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Hey Dakka!
I'm fairly new to 40k, and this is my first attempt at a 1000 point Tau list.

HQ:

Commander: 197 points
2x Plasma Rifle
Command and Control Node
Puretide Engram Chip
Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite
Drone Controller
2x Marker Drones

Elites:

Crisis Team: 92 points
2 Suits, both with 2 Fusion Blasters and 1 Flamer

Crisis Team: 206 points
3 Crisis Suits, each with 2 Plasma Rifles and 2 Marker Drones Each. The Commander will join this unit.

Troops:

Fire Warrior Strike Team: 100 points
10 Fire Warriors, no upgrades except a Support Turret with Smart Missiles

Fire Warrior Strike Team: 100 points
10 Fire Warriors, no upgrades except a Support Turret with Smart Missiles

Fast Attack:

Pathfinder Team: 55 points
No upgrades, 5 Pathfinders

Pathfinder Team: 55 points
No upgrades, 5 Pathfinders

Heavy Support:

Hammerhead Gunship: 146 points
Railgun
Twin-linked Smart Missile System
Submunition Rounds
Blacksun Filter
Disruption Pod

Army Total: 956 points

I have tried to make this the Hunter Cadre, so that I can add on some auxiliary choices and eventually have a Hunter Contingent. My plan is to buy two Start Collecting boxes to get most of the figures, and convert one Crisis Suit to a Commander. The only thing I need to figure out is the best way to split up twenty Fire Warriors into three units, because that's the requirement. Also, I have some spare points left over to use.

I think most of the unit choices are pretty straightforward:
The Buffmander goes with the unit of Crisis Suits with Plasma Rifles, except the Crisis Suits in that unit are supposed to be all-rounders. I've looked around the internet a bit, but haven't found a definitive answer for the best load out for the Suits to be meet-all-comers.

The unit of Crisis Suits with Fusion Blasters will deep-strike behind vehicles, to destroy them. Then they can wipe out the passengers with their flamers.

I wasn't too sure about which Drones to take, so I just took all Marker Drones.

I have two units of 5 Pathfinders for additional Markerlight support.

The Fire Warriors will kill enemy infantry and grab objectives.

Lastly, the Hammerhead will sit in the back and pound anything it needs to.

Any suggestions are welcome, it helps a lot!
Thanks!

First problem is your Commander, he either needs to shoot or do support, but doing both wastes points.

Markerlight drones are no help to the unit they are in has they are not networked.

If you are going to start with the starter sets, don't bother with pathfinders. Use a marker drone squad for the fast attack and one for the Drone network support choice.

There is not really an all comers suit build. The closet is the classic Plasma + missile pod but it is not really point effective. The next is the "Bladestorm" which is plasma+burstcannon and one of the best TH/SS killers. The last is probably the "forgestorm", Melta+burst cannon, though it is really best for low point games were you need the suits to be good at popping armor and then killing infantry. AS a general rule you want your suits as specialized as possible. In this case you can get units 2 of 2 and a monat.

2 Starts will get you 6 suits, 20 FW, 16 drones, 2 DS8 and 2 ethereal you can't use yet. Add a Hammerhead or broadside suit and you have a Hunter Contigent.


My build suggestion for all the models would be this: Magnetize all the suits (lots of online tutorials), 14 FW as striker with rifle, 6 FW as breachers, 2 drones as an MV36 guardian, 10 as marker drones, 4 as gun drones, 1 DS8 with Missile Pod, 1 DS8 with SMS, and build the Ethereals as is. If you get a Boradside go missile side with single unit, if you go Hammerhead don't glue the main gun so you can swap between the Ion, Railgun, and the Skyray.

The suits can normally press fit weapons till you get them painted if you want try out play configs.

Now for a list:

Hunter Contingent: 1000pts

HUNTER CADRE:
1 Commander: 177
Iridium Armor, 2 x Missile Pods, Target Lock, Drone Controller 2x Marker Drone

3 XV8 Teams:
1x XV8 w/ 2x Fusion blasters,1 flamer 57
2x XV8 w/ Plasma + burst cannon 100
2x XV8 w/Cyclic Ion blaster + Plasma 110

3 Firewarrior teams:
7x Strikers + DS8 SMS 73
7x Strikers + DS8 MP 73
6x Breachers + 1 Guardian drone w/'ui upgrade 76

4x Markerlight drone 56

1 HammerHead: 190
SMS, Submuntions, Longstrike, Disruption Pods

DRONE NET: 56
4 Marker Drones: 56

This list almost follows your exact plan, but does it a little better and starts you with a full Hunter Contingent. There is 32 points left to play with, and for those I recommend 20 points goes to either EWO or CDS on the 4 suits non-melta suits and toss a drone somewhere. You could also upgrade the melta suit to 'vre and give it a sheild drone for LOS and still have 10 points for 2 EWO or CDS.

You can use your markerlights as 2 or 3 sources, I would tend to 3 source unless you find you really need to light a target up then join the commander to a drone squad.

Since this list gets you a Contingent always shoot the ML Drones squad first, then the Commander and his drones. The commander can target a different unit than the drones and gain be come the third unit of Coordinated Fire attack while the drones light another target.

One change you might want to consider is swapping Longstrike to an Ion Head and staying about 12" behind the FW's to get make use of his "unlimited" overwatch, 3 Ion and 4 SMS at every charging unit is very nice. If you stay with the rail gun, using Markerlights to make it bs7-9, ignores cover is nasty thing to do on an S10 AP1 Tank Hunter.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just did a quick math not a bad list for 230 US. You could bump the cost to 280 US to get a true Commander suit, drop the turrets off the strikers and flamer off the melta suit plus the left over points and you get a 2nd melta suit.

The Tau have got a really good entry price these days.

That sounds good to me, thanks for all the input. Also, do you recommend the Hammerhead over the Broadside? It looks like the Hammerhead will probably be better, plus that kit can build the Devilfish or Skyray also.

MJF wrote:
That sounds good to me, thanks for all the input. Also, do you recommend the Hammerhead over the Broadside? It looks like the Hammerhead will probably be better, plus that kit can build the Devilfish or Skyray also.

I like the Hammerhead so am a bit biased. While the broadsides in 2 or 3 are better than the Hammerhead, it is stronger than a single Broadside for the dollar value. Unless you get really good with magnets, probably just stick with the Hammerhead/Skyray build.

I kinda built the list around the assumption of the Hammerhead, since just by changing the gun, you can alter how the list plays a great deal.

Thanks, and yeah I would be getting a single Broadside anyways, so Hammerhead it is.

I would caution against a hammerhead. For you as a begginer its fine but I know long term it is a disappointing heavy support choice.

Broadsides are ok but with the proliferation of grav they are almost a liability. Never go rail rifles unless for fluff or modeling reasons, missles are way more versitile.

Crisis suits should be magnetized to maximize value. I always use them as specialists to fill roles in my army I feel are lacking. Need something for av13-14(I don't use heavy rail rifles unless I'm playing a fun game with the gunrig) then have them take 2 fusion blasters a piece. Think I need something ap2 for a say a centurion Death Star then plasma is the obvious choice. Warp spiders? Well now everyone can take 2 airbursting fragmentation launchers. Against any enemy though the best all around gun would be the cyclic ion blaster(again awesome now because not unique). 3 shots s7 18" range ap4 isn't bad with the mobility, the whole unit can put out 18 s7 shots. With markers that will put a hurt on most things.

But generalist is not a crisis suits intended role, they are the surgical strike teams meant to take out things like imperial Knights, biker squads, wraithknights, etc.

Generalists like a strike squad with pulse rifles or really anything with a lot of shots that are between s5-7. That's because they can kill infantry, wound monterous creature and glance light vehicles to death.

Just my $0.02 though. If you like hammerheads run them. I just can't tell you how many times I roll a 1 to wound/pen after I hit. The single dice I hate it, maybe that's why I play tau...

Those are some good things to consider! I will definitely need to take care of Dark Eldar jet bikes, but also some super heavies and Imperial Knights occasionally so magnetizing the Crisis Suits seems important. Do you have any recommendations for the best place to purchase some?
Thanks again for the help.

Try this:
Cmdr - 2 guns, Irid Armor, PEN chip. Joins the unit below:

XV8 unit
Vre with MSS and C&CN (yes, tau-sarge can take those toys!)
2 suits with dual PRs

It really nees two more dual PR suits, maybe with dual fusion wi target lock. This will kill most things in 40k.