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I didn't manage any pictures for which I apologize but I'll write it up as best as I can.

First off the list I brought:

TAU
HQ
Shas'el - AFP, MP, TA, HWMT, HWDC, Shield Drone, Gun Drone
Bodyguard x2 - T/L MP, Flamer, HW MT, Bonding Knife x1

Elites
Crisis x3 - MP, PR, MT, Team Leader with HW DC, Shield Drone x2

Crisis x3 - MP, PR, MT, Team Leader with HW DC, Shield Drone x2

Crisis x3 - MP, PR, MT, Team Leader with HW DC, Shield Drone x2

Troops
Fire Warrior x6 - Devilfish, MT, TA, SMS, DP

Fire Warrior x6 - (Steals Pathfinder warfish)

Kroot x10

Kroot x10

Kroot x10

Kroot x10

Fast Attack
Piranha x2 - Fusion Blaster, TA, DP x1

Piranha x2 - Fusion Blaster, TA, DP x1

Pathfinders x8 - Devilfish, MT, TA, SMS, DP

Heavy
Broadside x2 - TA, Team Leader, HW Target Lock, HW DC, Shield Drone, Gun Drone

Broadside x2 - TA, Team Leader, HW Target Lock, HW DC, Shield Drone, Gun Drone

Hammerhead - Railgun, TA, Target Lock, MT, Burst Canons

So my first game was against an out of towner which somewhat surprised me as there are a few very experienced and competitve gamers in the area.

His list (which I seem to have misplaced) was Orks:
HQ
Warboss - Bike, PK etc

Warboss - Bike, PK etc

Elites
Lootas x 12

Lootas x12

Kommandos x9 - Snikrot

Toops
Nob Bikers x8 - Differentiated, Cyborks

Nob Bikers x8 - Differentiated, Cyborks

20 Shoota Boyz - Nob, PK, BP, 2 Rokkits

20 Slugga Boyz - Nob, PK, BP, 2 Rokkits

Fast Attack
Deff Kopta x2 - Buzz Saws and t/l Rokkits

Heavy
Battle Wagon - Deff Rolla, Big Shoota, Extra armor

Battle Wagon - Deff Rolla, Big Shoota, Extra armor

I'm pretty sure that was just about everything, not too sure about the upgrades on the battle wagons but it's close. I gotta admit I was pretty worried about a list like this with only 5 railguns and I was right to. I'm sure I could have played better in a few ways but I'll give a general batrep.

I got to go first and not wanting to deal with snikrot I deployed everything and had a Kroot wrap all the places I could in my deployment zone to keep him far away and not getting close to anything useful. In front were the Piranhas with my fish closer to the edge so I could block their movement as best as possible from the beginning (which was my whole idea in taking first turn).

He deployed with his 2 nob biker squads on either end of his deployment zone with a Battle Wagon full of boyz near by and his lootas in the middle with the deffkoptas deployed on my left and snikrot in reserve.

It was a bloody affair as I tried my best to block the nobz from my suits and did a good job of it until turn 3 or so while keeping a few troop choices alive to capture at least 1 or 2 objectives. His lootas rolled 2-3 shots every turn and blasted away all game as I had much more pressing matters to attend to with nobs and battle wagons in my face.

In the end I managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat as I simply couldn't kill the bikers fast enough.

Second game was against a very mediocre space marines list against a player who didn't particularly care about the outcome but was about the nicest player there. Didn't stop me from stomping on him for a major victory with 3 bonus points. At the end he had 8 men from a tac squad left on the table and I could probably have shot him off but time was called.

Third game was against another Ork player who was a frequent tournament goer and has a really cool and converted army with lots of scratch built elements but not a great list builder and was trying something a bit different to his detriment.

His list was:

HQ
Ghaz

Zogwort

Elites:
Lootas x10

Troops
Boyz x30

Gretchin x30

Boyz x30

Boyz x20

Boyz x20

Nobz x6 - Wound allocation

Fast Attack
Stormboyz x10 - special upgrade character

Heavy
Deff Dread - Rokkit, Scortcha 2 klaws

Deff Dread - Rokkit, Scortcha 2 klaws

Deff Dread - Rokkit, Scortcha 2 klaws

I think that's it but overall, not super competitve, though I freaked out for a minute when he stole the initiative from me. In the end he was left with a 20 man boyz squad, a busted up deff dread and ghazzie at the bottom of turn 5 when time was called. I managed to get him to deploy some of his heavier units closer to my crisis suits and simply jump away for most of the game while collapsing his right flank.

So it was 17 KP to his 7 at the end of the game and at the end of the day I walk away with 3rd place! So Semi's here I come. Not sure what I should change to the list other than some more practice but overall it was a lot of fun and I hope I can bring an even better game with me for the semi's.

I'll try to take pictures next time and write up proper battle reports at the end of it!

congrats on getting the tau to semis. I don't know how well the kroot worked out for you because you didn't say much about them. I would maybe get rid of 2 kroot squads and taking another fire warrior squad with a devilfish for more mobility.

Thanks! Actually the kroot were the unsung heroes of my army as they allowed for that extra turn of shooting when normally a unit behind them would have been destroyed.

In the first round, without them I wouldn't have stood a chance at killing off the orks that were on an objective and ultimately stand there to contest it as another mob drew in close to try and claim.

I'm considering dropping a unit to add a few hounds to each squad, but I'm hesitant to as their shooting actually proved very valuable, even against SM terminators.

Odds are I'll keep them all in there as their usefulness in blocking assaults and killing a couple things during my opponents assault phase and dieing away so I can shoot again was about the best thing I could possibly have had on the table aside from the units that did the actual killing.

I actually like the list. How did you deploy your kroot? I'm very curious about 4 squads of them. I mean they do absolutly nothing for me. So whenever I see a Kroot heavy list I always wanna know how you did with them. I agree with you that you could possibly use some hounds. Perhaps you coudl drop a fire warrior squad. but there goes some much needed manuverability. I wish devilfish were fast vehicles that would be pretty sweet.

How did your parhana fair?

For the first game the kroot blocked everywhere snikrot could come in, and absorbed 2 charges from bikers. They were no slouch in shooting as they accounted for a fair number of boyz and a chunk of snikrot's mob when he came in. I think they even finished off a few bikers with their shots at close range, 20 (even bs3) shots is nothing to sneeze at when focusing on small units.

This combined with my piranha's blocking gave me 3 full turns of shooting at nob bikers and let me completely wipe one squad while whittling down the other to the warboss and painboy. The piranhas died a glorious death for the greater good this game but it was a necessary sacrifice.

In game 2 the Kroot again absorbed charges and I was happy to sacrifice a 70 point unit to a squad of th/ss shield termies to protect the unit of fireknives behind them. Then they had to charge some worthless gun drones dropped off by my piranhas. Again their shooting accounted for a termie or 2 and several marines.

Game 3 the Kroot blocked a charge to my broadsides, twice to my crisis suits, and made a general nuisance of themselves.

The piranhas did their job by being in reserve and not dying lol.

Nice to see other tau players succeeding when they actually build good tau lists.

Have you considered adding kroot hounds to your kroot squads and dropping 1 of them. It lets them finish off space marine squads and the like. You lose a little shooting but gain some dual purpose. Just a thought.

I've been giving it some thought, but I think I like the extra shots more than the extra assault ability.

I should probably at least give it a try with a few proxies though. I have some suitable models to try it with at least. I could get 11 hounds for removing 1 kroot squad, I'm sure that would help with orks as I'd be able to remove the hounds after they've been able to do their attacks for the round, but more often than not I'd rather just have the kroot squad die after they take the charge so I can obliterate whatever is that close to my important units.

I'm nervous about drawn out assaults especially against marines, if the squad dies in my assault faze then I'll probably be in a tight spot with the marines being able to get to a unit of broadsides or crisis suits instead of being blasted.

In round 2 I actually had this happen because I rolled double 1s for a morale test that I would much rather have failed, while that's not likely to happen often, if I start drawing combats vs marines or other units then I hamstring my ability to get rid of threats that need to be dealt with right away.