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I have a 2000 Point ITC tournament next week and have been trying to put a strong list together to be competitive with Tau. The top tables in my Meta always bring strong net lists.

My general strategy is to castle up and declare montka (situational) to generate a wide sense of board presence. I will have two stealth squads which can provide screening for the coldstars who could go around together or separately claiming objectives and harassing units.

I am unsure on CDS on one riptide as I am not sure if I will face a large number of flyers. I feel with orks being big in the meta the re-roll overwatch will be really handy.

*Side Note*- I have used Dark Strider in the list in the past and he worked well with the +1 wound ability, however against a 4 knights list I found I needed a few more drones to keep all 3 riptides operating.

Let me know what you think of my list.

2000 Point List- Exactly!!


Tau Empire Battalion Detachment- Tau Sept

HQ- Cadre Fireblade w/ Markerlight [Puretide engram neurochip] Warlord [TUD]

HQ- Shadowsun

Troops- 5x Fire Warriors 5x Pulse Rifles, 1x Markerlight
Troops- 5x Fire Warriors 5x Pulse Rifles, 1x Markerlight
Troops- 5x Fire Warriors 5x Pulse Rifles, 1x Markerlight

Elites - Riptide w/ Heavy Burst Cannon, 2x Smart Missile Systems, Target Lock, Advanced Targeting System
Elites - Riptide w/ Heavy Burst Cannon, 2x Smart Missile Systems, CDS, Advanced Targeting System
Elites - Riptide w/ Heavy Burst Cannon, 2x Smart Missile Systems, Velocity Tracker, Advanced Targeting System

Fast Attack- 7x Shield Drone
Fast Attack- 7x Shield Drone
Fast Attack- 6x Shield Drone


Tau Empire Battalion Detachment- Tau Sept

HQ- Ethereal
HQ- XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit x/ Missile Pod, High Output Burst Cannon, Supa Nova launcher (relic), ATS

Troops- 5x Fire Warriors 5x Pulse Rifles, 1x Markerlight
Troops- 5x Fire Warriors 5x Pulse Rifles
Troops- 5x Fire Warriors 5x Pulse Rifles

Elite- 3x Stealth Suits
Elite- 3x Stealth Suits

Tau Empire Vanguard Detachment- Sa’cea

HQ- XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit x/ 4x Fusion Blaster

Elite- Firesight Marksman
Elite- Firesight Marksman
Elite- Firesight Marksman



Command Points: 13- After extra relic

I'm not that familiar with Tau, but maybe you should put the other Coldstar in a Tau Sept detachment and move the Ethereal to the Sacea one? That would allow the Commander to help trigger the Focused Fire stratagem or to benefit from it, you would give up the free hit reroll but commanders have 2+ BS and 1 Markerlight lets you reroll ones.

 THE_LIST_MASTER wrote:
I'm not that familiar with Tau, but maybe you should put the other Coldstar in a Tau Sept detachment and move the Ethereal to the Sacea one? That would allow the Commander to help trigger the Focused Fire stratagem or to benefit from it, you would give up the free hit reroll but commanders have 2+ BS and 1 Markerlight lets you reroll ones.

I would love to do that but Tau Commanders are restricted to only 1 per detachment. So it does make it difficult, otherwise I would make the swap in a heart beat.

I'm not a massive expert on Tau but I played a few games with them last year at Blood and Glory (event in UK) and I enjoyed using them. Looking at your list, I would be tempted with the following but please take with a pinch of salt as I'm not an expert and not fully aware of ITC rules...

This is 1998 and everything is Tau Sept. Drop Relics where you want.

[Battalion Detachment]
HQ - Cadre Fireblade: Markerlight
HQ - Commander Shadowsun
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Elites - XV104 Riptide Battlesuit: 2x Smart missile system, Advanced targeting system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock
Elites - XV104 Riptide Battlesuit: 2x Smart missile system, Advanced targeting system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock
Fast Attack - XV109 Y'vahra Battlesuit, Advanced targeting system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock

[Battalion Detachment]
HQ - Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit: 4x Fusion blaster
HQ - Ethereal: Honour blade
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Elites - Firesight Marksman: Markerlight, Pulse pistol
Elites - Firesight Marksman: Markerlight, Pulse pistol

[Battalion Detachment]
HQ - Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit: Airbursting fragmentation projector, High-output burst cannon, Missile pod
HQ - Darkstrider
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Fast Attack - 5 Shield Drones
Fast Attack - 5 Shield Drones

For me, it gives you loads of Command Points (18) and lots of options. It's not too dissimilar to your original list, but I think it gives you some more punch thanks to the Y'vahra (it just deletes stuff but expect it to die every game).

Gaz Taylor wrote:
I'm not a massive expert on Tau but I played a few games with them last year at Blood and Glory (event in UK) and I enjoyed using them. Looking at your list, I would be tempted with the following but please take with a pinch of salt as I'm not an expert and not fully aware of ITC rules...

This is 1998 and everything is Tau Sept. Drop Relics where you want.

[Battalion Detachment]
HQ - Cadre Fireblade: Markerlight
HQ - Commander Shadowsun
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Elites - XV104 Riptide Battlesuit: 2x Smart missile system, Advanced targeting system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock
Elites - XV104 Riptide Battlesuit: 2x Smart missile system, Advanced targeting system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock
Fast Attack - XV109 Y'vahra Battlesuit, Advanced targeting system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock

[Battalion Detachment]
HQ - Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit: 4x Fusion blaster
HQ - Ethereal: Honour blade
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Elites - Firesight Marksman: Markerlight, Pulse pistol
Elites - Firesight Marksman: Markerlight, Pulse pistol

[Battalion Detachment]
HQ - Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit: Airbursting fragmentation projector, High-output burst cannon, Missile pod
HQ - Darkstrider
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Troops - 5 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifkes and a Markerlight
Fast Attack - 5 Shield Drones
Fast Attack - 5 Shield Drones

For me, it gives you loads of Command Points (18) and lots of options. It's not too dissimilar to your original list, but I think it gives you some more punch thanks to the Y'vahra (it just deletes stuff but expect it to die every game).

I do appreciate the list, however I only own 33 fire warriors so I can not put together 3 battalions. :/

Jbish92 wrote:
I do appreciate the list, however I only own 33 fire warriors so I can not put together 3 battalions. :/

Ah, no problem then. Hopefully it gives you some ideas for future stuff though. I found when I used Tau, I used all the CP very, very quickly (although it didn't help that I had overcosted some strategems by not remembering or checking the costs!!!). Also can not recommend the Y'vahra enough!

I'm not a tau player but I do keep up with the tactica and rules, and as an eldar player I can tell you you're going to struggle against any list with a wave serpent. I think that your list has a lot of AT in the form of 2 damage and d3 damage weapons but you only have 1 coldstar fusion commander to get the d6 damage that you need for large targets. I think you should drop a riptide for a broadside with a heavy rail gun to give you some extra range. Those broadsides are pretty tough too and I think would add a little needed variety to your list