Cool. (need Tau advice)

[Leviticus]

Hey all, I'm new here.

I first found out about DoW about... 4 months ago in my CGW magazine. I thought it was excellent, instant, Warhammer, gritty combat on your computer, just what I needed. I was blessed with an official Games Workshop store closeby to where I lived, but soon I had to move to where I am right now, and I have not found a store that sells Warhammer 40k... let alone has game nights, in Kansas City.

So now I'm really glad that DoW is being developed and tested by the devs and you all. I signed up for the beta... so we'll see about that, heh.

I play Tau... I have a 600-and-some point army which I never finished due to me moving and me not finding a place to buy more men or to play... *sniff*

Anyway, good to be here. :bandit:

Oh... and I'm a major newb... but how do I use a custom avatar instead of the default ones they have in the Avatar section of the User CP? I really want to use this:

http://www.freewebs.com/legameboy/krootmmav.txt

Thanks for your help.

Anyone else play Tau? Could any of you help me as to what I should finish my army with? I have one Fire warrior squad (12 men, one is a Shas'ui, they are bonded), one Kroot carnivore squad (16 men, 17 with a Kroot Shaper), one Hammerhead tank, and one XV8 Crisis battlesuit.

I've been thinking about getting another Fire warrior squad and about two more Crisis battlesuits...

I need advice. :werd:

[KingKupo]

I could be wrong but wasn't it forbidden to use GW copyright related avatars?

Get more fire warriors and more battlesuits(be sure to give them a anti-tank weapon tough or take broadsides). Optionally you could get some pathfinders and give a few rail-rifles. And a ethereal is kinda characteristic but a great risk at the time. I would first experiment with a small force tough before starting to expand. Play some small games and think, what could i have used? and be sure to experiment at times

[FeloniousPunk]

If you need TT models and no stores around you sell them, you can always order direct from GW's online store or over the phone, or buy from eBay.

[Goallie11]

Definatly go with eBay since GW raised their prices again. And get 2 more FW squads and some broadsides, stealth team too.

[Leviticus]

Thanks for the advice guys. :)

Now all I need is some gaming buddies...

[Stormblade]

Fire wariors... lots of fire wariors... yes they are bad in combat but when theres absolutely no targets... the extra attacks can come in useful, and if you use the new rules (check gamesworkshop site for a small update) they can rapid fire while moving which is powerful...

[Ryko Nailo]

Heh stormblade I like your sig :P But if you compair 'nids to gaurd its more like we are many and so are they but we got tanks :P

[Dimension]

i think for such a small army a hammerhead might be a little overkill. more firewarriors, and a few more suits (like two, to make a start). and yeah, tend towards anti-tank on the suits, your fire warriors can handle enemy infantry is my guess.

[funhouse910]

well i have a friend that plays a large 1800 point army of tau and i find that tau battle suits and small squads of infantary are the tau players best friend.

only one more suggestion for your army, an army is only as good as the player that is using them, tau jump pack are the key to the tau's ass kicking abilitties. One last thing ****DONT BUY KROOT**** they cost almost as much as space marines and are basicaly cannon faudder

Double Post

battle suits are the best equipt with lots of plasma rifles and missle pods...

missles are long ranged and can kill tanks pritty good.

plasma becasue it is rapid fire and it doesn't over heat, plus it rips sh*t apart

[Ramrod]

ok, leviticus, i play a 2500 point Vior'la tau army. trust me, with a shooty race like tau, a hammerhead is never overkill (except in a "40k in 40 minutes" game). and devilfish, maaaaaaaaaany devilfish. i have three. plus two hammerheads. and don't put all your faith in battlesuits. they quickly become overworked if you don't have hammerheads to support them, and fire warriors in devilfish to relieve them.

do NOT buy kroot. if you REALLY want to have HtH, invest in some cadian shock troops and convert them with tau bitz to be human auxiliary troops for the tau (chapter approved 2003, rules available on the GW site). thats what i did. two 10-man squads. more expensive, but more cost-effective. more skilled than kroot in shooting, and only slightly less in HtH, and more durable. there is nothing good about kroot except the expendability. if you really want to use kroot, use them as meat shields for your shas'o or ethereal.

my army list:
HQ:
-Shas'o with 2 XV8 Crisis Battlesuit bodyguards

Elites:
-1 Squad XV8 Crisis Battlesuits
-2 Squads of XV15 Stealth suits

Troops:
-4 Fire Warrior squads with pulse rifles, 2 with Devilfish
-2 Human Auxiliary squads

Fast Attack:
-1 Pathfinder squad with a Devilfish and raiil rifles
-2 Gun Drone squads

Heavy Support:
-2 Hammerheads
-1 squad of XV88 Broadside Battlesuits

my list is a very typical eastern fringe army. does everything to some degree, excels only in volume of fire. i have seen converted HtH tau, but i have no idea what an army list like that would look like. i hope mine helps in sparking your creativeness so you can come up with your own :D

[Stormblade]

Nice army there 'Rod', nice to see someone maxed out on troops for a change. But under the new rules preview tau firewariors would likely to be better without carbrines because of the ammount of rapid fire shots you can pump out. I'd say a hammerhead is overkill in 500 pts but thats because it wipes out chimeras, Hive tyrants out easily with solid shot, and whole units of guard and substantial portions of guants in a single shot... with armour 13 front it can be hard to kill in such small games.

[Dimension]

are swarmer missiles effective at taking out tanks? if so, a Hammerhead with ion cannon could be pretty versatile in small point games. kill big things (tyrants, transports) with the missiles, kill heavy units with the ion cannon. leave the rest to firewarriors and HQ.

alternately, use either a squad of pathfinders or a firewarrior shas'ui with markerlights to mark a target for seeker missiles fired from a cheaper devilfish.

[Stormblade]

Actually the smart missile system is weaker than the Ion cannon, the ion cannon itself seems to be the perfect weapon to take down transports and standard marines, the smart missile system is good against weaker troops, being too weak to use against armour, my friend uses railgun with smart missile system because if his main gun is destroyed then he can still do a fair bit of damage to weaker troops on the field (I collect guard and 'nids so I am usually the weaker troops)

[Dimension]

k, if I'm reading the codex right, the ion cannon is str 7 AP 3 (but gets 3 shots per turn), while the seeker missile is str 8 AP 3 must be guided by marker light and hits on 2+, whether target is in sight or not. range is unlimited. since each missile needs its marker light, you'd have to mark the same target multiple times if you wanna launch several missiles at it. but if you can do that (have a shas'ui AND pathfinders, or mark with more than one pathfinder), you have a pretty potent weapon of destruction on your hands.

since hammerheads have decent armour and are rather mobile, i kinda prefer ions over rails on it as primary weapon. however tempting the template submunition is, its still 3 shots per turn for the ion vs one shot for the rail.

i'd go for broadsides if you want rail goodness. they're slow, but with 72' range, who needs to be fast?

[Dante]

Ok this might be "overkill"...go to www.forgeworld.co.uk and go to imperial armour, and then click tau. there buy the tau barracuda. It is AWSOME! forgot the exact stats, but has an ion cannon, seeker missiles, gun drone rack (maybe)... and its a flyer! its very dangerous...or if you dont want a flyer go with tau skyray! 6 seekermissiled... just sit back and go :nana: as you pummel enemy tanks, deamon princes...etc.

[Stormblade]

Your reading the weapon stats right however, the hammerheads secondary weapon systems are 2 burst cannons or a smart missile system, not a seeker missile.
I've just checked and seeker missiles are 10 pts each for a 1 shot weapon, having to be used by markerlight... in small games I doubt you are going to get enough points for a number of these missiles and markerlights, but in larger games that loudout would be a good idea but remember they are limited in number.

[|2eaper]

Hey. Im a major newb with Tau myself and Im hoping to get them as soon as I can. Those of you who play Taus do you suggest purchasing the Tau Battleforce (12 Fire warriors, 12 Kroot warriors, 3 Battlesuits, 10 Gun Drones and a set of jungle trees) for $130.00 or serveral boxes, customizing your own army?

Another question I had in mind. How many Hammerheads/Devilfishes/XV88 Broadside Battlesuits do you recommend when starting off with a small army?

Thaxs :D

Ps.What are some good colour schemes I paint my Taus?

[Dazz_OSC]

I have a Tau army but havnt played in over a year and a half.

Rod, I have to say, mine is almost exactly the same as yours, minus 2 devilfish, add another squad of crisis suits, 2 squads of fire warriors, minus the IG.

If only I could find ppl to play up here (I recently moved to Montreal from NY).

Ugh, last time I checked the battle force was at most $55 to $65 US online. But then again last time I checked was about a year ago.

I bought 3 battle force sets, plus extra stuff. Tau need large numbers of firewarriors to be effective.

[Ramrod]

yep, dazz, veeeeery large numbers. which is why, as stormblade pointed out, i maxed out my troops choices. leviticus, i think item number one on your to do list should be to fill up your troops choices with fire warriors, and if you can afford it, human auxiliaries (get rid of the kroot. i kept mine to use simply as desk ornaments).

and dante, you can only use 'imperial armor'-class units, like the barracuda, if your opponent agrees. and you have to fit it into your pointage :O. very hard to do unless the game is more than ~2500pts. and to use it, you'd need the new imperial armor update book for the rules. too much hassle most of the time. it took me four years to finally decide to get an air unit for my guard. and they aren't as expensive as the tau ones.

EDIT:
reaper, the max is 6 troops slots, i reccommend all six troop slots to be filled with fire warriors, unless you use humans for HtH. each squad should be 12 fire warriors hopefully, and at least one should have a devilfish (they're useful)
/EDIT

[|2eaper]

How many Firewarriors should you have per squad and how many sqauds?

[Stormblade]

If possible and at least in higher points games you should try to have full 12 man squads and quite a few of them. They are easily one of the best troop choices in the game, they may be BS3 but they have S5 weaponry which is good enough to do damage to light vehicles, and to make mincemeat out of light troops. My friend's 500 pts list has 24 fire warriors which is a good start, you should have at least 1 crisis suit because they provide a fair amount of mobile fire power which is what tau are about. In a small game I think you should decide whether or not to have a hammerhead. In a small game the railgun can control the game against armies not well equipped to deal with it and even if they are equipped to deal with it, it serves as a useful weapon. However if you dont take one you could take multiple suits, taking a broadside suit to deal with vehicles cheaper, crisis suits to deal with heavy infantry and fire wariors to take down the lighter infantry.
::EDIT: spelling and VVfriendVV

[o'shovah]

the crisis is best off as your hq than the usual elite choice... sure it costs more points but it saves including ethereals which have that awkward price of failure rule, its hard 2 go wrong in 500 points just get a fair few fire warriors

[rocket_Magnet]

dante go one up, the tiger shark is stock full of gun drones and 2 ion cannons, but imo forgeworld kits are a waste of money when trying to make an army to play with, more for collections or for some pretty customisation, WHEN your army is already DONE :)

[Dimension]

and why is that?

i heard some people say that forgeworld stuff is shit because their units are overpriced pointwise. is that the reason why you say "don't get one till you have an army"?

[rocket_Magnet]

no i say it becuase your better off using money you could spend at forgeworld on something that may look nice or spend it on something practical for the army, and many of forgeworld's stuff is rip off pointswise for a good reason theyre classed as super heavy units which require an army of 2000 points or more before being fielded, take the baneblade it has 3 hard points meaning you have to destroy it 3 times before it finally goes down. anyway, your better off having your army finalised, one you would be happy to play with before dipping into forgeworld for some heavy stuff, or some customisation projects

[|2eaper]

If possible and at least in higher points games you should try to have full 12 man squads and quite a few of them. They are easily one of the best troop choices in the game, they may be BS3 but they have S5 weaponry which is good enough to do damage to light vehicles, and to make mincemeat out of light troops. My friend's 500 pts list has 24 fire warriors which is a good start, you should have at least 1 crisis suit because they provide a fair amount of mobile fire power which is what tau are about. In a small game I think you should decide whether or not to have a hammerhead. In a small game the railgun can control the game against armies not well equipped to deal with it and even if they are equipped to deal with it, it serves as a useful weapon. However if you dont take one you could take multiple suits, taking a broadside suit to deal with vehicles cheaper, crisis suits to deal with heavy infantry and fire wariors to take down the lighter infantry.
::EDIT: spelling and VVfriendVV

For the Firewarriors should I spent pts upgrading Fws besides converting Shas'la to Shas'ui at a cost of 10pts?

[Stormblade]

I dont think that firewariors have any real options... no heavy weapons etc which are used by the suits. But they can give half a squad carbines, I would suggest at least 1 squad of 12 firewariors with 6 carbines, you may want a to upgrade the leader also but I would only do that if you have a specific plan for that unit before the battle. In my view you should have at least 1 unit of carbine fire wariors and one of basic firewariors... at higher points more of just pulse rifle armed ones and maybe a squad of kroot for CC protection, the pulse rifles will get more powerful as mobile firepower with move and rapid fire mechanics of the new edition.