Spoiler: List Building Process
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First up, let's talk about the fact that Tau are one of the few remaining armies in the range to have a Battleforce. 12 Fire Warriors, 3 Crisis Suits, 3 Stealth Suits and a Piranha, and eight stand-alone Gun Drones. Between the Stealth Suits and the Piranha, one is at like a 50% discount, and the other is free, so, it actually is worth discussing because free stuff shoots efficiency through the roof. It just depends on whether or not it's actually good, because Rule #2. Each Crisis Suit comes with one of each weapon, and two Burst Cannons. Effectively giving us three of each special weapon per box, and six Burst Cannons. Knowing that as long as you don't take Shas'vre upgrades, there's no difference at all between Suits' points costs; One, two or three, doesn't matter. But, I do want to say that Suits are customisable, and buying a box of three, can potentially give us a unit of two, and a unit of one. Depending on what we need.
But, as with most lists, we need to start with our Warlord. Depending on what your Warlord can do (with or without a fixed Trait), often determines what kind of army you're going to want to build, and, since we're not bad, we'll also want to put our Warlord in a 'retinue unit', to make a star unit to build our list around. As we've learned, the most efficient models are Infantry models that cost a lot of points (this is when WHFB players laugh at 40K players, because WHFB allows for several Infantry models in an army each costing several hundred points each).
(0.33) Commander Farsight
(0.31) Commander Shadowsun
The two most expensive characters in the book. Compared to Calgar's 0.11, that's really bad. Especially as that's Shadowsun with all her Drones - which is a waste of points (Rule 2). Let's see who else we can get...
(0.31) Commander; C&C Node, MS3, Iridium - 145 Points
Already, the non-Unique Commander - insofar as Signature Systems go - is more efficient than either of the Tau Uniques. Keeping in mind that this particular Commander doesn't ever really use his BS5, seeing as how he uses his Shooting Phase to...Well, do nothing, really. Still, after the above, we only start adding more wargear, while his price cost remains the same, so that's really efficient. Good job, Commander! Anything we add to him later is just going to make him better.
Next, we need Troops. Kroot are 6-point models with a bad save. Horde-style units are never going to be efficient. The best you can do is add Sniper Rounds, but that only adds one point. Compared to a Fire Warrior's 9. But if we quickly look...
Fire Warriors (x12) - 108 Points
Kroot (x16) - 96 Points
You can add Sniper Rounds if you want, for 112 Points. But, then, also recall that each Fire Warrior box comes with a pair of Gun Drones. But the efficiency difference is so minimal that it doesn't really make a difference, price- or points-wise. But, Fire Warriors are excellent units, and you really shouldn't need more than one unit of Infiltrating Kroot, just to block stuff that comes your way. Tau really don't want to be in Assault, so any Infiltrate/Scout-blocking that you can do, you should do.
(0.51) Fire Warriors (x12) - 108 Points
(0.57) Kroot (x16) - 96 Points
Yuck. Tactical Marines, these ain't. Anyway, 1750+, so...
(0.51) Fire Warriors (x12) - 108 Points
(0.51) Fire Warriors (x12) - 108 Points
Those efficiency ratings are fair garbage. Hopefully other slots make up for that. That's all our Troops taken care of, with pretty much anti-Infantry taken care of. Though we don't have any AP2 weapons to kill heavy Infantry, and we don't have anything that even remotely scratches a moderately tough Vehicle. Remembering that Space Marines in the same cost-efficiency boat as you, are fielding a Land Raider or Centurions.
Crisis Shas'ui; Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifle - 52 Points
That looks pretty bad. Multiplied by 3 gives 156 Points, at 0.51. That's as bad as your Troops units! That said, it's no worse than your Fire Warriors, either. So, in the long run, you don't actually save any money by playing Farsight Enclaves and not taking Fire Warriors - but most FE armies want to use Fire Warriors anyway - so, whatever you want. But, that's really bad. Target Locks don't do what you think they do. You can 'waste' the five Points on a Target Lock if you really, really wanted to. Or you can stack wargear, and break Rule #2. But you're better of with two units of two and one, respectively, if you're playing FE. If you're not playing Farsight...
(0.49) XV104 Riptide; Ion Accelerator - 185 Points
Always upgrade to the Plasma Rifle or Fusion Blaster. They're free, and both are what you need. Anyway, whatever wargear you can put on Crisis Suits, you can also put on Riptides - probably for better effect, too. Crisis Suits, are to Tau as Vanguard are to Space Marines. You can hyper-inflate their points cost to ludicrous amounts if you really try, but it's not really worth it. But, really, as we found with Space Marine Land Raiders, Riptides are actually 'cheap' because they accelerate your points cost better.
(0.49) XV104 Riptide; Ion Accelerator - 185 Points
(0.49) XV104 Riptide; Ion Accelerator - 185 Points
If you take one, why not take two?
All Fast Attack units are terrible. Everything is either dirt cheap, or crap - the Fliers. So let's move straight to Heavy.
(0.82) Broadside Shas'ui - 90 Points
Twin-Linked High-Yield Missile Pod, Twin-Linked Plasma Rifles, Velocity Tracker
Doesn't look good, does it?
(0.73) Sky Ray - 115 Points
Not much better, is it? Maybe we should go for that third Riptide? Or maybe a dedicated unit of Skyfiring Crisis Suits?
Crisis Shas'ui; Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Velocity Tracker - 72 Points
x3 = (0.37) 216 Points
Recap.
(0.31) Commander; C&C Node, MS3, Iridium - 145 Points
(0.51) Fire Warriors (x12) - 108 Points
(0.51) Fire Warriors (x12) - 108 Points
(0.51) Fire Warriors (x12) - 108 Points
(0.57) Kroot (x16) - 96 Points
(0.37) XV8 Crisis Team (x3); Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Velocity Tracker - 216 Points
(0.49) XV104 Riptide; Twin-Linked Fusion Blaster, Ion Accelerator - 185 Points
(0.49) XV104 Riptide; Twin-Linked Fusion Blaster, Ion Accelerator - 185 Points
1151 Points? Is that all. We're barely halfway done! But Heavy and Fast slots are killer on the wallet. So, we need more Elites choices. We can't do that Commander again, since Signature Systems are unique per army. But there's still the PENchip to take, and there's not really any Ignores Cover in the army yet, and that's a real problem, especially for Tau who wont do a whole lot of Assaulting.
(0.34) Commander; Plasma Rifle, AFP, PENchip - 145 Points
That's not better than Shadowsun or Farsight. Shadowsun is pretty cool, granted. But she doesn't have a real Invulnerable save, and her 'retinue unit' of Stealth Suits actually kind of suck. Farsight, has a good Warlord Trait, and he enables up to seven more Crisis Suits, and when you start stacking wargear onto Crisis Suits, the 'cheaper' they actually get. Kind of. By now you should know how the 'logic' of these exercises work.
(0.33) Commander Farsight - 165 Points
XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team (x6) - 372 Points
x2; Flamer, Fusion Blaster, Target Lock
x1; Flamer, Fusion Blaster, Target Lock, PENchip
x3; Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle
Total: 1688 Points. By now you also have three boxes of Crisis Suits, and three boxes of Fire Warriors, giving you a total of 24 Gun Drones that you don't know what to do with, and our original Commander still doesn't have any weapons. Would it be better to give him a Drone Controller, and sit in a unit of 12 Gun Drones at BS5 that Ignore Cover? You should maybe swap the C&C Node over to the Farsight Bomb, since Gun Drones already have Twin-Linked weapons. Yeah, let's do that. Sure, you could put the Commander in the Farsight Bomb as well, but that seems boring, and puts all your eggs in one basket. Does Farsight and six of his friends really need the extra help?
Using our massive stack of extra Crisis Suit weapons couldn't hurt either. Fix up some extreme problems with our list-building.
Re: Warhammer 40K Tabletop XXIII: I Do Not Like Green Tides and 'Hann
Originally Posted by Anuan
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