Tau 500 Point List - Need Help and Advice!

**Shas'la** · April 09, 2010, 03:11 PM

Hi, new to this forum. Well, not really new - I've been reading things here and there, but never actually registered.

Anyways, on to the topic at hand.

I bought the Tau battleforce set after years of just toying around with Tau, buying ocassional Fire Warriors here and there just cause I liked their look. But now, I want to actually get into playing with them. They suit my tastes in that I hate close combat and love shooting stuff!

Here's a preliminary 500 Point force that I quickly made up. Please help me out here as I have never played with Tau before so I don't know what works well where and what is just useless. Here's the list...

HQ

Crisis Suit Commander Shas'o (1 Crisis Suit) - 122 Points
- Missile Pod
- Plasma Rifle
- Targeting Array
- Multi Tracker

Troops

Fire Warrior Squad (12 Fire Warriors) - 145 Points
- Shas'ui
- Markerlight
- Bonding Knife

Fire Warrior Squad (12 Fire Warriors) - 235 Points
- Shas'ui
- Markerlight
- Bonding Knife
- Devilfish Troop Carrier + Disruption Pod + Targeting Array

Total: 502 Points.

There it is. It is centred around lots of Fire Warriors for maximum firepower and manpower in objective based games so I could put lots of rounds down-range aswell as having the troop capacity to capture and hold multiple objectives. The Devilfish provides some minor fire support aswell as providing more flexibility by making the army more mobile.

So yeah, tell me what you think! I need as much help as possible, be cruel. I've never played with the Tau and all I know is that their regular troops suck at Close Combat but annihilate at long range, which is the angle I went for here. Other than that, I have no idea what works well and what doesn't, so if there's any advice on general tactics that would be appreciated.

Thanks alot!

**Silo** · April 10, 2010, 07:29 PM

First of all: Welcome to TWC

Secondly: I don't play Tau personally so do not take any of my advice as foolproof.

Now, to the actual commenting: Are you sure you really need a Shas'o commander? Sure BS5 compared to BS4 (both counting your targeting array course) is nice but is it really necessary? This is pretty much a personal choice though and not that important, also apart from that I think the commander is well equipped.

Your troop choices seem solid and pack a punch against any infantry with the Devilfish giving you much needed mobility/flexibility.

There are imo only two things with this list that could lead to problems, even if you play well. Firstly you only got 3 units and a vehicle which might get difficult against armies that can field more seperate units at this point value as they could potentially cause you some trouble through clever maneuvering (then again this isn't much of an issue as there aren't many that can field that much more).
The second issue can be potentially a lot more troublesome: You lack any kind of heavy anti-tank weapon. In most games at 500 this isn't a problem, however there is the occasional IG player that takes a Leman Russ in such a game (or any comparable jerk). And AV14 (or 13 and maybe even 12) is going to be quite a problem for your army. A possible solution would be to drop a few fire warriors (and probably reduce the commander from Shas'o to Shas'el) in favour of taking a Crisis suit as elite choice and arming it with 2 Fusion Blasters or a a Fusion Blaster/Missile Pod combo so you have at least some heavy AT capability.

That's about the only things I can think of for now.

**Selifator** · April 11, 2010, 05:55 AM

I agree with Silo, drop the Shas'O and take a Shas'El instead. Also, I'd drop the markerlights, as far as I can see you do not have missiles which require them. Bonding knives are fun but not really necessary. If you drop those you could afford another Crisis suit and threaten two flanks, thereby either splitting up your enemy and picking him off with your Fire Warriors or get more shots with your suits.
Also I'd drop the upgrades on the Devilfish. You'll only need it to rush objectives, not to kill anything.

**Shas'la** · April 11, 2010, 08:29 AM

Yay, replies! Thanks for the advice guys. I kinda thought that I was lacking a bit of anti-armour stuff. The Missile Pod on the Commander was the only really anti armour stuff I had in the list. Taking into consideration the fact its only a 500 point list and thus I'm hoping no big nasties show up (although I have seen Tau players fielding Hammerheads in 500 point games...) I won't spam too much anti armour but taking into account what you guys said, here's the revised list.

I also need a bit of help with tactics and stuff. I've never played Tau before, so I don't know much apart from the "stand still and shoot guys" tactic. Anything else is unknown to me. Specific help on using things like Stealth Suits would be helpful

Right, here it is...

HQ

Crisis Battlesuit Commander Shas'el (1 Crisis Suit) - 107 Points
- Missile Pod
- Plasma Rifle
- Targeting Array
- Multi Tracker

Elites

Crisis Battlesuit Team (1 Crisis Suit) - 60 Points
- Twin-Linked Fusion Blasters
- Missile Pod
- Multi-Tracker

Troops

Fire Warrior Squad (10 Fire Warriors) - 125 Points
- Shas'ui
- Bonding Knife

Fire Warrior Squad (10 Fire Warriors) - 210 Points
- Shas'ui
- Bonding Knife
- Devilfish Troop Carrier + Disruption Pod

Total: 502 Points.

I demoted the Commander to a Shas'el, took out one of the Devilfish upgrades (I kept the DP as I don't wanna risk losing it thus losing mobility), took out 2 Fire Warriors from each team and took out Markerlights from each team.

That then allowed me to use those points to buy a Crisis Battlesuit with twin-linked Fusion Blasters and a Missile Pod aswell as the Multi-Tracker so I can fire as much as possible. Hopefully this means that I can confront most types of armour that could come up in a 500 point game and gives me much-needed anti armour ability whilst keeping mobility (Devilfish) and not sacrificing too many basic troopers.

Is that an OK list? Is there another way you would recommend going?

**Dargaron** · April 23, 2010, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by Shas'la

Yay, replies! Thanks for the advice guys. I kinda thought that I was lacking a bit of anti-armour stuff. The Missile Pod on the Commander was the only really anti armour stuff I had in the list. Taking into consideration the fact its only a 500 point list and thus I'm hoping no big nasties show up (although I have seen Tau players fielding Hammerheads in 500 point games...) I won't spam too much anti armour but taking into account what you guys said, here's the revised list.

I also need a bit of help with tactics and stuff. I've never played Tau before, so I don't know much apart from the "stand still and shoot guys" tactic. Anything else is unknown to me. Specific help on using things like Stealth Suits would be helpful

Note: I don't actually play Tau, but I have the codex. So my view is slanted towards what would be a real pain for my 'Crons

Right, here it is...

HQ

Crisis Battlesuit Commander Shas'el (1 Crisis Suit) - 107 Points
- Missile Pod
- Plasma Rifle
- Targeting Array
- Multi Tracker

Is the Multi-tracker Hardwired? If so, that's one too many battlesuit systems.Other than that, I'm shaking in my Necrodermis boots at this guy.

Elites

Crisis Battlesuit Team (1 Crisis Suit) - 60 Points
- Twin-Linked Fusion Blasters
- Missile Pod
- Multi-Tracker

Ok, I've calculated this out, and this guy would have to be a Shas'vre to have a Hardwired Multi Tracker. Remember, twin-linked weapons count as two systems!

Troops

Fire Warrior Squad (10 Fire Warriors) - 125 Points
- Shas'ui
- Bonding Knife

I'm assuming these guys have Photon Grenades? Otherwise, this should be 115 points.

Fire Warrior Squad (10 Fire Warriors) - 210 Points
- Shas'ui
- Bonding Knife
- Devilfish Troop Carrier + Disruption Pod

Again, unless this squad has Photon Grenades, it's worth 10 points less.

Total: 502 Points.

I demoted the Commander to a Shas'el, took out one of the Devilfish upgrades (I kept the DP as I don't wanna risk losing it thus losing mobility), took out 2 Fire Warriors from each team and took out Markerlights from each team.

That then allowed me to use those points to buy a Crisis Battlesuit with twin-linked Fusion Blasters and a Missile Pod aswell as the Multi-Tracker so I can fire as much as possible. Hopefully this means that I can confront most types of armour that could come up in a 500 point game and gives me much-needed anti armour ability whilst keeping mobility (Devilfish) and not sacrificing too many basic troopers.

Is that an OK list? Is there another way you would recommend going?

As I said, I don't play Tau, and am envious of how much you can fit in this list. But it seems like a good counter to MEQs (Marine Equivilents), with the Plasma Rifle-wielding commander able to snipe enemy Marines, and use the Missile Pod against light vehicles like Land Speeders. Against Orks and Guardsmen, depends on the Fire Warriors, really, because your suits aren't meant to take on swarms with that armament.

I apologize if this is a "necropost", but I couldn't find any definition of that in the Forum Rules, and since this topic was only a couple weeks old, and on the first page...