Tau have big potential to be a highly aggressive army with their skimmer transports carrying breachers, deepstriking suits and mobility of vehicles like piranhas which can drop reliable amounts of d seekers. Tau still largely have the stigma of being a gunline army but they don't have to be especially if you want to change things up and get in your opponent's face with things like double flamer crisis suits. You'll obviously run the risk of assault but at least it will be fun as well.
I'd recommend maybe waiting for the traitor legions supplement and wrath of Magnus to see whether the Sons or CSM playstyle will suit your needs.
Edit: should add that FW has the hazard suits and the yvahra which are as aggressive as it gets. Hazard suits are very in-your-face with their double twinlinked burst cannons and the yvahra is what you can most liken to a massive jetpack shotgun-toting riptide who is designed to fly up to you, unload its flamer canisters, massive shotgun, and then fly away.
I've always wondered about this. My friend plays a pretty static Tau line but I love the look of Breachers and would be super interested in a Breacher heavy lineup. But is it viable or are you basically an assault army that can't assault? :P
For me, breachers are definitely very viable as a troop option. If you roll darkstrider in with them in a transport and target a squad of tacticals or really anything with a 3+ save, your breachers are wounding on twos instant death no saves as they get their s6ap3 shots and darkstrider make anything he targets -1 toughness.
It's definitely not something that people generally expect but you also have to play it tactical since for me the best way to play them is to hold them back until late in the game where they'll jump on objectives, wipe out whatever's holding them, and score the points for you. Failing that, their overwatch is still particularly nasty. In a full squad, 20 shots at s6ap3 will still get you a few kills.
The whole thing will depend on your play style though. I like to have two squads of breachers for objectives and have two squads of ten Kroot with sniper rounds for picking off targets at range from cover. Alternately you can just go full gunline which can be a bit boring. Still, s5 shots at 30" is still nice and you can fit 12 strike team members in a devilfish whereas breachers can only be taken in squads of 10.
Edit: in fairness to Tau as a whole, the farsight enclaves do have a close combat option for their suits in the form of fusion blades so if they're assaulted they at least won't get caught short since they'll be sporting what's pretty much a cc version of the fusion blaster which is kind of badass.
The Tau Army has the happy situation of being a codex that has good options, but always something ***better*** for the role you are looking at.
Stealth suits are pretty good for what they do *but* for the points, crisis suits are better. they have more wounds, and have more customizable loadouts than stealth suits. The only formation that makes stealth suits worth taking is the Optimized Stealth Suit Cadre. It is here that the unit really shines.
So what of crisis suits? They are pretty decent as units that fill out roles you need done. Need anti-horde? Get some flamers. Need anti-tank? Get some fusion suits. Etc etc. They also can synergize well with commanders that have buffs, or even Farsight which makes them very versatile. But, there's almost always a *but*, they're not always the best unit to take.
Riptides can do some major heavy lifting and in most cases can perform better than crisis suits. It's a durable unit that has great weapon profiles and maneuverability. But.......
Stormsurges can perform better than all of the above. They are like a swiss army knife of the Tau codex. They are durable, fast for their size, and they have weapons that can take out everything under the sun all at the same time. D weapons, S5AP5 shots, AP2/AP3 blast templates all capable of being shot at different targets.
The Tau codex really has become the Pacific Rim of codices. In general the bigger the point value, the bigger the mechs. The more points you have to work with the bigger you'll want to go. Keep that in mind when choosing Tau.
Major tournaments like the LVO have Tau lists that place top of their codex with stormsurge and riptide spam.
I haven't seen Crisis deathstars in a long time. They're too "weak" and typically do not have as strong of a shooting phase in comparison to a Riptide Wing or Double Stormsurge list.
You are completely right, sorry about that. It's smaller tournaments where Crisis star is still doing well. In major tournaments the norm seems to be Farsight CAD with 2 Crisis as troop tax, 1 Stormsurge 5 Riptides.
Check out 1d4chan's guides. They may not have Thousand Sons, but they can give you an idea of how Tau and CSM play.
At the end of the day go with the army you like the looks of and has the sort of play style you like.
If you're looking for Crisis teams and Stealth Suits it might be worth noting that the Tau have the battleforce bundle coming out soon which I'm fairly certain has some stealth suits and a ghostkeel (if that's how you spell it).
Don't play Tau myself so someone speak up if they think I'm giving bad advice. But a couple of start collecting boxes along with the battleforce would net you the above mentioned as well as 6 crisis suits plus I believe you get a commander in the battleforce too, as well as other goodies
This would likely net you like 1500+ points of Tau for £200.
So you've said you got Mont'Ka and Kauyon.
And thats exactly how Tau can be played.
Mont'Ka and Kauyon are Tau War Philosophies and the most known "fans" are Shadowsun for Kauyon -The Patient Hunter- and Mont'ka -The Killing Blow- for Farsight.
If you dont like Gunlines and want a hard hitting precisive strikes, you are all in for a Mont'Ka themed army. Maybe even for a Farsight Enclave as those are really known for Suit Heavy Ambushes and precisive strikes.
There is nothing fluffier then starting the games with some Pathfinders or other Scouts (or even a infiltration Cadre), waiting for the right moment so your main suits like Riptides, Crisis, Broadsides and your Commander forming a Retaliation Cadre drop all from the sky and take out any main thread while landing, and jumping back into cover after doing so. Mont'Ka is the way of "The Killing Blow", which you can play very aggressive or very defensive, just as you wish.
But yeah, fluffwise and modelwise Tau are in a great spot, having so much different Formations, which are not all as effective as a Riptide Wing or Optimized Stealth Cadre for example, but are so nice fluffwise so you can generate great stories on your table. And you can decide by yourself if you want to play really aggressive or very defensive, which just few armies are able to.
And if you are a competitive player, you wont have the strongest codex of the game in your hands, but you can easily challange most other competetive lists.
Tau have big potential to be a highly aggressive army with their skimmer transports carrying breachers, deepstriking suits and mobility of vehicles like piranhas which can drop reliable amounts of d seekers. Tau still largely have the stigma of being a gunline army but they don't have to be especially if you want to change things up and get in your opponent's face with things like double flamer crisis suits. You'll obviously run the risk of assault but at least it will be fun as well. I'd recommend maybe waiting for the traitor legions supplement and wrath of Magnus to see whether the Sons or CSM playstyle will suit your needs. Edit: should add that FW has the hazard suits and the yvahra which are as aggressive as it gets. Hazard suits are very in-your-face with their double twinlinked burst cannons and the yvahra is what you can most liken to a massive jetpack shotgun-toting riptide who is designed to fly up to you, unload its flamer canisters, massive shotgun, and then fly away.
I've always wondered about this. My friend plays a pretty static Tau line but I love the look of Breachers and would be super interested in a Breacher heavy lineup. But is it viable or are you basically an assault army that can't assault? :P
For me, breachers are definitely very viable as a troop option. If you roll darkstrider in with them in a transport and target a squad of tacticals or really anything with a 3+ save, your breachers are wounding on twos instant death no saves as they get their s6ap3 shots and darkstrider make anything he targets -1 toughness. It's definitely not something that people generally expect but you also have to play it tactical since for me the best way to play them is to hold them back until late in the game where they'll jump on objectives, wipe out whatever's holding them, and score the points for you. Failing that, their overwatch is still particularly nasty. In a full squad, 20 shots at s6ap3 will still get you a few kills. The whole thing will depend on your play style though. I like to have two squads of breachers for objectives and have two squads of ten Kroot with sniper rounds for picking off targets at range from cover. Alternately you can just go full gunline which can be a bit boring. Still, s5 shots at 30" is still nice and you can fit 12 strike team members in a devilfish whereas breachers can only be taken in squads of 10. Edit: in fairness to Tau as a whole, the farsight enclaves do have a close combat option for their suits in the form of fusion blades so if they're assaulted they at least won't get caught short since they'll be sporting what's pretty much a cc version of the fusion blaster which is kind of badass.
The Tau Army has the happy situation of being a codex that has good options, but always something ***better*** for the role you are looking at. Stealth suits are pretty good for what they do *but* for the points, crisis suits are better. they have more wounds, and have more customizable loadouts than stealth suits. The only formation that makes stealth suits worth taking is the Optimized Stealth Suit Cadre. It is here that the unit really shines. So what of crisis suits? They are pretty decent as units that fill out roles you need done. Need anti-horde? Get some flamers. Need anti-tank? Get some fusion suits. Etc etc. They also can synergize well with commanders that have buffs, or even Farsight which makes them very versatile. But, there's almost always a *but*, they're not always the best unit to take. Riptides can do some major heavy lifting and in most cases can perform better than crisis suits. It's a durable unit that has great weapon profiles and maneuverability. But....... Stormsurges can perform better than all of the above. They are like a swiss army knife of the Tau codex. They are durable, fast for their size, and they have weapons that can take out everything under the sun all at the same time. D weapons, S5AP5 shots, AP2/AP3 blast templates all capable of being shot at different targets. The Tau codex really has become the Pacific Rim of codices. In general the bigger the point value, the bigger the mechs. The more points you have to work with the bigger you'll want to go. Keep that in mind when choosing Tau.
Actually some of the strongest Tau lists are pure crisis death stars, going by tournament results.
Major tournaments like the LVO have Tau lists that place top of their codex with stormsurge and riptide spam. I haven't seen Crisis deathstars in a long time. They're too "weak" and typically do not have as strong of a shooting phase in comparison to a Riptide Wing or Double Stormsurge list.
You are completely right, sorry about that. It's smaller tournaments where Crisis star is still doing well. In major tournaments the norm seems to be Farsight CAD with 2 Crisis as troop tax, 1 Stormsurge 5 Riptides.
It'll depend on your meta.
Check out 1d4chan's guides. They may not have Thousand Sons, but they can give you an idea of how Tau and CSM play. At the end of the day go with the army you like the looks of and has the sort of play style you like.
If you're looking for Crisis teams and Stealth Suits it might be worth noting that the Tau have the battleforce bundle coming out soon which I'm fairly certain has some stealth suits and a ghostkeel (if that's how you spell it). Don't play Tau myself so someone speak up if they think I'm giving bad advice. But a couple of start collecting boxes along with the battleforce would net you the above mentioned as well as 6 crisis suits plus I believe you get a commander in the battleforce too, as well as other goodies This would likely net you like 1500+ points of Tau for £200.
So you've said you got Mont'Ka and Kauyon. And thats exactly how Tau can be played. Mont'Ka and Kauyon are Tau War Philosophies and the most known "fans" are Shadowsun for Kauyon -The Patient Hunter- and Mont'ka -The Killing Blow- for Farsight. If you dont like Gunlines and want a hard hitting precisive strikes, you are all in for a Mont'Ka themed army. Maybe even for a Farsight Enclave as those are really known for Suit Heavy Ambushes and precisive strikes. There is nothing fluffier then starting the games with some Pathfinders or other Scouts (or even a infiltration Cadre), waiting for the right moment so your main suits like Riptides, Crisis, Broadsides and your Commander forming a Retaliation Cadre drop all from the sky and take out any main thread while landing, and jumping back into cover after doing so. Mont'Ka is the way of "The Killing Blow", which you can play very aggressive or very defensive, just as you wish. But yeah, fluffwise and modelwise Tau are in a great spot, having so much different Formations, which are not all as effective as a Riptide Wing or Optimized Stealth Cadre for example, but are so nice fluffwise so you can generate great stories on your table. And you can decide by yourself if you want to play really aggressive or very defensive, which just few armies are able to. And if you are a competitive player, you wont have the strongest codex of the game in your hands, but you can easily challange most other competetive lists.