Tau - 1800 First Attempt

[Sonikgav]

Ok, so dusting off some of the old models, adding a few new and rebuilding others ive come up with this. Its been a while since ive played Tau though so hows it looking?

Commander - 165
TL Missile, Drone Controller, Command and Control Node, Iridium Armor, 1 Shield Drone (Goes with Marker Drones)
Darkstrider - 100 (Goes with Pathfinders)

Fire Warriors x12 - Shas'ui, Bonded - 130
Fire Warriors x12 - Shas'ui, Bonded - 130
Fire Warriors x12 - Shas'ui, Bonded - 130

Crisis x3 - 208
Shas'vre, 2 Shield Drones, TL Plasma x3, Missile x3, Bonded
Riptide - 210
Skyfire, Early Warning Overide, Ion Accelerator, TL Smart Missiles

Drone Unit - 144
Marker Drones x10
Pathfinders x10 - 140
Ion Rifle x3

Broadsides x3 - 252
High Yield Missiles x2 - Bonded, Drone Controller, Target Lock x2, 3 Missile Drones (one each)
Hammerhead - 190
Submunitions, Longstrike, Disruption Pods

Total = 1799

Defensive line list. Most hunkers in a corner and just tries to annihilate all that approach. Focus is on defence hence the Shield Drones on the Crisis suits.

Commander + Drones = 10 BS 5, TL, Marker Lights to target Priority units before the rest of the force tries to incinerate them. Darkstrider + Pathfinders = Bait and Lure with S8 Blasts that can instakill Nob Bikers etc

Crisis Suits and Riptides are the aggressive units. TL Plasma on the Crisis suits means i can jump in and frag the most dangerous units before backing off and the Riptide drops the Ion Accelerator shots as well as being the Anti Air option if its needed.

Fire Warriors, Broadsides and Commander/Drones form the defensive line with Markerlights firing first to make other Overwatch shots more dangerous with the Hammerhead popping enemy armor.

Its gonna need developing as i go but for now, although theres nowhere near as many suits as i wanted, i like it. Any thoughts?


PS. If anyone spots any problems with my points feel free to point em out. I scribbled this down from my friends Codex while i wait for mine to arrive on Monday and im pretty sure i may have a couple of points wrong here or there (mostly on the Battlesuits)

[ElectricPaladin]

So, first of all, I believe that the Tau are naturally a mechanized army. That's going to color my opinions. Like Guard and Eldar, we have fragile scoring units; unlike the Guard, we can't take ginormous blobs that take forever to whittle down, and unlike Eldar, our troops don't come with Relentless weapons platforms that can drive forward while delivering firepower at range. Therefore, it seems natural to me that our fire warriors belong inside devilfishes, where we can keep them safe until it's time to hop out and unload a fusillade of pulse fire or claim an objective. Right or wrong, it's worked for me.



Commander - Cyclic Ion Blaster, TL Plasma, Drone Controller, Iridium Armor - 145pts (With Drones)


If the commander is going to be with the drones, all those points you spent on plasma rifles and an ion blaster are totally wasted. More often than not, he's going to be back in the 30'' to 36'' range, where most enemies can't retaliate to his marker drones.

If I were you, I'd drop the ion blaster and replace it with a Command and Control Node, so he can twin-link those BS 5 markerlights. Then I'd drop the twin-linked plasma and replace it with twin-linked missile pods, so he has a weapon he can use to engage targets at the same range as the markerlights.



Darkstrider - 100pts (With Pathfinders)


No argument there - he's awesome.



Fire Warriors x12 - Shas'ui, Bonded - 130pts
Fire Warriors x12 - Shas'ui, Bonded - 130pts
Fire Warriors x12 - Shas'ui, Bonded - 130pts


See above re: Tau as a naturally mechanized army. YMMV, but that's how I've always played them, and I think it's a good idea.



Crisis Suits x3 - Advanced Targeting System x3, Shas'vre, 2 Shield Drones, TL Plasma x3, Missile x3, Bonded - 217pts


This is too many systems. Crisis suits can take up to three guns/systems. Each of yours has four (Advanced Targeting system, plasma rifle, plasma rifle, and missile pod). No good.



Riptide - Ion Accelerator, Skyfire, Early Warning Overide - 210pts


No Skyfire? You need Skyfire somewhere - either here or the broadsides.



Drone Unit - Marker Drones x10, Shield Drones x2 - 168


Standard Marker'el strategy... though I think you're going in too deep.

Consider that this unit will only be able to mark up a single target. Consider also that at BS 5 (twin linked if you take my advice and add the C&C Node), each drone is extremely likely to hit. Do you really, really need that many markerlights? What are you going to do with ten tokens on one unit? Six is more than enough. I'd spread these points out a little more.

Also, put the shield drones on your Commander instead. He's more likely to need them if he has to detach from the marker unit and mix it up elsewhere, or make a run for it to deny your opponent a Slay the Warlord point or something.



Pathfinders x10 - Ion Rifle x3 - 140pts


A bit of a split-purpose unit. Ion rifles are good for killing things and - IMHO - belong in small mechanized squads with recon drones to act as troubleshooters. Big squads of pathfinders are better as markerlight platforms, unmechanized, to use their Scout redeploy to get into position, then camp that position and mark things up.

I guess this squad can mark things up... and also whittle away at them? Or use the ion rifles if they have to fight it out?

I dunno... the way I look at it, you have your fighting pathfinders who use special weapons, and you have your marker pathfinders who don't take special weapons because that's sacrificing markerlights. They don't need to protect themselves - the rest of your army protects them.



Broadsides x3 - High Yield Misiles x2, Bonded, Drone Controller, Target Lock x2, 2 Missile Drones - 240pts


One of these (probably the missile-fist) needs Skyfire. Drone controllers are nice, sure, but this list is vulnerable to flyers.



Hammerhead - Submunitions, Smart missiles, Longstrike, Disruption Pods - 190pts


No argument here.

[Sonikgav]

Ok, your points (in no particular order)

Bah, forgot about the hardpoints. Id probably drop the Advanced Targetting on the Crisis Suits and keep the Plasma's twin linked.

Im not Mechanizing this force. I made it a point not to do the Fish'o'fury Spam back in 4th and im not gonna do it now. Not only would it force me to change a huge chunk of my list to squeeze them in, Ive always played footslogger infantry so dont worry about those.

The reason ive overloaded on the Marker Drones is so that A. Multiple units can frag the hell out of my chosen target and, B. So that i have a decent chance to catch a few with Overwatch to increase Supporting Fire's chances.

The Ion Rifles are A. Cheaper than Rail Rifles, and B. S8 so a better chance of landing ID against T5 models when combined with Darkstrider.

I do have Skyfire, its on the Riptide, along with Interceptor.

Ill consider what you said about the Commander though. Its actually not a bad plan. Im just used to taking the better Weaponry on them but like you say its at Odds with the Purpose of the Drones.

Ive gone back and edited the main post.

[Shas'O Alohcry]

Can not for the life of me remember my old username, so this is a new account, but I really wanted to throw some ideas to you (and see what you think of them aswell you might have better ideas). I had gone back to lurking but you drew me back out :P




Commander - 165
TL Missile, Drone Controller, Command and Control Node, Iridium Armor, 1 Shield Drone (Goes with Marker Drones)

I never understood this, you are paying 165pts + 144pts for BS5 markerlights, thats alot of points, if you aren't going to use any other Fast Attack slots you are probably better spending the 309pts on either another two units of 10 Pathfinders, probably more markerlight hits and on more units, plus they can contribute to supporting fire with their Pulse carbines, or take a pulse accelerator and make them long range markerlight/fire support units (will talk about it again later)



Darkstrider - 100 (Goes with Pathfinders)

This guy is pretty awesome, I think you should start him with a unit of Fire Warriors, and pay the single point to give the Pathfinders a Blacksun Filter, so that if you roll Night Fight first turn, your pathfinders and one unit of Fire Warriors can fire to full effect. Plus if you put him in a unit about 3" infront of another then when they get charged he can overwatch (with both units) then hopefully run behind them (out of charge range) and in the next turn detatch him from the back unit, and join the front unit, and repeat until the threat is dead.



Fire Warriors x12 - Shas'ui, Bonded - 130
Fire Warriors x12 - Shas'ui, Bonded - 130
Fire Warriors x12 - Shas'ui, Bonded - 130


no real issues here, maybe drop bonded (unless you fell you need it), take a markerlight on your Shas'ui, you dont have to use it, but can be helpful, maybe a couple of Markerdrones here or Gun Drones to beef up the squads and add firepower



Crisis x3 - 208
Shas'vre, 2 Shield Drones, TL Plasma x3, Missile x3, Bonded
Riptide - 210
Skyfire, Early Warning Overide, Ion Accelerator, TL Smart Missiles

Crisis suits, this was the loadout I first thought of using (minus the bonding) on five models your only going to have one guy left, and he will probably die next turn anyway. Riptide, looks good (no idea how well they work though having never used or faced them) would probably be similar to how I would kit one out, maybe not take early warning but can see the appeal



Drone Unit - 144
Marker Drones x10
Pathfinders x10 - 140
Ion Rifle x3

I would drop the marker drones, maybe take two units of 5 or 6 Pathfinders with Ion Rifles or Rail Rifles so they arent wasting so many Markerlight shots if they do kill whatever they shoot at, and pay the measly one point for Blacksun Filters, for 1 point you can relax about the ranges if you roll Night Fighting (or fight Necrons) and like I said earlier, maybe take a unit of 10 with a couple of Special Drones and Marker or Gun Drones to add some more firepower (and pinning shots on anything approaching your Fire Warriors)



Broadsides x3 - 252
High Yield Missiles x2 - Bonded, Drone Controller, Target Lock x2, 3 Missile Drones (one each)
Hammerhead - 190
Submunitions, Longstrike, Disruption Pods

Looks good, dunno if Longstrike will be worth it personally, you can make yourself BS5 with a markerlight that just leaves Tank Hunters, and I really don't know if 45pts is worth that ability, depends how much AV14 you expect to face. Unless you want it for the overwatch, again, not sure if 45pts is worth it, maybe it is we wont know until you try it.

These are just my thoughts though and are influenced by my play style (I also plan to run fish of fury with two of my Fire Warrior squads). Its up to you and how you want to play, but I think Darkstrider Benefits a Fire Warrior squad much more than a Pathfinder squad especially on the first turn.

Also, if you do drop the Commander and Drones for three units of Pathfinders, you should have enough points for a Stealth Suit squad of 3 with one Fusion gun, two drones, two Target locks and two Advanced Targeters (one target lock bought with the Markerlight on the Shas'vre and the Advanced Targeter with his Support slot, I assume that is legal but not sure) the Advanced Targeters on the Burst Cannons, plenty of shots to benefit from the precision shots, all for ~120pts and can shoot 3 targets (and an extra AV14 threat weapon)