A decent Tau Army

[germanid]

Okay,

here is my problem. My Brother plays Tau (and Grey Knights, but they are another problem), but we both struggle to put up a decent army list for, lets say, 2000 points.

We have some models, actually most of the Codex, but it's really a pain in ... to have a versatile list with this army. So any clues WHAT is absolutely necessary in 5th Edition Tau Armies, what units are more or less obsolete? I'd really appreciate this help.

Oh, and by the way - if anyone has clues for a Grey Knight Army, with no allied troops or something, let me know. That would also be great

[shugiano]

going to a tau forum and asking/looking around there would probably produce better results......

[Devil's Advocate]

Generally, I strongly recommend building a tau army around pathfinders and their markerlights.
Markerlights are by far the most valuable part of a tau army.

Tau is very much like tyranids in they build on unit synergy: individual units may be cool, but working together, they are frighteningly powerful. Unlike tyranids, they focus on shooting and shun assault.

My current 2k tau list looks like this:
Shas'o - 175
Fusion Blaster, Plasma rifle, Sheild Generator
Failsafe detonator, HW Darksun filter, HW Drone controller, HW Multi Tracker, Stimulant injector, 1 shield drone.

3x Shas'ui - 117
Burst cannon, TL Flamer

3x Shas'ui - 186
Missile pod, Plasma rifle, Multi-tracker

5x stealth team - 202
1x fusion blaster, 5x targeting array

12x fire warriors - 280
Shas'ui, bonding knife
Devilfish with all the fixin's
2x seeker missiles

12x fire warriors - 135
Shas'ui, bonding knife

12x fire warriors - 155
Shas'ui, bonding knife, marker light HW Multi-tracker, HW Target lock

12x fire warriors - 155
Shas'ui, bonding knife, marker light HW Multi-tracker, HW Target lock

20x kroot - 140

8x pathfinders 221
Shas'ui,
Devilfish with all the fixin's

2x broadsides
Drone controllers, 2x marker drones, 2x shield drones

1996 points.
I'm considering dropping a squad of fire warriors to pick up another pathfinder squad, and moving the devilfish over to that new pathfinder squad.

the point is to markerlight a unit up, then use those markerlights to increase BS, reduce cover, fire missiles, etc, and kill it dead. once the unit is gone, then I expend the rest of my army's shooting at other units.

If I add the 2nd pathfinder unit, I will likely kit out one firewarrior squad with carbines, and use that as a suppression unit, reducing their LD check against pinning.

Grey knights function entirely differently.

while I haven't given their codex a look-see recently, it really comes down to this:
Focus your army on a task, or an objective and perform that task. It's an elite force that can hit like a hammer, but it's small, so take upgrades that protect the force, mostly (in this case) vehicles to deploy quickly. However, don't take too many upgrades. the models are expensive enough as it is.

[shugiano]

as a person who used to play tau at a tournament level i really do suggest you go to www.advancedtautactica.com and read

there are alot of wasted points in the list above and alot of glaring weaknesses that im not really going to point out.

tau really is an army you have to find your place in. reguardless of power there are going to be some units that you personally just cant work with and your going to have to adapt to that.

right now mech is huge, protecting those firewarriors are priority number 1 so i suggest you mount of most if not all o fyoru fire warrior squads.

and while i agree that markerlights are an amazing asset you can chose not to use them and still be sucessfull

also keep in mind that pathfinders are NOT the only source of markerlights. the Stealth marker team is currently my favorite marker carrier (3xv25 with 3 markerdrones, a leader with a markerlight) as it is alot more durable to incoming fire, can shoot on the move (aka shoot then use jump packs in assault fase for 6 inch movement) and as a bonus they infilrate alowing you to get your markerlights pointed exactly were they are needed.

also dont get a shas'o, not worth the points, take and 'el with a targetting array.

and crisis suits are your best friend... you need multiple squads of these loveable death suits.

pack a few railguns and a squad of kroot in there and you have a fairly competative army

[Devil's Advocate]

Oh I didn't claim my list is tournament ready, and that's not what he was asking anyway.

I know there are a few "wasted" points, but I don't ascribe to a lot of the conventional wisdom on what to do and what not to do with a tau army - and I do well enough as it is.

My army works very well in the venue I play it in: Local game store against a wide variety of opponents, many who are new.

I play my tau to have fun, possibly win some, maybe lose some. I don't want to be undefeatable with the list.

As for the 'o, I disagree, the unit is totally worth it:
+25 points for:
+WS, +BS, +W, +Att and +LD? worth. it.

I like pathfinders as my main marker team, as they are the cheapest way, point for point, to get markerlights in the army. I may eventually add markerlights to my stealthsuits instead of another pathfinder unit, but my stealthsuits don't tend to live very long on the table.

[rainthezangoose]

use a hole army of kroot, i kid i kid they suck, well by them selfs, used to play a hole kroot army, you know for the fun of it. no ST8 weapons in the entire army

[Psychichobo]

Kroot mercs rocked though. Shapers with eviscerators? Screw you dreadnought!

Kroot are useful as an outflanking interception squad. Don't cast them aside so quickly.

[fnord]

Indeed, kroots can be quite useful when going up against gunline armies, or to deal with flanking forces. They are also (point per point) able to beat orks in close combat, thanks to their higher I.

No matter what kind of tau army you want, be it tournament or casual, you need to use your mobility. A stationary tau army is a dead tau army, yet far too many try to build tau gunlines (which I have never seen work). Mount all of your fire warriros in transports, and give their transports disruption pods (flechette dischargers can be nice, if you have the points). You also need to use crisis suits to deal with many targets. Never build split purpose souths tough (for an example: missile pods & plasma rifles are meant for different targets, so don't take both. Take weapons that can be useful against the same type of target, or TL them). As for the commander, Shas'els are usually better. That extra point of WS, W & A won't really have any impact on the game, and you can increase your BS for a lower point cost. Both broadsides & sniper drone teams are very vulnerable, as they will be left on their own in a mobile army, so think hard before you include them. It's usually better to take hammerheads instead, as they can move out of the way of any advancing enemies, and can be used against both tanks & infantry.

[rainthezangoose]

i wasn't nokin kroot they rock, i was saying they suck in a HOLE kroot army , i love the tau army look there so awesome and Japanese almost gundam like look , i don't like how they fail so bad in combat, saw low WS but meh i recoin there stats are simply to make things fair, they relay don't make sense, what makes a human a better fighter compared to the tau? i mean this is really a question in the sense of people please correct me cause its all why made me wonder

fnord i personly proffer the broadsides they are twin linked and there hammer heads blast sucks soo bad.

[Fungus A]

Tau? The best army lists are the themed lists, it sounds stupid but it's true, lists with as many suits as possible, lists with as many hammerheads as possible, lists with as many drones as possible and lists with as many firewarriors as possible, any of those choices is a surefire practical, fun and potentially winning list.

[Devil's Advocate]

I disagree with (almost) ALL of the posts in between this one and my last one. This really just highlights my disagreement with the aforementioned conventional wisdom regarding tau.

Yes, tau works well as a mobile force - this does not mean you should make an exclusively mech army. doing so gives up the advantage of the 30" pulse rifle range.
Yes, Kroot are very effective - this does not mean you should go heavily kroot. doing so gives up the advantage of markerlights and hobbles you against heavy assault armies.
Yes, you should design your suits for specific tasks - this does not invalidate combinations such as missile pods and plasma rifles. both are very effective weapons and are an excellent choice to use on the same suit due to their massive versatility.
Yes, Tau gunlines are quite vulnerable - this does not mean you will automatically fail every time if you use one. In some situations a gunline is going to be the only way you can win.

There are two very important things about the Tau list if you want to do well and enjoy the army.
1. Understand the list. backwards, forwards, through and through. Know where the synergies are and use them. Know what units work well together, and which don't.
2. Versatility. The Tau way of war is VERY similar to tyranids in that every unit supports each other and you MUST adjust your tactics and play style depending on mission, opponent and terrain.

With the above list, I've defeated a Spacewolf drop pod list (that dropped right in my face) by staying static. I've also used the exact same list to defeat a tau player by going mobile, a space marine player by going partially static and partially mobile, a chaos player by using a decoy...

The point here is flexibility and understanding your list.

[Fungus A]

Agreed, although you can never have enough railguns.

[rainthezangoose]

lookin forworld to the new dex, actual with what happend with the nid , i might not be, not saying the nid dex is bad , its just i love the tau soo much id hate for them to change like my equaly loved nids

[germanid]

Thank you very much for the advices and help! I gonna build a Tau Army then, but my Brother has to get into HIS army, if I understood everything correctly. But still, Tau can be devastating, if played correctly, which is nice to hear and gives me the glimpse hope of having some decent fights against his Tau army

Thank you again!

[cykosis]

This is what I would do for 2000 points

This army uses the positional relay on the commander. Only the commander starts on the board, maybe the hammerhead too depending on the situation. Use the relay to bring one thing on a turn and then everything else comes on turn 5.

There are articles explaining how this works better than I could say it. Search for Ninja Tau and you should find something.

Unit cost: 148
XV8 Shas'o
--- [Positional relay, TL Missile pod, Stimulant inj., HW Drone controller, Shield Drone, Shield Drone]


Unit cost: 270
Stealthsuit 'vre
--- [Burst cannon, Markerlight, HW Drone controller, Gun Drone, Gun Drone]
4x Stealthsuit 'ui
--- [Burst cannon, Drone controller, Gun Drone, Gun Drone]

Unit cost: 191
XV8 Shas'ui TL
--- [Plasma rifle, Fusion blaster, Multi-tracker]
2x XV8 Shas'ui
--- [Plasma rifle, Fusion blaster, Multi-tracker]

Unit cost: 99
XV8 Shas'ui TL
--- [TL Missile pod, Flamer]
XV8 Shas'ui
--- [TL Missile pod, Flamer]


Unit cost: 180
6x Fire Warrior 'la
--- [Pulse rifle]
Devilfish
--- [Burst cannon, SMS, Landing gear, Disruption pod, Multi-tracker, Targeting array]

Unit cost: 180
6x Fire Warrior 'la
--- [Pulse rifle]
Devilfish
--- [Burst cannon, SMS, Landing gear, Disruption pod, Multi-tracker, Targeting array]

Unit cost: 165
15x Kroot
--- [Kroot rifle]
10x Kroot Hounds
--- [Fangs]

Unit cost: 165
15x Kroot
--- [Kroot rifle]
10x Kroot Hounds
--- [Fangs]


Unit cost: 231
Pathfinder 'ui
--- [Pulse C./ Marker, Bonding knife]
7x Pathfinder 'la
--- [Pulse C./ Marker]
Devilfish
--- [Burst cannon, SMS, Landing gear, Disruption pod, Multi-tracker, Targeting array]


Unit cost: 180
Hammerhead
--- [Railgun, SMS, Landing gear, Targeting array, Disruption pod, Target lock, Multi-tracker]

Unit cost: 190
XV88 'vre
--- [TL Railgun, SMS, A.S.S., HW Target lock, HW Drone controller, Shield Drone]
XV88 'ui
--- [TL Railgun, SMS, A.S.S.]