Looking to possibly get back into tau need some help

[Marshal van Trapp]

As the title suggests I'm looking at starting back up with tau after selling my very old collection lest year and was wondering a few things:

 

1. How viable is an army made up entirely of battlesuits and firewarriors/pathfinder? (ie no vehicles)

 

2. Are the start collecting and battleforce boxes good for starting an army from scratch?

 

3. Do the farsight enclaves currently have any kind of special rules or exclusions?

 

Thanks in advance brothers of the greater good

 

Ps. Bonus question, with the new detachment rules would it be possible to make a pseudo mon'keigh faction with an IG detachment to do all detachments need to share a keyword?

Edited January 9, 2018 by Marshal van Trapp

[Panzer]

1. Vehicles really aren't needed currently (might change with the Codex, mind you!). Longstrike is not bad and Devilfishes are needed if you want to use Breacher but aside from those you are perfectly fine without any.

2. Kiiiiinda hard to say I guess. The SC Box is awesome value for sure and the answer used to be a yes without question, however T'au are in not that great a spot with their Index currently. If anything one or two SC boxes are definitely not a bad investment even if Firewarrior and Crisis aren't the most optimal unit to use currently (Gun Drones and Commander are the better choices for a strong army for now).

3. No, Farsight Enclaves don't have anything currently (except for Farsight himself) but I'd bet money that one of the Sept rules in the coming Codex is for them.


Bonus question: no since T'au don't have the Imperium faction keyword and Astra Militarum doesn't have the T'au Empire faction keyword. All detachments in an army need to share at least one faction keyword.
 

 

Additionally: if you use Suits don't forget to use Drones. Gun Drones have REALLY good value despite their BS5+ and even Shield Drones are quite good. T'au Drones are arguably the best bodyguard unit in the game and by god do our Suits need protection against all those Lascannons.

 

 

I'm honest here, I lost the fun in playing T'au with the Index rules. It's not a good index at all. So while I'm waiting on the Codex (rumoured to come early-mid march) I shelved them and switched to Chaos and Blood Angels.

So maybe it's wise to wait for a little bit longer and decide what to buy once we actually know what's worth playing and what's not (unless you have some models you really want to build and paint. Then of course go and get those asap! ;) ).

[Marshal van Trapp]

Thank you for you answers, I wasn't 100% on how detachments worked across an entire army.

 

I'm honest here, I lost the fun in playing T'au with the Index rules. It's not a good index at all. So while I'm waiting on the Codex (rumoured to come early-mid march) I shelved them and switched to Chaos and Blood Angels.

So maybe it's wise to wait for a little bit longer and decide what to buy once we actually know what's worth playing and what's not (unless you have some models you really want to build and paint. Then of course go and get those asap! ;) ).

I appreciate your honesty, I recently started back into the hobby with 8th after selling off all but my eldar and Templars, I recently picked up deathguard and was looking to trade in my eldar for tau (not really digging eldar this edition since we still have no updated models!)

 

Edit: in regards to your really wanna build/paint inquiry, I really like the new commander and ghostkeel suits so I might buy those boxes just to build those 2 haha

Edited January 9, 2018 by Marshal van Trapp

[Captain_Krash]

Tau are in a really rough spot rules/playability wise. But that shouldn't stop you from at least buying some cool looking models and getting some paint on them. It's just a matter of months (Hopefully) and Tau will be up to speed as they should be. I foresee them being quite powerful once again, just buy looking at all the codex that are already out.

 

Krash

[Marshal van Trapp]

Tau are in a really rough spot rules/playability wise. But that shouldn't stop you from at least buying some cool looking models and getting some paint on them. It's just a matter of months (Hopefully) and Tau will be up to speed as they should be. I foresee them being quite powerful once again, just buy looking at all the codex that are already out.

 

Krash

I don't think I've ever played a meta relevant army since 4th edition. I've always just picked cool models and rolled with it

 

Don't see why I should start caring now

[The_Chaplain]

if you want to run a battle suit heavy army, then the start collecting box is an absurd value. For about ten dollars more than a box of crisis suits you also get a unit of fire warriors and an ethereal (if you like those).   

 

There are rumors of a codex release mid-march, hopefully they have farsight enclaves rules in them, otherwise you'd have to wait for a supplement/alternate codex at some point.

[USNCenturion]

The Xmas battleforce box has both a commander and ghostkeel so it would be perfect for you to start with. It also has 6 stealth suits, which are a “competitive” choice, crisis suits and a bunch of drones. I got one myself to start my army with a pathfinder/Devilfish box and a start collecting box. It was all very good value and nets you a great amount of extra weapons, drones, and bits for building on.

[Marshal van Trapp]

if you want to run a battle suit heavy army, then the start collecting box is an absurd value. For about ten dollars more than a box of crisis suits you also get a unit of fire warriors and an ethereal (if you like those).

 

There are rumors of a codex release mid-march, hopefully they have farsight enclaves rules in them, otherwise you'd have to wait for a supplement/alternate codex at some point.

So would you say 2 start collecting and a battleforce box would be a decent start to a tau collection? Especially if I'm going battlesuit heavy?

[Panzer]

Small tip (or actually a really big one): magnetize your crisis suits. They have so many different loadout options and you WILL want to switch them from time to time plus you never know which loadout will be good and which will be bad whenever the next Codex/Chapter Approved/whatever gets released.

[Marshal van Trapp]

Small tip (or actually a really big one): magnetize your crisis suits. They have so many different loadout options and you WILL want to switch them from time to time plus you never know which loadout will be good and which will be bad whenever the next Codex/Chapter Approved/whatever gets released.

I 100% was planning on it, one big reason I sold my old tau was because in the tail end of 6th I had a bunch of suits with all their stuff glued on and couldn't switch them unless I bought new kits, I'm not going to make that mistake this time.

Especially with how modular the kits are, I'd be a fool to glue all the systems on!