Warhammer 40K Tabletop XXIII: I Do Not Like Green Tides and 'Hann

[Cheesegear]

What do competitive-to-semi-competitive Tau lists look like these days? I've dug my old models out of the box in my room and I'm curious as to how much I'd need to spend to bring them to modern standards.

The big issue for most armies, but especially Tau, is that pretty much all of the top-tier armies are different (which is a very good thing, and 5th Ed. actually sucked at the end) and that all Tau special weapons can only be found on Crisis Suits, ergo, competitive Tau, right now, exists as Farsight Enclaves. You pretty much need special weapons to be able to compete, which neither Fire Warriors or Kroot can have. Yes, FE also uses some Fire Warriors, and maybe a unit of Outflanking Kroot, but the main deal is being able to take Crisis Suits as Troops, which frees up your Elites slots for Riptides.

Which brings us to our next problem; Eldar. Eldar, now, are always going to be packing one - if not more! - Gargantuan Monstrous Creature that shoots with dual D weapons. If you put a Riptide on the board, the Riptide is dead inside of two turns. You might be able to survive a bit longer with judicious use of JSJ, but a Wraithknight can Jump, and get angles around LoS blockers fairly easily. The benefit, though, of a Wraithknight in your face, is that now all your Fusion Blasters are in range. Ultimately though, wisdom says to move to only two Riptides, because they're not going to last that long. Especially if the Eldar player also brings a messton of Rending Jetbikes. The important thing to note about Eldar, is that if they're running The 'Host (ditto for the Decurion), they wont have Objective Secured, so Outflank Kroot into their backline all day.

If you aren't willing to shell out for Farsight Enclaves, Tau are making the massive swing back to Kroot - remember that time when there was a worldwide shortage of Kroot? Kroot have Sniper Rounds. That's it. Tau, currently, is showing its age with no Str-D or Instant Death weapons of any sort. So how else are you going to deal with Gargantuans? En masse Sniper fire is pretty good.
EDIT: Disregard. If you need to deal with Gargantuans, move to Farsight.

EDIT 2: No. Disregard that. The idea is that yes, Sniper weapons only Wound Gargantuans on 6s, but when they do, they Rend, denying a Wraithknight its Armour Save. A Pulse Rifle, also only Wounds a Wraithknight on a '6', so there's really no difference between Sniper Rounds and Pulse Rifles, except that Pulse Rifles allows a save.

Alternatively, in the Knights metagame, Fire Warriors are lulzy because they all come with Haywire Grenades and I2, and Stomps don't happen 'til I1.
But, again, this is the problem; Gargantuans or Knights. The only unit that can deal with both effectively are Crisis Suits.

Due to the crippling lack of special weapons, it also seems that Piranhas are making their way into the meta, for 50 Point Fusion platforms, that mostly get ignored. Riptides are big and scary, and Crisis Suits have Objective Secured, so those units get targeted down first, while Piranhas get pretty much left alone and allowed to do their thing. For whatever that's worth. Last, but certainly not least, you've got Sky Rays. Three of them on the board gives you 18 Seeker Missiles, Turn 1. If you see a Wraithknight on the board, FIRE EVERYTHING! and it goes down. Sky Rays are also extremely useful for dealing with Hive Tyrants and Daemon Princes at no extra cost, which you need to be able to do. Since all your Heavy slots are full of Skyrays, and you still want Broadsides, a lot of people are also running Tau Firebase Support Cadres, which are just more 'Suits, with Preferred Enemy (Marines) tacked on, which is helpful.

Basically, effective Tau are meta-dependent. They win a staggering amount of games (Torrent of Fire lists them as 55%, which actually means they're still good). But for all their win-percentage, I haven't seen them place in a tournament for while, simply because Tau do not have the capabilities to deal with everything that the competitive meta throws at it. But, on the local level, where you can tailor your Tau to one or two specific opponents, they're really good.

EDIT: Regardless of what you want to do, Sky Rays are very strong. Once they blow their Missile load, they become Markerlight platforms, which you need, because nobody is taking Pathfinders.