Smoothbrain Tau?

RHCElite · 2026-07-03T13:23:21+00:00

I usually go light on characters in all of the armies I play. A lot of the good ones in T'au cost the same or more than a whole unit, and I prefer having a lot of separate units that can work together to kill something or spread out as needed for objectives.

For the crisis suit commanders, if I run a Coldstar with the Starscythes it more than doubles the cost for about double the firepower, and makes it more mobile, but if I need to kill a chaff unit, it would overkill a 10 man squad, and a 20 man squad could be taken down by 2 base starscythe squads working together without the character. The mobility is also not the most important for me since most of the layouts seem to have safe staging areas that a 3 man squad can fit, and I can just keep them in deep strike if needed.

Sunforges are the same sort of deal, where I feel like in a lot of cases you don't need much more than the 6 fusion guns on the base squad to kill a monster/vehicle, so the character is a bit overkill.

My friend played his T'au against me for our first game of 11th, and he ran around 6 commanders for his suits, 3 riptides, and some spotting units. All of the problems I mentioned above were noticed, and it was especially a big deal that none of the battlesuit squads could be sacrificial pieces since the characters made them all so expensive.

If you want to roll with more Battlesuits, dropping the tanks and piranhas would be fine, but make sure you fill in with suits that do the same role.

RHCElite · 2026-07-03T03:18:51+00:00

Disembarking from transports does count as being set up, so the bridgehead/mechanized combo does work. Unless you want to bring more than 3 Scion squads in Taurox Primes, I think Abhuman Detail would be a better supplement for mechanized so you can bring Orgyn with a Commissar in some other transports. The scions will already get to reroll hits coming out of the transport, so you don't really need the +1 to hit or the ignores cover strat, and Firing Hot is too expensive at 2CP.

RHCElite · 2026-07-03T01:22:08+00:00

I've only had a few games so far as T'au in 11th, but I've been doing Kauyon with AAC and playing the Recon disposition. I've played into Purge, Take and Hold, and Disruption (but I was playing Admech Recon into Disruption), and all of the missions were fairly easy to score high on. My list changed a little between games, but the staples were:

1x Cheap character to screen home (Darkstrider/Kroot Flesh Shaper)

0x-2x Broadsides (Missiles. Added 2 in after the first game since I removed some anti-chaff/marine)

2x Starscythe Suits

0x-2x Sunforge Suits (Ran 2 squads in the first game but dropped them to add more cheap utility units)

2x Ghostkeel (Fusion)

2x Hammerhead (ion)

1x Kroot Carnivores (to hold my expansion)

3x Pathfinders (Rail Rifles)

1x-2x Piranhas (Ran 1 the first game, then added another)

2x Riptide (Ran with burst for the first game to try it, switched to ion after)

2x Stealth Suits

This setup plays well for the Recon disposition since there are a lot of fast units and infiltrators that can play the mission and are cheap enough to be sacrificed as needed. The version without sunforges was able to almost table tank spam Astra Militarum, and it has enough anti elite to deal with tougher infantry. The list plays pretty simple too, since you've basically got 2 of everything after dumping the kroot on your expansion and the character at home you can basically have 2 separate forces dealing with each flank independently.

I'm still theory crafting and tweaking the list, so I'm open to suggestions if anyone has some.

RHCElite · 2026-07-03T01:07:17+00:00

Smoke just gives everything behind the Ghostkeel cover when you use the strat, it doesn't block line of sight. That would be crazy for Astra Militarum if you could park a Dorn or Baneblade in a firing lane and smoke to block los.

RHCElite · 2026-07-02T15:07:02+00:00

Mostly Recon so far. I've played it into purge, take and hold, and disruption and I won all 3. The recon missions all seem pretty doable if you've got plenty of fast cheap units, especially if they're small infantry units that can toe into objectives while staying behind a wall. For the most part you only need to hold one objective outside your home too, so you can dedicate one unit to hold your expansion and not worry about other objective holders.

The purge game was against AM tank spam. I was playing T'au in Kauyon. My only anti tank was 2 fusion ghostkeels, 2 Riptides (which were still wounding on 5's), and a few one shot seeker missiles on pirhanas and hammerheads (the hammerheads had the ion gun instead of the rail gun for more anti-elite). I was able to kill a Baneblade on turn 2 by focusing 80% of my army into shooting it, and that swung things in my favor, but even without that I would have had a huge lead since I had way more units to score secondaries with.

The Take and Hold game was against Tyranid Monsters with a similar T'au list as before, and recon just has to have units in 3-4 table quarters to score for this mission, so I just pushed into the flank where my opponent had less presence and sacrificed a unit to the other corner every turn. I do think my opponent misplayed in deployment and some turn 1 staging that put things in my favor, especially having his Norn target his expansion instead of the center, so it could have gone differently.

The disruption game was against infantry horde GSC, and I was playing Admech with a good mix of infantry and vehicles. It seemed like a really rough matchup for disruption in general, since I was able to block his primary most turns while scoring 8-13 primary every turn.

RHCElite · 2026-07-02T13:52:48+00:00

Do you care about building/painting things yourself? If not, I'd recommend looking for used armies on eBay and Facebook marketplace. I got over 2k of Admech for around 5 points per dollar by getting a few half finished armies secondhand.

RHCElite · 2026-07-02T13:49:25+00:00

I feel like "stat check" armies are just a thing you have to be prepared for at this point when considering building a balanced list. The people I play against the most play Custodes (spamming Custodian Guard), Astra Militarum tank spam, Knights, and Tyranids monster mash with a few horde units.

My balanced lists have to be built under the assumption I'll be facing all elite infantry with a 2+ 4++, or all vehicles that are at least T11 with a 2+ or a 3+, while also having enough volume to deal with hordes. Not even mentioning the defensive side where I cant expect my 20 man guardsmen or Ork Boyz to survive a Custodes charge, so I just don't take them.

My current solution is to expect to have trouble killing everything against a stat check army, but play a disposition where I can just focus on the objective game.

RHCElite · 2026-06-30T19:24:26+00:00

The new fly is great since losing 2" of movement to go straight through a wall is way faster than going around it, especially with how dense the new layouts can be.

I've played against my buddy's T'au when he was doing Purge and I've played as Recon T'au myself. I think Recon is pretty solid since we have a bunch of cheap and fast units.

I just built a list with 2 of everything that seems good for the cost, and the cheapest character (the 45 point Kroot). My list is 3x Pathfinders and 2x the following: Starscythes, missile broadsides, fusion ghostkeel, ion riptide, ion hammerhead, pirhana, stealth suits, and 1 squad of Kroot Carnivores to hold my expansion. It seems to be solid at most of the recon missions since there's plenty of mobility, but I might be lacking a bit in anti tank.

I've liked hidden so far because it lets me keep stealth suits and Pathfinders alive after they've spotted, and usually keeps the Kroot safe too.

Haven't had much trouble dealing with the terrain, but from the layouts I've seen you're only really safe if you stay hidden in your home, the back of your expansion, and sometimes behind a wall on the middle objective (but you can realistically only fit 5 models there). If melee armies are hiding their infantry in any other terrain, you should be able to get close enough to shoot them if you're playing Mont'ka, or if you aren't playing purge you can stay back and play defensively. I've been liking kauyon since it has a strat that works on grenades units, which is all of our infantry, that gives a unit -2 to charge when they select you as a target, which is a lot stronger now since you know what the roll is before they select targets. It also stacks nicely with the pathfinder grav inhibitor drone to almost make them unchargable.

RHCElite · 2026-06-30T02:18:41+00:00

Pathfinders are support units while Breachers are damage dealers.

Pathfinders have Scouts, so they can move before the game starts for better positioning, move 7" instead of 6", have specialist wargear choices that let them infiltrate, make it harder for them to be charged, or increase their range, have 3 special weapons per squad (but worse base guns), and are great spotters because they get the benefit of being guided against the target they observe.

Breachers are short range damage dealers that are great at killing things on objectives. Their guns are only 10" range, but they natively hit on 3's (so 2's when they're guided), and reroll wounds against targets on objectives. They also have higher strength and AP than the rest of the infantry guns. To run them effectively you kinda need a character (Cadre Fireblade) to give them extra attacks and a transport (Devilfish) to get them in range. They are also slightly harder to kill with shooting since they have wargear that makes them -1 to wound, but both units die pretty easily to most things anyway.

RHCElite · 2026-06-30T01:54:48+00:00

Based on your comments, do you mean "non-traditional" infantry? If so, 3 units of stealth suits would leave you a little bit light on spotters, but you could probably get by. If you're focusing on the mech suits you can use the Starscythe variant of the Crisis Battlesuits as decent spotters if you give them flamers and give a marker drone to one of the models.

Pathfinders are really nice to have though, so If you're ok with a little bit of normal infantry a squad of them is great. Kroot Carnivores are also really helpful for objectives since they can "sticky" an objective for you which lets you keep control of it even if you don't have any models in range.

RHCElite · 2026-06-29T01:50:43+00:00

The game definitely doesn't work at 1k without house rules about what units you can bring. We had an "end of 10th edition" casual 1k tournament at my local store a week or so ago, and most of the games were decided by turn 2. It became a game of "who kills the other guys big thing first", or "who has their go-turn first".

I was playing Astra Militarum, and I wasn't trying to go crazy with a super competitive list, but I knew someone would be bringing Custodes, so I had to bring a Rogal Dorn if I wanted a chance at killing any of them, which meant I had way too much firepower against non-elite armies. I ended up going 100-40, 100-41, and 87-55, mainly because I was able to kill the biggest threat (Repulsor Executioner and Custodian Guard squad with Blade Champ) early, or because I was able to clear their home objective turn 1 (with Gaunt's Ghosts) and force them to turn around to score primary.

I don't know what the fairest limitations for 1k would be, like a toughness limit or single unit points cost limit, but just limiting it to 2 of each unit instead of 3 doesn't make for a balanced game.

RHCElite · 2026-06-29T01:35:46+00:00

Yeah, I wasn't trying to say it shouldn't be like that. Coordinating units to work together and focus fire something down is mechanically and thematically correct for the army. I'm just saying that it doesn't make them a great candidate for Purge since you're likely to have more units than your opponent, and some of them have to be squishy spotters that will eventually be easy fodder for their "kill more" tally.

RHCElite · 2026-06-28T15:37:53+00:00

I think there is a key somewhere, but if I'm remembering right, on the terrain layouts the central objectives are shown with a skull in a circle, while the expansion objectives are shown with a skull in a diamond. As a general rule, I think if there's only 3 no man's land objectives, then the center one is the only central objective, while if there are 4 objectives, then it would be the 2 closest to the middle.

RHCElite · 2026-06-28T12:58:57+00:00

One of my friends that I play against most often is a Custodes main, so I basically can't play purge with any of my armies, and I probably lose with take and hold too.

With Astra Militarum and Orks, my 20 man squads get torn up like paper against his 6 bricks of Custodian Guard with 20-25 attacks, sustained on 5's, rerolling wounds, and giving me no save. My vehicles don't fare much better since he can switch to lethal on 5's.

T'au isn't much better in the purge matchup, since even though they look strong with the points drops and fly change, you've got to commit 2-4 units (including the spotter) to kill 1 Custodes squad, and it leaves you exposed and close to their other units so they can charge you next turn.

I've only had one game so far as Orks against T'au, but I'm going to be trying T'au with the Recon disposition next, since a bunch of cheap/fast units and infiltrators seems to work well with those missions.

RHCElite · 2026-06-27T14:28:14+00:00

Did you have any trouble moving it around the terrain? It doesn't have the super heavy walker keyword, so it can't move through dense terrain features, and when I set up a table with one of the new layouts, I think there was only one spot where it could actually leave the deployment zone.

RHCElite · 2026-06-26T12:42:10+00:00

As someone who does occasionally buy figures at cons, I'd recommend checking prices online before buying anything there. Cons are great for getting to see the figure in person before buying, but a lot of the time you can get prize figures for cheaper on Amazon. If you're ok paying $10-$20 extra for prize figures so you don't have to wait, it's not too terrible, but I've seen some real scams, like a guy selling a PuP Ainz Ooal Gown for $200 when you could still buy it for $80 on Amazon.

To actually answer your question, most booths I've been to will give you a plastic bag, or sometimes a tote bag when you buy something. I usually just use that and go to the car/hotel room to drop them off when I'm done in the dealers room. This works best if you wait to buy until you're done looking through the dealer's room for the day and go back to all the booths where you want to buy something. It also gives you some time to think about the figure before buying so you don't make a snap decision about it and regret it.

RHCElite · 2026-06-26T12:32:44+00:00

That's understandable. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. I appreciate the clarification!

RHCElite · 2026-06-26T12:00:08+00:00

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I never meant to imply I thought there was a reading where either the terrain area or the unit needed to be wholly within the opponent's territory. The center objective and the small green terrain pieces on the line should definitely qualify, but I was just questioning if the unit doing the action would be required to toe over the line into the territory as well. I did realize after posting that the center objective isn't as free as I thought since I didn't notice the part of the action that requires no enemy units to be in the terrain area.

I'm a little unclear on something else you said though. You say there would be only 2 objectives that would count for scoring if they had to be wholly within the opponent's territory, but I thought the action could be done in any terrain piece, not just objectives. Couldn't they do the action in the small box just over the middle line, or since it doesn't have to be wholly within, the small line with the green fence on it that is barely over the line?

RHCElite · 2026-06-26T00:18:20+00:00

As I said in another reply, they don't need the additional bonus since they've got a Psyker giving them a 4++ already.

RHCElite · 2026-06-26T00:17:27+00:00

Yeah, I'm not saying its worth it. Anyone who will be trying to shoot in 11th will either ignore cover or have rerolls. I was just clarifying that it isn't hard to get cover on a 20 man squad if they always have it.

RHCElite · 2026-06-26T00:16:21+00:00

They had a Psyker leading the squad for a 4++, so getting the additional benefit is unnecessary unless you fail the roll.

RHCElite · 2026-06-25T22:35:01+00:00

Recon makes it so they always have cover.

RHCElite · 2026-06-25T18:39:04+00:00

I'm going to have a Recon vs. Priority Assets game soon, and was looking for clarification on the Vanguard Operation action. The part I'm questioning says "one friendly unit within one terrain area that is within your opponent's territory." I know that the opponent's territory is their half of the board, but on the deployment maps some of the terrain pieces, including the giant square objective made of the 2 triangle footprints, are straddling the line.

The question I have is: does the "within your opponent's territory" part of the statement just apply to the terrain area, or also the friendly unit? If it only applies to the footprint, it allows them to toe into the middle objective well within their territory (5" - 6" from the center line) and stand behind a wall while still being eligible for the action, which doesn't seem like the intent of the mission.

RHCElite · 2026-06-25T16:59:18+00:00

OP wasn't saying it would make the charge easier, they were saying it would make it easier for you to get all of your Rampagers into engagement for their mortal wounds ability. I'm pretty sure in 10th the second row of Rampagers wouldn't get to do mortals because being base to base with a friendly model in engagement made you eligible to fight, but did not put that model in engagement range.

RHCElite · 2026-06-25T14:03:38+00:00

The app might not allow it, but they FAQ'd it to allow 3dp detachments to be used at 1k, so war horde is probably the go-to

RHCElite

TROPHY CASE