A Tau list-building question arrived in my inbox today. To be honest, I haven’t played Tau in 7th Edition (though I did get wiped by a Tau army in 7th Edition.. I guess that counts?).
Hello,
I was reading your article: https://pinsofwar.com/starting-a-tau-40k-army/ and love the idea you’re giving suggestions.However I blindly bought a random Tau set, the Pathfinder team, and was wondering how you would build a 500 pt starter army incorporating them…
#1 – The List-Building Caveats
Oh… the age of 7th Edition! Long story short, you could of course build anything and everything you like, just by going unbound. Pick a mini you like and add it to the collection!
On the other hand, you could go down the “traditional” route, which would mean building and painting some squads of Firewarriors (or Kroot) to get the obligatory 2 Troop-slots.
Or… the third way, which I am going to use for this post: Use the Farsight enclaves supplement to turn XV8 Crisis Suits into troop choices. I believe it is a very attractive way to get started with Tau on a budget.
Moreover… the following list has been made mainly by looking to get the most from the box-contents by GW, not by trying to build a tournament-master-piece. For example, a lot of people like to run their Pathfinders bare-bones, without any upgrades, but I put in one of their fancy drones anyhow… because they are pretty… and come in the box.
#2 – A 500 Points List with Pathfinders
| HQ | 135 pts. | |
| XV8 Commander with Plasma Rifle & Cyclic Ion Blaster | ||
| 1x Advanced Targeting System | ||
| 1x Shield Drone | ||
| 1x Onager Gauntlet | ||
| Troops | 140 pts. | |
| Crisis Team 1 (1x XV8 with TL Missile Pods) | ||
| Crisis Team 2 (1x XV8 with TL Plasma Rifle) | ||
| 1x Gun Drone | ||
| Fast Attack | 135 pts. | |
| Pathfinder Team 1 (4) | ||
| Pathfinder Team 2 (6) | ||
| 1x Shas’ui | ||
| 1x Pulse Accelerator Drone | ||
| Heavy Support | 89 pts. | |
| 1x Broadside with HYMP, SMS | ||
| 1x Missile Drone | ||
| 1x Shield Drone | ||
| Total Points | 499 | |
#3 – Thoughts?
The beauty of this list is that it is only 4 more miniatures over and above the pathfinders, including the awesome new XV88 Broadside kit.
The problem with this list is that is is only 4 more miniatures. Not a lot of bodies around.
Still, I think this should be a fun Tau starter-list for getting into the game.
The larger 6-man Pathfinder team may even move up and get into some firefights as well. Most of the time however, the Pathfinders will be doing what Pathfinders do best… support the other elements of the Tau army with markerlights!
Let me know what you think?
How would you build a 500 pts. Tau Empire army in 7th Edition, starting from a box of Pathfinders?
Z.
Zweischneid
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