Once Again, Help Needed And Welcomed.

[TauBoss]

Hi Everyone, i am at a bit of a loose end with this list. I know the the Riptides are boring. But i dont know anything that is more effective. In response to a previous comment i have put all my soft fire warriors in Devilfish so that they can move and last longer. The kroots are just a meat sheild for my HQ plus they have rending. The idea is that every troop squad has its own Ripride and the Tanks will distract attention away from them. My last list had two squads of pathfinders, but these are too soft and arnt working for me. I suspect as im not useing them correctly.

HQ
Cadre Fire Blade

Troops
10 Fire Warriors+Devilfish with Smart Missile System.

10 Fire Warriors+Devilfish with Smart Missile System.

10 Fire Warriors+Devilfish with Smart Missile System.

10 kroot with sniper rounds.

Elites
Riptide with Ion Accelerator, Fusion Blaster, Velocity Tracker, Early Warning Override.

Riptide with Ion Accelerator, Fusion Blaster, Velocity Tracker, Early Warning Override.

Riptide with Ion Accelerator, Fusion Blaster, Velocity Tracker, Early Warning Override.

Heavy Support
Hammerhead Longstrike, Disruption Pod, Submuntions, Smart Missile System.

Hammerhead, Disruption Pod, Submuntions, Smart Missile System, Black sun filter.

Sky Ray, Smart Missile System, disruption pod, Black Sun Filter.

Fortification
Aegis Defence Line With Icarus Las

All in this is an 1850.

Thanks for your time BoLS

[Dave Mcturk]

the brb scenarios are pants; look up some tournament 'double scenario' systems, uk or usa, then your tau armies will do much better.
[we are using ADEPTICON13 / USA or RUINSTORM14 / UK] they are subtly different and incorporate two brb scenarios each.

[Gleipnir]

What units do you have available?

[TauBoss]

What units do you have available?

I have evrything listed in the first post plus;

6 piranhas
25 pathfinders
30 kroot
12 fire warriors
12 vespids
12 kroot hounds
2 Ramoras
1 hammerhead
6 Broadsides
9 XV8's
Farsight
2 cadre firblades
1 etheral

Im not a fan of allies, because i dont really think they fit in with fluff. But i do like the idea of a chaos tainted Tau Cadre.

[Katharon]

Broadside teams (two of them with rail guns and one with missile pods) are far more effective than buying two Hammerheads and a Skyray bomber. I'd suggest changing to that.

[Dave Mcturk]

kroot snipers are a steal; as long as you dont play on billiard boards.:eek:

[TauBoss]

Broadside teams (two of them with rail guns and one with missile pods) are far more effective than buying two Hammerheads and a Skyray bomber. I'd suggest changing to that.

Ill play test both. Both squads of broadsides and hopefully ill have some points left over for some more kroots. Thanks for the help guys. Ill repost with the results, ill just need a couple of weeks. Thanks again.

[Gleipnir]

I have evrything listed in the first post plus;

6 piranhas
25 pathfinders
30 kroot
12 fire warriors
12 vespids
12 kroot hounds
2 Ramoras
1 hammerhead
6 Broadsides
9 XV8's
Farsight
2 cadre firblades
1 etheral

Im not a fan of allies, because i dont really think they fit in with fluff. But i do like the idea of a chaos tainted Tau Cadre.

While Riptides are a great all around unit, you are investing a lot of points between three of them and 3 heavy vehicles plus 3 devilfish, additionally a Cadre Fireblade while a nice force multiplier is probably one of the more vulnerable warlord selections you can choose since you are limited in terms of what you are attaching him to.

Broadsides with Missiles and Velocity Trackers are more effective than a Riptide for anti-air, if you take a team with missiles for anti air and a team with rail rifles w/ either interceptor or target lock you can likely replace 1 riptide and 1 hammerhead with a gain in firepower. add missile drones to the missile broadside team and marker drones to the rail rifle team and position the rail rifles and markers behind the missiles, since marker drones don't care if they have to fire thru intervening models. at the point where you have 2 broadside teams and a riptide you can use them as a Tau Firebase formation(w/ Tank Hunter, Preferred Enemy: Space Marines) anyhow leaving you free to keep the Skyray and a Hammerhead, the Broadsides with Smart Missile Systems are more durable than the devilfish anyhow so you can probably save some additional points to play with by removing 2 of those leaving yourself 1 to deliver a Fire Warrior team further downfield if needed, if you can find the points add a Kroot Hound to the Kroot for acute senses(the better to pick where they will be best served arriving from Outflank) and better initiative which can be important if you are forced to fall back from an assault and don't want to be destroyed by a sweeping advance, for the same reason adding a drone to fire warriors is a nice bit of insurance, moving their Initiative 2 to Initiative 4(recommend gun drones so they benefit from the Fireblade and Storm of Fire plus can potentially force onrushing enemies to go to ground), just keep their total squad size to no more than 12 units including drones for devilfish transport.

Kinda leaves the last element to the force, a more durable warlord, nothing wrong with the fireblade attached to a gunline, they are cheap and help pump out easy shots and you can detach him between multiple fire warrior squads as one squad or another starts losing manpower. But an Ethereal attached to a Riptide to give him Toughness 6 or buried in a squad of Broadsides is better for on the cheap, additionally the Ethereal can take a blacksun filter, gives the unit he joins Stubborn making them harder to Pin and fire your Icarus for you, Not to mention Invocation of the Elements.

Those would be some of my suggestions while trying to keep your force makeup as close to what is was already.

[AlphaOmegaKnight]

Looks to me like you would benefit greatly from a buff commander. I run a commander with my cadre and fire warrior squad giving them a truly fearsome amount of firepower.

First throw Command and Control Node to reroll missed hits, Multi Spectrum Sensor Suite to Ignore cover essentially removing the need to pop marker lights for your troops saving them for your harder hitting weapons. I really like onager gauntlet for making the enemy think twice about charging you as well as giving you an answer to typhus and the like with possible instakills at ininiative 4.

Since he will be your commander based on his leadership vs cadres i also like running a full defensive gambit on him as well. Shield Generator, Stim Injector, and XV8-02 Iridium armor make him one seriously tough SOB. Toughness 5, 2+ armor save, 4+ invul, and that ever amazing back up save feel no pain.

As far as weapon systems go i run him naked since he will be either giving up shooting or breaking off from his unit charging something to smack it with that S10 Ap1 attack. The only exception i have for that rule is hordes. Since shooting during overwatch isnt going to affect his buffs during your turn 1 or 2 Flamers(if you still have room after Support systems) can be absolutely brutal to advancing hordes giving your guaranteed hits during a phase your normally are lucky to hit one or two shots.

One other option to consider is Vectored Retro Thrusters. For a measly 5 point upgrade you can give your most vulnerable troops the chance to break away from a charge at the end of your opponents assault phase jumping into rapid fire range for a ridiculous 3 shots per fire warrior the next turn assuming cadre is still with them. Also giving them rerolls on runs.

In my experience with tau, The buff commander/Cadre/Fire Warrior Combo can from game to game be the most damaging unit i field. Causing more unsaved wounds than any other single unit i deploy. Even at times outclassing a Hammerhead with overcharged ion cannon getting direct hits all day(Thanks to the above mentioned fact that i can save my marker lights for the heavy hitters).

Based on the list provided the other suggestions i would make would be running just 2 12x FW squads right next to each other on the ADL with the cadre and Buff commander in the middle making it possible to add them to which ever unit has more FW's left or has the better LOS giving you volley fire every turn no matter what. Also Kroot for the points make amazing meat shields for this set up. Throw in the sniper rounds to increase their target priority. and you will have your opponent pulling his hair out trying to figure out how to break your lines and what they should shoot at.

It could take some time getting used to deploying and using this set up seeing as it has its greatest fire potential when it is completely stationary, but from my experience so very very worth it.

Also have you played around with the ion cannon for the hammerheads at all? I just absolutely destroyed a Blood Angels army last night. I ran the ion cannon on my longstrike hammerhead and with one overcharged shot i destroyed an entire unit of jump pack infantry that was running up to try to assault my FW's. The AP of 3 will cut through most infantry and will wound most units on rolls of 2+ with that strength 8. If your running up against more than 2 vehicles with armor 14 then stick with the rail guns but with if its only 1 or 2 I would strongly recommend running one with the ion cannon one with the railgun/submunitions. If there is no armor or all armor 12 or less run heavy rail rifles on all your broadsides and 2 ion cannons on your hammer heads or 2 sky rays and 1 ion cannon hammerhead.

FOR THE GREATER GOOD!