1850 Tau Mark V

[Chicop76]

Well I am going to give my Tau a go today. I am still modififying my list to be wysiwyg thanks to missle drones and high yield missiles. To be frank I can spend 300 dollars or by missile bits since I already have 9 broadsides. Anyway I'm working on the missile drones which isn't too hard to convert.

All that being said I think this is the list I will be running for tournament play. I droped a fire warrior squad and my hammerhead to add another broadside team. The reasoning for this my riptides is enough to handle a landraider or two. I might drop my 4 man pathfinder team to give my fire warriors bombs to handle tanks as well. If it is an issue I will change my list accordingly.

Since for the most part I seen less vehicles overall, unless crons. I think this list will do well. This list is in response to the 60 hounds of khorne garbage. I think if I now face that list I can erradicate almsot all 3 squads and I have faith they will perish if they try to assault.



1850 Tau

HQ

130 XV-08 Commander
Drone Controller, Counterfire defence system
Signiture System: Puretide Engram Neurochip, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, Neuroweb System Jammer

50 Ethereal

Elites

185 XV104 Riptide: Ion Accelerator, Fusion

185 XV104 Riptide: Ion Accelerator, Fusion


Troops

108 FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

108 FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

108 FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

108 FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

Fast Attack

55 Pathfinders
X5 Shas'La:

55 Pathfinders
X5 Shas'La

11 Pathfinders
X4 Shas'La

Heavy Support

116 Sky Ray: Smart Missile, Blacksun Filter

282 XV88 Broadside team
3x Shas'Ui: 3x target: high yield missle
6 x missle drones

315 XV88 Broadside team
3x Shas'Ui:Drone Controller, 2x Velocity Tracker: high yield missle
6 x missle drones

Total Points 1850




I have a lot of points in heavy support. I might drop the 2 sides and go with snipers and back to 5 fire warrior squads. However I think the durablity of the sides on top of the 2 riptides will do a heap of damage.

[Carrelio]

Why does your commander have a drone controller? It only benefits gun/marker/sniper drones and you have none of those.

That's really all I've got to say...  Looks static but you're clearly running a static list... so yah...

[BigToof]

I'd recommend Early Warning Override for the Riptides as they give out so much safety versus deep-striking units and also the occasional dread that wanders in.

I've never liked Missile Drones as I find them expensive overkill, but let me know how you do!

Best,
-BT

[Chicop76]

Why you keep saying it's static. Turn 2 against nids I was half way across the board and my oppont cried uncle.

I actually participated in combat for the very first time. Riptide vs Trygon Prime. Basically I couldn't hurt it and it couldn't get pass my +3 invul save. I had one wound by the end of turn 2 and the combat began on his turn on the second half of turn one.

My commander joins one of the broadsides and enhance the missle pods.

The target lock sides work really nice since I can fire upon 4 differant targets. The other squad comes out as overkill. Although it did a good job blasting MC realy good.

My opponent quit at the half way point of turn 2 when I blasted his 3 hive guard Swarm Lord with a decent part of my army. All he had left was his Mawlock, 2 tervigons, and Trygon Prime. I still had shooting which I had a good chance of killing a tervigon. I think I killed over 100 gaunts and killed his swarmlord with guard.

I tried out running with snap fire on turn one which called for decent shooting. While turn 2 most of my army was rapud firing most of his army and due to overwatche .

[Carrelio]

I keep saying its static because it is.  The bulk of your army is moving 6" (with the exception of 2 models; the riptides).

I know your commander was intended to join the broadsides and enhance them, my question was, "Why does your commander have a drone controller? It only benefits gun/marker/sniper drones and you have none of those." It's not actually a question at all, opr at the least it's a rhetorical one; the drone controller is a waste of points in this build.

[Chicop76]

I keep saying its static because it is.  The bulk of your army is moving 6" (with the exception of 2 models; the riptides).

I know your commander was intended to join the broadsides and enhance them, my question was, "Why does your commander have a drone controller? It only benefits gun/marker/sniper drones and you have none of those." It's not actually a question at all, opr at the least it's a rhetorical one; the drone controller is a waste of points in this build.

In the back it says all drones. Anyway good point and I'll just simply go back to marker drones with the commander's unit.

With the other side I will still run 6 missile drones and drop the controller for something else.

I am thinking of using rail guns with my comader squad

[Carrelio]

The back serves as a quick reference but all long-form rule entries in the codex over rule it.

Using a vectored retro thruster instead might not be a bad idea, since it will prevent that really shooty unit getting locked in combat.

[Chicop76]

The back serves as a quick reference but all long-form rule entries in the codex over rule it.

Using a vectored retro thruster instead might not be a bad idea, since it will prevent that really shooty unit getting locked in combat.

That reminds me of a question. What if you take drones with the retro. I assume only the retro equiped unit can hit and run. It would be cool to hit and run and dish off the drones to be locked in combat.

i thought about it, but in most senerios if my commander is locked in combat i am probablly losing anyway.

Another thought is monster hunter on seeker missiles. If I take seeker missles on my broadsieds would they also get monster huner, or does it work with the marker light shots. I am debating taking 3 seekers on my sides, so they would be tank or monster hunters when fired.

[Carrelio]

Everyone in the unit gains hit and run, which means if an independent character and his drones joined a squad in the movement phase (lets say a broadside team with drones) then the whole team gains hit and run at the fastest initiative in the unit, which would be the initiative 4 drones.

The real benefit here would be if a close combat unit did manage to get in close combat with you, it wouldn't shut down your shooting phase; every close combat army makes it their goal to lock in combat until your close combat phase so their unit can't be shot at and your high powered shooting unit gets tied up for a turn.  With hit and run you entirely negate that plan.

I don't know how monster hunter would effect seekers... if I had to guess I'd say if you fired using the broadside they'd get all the rules the broadside got, but if you use a markerlight to call them in then they replace the broadside's bonuses with  the markerlight rules instead.

[Chicop76]

Everyone in the unit gains hit and run, which means if an independent character and his drones joined a squad in the movement phase (lets say a broadside team with drones) then the whole team gains hit and run at the fastest initiative in the unit, which would be the initiative 4 drones.

The real benefit here would be if a close combat unit did manage to get in close combat with you, it wouldn't shut down your shooting phase; every close combat army makes it their goal to lock in combat until your close combat phase so their unit can't be shot at and your high powered shooting unit gets tied up for a turn.  With hit and run you entirely negate that plan.

I don't know how monster hunter would effect seekers... if I had to guess I'd say if you fired using the broadside they'd get all the rules the broadside got, but if you use a markerlight to call them in then they replace the broadside's bonuses with  the markerlight rules instead.

vp


That changes a lot, so riptides and broadsides can possibly have hit and run thanks to the commander. Hmmmmm. Interesting. It's a cheap up grade worth taking. Now I might add drones to a riptide to give it hit and run with my commander as an option.

Also since the missile drones will not have bs 5 I can still make them twin linked. However I think bs 5 marker drones may be better than twin linked bs 5 missles. Also I do miss the extra lighting lol.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Broadsides cant take Vectored Retro Thrusters. They don't have Jet Packs. No Hit and Run for them.

[Chicop76]

Broadsides cant take Vectored Retro Thrusters. They don't have Jet Packs. No Hit and Run for them.

Broadsides and riptides can't, but if a hit and run commander joins them, than they will be able to do so. I never thought about it and it is a possibility in this situation.

Thinking about it more it makes eldar allies more worth while. For example Yriel plus the hit and run commander would be really hard to lock in combat.

1850 Tau

HQ

130 XV-08 Commander
Drone Controller, Counterfire defence system, vectored retro thrusters
Signiture System: Puretide Engram Neurochip, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, Neuroweb System Jammer

50 Ethereal

Elites

185 XV104 Riptide: Ion Accelerator, Fusion

185 XV104 Riptide: Ion Accelerator, Fusion


Troops

108 FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

108 FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

108 FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

108 FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

Fast Attack

55 Pathfinders
X5 Shas'La:

55 Pathfinders
X5 Shas'La

11 Pathfinders
X4 Shas'La

Heavy Support

116 Sky Ray: Smart Missile, Blacksun Filter

282 XV88 Broadside team
3x Shas'Ui: 3x target: high yield missle
6 x marker drones

315 XV88 Broadside team
3x Shas'Ui: 2x Velocity Tracker: high yield missle
6 x missle drones

Total Points 1847




The beatiful part of hit and run on Tau is do the enemy really want army wide rapid fire again lol.

I switched out the 6 missiles for 6 marker lights, I also gave the commander hit and run, and dropped the drone controller on the missle drone broadside.

I am debating on dropping the 4 pathfinders for more seeker missles and might run squads of 6 instead of 5. Althoug if I run 5 t drop under 25% I will have one guy remaining. If I take 6 than one will still be under 25%. I might see if I can have all 3 sides have skyfire.

also reading interceptor I just realized that I would be able to shoot in the shooting phase. I just can't shoot next turn. I have to look to see if that's during my opponents turn or turn turn. If I can shoot in the next shooting phase than I will take interceptor on my riptides.

[Carrelio]

You can't shoot during your next shooting phase if you shoot in your opponent's shooting phase, so it's a fair trade (you don't lose any shooting).  What it does is it lets you get that sucker punch in under the belt before the other side has a chance to do what it wants to do.  The prime example is something like this:

Turn 1 a drop pod with 10 sternguard appear right in the heart of your army, splitting off into 2 combat squads to blow up 2 hammerheads/ kill 2 suit teams in one fell swoop... Oops, you dropped an S8 AP2 template on them... now they can't do that (and you may have even wiped them out entirely).

Or...
Turn 3 a unit of assault terminators deepstrike onto the field, planing to use their run move to space out so you don't drop a template on them... nope. S8 pie plate.

Or...
A blood angels outflanking pred with flamers everywhere appears out of no where next to your home objective and... nope. It's gone.  6  S7 AP2 shots from across the board glanced it to death.

Or...
Genestealers

Or...
Tau battlesuits

Or...
Anything else.

You don't lose a shooting phase, you gain an importunity to smash the enemy before they even get a chance to react, it's a sweet deal!  With the exception that RAW taking the interceptor upgrade gives any Tau flyer with a decoy launcher (at 3 points per model this is read every Tau flyer) a 4+ invulnerable save.  And of course, the obvious loss of using markerlights to support your riptide (not as damaging in blast mode).  Also, it just loses the weapon it fired in the next phase, so it can still shoot with it's other choice (like the fusion blaster to take out a tank).

[The Man They Call Jayne]

It is worth noting that if you fire a main weapon, like the Ion Accelerator, for Intercept, you can save the secondary weapons for your main shooting phase.

[Chicop76]

This is hopefully the final draft . Please tell me if you like list 1 the original, list 2, or this list.

The changes here is I decided to have rail guns on my target lock. The high yield is good I agree, but after some thought the strength 8 ap 1 with tank hunter gives me more bite. Also I can now pen armor 13 and glance 14. It just gives me more strength 8 options. I might go back to the high yield any way. Also it gives me options to deal with other riptides, tyrannofexes, dreadknights or other high toughness models with a +2 save.

I took the hit and run off due to points . I can drop a seeker to give it back, but I tend to use a lot of seekers and having 9 will help out.

Speeking of seekers I took the 3 on the broadsides in hope that they will have monster/ tank hunter. Since it is a weapon system for that unit thy should be able to have that ability. It will give me 6 strength 8 tank/ monster hunting shots in one volly, not to mentin the instant kills on dem hounds of khorne.

I dropped a pathfinder team to add more stuff to my list. Sadly I wanted 2 squads of 6. I do have 18 marker lights which is slightly more than the original, but 6 of them are bs 5.

I also dropped the fusion on my riptides and added the plasma shots. The reasoning here is I haven't really used my fusion as much as I would had liked. Also most of the time I am out of fusion range. The weapon change can give me a possible 7 ap 2 shoots within 12" and if I overcharge. It will hopefully discourage melta gunners ds near my guy if you get pie plated and maybe 2 plasma shots. Due to the editional 6 strength 8 weapons I felt I can switch weapon systems a bit. I only melta one raider so far, and the other died to smash attacks form the Riptide.

1850 Tau

HQ

XV-08 Commander
Drone Controller
Signiture System: Puretide Engram Neurochip, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, Neuroweb System Jammer

Ethereal

Elites

XV104 Riptide: Ion Accelerator, Plasma, Early Warning

XV104 Riptide: Ion Accelerator, Plasma, Early Warning

Troops

FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

FireWarriors
X12 Shas'La

Fast Attack

Pathfinders
X5 Shas'La:

Pathfinders
X5 Shas'La

Heavy Support

Sky Ray: Smart Missile

XV88 Broadside team
3x Shas'Ui: 3x target, 3x rail guns, 3x seeker missiles
6 x marker drones

XV88 Broadside team
3x Shas'Ui:Drone Controller, 3x Velocity Tracker, 3x high yield
6 x missle drones

Total Points 1850

It is worth noting that if you fire a main weapon, like the Ion Accelerator, for Intercept, you can save the secondary weapons for your main shooting phase.

I was using it before and wll go back to doing so. I was only using the ion gun, but now I think I may use both depending on the situation. I also want to mention that I forget that I can overwatch on that turn with his weapon systems. Also I may have to fall back if his weapons are offline.