And now for something completely differnt

Liam is hosting a 1850 game evening in less than two weeks which looks like it might be 10-12 people. It's funny, some 'Ard boyz had only slightly more attendance. Our shop had capped off at 24 pre reg and several people showed up unable to play the day of the tourny. I guess we're lucky to have a pretty good active group.

I figure I'll pull Tau out for this one. I've got a good few months of solid BT, and I had played lots of Orks before Kubla, it is time for me to try to give the Tau a good run again.

It's a little weird every time you shift from focusing on one army to another. I've been so deep into thinking about Templar that thinking about Tau now is almost refreshing looking at them again.

Oh that's what long range fire support was about. Firepower has not been a part of my repertoire for a few month. Those tanks and transports are refreshing, too. Mmm mmm survivability never taste so good.

Of course Tau are rife full of challenges also.
They are horrible in every way in close combat. Kroot do not cut the mustard to be called Good, but they are 'ok' at CC.
LD is a problem everywhere you look.
No psychic protection means things like lash and other fun powers can be disastrous.

Most people agree that Tau is not on the short list of strong armies. They aren't horrible, but many of the popular armies are really a challenge for Tau to deal with of the bat. There's lots of great discussions online about what to do with your Tua army and of course many of them are all over the map.

Here are a few that sit in the forefront of my mind.

1. Markerlights- they seem to be more popular as ever. With 5th ed getting rid of cover saves seems to be their main purpose, but other tricks like LD reduction and BS boost still are plenty helpful. Some people argue for the expensive stealth marker team, others for the cheap but static pathfinders. I'm debating which angle I'll tackle here now as well. I've run normal stealth but they've never been fantastic for me. I've tried occasional pathfinders but they seem to be dead turn 2 and that never seems to make much sense. I've even tried the skyray but I think I love my heavy hammerheads too much.

2. Crisis configurations- Ok every Tau commander deals with this. In the past I've been plenty happy with my normal configuration: two HQ plasma/fusion (Helios), a two man TL Missle pod team (Deathrains), and a plasma/missle (Firekife). These 5 have served me well in the past... but I think some things might be changing.

I'm feeling like I need more AP2 out there and crisis are really the only way to do it. I'm debating whether I bring my three guys into one group of 3 Fireknives, build up a second Fireknife to make my solo guy have a partner (I have the bits to make one so that is easy) and keep the two Deathrains, or go crazy and make the cuts to run 2x2 Fireknives in the elite slots.

Many lists I see out there still have a lot more crisis suits than this. I think most people would say at this point level max out 2 groups of 3 Fireknives, but A) I don't have the models and am not dying to spend the $s right now and B) I'm not sure if I want to make the cuts in points, BUT see #3 below.

3. Death of the Firewarrior. It has pretty much happened, most 'competitive' list have barely any firewarriors at all. 6, or maybe two units of 6. People just use them to make Devilfish scoring, then toss in Kroot squads to have some other scoring choices.
Personally I love Firewarriors, and it pains me because I have 36 painted up so not using them would be almost cruel. If I really want to get competitive it would probably mean making cuts here and bumping up my Crisis suits.

These are the big things on my mind now. I'm not going to go running out to dump a bunch of money, but I've got a few projects I can work on and will probably try out some 'new' things at Liam's event.

A few things I'm pretty sold on already:
-Railguns- usually I slide an Ionhead in there, but I think the Railgun upgrade is probably more in favor with all the IG/Ork armies out there these days.
-Warfish- I am going to try to turn my devilfish into light tanks. The drones have their uses, but with KP and wanting the extra cover denying killyness and SMS are a go. Add in BS 4, Multitracker, plus Flechette discharges and you've turned your 85 point good transport into a 130 fish with bite.
-Kroot Hounds- people rave about them and I've had a clip around that I've rarely used. I'm picking up one more blister and will give them some serious use to see how they do over my beloved Kroot mob.

So I'm messing with some lists and pulling the bits down to see what we'll put together for this turkey and see how it goes. I'm sure I'll get a little painted and converted, but I don't feel the big pressure with my friends to get things painted as I do with the tourney.