The thread title says it all really, I'm keen to get my Tau up and running and I've come up with the following list..... it's got no airpower at all barring a lone orca, but as I'm a beginner I don't think that will initially be much of a problem.... I'm keen to expand the force in future and get some planes and a manta.... feel free to tear the list to bits if you like!

FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [550]
6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, 3 XV88 Broadsides, Skyray, Ethereal

CRISIS BATTLESUIT CADRE [600] (BTS)
8 XV8 Crisis Battlesuit, Shas'o, 2 Gun Drones

BROADSIDE GROUP [300]
6 XV88 Broadsides

FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [475]
6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray, 3 XV88 Broadsides

STEALTH GROUP [250]
6 XV15 Stealth Units

PATHFINDER GROUP [200]
4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish

RECON SKIMMER GROUP [175]
3 Tetra, 3 Piranha

ARMOUR SUPPORT GROUP [300]
6 Hammerheads

ORCA DROPSHIP [150]

total 3000 points

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Its a good idea with Tau to try for a reasonably high activation count - so at 3000 Pts you are probably looking at an absolute minimum of 10 activations and really 11 or 12 is much better.

Also the following formations

FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [550]
6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, 3 XV88 Broadsides, Skyray, Ethereal

FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [475]
6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray, 3 XV88 Broadsides

Seem a bit strange, I can only assume the purpose is to sit back and guard your own blitz/objectives while retaining the possibility through the Devilfish of suddenly zipping forward in the late game to grab objectives.

Personally I think its better to specialize formations and so would probably drop the Broadsides from these, maybe add some Hammerheads or Piranha instead. Also with the Ethereal in one of these making the formation fearless I would try to make that the BTS. So that the Crisis formation doesn't become too much of an eggs in one basket - especially as you will need the Crisis to go into more dangerous situations as they do the heavy lifting in terms of hitting the enemy hard.

With this in mind (and using the models you list as I do not know what you have available) perhaps something like the following would be better.

FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [500] BTS
6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, 2 Hammerheads, Skyray, Ethereal

FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [325]
6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray

CRISIS BATTLESUIT CADRE [350]
4 XV8 Crisis Battlesuits, Shas'o

CRISIS BATTLESUIT CADRE [250]
4 XV8 Crisis Battlesuits

BROADSIDE GROUP [300]
6 XV88 Broadsides

BROADSIDE GROUP [300]
6 XV88 Broadsides

STEALTH GROUP [250]
6 XV15 Stealth Units

PATHFINDER GROUP [200]
4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish

RECON SKIMMER GROUP [175]
3 Tetra, 3 Piranha

ARMOUR SUPPORT GROUP [200]
4 Hammerheads

ORCA DROPSHIP [150]

This gives you the option of using either a Crisis formation or Broadside formation in the Orca and pushes the armies activations up to 11. For the future you would probably want to find the points to include some Barracudas and maybe another Skyray for good air cover. But if you keep air power reasonably light for your first games then the two Skyrays is fine for now.

thanks very much, I had envisioned using the fire warrior cadres exactly like that, but perhaps focusing them on specific tasks is the better option

I've not got any models for the army yet, I'm still working out what I need to get my hands on, proxy wise, then I'll probably pick up a job lot of skyrays and convert some into devilfish and hammerheads

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