My buddies tau list (general idea)

Ok so after talking to him a bit and learning the Tau myself I think me and Cruz (my friend) have come up with a rough idea for his Tau army, I want imput please.

HQ

Commander shash o
upgraded BS 4
twin linked plasma rifle

2 body guards
upgraded BS 4
twin linked plasma

This unit is for termie or MC hunting

ELITES

18 stealth suits in 3 teams

The guy loves stealth suits not much tactical reason but I think we will use them to hurrass the enemy from behind, also I believe he will be using a marker drone in each squad.

TROOPS

2 units of fire warriors, possible in devilfish, possibly using markers lights with missile upgrades

FAST ATTACK

I don't think theres anything on the books yet

HEAVY SUPPORT

2 hammerheads
1 3 man broadside team

this will make up some anti tank, and anti infantry power.

Its an extremly rouch sketch and were both extremly new to tau, its essentially him telling me what he likes and me trying to interpret that into a viable list so it might seem a little screwed

I bought Army Builder yesterday and I used your list to play with it.

Your descriptions aren't totally precise, but it looks like you've got something around 1750. If you want Devilfish for the Fire Warriors (you do) you'll have to keep the XV8's and stealthsuits pretty bare bones.

I still don't understand the stealthsuit craze. It is my personal opinion that they are a serious contender for the title of worst unit in WH40k. They only do one thing well and that is die quickly for large point values.

I guess I just don't get the stealthsuit thing...

Everything else looks cool. I would probably take more fire warriors instead of stealthsuits.

you might drop the 2nd hammerhead, split the broadside squad and add a brodside so its 2 teams of 2 same firepower but it is safer. Never been much of a fan for stealthsuits so I have to go with Mike Leon on them, though I wouldnt name them worst unit there are plenty worse

What is worse than stealthsuits?

I'm having trouble thinking of something. Maybe Blood Angels Captain Tycho?

Spore mines?

First, why isn't he on here telling us about his army! The more members the merrier!

18 Stealsuits is a bit over the top. I don't think they are bad at all, but they are only super useful against hordes of low armor. Definitely don't want to be dropping them behind an enemy. They'll get gobbled up way too quickly.

The Mike Leon wrote:

I guess I just don't get the stealthsuit thing...

It's because they are cheep for their volume of attacks and enjoy a good save that many other Elites do not.

The Mike Leon wrote:

Everything else looks cool. I would probably take more fire warriors instead of stealthsuits.

With the current rules that's a solid idea. I am guessing a new element with in-game tactics has built up on whether to kill a dangerous enemy unit or forgo it wipe out a Troop slot instead thereby clearing an objective.

The Kroot should be enjoying the new CC rules nicely.

FrostWolf wrote:

you might drop the 2nd hammerhead, split the broadside squad and add a brodside so its 2 teams of 2 same firepower but it is safer

Etherial Nick has been using the Hammerhead since they came out. Definatly are more scary than useful. Allot of points for something that with an important shot has three rolls to screw it up on, and they often do.

I disagree.

Hammerheads are always gonna have a 4+ cover save if played correctly.

archite666 wrote:

18 stealth suits in 3 teams

I would move this down to 3 teams of 4 and he will have the same result.

Thanks for the input.

After play testing and talking to him a great deal ( I believe he also did some web searching) he has come off the "crazy new kid stuff" and has started thinking about a decent list.

Hes gonna have 1 squad of 6 man stealth suits, if that.

He might not use them at all, but he did buy them already.

If anyone has pointers on tau in general, were all ears.

Pointers from VETERAN TAU players, not outside opinions based on playing against tau please.

I keep reading about crisis suit builds called fireknife? or firelance? I think its like SMS, plasma and mult tracker? Can someone explain this to me?

Essentially hes obsessed with a max crisis suit list which luckily for him is very viable as iv seen and read.

I think is was marc? who I played at that tourny at world of hobbies and games? That list was pretty mean as I remember and Cruz saw something similar where he was from and thats why hes interested in the tau. He really likes the move shoot move.

Plus iv read some nasty combos with the 5th edition rules.

I apolagise for the grammer in this post.

All those Crisis I use to play relied on victory point conservation via hiding them behind area terrain. That just isn't an option in 5th

I am a HUGE fan of Kroot.
Large amounts of Kroot are a great investment, under 4th ed they were a great deal but under 5th they are fantastic.
. Cover saves have improved to 3+ if hiding in woods
. They can now flank, and always have the ability to infiltrate.
. They are still dirt cheap and pack a very nice gun.
. The new sweeping advance rules prevent you losing all of them to
a rampaging assault unit. Back one squad up with another and make sure
any assaulting unit gets rapid fired if he wins an assault.
. One of your few scoring units!

Finally, don't give up on Stealth Suits just yet. Like the Kroot they can now flank, and always have the ability to infiltrate. A small, disposable unit of 4 packs a nice punch. Three units of 4 plus all those Kroot showing up along flanks can really put your opponent in a bind.

archite666 wrote:

If anyone has pointers on tau in general, were all ears.

Pointers from VETERAN TAU players, not outside opinions based on playing against tau please.

I've tried getting Ethereal Nick on here but he's not much into forum use except to lurk.

archite666 wrote:

I keep reading about crisis suit builds called fireknife? or firelance? I think its like SMS, plasma and mult tracker? Can someone explain this to me?

fireknife and firelance are just configurations for crisis suites. The plasma, missile launcher, and multi tracker is a very popular configuration because the plasma is always keen for its AP, missile launcher for ranged moderately good anti light vehicle and the last gear so both can be shot at once. There is a discussion on what is better with CS, serparte weapons for variety or actually twin linking. I know Ethereal Nick generally doesn't twin link weapons. My impression is that it is better to roll more dice (to possibly get more hits) even if it means a variety of attack rather than being more likely to get a hit or wound from one weapon source.