Help me organize my Tau into a coherent Gun Line?

[Deleted]

What up Hive

So i recently rescued all of my very first 40k models (mostly tau) from their boxes and coats of bad paint, and bought a couple new tau units. I mostly bought them for painting, but now i'm hoping to organize my misc tau into a playable force for either myself or my friend to use in a week or two.

EDIT: Here's my first attempt at a list. I'd have to buy two broadsides, but...yea. Keep in mind i don't know a huge amount about the Tau yet...

HQ

Ethreal - 62
-Sheild drone

ELITES

3 Crisis Suits - 200
-3 TL missile pods
-3 fusion blasters
-1 positional relay
-2 sheild drones

TROOPS

10 Fire Warriors - 100
-Shas'ui

10 Fire Warriors - 100
-Shas'ui

12 Kroot - 72

FAST ATTACK

5 Pathfinders - 78
- Shas'ui
- Blacksun Filter
- Sheild Drone

5 Pathfinders - 78
- Shas'ui
- Blacksun Filter
- Sheild Drone

Pirahna - 82
-Fusion Blaster 10
-2 Seeker Missiles 16
-Blacksun Filter 1
-Disruption pod 15


HEAVY SUPPORT

Broadside Battlesuit - 65

Broadside Battlesuit - 65

FORTIFICATIONS

Aegis Defense Line - 100
-Quadgun

TOTAL = 1002

STRATEGY: Ten fire warriors hang behind the Aegis, flanked on either side by the two broadsides. The other ten load up in a devilfish, joined by the Ethreal, to get in close and objective sit, and hit hard using the Ethreal's storm of fire.

The three crisis suits move up the edge of the board, using the positional relay to bring in the 12 kroot from outflanking once they've gotten close. The kroot will mostly be a nuisance, but may be able to swipe an objective if they live long enough.

The pathfinders, flanked by the Pirahna, move up through cover, hopefully scoring some markerlights for the FW's behind the Aegis.

[snowdaman]

the black sun filter is useless on the pathfinders. as they will probably be using markerlights and they don't get cover vs markerlights.

id probably drop it from the piranha also as fusion is only 18 inch and u won't be using it first turn. unless u fire seekers but i assume u will be using markerlights for them.

i personally like a fireblade more then ethereal but they can't move and use the volly fire

Sent from my GT-I9100M using proboards

[Hive Bahamut]

Drop the blacksun to give the Kroot Sniper rounds, as this brings another type of damage from a generally harmless blob, for dirt cheap. Also typically units of solo tend to be sub par but at 1000 you aren't likely to run across tons of AV. Keep that in mind though as you can guarantee all AV guns are going for your lone speeder.

The Ethereal buffs can be nice but giving up a VP if he dies sucks, and a Fireblade makes a better gunner for the Aegis. Six of one half a dozen of the other.

Also I would condense into a single pathfinder squad because at 1000 there isn't really enough firepower to benefit from the extra lights because of the point restrictions. This could give you enough points to grab another pirahna, another squad of troops or even close to another 2 broadsides or a Hammerhead/Riptide.

Lots of options, also I would try to get that puretide/(can't remember the other chip name..) Giving the whole unit twin linked for free or a pick of USR is gravy. You would also save in costs of your pods that way.

[vgnevar]

Hey!

Been playing Tau a long time including the new edition.

First off... drop the Positional Relay on your Crisis Team and give the Kroot a single Kroot Hound.  This gives them Acute Senses so they can re-roll the outflank dice.  This will tactically free up the XV-8's.

Your XV-8's are also suffering from "Don't know what we are here fore" syndrome.  Either give them x2 Missile Pods, and keep them back, OR x2 Fusions and have them tank hunt.  Or better yet go dual Plasma Rifles at 1000pts.

Shield drones should be traded for Gun Drones.  They serve the same purpose, but provide more bullets.

You didn't include the cost of the Devilfish at all... but you mention the Ethereal riding in one.

Shield drone and Blacksun on Pathfinders are both useless.  Also you do not want to be moving the Pathfinders as Marker-Lights are Heavy Weapons.  You will likely just deploy them into/scout them into a good firing position.

The single Piranha is odd, but yes it doesn't need the Black Sun at all.  The Seekers are also 20 meh points.

I would drop the Piranha, fill out the bodies on the Firewarriors, and keep them -all- behind the ADL with the Ethereal and a Fireblade if you are going to Gunline.

If you are going to play aggressive mount all of the Firewarriors in the Devilfish and ditch the ADL.  Then push forward and Fish of Fury the (please do not swear) out of people.  =D

[Deleted]

Wow thanks for all the responses

Alright i dropped the speeder and misc accessories and picked a strategy to center around like vgnevar suggested - i'm going gunline. (partially because of my force's paint scheme lol)

My devilfish is actually a hammerhead anyway, and my "ethreal" is a converted fireblade so this list would make more sense in terms of models (though id have to convert another fireblade):

HQ

Fireblade - (60)

Fireblade (60)

TROOPS

10 Firewarriors - (100)

10 Firewarriors - (100)

12 Kroot - (89)
-Sniper rounds
-1 Kroot hound

ELITES

3 Crisis Suits - (126)
-TL fusion blasters

FAST

8 Pathfinders - (109)

HEAVY

Broadside - (65)

Broadside - (65)

Hammerhead - (125)

FORTIFICATIONS

Aegis - (100)
-quadgun

TOTAL = 999

Im a sucker for symmetry, so i sort of modelled this around the image of a hammerhead in the center, 10 firewarriors+fireblade on each side, and a broadside on each edge, all behind an aegis. Beautiful image IMO. But is it too heavy on heavy support? Would those points be better served elsewhere?

More questions  :

Broadsides: Heavy Rail Rifle or Missile pods? 
Crisis suits: Plasma rifles or Fusion blasters? I like the sound of using them for tank hunting, but are plasma rifles more veratile? And are they vulnerable without any drones?

Is two fireblades a waste of points? Like i said i like symmetry haha but i suppose i could use the points elsewhere, i just don't know where.

Same question for the quadgun, not sure if points are better served elsewhere

Thanks for helping me out guys!

[vgnevar]

Important note on XV-8's.

You no longer are required to Twin-Link two of the same weapon...

As in you can take x2 single fusion guns for x2 Melta shots per suit.  Or dual plasmas... or dual missiles.  The old requirement to Twin-link two choices of the same gun is removed.

Also, since you are only using the one Elite slot, you could split your XV-8's into three teams of one suit with x2 fusion blasters.

Place all three in reserve and you have x3 heavy tank deep-strikers that you can split your fire on without paying for the wargear.  These will give up KP, but can allow your otherwise static gunline to drop in the backfield to remove artillery and other hard targets a Railcannon would have trouble destroying.

You also might consider using the Ion Cannon on the Hammerhead to give you good anti-MEQ and Large Blast.  Since the XV-8's will be dropping with Fusion you likely will not need the Railcannon.

Finally, as to the XV-88's, I personally love the Heavy Rail Rifle, however statistically speaking the High Yield Missile pods are strictly better.  They are mid ranged, but they do synergize with the Firewarrior range well.

You will actually want to deploy your entire force forward to ensure ranges on the enemy Army unless it's line toeing CC armies like Hgaunt rush. =D



P.S.  Also consider... while this might be fine to get you back into the game and your models all set.  ADL camping Tau gunlines are pretty much the poster children for 'cheese' in the current edition.  Unless you are playing with only friends you might find it hard to find opponents at your LGS after you play a list like this too many times.  Deploying your forces and then just applying firepower at random can also get boring for you as well.  Tau can play some very interesting and dynamic lists, and while a solid gunline to learn the ropes is great, you will want to mix stuff up in the future for your opponent's sake as well as your own.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely split up the suits and deep strike the hell out of em haha. And, Having asked it, i might actually go with the heavy rail rifle simply because i like the look of it so much haha. We'll see.

And yea, i know its sort of a cheesy strategy lol. but yea i mostly play with friends and this is mostly a base to get some practice in and get 1000 points all painted. After all its a pretty straightforward list to play with haha. Like you mentioned i am just pulling my tau off the shelf, so I'll mix it up once i get some experience and more cash

[Deleted]

- Also, how much would two fusion blasters cost? The same? (Im a little confused by the wording in the codex) Would it be 30 (15x2) or 20?

Thanks!

[vgnevar]

Each blaster costs 15 points. A single Twin-Linked is 20.

So having x2 Fusions would be +30pts. Having x2 TL'd Fusions would be +40pts.

Normal XV-8's can't have x2 TL'd, so you want just the 30pt pair. Think of the Twin-linked versions as completely seperate weapons as opposed to the fact that they are two strapped together.