Need some list-building advice

[simison]

So, yesterday is typically my 40k day at my FLGS. This week, the store has gotten a jump start on the Fate of Konor campaign, and I initially signed up for Imperium since my primary army is Blood Angels. 

 

But then I spoke to a couple of the store guys and quickly realized that there were too many Imperium players. There are simply not enough Chaos and Xenos players to guarantee a match-up for all of the Imperium players. 

 

So, instead of fielding my Blood Angels, I will be contributing to the war as a Tau-Eldar alliance. I'm not trying any power-gaming, but I only have a few Tau models. We're playing it as an escalation league, so I'm not going to be able to field the higher pointages since they're keeping substitution to a minimum. 

 

But I have a friend who has a large Eldar army. So, early on, I'm going to try to play straight Tau, but gradually shift to Eldar as the points rise. 

 

That all said, any advice for maximizing my Tau elements? I have a couple of fire warrior squads, one piranha, a few drones, three crisis suits, and a couple Ethereals. 

[Panzer]

Urgh I failed and closed the tab...

 

Okay here the short version: I'd go fluffy and play with a Start Collecting force (it even fits the models you have available it seems).

3 Crisis with double Flamer + ATS + 6 Gun Drones

10 Strike Team with Pulse Rifle + MP turret + 2 Gun Drones

1 Ethereal

Should be about 500p.

 

6 Flamer with ATS kill about 5 Marines on average so that unit is pretty much immune against getting charged by MSU Marines (which they all should be on this point level). Just keep advancing with them every turn (about 11.5" average movement range) and you should be quick at the enemy. With T5 Sv3+ and 3 wounds each + 6 Drones around them they should be a tough nut to crack.

Meanwhile the 6 Gun Drones shoot with 24 S5 shots at the nearest target and your Firewarrior shoot with 10/20 S5 shots with re-rolling 1s thanks to the Ethereal at whatever. Also not to forget the 2 S7 AP-1 D1d3 with re-rolling 1s from the MP turret.

 

If your opponent hides in a transport just search yourself a nice&cozy place and wait until he comes out (or try your luck to slowly strip wounds off of it with your sick amount of S4 and S5 shots).

 

As it's the nature of 500p games you won't be able to deal with everything you might face so be prepared to have a hard time against some lists (like BA Start Collecting with the Baal Predator).

 

For higher point matches (1k points) I'd even double up on the Start Collecting box and go with 20 Firewarrior, 2 Ethereals, 3 Crisis with Missile Pods + ATS and a Drone Controller and Marker Drones (or FB Crisis with Multi target array and a bunch of Gun Drones).

 

The Piranha could be an interesting addition with a Fusion Blaster but expect it to draw a lot of attention depending on the opponents list since a fast moving, rather fraguile "Melta" is always scary if you have half of your points in a Character or Vehicle.

[simison]

I'll definitely give the list a try next week, but I don't have the models to make it to a 1k list. At that point, I'll have to bring in the Eldar.

[simison]

Prepping for today's game. The list came to 500 points exactly only after I added a fusion blaster piranha. Unfortunately, I made a mistake, and only later learned that today's game is 750 points. So, the Eldar will have to take up the 250 points in support. Going to add a bit more anti-tank with some infantry to better round out the list.