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Hi!
I just picked up a bunch of Tau miniatures from Ebay and I'm looking for some help on how to make my first Tau list. I'm looking to make a list of about 1500 points, but since I'm new to both WH40K and Tau i don't really now where to start.

I like the battlesuits and the fact that Tau are good at shooting and at workning together, but I don't really know what's good and whats not. These are the models that I've got:

• 24 Firewarriors
• 10 Pathfinders
• 5 Vespid
• 12 Gun Drones
• 8 other Drones (2 Markerlight, 2 Shielded Missile, 1 Shield, 1 Grav, 1 Pulse, 1 Recon)
• 3 Stealth Suits
• 36 Kroot
• 1 Riptide
• 1 Commander Farsight
• 1 Devilfish Tank
• 4 Crisis Battlesuits
• 3 Broadside Battlesuits

Am I missing something essential, or is this enough to start out at 1500?

Welcome to the Greater Good! You have enough there to build a decent force. It won't be ground stomping, but will give you a good idea of how the army plays:

The Good: Riptide, Crisis Suits, Broadsides
The Decent: Fire Warriors, Kroot, Devilfish, Farsight
The Ugly: Pathfinders, Vespid, Stealth Suits

I would recommend a Hunter Cadre, but Farsight can't be the Commander for it and you lack another Commander unit. So, Combined Arms.

HQ: Farsight (165 Points)

ELITES: 3x XV8 Crisis with 2x Plasma each, 2x Target Lock, 1x Vectored Retro Thrusters. Farsight goes here. (171)

ELITES: 2x Stealth Shas'ui with Burst Cannon, 1x Stealth Shas'vre with Marker Light, Target Lock and Drone Controller, 2x Marker Drones (137)

ELITES: Riptide with Ion Accelerator, Twin-Linked Fusion, Early Warning Override (190)

TROOPS: 6x Fire Warrior in Devilfish with Smart Missile System and Sensor Spines (149)

TROOPS: 9x Fire Warrior (81)

TROOPS: 9x Fire Warrior (81)

TROOPS: 15X Kroot with Sniper Rounds (105)

TROOPS: 15X Kroot with Sniper Rounds (105)

FAST ATTACK: 5x Pathfinder (55)

FAST ATTACK: 5x Pathfinder (55)

HEAVY SUPPORT: 3x Broadsides with High Yield Missile Pods and Smart Missile Systems (195)

Not an amazing list, but a good stepping stone to explore and play test.

Thanks a lot!

I guess I need to get another Commander unit. What else might be a good idea to get a hold of? In general I like the units in suits, so perhaps more Crisis Suits?

I thought that the Pathfinders might be useful to use as a way of lighting up the enemy with markerlights, but you say that they are "ugly", so I guess that they are not.

Pathfinders aren't exactly ugly but there are better ways of getting markerlights, for your points and starter games they will be one of the most valuable units you have on the field,

the problem is there squishy with a poor save and due to the fact that marker lights are heavy they need good initial placement.

Vespids I 100% agree they are very bad (unless your playing kill team then things change).

stealth suits are pretty good if you give one a fusion blaster can get some very nice tank kills (paired with some of the new formations one of which is pretty nasty - 2 stealth teams and 1 ghostkeel)

other than that that list is pretty nice, for later additions I would look into the tetras (forge world) they are worth every point!

Rhuarc83 wrote:
I guess I need to get another Commander unit. What else might be a good idea to get a hold of? In general I like the units in suits, so perhaps more Crisis Suits?

The regular Crisis Commander is very flexible and can be catered for lots of different functions. A Cadre Fireblade is decent at 1,000 points or less. Ethereals are good also, but need to be built around. As for things to buy. The almighty Riptide is the jewel of the new Tau codex and a second one wouldn't hurt. Ghostkeels are good, too, but really shine when used in one of the Formations. More Crisis suits are never a bad thing, but I wouldn't go Crisis crazy unless you love them and/or want to run Farsight Enclaves They are a good unit, but not the end all and be all of awesome they used to be. Sky Rays are good if you have lots of flyers in your meta. Another squad of Broadsides isn't a terrible idea. I would take a look at the formations, decide which one you want to field and build from there. The popular formations are Riptide Wing, Piranha Firestream Wing, Optimized Stealth Cadre, Firebase Support Cadre and some players run Retaliation Cadres.

Rhuarc83 wrote:
I thought that the Pathfinders might be useful to use as a way of lighting up the enemy with markerlights, but you say that they are "ugly", so I guess that they are not.

As the previous poster mentioned, they are BS3 and T3 with a 5+ save for 11 points that must remain stationary to use their Markerlights. That's a lot of drawbacks and why I classify them as ugly. They are the poster child for Markerlights, but are ultimately the worst unit to carry them. A Commander with Drone Controller attached to 4-6 Marker Drones is a popular build, a Drone Net formation with nothing but Marker Drones is popular and Tetras are also a good source of Markerlights.

Thank you for you advice. I found a cheap crisis commander on Ebay, so that's on it's way now. I'm going to play a couple of games with what I've got now and see what I like and what I don't.