Losing a lot against the top lists? Come see one gamer’s tips for making fun and competitive army, done just right.
Hello Internet, I’m Felix and you might know me from one of the many battle reports I’ve done with the Long war, like that time I lost against Tyranids, or the time I lost to Tyranids again, or maybe even that time I lost to Astra Militarium. Regardless, since I lose so much I figured maybe I needed a crutch so [long pause, sideways glance] oh, hi Tau!
All joking aside, I have a thing for robots and the Tau are the home of the robots. [Dear Furioso’s I still love you.] So this article is about me trying to make a Tau list that won’t give my opponent a case of the feel badsies while maybe actually winning for once; probably not let’s not kid ourselves.
You may have read my last article in which I talked about how I was finishing up the last member of my super fluffy list, The Eight. I like the list as it’ super fluffy but it’s not terribly competitive and there’s not many options for expanding it up to 1850 for say in a local tournament coming up in January.
Sure, I could simply add in the drone net and call it quits but over Christmas I was gifted a Ghostkeel which I really wanted to include. [For those that don’t know that model along with the new plastic crisis suits are the reason I wanted to start collecting Tau. I’m mean, seriously, the Ghostkeel model Uh-maze-ing.] I also got Shadows so I figured why not try and include her as well; her model is also freakin awesome. Finally, it should be known that I’m just not a fan of tau infantry, speeders, or tanks. The fliers I like but in general I don’t like bringing flyers because not everyone is prepared to deal with them.
So, let’s go over my own personal list building restrictions:
- Include the models I just built to form Voltron The Eight.
- Include a Ghostkeel.
- Include Shadowsun.
- Only suits and drones.
- Should be a cool number of suits, 13 sounds lucky [Insert Foreshadowing music here]
Initially, I was going to go with a Retaliation Cadre, an Optimized Stealth formation, and a Fire Base Support team. Three formations, all battle suits, enough options to customize as I saw fit. The major problems are including Shadowsun, Farsight, and the minimum amount of Suits is 16. Team, Sweet 16? Meh. Could probably get up to 21 suits, Blackjack! But that’s a lot of suits and I’d be taking three broadsides and two riptides; albeit different units it just seems, well, not super friendly. [Is it irony that Super Friends isn’t super friendly? #RhetoricalQuestion] So, that list is a maybe but a probably not. Furthermore it’s just three formations and some people might frown upon that as well.
So, then I started thinking about taking the eight, and a CAD using farsight enclaves and shadowsun as the Commander, a couple crisis suits with drop in fusion blasters and a side of Ghostkeel. Plus, I can add in Shadowsun into Voltron for some a 4-up in the open and make my Deathstar Extra Crunchy. Certainly this list meets all the requirements but to make it fit the way I wanted there wouldn’t be any skyfire at all which would give me a case of the feel badsies. I don’t mind losing, as aforementioned I do it a lot. but I wanted to up the competitiveness just a tad. This list is still a maybe too but for the time being it’s back to the drawing board.
So for round 3, I got it in my head I could put together a Dawn Blade Contingent and the Shadowsun CAD described earlier using the Farsight enclaves. Putting it all together I can use the models I just built sprinkled throughout the army, I lose the ability to form Voltron but I do get to customize my own Army. So what’s does “The Lucky 13” look like?
Dawn Blade
Retaliation Cadre (Core)
Commander, Pseudo Shas’o Arra’kon but with all the buffmander toys and Drone controller
Crisis Suit, Double Plasma Rifles
Crisis Suit, Double Fusion, EWO
Crisis Suit, Double Fusion, EWO
Broadside, Pseudo Ob’lotai 9-0, EWO, VT
Riptide, Pseudo Ove’sa, EWO, VT
Contingent HQ (Command)
Farsight
Bodyguards
Crisis Suit, Pseudo Bravestorm, Iridium, Flamer, Plasma, Shield, Onager gauntlet.
Crisis Suit, Pseudo Sha’vastos, Plasma, Flamer, Shield Generator
Drone Net (Auxiliary)
Drones, Drones, Drones.
4 units, with a mix of gun and marker drones adding up to
10 Gun Drones
12 Marker lights
CAD, Farsight Enclaves
Shadowsun, and all of her drones
Crisis suit, pseudo Torchstar, Double Flamers, EWO
Crisis suit, pseudo Brightsword, Fusion blades, EWO
Ghostkeel, Flamer/Ion, Stims and VT
I get a healthy amount of fusion blasters with the Monk’ta rule for Anti-tank; some anti-air options, all the Interceptor because drop pods are a thing, and a buffmander for utility. Yes, I know he has way too many weapons for the standard buffmander load-out and I probably haven’t given him enough layers of defense (no stims, no iridium) but I’m being less than optimal here because the model should be WYSIWYG. Farsighted bodyguards are light because I wanted to keep the size down and Lucky 13 sounded good; I can buy a shirt and wear it to my games. Yes, tons of kill points. I could have done similar with just one Enclaves CAD and been done with it but I kinda wanted to channel my inner Freman and say “Mooooooont’KA” while rolling again because it looked cool in the movie. [Yes, internet, I know you hate the movie Dune and the books up to chapter house are all that’s cannon. I like everything Dune, especially the Sega Genesis RTS, just deal with it.]
I loaded up the suits as best I could to match the eight but of course the limitations of them not being a commander was a little rough. Further I put most of drones in the drone net because it’s just easier for me to play and less wound shenanigans. However, I might put them back in with their respective characters for the fluffiness factor since the missile drones had to go with their respective units.
Ultimately the question goes to you dear reader, is this list still too fluffy, competitive, or just right?
Which of three do you like?
