My Tau list! 1850!

[chicop76]

This is what I think is my final list. I put the hammerhead back in to deal with mass 13 armour which gave me problems in my last tournament. Also I decided to go pure Tau this time.

I might change my list, but this is what I am feeling. I will test it this weekend to see how well it does.

1850 Tau

-HQ-

130 Commander:
S Systems: Sig Systems: Puretide Engram Neurochip, Command and Control Node, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite

50 Ethereal:

- Troops -

90 10 x firewarriors

90 10 x firewarriors

90 10 x firewarriors

98 14 x kroot: sniper

105 15 x kroot: sniper

- Elites -

190 Riptide:
RW: Twin- Linked Fusion, Ion Accelerator
SS: Early Warning Override

190 Riptide:
RW: Twin- Linked Fusion, Ion Accelerator
SS: Early Warning Override

-Fast Attack -

100 5 x Pathfinders: 3 x railgun

100 5 x Pathfinders: 3 x railgun

88 8 x Pathfinders

- Heavy Support-

115 skyray:
RW: Smart Missile System

131 Hammer Head:
RW: Railgun w/ submunition, Smartmissile system
VBS: Blacksun Filter

282 3 x Broadsides: 3x target
6 x Missile Drones

Total: 1849
;)

[Themaninthegreenhat]

Looks pretty tight, just a small question, how are you set for anti tank? I see one railcannon, and the riptides can jump around, but that relegates the rip tides to deviate from "killing almost everything" and means that they will be tied to a role for a while.

[chicop76]

Sniper rounds can take out 12 and under, broadsides have rail guns which can glance 14, also I have seeker missiles.

Unless they running a lot of 14 or 13 I have a decent amount of anti-tank.

[Themaninthegreenhat]

Seems solid, as long as you're not up against a Armored IG player, or somebody going crazy with fliers.

[chicop76]

Seems solid, as long as you're not up against a Armored IG player, or somebody going crazy with fliers.

Fought armoured IG with a tone down list and did rather well against them. One of the reasons I added in the hammerhead. My Riptides just lobbed strength 9 re roll pen hits that hit on side armour which worked rather well. The rest of my army was able to dismantle the armour 12 rather easily. The armour 14/13 took a while to kill but I was able to do so.

With land raiders my riptides can go into fusion smash mode to get rid of armour 14.

The only problem I really have is a lot of 13 armour vehicles sittting back out of fusion smash range.

Flyers is a problem, but I can still sort of deal with them. As long as my skyray lives 1 or 2 flyers is not a major problem. However flying MCs seem not to be a problem. I feel like I probably can kill 2-3 MC flyers rather easilt, unless they have a +2 re rollable invulnerable save.

[alski]

Hey chicop, just wondering how this list is holding up for you? Have you had a chance to play it much more or have you scrapped it in favor of a new list?

[chicop76]

I have made several changes, but kept most of the base. I slimmed it down some making it more cost effective.

I drop the hammerhead since it didn't really do anything in many games. The other two heavy options always have done well unless my skyray is taken out early. People don't like missiles that automatically ignore cover saves.

I thought about adding in another skyray, but I have had issues with opponents trying to out range me so I added in Tau Snipers that jsj which have worked rather well, especially for units that get within rapidid fire range of death.

1 spotter, 6 drones which means 18 shots rapid fire due to ethereal. They can be quite durable and have good range with great bs. They really don't need marker lights. Thought about taking Oshova allies to add another boost commander to them for ignore cover and tank/ mc hunter.

I would have to say everybody hates my boosted broadsides. I have kept the railguns due to people like eldar and even crons trying to out range me. The buffs on the strength eight weapons are really nice. I have been able to deal with armour 13 rather easily due to re rolling. Also in Necrons case with being open topped is awesome since if I pen them they explode on rolls of 3 or more, got to love ignoring cover saves. Not to mention the twin linked missile shots that shoot seperate from the squad killing flyers. I would have to say the squads durability and how reliable they are at killing tanks are nice. That being said you need a 6 to pen armour 13, but if all 3 hits hit and you are re rolling pens it's not to hard to pull off.

I drop a lot of pathfinders which has helped a lot. The problem I had was I was getting a lot of bs 8 ignore cover save fire power. Also the railriles are nice, but made lighting abit award when you kill are nearly kill the unit you are marking, also you want to mark the unit prior to using the rail rifles, so I dropped the rifles and run 3 squads of 4 now. It has worked much better for army synergy. Only thing I miss is outflanking more with my pathfinders with rail rifles.

I after hearing how good OShova bomb was. I added a body guard and a regular crisis suit with two fusion guns. They do suicidal deep strikes targeting heavy armour units which my broadsides may have problems dealing with, so far this has worked really well. Due to having to be 9" away for melta range helps with me not mishapping, although I have drifted out of melta range a few times. Even so I have hit rear armour of crons and guard which really helped out. Of course the suits die, but it is for the greater good..

I dropped the Kroot sniper rifles since I rarely used the sniper part due to facing toughness 3 models and sometimes tripple tapping with them. Move through cover and woods win games with them. Plus two cover saves ftw.

I added a transport to my fire warriors to help take objectives alongside the kroot and it has given me more options and mobility.

The Riptides still do a lot of damage, but I didn't notice they don't hit side armour, but a strength 9 hit that rolls 2 dice to pen is good, imagine rolling 2 dice that can re roll. I am thinking of taking the ic riptide from the Oshova codex and adding it to my broadsides. I will drop the missile drones from the sides which will allow me to have 3 toughness 6 models, 1 toughness 5, and 3 toughness 4 models with all 2 plus saves for a majority of toughness 6.

[Bob821]

Hi,

My brother plays Tau a lot and has a very similer list himself that he has been play tersting lately against my Blood angels with guard allies. I run a Landraider and leman russ and he oftern struggles against it because I use a vanguard vet squad to threaten his hammerhead in the first turn. Once this is gone he struggles to kill both tanks and the tend to run about doing as they please!

[Bob821]

Hi,

My brother plays Tau a lot and has a very similer list himself that he has been play tersting lately against my Blood angels with guard allies. I run a Landraider and leman russ and he oftern struggles against it because I use a vanguard vet squad to threaten his hammerhead in the first turn. Once this is gone he struggles to kill both tanks and the tend to run about doing as they please!

And thats the problem with being called out to a job half way though writing a post....

[chicop76]

Hi,

My brother plays Tau a lot and has a very similer list himself that he has been play tersting lately against my Blood angels with guard allies. I run a Landraider and leman russ and he oftern struggles against it because I use a vanguard vet squad to threaten his hammerhead in the first turn. Once this is gone he struggles to kill both tanks and the tend to run about doing as they please!

That's why I added suicidal one man drop suits with two fusion guns. It is another reason why I am strongly thinking about O'Shova allies since I would retain pretty much I already have except one riptide being an ic and my suicidal suits as troops, too bad stealthsuits can't be troops.

Anyway do you keep your landraider up front or wayyyy in the back. Even with this list if you take out the hammerhead the two riptides can still deal with armour 14 due to strength 9 attacks, fusion, or smash.

However I am waiting on the OShova codex so I can rework my list on that. I am strongly leaning towards adding more fusion to my army. I mean I can have 11 fusion suits deep striking and taking out tanks as an option. Throw in a flamer on each they can also deal with hordes as well.

I did thought about at one point taking grey knights as allies. I figured the Vindicare Assassin, riffle dreds, and a few psycan ons with more strength 5 shooting would help on anti tank if it was a huge problem.

So far it hasn't been a huge problem, especially since I added the two fusion suits. Also as a side note I have deep striked my riptides as well and they had been able to fusion some russes as well. In the fights against guard it's been reserving half my army and hoping my army last till the reserves pop in. Typically the guard does really well the first two turns and I start putting the pain down the 3rd and 4th turns. I have to say outflanking with kroot and pathfinders have worked really well against guard whk die in droves.

That being said I have thought about outflanking in the rear deployment zone which is possible. I am thinking about adding a pathfinder team with rail rifles and devilfish back in my army with darkstrider. It would depend if I can deep strike acute or not with a special drone the unit can take. However with the unit I can outflank possibly with the rear in mind or have melta stealth suits do that instead. This would work well with OShova. It is a tactic I am debating on using. That I form a gunline from one end and the other end I outflank with the other half of my army from the rear. This could be really good with allies as well since I can have a bunch of bikes with OShova apear behind your lines while you are fighting the other half of my army pushing up. It's being debated on. As well as a possibility of having Inquisitors as allies for the servo skulls.

For right now I am staying with mono tau, but looking at possibilities. If anything I am strongly looking at anti 14 armour that is long range or can get to point a to point b really quickly.

[Bob821]

Scary stuff for my poor old Blood Angels. I really struggle against riptides. My THSS termies do the job on them no problem as long as they can catch them. Mass plasma does it a fair job as well. It just hard to get enough shots at them to strip off all those wounds.

For what it's worth I'm not sure Tau need allies to be totally amazing. However from a fluff point of view I love the idea a chapter turning to the greater good. Fantastic modeling, painting and gaming options all around!

[chicop76]

Yeah. It's just some thoughts. Just re look at the codex and my allies can't outflank from the rear, so sad. However it dawn on me than I can potentially still rear flank half and army behind someone although I would have to take a devilfish with pathfinders to do that. Meaning Strategic Warlord Trait rolling there over the Tau one. I can also rear deep strike my tides with homing beacons on the same pathfinders that is coming in. The thought of catching armies in a cross fire sounds really tempting. The only problem is the pathfinder unit have to come in on turn 2 first or it will not happen, almost forcing me to take two units to make sure it works.

Yeah I am aware what kills tides. I target or stay away from those units with a vengeance. I never lost two tides in a game yet. I habe learned to stay away with melta bomb guard vets. I would also say having a 3 plus invulnerable as an option really helps out as well. Not to mention they beat down armies like crons in combat.

I only allied with daemons so far and that was for fun. Tau is pretty strong as is. That being said they do benefit from guard, grey knight, eldar, and marine allies. Eldar for example thanks to prescience helps reduce marker light depenance. Marine bikes really help with objective grabbing and keeping the enemy back, plus dem melta guns don't hurt. Two bikes is easily equal to a crisis suit. Grey Knights have the Vindicator and Guard have the Vendetta which really helps cover what the Tau lacks, so any mobility and anti tank options other armies provide really helps out the Tau.

When I am not lazy I might post my current Tau list which have been doing really well. Only concerns so far has been scouting units for the most part. Even with that in mind my kroot have been keeping that from being an issue. However I do fear if those scout armies have infiltraters as well or if they have servo skulls with a huge hunk of the army scouting. Even with this as long as I reduce the chance for multi assaults I can still do pretty well against this.

The times I have lost with my tau was against Necrons and Grey Knights, which after I changed my list and went more long range it isnt as much of a problem as before. I was losing due to the range game for the most part. Even than the loses wasn't with this list. It was when I went missile side and didn't play with the buff commander.

[chicop76]

Without looking army bulider this is my current Tau list. That being said some details may be slightly off and you may have to adjust to fit according. Meaning dropping a fire warrior or kroot here and there. Also been taking a break with Tau, so only played a few games with the new marines. Haven't been playing since the Inquisition book. Depending on how much or what concerns I now have to worry about will help me decide on what to do next. However i would say I played this list a lot and it has preformed really well after many trial and errors.

1850 Tau

HQ
Ethereal
Commander: Purtide, Command and Control, Multi, Iriduim Armour,
Body Guard: 2 fusion guns

Elite
Riptide: ion, fusion
Riptide: ion, fusion
Crisis suit: 2 fusion guns

Troops
10 fire warriors
10 fire warriors
12 fire warriors
Devilfish: Smartmissiles
12 kroot
12 kroot

Fast
4 pathfinders
4 pathfinders
4 pathfinders

Heavy
1 controller, 6 sniper drones
3 rail sides with target locks, 6 missile drones
Skyray

Now that it is harder to instakill my commander it makes my broadsides more durable. I have debated on adding fnp, but cover saves have been a blessing, unless you face tau which look out sirs start becoming mandatory. I have been forced to gtg with my broadsides a few times. However thanks to marker lights it helps keep them in the game. Also I would say the gtg warlord trait is a really good warlord trait, too bad riptides can't gtg.

I am thinking about making a funner to play with Tau list. This list on the receiving end I been told hasn't been fun. It has done really well against daemons so far. My tactic so far is kill anything without a crap load of buffs on them. Has worked so far. Also against nids I almos tabled the nid player on turn one. He had one trigon, his swarmlord, and a tervigon left alive. In all honestly I could had killed everything but the trygon, helped that I went first though. Also I was being nice since he was getting upset. I told him not to play his nids though.

[alski]

Chicop76, thanks for posting all that. Your insight is very, very helpful. :)

[chicop76]

No problem. I was thinking about adding another side unit, but realized that snipers was a cheaper option and better vs higher wound models. If I get more snipers I would like to run 9 of them instead of 6.

Oh I have ran with a skyshield. I have to saw awesome for my broadsides and skyray.

[The Dave]

Chicop76,

Thanks for the super-insightful look into Tau and how you run your lists! I've definitely been wondering how to incorporate a few things into my lists and this helps a ton.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

how has the list changed as well as adapted with the new addition of spae marines as well as sister and inquisition? i know with as rapidly as the meat changes i look at having a balanced and adapatable list as something that will always do better then going one way or another.

[chicop76]

I been away out the game a bit. I can tell you pre inquisition. I have played new and white scar armies and still have done well. Mainly due to kroot screen and scout denial.


At this point I am looking over my options. For example if I run inquisition I may not really need kroot for example. Also scoring units like eldar or marine bikes do look attractive.

However Taudar is a really good alliance and Taurines are ok.