Coastal Assault Tournament List - 1999 point Tau

[Kur'os]

Greetings all. 

I'm only just now getting into more competitive play and am looking for feedback on the following list.  The tournament is set at 1999 points to restrict dual force org shenanigans.

HQ:
Commander (150) - MSSS, PEN, Onager Gauntlet, Shield Generator

Commander (150) - Drone Controller, Shield Generator, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, NSJ

Elites:
Riptide (210) - IA, TL SMS, EWO, VT

Riptide (205) - HBC, TL SMS, EWO, VT

Crisis Monat (52) - Fusion Blaster, Fusion Blaster

Troops:
Firewarrior Team (190) - 5 Shas'la w/ Pulse Carbines, Shas'ui w/ Pulse Carbine, Markerlight, Targetlock, Bonding Knife Ritual, Devilfish, TL SMS, Burst Cannon, Disruption Pod

Firewarrior Team (85) - 5 Shas'la w/ Pulse Rifles, Shas'ui w/ Pulse Rifle, Markerlight, Targetlock, Bonding Knife Ritual

Firewarrior Team (85) - 5 Shas'la w/ Pulse Rifles; Shas'ui w/ Pulse Rifle, Markerlight, Targetlock; Bonding Knife Ritual

Fast Attack:
Drone Squadron (56) - 4 Marker Drones

Pathfinder Team (102) - 4 Shas'la; 2 Shas'la w/ Rail Rifles; Bonding Knife Ritual

Sun Shark Bomber (160)

Heavy Support:
Broadside Team (187) - Shas'Vre w/ TL HRR, TL Plasma Rifle, ATS; Shas'Ui w/ TL HYMP, TL SMS, Seeker Missile, EWO; Bonding Knife Ritual, Shield Drone, Missile Drone

Broadside Team (181) - Shas'Ui w/ TL HRR, TL SMS, EWO; Shas'ui w/ TL HRR, TL SMS, VT; Bonding Knife Ritual, Shield Drone, Missile Drone

Hammerhead Gunship (185) - Railgun, TL SMS, Longstrike, Disruption Pod

I normally keep my MSSS commander, my warlord, attached to either my Broadside team or a Riptide.  Nothing too fancy otherwise...

-Kur'os

[Arguleon-veq]

To be honest I think you have way too many points in upgrades and that is really limiting your firepower and scoring.

First things first though, why have a mixed broadside unit like that? I also dont rate the Heavy Burst Cannon on the Riptide but I know some people quite like, im the same with anything besides the Fusion Blaster as the secondary weapon, id at least give the IA Riptide a Fusion if you can if only to sync AP values on him.

What other models do you have to use for this? if you have a bigger collection I really think we can streamline this down and get a very competative list with it.

If not we can still tune things up with what we have here.

[Kur'os]

Thanks for the reply. 

Most of my 40k experience is against elite infantry and the like, so I'm partial to using a lot of wargear and strong but sparse fire. 

I felt that a HYMP would help with volume of fire; but I believe that I'll simply switch to HRRs for all my Broadsides. 

I'm also looking at focusing my list after seeing a 'competitive' Tau list at said tournament.  ( Enclave list: 9 HYMP Broadsides, 2 Riptides, 2 support commanders, 6 Crisis suits, and two carnivore squads )  I didn't play against him, but from what I understand he simply won through volume of fire. 

I'm thinking about the following:

Removing the Marker Drone squadron.  Giving a CCS and 2 Marker Drones to my second Commander and attaching to a Riptide w/ HBC, VT, EWO, and 2 Shielded Missile Drones.

It'll remove the extra FA unit I had in the Marker Drone squadron and add extra firepower / accuracy to the Riptide.

-Kur'os

[knightperson]

I think the list is a bit top-heavy. You have two commanders that are basically support suits, and that's an awful lot of points that isn't directly shooting anything! I would concentrate on markerlights instead of the MSS (unless you're running Farsight Bomb, which is the best place to put one). I wouldn't worry about the shield generators unless you're worried about winding up in assault, as a J-S-J model can usually rely on getting a cover save from the heavy weapons. My favorite config is a commander with iridium armor, stims, 2 missile pods, and a drone controller (he usually gets another toy or two like the Onager also) escorting a squad of marker drones.

YMMV, of course, but I find the pathfinders a far inferior choice to marker drones as a markerlight source. If you're going to run Darkstrider with them or something, then maybe it would be worthwhile, but I just don't like how static they are in the current game.

You know, you COULD actually twin-link one of the fusion-blasters on your tank-killer suit there. I would actually run a second monat of the same configuration, because when you need a suit to drop in and destroy the land raider you need it right now! At least you've got Longstrike for vehicle-killing, but in my experience he takes a lot of fire. He's already so expensive that it might be worthwhile to give him the repair system and/or sensor spines. Depending on how terrain-heavy your local area is, I would vote for sensor spines instead of disruption pods on most of your vehicles (Longstrike being the exception, as I think he deserves both).

Your troops are awfully light. Troops are, almost by definition, the Tau's weakest suit, but squads of 5 models at Leadership 7 are going to stupidly easy to scare off the field. The "scoringfish" is a viable strategy, but it's really the only troop you can remotely count on.

Assuming you can squeeze out 5 points, I would twin-link the missile pod on the Sunshark. I really like that model, even if it's only a delivery device for the awesomeness that is the interceptor drones!

[Kur'os]

I think the list is a bit top-heavy. You have two commanders that are basically support suits, and that's an awful lot of points that isn't directly shooting anything! I would concentrate on markerlights instead of the MSS (unless you're running Farsight Bomb, which is the best place to put one). I wouldn't worry about the shield generators unless you're worried about winding up in assault, as a J-S-J model can usually rely on getting a cover save from the heavy weapons...

I've been trying out the CCN to aid my Riptide's HBC.  Without it, I don't feel the risk of a Nova Charge is worth it. 

Though I agree about a JSJ unit finding cover easily, there are multiple ways to get around cover saves these days, plus I don't want to get shoe-horned into hugging cover all game when I can cover ground and still have a decent save.

YMMV, of course, but I find the pathfinders a far inferior choice to marker drones as a markerlight source. If you're going to run Darkstrider with them or something, then maybe it would be worthwhile, but I just don't like how static they are in the current game.

I've had success and failure with both.  ( My current list iteration has no markerlights at all...  >.> )  Still unsure if I'm going to bother with M.drones or Pathfinders.

Your troops are awfully light. Troops are, almost by definition, the Tau's weakest suit, but squads of 5 models at Leadership 7 are going to stupidly easy to scare off the field. The "scoringfish" is a viable strategy, but it's really the only troop you can remotely count on.

I agree entirely, but my Tau have always run light on Troops.  My next trial list will be a Enclave list that uses Darkstrider attached to a Firewarrior team who is attached to O'Vesa for some Outflank / Instant Death shenanigans...


Enclave / Tau Ally Trial
HQ:
Commander Farsight (165)
     O'Vesa (305)

Darkstrider (100)

Elites:
Riptide (210) - IA, TL FB, EWO, VT

Riptide (250) - HBC, TL SMS, ECPA, SI, EWO

Troops:
Crisis Team (174) - Shas-ui w/ PR x2 and Flamer, Shas-ui w/ PR x2 and Flamer, Shas-ui w/ PR x2 and Flamer; BKR

Crisis Monat (43) - TL FB; BKR

Firewarrior Team (114) - Shas'la w/ pulse rifles x12; BKR

Heavy Support:
Broadside Team (211) - Shas'Vre w/ TL HRR, TL PR, ATS; Shas'Ui w/ TL HRR, TL SMS, Seeker Missile, EWO; Bonding Knife Ritual; Shield Drone x2; Missile Drone x2

Broadside Team (204) - Shas'ui w/ TL HRR, TL SMS, VT; Shas'Ui w/ TL HRR, TL SMS, EWO; Bonding Knife Ritual; Shield Drone x2; Missile Drone x2

Hammerhead Gunship (185) - Railgun, TL SMS, Longstrike, Disruption Pod


That clocks in a 1961 by my count...  still need to fill 38 points.  Thoughts?

-Kur'os

[Arguleon-veq]

Your still very short on troops, im not really sure how much Darkstrider brings to the list to be honest. Ovesa should probably be going with that 3 man Crisis team just to give you a durable scoring. If you lose Darkstrider, with the points you have spare you could take another 3 Monat suits [just give them 2 flamers each to make them cheap and let them clear objectives of weak enemy scoring] and still have points spare.