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Ok so I know the commander load out looks weird but the way I see it he's a commander not a warrior and with this load out he gives his entire unit twin linked and ignores cover, flamer overwatch, bs5 drones and he's really tough to kill. The basic idea is to infiltrate the stealth team in a central position, weather fire for a round and then deep strike the commander and his team using the homing beacon to do some damage. The pathfinders would laze targets for the skyray and the hammerhead. The fire warriors would leapfrog up keeping in supporting fire range of each other. The piranhas would just be there to harass light infantry and enforce board control.

My only questions are:
1. should I outflank the kroot or infiltrate near objective?
2. Is the commander and his unit well equipped to take on a variety of threats while being survivable?

Any suggestions are welcome but keep in mind I want to complete this army with a minimum real life cost so please keep your suggestions within the parameters of the models listed plus 12 fire warriors, fire blade, 2 ethereals, imperial guard allies(infantry only). That way I only have to buy the battle force, a unit of pathfinders and a unit of kroot. My skyway will also be converted from a devilfish that I own so if you think a devilfish would be better that works too.

HQ
-Commander 235pts
flamer, pure tide engram chip, multi spectrum sensor suite, command and control node, XV8-02 Iridium battle suit, drone controller, vectored retro thrusters, shield generator, neuroweb system jammer, onager gauntlet, 2 gun drones

Elites
-Stealth team (6) 265pts
4 have counter fire defence systems, 1 has fusion gun and target lock, one is Shas'vre w/ homing beacon, marker light, target lock and fusion gun, 2 marker drones, bonding knife ritual.

-XV8 Battlesuit team (5) 345pts
vectored retro thrusters, 2 with target lock and fusion gun, 3 with counter fire defence systems and plasma rifles. 8 gun drones.

Troops
-8 fire warriors 72pts
-8 fire warriors 72pts
-10 kroot 60pts

Fast Attack
-5 pathfinders 55pts
-5 pathfinders 55pts

-Piranha squadron (2) 80pts


-Hammer head gunship 145pts
disruption pod, submunition rounds, twin linked smart missile system

-Skyray 115pts

So this actually looks like a pretty solid tau list for someone just starting out. Few little things I'd tweak...

- Skyways and hammerheads should always have black sun filters. For as cheap as they are there's no reason not to have them.

-commander is pretty well equipped. Couple options here. Turn the gun drones into shield drones, and turn the shield generator into a stim injector. This will free up a few points and still make your commander pretty survivable. I'd also drop the onager gauntlet. There are very few situations in which tau should be in assault and one strong CC attack from a WS4 commander generally isn't going to much.

-stealth teams are really fun to play with but not very cost efficient, so if your just playing casually they work. If your going to be playing in tournaments then drop them for something else. Marker drones don't fit with stealth teams because they have double the range of the stealth suits, so if you use you marker drones at anything over 18 inches, then you'll have 200-ish points of models just sitting there being fat, dumb, and happy for the turn. Gun drones usually do good with these guys. Shasui is good for the leadership boost, but TL and Markerlight generally isn't worth the points(same for the fire warrior shasuis)

-vectored retro should never be on crisis suits. Only on commanders because of the better initiative and even then it's kinda shaky. For best results use it on a shaso and attach farsight to the squad since he has the best tau initiative. (You'll see this in farsight bombs and O'vesa stars)

-troops are a little weak. I can talk much to kroot since I don't run them, though they are popular use to outflank and infiltrate. I can tell you from experience that fire warriors love running off the board, so either give them and ethereal or buy them the shasui and run them in larger number(usually 9-12 fire warriors per squad, that way 3 have to die initially for them to take a morale check)

-I love piranhas. They're a lot of fun. I usually try and run them as singles instead of squadrons since their armor and hull points are lacking.

Ok, so if I swap shield generator on the commander for stim injector, drop onager gauntlet, drop vectored retro thrusters on the XV8s and drop marker drones on the stealth suits that gives me 64pts to play around with so I can buff one of the fire warrior squads to 9 men, get an ethereal, get blacksun filters for the vehicles and have 3 points left over, maybe an advanced targeting system for an xv8? Also since the commander is an IC if he has vectored retro thrusters does he confer hit and run to his whole unit?

Second dropping the shield gen on the commander. Take stims instead, meaning everything short of S10 ap2 or 1 you should do okay against.

Yes, you only need 1 set of thrusters, keep em on the buffmander. Drones are I4, and even with I3 that is a 50% chance to escape combat, worth it for the points.
I disagree about keeping the onager gauntlet. That S10 shot can save your bacon if you get up against something nasty or need some emergency AT.

Markerlight is Ok for the 'ui as you can use it AND the fusion/burst with the multi tracker they come with stock.

 Dr. Serling wrote:
Second dropping the shield gen on the commander. Take stims instead, meaning everything short of S10 ap2 or 1 you should do okay against.

Yes, you only need 1 set of thrusters, keep em on the buffmander. Drones are I4, and even with I3 that is a 50% chance to escape combat, worth it for the points.
I disagree about keeping the onager gauntlet. That S10 shot can save your bacon if you get up against something nasty or need some emergency AT.

Markerlight is Ok for the 'ui as you can use it AND the fusion/burst with the multi tracker they come with stock.

Thanks, Dr. Here's my new version of the list, what do you think?

HQ
-Commander 224pts
flamer, pure tide engram chip, multi spectrum sensor suite, command and control node, XV8-02 Iridium battle suit, drone controller, vectored retro thrusters, stimulant injector, neuroweb system jammer, onager gauntlet, 2 gun drones

-Ethereal 50pts

Elites
-Stealth team (6) 246pts
4 have counter fire defence systems, 1 has fusion gun and target lock, one is Shas'vre w/ homing beacon, marker light, target lock and fusion gun, bonding knife ritual.

-XV8 Battlesuit team (5) 320pts
2 with target lock and fusion gun, 3 with counter fire defence systems and plasma rifles. 8 gun drones.

Troops
-8 fire warriors 72pts
-8 fire warriors 72pts
-10 kroot 60pts

Fast Attack
-5 pathfinders 55pts
-5 pathfinders 55pts

-Piranha squadron (2) 80pts


-Hammer head gunship 146pts
disruption pod, submunition rounds, twin linked smart missile system, black sun filter

-Skyray 116pts
black sun filter

4pts left over, not sure what to do with them

The issue I see is that you have a squad of crisis suits with five suits in it. Unless that is a Farsight bodyguard team, you can't have that. Crisis suits are allowed three suits max in a squad.

Also think of a contingency plan for just in case your commander team doesn't come in on the turn you want them to. If they don't come in your stealth team is going to be left high and dry to be picked off by the closest assaulting unit, BS2 overwatch or not.

Well, then. don't know how I missed the 3 suit part. I see why people love far sight so much now. Maybe if I drop the fusion suits from the main squad and then take a lone suit with tl fusion as AT leaving another 70pts for flamers on all three plasma suits and another 6 fire warriors.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
New correct version with legal xv8 squads :p

HQ
-Commander 224pts
flamer, pure tide engram chip, multi spectrum sensor suite, command and control node, XV8-02 Iridium battle suit, drone controller, vectored retro thrusters, stimulant injector, neuroweb system jammer, onager gauntlet, 2 gun drones

-Ethereal 50pts

Elites
-Stealth team (6) 246pts
4 have counter fire defence systems, 1 has fusion gun and target lock, one is Shas'vre w/ homing beacon, marker light, target lock and fusion gun, bonding knife ritual.

-XV8 Battlesuit team (3) 227pts
counter fire defence systems, flamers and plasma rifles. 6 gun drones.

-XV8 Battlesuit "team" (1) 42pts
twin linked fusion gun, bonding knife ritual (I had one point leftover lol)

Troops
-8 fire warriors 72pts
-8 fire warriors 72pts
-6 fire warriors 54pts
-10 kroot 60pts

Fast Attack
-5 pathfinders 55pts
-5 pathfinders 55pts

-Piranha squadron (2) 80pts


-Hammer head gunship 146pts
disruption pod, submunition rounds, twin linked smart missile system, black sun filter

-Skyray 116pts
black sun filter




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Should I swap the kroot for more fire warriors?

The kroot are fine, it gives you a more flexible/mobile troop with infiltrate/outflank.

List looks good, hope you have fun playing it.

I love using crisis suits and prefer to take them over broadside/riptide heavy lists you commonly see. From using them this is my experience:

It's worth giving them a padding of drones, simple gun drones will do. With just 6 wounds and no invulnerable an unprotected team will melt to any fire quickly. Plasma will eat through them.

Relying on fusion suits for AT is tricky. They have to get close which means advancing across the field. One suit on his own just won't last. One twin-linked BS3 shot won't do much either. If you are going to do this go full hog with 2/3 suits each with 2 fusion blasters. Again I would seriously consider drones for some extra wound buffers too!

Alternatively if it's just light armour you are facing you could run broadsides with high yield missile pods or crisis suits with missile pods. Only strength 7 but thats enough to glance most things to death with sheer weight of fire. Good range too.