[SunTzusProphet]

So When I was a noob I played tau, now I play guard. Recent um... turn of events have finally transpired to get me back to tau in the near future. but I'm going to need to ease back in as cash is .... tight. I'm hoping to at least have a 2000pt army by the time the new codex comes out probably in 2011, if it ever comes out. So about a unit, box or some combination of about $40 every month or so. So what should I be getting. Whats "in" in 5th edition. I left tau at the beginning of 5th without really learning the ropes of 4th.

In other words, what should I start out with that will for the time being look cool on display till I have a full 2k army.

[Reis]

Most players use two to four units of firewarriors armed with pulse rifles and/or one or two large units of kroot with hounds for troop choices. I personally dislike firewarriors so I only field one unit of 6 in 750pts games, but in 2K games you probably want more if you don't like kroot hordes (which are awesome). Pathfinders are pretty much a must because of cheap markerlights, so you want one or two units of pathfinders. Railguns are almost compulsory so you'll have to get one or two hammerheads and maybe a unit of broadsides. Then depending on your taste: stealth suits or XV8s as elites. I field both, but don't use too much points on crisis suits. If you like the ethereal model I suggest you get one, but don't include him in your FOC, but instead use him as an objective (sort of maiden in distress). If you like mech armies (being a guard player) you could make your army fully mechanized and get a devifish for every firewarrior and (ofcourse) pathfinder unit. But then again that is costly in terms of points aswell as money.

Hope that gave some ideas. I'd be happy to give further advice if you need any.

[fiercegoldfish]

I would recommend trying to get an all-around army if you are new to Tau instead of a speed/troop/tank/suite heavy army. Try to balance out your army to incorporate all aspects of Tau, allowing you to have more versatility. If you have a well-balanced army you will be able to face all other armies, as opposed to being strong vs. a few. In Tau every squad has a blatant strength and even more blatant weakness (with a one or two exceptions). The key to a good Tau army is to use different units to protect each-others weaknesses. A few examples that I can think of off the top of my head would be fire warriors are good when shooting but if they get locked in CC they are disastrous, railheads lack significant anti-troop capabilities, etc. To remedy this you would get a squad of kroot to serve as a buffer between fire-warriors and enemy when needed and some suites or ionheads to handle troops (though I personally don't much like ionheads).

Anyways, as I said try to keep a well rounded army until you get some experience with Tau and can fully understand how to properly use them.

As a side-note I would also make sure that you have a piranha or two with seekers and some pathfinders somewhere in there. Everyone complains about how useless piranhas are but when your opponent hides their tanks because they are afraid of your railguns they really come into their own. You can real quickly wiz them around to the tanks flank, hit it with a markerlight and send a seeker at the tanks rear armor, then get your piranha to where it's needed next and help out a squad. Seekers don't need LOS so you can even just park them in a corner somewhere behind the enemy and let them sit there until the seekers are needed

*Edit: I realize now that I never actually posted anything to answer your actual question :-[ I would go with two fire warrior squads, a railhead, and a team of crisis suites to start (one suite possibly being a shas-o for your hq). this turns out to be somewhere around 550 points i believe (don't quote me on that) but is actually a usable army though small. it also makes for an excellent display for its size. after that I would work on some more FW (1-2 sqd), another thing of suites, and mayby some broadsides (bringing you up to somewhere around 900-1200 depending on how many of each you get). that is a pretty solid core army to build around and now you could/would add more specialty troops like kroot or piranhas.

[Reis]

Did I get this right. You think railheads lack anti-troop capabilities? Well maybe against power armour armies but submuntion shot is pretty effective vs any 4+ armour or worse.

[SunTzusProphet]

effective in comparison, you get a max of three per game and that's IF you take three railheads.

[pepsi]

If you ever need tau- such as kroot, firewarriors, devilfish etc.. let me know, I sell them from time to time. Anyhow, the best bet you will find on a budget, is to snag some ebay kroot, and tau firewarriors. The kroot you can get between 10-15 (notably 10 alot in auctions :'() but you can snag alot of decent stuff.

Kroot are in ok piece, but not as stunniningly capable as firewarriors, when done right.

I would aim for the battleforce if at all possible. (I can tell you a way to get 8% cash back ) for a possible 66.00 purchase with free pirority shipping (YES PLEASE!). Im a cheap bastard in terms of tau purchases, so im always free to answer advice.

[ACE666]

I'm not sure whats in the starter box these days, but it still forms the backbone of my army.

I tend to play anything from 750pt to 2000pt armies with it and a few extra squads. Most notably a Railhead, Broadside and a stealth team.

So basically my army is 1x Crisis Commander, 2x Crisis suit, 4-6x Stealth Team (depends on points), 2x Full 12 Fire Warrior Team, 1x Full Kroot Team (depends on how I'm feeling about them...), 1x Railhead (I agree, money can be tight because more of these would be nice), and 1x Broadside.

Depending on the way you kit these units out, its an easy 2000pt army. As I said before, I'm not sure whats in the starter kit theses days but it would be a good place to start :P
Back when I got it, it was 3x crisis, 12x Fire Warriors, 12x Kroot Warriors and 4x Drones, although I get the feeling I'm forgetting something there.

Anyway, hope that helps a little

[Ekiel]

My full recommendation is save up your money every month, and purchase a battlebox when you got enough money. Then, save up again and purchase, another battlebox. If you shop online you can find them for 75 bucks I believe. You spend 150 bucks total, and you'll have 2 crisis suits, 6 stealth suits, 2 marker drones, 2 devilfish, 24 fire warriors, 24 kroot, and a handful of drones thrown in there. You should save like 60-70 bucks in the long run, instead of buying separate small boxes, and you'll have quite a solid foundation.
After that, you may find yourself purchasing the hammerhead upgrade sprue for 15 bucks, and taking and making one of your devilfish into a tank. Railguns are a must in tau armies, weather you find them in hammerheads, broadsides, or both even. My recommendation is a broadside for 1k games though.
And you may find it handy to purchase/convert fire warriors to pathfinders. Just take off there shoulderpads, give em carbines and vwalah.

[Jedibean]

Originally Posted by Reis

Did I get this right. You think railheads lack anti-troop capabilities? Well maybe against power armour armies but submuntion shot is pretty effective vs any 4+ armour or worse.

Originally Posted by SunTzusProphet

effective in comparison, you get a max of three per game and that's IF you take three railheads.

Umm... yeah, I'm going to go ahead and side with Reis on this one. Railheads are some of the best anti-infantry units in our army. Give them burst cannons so that you get the extra couple of strength 5 shots and save some points if you want but that submunition is awesome for taking out pretty much any kind of infantry. Whether it's power armored space marines, flak armored guardsmen or really anything for that matter. I've gotten to the point where I consider the railgun solid shot to be a secondary weapon. Where the main weapon is the Rail gun submunition. If I need really accurate railgun fire then I use a team of broadsides. Generally speaking for anti-tank I've been depending on crisis suits armed with fusion blasters. But taking 3 railheads isn't usually a bad idea.

[fiercegoldfish]

Originally Posted by Jedibean

Umm... yeah, I'm going to go ahead and side with Reis on this one. Railheads are some of the best anti-infantry units in our army. Give them burst cannons so that you get the extra couple of strength 5 shots and save some points if you want but that submunition is awesome for taking out pretty much any kind of infantry. Whether it's power armored space marines, flak armored guardsmen or really anything for that matter. I've gotten to the point where I consider the railgun solid shot to be a secondary weapon. Where the main weapon is the Rail gun submunition. If I need really accurate railgun fire then I use a team of broadsides. Generally speaking for anti-tank I've been depending on crisis suits armed with fusion blasters. But taking 3 railheads isn't usually a bad idea.

When I said not good versus infantry I was referring to the scatter roll needed as the primary problem with it. You can only fire one sub-munition per hammerhead?