1st Steps with Tau

Hey guys,

recently I stumbled over the Tau codex. Knowing that a friend of mine is willing to sell his small Tau army, I thought about different builds for this codex and whether it would be worth buying this army or not. Soon enough I figured out that Tau will always need some lucky draws in a tournament to be able to achieve a good final position, because there are lots of armies, which can easily wipe Tau out.

One of the greatest enemies are, of course, Daemons, because they can take lots of damage, before they die und appear quite near to the Tau army on the battlefield. This is never very good for a shooty army, but this threat is limited through the appearance of GK armies on mostly every tournament.  BA armies, which heavily rely on Assault Squads can do the same (even more accurate), but those are just Marines and even with FnP they tend to die quite fast, if your army is equipped with some plasma rifles.  Against IG or other Marine builds it is very important to field lots of missile pods, in order to disable most of the Chimeras/Rhinos/Razorbacks as soon as possible and to get the enemies out of the vehicles, where they are vulnerable.
Against Orks and Tyranids it is most important to pack as many shots as possible to stop the flood of enemies, before they reach your line, because Tau are really no CC-specialists. All of this leaves us with the question, how a Tau list should look like, in order to get a good setup against most of the common enemies.

First of all we HAVE to buy one squad of Fire Warriors. The profile is, well, not really great and their standard rifle will make most of your opponents only make smile. There are lots of upgrades that can be bought for the squadleader and the squad is permitted to buy a Devilfish troop carrier. In my opinion it is best to keep this unit as cheap as possible, while some players tend to buy a Devilfish in order to make the unit more mobile and durable, to capture objectives with it. I for myself think that six Fire Warriors are more than enough to sit on your home objective and keep their heads as near to the ground as possible. This way the first 60 points of the army are already spent and we got at least one Troop choice covered.
The first attempt for my army was to build versatile Crisis suits, supported by some Heavy Support units. To get to my aim, I started with a single commander and placed him in a squad of the Crisis suits, because they are way cheaper than bodyguards. The unit was completely equipped with missile pods and plasma rifles. This way I was able to stop low armoured transport vehicles at some distance and was able to kill even MEQs and TEQs quite sure.
Commander

- Shas'o

+ - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
   - H-w. Drone Controller
   - H-w. Target Lock
   - 2 x Shield Drone
 - - - > 147 Points

Crisis Battlesuit Team
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
 - - - > 124 Points

In addition to this I took another unit of 3 Crisis, which basically was equipped the same way and could support the first unit in completing its task. Another unit of 3 Crisis joined the army, this time equipped with missile pods and fusion blasters. Their task was to stop even stronger armoured vehicles like LRs and stuff like that.

Crisis Battlesuit Team
+ Crisis Team leader
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
   - H-w. Drone Controller
   - H-w. Target Lock
   - 2 x Shield Drone
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
 - - - > 226 Points

Crisis Battlesuit Team
+ Crisis Team Leader
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Fusion Blaster
   - Multi-Tracker
   - H-w. Drone Controller
   - H-w. Target Lock
   - 2 x Shield Drone
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Fusion Blaster
   - Multi-Tracker
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Fusion Blaster
   - Multi-Tracker
 - - - > 202 Points

I still had to add at least another unit in the Troop section and decided to buy some Kroot accompanied by some Kroot Hounds, 16 models seemed to be quite a good unit to give some cover for my other units or to move forward in order to attack my opponent’s objectives. The remaining about 900 points could now be spent for units from the Fast Attack and Heavy Support slots.

It was quite clear that a Tau force just can’t work without Broadside Battlesuits and I decided to add two units of two Battlesuits to the army. Despite the fact that those units are quite expensive I added a Railgun-Hammerhead with some upgrades as my third Heavy Support squad.
Fast attack units are not that interesting in a Tau force, but a unit of two Piranhas, equipped with Fusion Blasters, gave me some mobile antitank weapons and I could use them to contest my opponent’s objectives. In addition to this I decided to add a unit of Pathfinders, because I wanted to play around a bit with marker lights and received a free Devilfish to give my Fire Warriors some kind of protection.

The list finally looked like this:

***************  1 HQ  *************** 

Commander
- Shas'o
+ - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
   - H-w. Drone Controller
   - H-w. Target Lock
   - 2 x Shield Drone
 - - - > 147 Points

***************  3 Elite  *************** 

Crisis Battlesuit Team
+ Crisis Team leader
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
   - H-w. Drone Controller
   - H-w. Target Lock
   - 2 x Shield Drone
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
 - - - > 226 Points

Crisis Battlesuit Team
+ Crisis Team Leader
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Fusion Blaster
   - Multi-Tracker
   - H-w. Drone Controller
   - H-w. Target Lock
   - 2 x Shield Drone
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Fusion Blaster
   - Multi-Tracker
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Fusion Blaster
   - Multi-Tracker
 - - - > 202 Points

Crisis Battlesuit Team
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
  - Multi-Tracker
+ Crisis
   - 1 x Missile Pod
   - 1 x Plasma Rifle
   - Multi-Tracker
 - - - > 124 Points

***************  2 Troop  *************** 

6 Fire Warrior
 - - - > 60 Points

12 Kroot
4 Kroot Hounds
 - - - > 108 Points

***************  2 Fast Attack  *************** 

6 Pathfinder
+ Devilfish
   - Targeting Array
   - Disruption Pod
 - - - > 167 Points

2 Piranhas
- 2 x Fusion Blaster
- 2 x Targeting Array
- 2 x Disruption Pod
 - - - > 150 Points

***************  3 Heavy Support  *************** 

Hammerhead
- Railgun
- 2 Burst Cannons
+ - Targeting Array
   - Disruption Pod
 - - - > 165 Points

Broadside Battlesuit Team
+ Broadside Team Leader
   - Smart Missile System
   - Advanced Stabilisation System
   - H-w. Drone Controller
   - H-w. target Lock
   - 2 x Shield Drone
+ Broadside
   - Smart Missile System
   - Advanced Stabilisation System

 - - - > 200 Points

Broadside Battlesuit Team
+ Broadside Team Leader
   - Smart Missile System
   - Advanced Stabilisation System
   - H-w. Drone Controller
   - H-w. target Lock
   - 2 x Shield Drone
+ Broadside
   - Smart Missile System
   - Advanced Stabilisation System
 - - - > 200 Points

Summed up : 1749 points

I played a small number of games with this list and quickly figured out that I just needed more Crisis, because they are mainly the key unit in a Tau force.
The next article will cover the next list I thought about, with a lot more Crisis suits and which advantages the new list has over this one.

Cheers Cleutin