Tau 1500

[Learn2Eel]

Hey guys, I'm trying to get a nice, balanced army list up for a friend of mine. Now, what you will all probably notice is the lack of Velocity Trackers here - I've found that each two-strong Broadside team with missiles averages two Strength 7 hits and two Strength 5 hits even without Velocity Trackers when Snap Firing, which given that there are three teams, should be fine against most armies featuring fliers. Our meta usually sees two fliers maximum per army list - no one (except me) ever runs more than two fliers/flying monstrous creatures in an army list, and Stormtalons are more the norm than Stormravens. Plus, if my Riptides take Fusion Blasters, that is five twin-linked Fusion Blasters and two non twin-linked Fusion Blasters to use in a pinch against pesky fliers. And of course, with fourteen Markerlights in the army, I should be getting some good Ballistic Skill boosts if I really need to take any fliers out. I'm not sold on the Troops, as I think an Ethereal providing Stubborn to the three Fire Warrior teams is necessary, but I'm not sure where to drop the points. I was also unsure as to what is a good size for Pathfinder teams. Shadowsun joins the Crisis Team - I thought about a Commander with Iridium Armour to soak up Strength 8 wounds, but Shadowsun providing Stealth and Shrouded whilst Infiltrating them forward for less seemed a better deal. The Riptides are modeled with all secondary weapon systems so that I could test them and see what works, though I feel in an army where most of its anti-AV14 firepower is found in the one unit, the fusion blasters may be preferable. Thanks for any and all feedback!

Tau 1500

HQ
Commander Shadowsun - 135 (Warlord)

Troops
Fire Warriors (10) - 90
Fire Warriors (10) - 90
Fire Warriors (10) - 90

Elites
Crisis Team (3) all w/ plasma gun, twin-linked fusion blaster - 171
Riptide w/ ion accelerator, early warning override - 190
Riptide w/ ion accelerator, early warning override - 190

Fast Attack
Pathfinders (7) - 77
Pathfinders (7) - 77

Heavy Support
Broadsides (2) w/ high yield missile pods - 130
Broadsides (2) w/ high yield missile pods - 130
Broadsides (2) w/ high yield missile pods - 130

1500 on the dot.

[Tynskel]

You must be using loaded dice, or rounded anything to the next decimal. 8 str7 shots at bs1 does not translate well to 2 hits.

[Learn2Eel]

The high-yield missile pods and smart missile systems on the Broadsides are twin-linked. So actually, eight S7 shots at BS1 that re-roll to hit should average about two hits - ditto the S5 shots.

[Tynskel]

my bad. I didn't realize the High Yield Missile System was Twin-Linked. Even then, twin-linked BS1 is not exactly going to generate 2 hits. You have a little under 0.3 chance to hit, per shot, if I have my maths right.

[Learn2Eel]

my bad. I didn't realize the High Yield Missile System was Twin-Linked. Even then, twin-linked BS1 is not exactly going to generate 2 hits. You have a little under 0.3 chance to hit, per shot, if I have my maths right.

No worries, the missiles are just that good :)
I look at it just from the number of dice and averages based on that; eight dice should see one six, and the seven re-rolled dice should see another six. I might be wrong though.

[Tynskel]

yeah, I messed up my maths. I think I was looking at only 1 broadside, not 2.
Just remember this is sudo probability. oh no, not sudo... pseudo.

[Learn2Eel]

Haha!
Do you think it is a good army list overall though?

[Tynskel]

Well, I have not been much of a fan of spam. The Tau now have so many units that are good, I would branch out.

[Learn2Eel]

Cheers. The person I'm designing the army list for is a big fan of battlesuits, and he loves the Riptide model, so that's why I went battlesuit-heavy. And the best part is that it is still a pretty decent army list for the most part - all it really lacks is mobility, but with the amount of firepower on offer, blowing the enemy off of key objectives shouldn't be too hard. I'll see if the person wants to compromise on all the battlesuits.

[Tynskel]

There is taking a lot of battlesuits, and there is taking lots of variety of battlesuits.
Shadowsun is cool n' all, but her drones are really important. 3++ invulnerables for the just in case cover ignoring. If you aren't going to spend the points for that, then you should just take a regular crisis suit commander.

[Iceman]

It looks like it would work well in most circumstances. The problem I would see is that you don't have a good way to get scoring units on objectives outside of your deployment zone. I know Devilfish are expensive but Tau don't have any other options. Also, I'm a big fan of the Hammerhead due to its ability to take out AV 14 vehicles. I would consider dropping one of the Broadside teams to get one in. I would also look to get points in by dropping the Pathfinder teams to 6 each since that should average 3 markerlight hits each.