New Tau 1850

[LizardTau]

After posting on here and listening to the things you guys have said. I have finally redone my tau 1850 list. Probably still need tweaked but i hope I'm getting better at it.

HQ 173 points

Shas'o

Bonding Knife, blacksun filter, Drone Controller, Multi tracker, target lock, Stimulant injector, two shield drones, missile pod, burst cannon and plasma rifle

Elite 448 points

Two units of 3 crisis suits

Each with a leader, both leaders have bonding knife, blacksun filter, multi tacker and target lock. All suits have missile pod, plasma rifle and targeting array

Troops 618 points

Two units of fire warriors 11 who have photon grenades each plus one Shas'ui who have markerlight, bonding knife, emp grenade, blacksun filter and target lock. each also have a devil fish, both with disruption pods and one has sensor spines

anouther unit of 5 firewarriors plus one Shas'ui same as the ones above, no devilfish tho

Heavy 611 points

Two units of broadsides, with one leader and one broadside. Both leaders have every hardwire upgrade and two shield drones. all broadsides have targeting array

Hammerhead with railgun and two burst cannons, blacksun filter, disruption pod, flechtte discharger, multi tracker, and target lock

Total points = 1850

[shasodnarb]

Two units of 3 crisis suits... missile pod, plasma rifle and targeting array

I've seen this before but I'm still not a fan... since Tau often have problems with rate of fire, I think multitrackers are the way to go on all of them.

How do you foresee playing your army btw? Against what armies do you think it will do well or struggle, both offensively and defensively, and in what deployments and missions?

Have you considered adding more protection, whether than comes directly in the form of drones or indirectly in the form of shotblocking with vehicles? In trying to rectify the Tau problem of low quanity of fire, I concluded that adding more protection to my suits effectively added their volume of fire over the course of a game, even though there was no increase per turn.

[LizardTau]

Oh, i must have misunderstood i thought you ment for the leaders. Hmm yeah the multi tracker will let them fire two weapons after moving. yeah ill do that instead, it also gives me 20 points so ill put sensor spikes on my there devilfish and my hammerhead. I just think for an army thats all about ranged attack you think they would have 4 bs

[shasodnarb]

I agree with you; Tau firepower is a bit weird.

That's one of the reasons I decided to run zero elite slots and have my two Crisis squads as bodyguards. That way, each squad only requires one markerlight hit to fire at maximum efficiency and that also allows me the advantage of only needing a small Pathfinder squad.

[LizardTau]

true i like that my commander can leave and join a unit for cover or to get away from the unit. now i didn't upgrade my leaders i didnt think the ws upgrade was worth it

[shasodnarb]

I like the commander but I was wondering why you included three weapons, with the missile pod, burst cannon, and plasma rifle.

I love the missile pod but I think you could probably get away with replacing both the burst cannon and plasma rifle with the cyclic ion blaster (and multitracker).

The CIB can do the jobs of both the BC and PR at the same time. It's good against both light infantry and heavy infantry. It's just not going to be useful at all against vehicles or monstrous creatures... but you have other things in your list that can do that. Plus, you would save 8 points!

[LizardTau]

thats true, and or if i keep the hard wired multi tracker and take off the burst cannon and put on the CIB its only 7 more points so take off the sensor spikes i put on the hammerhead, its still 1847 and my commander the MP CIB and PR, i just want him to be able to fire a lot of weapons since he has 5BS. and yeah i have a lot of broadsides to take out tanks and monsters

[shasodnarb]

Another way to do it if you wanted is downgrade the commander to a Shas'El and give him a targetting array. This way, he still has BS5 but you save 15 more points.

[LizardTau]

actually that does save a lot of points and i beef up my last firewarrior unit to 9 plus the leader

[fritzthedwarf]

I can't remember if this is correct but I thought you had to take EMP grenades for the entire unit of FWs.

[LizardTau]

im still waiting on my codex but in army builder you can give it to the whole unit or just the leader

[shasodnarb]

I thought you had to take EMP grenades for the entire unit of FWs

That's exactly what I thought too and I had to look it up. However, much to my surprise, although the FW unit has the option to take them as you describe, the Shas'Ui also appears to have a separate option to take one by himself according to having access to the Infantry Wargear list.

So kudos to LizardTau! After all this time, I'm going to have to consider this option too, heh heh.

[LizardTau]

well i thought they dont all need emp grenades if im going to assult a tank or something (which wont happen often) one grenade should be ok i think, and its expensive to give all the guys the grenades

[shasodnarb]

Agreed 100%. I think it's awesome to just give the Shas'Ui one.

[fritzthedwarf]

I think thats great too. Good find!