[Ironchestnut]

experimental 1500 point army

HQ
Shas’O Commander (x1) 125pts
Wargear:
Flamer, Burst Cannon, Shield Generator, Bonding Knife, Hard-Wired Black Sun Filter,
Hard-Wired Target Lock, Stimulation Injector

Shas’Vre Body Guard (x2)170pts
Wargear:
Flamer, Burst Cannon, Shield Generator, Hard-Wired Black Sun Filter +3pts,
Hard-Wired Target Lock, Stimulation Injector

Elites
Stealth Suit Team (x3)115pts
Wargear:
(Shas’Vre, Fusion Blaster, Black Sun Filter), Target Lock x2

Troop
Fire Warrior Team (x10) 150pts
Wargear:
(Shas’Ui, EMP Grenades, Photon Grenades), EMP Grenadesx9, Photon Grenades x9

Troop
Fire Warrior Team (x10) 150pts
Wargear:
(Shas’Ui, EMP Grenades, Photon Grenades), EMP Grenadesx9, Photon Grenades x9

Kroot Carnivore Squad (x17) 140pts
Wargear:
(Shaper)

Fast Attack
Piranha Light Skimmer Team (x3) 210pts
Wargear:
Fusion Blaster x3, Targeting Array x3

Pathfinder Team (x5) 200pts
Wargear:
(Shas’Ui, EMP Grenades, Photon Grenades), EMP Grenadesx4, Photon Grenadesx4, Rail Riffle x2
(Devil Fish, Targeting Array, Disruption Pods)

Heavy Support
Sniper Drone Team (x3) 240pts
Wargear:
None

[jonnyp]

Where to start...where to start...oh well ill just run down the list and give my 2 cents for what thier worth (probably only 1 cent :-\)

Overall: I see ALOT of points going into things that are well...not worth the points. First off the Black sun filters, will be used what? in a few games or so, and even then they arnt really worth taking (unless it has been stated that night fight will be fore all games). Second, ALL the grenades, FW and pathfinders shouldnt ever be in close combat, and even with the grenades they will most likely be wiped out in the first round of close combat. With this mess of saved points i suggest investing is some of the things i will list off as i go through your list.

HQ: Looks tough on paper but in an actually combat hes going to be a lot squishier. Also you arnt taking advantage of his amazing BS5 by giving him a flamer, i suggest a CIB instead, along with dropping the BC for a PR. This will give him good well rounded fire power for killing just about everything. Also, give him a MT so he can fire all his weapons in a round of shooting, while dropping the TL and BSF. One is useful maybe 10% of the time, and the other really doesnt help that much. Consider also dropping the Sheild gen for a DC with 2 shield drones, it will give him essentially 2 more wounds, with 2 +4 saves. Another thing to consider (if you want him to be rock hard) would be Iradium armor, giving him +2/+4 saves with 6 wounds and feel no pain. On a rules not, the body guards cant take SI as its special issue, and only one can be taken per army. They have some of the same basic issues as the commander. Make sure to give them multi-trackers, so they can fire both weapons. Also consider giving them some PR, thus giving you some dedicated anti-Meq/Teq fire power which is where is see you could be lacking. Again drop the BSF and TL as they wont help much at all and are just eating points. Lastly, consider dropping them to an elite choice to save some points, probably enough to field another suit.

Elite: Drop the TL, of the stealths, and perhaps the FB off the 'vre. Consider running them all BC, with either no wargear, or TA for better accuracy. For more marker lights give the 'vre HWTL with a marker light, and HWDC with a marker drone. Also consider dropping the body guards down here and adding in another suit for some more fire power.

Troops: GAH!!! point sink!!!! or at least i think it is. DROP ALL THE GRENADES!!! They will see limited use and even then will prove to be little if any help at all. Instead, give the 'ui a BK thus preventing them from running off the board when (not if) they take 50% casualties. Also, consider cutting them down to 6 man squads and giving one a devilfish (the other squad loads up in the pathfinders fish). This will greatly increase their survivability and give your army some more firepower. Kroot, not bad though the shapers benefits will be few if any, perhaps include some hounds for better CC performance.

Fast attack: I have never used piranhas, but from what ive seen on the forum it might be better to field them in different squads to increase thier survivability. Also id give them a DP to keep them alive longer (should be standard on all tau vehicles). Pathfinders look ok, again drop the grenades, and well call it good at that. However consider giving the devilfish SMS for more fire power.

Heavy support: Here is where i see a problem. No railguns, and no railguns means harder to kill tanks. Not only that you are sacrificing one of the Taus best assets. Id drop the sniper drones completely and using all the points saved form earlier changes, give yourself 2 hammerheads with railguns. Not only will they make mince meat out of tanks (even land raiders and monoliths), but they can also provide some great anti-hoard fire power.

my 2 cents

[Lord Zambia]

Lets not bag him out so hard jonnyp, hear this guy out. your corrections are worthy yes, but everyones style is different and this list could be put to good use against the right opponent. But here are the things that jonnyp did comment on well.

Firstly yes the blacksun filters take them out, and the CIB for the commander makes sense, also give him stimulous injections so he has feel no pain, and a shield generator so that he doesnt get killed by a lascannon.

Okay, split up the bodyguard suits into seperate teams so no casualties can force a retreat during shooting. These are 5 points cheaper (with team leader upgrade) and can still take hardwired wargear.

BUT To be honest with you, this list will do extra kicking well against one of the hard lists to counter, Something like Dark Eldar. A typical Tau list gets owned by Dark Eldar 9 times out of 10 unless the DE player is inexperienced and doesnt know how to manage a team.

If we did what jonnyp suggested, take a hammerhead and drop the sniper drones, you might be in hot water when DE deepstrike ravagers with 3 dark lances. Sniper drones still have enough strength to take down light vehicles well, and so do fire warriors.

Against DE, the grenedes on fire warriors will really help. DE and Tau have the same Strenght and toughness generally, so taking away their charge attack really hurts the DE. They wont win by as much. Also, the EMP grenedes will be useful if a ravager does deep strike.

Ok so to be serious, the list is not a good "all rounder list" because it would not be very effective against the majority of teams (popular ones) but if this was modified a little then against an uncommon team like Dark Eldar you might just do well.

So jonnyp, you were right sure, but lets not bag him out all at once, against dark eldar i would have chosen a similar list, maybe squeeze a hammerhead in but keep snipers, and grenedes good against these guys, but if you are basing an army on this list, Ironchestnut, I would suggest getting some vehicles, and grenedes arent always the go. Defensive grenedes good against other S3, T3 models like guard, eldar and dark eldar if they are assaulting you (which if they rely on shooting they will get outshot) but dont buy grenedes against orks or nids, coz they have that many attacks anyway, you may as well use their massive expense to get more squads.

Zambia

[Ironchestnut]

ok have taken into account what you have said have to agree Blacksun Filters on the Battlesuit are a waste of time as they have Acute Senses anyway and then will drop the EMP grenades on the FW teams freeing up 60 point from that then going to drop one Piranha from the team and then split the remaining two into separate teams will take Hammer Head with Rail Cannon and a pair of Smart Missile Drones making that 160 points will then drop one Sniper Drone Team and split them into separate units same as the Piranha teams will then replace Flamers on Commander and Body Guard with Fusion Blasters then to replace the Blacksun Filter on the Stealth Suit with a Shield Generator then give the Kroot Squad and armour save each hope you like the changes
Will Wright Updated Version Later On

[Lord Zambia]

Quickly on hammerheads, they are arguably the best tank in 40k, with a S10 shot or a S6 large blast with BS4 standard. It wont hurt to give them a few upgrades.

Give your hammerheads the following things(in order of priority:
Disruption pods
Multitracker
Target Lock
Seeker missiles (if you have the points and the markers)

okay distruption pods give the vehicle a 4+ cover save if it is being shot by a distance more than 12 inches, almost all anti tank guns then.

Multitracker lets you move 6 inches and fire everything, or move 12 and fire 1 weapon.

Target lock means that your burst cannons/SMS can shoot at closing in infantry while your main gun can fire at a vehicle with a S10 shot.

If you have the markerlights and the points take 2 seeker missiles so that if your railgun suffers a "destroyed" result then you still have some backup BS5 anti tank weaponry. These cant be destroyed by weapons destroyed results.

Personally take the first 3, if you cant afford it the first 2 - but ALWAYS take the disruption pod. If you have points and markerlights take seekers as the final priority. If you are going through cover then use spine sensors and NEVER use decoy launchers (useful in 4th edition, useless in 5th)

Zambia

[Ironchestnut]

Have Just Finish Uppdated Version Of Army List

HQ
Shas’O Commander (x1) 131pts
Wargear:
Fusion Blaster, Burst Cannon, Shield Generator, Bonding Knife,Hard-Wired Target Lock, Stimulation Injector

Shas’Vre Body Guard (x2)172pts
Wargear:
Fusion Blaster, Burst Cannon, Shield Generator, Hard-Wired Target Lock,Stimulation Injector

Elites
Stealth Suit Team (x3)135pts
Wargear:
(Shas’Vre, Fusion Blaster, Shield Generator), Target Lock x2

Troop
Fire Warrior Team (x10) 120pts
Wargear:
(Shas’Ui, Photon Grenades), Photon Grenades x9

Fire Warrior Team (x10) 120pts
Wargear:
(Shas’Ui, Photon Grenades), Photon Grenades x9

Kroot Carnivore Squad (x17) 176pts
Wargear:
(Shaper)

Fast Attack
Piranha Light Skimmer Team (x3) 140pts (Split Units)
Wargear:
Fusion Blaster x2, Targeting Array x2

Pathfinder Team (x5) 186pts
Wargear:
(Shas’Ui,), EMP Grenades x4, Photon Grenades x4, Rail Riffle x2 (Devil Fish)

Heavy Support
Sniper Drone Team (x2) 160pts (Split Units)
Wargear:
None

Hammer Head 160pts
Wargear:
Rail Cannon, Smart Missile Drone

[Lord Zambia]

dude read my post i made minutes before you posted ur new list - its concerning your vehicles (mainly hammerhead)

Re read that so i dont haev to repeat myself :P

Zambia

[jonnyp]

srry if i was being a bit to critical :-\. Was had bit of a rough day, though shouldnt of taken it out on the forum. I will be much more considerate this time . On a Site note, plz remove all point values except for the totals, it is IP infringement and could get the site into trouble.

HQ: Looks solid, and can deal with Geq, as well as tanks. However, remember that your suit has 2 guns with 2 different rolls, FB for tough stuff, and the BC for light infantry. It is probably better if you roll your suits for a specific roll, IE tank hunting, hordes, or SM. Having a can kill everything suit means it wont kill anything really well, just everything kinda well. If you want your commander multi-roll the best way to knit him out would be (and no its not just cause i LOVE this layout) CIB and PR. They give you a solid 7 shots for hordes, and can easily sweep meq, teq, and light vehicles away like they were nothing. If you do this you could give your bodyguards (which is still feel should be elite choices at this point level) TL FB for some dedicated anti-tank and Teq. Other things, like i said in my first post you can only have one stimulant injector per army, so your Bodyguards cant have them. Also not a fan of the target locks, but if you want to run them, go a ahead and see how they do your ya. Same with shield gens, id say try them one game then swap them out for shield drones the next to see which one works better for you.

Elite: The shield gen is really a waste on a stealth suit. They already have the stealth field and a pretty good armor save. Keep them behind cover and JSJ and they will stay alive pretty well. A better selection might be DC with a marker drone for a good mobile marker light.

Troops: Pretty much the same as before, im still going to advocate agaist the grenades as they probably wont do any good other then cause a minor annoyance before your FW are utterly killed in CC. However i do suggest a bonding knife, it can really make a difference keeping your FW on the field. Kroot wise, shaper really isnt going to help that much, but if you do take him, hand out those armor saves to the kroot. Sure its only +6 but in CC it could make a world of difference.

Fast attack: Looks solid, though consider giving the piranhas disruption pods to keep them alive a bit longer. Pathfinders, again dont like the grenades, but go ahead and give it a shot. Remember these guys really arent a combat unit, use them for marker lights, and make sure to keep them in cover. Also give that devilfish some teeth, id say a warfish (SMS, MT, DP, TA) it will give you a solid gunship that can really bring the hurt vs hordes.

Heavy support: Ill agree with Zambia here, the sniper drones could be useful in a select few situations, however they do have a fatal flaw. If you are playing a smart cunning opponent (which you always should think), he would go for your drone controller first, and by taking him out takes out the whole squad BAM! no more drones to worry about. If you want to give them a try go for it, but just remember they are very specialized and dont do well out side their box. Hammerhead, yay railguns! However do what zambia said, give them D-pods and a MT and they will be solid hard hitting, tanking busting, killing machines.

my second 2 cents (hopefully with less hacking up of your list)

[Ironchestnut]

First ok I’ll take it that I forgot to take out the point value my bad :-\

was thinking take 2 Braidside suit instead of one Hammerhead cost less and more shot soling as they are place in terrain was then thinking about what you said about what you said making the Body Guard suits into normal Battlesuit team and I have to agree on that less points and I can take the Commander in and out of the unit now with the Stealth Suits taking Marker Drone and Drone Controller sounds more like a plan to me FW teams and their grenades I’m going to keep them just in case of that dreaded assault and finally with regards to the Devilfish and the Piranhas will have to make room for though disruption pods just need to look at it from a different point of view

Thanks for the Help on the matter Ironchestnut

[jonnyp]

sounds like a plan, though u still need to go back and remove the point values Via editing your post.