[2000] - Tau - Sa'cea/ T'au army (originally farsight)

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**CREEEEEEEEED**

Total points = 2,000
Total CP = 16

Detachment: Brigade
HQ – 327
Farsight 151
Cadre Fireblade 42
Cadre Fireblade 42
Cadre Fireblade 42
Ethereal (HD) 50
Troops – 360
(10) Kroot 50
(10) Kroot 50
(10) Kroot 50
(10) Strike team 70
(10) Strike team 70
(10) Strike team 70
Elites – 123
Kroot shaper 31
Kroot Rider 34
Kroot Rider 34
Marksman (ML) 24
Fast attack – 156
(4) Markerlight drones 52
(4) Markerlight drones 52
(4) Markerlight drones 52
Heavy Support – 474
Broadside (HRR, 2 SMS, SM, SG) 158
Broadside (HRR, 2 SMS, SM, SG) 158
Broadside (HRR, 2 SMS, SM, SG) 158

Detachment: Battalion
HQ – 174
Coldstar commander (4FB, PEC) 174
Troops – 140
(5) Strike Team 35
(5) Strike Team 35
(10) Strike Team 70

Detachment: Spearhead
HQ – 50
Ethereal (HD) 50
Fast Attack – 156
(6) Pathfinder (IR, 6 ML) 52
(6) Pathfinder (IR, 6 ML) 52
(6) Pathfinder (IR, 6 ML) 52

I'm planning to buy all this as a new army, so unit changes are possible. The idea is a three layered army with board control. Front layer is the kroot units, then the pathfinders and 10 man strike teams with fireblades and one ethereal, then the broadsides, marksman, troops from the battalion, and the markerlight drones. The idea is to maintain anti-DS coherency across the whole army at least for the 1st two turns. Kroot and Fire warriors can wipe infantry, farsight and the coldstar can kill big things from close and are quite/ very mobile, and the broadsides can sit in the back and shoot away at big things. Plenty of CP and plenty of markerlights.

Reasons why I didn't take certain units that might be obvious:
Stealth teams give me more s5 shooting, which I already have a glut of.
I don't really want any big suits for thematic reasons, and crisis suits are still overcosted.
Whilst the infantry will be advancing, breacher teams can't really fire turn 1 and 2 with any effect.
No vehicles, because tau vehicles aren't great, except for ionheads, which are beaten out by broadsides IMO.

**Kdash**

Quick point to note –

4 Markerdrones cost 40 points, not 52.
Marksman is 25 points, as I don’t think you can remove the pulse pistol.
Your Broadside loadout will also only cost 138.

My only concern is playing the mission and morale. In order to keep your units from running away they’ll need to be stacked around the 2 Ethereals, but, in order to maintain that bubble, there is going to be a lot of space around the table for your opponent to move around it.
Likewise, if you spread everything out to prevent deep strikes and advance forward, you’re going to start losing a fair chunk of your footprint to morale.

I also feel like any vehicle heavy list will cause you a lot of problems. You’ll need all 3 Broadsides to kill 1 Rhino a turn (on average), and I feel like the moment you go up against something like Deathguard with Mortarian, you won’t have the ability to kill them before they get to you – likewise a cultist bomb will destroy you’re screens/pathfinders relatively easily.

Your biggest problem will be avoiding high fire powered alpha strike lists, as you’ll likely be going second most of the time.

**CREEEEEEEEED**

Kdash wrote:
Quick point to note –

4 Markerdrones cost 40 points, not 52.
Marksman is 25 points, as I don’t think you can remove the pulse pistol.
Your Broadside loadout will also only cost 138.

My only concern is playing the mission and morale. In order to keep your units from running away they’ll need to be stacked around the 2 Ethereals, but, in order to maintain that bubble, there is going to be a lot of space around the table for your opponent to move around it.
Likewise, if you spread everything out to prevent deep strikes and advance forward, you’re going to start losing a fair chunk of your footprint to morale.

I also feel like any vehicle heavy list will cause you a lot of problems. You’ll need all 3 Broadsides to kill 1 Rhino a turn (on average), and I feel like the moment you go up against something like Deathguard with Mortarian, you won’t have the ability to kill them before they get to you – likewise a cultist bomb will destroy you’re screens/pathfinders relatively easily.

Your biggest problem will be avoiding high fire powered alpha strike lists, as you’ll likely be going second most of the time.

Thanks, I don't actually have the codex yet, I had to trawl through the strikingscorpion codex review, which is why my points are off.
On the morale point, I don't think it's too much of an issue for 10 man units. Either they won't take enough casulties in one go, in which case the ethereal, and their own bonding knife rule means moral isn't an issue, or they take so many casulties they become ineffective anyway.
I was definitely trying to max CPs, and in doing so I spammed cheap things to fill slots in the brigade and then put other things in other detachments. maybe it would be worth cutting back on the two extra detachments, although I still want the coldstar. Maybe roll the pathfinders into the brigade, lose the ethereal and one markerlight drone squad, lose the kroot riders, they're mostly thematic anyway.
That gives maybe 300ish points to play with after dropping them and taking into account my miscalculation of points. Would a riptide be a good idea to fill the third elite slot?

**brothy**

I feel that the Farsight sept (i assume you are using) is wasted here. The re-roll wounds within 6" is wasted, and farsight likes to get close but without support with just be blown into next week

I would maybe use Sa'Cea for the +1 LD and reroll a hit, a must for the broadsides.

I like a couple of Stealth suit squads on the cheap as they give you good mid board control against alpha striking blobs.

I also agree that vehicles and high wounds characters will be a struggle. Massed fire can only do so much. Ion hammerheads do the business, which i find more reliable shooting wise than the riptides...

**CREEEEEEEEED**

Ok, whole new list:

Sa’Cea/T’au 2000 points - 15 CP
Detachment – Brigade – 1496 – T’au
HQ – 300
Coldstar commander (4FB) 174
Cadre Fireblade 42 (warlord)
Cadre Fireblade 42
Cadre Fireblade 42

Troops – 415
(10) Kroot (50)
(10) Strike team (ML) 73
(10) Strike team (ML) 73
(10) Strike team (ML) 73
(10) Strike team (ML) 73
(10) Strike team (ML) 73
Elites – 81
Kroot shaper 31
Marksman (ML) 25
Marksman (ML) 25
Fast attack – 236
(4) Markerlight drones 40
(4) Markerlight drones 40
(6) Pathfinder (IR, 6 ML) 52
(6) Pathfinder (IR, 6 ML) 52
(6) Pathfinder (IR, 6 ML) 52
Heavy Support – 414
Broadside (HRR, 2 SMS, SM, SG) 138
Broadside (HRR, 2 SMS, SM, SG) 138
Broadside (HRR, 2 SMS, SM, SG) 138

Detachment – Battalion – 454 – T’au
HQ – 238
Longstrike (2BC, IC, 2SM) 188
Ethereal (HD, PEC) 50
Troops – 165
(11) Kroot 55
(11) Kroot 55
(11) Kroot 55
Heavy – 151
Hammerhead (2BC, IC, 2SM) 151

**eldritchstormer**

Needs more HQ in the Tau battalion

**CREEEEEEEEED**

eldritchstormer wrote:
Needs more HQ in the Tau battalion

Thanks, I've edited it.

**DirtyTecker**

I love Broadsides, but I think you'll get more use out of 3 Hammerheads in this army, and if you made a small detachment of an Ethereal, and 3 hammerheads for a Heavy Detachment you could make them sacea to give each hammerhead a Reroll on their shots, which would still work on individual Broadsides, squads of 2 or more you would have to pick one of the suits to reroll. They can take more hits before they die, but they also lose BS as they get lower in Wounds, so it might just be up to user preference on that side. But IMHO you might like having a Sa'cea Detachment made up of Broadsides and the one ethereal since the ethereal's abilities don't care about which sept they are in, but a fireblade's do.

I forgot that you could split up the strike teams in to 5 man squads that allow you to make the enemy possibly waste shots, and make you less likely to take moral tests when you lose a couple models. since you automatically pass on 6s