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Hi guys. I often play against tau and have been enjoying a fair amount of sucess with my eldar army against them but it may be time to join....well perhaps not the greater good, but just them. I wanted a list that was different, all I see is riptides, pathfinders and broadsides. Usually riflesides in my meta as the ap value is very hand for ensuring a few wounds from transports destroyed especially dark eldar raiders. I want missiles. My dice are cursed, I've mentioned this before so lots of shots is always handy. Also, I don't like the reliance on pathfinders. Their paper mache armour annoys the marine in me but also the fact that marker lights are heavy means you only snapshot when repositioning. So I was thinking marker drones rather than finders.

It's a very rough list. Bear with me.

Commander. Iridium. Shield generator. 2 missile pods. Drone controller. 2 marker drones.
Drone squadron for him to join. 4 marker drones.

6 fire warriors. Shasui, markerlight

6 fire warriors. Shasui, markerlight

Riptide. Ion. Stimms. 2 shielded missile drones.
Support commander multi spectrum sensor suite and command and control node.

2 missilesides. Shasvre. 4 drones.

2 missilesides. Shasvre. 4 drones

2 missilesides. Shasvre. 4 drones

I'm not sure what drones I'd put in with the broadsides maybe shields for some survivability. This leaves about a hundred points spare. Commander markers up what needs killing. may consider dropping his shield for a target lock. And av 14 would cause problems. What do you think?

Your commander can toss the shield generator and take a target lock: it is rare you would want to shoot the same target you mark. Alternatively, you can drop the guns, take stim injectors and some of the fancy signature systems. I always take neuroweb jammer and onager gauntlet. Always. The puretide chip is also good, your drones don't really need the non shooting upgrades so keeping at least one gun is probably a good idea.

At 1500, 12 fire warriors will not cut it in the least. You are a decent shooting or assault phase from losing your scoring units. I would take kroot and outflank with a hound, or larger squads of warriors and an ethereal. Or both, either way dump your spare points here. The 'ui is nice for leadership(but an ethereal is better and can bubble your broadsides!) but never take markerlights. I know you currently have the buffmander for the riptide, but I don't think the slot or points justifies the boost.

Never take drones on the tide, you really don't want to take an Ld test with one...ever. Early warning override is a great system for the ion accellerator. Make sure you have a fusion on the shoulders-as you said you need the anti Av14

I would take missile drones on the sides, or maybe just more broadsides.

I agree with Dr. S. Drop the shield gen in favor of a TL. This way you can mark light one target and fire those missile pods at a different one if needed.

You have 50 points in the two marker light Shas'uis in the FW squads. Units cannot benefit from their own MLs and he could shoot at something else. An alternate route is the Cadre Fireblade; for 10 points more he is Leadership 9, adds Volley Fire, and can Split Fire to toss his BS5 ML off somewhere else.

The Ethereal can be great also. Dump all of the Leadership upgrades across your Army for his Leadership 10 bubble plus his other buffs.

More troops. Consider Kroot with sniper rounds and 1 hound.

For the Broadsides, I prefer the Missile Drones. All Drones just soak up hits, but at least these can pump out a few shots before they die. If you really want some Shield Drones, you can join an Ethereal with 2 Shield Drones to compliment any Missile Drones in your Broadside unit.

EWO on Riptide and Broadsides.

Myceron wrote:
Hi guys. I often play against tau and have been enjoying a fair amount of sucess with my eldar army against them but it may be time to join....well perhaps not the greater good, but just them. I wanted a list that was different, all I see is riptides, pathfinders and broadsides. Usually riflesides in my meta as the ap value is very hand for ensuring a few wounds from transports destroyed especially dark eldar raiders. I want missiles. My dice are cursed, I've mentioned this before so lots of shots is always handy. Also, I don't like the reliance on pathfinders. Their paper mache armour annoys the marine in me but also the fact that marker lights are heavy means you only snapshot when repositioning. So I was thinking marker drones rather than finders.

It's a very rough list. Bear with me.

Commander. Iridium. Shield generator. 2 missile pods. Drone controller. 2 marker drones.
Drone squadron for him to join. 4 marker drones.

6 fire warriors. Shasui, markerlight

6 fire warriors. Shasui, markerlight

Riptide. Ion. Stimms. 2 shielded missile drones.
Support commander multi spectrum sensor suite and command and control node.

2 missilesides. Shasvre. 4 drones.

2 missilesides. Shasvre. 4 drones

2 missilesides. Shasvre. 4 drones

I'm not sure what drones I'd put in with the broadsides maybe shields for some survivability. This leaves about a hundred points spare. Commander markers up what needs killing. may consider dropping his shield for a target lock. And av 14 would cause problems. What do you think?

First of all, you only have two small squads for scoring. They'll get knocked off the board easily. Add more scoring units. If you don't add kroot, at least add a devilfish so you can rush a scoring objective when it gets close to the end of the game. Add some more FWs too. 7, 9, or 12 is ideal numbers. Don't take Shas'ui with markerlights. They are terribly expensive, and you already have a bunch of markerlights via your commander.

You have a commander that is largely going unused as the riptide support. That's something like 115 points for a riptide that's mostly wasted considering you have a bunch of markerlights already. Besides, the commander will not help the riptide when it comes to scattering, which is what you'll probably be using most.

You don't really have anything to handle AV13+ reliably, and no crisis suits at all. Your flexibility will be pretty limited here. Most units will most likely be largely out of range to everything but your riptide.

I play at 1500 points and i have found a solid army list in the form of Tau Empire with Farsight Allies. The Tau codex gives me kroot and firewarriors, and the farsight codex gives me a squad of scoring crisis suits. There's no point penalty for taking farsight allies as well, so i get the best of both worlds.

Myceron wrote:
I wanted a list that was different, all I see is riptides, pathfinders and broadsides.

......So you bring a Riptide and SIX Broadsides? Here's something different that can still compete in local type stuff:

Commander: Iridium, PENchip, NSJ, Onager, Burst Cannon x2, Drone Controller, VRT, Gun Drones x2- 189
Ethereal- 50

Firewarriors x12-108
Firewarriors x12-108
Firewarriors x12-108
Firewarriors x12-108

Skyray: Blacksun Filter- 116
Skyray: Blacksun Filter- 116

Secondary Detachment: Farsight Enclaves

Commander: Missile Pods x2, Drone Controller, Target Lock, Marker Drones x2- 152

Crisis x3: Bonding, Burst Cannons x6, Gun Drones x6- 201 (Run with Warlord...imagine this giant unit grabbing the relic! 16 TL BS5 S5, 8 BS5 S5 and another 24 BS3 S5 shots...with monster hunter if you needed, or tank hunter for light armor, or stubborn for objectives...it goes on!)

Crisis x3: Bonding, Fusion x6, Target Locks x2, VRT- 174

Marker Drones x5- 70 (Run with Mark'o)

Total: 1500

It obviously isn't something you want to take to a larger event than your local 16 man RTT. BUT, it does some hilarious things.

-You've the S5 unit of death....that's scoring....with a Warlord that's VERY hard to kill.
-You've got plenty of AA with the two Skyrays
-You've got BS5 marker support. Granted, it's 1 unit, but range and JSJ will keep you alive and you can pick the ONE thing per turn that just. needs. to die.
- You've got the fusion unit in case you run into multi-raider
-Firewarriors and Ethereal to control the middle of the board with your firepower.

And the best part? NO RIPTIDES, PATHFINDERS OF BROADSIDES.

Awesome advice guys. I've made some initial tweeks.

Commander. Iridium armour, 2 missile pods, target lock, neuroweb jammer, drone controller and 2 marker drones.

4 marker drone squad.

Ethereal.

12 fire warriors

12 fire warriors

Riptide, ion, stimms, early warning overide

2 missilesides 4 missile drones

2 missilesides 4 missile drones

2 missilesides 4 missile drones

This leaves 260 points spare. I'd plant the ethereal in a fw squad, keep the others in the bubble. I was toying with a second Riptide but that seems like I'm providing too few targets for an opponent, especially if they are knocked out or simply ignored. I was also thinking about maybe a fusion suit unit to help with the higher armour.