Successful Tau Army Builds

[mikethefish]

So yeah, just to get this out of the way, apparently the Tau suck in 5th edition. Not terribly concerned about it - please read on.

Alright, I now find myself in a unique position. Through misadventure, my large Ork army that I have had for many years has been destroyed by heat (the disadvantage of plastic models). I am now thinking about starting a new army from scratch.

I used to play Tau back when they first game out. Ended up selling them off - APPARENTLY to one of the BoLS guys because I see my army featured in battle reports here once in a while (cool stuff! glad it got a good home ). I know they are not terribly strong in the current rules set, but what the heck - I just like em. Plus I used to be a pretty good player, I bet I could come up with a way to make them at least kinda sorta decent.

So I look to you folks for advice. Once the new book comes out somewhere down the line, I will modify my army to whatever works well. But in the mean time, I was wondering - what sorts of Tau army builds are working all right for people nowadays? What sorts of Crisis Suit configurations do you see a lot? What units are good? What units suck?

Basically since I don't have anything else to play right now, I am essentially looking for a Tau army build that works the best to tide me over for a bit until the updated 5th edition book is released.

[steelmage99]

Max Crisis Suits. (3x3, Fire Knife)
Min. Fire Warriors. (1-2)
Kroot and Hounds for bubble-wrap. (2 units of 10 Kroot and 7-8 Hounds)
Piranhas for interference runs. (2)
Pathfinders for Marker Lights.(1-2)
Broadsides and/or Hammerheads for Railguns.(combination adding up to three units)

Done and done IMO.

[mikethefish]

But what would that army do for Scoring units with only minimum Fire Warriors?

[dvs1]

The fire warriors probably have a devil fish, and seldom leave it. Kroot make great cheap scoring units.

[Xanadu]

Tau don't suck, they just play in a way that is totally different to other armies - strategic sacrifice of units to keep suits firing.

Outer layer of defence: Piranhas blocking AV14 and CC hordes w/ Devilfish chassis blocking LOS onto suits.
Second Layer of Defence: Kroot bubblewrap (preferably in cover for a 3+ save if going to ground) two largeish units that prevent assaults from happening onto your suits.
Tertiary layer: Suits preventing your FWs from being mauled by long range Firepower.


Remember: Tau don't score, they shoot everything off the table so that the opponent doesn't have anything scoring left.

Bonne chance!

[Jenn]

My current 1500 point tau list includes:
1 Shas'el w/ TL missile pods, positional relay
7 battlesuits w/ TL missile pods, flamers
3 units of 6 fire warriors in devilfish
3 Hammerheads

It plays a defensive game always moving and not letting the enemy get near the units always working towards getting in position for last turn turbo boosts to push enemy troops off objectives.

In KP games I only deploy the Shas'el and hide it in terrain that hopefully blocks line of sight, each turn I bring on one hammerhead to start poking holes in their army. Fifth turn the remainder of my army comes on to claim as many quick and easy kp as possible.

Just figured you'd might like a list that caters to a little bit more tactical strategy than blow them up and hope they dont get to you.

[Commander Vimes]

I play the following list, with some variation, in a very competitive environment against top tier tournament armies with success. It hasn't won me a major tournament, but I'm usually in the top 10%, and I've won a few small local tournaments.


Shas'o w/ Plasma, cyclic ion blaster, positional relay, multi-tracker, stims, target lock, gun drone, shield drone
Decent firepower, helps soak wounds on important targets like broadsides, helps with leadership

Shas'el w/ plasma, fusion, mulit-tracker, targeting array, target lock, gun drone, shield drone
Same thing

2x Crisis Suits w/ plasma, missile, mulit-tracker, gun drone, shield drone
Can be effective against most targets. Often joined by both HQ suits for a unit that's very resilient at range.

13x Kroot w/ 8x Hounds
10x Kroot w/ 7x Hounds
6x Fire Warriors
12x Fire Warriors w/ Shas'ui
Kroot outflank against weak shooting troops, or take objectives near the board edges (always put a few there for them) screen your lines from assaults, or counter charge. They're wonderful and fill many roles. Never leave home without them. This particular list is dangerously light on them in my opinion. The Fire Warriors hide in reserve then in devilfish to take objectives. The large unit is great with markerlight support, which I have plenty of. It kills 3+ armor monstrous creatures, orks, Storm Shield Termies, and is surprisingly good against Thunderwolf deathstars.

8x Pathfinders w/ Shas'ui, Devilfish w/ disruption pod
8x Pathfinders w/ Shas'ui, Devilfish w/ disruption pod
Smart Missiles are way overpriced. In kill points it's really easy to just hide the fish in reserve so their drones aren't a liability.

3x Broadsides w/ Shield Drones, 3x Plasma Rifles, Multi-tracker
3x Broadsides w/ Shield Drones, Targeting Arrays
These are just awesome. I'd take a second squad with plasma if I had enough rifles.

This list destroys mechanized opponents, but all DOA Blood Angels, JotWW, and 'Nids make it cry.

[sorienor]

HQ: Farsight
HQ: Bodyguard (all have shield generators, HW target lock, HW drone controller. Suits with 2 systems have HW multi-trackers)
1: TL Plasma, Gun Drone, Shield Drone
2: TL Missile Pod, 2x gun drone
3: Plasma, Airburst, 2x gun drone
4: Plasma, cyclic Ion, 2x gun drone
5: Plasma, missile pod, gun drone, shield drone
6: TL Fusion, gun drone, shield drone

Troop: 8 Firewarriors, Shas'ui
Troop: 10 Firewarriors, Shas'ui
-Devilfish, Multi-tracker, disruption pod, flechette dischargers

Fast: 6 Pathfinders, 2x rail rilfe
-Devilfish, Multi-tracker, Disruption pod, flechette dischargers

Elite: 3x XV8
1: Team leader, HW drone controller, HW mult-tracker, HW target lock, TL flamers, missile pod, 2x gun drone
2: TL Burst cannon, shield generator
3: Burst cannon, flamer, multi-tracker

Heavy: Hammerhead, railgun, multi-tracker, disruption pod, flechette discharger, SMS
Heavy: 3xXV88 3x A.S.S Team leader with HW drone controller, HW target lock, 2x shield drone



This list has been a lot of fun for me, doing very well against mech guard. Lascannons, battlecannons, etc kill a lot of gun drones while the massive unit moves to my opponent shooting up stuff on the way. The few units in the back get very little attention. Farsight is actually pretty good in cc, and being a retinue can't be picked out as an IC. You can't get locked up against dreads or anything because he hits like a MC.

I would make changes to this list, dropping the cyclic, the rail rifles and some firewarriors and then make 2x 2 suit units one anti-infantry and the other one anti-tank.

[sangrail777]

I play a list built on R'myr w/SD
BG-CIB,Plasma,Shield,MT
XV8(3)-Px2,BCx2,MTx3,FB,MP
XV8(3)-Plasmax3,MPx3,MTx3
Fire Warriors-Shas'ui,GDx2
Fire Warriors-Shas'ui,GDx2
Fire Warriors-Shas'ui,GDx2
Piranha-BC
Broadsidex2
Sniper DT
Hammerhead

This is about 1500
For larger games I add on stealth teams, vespids, etc, etc, I got some sick choices along with a Tau Titan for Apoc games(it's got 3 railguns).

I actually just won 2 games with this today against Ultramarines.
At 2295 and 1500 points

[Tynskel]

XV8(3)-Px3,BCx2,MTx3,FB,MP

?