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Hello all, trying to make a fun/competitive list centered around tau suits still. Have only played a couple of 8th ed games but I'm trying to get something to work. Thinking this'd be a close/mid ranged army, with the strategy to be to wipe out an area of the board turn 1 then keep reinforcements from getting too close. I just need some help with figuring out what unit I should use to finish off the list.

Thanks for taking a look!

Will eventually be 2000 points, currently at 1423.

Commander
4x fusion blasters

Farsight (used for double Mont'Ka when needed. Replace with coldstar or another fusion commander?)

Stealth suits x3
1x fusion blaster
Homing beacon
2 marker drones

Stealth suits x3
1x fusion blaster
Homing beacon
2 marker drones

Crisis suits x3
1 burst Cannon each
1 plasma rifle each
ATS each

Crisis suits x3
1 burst Cannon each
1 plasma rifle each
ATS each

Crisis suits x3
1 burst Cannon each
1 plasma rifle each
ATS each

Ghostkeel
2x fusion blaster
Cyclic ion raker
ATS

Looking to add on one of the following:
-Broadside team with HYMP, SMS and ATS
-R'Varna with Stim and ATS
-Y'Vahra with Stim and ATS
-Normal Riptide (Ion or HBC?) with Stim and ATS
-Stormsurge with pulse blastcannon

Thoughts on what addition I should make? Or the load out for the crisis suits and ghostkeel? Farsight, another fusion commander or a coldstar?

Thanks for your thoughts, anything helps


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It's real strange that the FW Riptides can be more expensive than a Stormsurge.

Fellow crisis player here. For the rest of your army I'd consider a 2 man broadside team (HYMP/SMS) with missile drones. Then with the rest of your points just take a ton of gun drones to protect your suits. If you do decide to take a lot of gun drones then you may want to consider dropping burst cannons from the suits and just take a second plasma rifle (otherwise you'll how too much low str/low AP weaponry). Since the rifles have awesome AP you could drop the ATS for a missile pod on each - so you pack much more fire power for taking out vehicles (your current weak point at the moment).

My current list looks similar to yours at the aside from the suggestions I just made. However I am soon going to be changing my list significantly. Another user posted a list last week that was composed of many commanders using supreme command detachments. Commanders actually look like they completely replace the need for many regular xv8s as they do the same thing, but with way better ballistic skill.

For example your current crisis squads cost 213 points. A commander with 3 missile pods and an ats costs 156. However the command is going to land nearly every shot from nearly twice the distance away. Now imagine if you had taken my earlier advice and upgraded your suits to 2 plasma 1 missile pod each - you could get 2 commanders for that cost and they pump out only 1 less shot, have 1 more wound, basically ignore morale; and shoot at bs2+ meaning you don't need marker lights.

So for example, rather than 1 commander, 9 crisis suits - you could instead run 5 commanders and 3 crisis suits for roughly 1000 points. Then spend the extra 1000 points on your stealth suits, broadsides and a many gun drones.

Just some food for thought.

Hmm, very good points and I do love the commander model (have 3 and one converted to be Farsight).

How do you feel about Farsight and the Coldstar?

At the moment commander farsight is a weak choice. While he has the same stats as a regular commander (slightly buffed WS), his fire power is very much lacking. The major draw would be his melee capabilities which are strong on paper. However, even if he gets the charge then he only gets 4 str 5 attacks. Regardless of the ap -4, d3 damage - that just isn't enough. If he charges a vehicle then he will score 3-4 hits, probably wound twice and do 2 damage on average (assuming no invulnerable saves) for a whopping 4 damage. If he charges a large unit of throw away troops then he kills a few and is either killed slowly over 2-3 turns or eventually wins (but it took the entire match).

Now that was all assuming he got the charge and nothing bad happened during overwatch. What happens if he gets charged? GG. He also has no good support to go into melee with him (crisis body guards will not perform well in CC even with farsight rerolling 1s). Your points are better spent on a ranged commander who at worst can get 2 solid turns of shooting into the enemy and possibly a decent overwatch before he is charged by the enemy.

Coldstar is in a similar situations in that it isn't really good at anything. The burst cannon is rather bad with its lack of AP while the missile pod is good, but the range of the two weapons is conflicting. You can dance around at a distance firing only 2 shots or get dangerously close to fire some str 5 ap 0 shots.

The best commander loadouts would be as follows:

160 Commander: 4x Fusion blaster

156 Commander: 3x Missile pod, ATS

146 Commander: 2x Plasma rifle, 2x Missile pod

120 Commander: 4x Plasma rifle

130 Commander: 2x Plasma rifle, Missile pod, Shield generator

4 fusion blasters / 4 plasma rifles work well together since they have high ap and don't require the ATS. The only downside to missile pods is that they are expensive and have low AP so adding an ATS rather than a 4th pod adds more value for your points. Plasma rifles and missile pods pair well together as you can still fire all your weapons safely at 24 inches, put out a good number of shots and the low AP of the pods is offset by the plasma. Lastly you can save a few points by dropping a forth weapon for a shield generator (that comes down to personal preference).

You'll probably want to take advantage of a commanders BS so more weapons is typically a better choice. The goal is to swarm them with drones so that the commander would never be in a position where a shield generator was even necessary. Also - don't take flamers on commanders. Save them for normal crisis suits if you really want them.

Nice, sounds good!

What day you about this:


Vanguard Detachment
2000 points

Commander
4x plasma rifle
2x gun drones

3x stealth suit squads of 3
2x gun drones in each squad

Ghostkeel
2x stealth drones
ATS
2x fusion blasters
Cyclic ion raker

Y'Vahra battlesuit
ATS, Target Lock

2x Broadsides
2x HYMP
2x SMS
2x ATS


Supreme Command Detachment

Commander
4x Fusion Blasters
2x gun drones

Commander
3x Missile pods
ATS
2x gun drones

Commander
3x Missile pods
ATS
2x gun drones.

I like the list - it is pretty similar to the one I just finished drafting. I'm curious to see how your riptide variant will do (if it stays alive there is enormous damage potential). If you have a chance to play test the list I would keep on eye on how fast your suits are dying and consider whether more savior protocols would have saved them. I tend to run around 30 drones to keep the suits up and running. If you can free up some points you may want to take a 4 man gun drone squad to guard the broadsides.

Below is the list I'll be revising over the next few days myself. Less stealth suits, in exchange for an extra commander and instead of the 2 larger suits I have my xv8s - a part of me wants to drop them for more commanders, but I just like the models

176 Commander + 2x Gun drone: 4x Fusion blaster
172 Commander + 2x Gun drone: 3x Missile pod, ATS
172 Commander + 2x Gun drone: 3x Missile pod, ATS
156 Commander + 2x Gun drone: 2x Fusion blaster, 2x Plasma rifle
162 Commander + 2x Gun drone: 2x Plasma rifle, 2x Missile pod

117 3x XV25 + 2x Gun drone: Shas'vre /w 1x Fusion blaster, 2x Shas'ui /w Burst cannon
317 3x XV8 + 2x Marker drone, 4x Gun drone: Shas'vre /w 2x Fusion, Drone controller 2x Shas'ui /w 2x Plasma, 1x Missile pod
317 3x XV8 + 2x Marker drone, 4x Gun drone: Shas'vre /w 2x Fusion, Drone controller 2x Shas'ui /w 2x Plasma, 1x Missile pod

205 1x XV88 + 2x Missile drone: Shas'vre /w Heavy rail rifle, 2x Plasma rifle
206 1x XV88 + 2x Missile drone: Shas'vre /w HYMP, 2x SMS, Drone controller

2000

I take like 60 gun drones now. The amount of fire power is pretty staggering. So I put drone controller on all 4 of my commanders. And 3 ML.

Yeah, definitely worried about wounds. One downside of taking a Commander over normal suits is things like lasgannond are much better against it. Against crisis suits it'd probably just wipe one, against s commander it can kill it entirely from one shot.

The best commander loadouts would be as follows:

Aeri posted a spreadsheet on this page that does not agree: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/210/727096.page

As you say, fusion comes out on top, but CIBs are actually the second best option. Note that missiles are actually the worst choice by far where damage per point is concerned. Maybe the extra range is a worthy trade in your mind, but it isn't in mine.

I don't know how far you're wanting to push the suit theme, OP, but if you're willing to include some drones, do so. Gun Drones are the backbone of a competitive Tau army now, and they'll help keep your Commanders churning out firepower.

Suit-wise, you should take advantage of homing beacons and get some flamer suits. They really wreck chaff units and aren't terrible against tougher targets. The assault denial is pretty clutch, too.

MilkmanAl wrote:

The best commander loadouts would be as follows:

Aeri posted a spreadsheet on this page that does not agree: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/210/727096.page

As you say, fusion comes out on top, but CIBs are actually the second best option. Note that missiles are actually the worst choice by far where damage per point is concerned. Maybe the extra range is a worthy trade in your mind, but it isn't in mine.

I don't know how far you're wanting to push the suit theme, OP, but if you're willing to include some drones, do so. Gun Drones are the backbone of a competitive Tau army now, and they'll help keep your Commanders churning out firepower.

Suit-wise, you should take advantage of homing beacons and get some flamer suits. They really wreck chaff units and aren't terrible against tougher targets. The assault denial is pretty clutch, too.

I wasn't listing the commander loadouts I suggested in any particular order. Those were the optimal configurations for an army with multiple commanders (where each has a more specialist role). You would want missile pods over CIBs as those particular commanders would hang back and harass.

Another revised list, and I'll explain my deployment plan. This is by no means final of course so any thoughts are still welcome!

Tau Empire 2000 Points

Vanguard Detachment

Commander
Multi-Tracker
3x Cyclic Ion Blasters
2x Gun Drones

3x Stealth Suits
Homing Beacon
1 Drone Controller
2x Gun Drones

3x Stealth Suits
Homing Beacon
1 Drone Controller
2x Gun Drones

3x Stealth Suits
Homing Beacon
2x Gun Drones

3x Stealth Suits
Homing Beacon
2x Gun Drones

3x Crisis Suits
1x Drone Controller
6x Flamers
2x Gun Drones

3x Crisis Suits
1x Drone Controller
6x Flamers
2x Gun Drones

Y'Vahra Riptide
ATS, Target Lock


Supreme Command Detachment

Commander
4x Fusion Blasters
2x Gun Drones

Commander
3x Missile Pods
ATS
2x Shield Drones

Commander
3x Missile Pods
ATS
2x Shield Drones


MP Commanders are back more towards my deployment zone behind the main line providing fire support and taking out larger targets. Gave them shield drones (even after the FAQ) because any big guns (like a lascannon) I'd just divert onto the drone and it wouldn't matter, but small arms fire they'd have to target the shield drones and I'd rather have the invuln save than their AP reducing a Gun Drone's armor. They need to survive as long as possible so my Commanders do, too.

Deploy Stealthsuits in the midfield with the gun drones in front. Fusion Commander, the 2 Flamer Crisis squads and the Y'Vahra use the homing beacons to get in melta/flamer range turn 1 (and fantastic overwatch support). Place the gun drone's in a way so they all benefit from one of the 3 drone controllers, but can block shots for Crisis suits/Commanders. CIB Commander is just behind this line with his gun drones behind him (to prevent an enemy from flanking and targeting him) to provide versatile fire support.

Looks like a decent list at this point - you just need to play a few games and see how you feel about those flamer crisis suits. If you play against lots of horde armies then keep them as is. If you play against more MEQ then switch 1 flamer per suit to a plasma.

Also as mentioned before, drones are key - so don't hesitate to drop one of the 4 stealth teams in exchange for roughly 10-12 drones.

Definitely. Will give the list a go as soon as I can, not much time to play nowadays unfortunately.

Thanks for the help!