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Hey, just getting back into the game after taking a break since 5th. I've got a Tau "Start Collecting" box on the way and I was curious as to what the best way to build the squads was as well as where to move on from the SC box in terms of fleshing out a more complete army as well as just general information about what playing Tau means. Thank you for your time.

Welcome to the tau party.
Please do not get insulted by the community here who seem to absolutely hate tau because they remind them of anime characters and the fact that they can shoot most marine armies off the board.

On to your questions:
The fire warriors I recommend the striker variant with the pulse rifles (long gun in box). I would hold off on the other 2 guns until you have a better deal for the army as they as much shorter range.

The crisis suit are recommend to be magnetized due to so many options. Most load outs are 2 plasma, 2 missile pods, or 2 fusion blasters. New variations such as 2 cyclic ion blasters or 2 air burst fragmentation projectors are on the risd, but I am unsure how many are coming with the new suits.

Build all drones you have from kits as marker drones until you have around 16 minimum before expanding to gun and shield drones.


To expand your army I recommend getting a few riptides and/or ghostkeel battlesuits. And then expanding to more crisis and stealth suits.
Remember that tau are the shot and run away army.

My first few purchases would be a Riptide, more Fire Warriors, and a Commander, probably in that order. Subsequently, grab a few more Crisis Suits. Once you have those things, you'll have a decent core for your army that is both super cool and effective on the tabletop. Finally, you'll probably want a Stormsurge because they're awesome.

After that, you'll have to sort of decide what direction you want your army to go in. Tau are extremely versatile and can field a wide variety of effective army lists. Do you want a bunch of Riptides in a Riptide Wing? Maybe more stealth-related with an Optimized Stealth Cadre? How about dumping a ton of Fire Warriors in your opponent's face or drowning him in drones? The flexibility is great for game play but makes starting up a little hard. I personally really like the Tau model range, especially most of the newer models, so if you're more about the aesthetics of the game, you're in good shape. Figure out what you like, and go for it!

These days, Tau have evolved from the quintessential static gunline army to something quite a lot more complex. While you can certainly still bunker in and gleefully blow your opponent to bits, there are now tons of options to make yourself highly mobile. For most people, it seems like run 'n' gun is now the preferred approach. With Ghostkeels and Riptides as durable weapons platforms, you can easily dart in and out of range and maintain considerable staying power. Crisis Suits are still great, and the new weapon options make them a but more versatile. Let us know what sort of play style you think you'd enjoy, and maybe we can lead you in the right direction.

My previous armies were Necrons in 4th edition, Blood Angels in 5th and then I currently play Protectorate in WM/H so suffice to say, I've never been fully on the range superiority side of the curve so anything that utilizes that strength is fair game for me. I've always liked the idea of stealth suits and seeing the Ghostkeel has me excited but how is this "stealth" manifested in the game?

While I have no doubt of the Stormsurge's prowess, personally I feel aesthetically it falls a little short, Riptides look pretty nice though but I'd like to stay away from spamming expensive centerpiece models, at least for the time being.

I guess another question on my mind, what units should I stay away from?

On the whole, Tau have a fair number of excellent units, but there are a few bad ones:
The flyers. They are probably the worst flyers in the game. They are cool looking, but just not very competitive. They did get a couple of formations that make them a little better, but still, I'd stay away from them until you get some of the better stuff.
Vespid Stingwings: These are terrible, and you can only get them in Finecast. Skip 'em.
Special Characters: Some of them are okay, but I'd definitely focus on other things first, as they are all fairly specialized. Skip Aun'shi though, he's terrible.

My advice on what to purchase next would be a second copy of Start Collecting! Tau Empire. It's a great value for money since you probably need more Fire Warriors, Crisis Suits, and drones anyways.

If you want to have fun and not care about winning, you should buy any models that you like and find a friendly player to play with.

If you want to be competitive than I have a few advise:

Tau army fighting doctrine:

You can say the whole Tau army is like a huge sniper army that most often than not requires synergy with other units. Your mission is to eliminate the opponents core units before they can out-shoot or get into melee combat with your units. There are many approach to "sniping" or what i refer to as surgical strikes. Some prefer short range sniping, some prefer deep strike snipping while others like me prefer long range sniping. There are also units in Tau army that saturate fire power that presents a wall of bullet at approaching enemy army. As a tau commander, you should also be more analytical and methodical in gameplay compared to most other army commander because Tau army only has movement and shooting phase. If you shoot the wrong target than it might be a mistake that your army will not recover from. Marine army commander can make alot more mistake and their army can still function.

Since you are more into buying and making your first viable army now I will list a few high priority and low priority units:

High priority units

Fire warriors (striker version) - Minimum 15 models. I don't recommend more. Required in a lot of core formations and combined arm detachments. Cheap and descent fire power at medium-long range.

Riptide (Ion accelerator version) - Tough, well armed and cheap to bring on the battle field. Can be deployed as units in important formations. Using three and above will not make you much friend on your local gaming community if you use it right. One of the very few tau unit that is more forgiving to mistakes as it is a generalist unit. I recommend at least three.

Stormsurge (Pulse driver version) - Can't go wrong with this choice either. It sits on one end of the table and fires furiously at approaching enemy units weather its puny troops or big gargantuan creature, the stormsurge has the right tool to remove them from the board at any range. I recommend getting at least one.

Commander (buffmander version) - Weather you want to employ him as damage taker or as fire power multiplier, the buffmander is the right choice for you. But of course If you can magnetize him then you can make him any version you want.

Marker drones - at least 16 of them, but i recommend getting 24 of them if you can manage. Without marker drones, than the Tau army is just an over costed Astra Militarum (IG) army. Seriously, this is a must for survival for aany competitive tau army.

Broadside (Heavy Yield Missile with smart missile system version) - Our army's main source of firepower saturation at medium to long range. Works better with marker support, but can do without as their weapons are all twin linked. Deploying the broadside on the table rarely goes wrong for tau commanders. I recommend at least three

Medium Priority

Riptide (Heavy burst cannon version) - A more situational version of riptide. I recommend building it only when you have more experience playing with and against Tau army.

Crisis suit - no longer a must have unit as it is overshadowed by riptide and ghostkeel. Shadowsun can no longer deploy with them at the beginning of the game. Too fragile and short ranged to be effective in the current meta. Crisis is more useful as a single model unit troop when deployed as far sight enclave combined arm detachment. I recommend 3-6 suits should be sufficient for most formation and detachment.

Ghostkeel - very good looking unit and an effective one when deployed as the optimised stealth cadre formation (OSC). When deployed in OSC, the ghost keel is a well rounded unit that is strong in defense and adequate firepower. It is also one of the few Tau unit that is independent of marker light when deployed as OSC formation. All in all, not so bad but not a must have. I recomend at least one but preferably three of them. The plus is that you won't loose too many friends when you deploy three of these.

Colexus assasin - not a Tau empire unit and does not believe in the greater good. The reason i put this in here is because of the current meta over reliance on crazy psyker to do magic beyong your gaming imagination. Bad news is Tau have no defense what so ever against psyker....so this where thic guy comes in. He can make those psyker heavy list player cry. Having said that, a tau can survive without colexus support, but it will make the list much more restrictive in term of what can be brought into the table. For many competitive player this should be on higher priority list.

Pathfinder - This unit used to be a higher priority units as it is the cheapest source of marker light. Unfortunately, they are very fragile unit and is not mobile when it needs to shoot the marker light. It is being overshadowed by marker drones and new drones formation. Buy it if you like the look or the fluff, but not for competitive play.

Skyray - tough, reliable and can down a plane very quickly. Used to be a must take unit untill "cooler" model like riptide, ghostkeel and storm surge arrived on the market. It has the only marker light that can shoot at air units, but since air power has gone out of style, this vehicle follows. It is still a good addition for any army, but no longer an essential unit.

Hammerhead - S10 ap 1 shot on a heavy armored and relatively cheap platform. Good to pop vehicles and bikes character but not much use on anything else. Again, good addition but not required to win.

Stealth team (with fusion blaster)- its here because of its requirement for OSC formation with ghostkeel. Otherwise, its an expensive, short range and under powered units. Infiltrate ability can be useful to grab early game objectives, but you are most likely to be forced to move as the enemy approach.

Ethereal - You might need this guy as an HQ choice in certain army build that required high ld. Very situational, fragile and will give 1 VP to opponent if it gets killed. Can no longer buff other unit if he is in vehicles. On the plus side, he is our cheapest HQ choice. i recommend having one model for the sake of flexibility and fluff.

Piranha - used to be much lower on the list, but due to new firestream and drone net formation, these guys can be quite a nasty firepower multiplier if used right.

Low priority units

The two tau air units - absolutely useless and weak for its cost. Why bring airplane when almost 90% of tau fire power units can shoot at airplanes with minor upgrade?

Kroots - cheap troop units that can act as screening units and nothing else. Not part of essential formations. I recommend taking firewarrior over these guys.

vespid - absolutely redundant capabilities and very expensive for the tau army. Also not part of good competitive formation.

Sniper drone team - decent marker light source, but too expensive for what it does. rarely a game changer.

Devilfish transport - unless you like firewariors breacher team, you wont need this overpriced transport vehicles. Your mobility is better served by the big mecha that tau army is famous for.


This is all i have for now, you can share your game details here or ask for more strategy help. Will be glad to help. Enjoy the greater good.

3 Things:
1. Unless you want to acquire some Cyclic Ion Blasters or Airbursting Frag Projectors, don't bother getting the Crisis Commander suits - you can use literally any Crisis suit as your commander.
2. Get the FSE supplement. Crisis suits as troops are fun, and actually balanced for the role.
3. Consider using the Tau Fortifications in place of vehicles. They are battlefield debris, and as such don't have those pesky hull points that can go away so quickly. They are effectively open topped, so anything within can shoot out, and lastly, they are mobile, but anything inside them count as being stationary. Can you say pathfinders?

LordTyphus wrote:
My previous armies were Necrons in 4th edition, Blood Angels in 5th and then I currently play Protectorate in WM/H so suffice to say, I've never been fully on the range superiority side of the curve so anything that utilizes that strength is fair game for me. I've always liked the idea of stealth suits and seeing the Ghostkeel has me excited but how is this "stealth" manifested in the game?

While I have no doubt of the Stormsurge's prowess, personally I feel aesthetically it falls a little short, Riptides look pretty nice though but I'd like to stay away from spamming expensive centerpiece models, at least for the time being.

I guess another question on my mind, what units should I stay away from?

The Tau tool box is actually quite deep and I wouldn't worry too much about what units are bad. Playing Tau is really about your generalship and poor movement, target priority, and deployment can cost you victory far easier than picking units that aren't "top tier". I personally view Tau as the synergy army that works best when your units support and work together to overcome threats and optimize their combat potential. Just throwing down a bunch of Riptides or Stormsurges on the table and thinking its a good army isn't going to cut it when you don't know what your doing or that your preferred playstyle works better with different units. As for bad units... I don't really think the Tau have many but I would say both codex flyers are terrible, Vespids are too niche to be practical and most of the named characters are lack luster. Everything else is usable in one way or another but it all depends on how that unit fits in to the whole army composition. Sniper drones for example can be useful but there are other units that can fulfill the role they serve or you could just use less efficient tools that are more versatile. Kroot might be considered not that great and possibly outclassed by Fire Warriors but if your trying to get obsec infantry into the enemy backfield then Kroot are quite capable of outflanking into the enemy rear flanks. Put together a list of units that work well together and overcome different threat types and you have a good foundation for victory.

As for the stealth stuff like Stealth Suits and the Ghostkeels it is mostly represented by them having improved cover saves. Ghostkeels also have the ability to make 1 units shooting turn into snap shots for the turn when it attempts to shoot at it. Stealth Suits also have the infiltrate rule to start further up the battlefield or behind enemy lines.

I second building the FW as a strike team, the drones as marker drones (you can only build so many of them, then you have to switch to gun drones), and magnetizing the weapons on the crisis suits.

I would also say that a second start collecting box is a good choice. You would end up with a second ethereal (not very useful. If you want to build it anyway, I would recommend not putting him on the hoover drone, so you have the option to use either version), but the crisis suits are such a good deal in this box that it's hard to pass on. The suits are insanely versatile, so even if you just have two units of each, it will still feel like you have multiple options.

From there, I would try to build toward a hunter cadre (which can become a contingent with just the addition of a squad of drones). Assuming two start collecting boxes, you just need a commander and a "heavy support" choice (I would recommend broadsides). You could even use one of your crisis suits as a commander so you just need one more box. Then you can pick whatever you feel looks cool and matches your playstyle.

I'd personally run one suit with a two linked melta, and make the other two into either plasma rifles or cyclic ion blasters. Id also look into converting the drones into marker drones as they'll do you a lot better than the gun drones.

So what weapons should I bother magnetizing on the suits? Or is the answer all of them?

LordTyphus wrote:
So what weapons should I bother magnetizing on the suits? Or is the answer all of them?

All of them!

SJ

 jeffersonian000 wrote:

LordTyphus wrote:
So what weapons should I bother magnetizing on the suits? Or is the answer all of them?

All of them!

SJ

Agreed. At the moment, only the flamers are not that great (but might be useful in Kill Team). So you might as well magnetize everything. And the games changes over time, the options that are currently very good might become bad in the future.

As Skullzz said at the top all of your drones are going to want to be marker drones, they are 100% a force multiplier for the Tau and are invaluable no matter how you decide to run your army.

Depending on how you want to run your army a solid next purchase for you would certainly be a broadside (or two) or a riptide. They'll fill different rolls in your army depending on what you are looking to do. The broadsides will be able to sit on an objective and blow away most things that come near it. A riptide is going obviously be a very mobile and very solid gun platform.

How are you looking at running your army? As others have stated Farsight Enclaves can be a lot of fun with using crisis suits as troop choices.

Ideally a solid split between high mobility ranged attacks backed by a solid defensive line that excels in surgically removing key pieces and dancing around opposition which sounds like FSE with Broadsides and the big suits. Do stealth suits synergism with the idea of forward infantry designed to annoy and remove pieces?

Oh boy, magnetizing should be fun. So all the weapons, any of the systems I should also care to magnetize or are those WYSIWYGs not as important and more aesthetic than anything?

Also, I've seen some guides online but the main man get points are and both forearms and one on the shoulder?