Starting A Tau Army: A 500 Pts. Battleforce Starter List

The question came up in the comments to my Tau Codex review, and it is clearly a key question for anyone setting out into Warhammer 40K hobby: How do I get started building my army?

I am going to try giving a more thorough answer – for the 6th Edition Tau – here.

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#1 – Battleforce: Yay or Nay?

The first question that comes up building a new Warhammer 40K army is usually whether or not the Battleforce – GW’s official “starter box” they offer for most 40K armies – is a good starting point.

There are, of course, many instances where this might not be the case.

• For a “40K-pro” building a very specific list, the Battleforce may not be of interest.
• If you inherited a bag of models from a friend, neighbour, etc.., you might not need it.
• If you enjoy hunting for decent miniatures on eBay, you could find even better deals.

In most cases however, for somebody taking up Warhammer 40K as a hobby, I think a Battleforce is usually a good idea.

It is one of the few real discounts Games Workshop offers. Battleforces also usually give you a solid core of basic units. Moreover, it might not include the most exciting, most competitive stuff, yet it is precisely the reason why starting with (painting!) a Battleforce is usually a good idea.

It’s far too easy to get excited over – say, in the case of Tau – a Riptide, only to run out of steam later painting squads of basic infantry. Always save the good stuff for the end of a hobby project!

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#2 – The Tau Empire Battleforce

So let’s start with the Tau Empire Battleforce. It currently costs you £75.00 from Games Workshop (or ~ £65.00 from third-party sellers like Wayland Games). For that you get:

More Drones than most people ever need. Moreover, Stealth Suits and Piranhas aren’t the hottest competitive Tau units out there. They certainly aren’t bad either.

Even without any wargear and upgrades whatsoever, and without drones, the Tau Battleforce already brings 367 pts. to the table (by using one of the XV8 Battlesuits as a commander).  A 500 pts. list from here is as easy as choosing equipment.

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#3 – A 500 pts. Tau Empire Starter Army

A 500 pts. Tau Empire starter army build straight from the Battleforce (without even using up all the drones). One of the XV8 Battlesuits in the box is used as XV8 Commander.

Firewarriors: Two minimum-sized units of Firewarriors to get the basic troop-requirement.

Obviously rather thin on the ground for Warhammer 40K, which remains a heavily objective-based-game. Troops is likely the first thing that should be expanded.

Stealth Team: As cheap as they get. They infiltrate. They hunt light infantry. They are probably the first thing to sacrifice if needed.

Pirhana: The single Fusion Blaster is more a psychological threat than a real one, but it can swing things around in a 500 pts. game. Pirhanas are also good at giving other units some cover.

XV8 with TL-Missile Pod: A poor-man’s Missile-Broadside. XV88 Broadsides will almost certainly fill this role in an expanded Tau Empire army. A steady volley of Str. 7 hits is still immensely useful.

Commander & XV8 with Plasma/Fusion: A Commander and a regular XV8 in Helios-loadout Crisis Suits. These two make the elite-team that hunts your opponent’s best units. The Neuroweb System Jammer is nice, as this unit will be under fire.

The Onager Gauntlet is a Signature Systems I love taking with a Tau army for the hilarity of it.

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#4 – Thoughts?

In conclusion, I think the Tau Empire Battleforce is the way to go if you’re truly building your first Warhammer 40K Tau army from scratch. The list above is what I would use given just the models from the Battleforce, though there dozens of feasible variants.

• Would you agree with that?
• What would you recommend to somebody just starting with a 40K Tau army?
• And, how would you expand this army from here, to 1.000 pts. for example?

Let me know what you think and leave a comment below!

Z.