My Tau Army for Blog Wars 6

Unbelievably Blog Wars 6 is tomorrow and as I write this I've still not finished painting Shadowsun and her drones for my army. She's up to three colours but only just and I hope I have enough time to improve her before the big day. I'm starting to sound like a stuck record but at some point I intend to come back to my Tau army and add some highlights and washes to actually get them "finished". I use the inverted commas because I'm not sure it's a real thing! Anyway, here's my list:

1,850pts of Tau
Ethereal
Commander Shadowsun (two shield drones, comm-link drone)
2 XV8 Bodyguard (fusion, plasma)

11 Fire Warriors in Devilfish (disruption pod)
11 Fire Warriors in Devilfish
11 Fire Warriors in Devilfish
10 Kroot
10 Kroot

Riptide with ion accelerator, fusion, VT, EWO
Riptide with ion accelerator, fusion, VT, EWO
Crisis team (2 suits with 2xMP, flamer & shas'vre with 2xMP, PENchip)

6 pathfinders
6 pathfinders
6 pathfinders

On the face of it there isn't a huge difference between this list and the one I took to BW5. The major difference is that Shadowsun is now my SC and not Longstrike and she replaces my usual commander. The bomber is gone too and replaced by another unit of pathfinders. All of the fire warriors are now mounted up in devilfish making my army a lot more mobile.

I've spoken about Shadowsun at length when I was trying to decide between her and my regular commander. Ultimately the BW rules swayed my opinion as she allows me to take an Ethereal along whilst still bringing an SC.

The Fire Warriors are still the core of the army but instead of standing on the back line in cover they can be much more aggressive. The Ethereal helps them put out a decent volume of fire too. They're more durable in their transports and the Ethereal's 'fish is given a disruption pod to allow him a better chance of survival. These should hopefully be able to combine for some classic fish of fury action.

The kroot have lost their hounds as I simply couldn't find the points for them but 2 out of 3 times I'll get them on the side I want anyway. They proved to be vital and surprisingly deadly in my games at the tournament last Sunday so they're a must for me. Combined with the Fire Warriors I've still got 5 troop choices and they should be more durable than last time around.

This time there's a pair of Riptides. They're undoubtedly the powerhouses of this list. There's no denying that twin-riptides isn't a totally friendly build but the rest of the list isn't one of the typical competitive builds you see around. They're incredibly flexible with their Skyfire and Interceptor combined with their ability to throw down pie-plates.

The missile crisis team is my version of the HYMP broadsides effectively. They don't put out anywhere near as much firepower but they're more mobile and thanks to JSJ they're more likely to survive I reckon. Obviously they're vulvnerable to krak missiles and the like but hopefully they can bring down a couple of vehicles or an MC before they bite the dust.

Finally there's now three units of Pathfinders to provide markerlight support. I've toyed with all of the options for getting those vital marker hits but I always come back to Pathfinders. They're easily the least durable and least mobile of the marker platforms but they're easily the cheapest when it comes to points per marker hit.

So there you have it. I've still got work to do on Shadowsun but otherwise I'm pleased with how the army looks on the table and the switch to (mostly) mech doesn't have make deployment quicker and should hopefully make for quicker games which are vital when I'm trying to run the event at the same time!

I've had a couple of test games against Andy Lane from Claws and Fists (who sadly can't make it to Blog Wars) but I'll let you read about how they went over there. See you all tomorrow!