I wanted to get some games in and see how the 'old Tau' worked more than seeing new units. I think I have a good idea on what I like and don't of the new units, but wanted to see how much of the old 5th ed list with a few tweaks held up with the new book.
Ethereal
Commander, Airburst, Irridium, Stim, Target Lock, Drone Controller, 2 Marker Drones
3 Crisis Suits, Twin Missile Pods
6 Stealth Suits
10 Firewarriors
10 Firewarriors
10 Firewarriors
20 Kroot Snipers
8 Pathfinders
5 Marker Drones
2 Pirahna
2 Broadsides, 4 Shield Drones
Railhead, Sub shots, SMS, Disruption Pod, BSF, PDTR
Skyray, SMS, Disruption Pod, BSF, PDTR
Aegis w/ Icarus
This was roughly 1750 and was tossed together a bit frantically as Jim was ready to get some games and I had the dex about 15 minutes. Of course I had a pretty good idea of what I had wanted to try out thanks to the leaks.
You can see the first game here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/520839.page
For those that don't want to watch that it was against Jim's Daemons and I lost pretty handily. Jim is not only a great general but he usually cooks up a nasty list and this was no exception.
Then I played Frankie's Thunder Wolf Lord list (4 Lords smashing forward with a bunch of wolves for wounds) and won mostly because I went first and got to shoot him to bits for two rounds.
At the end of the day I can't say I was too surprised by anything. The Stealth Suits are better than they were, but seeing as those points are almost exactly the Farseer/Jetbike squad which is FAR more useful than more STR 5 shots that is an easy swap (while we can).
The Pirahnas were pretty much disapointing as well which wasn't really surprising either. They are cheaper but they are still easy to kill and unless you want to commit to 4-5 skimmers you probably just are giving up points and not getting anything back in return.
The commander joining the marker drone squad is pretty much full of win. The hammerhead and the skyray were both helpful but obviously are 'just tanks' and suffer from the ability to just die to a single shot as always.
The ethereal is super. Talk about zero to hero. Every Tau list that has guys walking around should add this guy for 50 points. I also made him warlord to eliminate 3 of the warlord traits, so both games I got the skyfire for one turn. So he sat with the Broadsides.
I've realized Shield Drones are pretty much remarkably stupid. They used to get the armor of the guy they were attached to plus the 4++, but they don't now. So seeing as you are hoping the unit is getting cover anyway you are far better either saving the points or adding more marker drones in the list (especially if you can have a drone controller).
The overwatch rule is pretty nasty too if you can brick up like I was doing. It makes assaulty units cringe, but again you really need as many turns as possible to thin the ranks before they can reach your line. Once they do you are pretty much going to be losing units every turn.
The Point Defense Targeting Relay on the tanks is neat as it give them the Supporting Fire rule and they can use the SMS. Which by the way SMS is greatly improved now as twin linked and ignores cover.
Overall I think trying to stay cheap on units like Broadsides and Crisis are still the way to go. You can spend a lot of points on these guys that manage to not be useful some games, where as more bodies and shots are almost always good.
So this is what I'd change now for 1750.
Ethereal
Commander, Airburst, Irridium, Stim, Target Lock, Drone Controller, 2 Marker Drones
3 Crisis Suits, Twin Missile Pods
3 Crisis Suits, Twin Plasma, Fusion
9 Firewarriors
9 Firewarriors
9 Firewarriors
10 Kroot Snipers
10 Kroot Snipers
5 Pathfinders
5 Pathfinders
4 Marker Drones
2 Broadsides
Railhead, Sub shots, SMS, Disruption Pod, BSF, PDTR
Skyray, SMS, Disruption Pod, BSF, PDTR
Aegis w/ Icarus
Farseer, Doom, Jetbike
3 Gaurdian Jetbikes
I think I've got 5-8 points left to throw around but I think this list is much better. Yes the kill points are high but I think mutiple units are going to be better for all the normal reasons (more units to shoot at/with) but also because of supporting fire. Plus really you kinda want your units to get wiped in combat if they are charged so that you can obliterate the enemy the following turn.
By the same token you don't want to small units because you want to get some return on those marker lights. Having a squad or two of 9-10 Firewariors at BS 5 is awfully nice.
There are still some things I'd like to try a bit more to see the value. The Airburst on the Commander is neat but I'm not sure how useful it will be. I really want him on the Icarus more than anything else, but if mobs of guys are walking toward me I want to thin that ranks out as much as possible. I've added twin Plasma/Fusion suits as I think these could be a really great setup now (even though you can only fire one gun on overwatch). I am curious if two small Pathfinder squads are better than one larger, as there are some advantages both ways I think.
Of course my more pressing need is for 1500 points for Kublacon. I'd probably dump the commander and marker drones and wiggle around some of those points.
To go up I think I'd like to add a Riptide with the Ion Accelerator and Interceptor. I'm not sure just how good he is but he adds flexibility to the list with his gun and probably takes some heat off of the tanks since he's a big target.
The good news is to get any of these levels ready there isn't a lot to paint. An ethereal, the skyray top, convert some marker drones out of gun drones, one more crisis I think. We're talking a few weeks with my slow pace and busy schedule. The bigger problem is of course that the army overall is painted to a pretty low standard for where I am now. So I'd really like to spend time cleaning it up and kicking it up a notch.
Of course I still haven't updated my Chaos yet, and am slogging away through the Helldrakes. One is 'near' completion, but the second probably has two more weeks of work. Ugh.
So I'll wrap up the one Helldrake I'm working on and hopefully I'll get a few games in before April is over. That would give me a few weeks to prep something for Kublacon though it is looking like that would be a beautiful 1ksons army that is horrible (not just bad), a Tau army that could be pretty good but looks not so great, or of course one of my other armies that fall in the 'ok' level for competitiveness and painting.
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