1500 Pt Tau Army Suggestions

[gauntinator]

Hey guys,
I got the Tau battle force to branch away from nids for a while. I decided that I wanted an army with some serious long range capabilities. So I haven't built any of it yet, what with school and all. However I want to make a roughly 1500 pt list expanding on the battle force. I would post my own and ask for your opinions but A) I don't have my dex and B) I'm not really sure where to start any way. I've seen mixed reviews on what to take and what not to take. So ya, if you guys could write up a quick list for me or just general tips I'd really appreciate it.

[wisdomseyes1]

<---- Other games workshop stuff.

Tactics that i have heard/read (but don't quote me because i do not know very much about tau) is... take 2 units of 6 fire warriors and put them in fish... because you have to take them... nothing more.

Broadsides and hammer heads are awesome-sauce. Railguns, preferably twin linked, for the win.

Seriously... that is all I know ;D

[gauntinator]

Ya sorry about that. It's late here and I wasn't sure what this fell under. I had also heard that broadsides were good. And I have also heard that points are better spent on crisis suits. Thanks for your imput though. Every little bit helps.

[nidzy]

I haven't read their codex but I've played against them quite a few times. My opponent really likes fire-warriors, and they are pretty fantastic shooters (especially when you buff them with marker lights). At the same time they are pretty expensive and extremely fragile.

Crisis suits are really good, they have quite a few different shooty options to play with and they have the "jump shoot jump" ability which can make them difficult for assault armies to get close.

Hammerheads and broadsides are excellent choices especially if you will face any heavy mech armies. They also have ridiculous range.

Pirhannas are pretty mediocre from what I've seen. They are basically a space marine landspeeder that costs a lot more. The other tau player I know runs them pretty effectively though.

Don't take ethereals:p

kroot are pretty cool, you pretty much just use them to bother people...they usually manage to at least annoy me either outflanking in an annoying spot or infiltrating to alter my deployment.

Thats pretty much all I can think of:) Good luck!

[vikidus]

Don't throw ethereals away too quickly, Tau were my first 40k army and a lot of people underestimate what an ethereal and honor guard firewarrior squad can do. I do suggest taking at least a 6 man pathfinder squad these guys are a must for tau. Pirhanas are nice turbo boost across the table then use pathfinders to launch the seeker missiles off them into the side/rear of opponents tanks. But one thing I suggest is to put the stealth suit team aside that comes with the box as you need all 3 elite spots for xv 8s.

[Devil's Advocate]

I tend to run firewarrior heavy with some kroot support, somewhat light on battlesuits.
one of the people at my LGW runs heavy battlesuit wtih light FW support. Both of these choices tend to rely on pathfinders (not part of the battleforce) The up side is that the battleforce comes with the requisite devilfish for pathfinders.

I would suggest you decide how you want your force to work before really going to far:
the Mobile Tau build is VERY different from Static Tau is VERY different from Kroot heavy... they all play very differently as well.

so, do you want...

- A smaller, more elite force of mobile units jumping around and surgically picking the opponents apart?
- A larger, infantry based force that relies on good positioning, open fire lanes and weight of fire to grind your opponents down?

Those are your two basic choices when it comes to Tau

[gauntinator]

Mar 23, 2011 16:04:18 GMT Devil's Advocate said:

I tend to run firewarrior heavy with some kroot support, somewhat light on battlesuits.
one of the people at my LGW runs heavy battlesuit wtih light FW support. Both of these choices tend to rely on pathfinders (not part of the battleforce) The up side is that the battleforce comes with the requisite devilfish for pathfinders.

I would suggest you decide how you want your force to work before really going to far:
the Mobile Tau build is VERY different from Static Tau is VERY different from Kroot heavy... they all play very differently as well.

so, do you want...

- A smaller, more elite force of mobile units jumping around and surgically picking the opponents apart?
- A larger, infantry based force that relies on good positioning, open fire lanes and weight of fire to grind your opponents down?

Those are your two basic choices when it comes to Tau

I'm thinking about going for a small elite force. I'm getting tired of packing up a swarm army of nids so the more compact the better. Plus I like the look and fluff of the XV8's and stealth suits.

[wisdomseyes1]

Tau have fluff?

[Devil's Advocate]

@ gauntinator: Then you should consider only buying one of the battleforces, then pick up as many battlesuits as you can from hither, thither and yon. Expect to field somewhere upwards of 9x Crisis suits, 4+ Broadsides and maybe 2 units of pathfinders. Leave your troop units relatively small and designed around grabbing objectives.

Stealth suits (if you take any) should focus on either going stupid expensive and being more markerlights for your army OR go for close range weight-of-fire fire support, cheap and expendable. Don't bother getting vespids ATM, rumor has it they're getting a plastic set soon(ish)

Make sure you get a mix of weapons for the battle suits and that the weapons on each unit complement each other. e.g. it's not a great idea to put missile pods or plasma rifles with flamers.

[gauntinator]

So what would be the best load out for a crisis team facing Blood Angles and the like? My guess is the fire knife because of the high strength and AP and pretty good range. But I'm not an expert.

[Devil's Advocate]

I've always hated the different names they have, because it's difficult for me to remember which means what...
fortunately, 2nd Sphere has this handy-dandy guide:
secondsphere.org/index.php/topic,600.0.html

Personally, I like the PlasmaRifle/MissilePod set up; it indicates well against infantry all the way up to and including heavy infantry, and can still hit light and medium armor. The only downside is the few shots at range: 2 at 36", 3 at 24" 4 at 12". To make up for the deficit, you need markerlights, to guarantee hits and remove cover saves.

that said, lots of people disagree - they claim the 36" range and AP 4 is counter-indicative of the 24" range and AP 2. Either way, the decision is something for you to make.

My second favorite configuration is TL Flamer and burst cannon - again, often declined because of the range discrepancy, but my thought is that at range, the squad only puts out a few non-supported burst cannon shots, but then when I get in range, they lay down 3 twin-linked flamer templates (and the squad leader throws an airburst in for fun) That many hits usually ruins anyone's day, especially horde armies.

Angels will dislike Plasma rifles, fusion blasters and missile pods, since the first two deny armor saves and the last one can hurt their tanks and storm ravens.

[gauntinator]

Thanks Devil, you've been really helpful. I believe I have a few more questions if you guys are up to it.
1) Is a cyclic ion blaster good for anything? It's stats look like it's either an amazing success or an abysmal failure.
2)What about the fragmentation launcher?
3)Shield or marker drones? I plan on having a few pathfinders or stealth suits with markers.

[Devil's Advocate]

Mar 24, 2011 23:29:31 GMT gauntinator said:

Thanks Devil, you've been really helpful. I believe I have a few more questions if you guys are up to it.
1) Is a cyclic ion blaster good for anything? It's stats look like it's either an amazing success or an abysmal failure.
2)What about the fragmentation launcher?
3)Shield or marker drones? I plan on having a few pathfinders or stealth suits with markers.

1. Cyclic ion blasters are good for those people who like to gamble. 5 shots, str 3, AP 4/AP 1 if you roll a 6 at 18" range? bah. for about half the points you get the same range, assault 3 Str 5 AP 5. (and IMO, an almost equally useless gun)
2. Frag launcher works GREAT in units that have flamers. my regular set up for that squad is thus:
Crisis team: 149
Shas'vre: team leader & shas'vre upgrade, Bonding knife, HW Multi-track, Airburst frag, TL Flamer
2x Crisis suits: Burst cannon, TL Flamer
the Shas'vre can take 2x shield drones for 30 points on a HW drone controller, if you have the points

This gives you 3 models with an 18" range gun, totalling out to:
6x shots at Str 5 AP 5
1x large blast at Str 4 AP 5 Barrage, denies cover saves.
add in jump-shoot-jump, and it LOOKS like that's all they do, not terribly significant shooting
but then when they get close enough to use flamers, it's suddenly
3x TL Flamers Str 4 AP 5
1x large blast at Str 4 AP 5 Barrage, denies cover saves, which will HURT any unit (except terminators, maybe) and MURDER hordes.

3. Instead of flat out saying which is better, I'm going to tell you the truth: they both are great... at their job. The trick is to understand the rules surrounding drones before you choose.

First Most Important Rule: ALL Drones adopt the movement characteristic of their parent unit. If there is no parent unit, the have jump jets and can JSJ around. This means drones attached to fire warriors lose JSJ and count as infantry, while drones attached to crisis suits have JSJ and Relentless.

Second Most Important Rule: All drones adopt the special rules of the parent unit. Drones attached to stealth suits have their awesome stealth fields. Drones attached to Pathfinders get Scout, etc.

Third Most Important Rule: All drones count as members of the squad in all respects. This means that if a single model moves, the drones count as moving. You must count them for majority toughness, so gun and marker drones attached to XV8s can drop the toughness down to 3 instead of 4. Additionally, you must count those drones when calculating casualties for leadership tests and whether the unit can regroup below 50% strength.

Now that you know the above, consider:
A markerlight is a heavy weapon. Attach a marker drone to firewarriors (infantry) and they cannot move and shoot - it's a heavy weapon without relentless. However, attach that same marker drone to a Crisis suit and they gain Jump Jets, JSJ and Relentless, so they are able to move and shoot... but they are also T3, so it may bring the average T of the unit down. Stealth suits have Stealth fields and Jumpjets so marker drones get all that, and match in toughness... but this is also an expensive option for a relatively cheap unit.

In addition to the above Most Important Rules, Shield drones adopt the Toughness and Armor save of their parent unit, as well as having a 4+ invulnerable save. This means that a shield drone attached to a Broadside gains T4, 2+/4++ save whilst a shield drone attached to a Fire Warrior gains T3, 4+/4++ save.

It would not be entirely out of place to attach a pair of marker drones to a crisis suit with TL Missile pods - 103 points, and you get two marker lights in addition to the missile pods, the unit can JSJ and throw the two markerlights downrange... you gain mobile marker lights at range that you can hide, compared to the much cheaper pathfinder markerlights - T3, worse save, slower overall move... Mind you, I've never seen anyone do it - most people don't want to waste the elite slots.

It really just depends on how you want to build your army.

[gauntinator]

Wow Devil that's definitely a well thought out answer I appreciate the details. I guess I won't worry about drones until I can actually buy some. Thanks again.

[hurg]

Just a couple of other things.

Shield Drones are fantastic. I personally take 2 of them on all of my crisis suits and broadsides. They morph their Toughness and Armor save to that of the wearer, making Broadsides extremely hard to kill. They're also important on surviving shots from Battle cannons, Missile spams, and anything str 8+ and ap 3 for your suits.

If you're spamming Crisis suits, I probably wouldn't get the shas'vre upgrade. The team leader is more important. If you've got the extra points, sure, but otherwise I would leave them at home. Bonding knives are nice but I find that my suits are wiped off the table if they are forced to take a leadership.

There are tons of suit variations. Deathrain, deathrain+, fireknife, firestorm, brighteye, the list is endless. The most popular are, in order of populairty, Fireknife, firestorm, deathrain+. Fireknife is great, as said. I like firestorm, a 3 man squad is pumping out 15 str5+ shots a turn. Sure they aren't penetrating the armor, but they're forcing more saves and honestly, how many marine squads aren't in cover?

Broadsides > Hammerheads in sheer killy. Run them in 2 man squads, as their guns are so powerful that the third shot tends to get wasted. That being said, I would run 2 hammerheads/2 Broadsides in higher points. Why? Hordes and last minute objective battering. Kitted out at a 175 points, a hammerhead firing as a fast vehicle with a SMS and a cover save is terribly hard to kill.

Since you're just starting Tau, i'm going to tell you this. Crisis suits require a deft hand to maneuver. They're fragile, even with shield drones and they will die. JSJ is fantastic, once you learn how to use crisis suits, you will love them. But, if you're like me, they will die a ton and for stupid, avoidable reasons in your first 10ish games.

Have fun!