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So, I started collecting tau a few months ago. I'm very new to the hobby, and don't have a very solid grasp of how to make a decent army list. I'd personally like if people would be so kind as to help me out with a few basic ideas as to how to make a decent tau list. As of right now, my basic understanding of how tau work is that you want to avoid base to base contact with enemy models or your tau will spontaneously combust, and that your goal as tau is to shoot like crazy before the enemy ever gets close. I also understand that marker lights are super important and that I should spread out my marker sources throughout the army.

Aside from that basic understanding, I don't get what else makes tau work, and how to make a good list with them. right now my collection is 25 fire warriors, 1 skyray, 1 hammerhead (that I can turn into a devil fish or an ion hammer head), 18 carbine path finders, 6 rail ones and 6 ion path finders 2 sets of all the special path finder drones, 12+ gun drones, 4 markerlight drones 4 shield drones.

Right now I have a few basic ideas that I like swimming in my head right now. One is to make an army that basically FIRES ALL THE MISSILES on turn one via a bunch of seeker missile, another thing I kinda like is darkstrider and a team of pathfinders. One other Idea i've had is getting 2 fire warrior units with 2 fire blades and an ethereal and puking out shots like an old bullet hell game. Also a swarm of piranhas has gotten my interest. Aside from those basic bits of random ideas, I have not clue how to make an army that would work. I'd personally like if someone here helped me understand what tau army types work and how they're built, as well as the basic idea behind them.

Also, some suggestions on what I should get next if anything?

I have two things to say... Actually one. Have markerlights because BS is good... Don't know much else though, heck my army barley shoots at all. Sorry I couldn't help more!

Tau are pretty straightforward; Fire Warriors with an Etheral can wreck most infantry and some light vehicles at good range, Crisis suits, Broadsides, Hammerheads, and Riptides can take on anything they can't. Markerlights make anything else function more efficiently. An effective list is equipped to handle any target and with the redundancy to do so after heavy casualties; start with a Pathfinder unit, some Fire Warriors, and Crisis suits armed to fight heavy targets, build up from there if you find your list deficient in some way.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/639739.page

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/640162.page

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/639546.page

So that's a fantastic start! What you need now is some meat. Something that can really tear into heavily armored/monstrous enemies and make use of all those markers. The skyray and hammerhead are both good for that, but an Ion Accelerator Riptide will really put the hammer down on AV3/2 troops and monsters and as a bonus he can be given interceptor to stop people teleporting into your face.

I feel like your really missing one major thing. Crisis suits, the hammer of the army. I'd say pick up a couple teams of those to help round things out.

The big thing your collection is missing is Battlesuits. They are the best part of our army. You are not gonna be able to build an effective Tau list at higher points levels without Suits.

Start out with some Crisis Suits; they are our jack of all trades unit. Get a unit or two to start. Then look into getting at least one Riptide, you're gonna want one. Broadsides are expensive $$ wise, but very effective on the table, so start looking into getting those. Stealth Suits are okay, but overshadowed by Crisis and Riptides. Unless you really like them, you can give them a pass for now. Get yourself a Battlesuit Commander for your HQ choice too, if you haven't done so already. Maybe look into a couple Devilfish for your Fire Warriors; mobile Tau beats gunline Tau by a mile in 7th edition.

All in all, you have a very good start to your collection. You just need to round it out some more, get some Suits, and you'll be good to go.

Welcome to the Greater Good!

I play against Tau pretty regularly, and can safely say that you don't need to just use markerlights. The basic tau rifles wreck MEQ troops and will drown multi wound models in dice rolls.

Play how you want, build your collection and your personal fluff (if you want any) and go from there.

 GI_Redshirt wrote:
The big thing your collection is missing is Battlesuits. They are the best part of our army. You are not gonna be able to build an effective Tau list at higher points levels without Suits.

Start out with some Crisis Suits; they are our jack of all trades unit. Get a unit or two to start. Then look into getting at least one Riptide, you're gonna want one. Broadsides are expensive $$ wise, but very effective on the table, so start looking into getting those. Stealth Suits are okay, but overshadowed by Crisis and Riptides. Unless you really like them, you can give them a pass for now. Get yourself a Battlesuit Commander for your HQ choice too, if you haven't done so already. Maybe look into a couple Devilfish for your Fire Warriors; mobile Tau beats gunline Tau by a mile in 7th edition.

All in all, you have a very good start to your collection. You just need to round it out some more, get some Suits, and you'll be good to go.

Welcome to the Greater Good!

If i'm gonna run crisis suits, I'd like some advice as to what type equipment I should get on them, and what that equipment does. I like the idea behind the suits, but I'm afraid of getting them and loading them out wrong. Is there a way to make the parts interchangeable without relying on magnets?

Also, as a secondary concern, how do I make crisis suits look less like a box with stubby legs?

Also I plan on getting a riptide because I've heard many a good thing about them and they look badass.

IMO you bought too many fire warriors. The troop suits are better, faster and more resilient as long as there is LoS blocking stuff on the table. Two units of kroot are also nice. let you start on objective turn 1, their sniper guns are good against stuff like WK and they push back enemy deployment away from you. The suits I see being used are ones armed with missilies, plasma and missilies , and deep striking melta ones. 2 riptied and 3 broadsides are a must have to own. Sometimes it is better to run 6 broadsides, but they cost a lot of money so better just get the minimum needed.

I can't really think of a better option than magnets for crisis suit cudtomizability. Honestly they're super easy.

Instead of just telling you what to bring, we can teach you the basics of list building. Think of it like a checklist, that most people go through when building their lists.

Do you have something that can deal with:
A) Infantry?
B)Light Armor?
C) AV 14?
D)Bikes and other fast attack options?
E)Aircraft?

Do you have a unit to sit on an objective?
Do you have a unit that can be used to take an objective?
Do you have something that will deep strike?

Just a few things to think of when building your lists/army

Lots of good suggestions in this thread, if you're questioning your army and want to improve it, follow these basic steps:

Can I eliminate enemy infantry?
Can I destroy elite stuff and/or monsters?
Can I remove or ignore enemy fliers?
Can I take and hold objectives?
Can I deal with enemy vehicles?

That's basically it.

I was in your position for a while, in that I didn't know how to build an army or where to go with it. I'm not very familiar with Tau, but I can give you some basic ideas for list building that helped me out with my Eldar. Hopefully, you might find these helpful.

1. Start with a solid "Core" of your army.
This will be your HQ unit and some tough, versatile units. For Tau, this will probably a Battlesuit Commander of some sort (Generic or Special Character) and Crisis Suits.

2. Add Support units.
These units support the Core of your army by providing synergistic buffs and/or holding onto objectives with Objective Secured troops. You already have plenty of Fire Warriors and Pathfinders to fill out this area. A cheap support HQ would help out here as well, like an Ethereal of a Fireblade.

3. Add firepower.
These are the units that support your army by dealing with enemy threats. Usually, these come from the Heavy Support and Elite slots. You have a Skyray and Hammerhead for this already. As others have said, you might want to add a Riptide for added dakka or Broadsides for more AAA.

I hope these tips help you with fleshing out your Tau.

If i'm gonna run crisis suits, I'd like some advice as to what type equipment I should get on them, and what that equipment does. I like the idea behind the suits, but I'm afraid of getting them and loading them out wrong. Is there a way to make the parts interchangeable without relying on magnets?

Also, as a secondary concern, how do I make crisis suits look less like a box with stubby legs?

Also I plan on getting a riptide because I've heard many a good thing about them and they look badass.

Crisis Suits are by far the easiest units to magnetize in the entire game. But if you want to wait before doing that, the weapons do stay on the models fairly well without glue, so that is a temporary solution. As far as how to load them out, it depends on what you are looking for. Missile Pods are the standard TAC choice, a pair 36" S7 AP4 Assault 2 per suit is amazing and can safely damage anything in the game beyond AV14. You're going to want at least one Crisis Team with Fusion Blasters. They will be your go to anti tank. You shouldn't need more than 1 3 man Team with FB, though if you want you can run several lone Suits with FB instead. PR is obviously your AP2 option. If you know you'll be facing a lot of MEQ and TEQ, grab some. Personally I find them a bit lack luster compared to MP and FB, but they certainly aren't useless. Burst Cannons and Flamers are your anti infantry and anti horde choices. Which one you go with will be your choice (I personally prefer BCs for the S5, but Flamers can also be great due to autohitting and the overwatch). Also, always go with dual weapons of the same kind. Mix and match generally speaking is a bad choice, as the weapons must fire at the same target. Occasionally it can be useful, but 9 times out of 10 giving each team a dedicated role (FB for AT, PR for MEQ/TEQ, MP for long range TAC shooting, etc.) is the way to go.

In terms of Support Systems, situation will dictate. Target Locks should only be used on deep striking Fusion Teams or Flamer teams to maximize the number of units you can hit in one phase. Shield Generators are usually too expensive to put on anything but a Commander for tanking shots, but if you know you're gonna be facing a ton of S8 and/or AP2 (Tank heavy Guard army, Marine bike army with grav/melta/plasma, etc.) take them where you can to give yourself a chance at surviving. Stim Injectors are good, but again get expensive quick. If you have the points to spare, take them. Other than that, situation dictates what support systems you take, if you take any at all. (On a side note, a fun tactic against assaulty armies is to give each Suit a Flamer in addition to their dual weapons for the D3 overwatch hits. Quite fun to force a charging unit to get 3 D3 auto hits on overwatch from every Crisis team plus their normal weapons. It's a situational tactic, but can be useful in the right game).

As far as looks go, Crisis Suits are unfortunately showing their age. Hopefully they will be updated when the next codex drops, but for the time being, you're stuck with those silly legs. If you are willing to do conversions, I've seen some great ones using chibi-style gundam toys with the heads replaced and Crisis weapons glued on. There are some good ones floating around dakka, I recommend looking into those if you really cannot stand the Crisis models.

I'm an old player and I also don't know how to make a good army.

I build what I think would be fun to play and/or paint.

Best of luck!

Jaxler wrote:
So, I started collecting tau a few months ago. I'm very new to the hobby, and don't have a very solid grasp of how to make a decent army list. I'd personally like if people would be so kind as to help me out with a few basic ideas as to how to make a decent tau list. As of right now, my basic understanding of how tau work is that you want to avoid base to base contact with enemy models or your tau will spontaneously combust, and that your goal as tau is to shoot like crazy before the enemy ever gets close. I also understand that marker lights are super important and that I should spread out my marker sources throughout the army.

Aside from that basic understanding, I don't get what else makes tau work, and how to make a good list with them. right now my collection is 25 fire warriors, 1 skyray, 1 hammerhead (that I can turn into a devil fish or an ion hammer head), 18 carbine path finders, 6 rail ones and 6 ion path finders 2 sets of all the special path finder drones, 12+ gun drones, 4 markerlight drones 4 shield drones.

Right now I have a few basic ideas that I like swimming in my head right now. One is to make an army that basically FIRES ALL THE MISSILES on turn one via a bunch of seeker missile, another thing I kinda like is darkstrider and a team of pathfinders. One other Idea i've had is getting 2 fire warrior units with 2 fire blades and an ethereal and puking out shots like an old bullet hell game. Also a swarm of piranhas has gotten my interest. Aside from those basic bits of random ideas, I have not clue how to make an army that would work. I'd personally like if someone here helped me understand what tau army types work and how they're built, as well as the basic idea behind them.

Also, some suggestions on what I should get next if anything?

Here are a couple links you should read. They are articles I wrote for exactly this kind of question:

40k Basics

And:

40k Tactics and army building

These two will really help, or at least, they are meant to. the first details all the changes tothe 7th edition, especially useful for those coming from 6th Edition or who may just want an overview.

The second has a lot of basic list building and tactical advice.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and here's a battle report you might enjoy that shows Tau in action. Its a longer, more detailed one than I normally do so it could help you.

Battle report vs necrons

Also:

vs Eldar with deathstar

Commander farsight, crisis suits, broadsides with missiles and riptides.

Jaxler wrote:
So, I started collecting tau a few months ago. I'm very new to the hobby, and don't have a very solid grasp of how to make a decent army list. I'd personally like if people would be so kind as to help me out with a few basic ideas as to how to make a decent tau list. As of right now, my basic understanding of how tau work is that you want to avoid base to base contact with enemy models or your tau will spontaneously combust, and that your goal as tau is to shoot like crazy before the enemy ever gets close. I also understand that marker lights are super important and that I should spread out my marker sources throughout the army.

Aside from that basic understanding, I don't get what else makes tau work, and how to make a good list with them. right now my collection is 25 fire warriors, 1 skyray, 1 hammerhead (that I can turn into a devil fish or an ion hammer head), 18 carbine path finders, 6 rail ones and 6 ion path finders 2 sets of all the special path finder drones, 12+ gun drones, 4 markerlight drones 4 shield drones.

Right now I have a few basic ideas that I like swimming in my head right now. One is to make an army that basically FIRES ALL THE MISSILES on turn one via a bunch of seeker missile, another thing I kinda like is darkstrider and a team of pathfinders. One other Idea i've had is getting 2 fire warrior units with 2 fire blades and an ethereal and puking out shots like an old bullet hell game. Also a swarm of piranhas has gotten my interest. Aside from those basic bits of random ideas, I have not clue how to make an army that would work. I'd personally like if someone here helped me understand what tau army types work and how they're built, as well as the basic idea behind them.

Also, some suggestions on what I should get next if anything?

Well, I don't play Tau, but here is my take...

The current game favors mobility, and fire power, and the Tau have plenty.

Missile Broadsides Rawk, and Skyrays are very strong too. If you took two (units) of each, you would have a very strong base.

After that "style" becomes an "issue" Personally I would grab a couple of units of Fire Warriors, in Fish, and concentrate on Crisis Suits after that.

Good luck.