Tau Army List Help

[bjornagain]

What sort of stuff do you have?

[Asurya]

Hey Jak

When asking for advice to build an army list it's a lot easier for the guys to be able to give you feedback on your list.

Write a list yourself based on what models you have (and if you have stuff left over, note that down as well) and then we'll help you find the best combination.

[Commissar]

yep sorry totally forgot

[GavX]

The basics are there, but I would get yourself another box of firewarriors, with 30" S5 weapons they are the best basic infantry going for firefights.
Stick with pulse rifles, as nice as the other guns are, you sacrifice range and rapid fire for pinning and assault weapon, which lets face it, Tau Firewarriors should never need.
Only thing really lacking in long range firepower, something like a Hammerhead with its solid slug and submunition round can easily chew up a guard squad a turn or even a battletank with its beastly gun.
Chris is the man to ask on all this though, christ knows how many points of Tau he has hidden away...

[Commissar]

bought a hammerhead from ebay wont arrive till the 24th which sucks but ty for advice gav ur fire warrior idea should work well

[sholto]

Cool - welcome to the Greater Good

Your battlesuit commander is a little unfocused, in that there is nothing he cannot kill, but nothing he will excel at killing. His CiB will be effective against low-T hordes, with the odd AP1 hit to worry marines and termies, while his fusion blaster will destroy enemy armour, and also worry marines and termies! A plasma rifle is the normal accompaniment for a CiB if you are wanting to focus on killing heavy infantry, whereas an airbursting frag projector is a great accompaniment if you want to wipe out hordes at range. Remember to keep his BS as high as possible to make the most use of both weapons (shas'o or shas'el with Targeting Array and HWMT). A shas'el with CiB, plasma, targeting array and HWMT is very common (I use them a lot) and are known as Centurions, on account of the fact that they cost exactly 100 points!

Your Crisis suit ought to twin link his fusion blaster. That makes him an excellent deep-striking armour killer, provided he doesn't scatter. If that is the role you use him in don't load up on the options, since he will die shortly after he kills the enemy tank. The flamer is only there to fill the remaining hard-point cheaply, although if by some miracle he survives it will come in handy.

Don't let the fusion blaster on your stealth suits persuade you they should be closing with the enemy. Their strength is in the stealth fields, and that means keeping at range and lashing the enemy infantry with burst cannon fire. If you keep them in the backfield, the fusion blaster will ideal for dealing with vehicles or especially deep-striking dreads. If you outflank them, the enemy will need to watch his back, although your stealths probably won't last long on their own. Remember that their burst cannons can penetrate almost any vehicle's rear armour.

Your fire warriors in a devilfish are a great troops unit, but I would certainly get another asap. Remember they can seize/ contest an objective while sitting inside. Always take disruption pod on your devilfish (and any other vehicles). You can kit out your devilfish with SMS and other goodies like targeting array, turning it into a 'warfish', but this makes it expensive.

EDIT: forgot about the Kroot! These guys are not an assault unit, so don't use them as one. No armour save results in no Kroot very quickly in a close combat, and with their low leadership and initiative they can get sweeping advanced easily. The only time they ought to be used aggressively is in much larger units with Kroot hounds, although you will get some traction if you get a charge in on isolated IG infantry units. Every game you play, put some woods on the table and try to put your objective in it. Then deploy the Kroot there and have them go to ground. A 2+ cover save ought to keep them going for a while and ensure your home objective remains secure. An alternative is to infiltrate into woods and annoy the opponent with their S4 guns enough that he diverts assault troops to root them out.

The sniper drone team is effective, although more would be better. Remember you don't need to use the spotter's markerlight for the sniper drones. Marines will head for these guys asap, so make note of that and act accordingly.

A hammerhead will be a great addition, although remember that if it is your only tank it will take all the anti-tank fire going. Keeping it alive will be your biggest problem.

Sholto

[Commissar]

thx mate , should i maybe get more tanks in the army ? i is also ordered some vespids so the army is building up quite quick

[sholto]

More tanks for Tau is always a good idea! 2 Hammerheads will do you fine. It is rare that I will field 3, since a unit of Broadsides is much better at killing enemy armour than a Hammerhead.

Vespids are great, but will die like flies if you leave them exposed and are very hard to use well, especially on a terrain-heavy board. Marines will bust a nut to shoot these units due to their AP3 weapons and 24" range of effect. One good tactic is to have them accompanied by a cheap unit that can keep up with them. Gun drones are ideal. Jump your vespids into range, shoot and then, if there are any enemy left, have the gun drones make their assault move in front of the vespids. This ought to protect them from being charged and will give them a 4+ cover save from shooting.

If you have markerlights in your army, try and use them to improve the Vespids shooting. You will get much more value out of that than using ML hits for FW.

If there are only a couple of marines left after shooting, you might as well assault. You ought to kill 1 or 2 on the charge. Don't charge any more than that - Vespids are not an assault unit despite their high I.

Sholto

[Commissar]

thanks very much