriors away from battle and planted on objectives.

Put disruption pods in your fish instead of decoy launchers, this increases the value of your jink save, which is a skimmer cover save as a result of movement)

I'll include Disruption pods.

Your next purchase should be more fire warriors definitely.

I've been given these models by my brother, but I'm going to get a box. You should see the colour I'm using, it's like a mech-grey and turquoise mix.
I also want to buy either another Broadside suit or a Hammerhead tank. I'm going to attempt a camouflage skin on vehicles and suits.

Thanks for the tips 13045273

PS. Is my Commander legal, have I taken too much gear?
And am I right in thinking that my suits can shoot their two individually purchased weapons at two separate targets, twin-linked is just a re-roll on a single target?

Your commander is absolutely fine, some people upgrade him to be over 200 points and everything you have on him is within the limits for battlesuit systems so yeah

An individual suit has to fire both its weapons at the same target. Target locks allow suits to fire at a separate unit to the other suits in their team, and target locks also allow any attached drones to fire at a separate unit

Just make sure you've added all the points up correctly and you're set to start gaining tabletop experience! There's a lot of advice available on this site, but if there's a certain list build that you want to try or different options you want to explore then you don't have to listen to advice that changes your list, we all just try to give you the benefit of collective and tested knowledge

No problem,
Josh

Not many people play at 800 pts apparently! So I bought another troop and heavy choice to bump me to 1k.

Commander :167 pts
Two missile pods, Iridium suit, Drone controller, Target lock
2x marker drones

Shas'vre :76 pts
Two plasma rifles
2x gun drones

Shas'ui :66 pts
Two missile pods
2x gun drones

Shas'vre :76 pts
Two fusion blasters
2x shield drones

12x Fire warriors :108 pts
12x Fire warriors :108 pts

Devilfish :100 pts
Disruption pods, Sensor spines

5x Pathfinders :55 pts
5x Pathfinders :55 pts

Shas'vre :95 pts
Twin-linked Heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked SMS, Velocity tracker
2x missile drones

Shas'vre :95 pts
Twin-linked Heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked SMS, Velocity tracker
2x missile drones

Total :1001 pts

The first two crisis suits are a team, the fusion blaster suit is a seperate elite slot. One of the fire warriors will be in reserve inside the fish, along with the single crisis suit.
I opted for railgun on the broadsides as it's a decent weapon and useful S8 source. Plenty of missiles already coming from their sms and drones anyway.
If i could change anything it would be to add neuroweb to the plasma suit, velocity tracker to the missile suit, stim injector to fusion suit and give the fish and B'sides seeker missiles.
I am concerned for my HQ facing ingore armour saves wounds, but he'll work well as a Mark'o.

I'll post pics once they're painted