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Hello Dakka!

I just got my brother into the game recently and bought him a few pieces to start off his army, he just recently bought the Tau book and we skimming through it as well as looked around a bit online for some good configurations. We eventually came up with this list. I'm no Tau player so I come to you friends!

HQ: 2
Battlesuit Commander w/ Drone Controller, Stimulant Injector, TL Missle Pod. (6 Missle Pod drones.)
and, 2 Bodyguards w/ TL Missle Pods, and Early Warning Override.
Commander Farsight.
6 Bodyguards w/ Plasma Rifles, Fusion Blaster, and Shield Generators.

Elite: 1
Xv104 Riptide w/ Smart Missile System, Ion Acclerator, Stimulant Injector, and Counterfire Defense System.

Troops: 2
12 Fire Warriors w/ 2 Marker Light Drones.
12 Fire Warriors w/ 2 Marker Light Drones.

Fast Attack: 2
11 Man Vespid Stingwing Squad w/ Vespid Strain Leader.
11 Man Vespid Stingwing Squad w/ Vespid Strain Leader.

Heavy Support: 1
2 Man XV88 Broadside Team w/ Twinlinked Heavy Rail Rifle, Twinlinked Smart Missile System.


The commander is meant to sit back are fire missiles at anything really, commander Farsight's guard is meant to combat similar elite units, along with the riptide, Fire Warriors are there because there must be troops (My brother is not too fond of them really.) We also decided to put in some Stingwings because he just loves the models, and I thought it would be silly if he managed to scare anyone off with them, Broadside's are there to help bring some more firepower. The list looks okay to me, but like I said I am not too informative when it comes to Tau. So please help us!

If he doesn't like Firewarriors you could go the kroot route and play a heavy merc theme. OR you could go enclaves and have scoring battlesuits. Either way, a few pointers:

Never twin link a weapon on a commander. He's already BS5. Also, never mix weapons on a single suit. You can sometimes, if it's target locked, have a suit with different weapons than the rest, but generally speaking, just load up the team with the same weapons.

Likewise, only twin-link weapons in regular suits when you are sure they'll never benefit from Markerlights. And even then, if you have the points just double up. I'm not a math guy but tere are plenty of amateur statisticians on here who will tell you 2 guns is more efficient than 1.5.

Don't load up on shield generators. The only guy who should have this is maybe the commander; and he should also have Iridium suit. T5 and a 2+. Take a look at other signature systems if you aren't going enclaves or if you ally regular tau TO Enclaves. MSS and CCN can create nasty combos.

Don't bother with CDS on the riptide. EWO is infinitely better.

Don't bother with EWO on crisis suits. Put it on the broadsides. Speaking of, HYMP > HRR.

That's generally speaking. I have to run. More later.

And take a look at the FAQ for Tau, only Broadsides can take missile drones. Also, drone controller does not effect missile drones.

Vespid are one of the most aweful units in our book, I recommend pathfinders for markerlights instead.

As the previous poster said, look at the signature systems for tau; multispectrum sensor suite, command and control node, and puretide engram neurochip are fun upgrades for a commander model.

If you want the str 7 missile spam, go with missile broadsides instead of railsides. Str 8, ap 1 looks like a good tank killer on paper, but performs poorly on the table top. Eight str 7 shots have a better chance at penetrating/ glancing than one str 8 shot.

Check out advancedtautactica.com. This website is incredibly helpful for any Tau player for knowledge and tactics that work on the tabletop.

Thank you both kindly for the responses! I'll have him look over the pathfinders, and stealth suits, as well as the other systems and drone loadouts. Thanks a lot for recommending the load outs in general, and especially for that website. Going to rework the list later today, and give it a second shot!

When you rework it; post it in this thread so we can polish it if necessary. You don't wanna waste that hard-earned money.

are you even sure farsight can take alien auxiliaries?

Back again guys and we've made a few changes looking up more loadouts and whatnot. (He still REALLY REALLY wants to use the vespids.) I do think it looks a lot better then it did before even if it was just a little bit of swapping, we had a lot of spare points getting rid of the shields from the suit blob.

HQ: 2
Battlesuit Commander w/ Puretide Engram Neurochip, Shield Generator, 2 Missile Pods.
2 Bodyguards w/ 2 Missile Pods, and Early Warning Override.
Commander Farsight.
6 Bodyguards w/ Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster, and Counterfire Defense System.

Elite: 1
Xv104 Riptide w/ TL Plasma Rifle, Ion Accelerator, Stimulant Injector, and Early Warning Override.

Troops: 2
12 Fire Warriors.
12 Fire Warriors.

Fast Attack: 3
9 Man Vespid Stingwing Squad w/ Vespid Strain Leader.
9 Man Vespid Stingwing Squad w/ Vespid Strain Leader.
10 Man Pathfinder Squad w/ Pulse Carbines, Markerlights, Grav-Inhibitor Drone, Shas'ui Leader.

Heavy Support: 2
XV88 Broadside w/ TL High Yield Missile Pod, TL Smart Missile System,
Early Warning Override, and 2 Missile Pod drones.
XV88 Broadside w/ TL High Yield Missile Pod, TL Smart Missile System,
Early Warning Override, and 2 Missile Pod drones.

I really don't think you can take vespids if your using farsight

Hm, I can't seem to find any rules saying you can't take them. This isn't an enclave list if that helps at all.

I don't have the supplement on hand, but if I recall, it only bars you from fielding aun'va or shadowsun.

If he's dead set on using vespid, then the list will work.

I really, REALLY recommend the command and control node and tbe multispectrum sensor suite on your farsight bomb. Any of the bodyguards can take them. They will boost the effectiveness of the farsight bomb.

If your brother wants to run a Farsight bomb there a million threads on the right way to do it. This really isn't the way. That being said, I'm not going to launch into a dissertation about it if this is purely for giggles. If he wanted to play competitively the Vespids wouldn't be suiting up so I gather this is friendly. That being said, if he changes his mind the search function is your friend.

Even in a friendly environment though; you need to fix it up a little. I'll reiterate what I said earlier: Having 2 different weapons on the same suit is a mistake. You have 6 bodyguards. If you want a mix if MPs and Fusion, have 4 double MP and 2 double fusion suits (AND give the fusion suits target locks so they can shoot at different targets). I should add that Plasma would operate better for a bomb than missile pods.

I'm gonna stop there because I don't want to waste my breath if he just wants to run what he wants to run. I'll be around to chime in if you have questions.

Farsight's bodyguard all have the heilos loadout (Plasma Rifle, and Fusion Blaster) I read up that It's particularly effective against tough models like terminators and MCs. All of the MPs are on the second HQ choice along with his bodyguard. Is the heilos loadout no longer a viable option? And we'll look over the command node.

drop the bodyguards, off the commander, the elite guys are cheaper and he can join them.

the commander should only shoot if hes on drone babysitting duty. otherwise youll get much more use out of him as a buff source.

the farsight bomb as said before will work much much better if you do 5 with double plasma rifles and 2 with double fusion and target locks. (extra fun if you join the buffmander to them for twin-linked/ ignores cover/ tank hunter goodness). youre crippling your damage output by giving every suit a plasma rifle and a fusion blaster. while were on that unit if youre going to give them upgrades skip the Counterfire upgrade and for the same points give them a flamer (automatically D3 hits if assaulted which is when you would use that upgrade anyway).

vespid are really a waste of points, they are a 1 shot pony and your points and army will be better served with more pathfinders or if you want an offensive unit I've grown to really appreciate the Piranha.

drop the special drones and the leader off the pathfinders as well. the points spent on the leader aren't worth what he gives and the special drones are to expensive for what they give you (if your pathfinders are being assaulted you've already lost that unit they just haven't figured it out yet). also to save points I wouldn't take more than 8 pathfinders to a unit. any more than that and you have too large of a unit to keep properly in cover and spaced.

the riptide is a beast without the stims. I would drop that off to save points and put them somewhere else. if your using the ion accelerator then I would also take the missile pod for the range or if youre going to be getting that close go for the gusto and take fusion on him for tank killing, hes already exceptional at killing TEQ and MEQ so give him the versatility to take on some armour as well. however since hes just starting out id stick with the missiles on it.