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Hey I just was wondering if there was any strong, cheap, (not exactly competitive) tau lists out there. Was wondering if you could please copy and paste them below please? (Strong means can hold its own against a lot of armies, doesn't have to be all of them.)

Well do you care what you play? Everything in 40k is relative when you say cheap. What kind of budget are you talking here?

Uh, I can go to about $300-400, and I'm thinking like any way to play them. Like fast attack orientated or heavy support oriented

Tau are generally Elite oriented, but Heavy support is okay, 400 dollars will not get you a COMPETITIVE 1850 list but you could get a commander 3 riptides, a bunch of drones, the get started box and a stormsurge for 390 if you buy from those bay stores that give big discounts. That would get you a solid 1850 point list you could bring to a local tourney and do like top 3-4.

Ok thank you all for the advice

When I started collecing tau, I found some great deals on ebay. Start with a codex and pick the units you like. I only play casually with mates so I'm still playing from the 7th ed (2013) codex. I usually play 1000pt games and a nice balanced list I like taking is:

HQ:
Cadre Fireblade
2x drones


Troops:
12x Firewarriors

16x Kroot
4x Kroot hounds


Elite:

2x XV8 CBS with 2x Fusion Blasters, 1 with VRT
2x drones

2X XV8 CBS with 2x missle pods, 1 with Velocity Tracker
2x drones


Fast Attack:

5x Pathfinders

2x Piranhas


Heavy Support:

1x Ion Head

1x Skyray


With a bit of strategy and planning I've had a lot of fun with this list

I'd advise getting a starter set or two for the crisis suits and essentially free fire warriors.

The commander model is very expensive and the budget way would be to model a crisis suit as a commander and give him a different paint scheme.

This would give you

Crisis commander

5 crisis suits

24 fire warriors

2 ethereal (don't use these)

play some small games with these and see how you like them,

your list would essentially be something like

commander -
iridium armor, shield gen, stim injector, pen chip, MSS, CC node.

crisis suit x 3 - double plasma

crisis suit - double fusion

crisis suit - double fusion

2x 12 fire warrior squads or
3x 8 fire warrior squads

ideally you just want to have an answer for anything that you will come across in a game.

as you build up drones I'd model them as marker drones (target lock + pulse carbine conversion = marker drone)

as your next purchase I'd pick up a riptide, broadside unit, or try out some ghost keels if you like them.

once you have enough marker drones you can run the drone network formation with them.

essentially don't waste your money by following the below

Competitive and relevant

commander
crisis suit
riptide
broadside
skyray
tetra
marker drone
ghostkeel
stormsurge
remora drones

have their uses

kroot
firewarrior
piranha (unless in formation i'd never consider these)

If you're playing for fun
(most things in this list have roles that can be done better/more efficiently by things in the competitive list - these are essentially legacy units now)

flying commander
hammerhead
vespid
fliers
stealth suits
pathfinders
devilfish
drone sniper team
pathfinders

 Sheit27 wrote:
I'd advise getting a starter set or two for the crisis suits and essentially free fire warriors.

The commander model is very expensive and the budget way would be to model a crisis suit as a commander and give him a different paint scheme.

This would give you

Crisis commander

5 crisis suits

24 fire warriors

2 ethereal (don't use these)

play some small games with these and see how you like them,

your list would essentially be something like

commander -
iridium armor, shield gen, stim injector, pen chip, MSS, CC node.

crisis suit x 3 - double plasma

crisis suit - double fusion

crisis suit - double fusion

2x 12 fire warrior squads or
3x 8 fire warrior squads

ideally you just want to have an answer for anything that you will come across in a game.

as you build up drones I'd model them as marker drones (target lock + pulse carbine conversion = marker drone)

as your next purchase I'd pick up a riptide, broadside unit, or try out some ghost keels if you like them.

once you have enough marker drones you can run the drone network formation with them.

essentially don't waste your money by following the below

Competitive and relevant

commander
crisis suit
riptide
broadside
skyray
tetra
marker drone
ghostkeel
stormsurge
remora drones

have their uses

kroot
firewarrior
piranha (unless in formation i'd never consider these)

If you're playing for fun
(most things in this list have roles that can be done better/more efficiently by things in the competitive list - these are essentially legacy units now)

flying commander
hammerhead
vespid
fliers
stealth suits
pathfinders
devilfish
drone sniper team
pathfinders

I agree with this mostly, however I do enjoy using the hammerhead myself. But I don't use the tetra or remora drones at all (no forgeworld) and I don't use the stormsurge as everyone in my area that plays is new (including me) and they couldn't handle a stormsurge. However we are all using 2000 point armies now so it shouldn't be long. But back on topic I have to agree. Definitely try out the optimized stealth cadre. Its great imo. If you come up with a list idea eventually send it to me. I'll build it and test it for you if you'd like! I'd love to see how it does in my meta even if you don't want someone to test it!

Blitzbringer wrote:
Hey I just was wondering if there was any strong, cheap, (not exactly competitive) tau lists out there. Was wondering if you could please copy and paste them below please? (Strong means can hold its own against a lot of armies, doesn't have to be all of them.)

ebay can is your ticket to less cash for models in less demand, thus not so competitive.

Then again, if you can double your spending:

2 Storm surges $150 each.
3 Riptides $85 each
Box of suits and 10 Fire Warriors $85.

This is a list a GT guy uses, but is $640 according to GW's prices.

It looks like this:

Cmdr - Drone Controller
two units of x5 FWs
two units of Marker Drones
two Storm Surges - EWO, Shield
three Riptides - EWO, Stims, BurstCans & SMS

It weighs in at 1790 points, but I'm sure there's some PEN chip upgrade, Irid Armor on the HQ suit and a few more things.