1850 Competitive Tau List for Feast of Blades Tournament

HQ

Commander : 117
- Drone Controller
- 2x Marker Drones

Fast Attack

Marker Drone Squadron (6) : 84
(Commander joins this unit)

Elites

Riptide : 190
- Ion Accelerator
- Smart Missile System
- Early Warning Override

Riptide : 190
- Ion Accelerator
- Smart Missile System
- Early Warning Override

Riptide : 190
- Ion Accelerator
- Smart Missile System
- Early Warning Override

Troops

Crisis Battlesuit Team (3) : 164
- 2 suits with double plasma rifles
- 1 suit with double fusion blaster and target lock
- Bonding Knife Ritual

Crisis Battlesuit Team (3) : 164
- 2 suits with double plasma rifles
- 1 suit with double fusion blaster and target lock
- Bonding Knife Ritual

Heavy Support

Broadside Squad (3) : 285
- 6x Missile Drones
- High Yield Missile Pods
- Smart Missile Systems
- Early Warning Overrides
- Bonding Knife Ritual

Broadside Squad (3) : 285
- 6x Missile Drones
- High Yield Missile Pods
- Smart Missile Systems
- Early Warning Overrides
- Bonding Knife Ritual

Hammerhead : 180
- Rail Cannon
- Submunition Shells
- Smart Missile System
- Sensor Spines
- Longstrike

Total : 1849

I take it you are just going to try and table your opponent each game? I think this list will do really well against some lists, although a lot of it will be luck based. About the only I would change is the cyclic ion blaster on the first commander. I don't particularly like that gun, since it suffers from "what do I want to do" disorder. Its ok at killing medium infantry, meh at hurting tanks, and again meh against monstrous creatures. Or you could take another gun that is good/excellent at a specific role. Also why the dual burst cannons on the second commander? Just needed some extra s5 ap5?

Where are your scoring units? How are you supposed to capture objectives with this list?

Better yet consider, what if you match up against another gunline tau army like this, someone who's luckier and rolls better than you. You could do terrible things to him with your riptide jetting around, but footslogging your little 6 man squads down the board will get them munched.

Arent the majority of the FOB missions objective based?

It's not particularly difficult to focus fire and kill 12 T3, 4+ sv models.

Soo once you loose all your scoring models, you can only achieve bonus points Ie Slay the Warlord, firstblood etc. What do you do then? Try to dick your opponent points by attempting to kill their, possibly more numerous scoring models, than yours.

That's a pretty unsporting move, especially when your list is so weak.

This list is too unbalanced to be effective in a competitive setting. Unless all missions are KPs based and objectives are discarded, this list is simply too weak to win against any opponent that has any idea of what they are doing.

In order to permit you to basically keep this list with only a minor tweak, I would suggest dropping a Riptide and using the points to buff the two Fire Warrior squads to 10-12 bonded models with a unit champion in each. Use what few points remain to add another drone or two to your drone squadron.

at 1850 you're easily going to be facing opponents with a min of 4 troops choices at that point it seems like your relying on your shooting to carry the day but what happens when your troops go down. most missions are objective based. this would be like relying on a death company list to win in a tournment. i just dont see this working with out the option to take more then 2 objectives.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GravesDisease

Where are your scoring units? How are you supposed to capture objectives with this list?

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This.

I would drop a riptide and add more troops preferrably sniper kroot to give you some more options in target priority and outflanking.Add more men to the 6 man units of firewarriors. MSU firewarriors doesn't really work unless you give them devilfish to protect them for an objective grab even then they are still fragile and will run off the board quite easily.

With the remainder of points I would add a unit of pathfinders. You don't have enough markerlights to support your army and are just relying on weight of fire.

200 points for 8 shots strength 5 ap 5 shots with 6 bs 5 markerlights as well.

Vs

18 pathfinders that have 9 lights hitting more than the 5 from the drones. Also the 4 other lights can fire strength 5 shots, but hitting 4 times vs 7 times. However they can dish out 36 shots and hit 18 times with the strength 5 they can choose to use.

Than can be used as 3 6 man pathfinders which can light 3 differant targets vs one target.

If you take 10 pathfinders for 110 points it wil free up 90 points for more troops and still leave you with the same marker light coverage and as 2 teams of 5 you can light 2 targts.

Looking at your list I see 2 major flaws in it.

1. Your broadsides are limited to a 36" range field of fire. To move up they will have to get out of cover and snap fire.
2. The only range you have is your Riptides Ion gun and Hammerhead.

All your opponent have to do is stay out of. 36" range and shoot your firewarrior and your tides. Everything else they can simply ignore.

I wouldn't drop the riptides, but do you really need a hammerhead. Also I play rather aggresive with my tides and arm them with fusion guns. With 5 fusion guns it will help crack tanks and the riptide can already drop large pie plates which make the extra missile shots not really needed.

Oh almost forgot.

3. No skyfire, but you do have 2 squads of broadsides.

i would probably drop a rip tide drop the drone controller commander the marker light drones and remove one broadside from each group. run them with 2. honestly as soon as you take a casualty you're already going to be testing anyway. Looking at the points that frees up opens up a lot of options. i would focus on troops first before you buy any more toys. then test this list and see how you handle multiple objectives. i find it's very difficult to completely eradicate your opponent.

needs more troops, to be honets I could see you gain alot by adding more troops or allies.

with allies a cheap effective edar force would compliment you well

autarch on a bike with mantle of the laughing god, fusion gun, laser lance 145

3 bikes 51
3 bikes 51

otherwise just fill your troops to 5 minimum

247 gets a 2+rerollable cover save bike guys with a melta gun and 2 extremely fast troops to zip out of los and score.

if you dont' want allies at least shore up and add more troops, i would go at least 5 troops at 1850

Updated list with Farsight Enclave supplement rules.

You still only have two small troop units. Against a competent player, they'll just shoot your Crisis suits, hunker down on an objective, and unless you can table them they will win every single time. If you want to be competitive, you must take a lot more troops than what you currently have.

a game is won or lost by troops in 6th. I would consider any army expecting to do well in a 6th edition tournament to have a minimum of 4 troops choices. mobility in that troop is paramount above all else. as already stated all one needs to do in this incarnation is kill 6 crisis suits and unless heavy or fast attack are scoring you are out of options beyond trying to table your opponent, or contest everything and aim for firstblood/slay the warlord and linebreaker.