"Hi Kirby,
I've poured love into my 40k models for two years, but just started playing the actual game in the past few weeks.
This past weekend I played in a tournament for the first time at 1750 points. I did pretty badly, but learned quite a bit about how 40k actually works (lots of shouting and rage).
The next tournament is in two weeks, and this time it's 1500 points. This is what I'm currently planning to run:
Shas’el w/ CIB, plasma, TA, HW multi-tracker, HW target lock, stim injectors, HWDC & 2 shield drones: 145
3 XV8 'ui w/ plasma rifle, missile pod, multi-tracker: 186
2 XV8 'ui w/ plasma rifle, missile pod, multi-tracker: 124
2 XV8 'ui w/ plasma rifle, missile pod, multi-tracker: 124
6 Fire Warrior ‘la w/ pulse rifle: 60
10 kroot: 70
10 kroot: 70
Piranha w/ fusion, targeting array, disruption pod: 75
7 Pathfinder ‘la w/ carbine and markerlight: 84
Devilfish w/ SMS, disruption pod, targeting array, multi-tracker, decoy launcher: 125
Railhead w/ 2 burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pod: 165
Railhead w/ 2 burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pod: 165
XV88 w/ A.S.S., solo team leader with HWDC & 1 shield drone: 100
Total: 1493
My major concern is balancing out my ability to handle each unit type. I have a general idea of what each unit should do -barring my tricked out commander, who currently wanders midfield drawing massive amounts of firepower and laughing it off- but I'm still unsure how my army works as a whole. I figure the only way I'll really learn is to keep playing, but any tactical or listbuilding advice would be appreciated.
-Karl"
Solid list outside of a few extraneous upgrades (mostly on the Commander). For the up-coming tournament I recommend your practice with this list a lot! Tau need a very steady and experienced hand guiding them to get the most out of the army. You've got all the pieces, just need to make it work. So to the list, drop the Commander down to MP/PR/MT/HWTL and drop the decoy launchers off the Devilfish. This gives you about 50 points to play with. Not enough for another Piranha or Broadside but we can upgrade the burst cannons on the Hammerheads to SMS and add in some hounds (or if you don't have Hound models, more Kroot who are easy to get and paint). You should be able to reach one of the Kroot squads to around 15 members and if 16, make them both 13 instead and get practicing!
Army pics would be nice too and let us know how you go with your tourney.
6 pinkments:
SMS + Target Lock on those Hammerheads is a beautiful thing. I don't always run pairs of them (I <3 Broadsides), but the mobile Railguns combined with S5 shots that bypass many kinds of cover is very nice.
Some more bodies in those Kroot squad wouldn't hurt, either, as Kirb mentions.
You could also keep the commander's HWDC and downgrade his drones to Gun Drones, which are just as tough when you have cover (which you should, with JSJ) and significantly cheaper. Just make sure you don't leave him unattached or he's a T3 unit.
17 is the best number for Kroot squads imo. 10 Kroot and 7 Kroot Hounds (Chaos warhounds are pretty cheap, I use them for pretty much everything with dog, hound, or wolf in the name, lol) as at 17 you need to take 5 wounds to shooting before a morale test is required.
Also on the off chance your unit is getting slaughtered you can take the wounds on the Kroot rather than the Hounds and hopefully the majority I5 (as opposed to 3) will give the unit a higher chance of getting away (You never know when that fragment of a 'Troop' choice might be useful for last minute objective holding). It's not going to be useful often, but it's worth bearing in mind.
I like multi-trackers on Hammerheads.
Broadsides camp and fire away whilst the HH drives sideways at 12". Getting side shots and drawing attention away from the fulcrum.
I only see one devilfish in there and I would really like to see two. Devilfish are really good for holding troops (either kroot or fire warriors) and protecting them so they can hold objectives. They also make great mobile cover for your crisis suits. You can get points for another one by scaling down your current devilfish and also by scaling down your commander. 2 devilfish with disruption pods are better than 1 shooty one. After all, the survivability will probably be more important than those few extra SMS shots.
Thanks a lot for the advice, I didn't think of SMS on the Railheads. As for the Kroot Hounds, I already have a workaround there: one box of Hormagaunts with heads and a few limbs swapped around (Krootagaunts get more comments than hounds anyway). It'll be about a week before I have time to play again, will try to find a good camera in that time. Is it better to post follow-up reports in these comments, or is sending a new e-mail preferable?
New-emails are fine. Krootagants is almost as good a Termagunt! lol
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