Firstly hey guys, i guess im the new kid on the block. Ill tell you a little about myself then move onto my main point.

Firstly im pretty new to Epic. Im a veteran of 40k and have a big Space Marine army, as well as a Tau and a Tyranid force. Im also a Veteran Battlefleet Gothic Player, and have a large Forgewrold Tau fleet that is my pride and joy, as well as a Chaos fleet as well.

Ive played a few Epic games with my mate who has been playing Epic for years, but they have mostly been explanatory games with him teaching me the rules, nothing competitive like but still really fun, and i really enjoyed them. We played mostly SM Vs Guard, but then i saw the Tau Epic FW and thought "YES!" that was what i wanted. Unfortunatly, the price tag and my job at the time meant i couldnt buy an army of any worth so i decided to hang fire and wait.

Now times have changed and a few days ago i bought a chunk of Epic tau that i was HOPING you guys would help me turn it into an army ready to fight for the greater good!! I kind of always had the idea that i wanted an Airbourne type of army, dont even know why, i just did!! I bought:

1x Manta
2x Orca
6x Railhead
6x Devilfish
40 stands of FW
18 stands of Stealth suits
24x Crisis suits (2 suits per stand i presume?)

Sooooooo at the moment i was thinking of running:

Manta   w. 4x Railheads
       w. 2x 6stand FWs
Orca 1  w. 12 stand FW
Orca 2  w. 6 stand Crisis
9x Stealthsuits
9x Stealthsuits
6 stand Crisis

Now ive no idea if this is competitive and tbh thats not THE most important thing atm because im still learning. After studying some of the forums it would appear that Broadsides are reguarded as pretty good, and ive read a bit about Pathfinders added to FW squads as well.

So thats the army question, now ive got anther one... Rules. Now i own the Taros book and thought i had "The" rules, but it would appear that there are loads off different ones, and tbh im utterly confused lol. If i want to play a gave of Epic tonight with my Tau (and i really really do lol) what rules do i use?!?

Cheers guys and i hope to learn as much as possible from you and these forums

Can't help you with list composition, but latest Tau list is version 5.1 and you can find it pinned near the top of this subforum.

Welcome to Tactical Command and Epic: Armageddon.

When Forge World put out IA3, they grabbed the "then current", but still unfinished, EPIC Tau ruleset, tweaked it without playtesting it, and published it.  It's got it's own strengths and weakness and isn't a "bad" list, just quite unpolished and has some oddities.

Ongoing development and testing of the Tau rulesets has produced Tau v5.1, which is the most "up-to-date" ruleset, but, while "locked in" for a couple of months, still has the potential for change.

I'd recommend building your army around the Tau v5.1 set of rules.

EDIT - And welcome to the boards!

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Hey Phrazer,

Welcome aboard!

An interesting mix of units you have there, but I think you can have a bit of fun with them.

Some things to consider:

1. The Manta is a beast and has terrific firepower. It's also visible to everyone all the time, so choose when to bring it on carefully. If you take a space asset, you can drop the Manta just about anywhere you want and then unload crisis suits et al in an air assault type of action.

You won't be able to do this in one action, but it is feasible.

2. The Crisis suits have some pretty decent shooting and reasonable mobility. Look up the crossfire rule and try consider how you can work your Stealth suits into a situaion where they can help you support that kind of attack.

3. If it were me, I'd keep the Hammerheads 6 strong (8 would be better) and use their range to take on tanks. Remember that they are skimmers and that they will be more mobile than their tracked opponents.

4. If it were me, I'd keep as many of my FW's mounted in a vehicle as possible. Their effectiveness will be enhanced if you can protect them until you can choose your shots.

5. Your Orcas can also double for the missile gunship named, Scorpionfish. It will need markerlight units to use its weaponry and those units are fairly fragile. So plan on having more than one formation (e.g. multiple Stealths), otherwise you will find your guided missiles orphaned.

6. Don't play the Tau like other armies. They don't defend very well and need to shoot effectively, whilst preserving their shooting assets. Not a simple thing to do.

Also a bit of history, to piggyback on some of Chroma's comments. The Tau list is in the process of working to a final release version. It is currently in testing. The list is also light, meaning that it is not as effective as it should be for the points expended. The current testing phase will identify the key areas of improvement. This will lead to tweaking and another testing phase, hopefully shorter as we get closer to the desired result.

Anyway, have fun. Mess around with the list, try crazy things.

Cheers,

_________________
Honda

"Remember Taros? We do"

- 23rd Elysian Drop Regiment

just to add to what honda said, post your results, either in battle reports or just your thoughts on how units/army worked in your games.

Cheers guys i shall certainly write up a battle rep or tow when we have a game, unfortunatly Forgeworld isnt the fastest in delivering orders so ill be stuck in limbo until then!!