Tau 750pt Pathfinder Recon cadre - fighting Eldar corsairs - help please!

[Stewie Griffin]

Hey everyone

Here's a new army I've made since me and my friend started to use Forgeworld stuff. He uses Eldar Corsairs.

Anyway, here is my list - as you can probably guess from the title I've based it around a Pathfinder style recon cadre, which uses markerlights en masse if possible to allow the more elite units to eliminate the enemy, but otherwise doesn't go looking for a fight. I don't mind swapping things around a bit in my list, but I do want to keep to the central theme

HQ

El - T/L MP, Positional Relay - 88

Troops (I know... they're not all troop choices... but the various different types of units are all still within legal limits)

6 FWs - ui with BSF - 73

6 FWs - ui with BSF - 73

XV8 Team (2) - PR, MP, MT, Team Leader with HW BSF - 132

XV8 Team (2) - T/L MP, Flamers, Team Leader with HW BSF - 102

Tetra Scout Vehicles (2) - Targeting Arrays - 110

Sniper Drone Team - No extras - 80

Remora Stealth Fighter Drone - no extras - 110

Total = 768

Thoughts on that? - the basic idea is to have the tetras zoom around designating key targets, and then use the battlesuits, sniper drones and fighter drone destroy them. Against things like Eldar jetbikes (my eldar friend likes his jetbikes), the idea is to markerlight them to buggery, then hit them with AP2/3 stuff, strip them of their cover/jink saves, and kill 'em off in one blow.

Infantry in cover/moving around are dealt with by either the FWs (who will push forward for objectives, but hopefully since they're not toting anything hugely threatening compared to the rest of the army will be left alone), or the Deathrain suits, who can focus on either burning out infantry in cover, or taking out vehicles - using the flamers is great against corsairs, since they're T3 save 5+, plus it saves me markerlight tokens to just use a weapon which ignores cover anyway.

Tanks are dealt with again by markerlighting to destroy jink saves, and either missile pod spam from the suits, or if it's required a seeker missile strike from the fighter drone.

A quick note on the drone, I'm planning on having it come in as soon as it's available, hence the PR on the 'El, so I don't have to worry about failing reserves. My friend also has a flier, so it's essential my own flier comes in when it's needed so I can shoot it down. I'll use markerlights if I can on enemy fliers to strip 'em of the cover saves, but since the particular flier my friend uses is a nightwing (which is shrouded, so will have like a 3 or 2+ cover most of the time), and considering I'd have to snap-fire against it with most of my lights, I'll probably pass on that and take out other targets.

Lastly, I'm a little unsure of whether or not to give my FWs markerlights too - I tried it yesterday (or the day before... can't remember exactly) and I found that while they hit occasionally, most of the time they missed, and in the process it also wasted the use of the pulse rifles they carried (since I usually markerlighted key enemy vehicles to begin with), so maybe I'll pass on them this time - what do you think? Also, Do you think a third FW unit with BSF and/or markerlight would be a good replacement for the sniper drone team? It gives another objective grabber, potentially still a markerlight, but at the expense of shrouded and AP3 shots...


Anyway, hope the above is all clear - what do you think? Strengths, weaknesses, improvements etc? - btw, I'm aware I'm over by 18pts, but I've told my friend and he doesn't mind, so don't worry about it.

Thanks.

[Carrelio]

I think you'd do really well to increase your numbers of fire warriors.  Eldar corsairs... or eldar in general... are absolute fodder to S5 AP5 weaponry, which a pulse rifle does for cheap, and at a giant range.

[Stewie Griffin]

So... perhaps drop the Sniper Drone team for another squad of FWs kitted out in the same way as the rest?

Also I was thinking since Seeker missiles seemed to be fired at BS5 no matter what (it's the impression I get from another thread: http://secondsphere.org/index.php/topic,696.20.html) , do you think a Skyray might be a better choice than the Remora as an AA defence? It comes with many more missiles, is only marginally more expensive, has better armour values, doesn't start the game in reserve (allowing me to drop the PR on the 'El) AND still comes with a markerlight (although that admittedly, might not see much use, as what I'd do with it is keep it right at the back out of range of everything, give it a disruption pod, then move it to get decent cover saves, and just wait for enemy fliers to come in, or other vehicles to be designated - the only weakness I can see in this, is because those seekers need markerlights to be fired, and markerlights would be snap fired, I still might find it hard to get the shots off).

What do you think of that?

Thanks for replying btw.