[onlainari]

I'm going to use this list for a few games to playtest. You might know that I am pretty stubborn about how I think the tau play best. I'm going to try this to see if a few ideas of mine are right or not.

Shas'el - twinlinked plasma rifle, missile pod, hw multi

Shas'ui - team leader, twinlinked fusion blaster, plasma rifle, hw multi
- how effective is this suit?
6 stealths
4 stealths

10 fire warriors in devilfish - decoys
10 fire warriors in devilfish - decoys
- does Vash's tactic have merit?
10 Fire warriors - shas'ui, bonded
- is bonding useful?
6 fire warriors - shas'ui, markerlight
- is the cheapest single markerlight worth it?
12 kroot

6 hounds
- are hounds useful?
4 gun drones
- can these guys protect a commander? can they score?

Hammerhead - railgun, smart missiles, decoys, multi, lock, pod
Broadside - 2 shield drones
- is the broadside underrated?

1500

[shasoshane]

Commander:the twin linking on the commander is a waste.save the points.

Crisis: the shas'ui is actually a very good suit. It can take out light armour effectively alond with slautering power armored opponents.

Stealths:i prefer two squads of four.they don't get lowered past half until they hit 1.

firewarriors:don't bond if you take shas'ui. i would rather have bonding than shas'ui though.i want my guys to run away, but bonding regroups them away form close combat .I would take the squad of six and devide them into the squads of 10.get your full moneys worth out of your devilfishes.the markerlight on the firewarriors is a waste. you wiill have to shoot with the whole squad just to shoot it. The cheapest markerlght is actually 56pts.this is 6 humies with 'ui and markerlight.

Kroot: if used right will save your butt many a time, good choice. I don't like kroot hounds. the extra attacks on charge does not make up for their lack of gun.one point more for the kroot kindred is a deal.

Drones: can be used as shield due to IC rule,i prefer full squads of 8.

hammerhead:the pod is not useful.it should really only be used if you are forgetting youyr secondary weapon and you want to snipe from a distance.other than that it is a great selection

broadsides:i like this guys in pairs,drop the drones.if you face lots of power armour take the plasma rifle.

here's your new list

85:Shas'el w/ fireknife and multi
79:shas'ui your style
120:4stealths
120:4stealths
205pts:fire warriors w/ devilfish and decoys
205pts:same
120:Firewarriors pure
84:Kroot
56:Humiesx6 with'ui and markerlight
96:8 Gun Drones
180:Railhead wiht mt,tl,and decoys
150air of broadsides with mulitracker

1500 on the dot.

[Yoriaki]

with the fusion blaster plasma rifle, i like a missle pod more, it has more range, more ST, and more hits from afar, altho it doesnt have as good AP, ur crisis suit can also tank hunt if the game calls for it.

[Rathstar]

Hi,

Well here's my thoughts.

Commander: With this config he is actually more cost effective when firing at marines that the fireknife shas'el. I like him, but if you're tight on pts downgrading him to fireknife is not much of an issue as it also reduces your non-scoring total.

Crisis Suit: I would rather twin-link the plasma rather than the fusion as the longer range will mean it's being fired more. However I really don't like crisis suits this expensive. They are too fragile for that many pts. I would try and save some pts and have 2 cheaper crisis suits. My suggestions are:
1) Normal fireknife
2) Helios for heavy infrantry
3) Twin plasma & missile pod. Can shoot at transports early game then kill as many marines as a helios late game.
If you like plasma and fusion try out the helios, but to be used effectively you must get close, but not too close or you'll be assaulted. It's best used after luring a squad in then using the helios and other units to destroy the enemy unit. Then rinse and repeat with the next closest unit.

Stealths: These are fine. Sometimes 6 are hard to hide and draw too much firepower. If you're short on pts you could drop them to 2 units of 4.

Troops: Fine, except lose bonding and the markerlight. I would use the pts to add atleast 1 kroot (so it's now 5 for a panic test), and the rest of the pts on increasing the squad of 6 up a bit.

Fast Attack: Time to save some pts for better stuff. Kroot are better than kroot hounds, so I'd lose the hounds and put the kroot squad up. Much better to sit in a forest and add to the firepower of the army, rather than chasing the enemy to make use of the hounds.

Your commander doesn't need gun drones for protection. Once he's not the closest unit he can't be targeted. To deepstrike against vehicle rear armour the gun drones are ok, but 4 is very fragile. One casualty and they have a ld 4 test or they run off. I would either drop them (my prefernce) or have a full squad of 8.

Heavy Support: With only 2 rail guns you are a bit light. I would advise atleast 3. They cheapest optioin is adding a 2nd broadside. However I'd advise the opposite from the last poster and say that you need the maximum amount of drones for protection. If you're not going to use up the 3rd heavy slot I would keep the broadsides seperate (it's like a free target lock).

If you can squuese him in I'd add an etheral, because if one of the broadsides drones die you will need to pass a ld 8 test or probably run off the board. Alternatively if you just deploy a bit forwards you will have a chance to rally if you do fail. Problem is if you lose 2 drones, because then you're testing ld7 and you won't be able to rally.

Regig your list now you've heard some comments and will let you know what we think of the new list.

Rathstar

[chicop76]

ok currently I wouldn't use the kroot hounds. But with the new codex they should be considered. Also the fact eaters of the dead is gone if you see the new kroot hound stats than you'll see why you should take them.

Also I prefer the plasma rifle and missile pod multi como. It save on points. 1 twin linking a plasma rifle is expensive also a hw multi is 10 points while a hardpoint multi is only 5 if you get ride of the twin linked and muliti option you shaving of about 15 points. Too lazy and tired to reasearch right now. But I think this combo will work also your hq can hit on a 3+ anyway. twin linking is nice but I'm a cheapy and thats 2 more kroot.

I'm a kroot advicate and think every tau should take kroot. My only problem is you have kroot in one hand and stealth suits in the other. But the advantage of kroot is if you can infiltrate you should be able to shoot 20 str 4 shots at a target 40 if you're in woods and you wind up infiltrating 1ft away from enemy. only works really well in woods since you can move 6 inches in woods and fire a 1f in woulds. Only got this off twice it's kinda jacked up.

also kroot work really well if they get assaulted in cover. that way you'll go first or simo. Also remeber str 4 hits is not as good as str 5 but still hurts.

comparison for 120 pts tau for 120 pts kroot against marines
12 tau max fire 17 kroot max fire
6 will hit 7-8 will hit
4 will wound 3-4 would die
1-2 marines should die 1-2 marines will die

the benefits single shoot is almost the same but look at the double
24 tau max fire 34 kroot max fire
12 will hit 17 will hit
8 will wound 7-8 will wound
2-3 marines should die 2-3 marines will die

so basckly the same in shooting per cost main differance kroot has 2 attacks in had to hand which killis alot of bugs let look at what happen when a marine gets in hth with the same two squads. a squad of 10 assaulting
20 hits on 3+ 20 hits on 4+
about 13 will hit 10 will hit
about 6 0r 7 will wound 6 will wound
about 3 tau dead 6 will die
9 will hit back 11 will hit back
4-5 will hit 11 wit hit
about 2-3 hits will wound 5-6 will be wounded
maybe 1 dead marine and you lose combat tau about 2 dead marines

above reasults is in open field and no cover. they kroot get a 4+ cover save in wounds over a 5+ that the tau get.

Also I've assaulted with kroot before and made the marine player run before due to the fact they would get 3 attacks a piece and it's 20 of them. but with the new kroot hounds you'll proablly assault more.

[Rathstar]

Hi,

Kroot are great, but I would stop at 2 large squads, as you will run out of good cover to put them in, and kroot out in the open are very vunverable, and don't have the best leadership.

Rathstar

[chicop76]

Originally Posted by chicop76

ok currently I wouldn't use the kroot hounds. But with the new codex they should be considered. Also the fact eaters of the dead is gone if you see the new kroot hound stats than you'll see why you should take them.

Also I prefer the plasma rifle and missile pod multi como. It save on points. 1 twin linking a plasma rifle is expensive also a hw multi is 10 points while a hardpoint multi is only 5 if you get ride of the twin linked and muliti option you shaving of about 15 points. Too lazy and tired to reasearch right now. But I think this combo will work also your hq can hit on a 3+ anyway. twin linking is nice but I'm a cheapy and thats 2 more kroot.

I'm a kroot advicate and think every tau should take kroot. My only problem is you have kroot in one hand and stealth suits in the other. But the advantage of kroot is if you can infiltrate you should be able to shoot 20 str 4 shots at a target 40 if you're in woods and you wind up infiltrating 1ft away from enemy. only works really well in woods since you can move 6 inches in woods and fire a 1f in woulds. Only got this off twice it's kinda jacked up.

also kroot work really well if they get assaulted in cover. that way you'll go first or simo. Also remeber str 4 hits is not as good as str 5 but still hurts.

comparison for 120 pts tau for 120 pts kroot against marines
12 tau max fire 17 kroot max fire
6 will hit 7-8 will hit
4 will wound 3-4 would die
1-2 marines should die 1-2 marines will die

the benefits single shoot is almost the same but look at the double
24 tau max fire 34 kroot max fire
12 will hit 17 will hit
8 will wound 7-8 will wound
2-3 marines should die 2-3 marines will die

so basckly the same in shooting per cost main differance kroot has 2 attacks in had to hand which killis alot of bugs let look at what happen when a marine gets in hth with the same two squads. a squad of 10 assaulting
20 hits on 3+ 20 hits on 4+
about 13 will hit 10 will hit
about 6 0r 7 will wound 6 will wound
about 3 tau dead 6 will die
9 will hit back 11 will hit back
4-5 will hit 11 wit hit
about 2-3 hits will wound 5-6 will be wounded
maybe 1 dead marine and you lose combat tau about 2 dead marines

above reasults is in open field and no cover. they kroot get a 4+ cover save in wounds over a 5+ that the tau get.

Also I've assaulted with kroot before and made the marine player run before due to the fact they would get 3 attacks a piece and it's 20 of them. but with the new kroot hounds you'll proablly assault more.

ok here is something I forgot to mention is assaulting the marines. The marines would get int in both cases
10 attacks on tau 10 attacks on kroot
7 hits on tau 5 hits on kroot
about 4-5 wounds about 3 wounds here
2-3 dead tau 3 dead kroot

leaving i'll say 10 tau to fight back 14 kroot to fight back
20 attacks 42 attacks here
10 attacks will hit 20-21 attacks here

about 3 attacks will wound 10-11 attacks will wound
1 marine may die 3-4 marines may die which means a tie or a win in this case

But new kroot can chase down so here is a new kroot scenro on assault
120 pts= 10 kroot 8 kroot hounds
21 attacks on the marines
10-11 will hit
5-6 will wound
1-2 marines will die. I'll got with 2
8 marines with 8 attacks hit back
4 will hit
and 2-3 will wound
so 3 high int kroot die
30 more attacks now
15 will hit
7-8 will wound
so i say you will kill 2-3 marines i'll go with 2

so you have 10 kroot and 5 hounds he lost 4 marines and has 6 150pts of marines basic too
10 attacks
5 will hit
2-3 wil wound
1 dead marine hopefully
5 hit back
2-3 will hit
1-2 will wound
so 1 dead kroot
20 attacks
10 hit
5 wounds
1 dead marine

thats 4 marines and 14 kroot
8 attacks
4 hits
2 wounds
no dead marine
4 attacks
2 hit
1 dead kroot
20 attacks
10 hits
5 wounds
1 dead kroot

13 kroot 3 marines

if they fight a sustain battle they would lose
so new kroot should win assaulting basic marines now