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Actually is pretty interesting in coldstars and commanders. Gives you an extra punch that can be enough in order to finish small infantry units. Not much but better than nothing

Hello everyone. I’m making the plunge into Tau and have a few questions. Is 3 commanders in 3 battalions the way to go? Stormsurge any good, or is triptide just to good to not take? How many fire warriors is a good number? Marksmen or no? I know the shielded 21 is a must. Crisis suits have a place with their points? Hammerheads night show now that the castellan might not be AS prevalent?

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
Hello everyone. I’m making the plunge into Tau and have a few questions. Is 3 commanders in 3 battalions the way to go? Stormsurge any good, or is triptide just to good to not take? How many fire warriors is a good number? Marksmen or no? I know the shielded 21 is a must. Crisis suits have a place with their points? Hammerheads night show now that the castellan might not be AS prevalent?

Tau is right now in a good spot and fortunatly your questions have more than one correct answer. In general, everything depends on your playstyle and the missions you are playing. I see the riptide like our most valuable option, durable, shooty and fast. I dont belive that we need three of them, but two at least.

I'd like to see how the meta evolves with the nerf to the castellan beacause it is an indiect buff to our longstrike and friends. Even with the castellan, these guys have their place.

Regarding stormsurge and crisis, i see them to play casual or narrative games. You can find some advantages using both but in general we have better resources to do what they bring to the table (hello riptides and broadsides)

Fire warrior may vary in your list between 15 and 70, but i see about 30-35 of them the right number for a balanced army

Commanders are awesome usefull, play at least two.

Marksmen in sacea sept are wonderful. I always play with them

Do the Cadre Fireblade's Volley Fire still stack? If I fill all the redundant HQ slots with them, can I still get an ungodly number of shots from a firebase (eg 2+ additional shots from affected models?)

Oh to have +2 shots... wait that was a dream. Unfortunately, the Cadre Fireblades buff do not stack

 carldooley wrote:
Do the Cadre Fireblade's Volley Fire still stack? If I fill all the redundant HQ slots with them, can I still get an ungodly number of shots from a firebase (eg 2+ additional shots from affected models?)

Abilities and aura's with the same name do not stack unless noted otherwise.

so no.

Rulebook faq

Q: Lots of aura abilities say they grant an ability to nearby
units that are within range of any such models. Are the bonuses
cumulative (i.e. if I am within range of two models with identical
aura abilities, is the bonus doubled)?
A: Unless stated otherwise, no. The bonus for such an
ability applies once if any (i.e. one or more) of these
models are within range.

What’s better, 3 battalions with min squads of fire warriors, shielded 21, triple tide and triple commander w/ Fireblade and Darkstrider support, or 2 battalions and (insert other detachment here) with still 3 commanders but adding in potentially broadsides, triptide maybe ghostkee or two etc?

Ghostkeels are amazing if you know what you're doing.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also what exactly IS the shielded 21? i assume 21 shield drones but any specific configuration?

gendoikari87 wrote:
Ghostkeels are amazing if you know what you're doing.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also what exactly IS the shielded 21? i assume 21 shield drones but any specific configuration?

I’ve seen it build in any combination that equals 21 but usually 3 squads of 7. I’m asking these big questions cause today I’m dropping lots of cash on a 2000 or more pt army at my LGS. I wanna know what I should focus on purchasing as a new tau player

Pain4Pleasure wrote:

gendoikari87 wrote:
Ghostkeels are amazing if you know what you're doing.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also what exactly IS the shielded 21? i assume 21 shield drones but any specific configuration?

I’ve seen it build in any combination that equals 21 but usually 3 squads of 7. I’m asking these big questions cause today I’m dropping lots of cash on a 2000 or more pt army at my LGS. I wanna know what I should focus on purchasing as a new tau player

I hear you can't go wrong with misslesides or triptide wing.

I think triple battalion is overkill for Tau.
You unlikely to need that many CP and it makes you take to many things you probably don't want to to fill them out instead of the actual meat of a list in Broadsides/Riptides/Ghostkeels ect.

Firewarriors are good, I'm not disputing that. But you don't need 9 squads of them.

Units of 5 FW really don't leverage the advantages of the stuff that can buff them - Cadre Fireblade, Ethereal, Darkstrider, Drones, Commanders.

If you're worried about Morale, bring a Sa'cea Ethereal along with your Sa'cea Firesight Marksmen. His Ld10 and Invocation of the Elements works on other septs.

How would you recommend broadsides? 1 unit of 3, 2 units of 2 or 2 units of 3

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
How would you recommend broadsides? 1 unit of 3, 2 units of 2 or 2 units of 3

Command and Control Node (general stratagem) allows wound re-rolls for a single Battlesuit unit. This is really, really good for Missilesides, less good for Railsides. So if you go for missiles, group them up, but you can spread out railgun Broadsides without worrying.

Ok so from my LGS, I got 3 Riptide’s, 3 broadsides, a stormsurge, 3 commanders, 2 ethereal, 30 fire warriors, 10 pathfinders, Darkstrider, a Fireblade, 2 ghostkeel, and a ton of drones plus codex and databcards. Let’s see if I can make this work

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
Ok so from my LGS, I got 3 Riptide’s, 3 broadsides, a stormsurge, 3 commanders, 2 ethereal, 30 fire warriors, 10 pathfinders, Darkstrider, a Fireblade, 2 ghostkeel, and a ton of drones plus codex and databcards. Let’s see if I can make this work

With those model's you should be able to make a 90% competitive list. As you play more games you'll find the playstyle and hence units that work for you.
Now onwards to victory for the greater good with you.

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
Ok so from my LGS, I got 3 Riptide’s, 3 broadsides, a stormsurge, 3 commanders, 2 ethereal, 30 fire warriors, 10 pathfinders, Darkstrider, a Fireblade, 2 ghostkeel, and a ton of drones plus codex and databcards. Let’s see if I can make this work

That looks like a pretty competitive setup right there, although obviously it won't all fit into one 2000-point list. Just get yourself a couple of units of Stealth suits and your journey to competitive Tau will be complete!

 ZergSmasher wrote:

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
Ok so from my LGS, I got 3 Riptide’s, 3 broadsides, a stormsurge, 3 commanders, 2 ethereal, 30 fire warriors, 10 pathfinders, Darkstrider, a Fireblade, 2 ghostkeel, and a ton of drones plus codex and databcards. Let’s see if I can make this work

That looks like a pretty competitive setup right there, although obviously it won't all fit into one 2000-point list. Just get yourself a couple of units of Stealth suits and your journey to competitive Tau will be complete!

They had a total of 5 boxes, but I ran out of the $$ I got for my eldar haha. They are the next purchase though! That and the hpgrade third party sprue to make the stormsurge have arms

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
What’s better, 3 battalions with min squads of fire warriors, shielded 21, triple tide and triple commander w/ Fireblade and Darkstrider support, or 2 battalions and (insert other detachment here) with still 3 commanders but adding in potentially broadsides, triptide maybe ghostkee or two etc?

3 Commanders? Huh.

That aside, Broadsides are quite excellent.

 Jancoran wrote:

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
What’s better, 3 battalions with min squads of fire warriors, shielded 21, triple tide and triple commander w/ Fireblade and Darkstrider support, or 2 battalions and (insert other detachment here) with still 3 commanders but adding in potentially broadsides, triptide maybe ghostkee or two etc?

3 Commanders? Huh.

That aside, Broadsides are quite excellent.

They had 3 so I got em, I wanted 6 but 3 is good. I’m excited to join the greater good with you guys

Pain4Pleasure wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
What’s better, 3 battalions with min squads of fire warriors, shielded 21, triple tide and triple commander w/ Fireblade and Darkstrider support, or 2 battalions and (insert other detachment here) with still 3 commanders but adding in potentially broadsides, triptide maybe ghostkee or two etc?

3 Commanders? Huh.

That aside, Broadsides are quite excellent.

They had 3 so I got em, I wanted 6 but 3 is good. I’m excited to join the greater good with you guys

If I'm not mistaken, you must have three detachments in order to use 3 Commanders in Matched Play.

 Jancoran wrote:

Pain4Pleasure wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
What’s better, 3 battalions with min squads of fire warriors, shielded 21, triple tide and triple commander w/ Fireblade and Darkstrider support, or 2 battalions and (insert other detachment here) with still 3 commanders but adding in potentially broadsides, triptide maybe ghostkee or two etc?

3 Commanders? Huh.

That aside, Broadsides are quite excellent.

They had 3 so I got em, I wanted 6 but 3 is good. I’m excited to join the greater good with you guys

If I'm not mistaken, you must have three detachments in order to use 3 Commanders in Matched Play.

It's true, but OTOH, if you don't magnetize, having more Commanders means you can swap around suits as you please. Don't forget there are XV8 Commanders, Enforcers and Coldstars, so there's a lot of potential variety.

And before you ask, XV8 commanders have less wounds, cost less but can get the 2+ armor save Iridium Armor. Generally ignored because Commanders are characters and hard to shoot at, but you can get 3 XV8 suits in Start Collecting for cheaper than 2 Enforcer suits.

 Jancoran wrote:

Pain4Pleasure wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:

Pain4Pleasure wrote:
What’s better, 3 battalions with min squads of fire warriors, shielded 21, triple tide and triple commander w/ Fireblade and Darkstrider support, or 2 battalions and (insert other detachment here) with still 3 commanders but adding in potentially broadsides, triptide maybe ghostkee or two etc?

3 Commanders? Huh.

That aside, Broadsides are quite excellent.

They had 3 so I got em, I wanted 6 but 3 is good. I’m excited to join the greater good with you guys

If I'm not mistaken, you must have three detachments in order to use 3 Commanders in Matched Play.

Most competitive lists I’ve followed use 3 detachments.
I could of sworn I read somewhere tau could fall back a few inches somehow after being declared as a charge target. Am I wrong? Can’t seem to find it if it exists but could of sworn I had read it

You might also want to take a look at this helpful website:

link

Has helped me countless times in tough situations.

Coldstar, quad fusion, best Assassin

gendoikari87 wrote:
Coldstar, quad fusion, best Assassin

This is the kind of feedback I want before I build the models

In that case ion on ghostkeel, heavy burst o. Riptides

gendoikari87 wrote:
In that case ion on ghostkeel, heavy burst o. Riptides

Yeah I had read up on them. I purchased third party arms for my stormsurge because I don’t like the armless look

Pain4Pleasure wrote:

I could of sworn I read somewhere tau could fall back a few inches somehow after being declared as a charge target. Am I wrong? Can’t seem to find it if it exists but could of sworn I had read it

Pathfinders can take Grav-Inhibitor Drones, which cause enemy units within 12" of the Drone to subtract D3 from their charge roll. It's tricky to pull off, because your Pathfinder unit's drone contingent is a separate unit that can be fairly easily shot off the board turn 1.

Pain4Pleasure wrote:

I could of sworn I read somewhere tau could fall back a few inches somehow after being declared as a charge target. Am I wrong? Can’t seem to find it if it exists but could of sworn I had read it

Arguably the VMT signature system lets a Commander move immediately after firing overwatch. You would want to check that with your TO before building it into your list as a thing to rely on. Also seems cheesy as anything so likely to be fixed in a future FAQ.

Other than that I think you may be referring to old 7th edition rules which no longer exist.