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Hi everyone !

So, i got my hands on an old box i had at my parents, and found some first released Tau in it.

I found a squad of krrots with a hound or two, a full squad of fire warriors, a devilfish and 4 crisis suits ( i believe it was the first Tau battleforce minus the 4th crisis ).

I have no idea how many points that gives me, and no idea on how to build a Tau force. I went through the codex a bit but it's a little overwhelming to me. I'm a Dark Angels player and i play very aggressively, be it ravenwing , DeathRaven and Lion's blade + RW/DW flavors. Simply put, i like mobile, in your face armies, and to be in the thick of battle.

The few Tau players i got to face were mainly backfield boring lists with a few DS crisis squads and that was about it. I was wondering if the Tau could be a bit more "fun" to play, adding a bit more flavor.

I was considering another squad of crisis, a commander , some backfield support with riptides/broadsides. I also liked the feel of stealth suits/ghostkeels and breacher squads.

I'm not a overly competitive player, but i also like to make nice, working lists to give me a fighting chance, and would like to go to at least 1500 pts , to give me some flexibility in smaller games.

Any advice for a Tau empire noob ? or am i better selling my models for an army that suits my playstyle more ?

Thanks in advance !

Eurieus

Tau can be mobile and aren't restricted to gunlining. As with almost everything else in the tau book, suits are the answer.

Commander, kitted out to either buff a largish squad of crisis with twin linked, ignores cover and tank or monster hunter and some criris flunkies can run and jump around midfield causing merry hell. Can also kit a couple of single suits out with dual fusion and deep strike them in to go tank hunting. Farsight lets you run crisis as troops if that's your bag.

Can also set the commander up to tank hits and shoot or to be the $1 markerlight supporter, depending on your preference and what the rest of your list looks like.

Breachers in a devilfish can drive up, jump out and atomise stuff. Firewarriors provide ample firepower as well as taking care of the boring sitting on objectives role that someone has to do.

Riptides and ghostkeels are plenty mobile and shooty while both still have the option of taking stuff on in melee, though it's certainly not the first option you should look to explore.

The new formations are pretty good all around, bar a couple of duds in the flier, but they were already bad, so it doesn't matter.

There is one that give your broadsides relentless (and deep strike, but that's not important), so they can wander around without having to snapfire.

The optimised support cadre is pretty broken if you play anyone with tanks, and even then, handing out BS5 and ignores cover is still pretty harsh for using no markerlights.

Plenty of options for agressive tau, in fact, some people will tell you it's the only way for them to be played.

As for fun, well, they can be a bit on the unfun side to face if there's sufficient terrain on the board for you to JSJ out of LOS every turn, and the fact that marines can't really run drop pods against them due to the amount of interceptor available on high str, low ap guns. Not to mention the amount of times you get to tell your opponent that his models are dead, no saves. That can be a bit of a pouter, especially if you're going it from a range where no retaliation is possible.

A commander and 3 crisis would be around 350 - 400, depenging on loadout and drones, 10 kroot, a hound and snipers is 75, FW would be 108 and a fish would be 80 plus upgrades, so rough guess, you're at around 600'ish points. You could quite easily make a servicable 500 point army from what you have.

If you like aggressive styles, pick up the Mont'ka campaign book. It's centered around Farsight, a Tau commander known for his "Killing Blow" style of warfare. Within the Farsight Enclaves, you have access to a twin linked melta that can be used as a weapon in combat if you want to take the fight to the enemy.

Right now is a really good time to start Tau if you like variety since there are a whole bunch of ways to build the army. You can still do the gun line thing, but you can also just go heavy on the big units like a Riptide Wing and then two Stormsurges which are used for charging up and stomping things to death in combat, or you can use the Ninja Tau concept of relying heavily on reserve rules so you'll play like a drop pod list, and so much more.

Commanders, Crisis Suits, Ghostkeels (in formations), Riptides, Markerlight Drones, Stormsurges, and Broadsides are all the best stuff in our codex. In no particular order.

Vespid and our fliers being useless.

Crisis suits are a really cool way to do a mobile force. Deepstrike + Jet Packs for them if I remember correctly.

 Gamgee wrote:
Commanders, Crisis Suits, Ghostkeels (in formations), Riptides, Markerlight Drones, Stormsurges, and Broadsides are all the best stuff in our codex. In no particular order.

Vespid and our fliers being useless.

Vespids are pretty useless, but the fliers aren't bad, they're just nothing we don't already have in large quantity. All things considered the Strike Fighter is on the very brink of being a serious option, it just needs a little push.

You also forgot the Skyray, that thing is a pretty potent tank for its point cost.

Oh my god I did forgot the Skyray. I have two as well, the only two vehicles I have in my army. I wish there was an easier way to get them into a hunter contingent.

There's that formation now in the Dawnblade which lets you take 3 and a Devilfish for some reason. It's a reasonable option if you don't think the Drone Network is going to give you a full benefit.

I second pretty much everything. Also hammerheads are pretty amazing, cant go wrong with 1.. or 2 lol

Thanks for all the advice guys !!

So, should i go with the Hunter formation as a start ? Is the CAD obsolete or viable ?

Might dabble with the ghostkeel formation and the commander + suits one too, sounds tasty.

And two other questions:

1- Should i buy the Mont'ka book or can i have a good run with the base codex ?
2- I know markerlights are essential to Tau strategy, what ise the best source for them ?

Hunter Cadre and Dawn Blade contingent are both viable. HC is in the TE Codex and Kauyon. Dawn Blade is in Warzone Damocles: Mont'ka.

A regular cad can be used for specific builds where you want some of the auxiliary formations without the tax of the Hunter Contingent. You could take a CAD with FSE to have troop XV8 and then take some of their formations with it for example.

eurieus wrote:
Thanks for all the advice guys !!

So, should i go with the Hunter formation as a start ? Is the CAD obsolete or viable ?

Might dabble with the ghostkeel formation and the commander + suits one too, sounds tasty.

And two other questions:

1- Should i buy the Mont'ka book or can i have a good run with the base codex ?
2- I know markerlights are essential to Tau strategy, what ise the best source for them ?

Marker Drones, for the most part, are the best source of marker lights.

Pathfinders die way too easily
Skyrays are very hard to take in any formations now
Tetras cannot be taken outside a CAD
Marker Drones have T4, 4+ save, and can JSJ (jump out of cover, shoot marker lights, and then hop back into cover)

shame that tau's flyers kinda suck, their a neat looking model.