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Hello once again fellow Tau and other army Commanders! As I am seriously contemplating Tau as my third army I have been playtesting a few list ideas with different xenos chapters for my 2nd army and after much contemplation have settled on a Mechsuit Tau list out of the Farsight Enclave book as one of my top choices. I did this for a few reasons, the first being that I run a Drop Pod Marine army (low point games and for allies) and an Air Cav/Airborne themed IG army (high risk armies) and the fact there is a Tau player at my competitive FLGS who runs a Mech Tau list to great effect, it has inspired me to contemplate going the same route. Now this is a first attempt at this list so please, any thoughts, comments and ideas are more then welcome. Thanks for posting guys!

HQ:

-Commander (*Warlord*)
*w/ x2 Missile Pods, Drone Controller, Target Lock

ELITES:

-Riptide
*w/ Heavy Burst Cannon, Smart Missile System, Riptide Shield Generator, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker, Earth Caste Pilot Array

TROOPS:

-x6 Fire Warriors
*w/ Pulse Carbines (or) Rifles
-Devilfish
*w/ Smart Missile System, Burst Cannon, Bonding Knife

-x6 Fire Warriors
*w/ Pulse Carbines (or) Rifles
-Devilfish
*w/ Smart Missile System, Burst Cannon, Bonding Knife

-x6 Fire Warriors
*w/ Pulse Carbines (or) Rifles
-Devilfish
*w/ Smart Missile System, Burst Cannon, Bonding Knife

-x6 Fire Warriors
*w/ Pulse Carbines (or) Rifles
-Devilfish
*w/ Smart Missile System, Burst Cannon, Bonding Knife

-"Deathrain" Crisis Suit Team
*w/ x3 Crisis Suits, Bonding Knives, Each with Target Lock, x2 Missile Pods Each

-"Deathrain" Crisis Suit Team
*w/ x3 Crisis Suits, Bonding Knives, Each with Target Lock, x2 Missile Pods Each

FAST ATTACK:

-Drone Squadron (*Commander Goes Here*)
*w/ x4 Marker Light Drones

-x3 Piranhas
*w/ Burst Cannons

-x3 Piranhas
*w/ Burst Cannons

HEAVY SUPPORT:

-Hammerhead Gunship
*w/ Smart Missile System, Submunition Rounds, Blacksun Filter, Sensor Spines

-Hammerhead Gunship
*w/ Smart Missile System, Submunition Rounds, Blacksun Filter, Sensor Spines

-Skyray Missle Defence Gunship
*w/ Smart Missile System, Blacksun Filter

TOTAL ARMY: 1999 POINTS

Model Count:

-x1 Commander Suit
-x1 Riptide
-x24 Fire Warriors
-x6 Crisis Suits
-x4 Devilfish
-x4 Marker Light Drones
-x6 Piranhas
-x2 Hammerheads
-x1 Skyray

Tactics:

-Commander sits back with with two marker drones. He will sit back and shoot missiles while the drones marker light stuff for the rest of my army.

-My single Riptide kitted out for anti-air with the super Heavy Burst Cannon and either Fusion Blaster or Smart Missile System to provide fire support and be my dedicated anti-air unit since with the Earth Caste Pilot Array it will make him even more effective.

-x24 Fire Warriors in total sitting inside devilfish who will "kite" my opponent bombarding them with smart missiles and burst cannon fire as well as zooming up to snag objectives. My "Deathrain" suits will hang out behind the Devilfish using their Jump-Shoot-Jump ability to keep them in cover and to bombard my opponent with shots. They all have target lock so I can light up multiple tagets if the need arrises.

-Two squadrons of x3 Piranhas zipping around with lots of cheap firepower (an pretty awesome 24 S5 AP5 shots per squad) from their spam of burst cannon shots and drones. They will screen my devilfish or act as a mobile reserve if the enemy gets to close.

-x2 Hammerheads and x1 Skyray to handle any armor my opponent may throw my way, as well as adding in some more markerlights to my army. Both Hammerheads can handle armor and infantry while the Skyrays will be there to unload missiles at flyers, vehicles, heavy infantry, ect. The Hammerheads have sensor spines (since I had 10 points to spare) just so I dont imobilize them.

 gmaleron wrote:


FARSIGHT ALLIES:

-Cadre Fireblade

-Riptide
*w/ Heavy Burst Cannon, Smart Missile System, Riptide Shield Generator, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker, Earth Caste Pilot Array

-x6 Fire Warriors (*Fireblade Here*)
*w/ Pulse Carbines (or) Rifles, Bonding Knife
-Devilfish
*w/ Smart Missile System, Burst Cannon

TOTAL ARMY: 2000 POINTS

So, you may not have read the farsight supplement fully. In order to field the farsight enclaves as an ally or main detachment, you [b]must]/b] have one squad of 3 xv-8's. That would cause such a large point increase, that it will likely throw off a bit of everything.

I have not personally ran a mech-Tau list, so I can't really offer advice there. Tau have a lot of tools to deal with many threats, and it seems like you're doing a good job of being a good TAC list. I don't like the fireblade in a minimum unit of firewarriors, especially if he's hiding in a devilfish. You will never use his ability and even then it's only being used to half of what it could be. You mentioned having 30 points left over to spend. If you can find another 15 points, longstrike is an amazing upgrade to a hammerhead. The tank hunting railgun is just nuts for blowing up enemy armor.

I like the riptide with the HBC, I would run it with fusion over smart missiles. You do seem to be a bit weak on markerlights, with your commander being in the only unit of markerlight support. With the iridium armor he can tank damage like no-one's business, but look into getting a second squad of marker drones with a Mark'O commander at 2k points.


EDIT: You changed the list in the middle of me talking about the previous one

EDIT2: You want disruption pods for your tanks. Turning a 5+ into a 4+ is really good, and if you find a way to be obscured by ruins, it turns the 4+ into a 3+. Also, you still want more markerlights

So, you may not have read the farsight supplement fully. In order to field the farsight enclaves as an ally or main detachment, you [b]must]/b] have one squad of 3 xv-8's. That would cause such a large point increase, that it will likely throw off a bit of everything.

EDIT: You changed the list in the middle of me talking about the previous one

EDIT2: You want disruption pods for your tanks. Turning a 5+ into a 4+ is really good, and if you find a way to be obscured by ruins, it turns the 4+ into a 3+. Also, you still want more markerlights

Yeah I know lol sorry! I realized that after looking at my supplement again so I tweaked it to just be a Farsight Enclave army. i know Disruption Pods are good but they are so expensive that I really did not have the room for them. And I know I am lacking in regards to markerlights but I am going with an "accuracy by volume" approach with this army.

What if you dropped a devil fish and 6xfw for more fw to the other squads and an ethereal?

See how that plays out, FoF would be very effective and ur FW would be more of a threat

1)As written right now your list is illegal. Either you are running a Farsight and your missing bonding from your Fire Warriors. Or you need to move your Crisis suits to your Elites slot.

2) Devil Fish are way to expensive.

3) If you are running a Farsight Drop the Firewarriors and take ALOT more suits which will be more effective than 6 Warriors in a devilfish since it a)has no firing points and b) Is easy to kill.

4)Drop your drone squad and just buy some drones for one of your missle squad at 12pts instead of 14. They all have Target Lock anyway.

5)Unless they have markerdrones you don't need 3 target locks in 1 unit. Plus having EWO on them is better (take out flyers as they come on the board).

6)personally i put fusion blasters on pahranas and give them flechete/disruption pods but thats just me.

 Lemartes12 wrote:
1)As written right now your list is illegal. Either you are running a Farsight and your missing bonding from your Fire Warriors. Or you need to move your Crisis suits to your Elites slot.

2) Devil Fish are way to expensive.

3) If you are running a Farsight Drop the Firewarriors and take ALOT more suits which will be more effective than 6 Warriors in a devilfish since it a)has no firing points and b) Is easy to kill.

4)Drop your drone squad and just buy some drones for one of your missle squad at 12pts instead of 14. They all have Target Lock anyway.

5)Unless they have markerdrones you don't need 3 target locks in 1 unit. Plus having EWO on them is better (take out flyers as they come on the board).

6)personally i put fusion blasters on pahranas and give them flechete/disruption pods but thats just me.

1. Added Bonding Knives, they were there I just forgot to post them origionally, it has been fixed!

2. Running them this way because of the success my buddy who runs them like this has had against multiple opponents. Smart Missiles are awesome and they have absolutely wrecked everything they have come across.

3. Not doing a Farsight Bomb list so I dont need to worry about that, I want this army to be a Mechanized army with some suits to get the best of bost worlds, a Hybrid of sorts between a pure suit list and a Mech list.

4. Then what would be the point of taking the Commander unless you are referring he join that one missile squad? Its not a bad idea if that is the case, will think of that for sure.

5. Good point there, realize I would only need x2 Target Locks max if they had no drones with them, will fix that. And that is an idea to make them more multi-purpose as well with the EWO, will consider that as well.

6. I just think that is way to expensive for cheap easy to kill skimmers and besides for only 40pts. you get alot of firepower and even then are decently hard to kill. I prefer to keep mine cheap, that way I can free up more points for other things.

4) I ment farsight enclave (i just call it farsight) more suits will work better.