A tale of two lists

Got the work that needed to be done last night on the pathfinders and the bits that have arrived.

I'm still teetering between two lists for Sat. I am trying to move farther away from my 4th edition list. I'd already made some changes (more troops, trimmed kill points) but further changes are feeling challenging. One list is a decent change up for 5th, the other wholy dives into radical change. I have a feeling the later is more about what Tau need to do now, but I'd be interested to see what others think.

List 1- Modified from 4th

HQ: Shas'El, Plasma, Fusion, TA, HWMT
HQ: Shas'El, Plasma, Fusion, TA, HWMT
Elite: 2x Crisis Missile, Plasma, TA, HWMT
Elite: 2x Crisis Twin Missile, TA
Troop: 11 FW, 1 Shas'ui, Bonding Knife
Troop: 11 FW, 1 Shas'ui, Bonding Knife
Troop: 6 FW
Troop: 6 FW
Troop: 10 Kroot, 7 Kroot Hound
Fast: 5 Pathfinders, Devilfish, DP, Flechette, TA, HWMT, SMS
Fast: 5 Pathfinders, Devilfish, DP, Flechette, TA, HWMT, SMS
Heavy: 2xBroadsides, ASS, Drone Controller, 2x Shield Drones
Heavy: Hammerhead, Railgun, DP, MT, BC
Heavy: Hammerhead, Railgun, DP, MT, BC

So this list has my more traditioal crisis set up and lots of troops. The problem is the static element of those troops. The 6 FW go in each of the devilfish (which I'm now going to try upgraded to a light tank), but the other 24 guys are 270 pts just asking to be lashed/assaulted. In the past I've relied on the volume of fire... but now I'm not so sure it is going to be enough. This is also my first shot at two squads of pathfinders.

List 2- Quite a leap
HQ: Shas'El, Plasma, Missile, TA, HWMT
HQ: Shas'El, Plasma, Missile, TA, HWMT
Elite: 2x Crisis Missile, Plasma, TA, HWMT
Elite: 2x Crisis Missile, Plasma, TA, HWMT
Troop: 8 FW, 1 Shas'ui, Bonding Knife
Troop: 8 FW, 1 Shas'ui, Bonding Knife
Troop: 10 Kroot, 8 Kroot Hound
Fast: 2x Pirahna, TA, Fusion
Fast: 5 Pathfinders, Devilfish, DP, Flechette, TA, HWMT, SMS
Fast: 5 Pathfinders, Devilfish, DP, Flechette, TA, HWMT, SMS
Heavy: 2xBroadsides, ASS, Drone Controller, 2x Shield Drones
Heavy: Hammerhead, Railgun, DP, MT, BC
Heavy: Hammerhead, Railgun, DP, MT, BC

It doesn't look like big changes but the small tweaks could mean a lot in game. For one I'm down to 3 troop choices, but they are hopefully the ones out of list #1 that would be survivable (and are now slightly more so). We've bumped all the crisis to the fireknife config (plama, missile) so as to try to get as much range and plasma on the field. Also we now see two Piranha with fusions to get that extra melta we lost on the old HQs, and to help provide some extra screening/soon-to-be-terrain pieces. Still going to try the 2 5 man pathfinders either way.

I think both lists are viable but it probably depends on you you are playing that will make the big difference. List #1 probably is better at trading shots across the board, list #2 is probably better at dealing with/avoiding assault armies. I think either will deal with mechanized on a fairly equal level.

I think I'm more concerned about the prevalence of assault oriented armies so... list 2 is looking more like the list I'll use. Plus if I'm going to make changes this will be a real chance to see if big changes make any difference to my Tau's game.