Tau 2k - returning from long hiatus...

[Takana77]

Greetings folks,

Wanting to get back into both WH40k and WHFB after being away for a very long time. trying to break from the old armies i played way back (Imperial Fists, 'Nids for 40k) and try something new. Contemplating Tau or Necrons or Imperial Guard (astra whatever...) and maximizing purchases thru battle force boxes and/or bundles i see on GW site.

I do not have the BRB or any of the newer codexes just yet so please bare with me on missing some of the newer fundamentals in game mechanics or army special rules that may be glaring hehe :)

Tinkering with Battlescribe btw to generate lists...

So for Tau 2000 points, i'm leaning towards a build like this:

HQ
159 - Commander
- commander suit w/ fusion blaster, flamer, shield generator, target lock
- 2x gun drones

Elites
182 - XV8 Crisis Team
- 2x crisis suits (same fit) w/ fusion blaster, flamer, shield generator
- 4x gun drones

Troops
264 - Fire Warrior Team
- 11x shas'la w/ pulse rifles, bonding knife
- 1x shas'ui w/ pulse rifle, markerlight and target lock
- 2x gun drones
- devilfish w/ gun drones, disruption pod

264 - Fire Warrior Team
- 11x shas'la w/ pulse rifles, bonding knife
- 1x shas'ui w/ pulse rifle, markerlight and target lock
- 2x gun drones
- devilfish w/ gun drones, disruption pod

264 - Fire Warrior Team
- 11x shas'la w/ pulse rifles, bonding knife
- 1x shas'ui w/ pulse rifle, markerlight and target lock
- 2x gun drones
- devilfish w/ gun drones, disruption pod

264 - Fire Warrior Team
- 11x shas'la w/ pulse rifles, bonding knife
- 1x shas'ui w/ pulse rifle, markerlight and target lock
- 2x gun drones
- devilfish w/ gun drones, disruption pod

Fast Attack
144 - Pathfinder Team
- 9x pathfinders w/ pulse rifles, markerlights
- 1x pathfinder shas'ui w/ pulse rifle, markerlight
- 2x markerlight drones

50 - Piranha
- fusion blaster

50 - Piranha
- fusion blaster

Heavy Support
114 - XV88 Broadside Team
- 1x broadside shas'ui w/ TL heavy rail rifle, shield generator, TL smart missile system
- 2x gun drones

114 - XV88 Broadside Team
- 1x broadside shas'ui w/ TL heavy rail rifle, shield generator, TL smart missile system
- 2x gun drones

114 - XV88 Broadside Team
- 1x broadside shas'ui w/ TL heavy rail rifle, shield generator, TL smart missile system
- 2x gun drones

Tallies up to 1983 so have 17 points for change...

curious where to spend it (command control node for commander maybe). i understand folks prefer to take shield drones over shield generators but i like taking things that do more damage (gun drones vs shield drones) but thats a preference not quite chiseled in stone. took marker drones with pathfinders to get more counters...

How do stealth teams and the new big riptide fair on the table?

Any suggestions, tips, advice, constructive critiques, etc are always very appreciated.

Thanks,

Tak

[ShadowcatX]

Riptides are the best unit in the codex, stealth units are poor.

Crisis suits should have two of the same weapon to maximize their shooting.

Your pathfinder unit is too big, you don't need you shouldn't need that many marker light hits.

You have too many fire warriors, fire warriors aren't going to win you the game. Ditto the transports.

Broadsides should have missiles. And missile drones, if you are giving them drones.

[lantzkev]

I would say what they said to some extent, break up your pathfinder into two squads so you can spread more shots around. Also I'd drop gun drones entirely imo... if you want more shots just add more kroot/firewarriors/other

Also the devilfish have a capacity of 12 i think? Which means your squads of 12 + two guns can't fit into one. also I'd drop one markerlight from one of the squads (and the upgraded shas'ui) and simply add a ethereal to it. Get a nice bubble, and double up your shots for just 20? -ish points more.

Also for your crisis suits, I'd recommend simply doubling up on fusions/plasmas etc rather than one of each.

[Takana77]

Found some spare time to go reading more on new tactica for tau and replies and threads and whatnot. I appreciate the feedback and suggestions...

Seems like the battle force boxes are not the way to go in starting up tau (not really useful unit-wise, stealth suits and piranha, at least)

So thinking about this perhaps...

HQ = 337 + 134
145 - Commander
- command and control node, multi-spectrum sensor suite, shield generator

192 - Commander
- dual fusion blasters, xv8-02 crisis iridum suit, shield generator, onager gauntlet, neuroweb system jammer, puretide engram neurochip, vectored retro-thrusters

134 - Crisis Bodyguard Team
- 2x Bodyguards - dual fusion blasters, target lock

Elites = 621
225 - XV104 Riptide
- ion accelerator, TL fusion blaster, early warning override, stimulant injector

225 - XV104 Riptide
- ion accelerator, TL fusion blaster, early warning override, stimulant injector

171 - XV8 Crisis Team
- 1x shas'ui - dual fusion blasters, vectored retro-thrusters
- 2x shas'ui - dual fusion blasters, target lock

Troops = 288
54 - Fire Warrior Team
- 6x shas'la w/ pulse rifles

54 - Fire Warrior Team
- 6x shas'la w/ pulse rifles

90 - Kroot Carnivore Squad
- 10x kroots
- 1x kroot hound
- 1x krootox rider

90 - Kroot Carnivore Squad
- 10x kroots
- 1x kroot hound
- 1x krootox rider

Fast Attack = 66
66 - Pathfinder Team
- 6x shas'la w/ pulse carbines and markerlights

Heavy Support = 554
178 - Hammerhead Gunship
- Longstrike, railgun w/ submunitions, TL smart missile system, decoy launchers

188 - XV88 Broadside Team
- 2x shas'ui - TL high-yield missile pods, TL smart missile system, early warning override
- 4x missile drones

188 - XV88 Broadside Team
- 2x shas'ui - TL high-yield missile pods, TL smart missile system, early warning override
- 4x missile drones

this tallies up to 2000 even.

buffing commander goes with the pathfinders and will sit back near the broadsides and hammerhead screened by the warriors and kroots. Bodyguard goes with the 2nd commander and all the crisis suits and riptides go find stuff to harass and kill and zero out.

I left all the crisis suits as fusion blasters for the moment so can swap 1 model in each team or 1 whole team to a different pair. thinking any points saved there will go towards disruption pod and sensor spines for the hammerhead.

any suggestions and/or tips are always welcome.

thanks,

tak

[Takana77]

haha - give me an army builder program (battlescribe now) and I will loose hours...

thought more about folks saying 2x riptides and make opponents even in non tourney matches cry foul and turn emo so shuffled things around for a bit more friendly feel.


So thinking about this perhaps...

HQ = 337 + 134
160 - Commander
- command and control node, multi-spectrum sensor suite, puretide engram neurochip, shield generator

177 - Commander
- dual fusion blasters, xv8-02 crisis iridum suit, shield generator, onager gauntlet, neuroweb system jammer, vectored retro-thrusters

134 - Crisis Bodyguard Team
- 2x Bodyguards - dual fusion blasters, target lock

Elites = 567
225 - XV104 Riptide
- ion accelerator, TL fusion blaster, early warning override, stimulant injector

171 - XV8 Crisis Team
- 1x shas'ui - dual fusion blasters, vectored retro-thrusters
- 2x shas'ui - dual fusion blasters, target lock

171 - XV8 Crisis Team
- 1x shas'ui - dual fusion blasters, vectored retro-thrusters
- 2x shas'ui - dual fusion blasters, target lock

Troops = 288
54 - Fire Warrior Team
- 6x shas'la w/ pulse rifles

54 - Fire Warrior Team
- 6x shas'la w/ pulse rifles

90 - Kroot Carnivore Squad
- 10x kroots
- 1x kroot hound
- 1x krootox rider

90 - Kroot Carnivore Squad
- 10x kroots
- 1x kroot hound
- 1x krootox rider

Fast Attack = 77
77 - Pathfinder Team
- 7x shas'la w/ pulse carbines and markerlights

Heavy Support = 596
198 - Hammerhead Gunship
- Longstrike, railgun w/ submunitions, TL smart missile system, decoy launchers, disruption pod, sensor spines

282 - XV88 Broadside Team
- 3x shas'ui - TL high-yield missile pods, TL smart missile system, early warning override
- 6x missile drones

116 - Sniper Drone Team
- 2x firesight marksman
- 6x sniper drones

tallies up to 1999 now.

any weapon changes on the crisis suits that save points would probably go towards maybe 1 more pathfinder or a grav-inhibitor drone for that team. Moved the puretide chip to the buffing commander and will put him with the now 3-man broadside team so 2 units can be tank hunters. Not completely sold on the sniper drones but could be fun to play with. I do like the kroot ox in the carnivore squad with a hound each.

oh well any suggestions and/or tips are always welcome (and no doubts i'll be thinking about how to tinker the list more while at work tomorrow hehe).

thanks,

tak

[lantzkev]

I'd suggest looking at firebase support dataslate if you want a nice option.

Also I would suggest velocity tracker on your riptides rather than a stim injector. (I look at it this way, at 50pts for two... I'm 25% of the way to paying for a barebones riptide)

Kroot are amazing, but I'm not so sure about the krootox, or their availability. Sniper rounds are also fantastic on them.

I'm a really really huge fan of the riptides and their variants, specially for tournaments. Also as cool as the hammer head with long strike is, my suggestion would be to keep things minimal in upgrades for everyone. Also considering your last list here, maybe look at the farsight enclave?

[Dave Mcturk]

think that so much success and 'fun' with tau depends on terrain [heavy ish and woody] and opponents [oh my theyre all T5 or better !]

but imo broadsides are still awesome - if a bit static

riptides can be useful but arent broken

been through the iterations with T3 units and they are all pants unless you can keep a tight fire position [decent cover and reasonable fof]

i actually like the stealth suits with shadow sun - saw of three units of DA on three consecutive turns - even terminators struggle to do that !

and really not a fan of crisis suits - but if you can pull off their dirty tricks when an opponent is busy trying to keep track of their weapons systems - fair enough !

and yes - missile drones - missile drones - missile drones lol

[ShadowcatX]

Crisis suits can be very good, just keep them cheap and have a purpose for them.

[Takana77]

Interesting how folks are so divisively pulled to yea/nay on the new large models (riptides/eldar wraithknights, imperial knights, etc) hehe. can't be competitive without them, yet others say its a 1 trick pony and to field 1 is certain failure now, oh well, c'est le vie :)

anyways shuffling some things around and thought about this loadout/combination...

Tau 2000 points

HQ = 337 + 134
160 - Commander
- command and control node, multi-spectrum sensor suite, puretide engram neurochip, shield generator

177 - Commander
- dual plasma rifles, xv8-02 crisis iridum suit, shield generator, onager gauntlet, neuroweb system jammer, vectored retro-thrusters

134 - Crisis Bodyguard Team
- 2x Bodyguards - dual plasma rifles, target lock

Elites = 423
171 - XV8 Crisis Team
- 1x shas'ui - dual fusion blasters, vectored retro-thrusters
- 2x shas'ui - dual fusion blasters, target lock

141 - XV8 Crisis Team
- 1x shas'ui - dual burst cannons, vectored retro-thrusters
- 2x shas'ui - dual burst cannons, target lock

111 - XV8 Crisis Team
- 1x shas'ui - dual flamers, vectored retro-thrusters
- 2x shas'ui - dual flamers, target lock

Troops = 282
66 - Fire Warrior Team
- 6x shas'la w/ pulse rifles, emp grenades

66 - Fire Warrior Team
- 6x shas'la w/ pulse rifles, emp grenades

75 - Kroot Carnivore Squad
- 10x kroots w/ sniper rounds
- 1x kroot hound

75 - Kroot Carnivore Squad
- 10x kroots w/ sniper rounds
- 1x kroot hound

Fast Attack = 258
126 - Pathfinder Team
- 3x shas'la w/ rail rifles
- 3x shas'la w/ pulse carbines and markerlights
- 1x grav-inhibitor drone

66 - Pathfinder Team
- 6x shas'la w/ pulse carbines and markerlights

66 - Pathfinder Team
- 6x shas'la w/ pulse carbines and markerlights

Heavy Support = 564
188 - XV88 Broadside Team
- 2x shas'ui - TL high-yield missile pods, TL smart missile system, early warning override
- 4x missile drones

188 - XV88 Broadside Team
- 2x shas'ui - TL high-yield missile pods, TL smart missile system, early warning override
- 4x missile drones

188 - XV88 Broadside Team
- 2x shas'ui - TL high-yield missile pods, TL smart missile system, early warning override
- 4x missile drones

tallies up to 1998 now.

Thanks again for any tips, feedback, suggestions, etc...

Tak