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Ok, I like my armies fluffy and while my Black Templars are in you face choppy and angry, my Tau are stealthy and ranged. The army I have for this purpose on a fluffy standpoint is at about 1000 points but I am looking to expand it to 2k. Here is my idea for my advanced insertion cadre.

Shadowsun with all her drones - 195

Darkstrider - 100

2x Fire Warrior Teams - 314
- 11 Shas'la and a Shas'ui
- markerlight and target lock
2x marker drones

3x Stealth Teams - 786
- 5 Shas'ui and a Shas'vre
Shas'vre and an ui have fusion blasters
All fusion blasters have vector retro thrusters
All burst cannons have counter fire defence
markerlight and target lock
(This is the core of the army. Shadowsun will lead one of these. The counter fire is a cheap contingency for when the enemy tries to charge me. The vector retro thrusters on the blasters allow me to easily escape close combat as long as even one vrt bearer is alive. And Shad'vre can decline challenges to ensure he lives to vrt away.)

Pathfinder Team 1 - 150
4 Shas'la and an ui
Grav drone
2 marker drones
Bsf
3 rail rifles.
(Darkstrider is in this squad to keep rapid firing S6 ap 1 weapons within the 15 inches but difficult to charge.)

Pathfinder Team 2 - 124
3 Shas'la and an ui
grav and 2 marker drones
Bsf
3 ion rifles

Razorshark Fighter - 169
Missile pod
Decoy launches
Bsf
D. Pod

Hammerhead Gunship - 162
Submunitions
Smart missile system tl
2 seeker missiles
Bsf
D. Pod

All that is 2000. Hopefully I get to go first with a two scouted pathfinder teams forward and shadowsun infiltrated upfield. Other stealth teams would deep strike or outflank as needed. The flyer and gunship serve to target armor and soak up enemy fire so my stealth teams can move more freely. I mean...most people already ignore stealth teams when they have bigger targets to choose from. Any thoughts?

Also of note...another tau guy in my meta does an only suit army so I am trying to go no suit to stay fluffy with stealth and to give my shop a new and different kind of tau to fight than the normal.

I like the list...would be a lot of fun. May want to add a Homing beacon to one of the Stealth Teams. That way you can do a mini-"Farsight" bomb with all of those Stealth suits (depending on reserve rolls of course).

I think you can only give a Fusion Blaster to one model in each group of Stealth suits, but I don't have the rule book on me atm to verify.

Its one fusion blaster for every 3 iirc. And you're right...I should probably put something in the list to make deep strikes more consistent. Thanks.

The counterfire defense systems are more expensive than you think, for not much benefit. If you get assaulted, the BS2 is nice but probably wont change much. I would use supporting fire and JSJ to protect your suits, spending the points on more bodies.

Only 2 troops is a serious concern at 2k, so be sure to protect these or take more troops.

If you want darkstrider with pathfinders, get more bodies. He buffs his whole squad with his -1T ability, and you want to protect him. For the other pathfinder unit, I would keep these strictly markerlight and nothing else. Drop the grav drone and rifles for more lights.

I almost always take longstrike if I have the points. Considering that you are low on AT, you want your hammerhead to connect and lay waste to anything you shoot.

All nice points. So how about I cut down on the Fireteam size by losing the drones, take the ions away from pathfinder 2...cut the CDS on all the stealths. Thats 138 points if I remember right.

I could then put one FW team in a devilfish, leave the other out for home objective holding. And I also think that leaves me enough for longstrike. I cant remember how much he is, and I dont have the book on me right now.

But about the CDS, I see what you are saying, and yes, ideally my stealth teams would roll a flank all together, and that means they could support fire for eachother.