Semi-Competitive Tau:1850

[Chaos Companion]

Shas'el: Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, HWMT

Crisis team 1
C1: Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, MT
C2: TL Plasma Rifle, 1 Shield Drone
TL: Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, TA

Crisis team 2
C1: Missile Pod, Burst Cannon, MT
C2: TL Missile Pod, 1 Shield Drone
TL: Missile Pod, Burst Cannon, TA, HWMT

Crisis team 3
see team 2

Hammerhead: Rail gun, 2 Burst Cannons, MT, DP

Hammerhead: same

2 BASS Broadsides: TL w/ 2 shield drones

8 Pathfinders
Devilish: MT, DP

2 Piranha: 2 Fusion Blasters, 2 TA, 1 DP

12 Fire warriors w/ 'ui

12 Fire warriors w/ 'ui

11 Kroot

Totals to 1850 exactly. The Devilfish goes to one of the fire warriors(the MT on it is for a ghetto warfish in FoF maneuvers). The 'El join the fireknives. I know that the fireknife setup is a bit over-the-hill, but I wanted some plasma w/o sacrificing for the range of a fusion blaster. I am also fairly new to the army and find fireknives a bit easier to handle on the board than helios. I also know that firewarriors aren't the greatest thing in the world (nothing compared to my tasty chaos lovelies!), but with 10 crisis suits in this list, I really felt I could afford to buy 2 units.... I also figure that they will be ignored until the more deadly crisis suits have been dealt with as well.

Anyways for the most part the Pathfinders, broadsides and one group of firewarriors sit in my deployment while everything else stays mobile and tries to tear down a flank before moving down the enemy lines. Kroot are there to speed bump the firebase, or infiltrate to prevent scout moves, or outflank, depending on my foe and his army composition.

Anyways, any feedback would be much appreciated. The only thing really stopping me from just making all the suits firestorms is the lack of any plasma in the list. Perhaps it wouldn't really matter that much due to sheer amount of shots? Anyways, Cheers! :D

[karandras]

I like the list. It definitely has the potential to unleash A LOT of firepower.

I have virtually no experience as a Tau player, so I cannot critique it from that standpoint.

From an opponent's perspective though, I would say you're awfully light on scoring units. An opponent that knows what they're doing should be able to eliminate your troops choices by the 2nd turn. You could try to reduce the risk to them, by hiding in terrain - especially with the Kroot, but that won't last long against most 5th edition builds. More importantly, if your troops are all hiding in terrain, they most likely aren't on objectives.

In theory, you could keep the Devilfish FW protected by terrain and the 2 Hammerheads and hope for a late objective grab. You could outflank or infiltrate the Kroot in terrain near an objective and hope for the best. You could place the other FW in cover in your deployment zone on an objective and go to ground if need be.

The question then becomes do you think the rest of your force can do enough damage by the 2nd turn to keep your opponent from reaching your troops???

Against my Necrons, I believe you could. But against my beloved Eldar or my IG, I feel pretty confident that you would not be able to protect your scoring units. Once you lose them, you're playing for a draw at best. Just my two cents.

I definitely like the amount of destruction your list can dish out though.

[Grimcron]

The list looks great overall and I have the following suggestion.

1. Give hammerhead target lock and SMS. This gives you ability to shoot at tank AND troops.
2. Give Broadside Target lock. This allows your broadside to shoot at 2 targets. It really helps.
3. Give Kroot squad hounds. They are cheaper, they are I5. For Kroot to work, they need to be big size.
4. Get SMS for Devilfish. It gives you more shots, longer weapon range, and less KP to give.

If you are looking for points to give up/squeeze, I would look at reducing the squad size of firewarriors. Just reserve them. When they come onto the table, embark into a Devilfish ASAP.
OR
Remove shield drones from Broadside. Have Shas'El attached in for the first few turns to take damage.

The above setup has serve me very well.

[Shas'O D'Narb]

Based on your list, we differ enormously on how we view building Tau lists. Therefore, I will restrict my comment to the following: if you're going to add 1 shield drone, why not add 2 to reach the magical 4x+1? It would just be a shame to lose a 200pt unit to a single casualty.

[Fizyx]

Shas'el: Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, HWMT

Pretty standard and useful

Crisis team 1
C1: Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, MT
C2: TL Plasma Rifle, 1 Shield Drone
TL: Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, TA

Crisis team 2
C1: Missile Pod, Burst Cannon, MT
C2: TL Missile Pod, 1 Shield Drone
TL: Missile Pod, Burst Cannon, TA, HWMT

I understand why some people like to spread the wounds around, but honestly I don't like mixing weapons in battlesuits. In my opinion, each team needs to have a primary and secondary purpose. IE, Fireknives, MEQ killers + long range transport popping while you re moving into range. Helios: MEQ/TEQ destruction capability with the potential for deep-striking melta if you are facing a guard army with a million tanks. Deathrain, long range transport killers with long range infantry suppression. Personally, I would bring three of each to max out my elites. Once you get good at the movement/assault movement aspects of Crisis suits your capability for destruction is boundless. Also, make sure you bring TL w/ Bonding Knife. Nothing worse than having a lone suit run away, never to return, when he could still be taking out a little of what's left after turn three.

Crisis team 3
see team 2

Hammerhead: Rail gun, 2 Burst Cannons, MT, DP

Hammerhead: same

Good choice. I don't like SMS, as you rarely get the advantage of having brought it instead of burst cannons.

2 BASS Broadsides: TL w/ 2 shield drones

Again, TL w/ BK. YOu may never need it, but when you do you'll wish you had it.

8 Pathfinders
Devilish: MT, DP

I would suggest bringing two squads of 4-5. You can spread the Markerlight love around and you'll want to bring another devilfish, see below.

2 Piranha: 2 Fusion Blasters, 2 TA, 1 DP

12 Fire warriors w/ 'ui

12 Fire warriors w/ 'ui

Drop these to squads of six and use the points to pay for another devilfish. Mech rules, and you definitely need both the protection and maneuverability of a devilfish. FoF is dead, unfortunately, and troops are there for dcoring, not killing. You have two pie-plates and a crap-ton of suits, a dozen s5 ap5 shots will help you a lot less than keeping your scoring units protected. Also, consider dropping the 'ui if you aren't going to be bringing them out.

11 Kroot

See if you can bump this up a smidge. I love outflanking Kroot onto objectives or using them for cover saves early, but honestly 11 isn't going to stand up to much with no cover save.



Note the comments in red.

I see a lot of new Tau players trying out stuff that really doesn't work as well as it sounds on paper. Honestly, I would bump up the scoring possibility with another 6 FWs in a third Devilfish, but that is just me. The most important thing about Tau, though, is experience. It really isn't an army you can just pick up and win with. There is a lot of fast moving mech armies with incredible potential to get close and wreck your day if you don't prioritize your targeting turns 1 and 2.

I know you don't want a full-blown competitive list, but the changes I mentioned aren't really min-max WAAC cost competitive, but rather an average list you can start with and learn from. Have fun!

[Mobious]

The list is well on its way to becoming very competitive but you'll need to change a couple of things.

First off I think you should abandon the idea of trying the allocation shenanigans with Suits. It does not get you very far and you sacrifice firepower for it. In my opinion, Fireknives with Multi-trackers are best. They stay at a distance, pecking away Infantry, MCs, and light vehicles. And when things with tough saves come strolling by, you can knock them out with Markerlighted Plasma.

The heavy support looks just fine except for what Grimcon mentioned.

Fast attack is just fine in my opinion.

As far as troops go, I think you NEED two groups of Kroot with at a minimum 13 bodies(10 Carnivores & 3 Hounds). The reason for this is because Kroot are the best way--outside of disruption pods--to keep your vehicles safe. Thus essentially keeping your suits safe. And the Firewarriors should be bumped down to 6 in order to save points for an extra Devilfish.

At 1850 two groups of Kroot, 2 scoring Fish (1 from the Pathfinders, 1 dedicated to an FW) backed by Fireknives, Railheads, Bsides, Pathfinders, and a couple of Piranhas is perfect. Do not let anyone tell you Tau are not competitive. Just use the Piranhas/Kroot to slow people down, Pathfinders + Bsides to wallop heavy tanks, and Fireknives for everything else and you are just fine.

Oh and remember to keep your Kroot in bubblewrap formation when nasty things are crawling about, and keep your suits out of LoS as much as possible.

P.S. Stay Back !!

[Chaos Companion]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, it is greatly appreciated! :D

I did have a couple of questions though. The first being this comment "FoF is dead, unfortunately".
I've seen this just about everywhere I look and I am curious why this is so. I have rolled up and rapid fired a t6 monstrous creature into oblivion with one squad of 12 supported with marker lights (granted I rolled incredibly well to wound)

Using the true line of sight rule things only sometimes get a cover save when shooting under a skimmer yes? Said things shot at, still cannot assault the fire warriors in their next assault phase (assuming I haven't splattered them across the board) as they can't move underneath of a skimmer,correct? I honestly am a little unclear on these two functions of the FoF maneuver, but it seems if the thing I'm shooting at isn't going to get a cover save, and can't assault me, that is pretty win in my book.

Oh and maybe it is just me, but firewarriors really don't seem as terrible as everyone makes them out to be. Granted they are garbage in melee (as they should be), but if you spam them there is a whole lot of 4+ armor to kill. Put them in cover and make it a 4+ cover to give them saves from heavy bolters and the like. On a side note I've found out that I roll 4+ dice quite well; better in fact than the 3+ I roll for my marines so much :rolleyes:

The list that I posted is honestly the lightest list I have made as of yet with troops. I have been running 3 groups of 12 FW and about a 20 man group of kroot (10 kroot, hounds fill to 18-20 depending on points available) I have a good amount of success with it so far as my local gaming group and store tends to shy away from full mech. most people run hybrid lists; as such I generally slap the armor around first, then have several turns of firing at the squishies walking towards my lines :)

Anyway, I agree completely with needing bondking knives for the broadsides and suits (especially if I add another shield drone to the groups as someone suggested). I don't know it seems to me that a hybrid list will work well against a lot of opponents; granted there are some where you might just die in a fire, but thats true of almost all armies that I have seen.

Anyways, I'm done rambling for now, thanks for the feedback, and if someone could please tell me why FoF seems to have lost so much of it's appeal since 5'th ed came out that would be great! CHEERS! :D

[Fizyx]

Anyways, I'm done rambling for now, thanks for the feedback, and if someone could please tell me why FoF seems to have lost so much of it's appeal since 5'th ed came out that would be great! CHEERS! :D

The reason I say FoF is dead is the whole TLOS thing. The last thing I want to have happen in a "friendly" game is for my opponent and I to have a disagreement about TLOS. A Skimmer on the proper stand will most likely block TLOS from the majority of your FW to anything on the other side of the DF. Furthermore, the 4+ cover save (while usually inferior to the 3+ MEQ have anyways) really isn't an issue. It just happens that the person I am playing will say "you can't shoot underneath them" and then the game turns from friendly to unfriendly in a heartbeat, especially if my list depends on FoF working as planned.

In all honesty, though, I think in today's game having 24 s5 ap5 shots is still worse than keeping your scoring units well protected and able to scoot across the board on turns 3,4,5. You have plenty of firepower with 10 suits and 2 railheads, you don't need the extra s5 ap5 to make things happen.

Here's what I consider to be a friendly list. It doesn't take into consideration anything about the meta (beyond the obvious advantage to running a mech list) and definitely isn't a WAAC list. The one big issue I have with this list is the amount of KP it gives up, but the majority of those are from the DF and drones, which will hopefully stay intact throughout the game.

Shas'el
•HWMT
•MP
•PR

3x Crisis
•PR
•FB
•TL w/ BK

3x Crisis
•PR
•MP
•TL w/ BK

3x Crisis
•TL MP
•TA
•TL w/ BK

6x FW

6x FW

6x FW
•DF
•DP

4x Pathfinder
•DF
•DP

4x Pathfinder
•DF
•DP

1x Piranha
•Flechette
•FB

Hammerhead
•BC
•DP
•MT
•Railhead

Hammerhead
•BC
•DP
•MT
•Railhead

2x XV-88s
•ASS
•Tl w/ BK
•2x SD

10x Kroot
4x Hound

Now, your weak Kroot unit is a true speedbump like god intended, and you have three scoring units very capable of staying alive through the game and you have plenty of variety in firepower in having each suit having a primary and secondary purpose. Plus, you have two squads of Pathfinders to help out the two squads of suits that aren't TL w/ TA.