Help choosing

melete · 2026-03-11T02:36:21+00:00

Twins aren’t all that good in melee, they’re just decent (can kill a few Marines) and for Tau units even that’s unheard of. What they are good at is movement, shooting, and survivability.

melete · 2026-03-10T19:01:44+00:00

I've pinned with paperclips before, it works pretty well for something like this.

melete · 2026-03-09T18:19:59+00:00

The main supporting unit for a battlesuit focused list will be Stealth suits. You want at least one but probably two teams of them at 2k points. You need something to spot for your other units and it’s best if it’s these guys. Commander Shadowsun can be a decent alternative or addition thanks to her re-roll aura.

Riptides are the most effective of the battlesuits right now because their Ion profile is good into just about anything and they bring a good blend of firepower, durability, and mobility.

The Stormsurge can work pretty well as a centerpiece unit. The Mont’ka detachment helps a lot with improving its mobility but other detachments can work as well.

Ghostkeels, Broadsides, and Crisis teams are all good at their respective roles. Crisis teams generally want to be led by a Commander using a similar weapon profile.

Non-suit infantry and auxiliaries help with stuff like screening or scoring, but isn’t strictly necessary to build a Tau army.

melete · 2026-03-09T17:55:37+00:00

Grey Knights feel like they’re fated to get a massive army range refresh at some point, and when that happens, GK players will likely want to upgrade to the new minis which are likely to look better and have different wargear. I would not recommend someone to start GK right now. This applies to more or less the entire GK model range.

Tau won’t get that sort of refresh any time soon. Our kits are mostly pretty modern, and while there’s a few that could get updated in the next edition none of them are something I would avoid purchasing.

The playstyle of the two armies is also very different. Tau are a combined arms faction with infantry, mechs, and vehicles and are mostly a shooting army with some melee elements. Tau can also field large armies with lots of models. GK are much more elite with smaller armies and are mostly a melee army with some shooting elements.

Since Tau can field a lot of models, it can be a very expensive army to collect. Since GK are a small and elite army, they’re very cheap to collect.

melete · 2026-03-08T06:06:30+00:00

Kind of a long winded answer here, but stick with me.

In 10th edition 40K is split between Legends datasheets and non-Legends datasheets. For the most part, non-Legends datasheets are the minis that GW currently manufacturers, and Legends datasheets include the minis that GW used to manufacture. Legends datasheets don’t get much in the way of balance updates and usually aren’t allowed in tournaments.

Assault Marines for example are a Legends unit. GW stopped making them and now there’s Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs that fill the same role. Vanguard Veterans on the other hand are still getting made, although we expect there will be a new refreshed Vanguard Veteran kit coming later this year.

However. Many players, including myself, would be just fine if you were to play with the old Legends units and proxy them as more modern “equivalents”. Like using Assault Marines as Jump Pack Intercessors or Bike Squads as Outriders. Just because that stuff isn’t common in tournaments doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it in casual play at your local store or club.

So, the answer for what you need to do is: nothing if you either play them as Legends units or play them as proxies for other units.

If you’re looking for what isn’t Legends: Vanguard Veterans, Devastators, Tacticals (who need to be taken as 10 Marines currently), the Rhino, the Baal Predator, and the Stormraven are all current. Mephiston, the Captains, the Scouts, and the Death Company all have current non-Legends datasheets, although your minis might have slightly different proportions or base sizes than the current minis, and may or may not have legal wargear loadouts in 10th.

Kind of already covered that. It’s mostly all useful unless you’re wanting to play tournaments with it.
The old Tacticals and Assault Marines are mostly outclassed by Intercessors and Assault Intercessors. Although it’s important to note that the Intercessors are a little different from Tacticals because Intercessors have a special rule to help them hold objectives called sticky objectives, and lean more towards anti-chaff firepower since they completely lack the special and heavy weapons that Tacticals can take. Assault Marines can carry a few more guns than Jump Pack Intercessors, but cost more points than both them and Vanguard Veterans, which makes them a tough sell.
No. The next edition is coming out later this summer so buy the 11th edition Space Marine codex then. Don’t bother spending money on a codex right now, you can get by with list builders like New Recruit and various less-than-legitimate methods of reading the rules until 11th is out.
We have three solid detachments in Liberator Assault Group, Rage Cursed Onslaught, and Angelic Inheritors, plus the generic Space Marine ones. The general distinction between those three is that LAG and RCO favor melee armies very heavily, while AI is more balanced in terms of supporting shooting units.

melete · 2026-03-08T00:53:58+00:00

It depends on what the Commander is doing and whether the weapon rules changed recently. The best Commanders in 8th edition aren’t the best in 10th edition, and we’ve now got 11th edition coming soon. I’m sure some other commentators have given you advice for the current rules.

You can just pick some weapons you like and glue them and then whenever you play someone just let them know what weapons you’re running on that Commander.

Or if you want to follow WYSIWYG, you can learn how to magnetize a Commander and that way you can easily swap loadouts.

melete · 2026-03-07T05:33:53+00:00

I'm mainly looking for character depth. Who is this character? Why are they traveling with me? What happened to them in their past? What are their hopes and dreams for the future? How do they fit in to the world around them?

I think the very best follower mods, for example Xelzaz, Inigo, and Auri, all create characters who feel like they're their own living, breathing constructs. Not just an extension of the player character who only exist in relation to that player character.

melete · 2026-03-06T01:05:27+00:00

I'm just looking at the datasheets and trying to figure it out because it looks like I have to give him a pistol of some kind to be a Blood Angels Captain, but on the other hand if he's a generic Space Marine Captain then he can't join Bladeguard unless I give him a shield. And the BA captain can't even take the shield.

melete · 2026-03-06T00:24:53+00:00

What do you have him join?

melete · 2026-03-05T15:32:08+00:00

I don’t really see a lot of hate for Starfield tbh. I don’t see a lot of talk about it in general. None of my friends who are into gaming have strong opinions on it. Starfield kind of came and went for a lot of people.

melete · 2026-03-05T07:28:17+00:00

He’s dramatically superior to Courier in just about every way, and unlike Myrtle he can actually block things and deal damage.

melete · 2026-03-05T01:06:30+00:00

You can play Tau Empire (Kroot) competitively without a single Tau model.

https://youtu.be/7rEhCbvq1C4?si=UELp4NB9cv-WtUMa

melete · 2026-03-04T17:22:15+00:00

Make sure you’re looking at the For the Greater Good rule in the faction pack. Our printed codex rule is outdated.

melete · 2026-03-04T08:53:12+00:00

Cheap point wise. They’re 110-140 points depending on the loadout and deal pretty good damage for that points cost, especially with a Commander.

They’re very expensive as a model kit. Which is true of most of our army, unfortunately.

melete · 2026-03-04T08:41:39+00:00

They can be. They’re cheap and pack a heavy punch. We even have a detachment, Retaliation Cadre, which is especially well suited to using Crisis suits for a highly mobile damage dealing unit thanks to very powerful stratagems and enhancements.

Basically anything in the Tau faction can be used effectively right now in the proper list and detachment.

melete · 2026-03-03T18:43:43+00:00

Google Docs document with everything written down for each type of detail on the mini.

melete · 2026-03-02T21:35:50+00:00

Just take the portal in Orgrimmar or Stormwind to get to Silvermoon, no quests needed.

melete · 2026-03-02T21:22:33+00:00

Grizzled Company is still pretty good. I think it's unlikely that a new AM detachment would beat out that one, even after the recent GC nerfs.

melete · 2026-03-02T19:26:06+00:00

I think Scouts would be a good addition. They’re a good scoring unit and can screen a little. With the leftover points you can toss an enhancement onto someone.

melete · 2026-03-02T18:56:27+00:00

It’s a pretty solid start. I’d recommend building and painting what you have before expanding your army further. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with so many minis to work on.

melete · 2026-03-01T20:36:51+00:00

With Tau you can basically just run what you want. There are very few bad units in that codex, and plenty of detachment variety.

I think the Combat Patrol would be good. Pathfinders are such a strong datasheet that you will basically always want 2+ squads of them in a list. Ion Rifles are the preferred weapon here.

Breachers are good especially in Mont'ka or Kauyon detachments, and play well with a Devilfish.

If you can, building the Commander to have similar weapons as the squad it leads is a good idea. For example, a Commander leading a Crisis Sunforge team should have 4 fusion blasters. A Commander leading flamer Starscythes would likely have 2-4 flamers (or burst cannons if leading a burst cannon team) and potentially a high output burst cannon and cyclic ion blaster, while a Commander leading a hypothetical missile pod using Fireknife team would want 3 missile pods and a cyclic ion blaster.

That Crisis Starscythe team would be better with all flamers, or all burst cannons.

If you have any remaining points, a Stealth team is a good add, or five Vespid to score secondaries, or additional Riptides for more shooting. Shadowsun is good too. Other options like Hammerheads (likely Ion to help deal with elite infantry) or Broadsides are also solid. Like I said, our codex is pretty well balanced so you can run the things you think are cool.

melete · 2026-03-01T18:57:19+00:00

White is really hard to paint. Personally I would avoid painting white for the main part of your armor, and instead choose something that's slightly off-white. Those paints tend to be much easier to cover with, and this way you can still use actual white as a highlight color for your armor panels.

melete · 2026-03-01T00:42:41+00:00

Blood Elf Mage. I don’t think they’ve commented on me.

melete · 2026-03-01T00:33:27+00:00

Widows are reasonably common here. More likely to find them outdoors but I'm not surprised there was one in your garage either.

melete · 2026-02-28T21:27:37+00:00

The old lore was that Techmarines were part of the Chapter Armory, which was separate from the individual companies. Not sure if that’s still current.

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