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I'm fairly new to the hobby and am still working on building my first army for the Greater Good. This is the list I've put together so far (it currently totals at 717 pts)

HQ

Aun'va

TROOPS

6x Fire Warriors w/ Pulse Rifles
6x Fire Warriors w/ Pulse Rifles
6x Fire Warriors w/ Pulse Rifles
6x Fire Warriors w/ Pulse Rifles

FAST ATTACK

5x Pathfinders
5x Pathfinders

ELITES

Crisis Team
- 2 Shas'ui 1 Shas'vre each w/ 1 TL Plasma Rifle & 1 Burst Cannon

HEAVY SUPPORT

Hammerhead

I was just curious about suggestions to make it more all around competitive (and also fill out those last few points), while still retaining a a good feel for the Tau army (I don't want to be too spammy). I would be open to just about any suggestions. I'm still not sure about the Aun'va, but I figured that his rerolls for morale would really help with the small squad sizes I have. However, I'm not sure if he is worth the 100 pt cost and am looking for some feedback on that (though he is just so much less squishy than an Ethereal). Thanks for the help everyone!

Taking a look at your list at this point level I would make a few suggestions.

First HQ, in my opinion you need to look else where; while the "Space Pope" or Aun'va does provide some fairly good army wide buffs such as re-roll ability on morale checks and the like and is a fairly durable HQ unit. I don't think he does enough as he isn't worth double the points of an ethereal especially at this point level. The Tau is an Army that is at its best when its shooting enemies from a far with a high volume of fire and not taking damage, so you should attempt to use your HQ to improve accuracy or volume of fire. I personally would recommend running one of the following HQs, but HQ is all about your playing style and Aun'va might fit that, just know he is NOT a popular choice

Commander - either Buffmander (my favorite) or Mark'o Commander builds

Fire Blade - great for your back line FWs giving an extra shot up to 30 inches, has a marker light @ BS5 and can split fire, only 60 points

Ethereal - cheap, buffs units within 12, just keep them alive

TROOPS:

FWs at that small of a unit size will not be able to hold let alone reach objectives, even if they pass morale tests, if you cant hold objectives winning is a lot harder as you are relying on secondary objectives for VP. Suggest the following 2 adjustments to your TROOPS

(1) adding at least one unit of Kroot with sniper rounds plus a hound which can be as cheap as 75 points, in order to outflank and infiltrate to contest far objective or hold key terrain.

(2) consolidating your FWs into two larger teams one for backline fire support the other to attempt to take or contest short to mid range objectives

ELITES:

no need to upgrade to the Shas've unless you plan on bringing signature systems save the points

ask yourself what role you want your crisis teams to play then equip them accordingly, i recommend equipping crisis suits with 2x the same weapon non twin linked, with marker light support you can easily in crease BS to equal the benefit of twin link, once again building on volume of fire. I am a fan of running dual missile pods on 3 suits as this gives you 12 S7 AP4 shots per turn at 36 inches.

HEAVY SUPPORT

add submunitions to diversify the hammer heads usues, .


building on your original list I would suggest

HQ - Fireblade

ELITES

Crisis team (3) 2x missile pods

Crisis team (1) 2 x fusion blaster (deep strike this guy to pop a tank or two from behind)


TROOPS

12 x FWs

9 x FWs

10 x Kroot with sniper rounds and hound


FAST ATTACK

4 x PF

4 x PF


HS

Hammerhead, submunitions

Aun'va is not terrible for what he does, but a normal ethereal is better for the cost. Aun'va can absorb Ap1 weapons left and right, but small arms kills him all the same. The regular ethereal bubble should rope in most of your army. As far as the 2 ethereal powers, you rarely need more than one. 6+FNP for long range, storm of fire up close, zephyers grace if you need to move, and stubborn in case you get into combat. Once you get into bigger games, 2 ethereals is usually better than Aun'va, unless you really want 2 ethereals but need the extra HQ slot.

4 scoring units is overkill for 750. I would go with 2 squads of 12, or 1 squad of 12 and 2 squads of six.

Crisis teams are good because they can access weapons the rest of the army can't. Burst cannons are just more S5 ap5, but plasma rifles are not. I would just take 2 plasma rifles per suit, or maybe plasma/fusion for AT duty.

A stock hammerhead is not very good, and worse with the railgun. If you want the railgun you need to spring for longstrike and submunitions. All hammerheads need disruption pods, and smart missiles underneath. Sensor spines are also good if you can afford, but are not required. Skyrays are generally better than hammerheads for the price, markerlights and fairly reliable AT.

Thanks for the advice guys, I definitely think that I'll be consolidating the Fire Warrior squads and moving to either a buffmander or ethereal. Kinda leaning toward the buffmander, but the ethereal powers are really useful.

Still not sure quite what to do with the Crisis Teams, but I think I'm leaning a bit more toward the missle pods. I like the plasma/fusion idea, but I do already have some decently powerful AT with the Hammerhead (which will def get some add-ons).

Once again, thanks for helping a newbie with his list building. Your advice has really helped.