New Tau Army

[Deretal]

I plan on starting a new tau army with 2 battleforces and a crisis suit commander, any advice?
the website that i will get them from sells minis for 10% cheaper so it will be about $74 for each battleforce instead of the regular $90

website is http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/index.php

[SotonShades]

Can't go wrong with a load of Battle Suits.

I'm not the biggest fan of the GW ones, or at least whole armies of them. Adding a couple of the Forge World ones really helps break up the similarity of shapes in the army, while still keeping a coherrent look. They are a bit pricey though

[Fizyx]

If you can find the Tau "Rapid Insertion Force" box that was for sale when Apocalypse released, it would be your best bang for your buck for Crisis suits. I would magnetize 9 of them, and then build a few of the popular configurations permanently.

The forgeworld ones are indeed expensive. I don't mind the look of the suits, so I just stick with them. I'm on 15 suits and I'm still probably going to buy a few more to flesh out nine full deathrain suits and still have 9 to magnetize as I see fit.

If you want advice on painting, there are a lot of online tutorials. Just don't use any bight colors, stick to a rather muted palate, and you can't go wrong with Tau.

[Deretal]

i plan on painting the armor fortress grey and goblin green, then the details (eyes, for example) ice blue and blood red. ill see how that goes and then continue

also, i plan on getting the broadsides from forgeworld, i just cant stand the GW metal
another reason is because the forgeworld ones have better placement of the railguns

[plasticaddict]

You'll have a good start to your force with your planned purchases. I would recommend picking up 2 more boxes of Fire Warriors, another Devilfish, a Skyray and 4-6 Broadside suits. Use one of the boxes of Fire Warriors to build Pathfinders (far more cost effective than buying the metal ones). The Skyray is a good purchase as it comes with all the bits to build a Hammerhead (I like the Ion Cannon) and you can use the seeker missiles to equip you Devilfish. Also look at getting 3-6 more Crisis suits and plenty of magnets.

[gilbert93dt]

To add onto what the others are saying; go for a box or 2 of kroot as well. No need to get a krootox or hounds, just basic kroot. I do not use them every game, but they can provide a nice melee speed bump if needed. Get the charge with them, and each model does 3 attacks at WS4 S4. Not bad.

[DrLove42]

Pathfinders with rail rifles. Splitting shots and pinning? Combine with markerlight fire to reduce Ld and you can hopefully stop a squad or 2 dead for a turn.

As for the forgeworld suits i use 1 as the squad "commander" and have 2 GW ones following him. the GW ones aren't very hard to convert either into different poses..

[Deretal]

thanks guys, i am really impatient when it comes to starting a new army and you have all given great tips

i plan on making rail rifles by combining the pulse carbines and rifles together to make my pathfinders have a more compact look. i plan on having as many battlesuits as i can and i figured out you can have up to 24 in the army if you play it right ( 2 commanders plus bodygaurds for HQ, 3 crisis teams for elites( each team has three), and 3 teams of 3 broadsides each for heavy support) this is only if you want to sacrifice your heavy support and elites choices for all battlesuits. Devilfish transports w/ seeker missles is a good choice. one of my friends has a tau army and uses seeker missles excessivly on his Devilfish transports. he has made it so that his tau army can all deep strike or infiltrate( kroot infiltrate ).i find kroot an ideal choice because i can make them assault the units that get too close to the tau, sort of like a wall of protection for my battlesuits and fire warriors.

[Deretal]

the only bad part about kroot is that they dont have a save so the first phase of assault has to be really amazing:(

[RedScorpionsGirl]

thanks guys, i am really impatient when it comes to starting a new army and you have all given great tips

i plan on making rail rifles by combining the pulse carbines and rifles together to make my pathfinders have a more compact look. i plan on having as many battlesuits as i can and i figured out you can have up to 24 in the army if you play it right ( 2 commanders plus bodygaurds for HQ, 3 crisis teams for elites( each team has three), and 3 teams of 3 broadsides each for heavy support) this is only if you want to sacrifice your heavy support and elites choices for all battlesuits. Devilfish transports w/ seeker missles is a good choice. one of my friends has a tau army and uses seeker missles excessivly on his Devilfish transports. he has made it so that his tau army can all deep strike or infiltrate( kroot infiltrate ).i find kroot an ideal choice because i can make them assault the units that get too close to the tau, sort of like a wall of protection for my battlesuits and fire warriors.

I highly suggest proxying that idea out, in all honesty. It sounds cool, looks like it will be fun and all, but it isn't as great as it seems. In all honesty, kroot, stealth suits, Commander Shadowsun, Sniper drone teams (up to 3 for 1 selection is good, but you can only have one slot worth) and a Skyray alway work well together. Make sure everything you have has sensor spines, Disruptor pods, and Flechette launchers. While these add up to making the tanks a bit pricey, ask your local 'nid player how much they like assaulting something with flechette, ask a guard player how annoying it is to "shoot" a tank that has a disruptor pod, and enjoy moving in terrain without issues with the spines.

[Deretal]

these are all great tips that i really am surprised by how much work this is going to be but i thank you all and hope you win your next game, bye:D

[Evil-Termite]

Hi There,

For starting Tau, I recommend starting with a battleforce, 2 hammerheads, and some extra crisis suits. That ought to get you up to about 1000 points.

Then to get up to 1500 points you can get a second battleforce and a broadside.

Before buying, I REALLY suggest making up an army list and posting it in the strategy section. That way you can avoid buying models that won't work well.

I recommend starting with plasma rifle, missile pod, targeting array suits. They really work well.