1500 pt tau

[zerohour]

've been working for a few months on this army, but I just can't beat my friend whos an experienced space marines player. He uses a dreadnaught in a drop pod to take out my important stuff while he rams a land raider filled with termies, 2 rhinos with tactical marine squads in them, and a squad of assault marines with jetpacks and an HQ that claws me to death down my throat. he also has a librarian with those terminators. Any tactical advice in addition to army list advice I can get would be nice.

Here's the list I played with:
1500 pts. first army list.

My list: 1500 point game

Elites:
1x Crisis Suit Commander Shas'El- 97 pts. (HQ)
(fire knife, Hard-wired drone controler, 1x gun drone)
3x Shas'Ui- 186 pts.
(fire-knife)

Fast Attack:
2x Piranha 150 pts.
(fusion Blaster, targeting array, disruption pods, 1x seeker missile[each])

7x pathfinder 84
with
1x Devilfish 100
(disruption pod, Multi-Tracker, Gun drones, Flechette Discharger)

Troops:
12x Fire warriors Shas'la 72
with
1x Devilfish 100
(Disruption Pod, Muti-Tracker, Gun Drones, Flechette Discharger)

12x Fire Warrior Shas'la 72 (go in pathfinder devilfish)

1x Hammerhead 145 pts
(Rail gun, Durst cannon, Disruption pod, Muti-tracker)

1x Broadside Team leader 120 pts.
(SMS, butt, Hard-wired drone controller, 2x shield drones, HW target lock)
1x broadside Shas'Ui 80 pts.
(SMS, butt)

1x skyray 165 pts
(SMS, Muti-tracker, Disruption Pod, Target lock, Targeting Array)
********************************************
There are some obvious weaknesses in this list, but it has my favorite models in it. I have made a more optimised version of the list and it looks like this:

Elites
1x Crisis Suit Commander Shas'El- 107 pts. (HQ)
(fire knife, Hard-wired drone controller, 2x gun drone)
3x Crisis suit Shas'Ui- 186 pts.
(fireknife)

3x Crisis Suit Shas'Ui- 186 pts.
(fire-knife)

Fast attack:
2x Piranha- 140 pts.
(fusion Blaster, targeting array, disruption pods)

8x pathfinder- 96 pts.
with
1x Devilfish- 110 pts.
(disruption pod, SMS, multi-tracker)
[this warfish is for the lone squad of fire warriors]

Troops:
6x Fire warriors- 60 pts.
with
1x Devilfish- 110 pts.
(Disruption Pod, SMS, multi-tracker)
[possibly starting in reserves, what do you guys think about that?]

6x Fire Warrior- 60pts.

12x kroot- 84 pts.

Heavy support:
1x Hammerhead- 145 pts.
(Rail gun, Durst cannon, Disruption pod, Muti-tracker)

1x Broadside Team leader- 115 pts.
(SMS, Targeting array, HW, Drone Controller, 1x shield drones, 1x gun drone, Target lock)
1x broadside 80 pts.
(SMS, Targetting array)

1x Broadside Team leader- 105 pts.
(SMS, Targeting array, H-W Drone Controller, 1x shield drone, 1x gun drone)
*************************
My problem with the list above is
A) I don't like kroot
B) I love sky rays(even though they are not that good at all)
C) I don't have the additional crisis suits and Broadside. But my friend would let me proxy the suits from stealth suits. hes really relaxed that way.

Any help I could get with either list or just tactical advice would be nice. thanks in advance.

[Pikante]

Needs more fusion blasters, and plasma guns. That's how to take out marines in style especially if they rush you.

drop the kroot and add in more fire warriors, and drop the devil fish unless you use pathfinders. While they can be helpful against quite a few armies, they aren't really all that potent against space marines. At least that is what I have found.

[Rapture]

I am not a fan of SMS on Devilfish. What are they, 20 points? They are not very effective and they limit your transport's purpose - mobility. Your list, because of the small Fire Warrior team size, might be using only the Devilfish and leaving the Fire Warriors to hide on objectives. Are these transports really worth it? If you lose them, you would have to walk to the objectives in Seize Ground games but you could spend the point on Crisis Suits or more Broadsides.

[atlas_garon]

Ive fought a marine list damn near exactly like this one I went with on HQ fireknife MP PR MT with an elite squad of fire knives the reset were bladestorm. for heavys squad of broadsides *** hammer head rail two piranha FB (hanging in cover then counter charge kill land raider) pathfinders 6 fish for 12man FW and a another 12 man warrior to be my outflank lambs just in case wount worry about the extra seekers your makerlights are better uses amping up your battle suits fire knives are great on transports and bladestorms PR BC MT will eat up his infantry. use the non as important stuff to cover you on side you dont have cover on to limit the dread before you slag it. pirhana will be able to charge the LR and MP and rails will stop rhinos cold while your remain guns start whiddling the jump troops dont worry so mch about the piranha charge them straight into the landraider once it closes if they dont kill it no worry they will take hit or even stal its movment so you can devote your railguns to it. a final note make sure you have room to shift and use terrian if any in mid field to limit your enemies movment and MAKE THOSE JET PACKERS TAKE THAT DT test if they leave cover!

[blackarmchair]

You need to max out on railguns; there's an argument to be made for both Broadsides and Hammerheads - personally, I vote Broadsides. Your goal should be to de-mech his whole army by turn 2.

The dread should never get to assault, given how much fusion you can pack he really has no excuse to do anything but suicide a single MM shot.

My advice to you would be something like this (I don't have Tau book so I'm just giving ideas from memory):

+ Shas'el
- Fusion/Plasma, 2x drones

+ Crisis Suits
- 1x Leader with MP/PG & 2x Drones
- 2x Suits with MP/PG
+ Crisis Suits
- 1x Leader with MP/PG & 2x Drones
- 2x Suits with MP/PG
+ Crisis Suits
- 1x Leader with TwL Fusions & 2x Drones
- 2x Suits with TwL Fusions

+ Fire Warriors
- 6x Warriors
+ Fire Warriors
- 6x Warriors

+ Pathfinders
- 8x Pathfinders
+ Pathfinders
- 8x Pathfinders

+ Hammerhead
+ Hammerhead
+ Broadsides

This should be at least close to 1500 (sorry if it isn't, been forever since I've worked with Tau). If not there are some easy things you could do to knock off points.

The basic idea is to use pathfinders to mark important targets and use the hammerheads/broadsides to blow them away. This tactic works REALLY well on space marines, you might find yourself struggling a bit against Dark Eldar or Blood Angels but Tau are hard to build all comers with at this point.