1500 points tau, any advice?

[canadianone]

As i am new to tau, i would love to here some advice on how to make my list better. Right now, this is my plan for 1500 points, a good sized game.


Shas'el
plasma rifle, missile pod
target array, HW multi tracker, HW drone controller, 2x shield drones

2x crisis suits
plasma rifle, missile pod
multi tracker
team leader
plasma rifle, missile pod
multi tracker

3x crisis suits
2x TL missile pods
team leader
TL missile pods, flamer
drone controller, 2x sheild drones

3x crisis suits
2x fusion blaster, plasma rifle
multi tracker
team leader
fusion gun, plasma rifle
multi tracker, HW drone controller, 2x shield drones

6x pathfinders
devilfish
disruption pods

6x fire warriors
devilfish
disruption pods

7x fire warriors

10x kroot

10x kroot

hammer head
rail gun, burst cannons
multi tracker, disruption pod

broadside
drone controller, shield drone

broadside
drone controller, shield drone


This list really focuses on  suits suits and more suits. The Shas'el pals around with the two fire knives. typically, the path finders will light up a target for the helios pattern (fusion gun, plasma rifle) to obliterate. The 7 man fire warriors steal the path finders ride when they need to get gone. Any thoughts guys?

[Dissimulation]

I'd probably switch out the hammerhead for pathfinders.

[canadianone]

you dont think 6 pathfinders is enough at 1500? and wouldn't that leave my anti infantry something to be desired? ill think about it.

[Dissimulation]

oh, missed the 6 pathfinders. Anyway, i'd switch out the hammerhead for something else regardless.

[jhobin]

Take another unit of firewarrior's. It's good to have them in the back field to either sit on an objective or plink away at infantry or light armour.

[canadianone]

I like fire warriors, but what would you suggest i take out?

[Benjamin]

I agree the Hammerhead should probably go. Don't know what you'd put in its stead, but I'm leaning toward 1) more suits if possible 2) more broadsides 3) more troops.

It wouldn't be a bad idea if you threw some Kroot hounds in a squad and had them outflank. That can at least give your opponent a small reason not to overstretch.

[canadianone]

hmmmm, whats with all the hate towards the hammer head? just kidding, but seriously, to me it seems like a great unit, with pods, it is pretty tough, it can move and fire, which means that it will almost always be able to hit, and at 18 inches, it puts out 6s5 shots and BS4 and a large blast. Do you guys think it is too many points? Its not that i really want to keep it, its just that i cant think of a good reason to get rid of it, so if i am missing something, please enlighten me! as for more suits, im already near maxed out. I could take body guard suits, but they are expensive points wise, and personally i dont like hounds, i use my kroot for shooting, and only assault when really necessary, for me, I3 kills them for me because i lose so many guys before i can even attack. I would always love to have more broad sides, and if you can show me why i would get rid of the hammer head, they are what i would put in instead.

[Dissimulation]

Hammerhead's solid shot almost always misses or doesn't penetrate because it's 1 shot. The pie plate isn't very useful because the AP is 4 and the strength is only 6. Even if you shoot it at light infantry they normally just get cover anyway. Crisis suit's flamers are much more effective for cooking large amounts of light infantry. If i had to tell you a couple things to do it would probably be to make the broadsides 1 unit so that you can have them benefiting from the same markerlights, and drop the hammerhead for a devilfish or two. Devilfish are really important for movement blocking and for giving the rest of your army cover saves. They also help in the end of the game when you've got to run around and grab objectives. Because, I don't know if you've heard, but our troops die to a light breeze XD.

[Ed]

Sure pod is great but this is 5e pretty much everthing gets a cover save, broadsides are better because a 4 4 is better then a 3. I would use a 3rd

[jhobin]

I would drop the HH because of what everyone else has said. Plus you have the Broadsides to do the anti-armor.

I would take the Firewarriors and any spare points in kroot hounds.

[canadianone]

hmmmmmm, i see what you are saying, though i dont think that you can say that bs4 always misses. Ill try a few games with out the hammer head, although i do like having it to JSJ suits from behind it. and yeah, kevin, i love devil fish for movement blocking, i have 2 now, and adding points i want to get some piranhas to do the same thing. The thing i like about the hammer head that the broadside can't do is move 12 and fire, but ill do some play testing. Thanks for the advice!

[Loranus]

Breaking it down from a glance at what people are saying. 165 Points for your hammer head. You could get 2 Broadside Battlesuits in a squad with a shield drone and Target Lock for the same point cost. One failed save on your Hammerhead from the Disruption pod and it could be gone. The Broadside squad would have 5 wounds and you could always put the heavy hitters on your shield drone letting you get the save and if it pops oh well. Target lock lets you hit 2 different units with your rail guns that would let you pop 2 vehicles with one squad can't do that with a Hammerhead set up the way you do. Broadsides just seem to have more options and I could see taking them over a Hammerhead unless your really trying to kite the enemy around somehow.

[steelforge]

From Gundam John
I play Tau, I play a lot of Tau, and this is all based in experience

You either need more Twin-linking or more Pathfinders.

Why? This is because you are running 2 Crisis suit teams with non-twin linked weapons and mediocre BS.

Here’s how it will play (provided Pathfinders don’t get killed)
Turn 1: Pathfinders strip cover off the opponent’s big-bad transport while bumping up the Broadsides BS.
Turn 2: Pathfinder Augment 1 suit of Crisis Suits to hit and brush away cover saves.
That’s 1 Crisis Suit team that fires with Crappy Balistics.

Why Plasma/Missile=Fail
While Plasma/Missile is nice as it grants close up fire and ranged shots it is a horrible idea no matter what the Internet tells you.
This is why.  The number of attacks makes up for the poor ballistics and non-twinlinking right?
NOPE!  It just makes your opponent happy as they can stack the auto-killing plasma on one dude and make saves for the missiles.
You lose when your enemy makes saves.  ESPECIALLY if they have FNP.  A save they don’t make is the best kind.

What to do?
You have options.  At 1500 you can either run 15 suits all with TL Missile Pods and just flood your enemy with attacks (also you can fit 6 Broadsides into that list) and no Pathfinders.  By volume they will fail saves.
OR
Field mostly missile pod teams and an HQ with 1 crisis suit team fitted out with MEQ killing Plasma+Fusion supported by Pathfinders.
OR just go Twinlinked Plasma on the suits.  Not having Pathfinders as a lynch-pin is nice and kind of fun.  Definitely makes the Terminators think twice.  It’s the simplest of the solutions but based on the matchup can kind of suck.  Having to charge IG is bad.  Gunning down Mephiston is awesome.

And Hammerheads suck.  They’re such a cool model!  But not worth the points.

[Dissimulation]

^ this.

This is exactly how i feel about your list. I applaud you gundam john.