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Good day everyone!
Been searching for tournament for a while now (in my area), and finally got one. It's somewhere in October and it's going to be my first ever (plus, I haven't play much game with my Tau yet). I want to plan my list ahead in order to priorise what will I get painted and magnitize first.

Some limitations:


My models:


My ideas:
Since there is no formation, I want to optimise my Elite and Heavy slot. For Heavy, not sure what combinaison would work best: 2 hammerhead, 1 broadside - 1 skyray, 1 longstike hammerhead and 1 broadside - or replace broadside by sniper drone? I'm not sure yet how flexible TO is with conversion, so maybe I can convert some drone into sniper drone (but will have difficulties converting marksman tho...).

For elite, Riptide is auto-include for sure (mine have Ion Accel and no heavy burst availalble). Other than that, do I 2x 3man crisis, or should I try my luck with some stealthsuit? For this tournament, the first blood is replaced by a special objective that will reward 1 VP if you can kill a unit on your first turn, so maybe 6 Infiltrating Stealthsuit could healp me with that.

For troops, do I go minimum 2x6man FW? or maybe 2x6man + 1 12man with Fireblade cadre.

As for fast attack, since no tetras are available, I might just have to run 3x4man pathfinders.

Anyway, I'm excited haha. I hope I get some nice tips and comments to help me prepare for the event! Thanks Dakka


edit: Also, I do not own the Farsight enclave supplement, so list without hte need for it work best for me.

First pitch at list:

+++HQ+++
-Commander (2x Plasma, Iridium Suit, Advance Targeting System) 143pts

+++TROOP+++
-6man Firewarrior 54pts
-6man Firewarrior 54pts

+++FAST ATTACK+++
-4man Pathfinders 44pts
-4man Pathfinders 44pts
-4man Pathfinders 44pts

+++ELITE+++
-3man Crisis Team (6x Plasma Rifle) 156pts
-3man Crisis Team (6x Plasma Rifle) 156pts
-Riptide (Ion Accelerator, EWO, Stimulant Injector) 225pts

+++HEAVY SUPPORT+++
-Hammerhead (Submunition) 130pts
-Hammerhead (Submunition) 130pts
-Broadside (EWO) 70pts

TOTAL:1250pts

 PandaHero wrote:

+++HQ+++
-Commander (2x Plasma, Iridium Suit, Advance Targeting System) 143pts

+++TROOP+++
-6man Firewarrior 54pts
-6man Firewarrior 54pts

+++FAST ATTACK+++
-4man Pathfinders 44pts
-4man Pathfinders 44pts
-4man Pathfinders 44pts

+++ELITE+++
-3man Crisis Team (6x Plasma Rifle) 156pts
-3man Crisis Team (6x Plasma Rifle) 156pts
-Riptide (Ion Accelerator, EWO, Stimulant Injector) 225pts

+++HEAVY SUPPORT+++
-Hammerhead (Submunition) 130pts
-Hammerhead (Submunition) 130pts
-Broadside (EWO) 70pts

TOTAL:1250pts

I like this list a lot. I don't think its optimized competitive Tau, but looks fun to play with. Here is some feedback.

Commander: I don't think you need the Advanced Targeting System. I assume your Commander is going with one of the Crisis teams and that much Plasma is going to annihilate pretty much anything you point it at and Precision Shots against Characters still permit Look Out Sir!, which on independent characters, is 2+. Not so great.

Pathfinders: Pathfinders are very bad in this codex. They have poor BS and die too easily. The best way to get Markerlights is with a Commander, but I'm not sure if you want to re-jig your configuration. A popular one is 2x Missile Pod (you could put Plasma here I guess), Drone Controller and Target Lock joining a squad of Marker Drones. This unit gets you 4-6 BS5 Markerlights with deep strike and jump shot jump. It's more survivable and reliable. Barring a Commander reconfig, maybe replace the Pathfinders with two units of 5x Marker Drones. Yes, you lose 1 point of BS, but you get +1 T, 4+ save, deep strike and jump shot jump. Pathfinders really don't cut it. I hope they improve them in the new codex.

Hammerheads with Rail: I haven't been terribly impressed by Railguns in this codex. They're a one trick pony that don't cut it against vehicles like they used too. Submunitions are okay, but Pulse Rifles and Burst Cannons kill hordes much more efficiently. I prefer running my Hammerheads with Ion Cannons and leaving my tank hunting to fusion suits or missile pods.

Fire Warriors: You need more, especially without Devilfish protecting them. Drop Pod Marines wipe these two squads off the board turn one and then you lose your only objective secured units. I would run two units of 12 or three units of 8. You'll be happy you did. I have deployed min. squads of Fire Warriors like this before, even in cover, and every single time they do absolutely nothing except die spectacularly.

Broadside: I assume this is HYM, SMS. If it's not, then it needs to be.

I hope this helps!

Give the commander and one squad of suits some marker drones, and give the suits target lock, the commander a drone controller, drop the advanced targetting, and get Stim to use with your T5. You now have a leader that can tank wounds for your squad of extremely effective markerlights, and split firing plasma rifles galore.
Another way you could go with this is drone controller commander, mass gun drones, and 3 suits with double burst cannon. Enjoy your 48 shots of str5 AP5 death. About half of those shots being BS5, and a 16 BS5 TL. Goodbye ork boyz, trukks, rhinos, and rear armor of vehicles.

Shame you don't have more firesight marksmen. They make hilariously effective markerlights with BS5 and tough to root out of cover with stealth. Sniper drones are expensive ablative wounds in that squad IMO. Sniper rules suck in 7th. But you can at least reliably put a wound or 2 on an MC and some markerlights as well to bring that sucker down. I would give the riptide fusion blaster. You will want it to Interceptor the heck out of the drop pod dropping down right next to you with a dreadnought in it.

I might run one hammerhead as a skyray for some AA ability, and run the other as longstrike. Make sure you take TLSMS, they're amazing for overwatching stuff that's charging the tank. Since longstrike can do that I find that Tank hunters and BS5 really gives the Railhead the extra reliability it needs to really crush those enemy tanks. I might drop the token broadside. Not that str7 en masse isn't nice, but it's gonna get focused and killed pretty fast. T4 means one lascannon hit is death.

Hey all! after reading everybody's comments, I made some change to it.

+++HQ+++
-Commander (2x Missile Pod, Target Lock, Drone Controller) 128pts

+++TROOP+++
-7man Firewarrior 63pts
-6man Firewarrior 54pts

+++FAST ATTACK+++
-4man Pathfinders 44pts
-4man Pathfinders 44pts
-6man Marker Drone 80pts

+++ELITE+++
-3man Crisis Team (6x Plasma Rifle) 156pts
-3man Crisis Team (6x Plasma Rifle) 156pts
-Riptide (Ion Accelerator, EWO, Stimulant Injector) 225pts

+++HEAVY SUPPORT+++
-Hammerhead (Longstike, Submunition, TL-SMS) 175pts
-Skyray (TL-SMS) 115pts

TOTAL:1250pts

btw, 7 Firewarrior because of 9 leftover points.

I saw people talking about Advance Targeting System in my other list. That was just 3 leftover points guys lol. As for lack of firewarrior, I don't see the lack of objective secure that important: they wont be contesting anything since they probably wont be moving much anyway. Since its eternal war mission, I dont think firewarrior are useful on the last turn, even taken in 12man squad. Just a though.

Everybody seem to agree that pathfinders doesnt cut it. I did the change to Mark'o commander. Longstrike on Hammerhead to make sure he can blow up stuff, and skyray for AA (and cheaper than Hammerhead).

I'm not sure if this list is better than the one I posted originally. What do you guys think?

You lack good anti infantry get Two 12 man firewarrior squads with fireblade. Next four man pathfinder squads are gonna do nothing have a 10 man squad plus other if you want.Get rid of sub munition you'll need anti tank with strength 10 . Bring glory to the Tau'va

Submunition is good to take just in case of hordes, Trenchcoat. Lots of 1250 lists don't take many vehicles,

Never take your pathfinders in bigger squads if you don't need to. Gives you more control as to where your markers go. You never need more than 4 really, and all 4 guys might hit(they won't but they could), it also gives your opponent two squads to shoot at rather than 1, so he has to split his fire more, which, if he's rocking big squads of infantry or big expensive ones, he's gonna overkill and waste shots. I might bump them up by 1 guy though, just so that they don't have to take a Ld test if one guy dies. I usually run my pathfinders in teams of 6. Gives you about 3 markers avg, so you can boost BS and get Ignores cover, and with that skyray, also lots of opportunity to barrage the crap out of people with like a million missiles.

I typically start one squad of Pathfinders on the board, one in reserve to outflank unless it's a small board and they can give me a first-turn major boost to my alpha-strike shooting.

Take marker drones on your commander. For some reason GW decided to make drones purchased as part of a squad 2 points cheaper than ones in a drone squad. NO IDEA WHY.

A squad I like to run is a stealth team with a leader dude with drone controller and fusion blaster and markerlight+target lock. Leave the other two dudes stock, they're ablative wounds. This gives you hilariously tough to budge markerlights on a super mobile unit. The stealthsuit guys with 3+ armor and 2+ cover save are REALLY hard to kill since ignores cover AP3 is basically non-existent outside of other Tau armies. And after your pathfinders are dead, your opponent is gonna go "those are markerlights, I DON'T LIKE THOSE" Remember that after 1 stealthsuit dies, you're majority toughness 4 making you even harder to kill!. This squad is especially great if you are facing something like drop dreadnoughts, since the stealthsuit commander and retinue can hop towards the dreadnought, pop off 3 markerlight shots and a fusion blaster shot(and 8 burst cannon shots if your other guys are still alive and you can get rear armor) since you have multi-tracker the shas'vre can shoot both his markerlight and Fblaster. Of course, this squad costs almost as much as your XV8 squad does, but it can infiltrate into cover in the midfield somewhere and be super annoying to kill. If your opponent looks like he's gonna charge you next turn though, run. Just get the hell out of dodge, stealthsuits CANNOT fight in melee, and are super expensive, like they're even worse than XV8s at whacking things, and those guys are horribad at that.

That unit is mostly there to be a fire magnet against no-ignores-cover type armies though. The XV8s are overall better and more versatile, still, something to think about. If you're concerned about anti-infantry get a heavy burst cannon on the riptide. That thing DESTROYS infantry, and can get AP 2 as well, and with rending is actually super deadly, especially if you can supercharge the gun and then get a round of shooting at a drop pod or something with EWO. I honestly prefer Ion cannon though since it's not dependant on markerlights, but you don't have much that will need it other than the xv8s. Hammerhead doesn't(except for ignores cover on stuff) using it on the FW is just a waste. Take either the Fblaster or plasma rifle with it since you're gonna be more likely to be in range to use them. I always run Fblaster on riptides because of its universal threat, it can hurt anything. Heavy tanks? Let me double tap you with melta and then introduce you to my hits on 3s str10 AP2 smash attack. T4 independant character without Eternal warrior? Say hello to a double-tap, friend. Wraithlord? Str 8 means I wound on 4s(instead of 6s. Although, if you're close enough to use this thing on a WK you're probably already boned, since it's gonna start stomping the crap out of you next turn with it's BS 12" move)
HBC also saves you 5 points though which could be used for something useful if you free up a few points elsewhere.

How has the Hammerhead been working out for you? I personally hate the thing as it's basically a one shot point sink that even without upgrades costs only five points less than two Broadsides. At the cost you have it now, it's very close to three whole Broadsides, which give you a lot more options and a lot more shots for the same cost.

Try cutting the Hammerhead and trying different things out, like Broadside you have, or the Sniper Drones, or heck even the Piranha which you can use to grab objectives while creating drone walls.

You can basically cut the Longshot Hammerhead, pick up a Broadside, your Sniper Drones, and beef up those Fire Warrior squads.

I mean think of it this way, you can have that one shot Hammerhead, or you can cut it for 2x Piranha (which are basically two cheap Stealthsuits that move super fast and come with four drones), a Broadside which is almost as good as a Hammerhead, and 3 Fire Warriors, while still having points to spare. It just seems to me like when you put it into that perspective, the Hammer Head is ridiculously expensive.

You can't underestimate the value of a STR10 shot that hits on 2s and has tank hunters though. Especially with PE Imp-guard, who have most of the nasty high-AV vehicles, and the flexibility it has with that AP4 str6 Lg blast. The thing was practically made for kicking the crap out of Impguard, since for just 2 marker tokens you can give the lgblast ignores cover and put some real hurt on a squad of guardsmen. It can also instakill nasty stuff like thunderwolf lords and Bike-commanders which is truly invaluable against certain deathstar units.

How would you outfit the broadside? With the crappy str8 railgun? It's horribly innefective against heavy vehicles. Having a pirahna would offset that, but it doesn't have the ability to crunch tanks OR infantry from across any game board. Just my two cents about the hammerhead. I ran one in my last tourny and it was a bit lackluster in a couple games, but in heavy-mech lists it was a star, and the TLSMS actually CRUNCHED a DE guy's jetbikes really hard when they tried to charge him while he was sitting on an objective.

It's mostly about your meta. If there's lots of vehicles in most people's lists, Longstrike Hammerhead will usually make its points back in 2 turns, if not, it can still spam out ignores cover and an AP4 Lgblast, though it will be significantly less effective.

Do yourself a favor and take the drone-star I recommended. you're paying an extra 12 points for those marker drones you don't need to. Almost enough to give the Crisis suits Target lock if you take 6 drones on them and 2 more on the mark'o you will have 6-7 markerlight hits avg, which is overkill but it might take more than one squad's shooting to kill really nasty stuff like WKs or Riptides, or heavy tanks.

Though here's something you'll need to know before bringing this list into a tourney if you use a markerlight star. Anyone who isn't Tau hates markerlights .So one thing to remember is to keep those markerlight alive . Even though drones with commander is a hell of a lot tougher then pathfinders I'll bet your opponent will unload all of their firepower on it especially if it has your warlord. I'm not saying the unit is bad just use the age old jetpack tactic of jump ,shoot, jump ,shoot. I generally prefer pathfinders as they're a bit cheaper free up a hq slot and have scout but for this list it could work well. I will also stand by my word as saying you should beef up your troops choice for anti-infantry if you face a tyranid/ork list you're gonna be screwed even with the submunition .And if you play an objective game your poor OS troops are gonna be a prime target .

I hear about how effective Hammer Heads can be against armour, but every time I watch a video battle report game the Hammer Heads do basically nothing, maybe at most kill one vehicle all game. Usually they just take a hull point or two a turn, destroy a weapon, or just completely miss. That's not even mentioning the armies that don't have any big targets or ones that can jink and make it even less likely you kill something.

Heck if you're really worried about the tank lists, and don't like Rail Rifled Broadsides, why not just take three Crisis Suits with two Fusion Blasters a piece and deep strike them onto tanks as needed, that's only 111 points without any other upgrades and it gives you a lot more fire power against all sorts of things while also giving you more free points to play around with.

Though like I said, it's more of a personal preference when it comes to me, as I don't like the idea of sinking 175 points into a vehicle that only gets one shot a turn. I mean at that point you're at enough points to almost get another Riptide with an IA, and I just can't really see the Hammer Head being anywhere as good as a Riptide.

I personally love my longstrike hammerhead he has forever rekted face against my friends csm .I always field two hammerheads in my games and they have always delivered against my friend's armies. Don't know why some people despise it and say it's the worst but str 10 ap 1 goes along way (looking at you daemon prince).But with much controversy on this site I do field heavy rail rifle broadsides they may be ok against vehicles they will destroy and MC with str 8 ap 1 and str 6 ap 2 rapid fire thats all twin lined! Seriously this unit is just magestic in my games.

You don't need to worry about jink saves with Tau, just get a couple markerlights on whatever you're shooting and cackle. Of course, WS are still the BANE of hammerheads, turning pens into glances is so ridiculous... If he's facing nids it's flyrant spam he needs to worry about, not hordes of gaunts. Just throw around your large blasts a bit at gaunt packs. They'll get wiped damn fast.

Keep in mind that it's a 1 CAD only tournament, without ally and without formation. So, a flyrants heavy list would be 2 max.

I've been busy with life this weekend. I will post another version of my list this afternoon. I can see that Hammerhead is somehow a niche Heavy support, but I still think I will bring 1, as Longstike. With Tank Hunter and S10 AP1, BS5 and the possible prefered enemy, he could bring a big threat down pretty quickly if needs be. Subminition will make sure he as at least 1 target per turn as sub gives him a Large blast he can use.

Also, I will drop 4 pathfinders for a marker drone squad of 4, then give 2 marker to the commander, making him a reliable source of possibly 6 marker.

Skyray will find itself into my list too, because if someone bring a flyer, It can basicly blow it in 1 turn for sure. Also, it can fire markerlight the rest of the game.

I might bring only 3 crisis instead of 6. 2 with plasma, 1 with fusion and target lock. And instead of the 3 other Crisis, 3 Stealth suit (2 burst gun, 1 fusion/target lock). That could shave enought points to bolster my Firewarriors squad. If they are still too low on man, I could cut the Longstike, take a regular Hammerhead, and see what I have as far as points go.

I will post the list, with all the above change this afternoon. Thanks for all the comments.

Just saying if you're gonna use submunition it might free up some points to drop longstrike as PE gaurd might help tank hunter at str 6 wil maybe do something to an Ork trukk. I find that stealthsuits are risky to play some games they survive and do something in few but usually get blown up especially if you get first deploy and mess up deployment. If you have spare points get fireblade I do prefer ethereal but this is the best model you have and does basically the same job.

You know you can choose to fire the Str 10 or Str 6 Large blast when you get submunition right? It doesn't lock you into the Str 6 large blast.

Ethereals are bad from a competitive standpoint since you give up a free victory point if they die. If you're going to the trouble of running stealthsuits with a fusion/marker leader, take drone controller and 2 marker drones. You can get 3 markers on a tank or something hiding in the back and missile barrage the crap out of it with the skyray. If he has a flyer don't do that, save the missiles and poop on that flyer with your 2 markers then launch EVERY MISSILE YOU HAVE with ignores cover and laugh.

While I'm a huge fan of Stealth Suits as a concept and model, to the point Shadowsun is one of my favourite models in the whole game, I don't think they're very viable right now due to how expensive they are and how little they get. I'd say stick with the Crisis Suits or go a completely different direction.

Also I like the Skyray a lot more than the Hammerhead as the burst potential on it can be devastating.

Ethereals are bad from a competitive standpoint since you give up a free victory point if they die. If you're going to the trouble of running stealthsuits with a fusion/marker leader, take drone controller and 2 marker drones. You can get 3 markers on a tank or something hiding in the back and missile barrage the crap out of it with the skyray. If he has a flyer don't do that, save the missiles and poop on that flyer with your 2 markers then launch EVERY MISSILE YOU HAVE with ignores cover and laugh.

You can't use marker with the squad that fired them, unless it's networked marker (the ones on the SKyray for example).

Where in the codex does it say you can switch between sub and solid because Ireally should have known this.

TrenchCoatCreep wrote:
Where in the codex does it say you can switch between sub and solid because Ireally should have known this.

Second to last page with the whole summary chart, it has a foot note for the Submunition:

• Weapons with two profiles have the free choice of which to use, with
a few exceptions: the ion accelerator and heavy burst cannon's novacharge
mode, which can only be used with the nova reactor (see XV1 04
Riptide enU)') , and the railgun's submunition and Kroot rifle's sniper
rounds (which can only be used if purchased) .

I like to use Shadowsun with a unit of Stealthsuits each with 2 marker drones, she comes with a drone controller making them BS5 and having that many stealth marker lights can be infuriating to your opponent.

Not sure what you are talking about with Shadowsun having a Drone Controller. Was it FAQ?

never mind as I am misremembering from an old edition

Man I feel really stupid now checked the page you were saying .Never noticed it ,man that really makes longstrike my FAVOURITE THING ever.

All right! I've reworked the list. I wanted to post here to get opinions on people more familiar with Tau than me, so I made some change following some of the suggestion I read in the thread.

+++HQ+++
-Commander (2x Fusion, Target Lock, Drone Controller) 128pts
-Cadre Fireblade 60pts

+++TROOP+++
-12man Firewarrior 108pts
-12man Firewarrior 108pts

+++FAST ATTACK+++
-5man Pathfinders 55pts
-4man Pathfinders 44pts

+++ELITE+++
-2man Crisis Team (4x Plasma Rifle, 2x Target Lock, 4x Marker Drone) 162pts
-Riptide (Ion Accelerator, EWO, Stimulant Injector) 225pts

+++HEAVY SUPPORT+++
-Hammerhead (Longstike, Submunition, TL-SMS) 175pts
-Skyray (TL-SMS) 115pts
-Broadside (EWO) 70pts

TOTAL:1250pts

OR

+++HQ+++
-Commander (2x Fusion, Target Lock, Drone Controller) 128pts
-Cadre Fireblade 60pts

+++TROOP+++
-12man Firewarrior 108pts
-6man Firewarrior 54pts

+++FAST ATTACK+++
-4man Pathfinders 55pts
-4man Pathfinders 44pts

+++ELITE+++
-2man Crisis Team (4x Plasma Rifle, 2x Target Lock, 4x Marker Drone) 162pts
-3man Stealth Team (Target Lock, Fusion) 100pts
-Riptide (Ion Accelerator, EWO) 190pts

+++HEAVY SUPPORT+++
-Hammerhead (Longstike, Submunition, TL-SMS) 175pts
-Skyray (TL-SMS) 115pts
-Broadside (EWO) 70pts

TOTAL:1250pts

I like the second list better but drop the stealths for another crisis with another 2 marker drones and target lock, will leave you with 19 points for a couple fire warriors.

Or you could add a devilfish to one squad of fire warriors. You could add TLSMS to it for 10 points to have exactly enough for 1 more fire warrior. Take the fireblade and 11 warriors in the 'fish, and 8 guys in the back holding stuff down with your Broadside, riptide, and skyray.

I don't have a devilfish. And yes the Stealth are removable, but I don't see why I would ever want 6 marker on the same target, also, if I get 2 FW, I will be 1 point shy (and I don't like that! lol.)

I'm for removing the Stealth Suits, because while I love them dearly, they just aren't worth it. I'd say the Piranha are a lot better than them when it comes to things since when you take into account the drones the Piranha itself is only 18pts and comes with the same burst cannon, but two wounds, more mobility, and more options with weapon upgrades.

Personally I like the first list more as it gives you more troops to stay on the board, while the second cuts down on troops heavily in exchange for about the same fire power at a shorter range and on less bodies.

Have you considered running the Commander as a support station with no weapons? Seeing as you can make him rather cheap in points that way, while trying to bump up the Crisis team to three suits, and then using him to hyper buff those guys when it comes to shooting with the gear that basically says "if he doesn't shoot".

Oh, and are you planning to run the Broadside with a Rail Rifle or High Yield Missile Pods? I personally think the missile pods are better, especially when you have a Hammer Head.

I think the first list is actually pretty good and seems pretty sturdy especially at it's point cost. by the way even though I love heavy rail rifles is the broadside's solo give it HYM.

I forgot to write it, but I'm planning HYMP on the broadside. I will go with list 1. I will make a thread early October with the battle report and put a link in this one.

Now, I need to paint!!! Lol