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... I've toyed around with the idea of starting a Tau army in the past, but while I love the battlesuits, I just loathe the Fire Warrior models.  If the rumors are true and Apocalypse allows us to filed forces without regards to the Force Organization chart (and hopefully army list requirements as well) a full battlesuit (Tau-wing) army may be viable and legal.  So my question is, what would make a viable 3,000 point force consisting of just Crisis Suits, Stealth suits, Gun Drone squadrons, Piranhas, Broadsides, Hammerheads and Sky Rays?

If you use broadsides you need kroot. 2 units of kroot per broadside squad.

If you're using broadsides and no fire warriors, then the centurion is a pretty good choice.

If you're using stealths, give them targeting arrays.

If you're using crisis, give the team leaders and commanders targeting arrays.

If you're using hammerheads, give them railguns, decoys, and multitrackers.

Is there any use at all for gun drones?

Yeah, I've had mixed results with using 8xman drone squads to hassle the enemy.

At only 96 points, classed as a Fast Choice and able to cause pinning and then assualt away from the enemy they can be used quite effectively to flank an enemy and take out maybe a few enemy models per turn. I sometimes use them as sacrifical lambs to distract his troops into attacking them instead of my more important squads.

IMHO, my aren't a good or bad choice, they have some merits and some bad points. They've never really affected my games that much. Perhaps others have had more success.

As Ghaz is wanting to field an army using a specific type of models then you could field multiple squads of Drones as the only other fast attack are Vespid and Pathfinders.

I imagine that with 3000pts you'd proberly have to field the army as two detachments therefore giving you access to 6fast attack slots. Maybe two squadrons of 3xpirana's and four 8xman drone squadrons. Perhaps the error I'm making is by not fielding the drone squadrons in large enough numbers to be effective?

perhaps you missed the point about apocolypse apparently not using any FOC chart at al. there will be no need for detachments or slots like FA in a FOC. you just take whatevery you got +apocolyspe rules at a set points level,  and put it on the table. individual units will likely still be the same (10 man squads+transports etc..) but you can do things that you could never do before-a 3,000 point army of dreadnaughts,  a true space marine armored company, an all speeder army, an army of carnifex's etc....

Whoops, yes forgot about no FOC.

To be honest Ghaz, I appricate you may not like the Fire Warriors models and don't want to field them, But the fire warrior is possible one of the best balanced troop choices in the 40K universe and I couldn't imagine leaving home without a minimun of 3 FW teams in a 2000pt list. (IMHO of course)
I personally don't like the look of the new stealth suits and wouldn't buy them because of it, so I do understand.

Anyways, here is a list for 2882pts. I have left 118pts spare to fill with Pirana squadrons of your choosing or to tweek the list to suit your game style.
(I don't have a codex with me which didn't help when making the list, this is going on memory of lists I have saved on my computer at work so points cost are correct)

HQ Shas'o Crisis suit with Shield gen, plasma rifle, missile pod. 127pts
HQ Shadowsun as per codex 175pts

ELITE 3xCrisissuits team with missile pod each, multi-tracker each, 1 with fusion blaster, 1 with burst cannon, 1 with team leader, plasma rifle, bonded, shield drones. 206pts
ELITE (same as above) 206pts
ELITE (same as above) 206pts
ELITE 6xStealthsuits team, 1 with fusion blaster, team leader, bonded. 192pts
ELITE 6xStealthsuits team, 1 with fusion blaster, team leader, bonded. 192pts
ELITE 6xStealthsuits team, 1 with fusion blaster, team leader, bonded. 192pts

FAST 1xStrainleader with 10xvespid 182pts
FAST 1xStrainleader with 10xvespid 182pts
FAST 8xGun Drone Squadron 96pts
FAST 8xGun Drone Squadron 96pts

HEAVY Hammerhead with SMS, Ion Cannon, VM Multi-tracker, Decoy Launchers 140pts
HEAVY Hammerhead with SMS, Ion Cannon, VM Multi-tracker, Decoy Launchers 140pts
HEAVY Hammerhead with SMS, Railgun, VM Multi-tracker, Decoy Launchers 175pts
HEAVY 2xSniper team as per codex 160pts
HEAVY 2xBroadside team with SMS, each with 2x Shield drones, 1x team leader, multi-tracker, bonded. 215pts
(you could add a target lock if you want one of the broadside to target another unit)

TOTAL COST 2882pts

not sure if this list is balanced enough, would be worth playtesting first, personally I think I added to much instant kill weapons, might be worth giving crisis suits more burst cannons instead of my setup. As I use lotsa FW I obviously can afford to give my other units higher powered weapons as opposed to multiple shot weapons.

Hope this list is useful easy to follow.

I simply don't like the Fire Warrior models and want to play with the big anime robots. Hence no Fire Warriors and a need to figure out what suit configurations to substitute for the Fire Warriors. Right now I'm considering twin-linked Burst Cannons with a Missile Pod.

Of course this may be a moot point once the actual rules are released.

meh, i find them ok, basic IG with better guns and carapice armor. i only take them to get the devilfish, they stay inside most of the time and let the tank do the killing. i have 2,400 points of tau-2X crisis suit commanders with full body guard, 3 hammerheads, 2X FW with kitted fish and 3X pathfinders with kitted fish. it does really really well.

Man, I'm sure you know how to handle Tau, but "better guns" has to be the understatement of the century. Do you seriously take Fish of Fury units, but don't use them as such?

if it's the models you hate, rather than the rules, simply take some models you _do_ like armed with tau weapons or 'counts as' equivalents, ans say they are Tau mercenaries which 'count as' fire warriors.

The Oz WD has shown photos of human mercenaries done this way, and they looked great. So long as you pick something that looks believably like it could have the stats of a fire warrior, I don't think you'll get any complaints.

Posted By tegeus-Cromis on 07/19/2007 2:19 PM
Man, I'm sure you know how to handle Tau, but "better guns" has to be the understatement of the century. Do you seriously take Fish of Fury units, but don't use them as such?

absolutely

here is what it looks like on the table(on hamerhead on the far left is barely visible and the commader hasn't DS in yet)

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i112/mughi3/eldartag.jpg

my FWs never get out unless

1.they need to take an objective at the end of the game

2.thier fish is destroyed

3,they are a distraction to keep the fish alive(i sacrificed a 63 point pathfinder team to some fire dragons to save the 150 point devilfish they were riding in).

4.its the last turn and they want to add a little extra weight of fire.

 

keep this montra in mind-in 4th edition tau on foot(read FWs) are dead tau.

 

the reason why i don't use classic FOF is because a fully upgraded fish with smart missles hits with just as many S5 AP5 shots as a 12 man FW squad at range(or 6 man rapid fire), with better range, indirect fire, split fire, better BS, its mobile and it doesn't suck in assault, in fact with flettchettes it is the best CC thing the tau have.

 

as an example i played a mechanised IG list 2 weeks ago at 1850, i lost 1 fish and a lone pathfinder out of that squad, and took 3 wounds on my HQ and shield drones, he lost substantially more than i did(more than half his entire army).