Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Sample Tau list

For the Greater Good!

I've only had the codex for a couple of days, but here's what I drew up:

Here is the list..

1993
14 kp

HQ:
Commander - 155
Shield Generator (4+ invul)
Flamer
Airburst Fragmentation
Targetlock
Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite

TROOP:
12x Fire Warriors (Sash'ui) - 208
Devilfish
Twin-linked SMS

12x Fire Warriors (Sash'ui) - 208
Devilfish
Twin-linked SMS

12x Fire Warriors (Sash'ui) - 208
Devilfish
Twin-linked SMS

ELITE:
3x XV8 Crisis Team = 126
Twin-linked Missiles

XV104 Riptide - 185
Ion Accelerator

XV104 Riptide - 185
Ion Accelerator

FAST ATTACK:
10x Pathfinders (Shas'ui) = 121
Blacksun Filter

HEAVY:
3x XV88 Broadsides (Shas'vre) = 205

Hammerhead = 146
Blacksun Filter
Twin-linked SMS
Submunitions
Disruption Pod

Hammerhead = 146
Blacksun Filter
Twin-linked SMS
Submunitions
Disruption Pod

Aegis Defense Line = 100
Quad-Gun

The army explained:

The general idea is to deploy the Aegis Defense Line defensively and have the Commander and the Crisis Suits he joined "man" it.  The Devilfish holds the Tau Warriors inside, ready to deploy any time the enemy comes close to threaten points.  In the mean time, they join in long-ranged firepower support with Burst Cannons and Twin-Linked SMS.  Twin-linked SMS are all over this army and they're quite insane.  Heavy 4, twin-linked, S5 AP5 Ignore cover for each system.  The Hammerheads with their Blacksun Filters have Night Vision, and with Disruption Pod gives them a 4+ cover Jink if they move at all.

Pathfinders Scout and apply their tasty markerlights to everything, increasing everyone's BS at the target unit and/or stripping away their cover save.  This makes them really easy targets for the XV88s and XV104 Riptide's heavy weaponry.  Ion Accelator on the Riptides gives them a lot of flexibility.  Standard shots are S7 AP2 Heavy 3, you can choose to overcharge them for S8 AP2 Large Blast but Gets Hot, or you can Nova-charge them for S9 AP2 Ordnance, Gets Hot, Large Blast.  It's to note that the XV88s not only have twin-linked S8 AP1 rifles, but they also have Twin-linked Smart Missile Systems.. you know, those thing that are S5 Ignore Cover.

Anti-air comes in the form of heavy-focus fire and the Aegis Defense Line.  With the number of heavy ordnance you have flying around the battlefield, I have no doubt that Tau will deal with flying threats without much issue.  If needed, you can always change meta specifics for more crueler warfare vs. flyers specifically.  Almost everything in the army have the option to buy Skyfire, but it's a little heavy in points.

To top off the funny, the Commander can choose to forfeit his shooting in his round to allow his squad to shoot twin-linked S7 missiles that Ignore Cover.  Of course, should the enemy flyer come in on their turn, he can just Intercept with a BS5 Quad-gun.  Target Lock (essentially split fire) allows him to redirect his Airburst Fragmentation weapon to horde units that might threaten the Greater Good while the rest of his squad engages armored threats.  Airburst gives you a S4 AP5 Large Blast, Ignore Cover, Barrage weapon lol.  The amount of anti-armor in this list is gigantic, but the weakness to hordes have also been nullified due to no less than 5 templates:  1 from the HQ, 2 from the Hammerhead's Submunitions S6 AP4 Large Blast, and 2 from the Riptides S8 AP2 (or S9..).

Damage wise, we're looking at...
40x BS3 twin-linked S5 missiles that ignore cover
2x S10 AP1 BS4 shots from the Hammerheads, or 2x S6 AP4 pie plates
6x S7 AP2 shots from the Riptides, or S8 AP2 pite plates
6x S7 bs3 twin-linked missiles that ignore cover
3x S8 AP1 bs3 twin-linked shots from the broadsides
...a bunch of markerlights
...and not counting the Pulse Rifles from the Fire Warriors or the Burst Cannons from the Devilfish.

And no, I will NOT be going Tau :)  Eldar in June.
Let me know what you think of the list!

15 comments:

  1. Why not drop the pathfinders. Pick up two 6 man drone squads. With two shield drones. Put uthe shield drones up front to soak up damage. That gives 8 marker lights with a 4+ save. Then drop the fire warriors down to 10 man up grade the sgt and market light and target lock. 3 more marker lights. With all that marker lights most units can hit at 2+. What do you think?

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  2. Your suit commander has 1 too many Ranged Weapon/Support System choices. You get 4, you've got the shield generator, the TL flamer counts as 2, the AFP and the target lock. You'd have go go down to a regular flamer or drop one of the other selections.

    Also with just one squad of them those pathfinders are probably going to get focused quickly as they are what give your mostly BS3 army their teeth. Otherwise I like where you're going with it. I feel like all the lists I've been coming up with have been heavily reliant on lots of footslogging firewarriors, and maybe that's not the best way to go.


    I'll be very surprised though if all the twin linked SMSs don't get Errata'd to be regular SMS, or are given a point cost. Being a free swap with a Burst Cannon makes the TL SMS the blatantly obvious choice...same Strength, same number of shots, same AP, but one has longer range, is twin linked, ignores cover and doesn't need line of sight? Even up against a non-twinlinked SMS the burst cannon is a laughable choice for the same cost. Something isn't right there...

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  3. I actually went and looked at the vehicles in my book again, and I'm slightly off on the SMS thing, as it is a point cost on the Devilfish, but everything I said still stands for the Hammerhead. When presented with the option of two gun drones, twin linked burst cannon, or twin linked SMS, and they're all free, why is anything other than the SMS on the table?

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  4. Cool, I'll drop the Flamer. Honestly, I thought it counted as one, sorry my mistake.

    Something is indeed wrong with the SMS.. they're so amazing it's unreal. I can't even imagine fighting this army with my Dark Eldar. That's 40 twin-linked S5 missiles that ignore cover coming from 30" range before movement.

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  5. Great idea, feel free to edit your list how you like. I don't actually intend on playing this army, it's just a concept :)

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  6. lol I know right!
    Devilfish has them for a cost, Riptide has them for free, each Broadside has them, the Hammerhead gets them for free... this list puts out 40 of them per turn, not counting the actual serious weapons..

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  7. I might run with this list. I like it. I need to sell two of my armies first lol

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  8. So deploy further back and in a ring. No one ever said to stretch yourself thin..

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  9. Indeed. If you see your opponent is packing a bunch of drop pods and the like it's not hard to deploy in such a way as to deny their usefulness and access to prime targets, though I am a fan of the idea of Missle pod + TL Plasma rifle on broadsides with interceptor. It's not quite as successful at punching out fliers, sure, but deepstriking termis or podded marines are going to have to choose where they go carefully.

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  10. Your list looks a lot like most people in my area came up with. I don't think 2 riptides is ideal, i think once the meta settles, it'll be back to 2 Squads of Crisis, with whatever kit. This is plenty scary though. I would give the Early Warning Override to the Riptides for sure. 5 points for Intercept? why not!


    I toyed with a themed list, not competitve, but i think It would look great as an Armies on Parade, or Warmasters display board.


    Tau Main Force with Grey Knight Allies
    3 Riptides and whatever else for Tau


    GK
    Dreadknight and min troops/hq (prob coteaz for max cheapness)


    Buldozing through a city, with the Riptides laying down cover fire into the daemonic incursion, while the Dreadknight deals with a Bloodthirster (likely the forgeworld)....


    Oh....my wallet :(

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  11. I'd like to see some more scoring, but that is just a personal preference of mine! Looks good, what a proper Hunter Cadre should look like in my mind. I would also prefer Crisis instead of the second broadside. What are your thoughts on the Puretide Engram Chip thingy?

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  12. It's not bad, but it doesn't scream Tau to me as much as Space Marines. 9/10 times you'll want Tank Hunter and avoid combat, so I think the extra points could be better spent in making your team's missiles Ignore Cover. The list is designed as mechanized so it can leap forward and unload its Fire Warriors for extra firepower. Mont'ka all the way man.

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  13. Yeah... the new Tau are horribly expensive.

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  14. How would you scale this down to 1500 points?

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  15. Let's pretend 2000 points.
    Cut both Riptides at 185 ea.
    Cut the Pathfinders.
    That should do it! :)

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