Email in: My Tau army list...

 
"Greetings from Sydney Kirby,

I hear you live in Melbourne. Don’t worry… nobody’s perfect. I jest, I’ve only recently stumbled across your website, but it looks like a fantastic fan-driven resource. Kudos.

Anyway, I was hoping you could spare a few minutes to give me some feedback on my Tau army. I’ve been into the hobby side of things for a very long time now, and finally decided to give gaming a try, so I’m completely new to that aspect of Warhammer 40,000.

I’m a little out of my depth. I want to field a competitive army, but one that deviates slightly from the cookie-cutter builds that seem to be the norm. I’ve been told that 1,500 point games are by far the most prevalent, so that’s what I’ve focused on, and my list is as follows:


HQ

#1 — Shas’el Commander (97 Points)
Plasma rifle, fusion blaster, targeting array, and hard-wired multi-tracker.

#2 — Aun Commander + Honour Guard (161 Points)
6x Shas’la with pulse rifles and photon grenades.
1x Shas’ui with markerlight and photon grenades.


ELITES

#1 — XV8 Battlesuit Team (67 Points)
1x Shas’ui with plasma rifle, missile pod, and multi-tracker.

#2 — XV8 Battlesuit Team (67 Points)
1x Shas’ui with plasma rifle, missile pod, and multi-tracker.

TROOPS

#1 — Kroot Carnivore Squad (100 Points)
10x Kroot and 5x Kroot Hounds.

#2 — Kroot Carnivore Squad (100 Points)
10x Kroot and 5x Kroot Hounds.

FAST ATTACK

#1 — Pathfinder Team (128 Points)
4x Shas’la and a Devilfish with targeting array and multi-tracker.

#2 — Pathfinder Team (128 Points)
4x Shas’la and a Devilfish with targeting array and multi-tracker.

#3 — Piranha Light Skimmer Team (140 Points)
2x Piranha with fusion blaster and targeting array.

HEAVY SUPPORT

#1 — Hammerhead Gunship (165 Points)
Railgun, burst cannons, multi-tracker, targeting array, and disruption pod.


#2 — Hammerhead Gunship (165 Points)
Railgun, burst cannons, multi-tracker, targeting array, and disruption pod.


#3 — XV88 Broadside Battlesuit Team (180 Points)
1x Shas’ui team leader with twin-linked railguns, twin-linked plasma rifles, targeting array, and hard-wired multi-tracker.
1x Shas’ui with twin-linked railguns, twin-linked plasma rifles, and multi-tracker.

If you could give me some general feedback, that would be fantastic—just try to keep the jargon and initialisms to a minimum if you could. But I’d also like to run a few questions by you.

1. I know Ethereals aren’t popular on the tabletop, but by my reading, they make my firewarriors much better at what they do, and have a few other nice perks that can benefit the entire army. Do you think one can be a worthwhile keep? I’m looking for an excuse to field one—they’re cute—but if it’s just a waste, what would those points be better spent on?

2. Two Hammerheads and two Broadsides. Is that a little overkill for a 1,500 point game? I initially had just the one Broadside and took another small squad of firewarriors, would that be a better allocation? Or would scrapping one of the Hammerheads and taking some sniper drones be a better idea, for the sake of diversity?

3. I was contemplating scrapping one of the Piranhas for a firewarrior squad, or to bolster some of my other choices. Can one be effective on its own? Or should I keep the pair? And finally;

4. How would you supplement this army—assuming it incorporated all the feedback you’ve provided for it—for 1,750 or 2,000 point games?

Thanks very much for your time,"

I live in Sydney... If you want to play competitively and play with Tau, you're basically set to a pretty 'cookie-cut' list. They don't have many effective options and when you deviate outside those options, you generally get very bad lists. Let's take a look at your questions.

1) no. BS4 Firewarriors is cute but not effective. FW still have huge issues in actually being able to do anything and being vulnerable to return fire when they do not to mention an Ethereal death = 1/3 of your army runs. If you want to use the model maybe make him a counts as Kroot or something and have him 'lead' the Kroot. Don't buy Ethereals though.

2) It's a good setup but for 1500 is a bit much. I might drop a Hammerhead altogether and get more points into your Crisis Suits.

3) I'd keep a pair. I'd also compress the Pathfinders to a single squad. And don't invest points in Fire Warriors. They are only really effective at killing infantry and only then when they have markerlight support. They then die to a heavy flamer or a couple bolters, etc. People will tell you that if you use multiple fish, etc. they can avoid assault but consider the points you're applying simply for S5 shots.... No thanks.

4) More Crisis Suits. More Piranhas. Expand Kroot squads. This is what I'd do at this points level as well and as you upgrade.

So basic changes:
compress the Pathfinder squads to one
Drop the Ethereal
Get more Crisis suits with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker
Expand Kroot squads to include Hounds (10+3 or 10+7 is a good number)
Potentially drop a Hammerhead (this is where a lot of points will come from)

It's quite similar to other Tau lists but that's just was you're going to have to live with if you want to play Tau currently. Without these units Tau just...well they suck currently. Hopefully though these guys are getting a re-vamp later this year or early next year.