New to BFG: I like Tau

[WarHammerman]

Hey there everyone.

A couple of my friends have started to play BFG at my FLGS and I'd love to get into it. Now, I'm a 40K player and I love my my Tau (yes yes hate all you like. I like them, its my army, and that's what matters.)


The major problem is I have 0 experience playing Tau.

So- would you all please help me come up with an Army List (or Fleet List?) for this game? I'd like to hear why certain ships are taken and why. I've tried to find something like "An idiot's guide to BFG: Tau" but I've had no luck finding it.


Thanks in Advance
- Hammerman

[horizon]

Never seen a BFG player who hates a specific race to be honest. So hi.

First: what Tau fleet has your preference: the Games Workshop Tau fleet (the metal models) or the Forgeworld Tau fleet (the resin models).

Rules for the GW ones are on their site under BFG resources (pdf Tau fleets)
Rules for the FW ones are here: http://tinyurl.com/23nul8q

[WarHammerman]

Can I blend the two if I wanted?
I'm not sure how it works in BFG, but I'm used to being able to use my Forgeworld stuff w/ my GW stuff...

Never seen a BFG player who hates a specific race to be honest. So hi.

First: what Tau fleet has your preference: the Games Workshop Tau fleet (the metal models) or the Forgeworld Tau fleet (the resin models).

Rules for the GW ones are on their site under BFG resources (pdf Tau fleets)
Rules for the FW ones are here: http://tinyurl.com/23nul8q

[horizon]

Hi,
yes that is possible. You will need the rules pdf located at the tinyurl for that.
(The GW list was written before the FW models existed).

[Kakapo42]

Hey there everyone.

A couple of my friends have started to play BFG at my FLGS and I'd love to get into it. Now, I'm a 40K player and I love my my Tau (yes yes hate all you like. I like them, its my army, and that's what matters.)


The major problem is I have 0 experience playing Tau.

So- would you all please help me come up with an Army List (or Fleet List?) for this game? I'd like to hear why certain ships are taken and why. I've tried to find something like "An idiot's guide to BFG: Tau" but I've had no luck finding it.


Thanks in Advance
- Hammerman

No problems here, I'm a Tau man myself.

The first thing you need to know about the Tau is that, as has already been mentioned, they have two different flavours of fleets, the Forgeworld one and the GW one. The two are separate distinct fleet lists, but you can field a mix of the two if you wish, although I believe you have to have a majority of one or the other.

Now, I don't have a lot of experience with the Forgeworld fleet, so I won't discuss them in much detail. The GW fleet on the other hand I can help with.

Where other factions in BFG fight like an age-of-sail or Napoleonic fleet, the GW Tau fleet acts like a modern navy (World War 2 pacific theatre onwards). The core of your fleet will be made up of carriers, and you will want to keep as far back as possible. Much like in 40k, Tau in BFG are devastating at range, but poor up close. They have the best ordinance capabilities in the game, able to bring enormous amounts of attack craft and missiles to bear on an enemy, but lack broadside fire-power and are extremely vulnerable to boarding actions.

Tau ordinance itself is also extremely powerful. Their attack bombers, Mantas, are shielded which makes them difficult to shoot down, and their missile salvoes (the Tau version of torpedos) are able to adjust their speed and turn (the torpedos of other factions can normally only travel at a constant speed in a straight line). Another thing to remember is that Tau ships concentrate their fire-power in their forward arcs, so always try to keep the enemy in front of you.

Explorer class starships form the heart of any GW Tau fleet. They have only light armour at their rear, and a moderate-strength railgun battery, but don't let that fool you. Their real power lies in their eight launch bays, four of which can be switched out for a powerful gravitic launcher (fancy Tau jargon for a missile/torpedo launcher). At their points cost they are a steal and you can field a large amount of them, letting you unleash a terrifying amount of formidable ordinance. They can also bring a squadron of three Orca gunships with them (more on these later).

Merchant class starships tend to get a bad reputation, but they have their uses. They are effectively a picket ship, meant to guard the Explorers. They have decent enough fire-power for their size, with a moderate sized railgun battery and the option to deploy two Orca gunships, and can have their gravitic hooks (docking clamps that let a ship transport Orcas) replaced with a pair of ion cannons (Tau lances). They are more fragile than the cruisers of most factions however, although a hull upgrade can alleviate this problem somewhat.

The Hero class starship is the heavy hitter of the GW Tau fleet, effectively the Tau equivalent of a battlecruiser or heavy cruiser. It has a small railgun battery and a devastating lance armament, which can be replaced with more railguns if you wish. It also has a pair of launch bays, which can be very useful (I tend to use mine to deploy fighter squadrons, letting my Explorers focus on hammering the enemy with bombers), as well as a potent missile attack. Finally, a prow deflector boosts it's front armour, unless it suffers a prow critical hit. They are cheap for what they bring, which has given them a reputation as being a power-gaming unit, but this cost is kept in check by the limit of only one per Explorer or Merchant.

Defenders are Tau heavy escorts. They're less manoeuvrable than a lot of other escorts, but have greater fire-power with both railguns and a missile attack. Best used defensively firing off missile volleys, protecting against enemy ordinance (using their small missile salvoes to snipe enemy torpedos and fighters) or taking on enemy capital ships from long range (by combining their missiles).

Orca gunships are the main Tau escorts. They're among the faster more agile Tau ships, and have decent firepower (the same as an Imperial Firestorm class). Their main drawback is that you can only field a number of Orcas equal to the number of gravitic hooks your fleet has (each Explorer you take has three, and the standard configuration of the Merchant class has two), and they can only be in a squadron with Orcas from the same 'parent' ship, so for example if you have two Explorers in your fleet you can only have six Orcas, in two squadrons of three.

Finally, there is the Messenger class starship. These are interesting ships, and are basically the Pathfinders of the Tau fleet. Fielded as a single ship, a Messenger has only a tiny railgun battery for self-defence, but their real strength is in supporting the rest of the fleet. Each Messenger is fitted with a Tracking system which can be used as a giant markerlight, and any friendly ships near a Messenger will be able to fire much more accurately at longer range and more accurately target incoming ordinance.

There are also Orbital facilities, which are modular and can be built in a number of ways, however I am largely unfamiliar with what is the best set-up for them.

The Tau can also make use of three auxiliary factions: the Nicassar, the Kroot and the Demiurg. The Nicassar ships, Dhows, are fast and extremely agile, but are limited in the same way Orcas are. The Kroot feature their famed Warspheres, which are large slow-moving ships with unusual movement systems, and are effective at boarding and attacking planets. Finally, the Demiurg, almost a faction unto themselves, are a race of technologically advanced nomadic miners, that operate tough ships with heavy armament, including the dreaded cutting beam.

[horizon]

A powergamer's pure Tau fleet would consist of Explorers-Heroes-Orca's as most part of it.

A mix fleet could be:

Kor'o + Aun'o
2 Explorers
- 6 Orca's
2 Heroes
2 Protectors

A heavy core with Explorers and Heroes. Good amount of AC.
The Protectors as flank support using the great manouvrability.
Orca's being used when lines close. Jumping in with Ion Cannons blazing.

Vice versa you could use Heroes in a more FW orientated fleet to give more backbone.

Kor'o + aun'el
Custodian
- 3 Warden
2 Heroes
2 Protectors
5 Castellans

[WarHammerman]

Wow!
Thank you everyone for their advice =D
My 40K tau army is loaded to the gills with other aliens - so I'll see what I can do to copy that over (Demiurge, Nisicar, Kroot Warsphere, etc)

And this explanation, along with watching some game-play, and learning from my friends has really really got me wanting to play =D


Now, a new question for everyone else
What do you feel is the "Ideal" size of a fleet? (aka: what points value do you find is most fun)

[horizon]

Hi,

Personally I like the games at a point level between 1000-1500 the most.

[andrewchristlieb]

1k-1.5k is good for one off games but your going to want at least 2k if you want to play in a campaign and probably more as you go along so you can field different setups. In campaigns your games can be anywhere from one ship (less than 200pts) up to fleet engagements using 1500+pts. Reguardless if your in a campaign or not if your playing a "raid" mission you should probably keep the points in the 300-1000pts range while the "battles" missions run best between 750-1500. I know we usually pick a game and pt level based off how much time we have also so thats something to look at, raids usually take and hour or two tops while the larger battles can take a good bit of the day to play out.

[Kakapo42]

Wow!
Thank you everyone for their advice =D
My 40K tau army is loaded to the gills with other aliens - so I'll see what I can do to copy that over (Demiurge, Nisicar, Kroot Warsphere, etc)

And this explanation, along with watching some game-play, and learning from my friends has really really got me wanting to play =D


Now, a new question for everyone else
What do you feel is the "Ideal" size of a fleet? (aka: what points value do you find is most fun)

I hope I helped.

There are two general 'standard' sizes for fleets, raids and battles. Raids, as the name suggests, are about small raiding parties and wolf-packs. They tend to feature a lot of escorts, supported by one or two cruisers or similar, and are about 250-750 points (I think? It might be 500-750, I can't quite remember).

Battles are larger engagements between entire armadas of ships. They're around 1000-2500 points normally, but really they only need to be bigger than 750 points, and there is no proper upper limit from there.

[fracas]

Nicassaar are easy to work in the tau list as replacement for orcas
The kroot sphere doesn't work with the fleet very well imo

[cibili]

Hi, guys.
There's a new BFG madness in my club, but no one has experience with Tau.
As I understood, I have to collect 2000 points of army, able to play various set-ups and scenarios.

Can you just recommend me a shopping-list, but with models name. Because, I couldnt find a miniature as Kor'o + Aun'o.
Thx in advance.

[Kakapo42]

Hi, guys.
There's a new BFG madness in my club, but no one has experience with Tau.
As I understood, I have to collect 2000 points of army, able to play various set-ups and scenarios.

Can you just recommend me a shopping-list, but with models name. Because, I couldnt find a miniature as Kor'o + Aun'o.
Thx in advance.

Kor'Os and Aun'Os are both fleet leaders, and need no model representation. Simply nominate which of your ships they are on and they are then assumed to be on board it.

As for your shopping list, are you looking into GW Tau or Forgeworld Tau? The two have different lines and act differently in battle.

For GW Tau, I'd say:

4x Explorer class

2x Merchants

4x Hero class

5x blisters of Orcas

This will be expensive however, so be sure you have deep pockets. After all this is up and running you can expand it with:

More capital ships

At least 2 blisters of Defenders

1 blister of messengers

That ought to give you a very large pool of ships to choose from.

Alternatively, you may decide to go with the Forgeworld line. I don't have much experience here, but I think a good start would be something like:

1x Custodian

2x Protector packs (they come in pairs, so this will give you 4 protectors)

4x Castellan packs

and 1 pack of Wardens

Possibly an Emissary or two as well. This should give you a strong core as well.

Once you have your fleet, consider investing in some Barracudas and Mantas (available in BFG scale on Forgeworld). These can be represented with other markers, but I always find it nice to have some actual models for my attack craft.

[horizon]

On the Forgeworld fleet:
In above: 3 castellan packs is enough

This is what is needed for 1500pts:
1 Custodian
1 Protector pack
1 Emissary pack
2 Castellan packs1
1 Warden pack

for expanding to 1500pts: another Castellan & Protector pack. If you have the money add a Demiurg Stronghold for a surprise and a big punch.

[cibili]

Thx, for your quick reply. Some people mention about mixing GW and FW. What do you think?

Which one will be the leader for GW Tau:
4x Explorer class
2x Merchants
4x Hero class
5x blisters of Orcas

You posted 2 FW lists. Are there separete or a whole list?

FW List1
1x Custodian (This one is leader?)
2x Protector packs
3x Castellan packs
1x Warden pack
1x Emissary

FW List2:
1 Custodian (This one is leader?)
1 Protector pack
1 Emissary pack
2 Castellan packs1
1 Warden pack

[horizon]

Hi,
what?

The FW list one = 2000pts
The FW list two = 1500pts

Custodian is the Grand Cruiser, I mean battleship of the FW Tau range. So, yes, the kor and aun will go aboard this one (if it is fielded).
(eg in some battles we had the aun aboard an Emissary instead of the most expensive one. This fits the role of the Emissary as one of diplomacy. Using the larger Protectors as protection. What's in a name, right?)

For the GW Tau fleet, the Explorer is the most expensive. So one of them will have the kor and aun aboard.

[andrewchristlieb]

Just to add confusion, in the GW Tau fleet there are no restrictions on what ship your commander is on so you dont have to place it on an Explorer, although this will probably be what you will end up wanting to do unless you manage to make good leadership on all four explorers!

[cibili]

Can you please also tell me about tactics and strategies for FW list.

[andrewchristlieb]

Pure FW Tau play pretty similar to IN early on. You want to focus on closing, almost all of your weapons can focus fire to the front and your capitols ships have the 6+ armor. You should feel free to use movement orders to bring your cruisers into flanking positions, their weaker hulls make them less than ideal for a line cruiser but their maneuverability helps overcome this some. Emissarys (IL‟PORRUI DAL‟YTH configuration have the best layout of weapons for support) in squadrons make good backups to the Protectors, using their torpedoes and lr weapons to good effect is key tho because they have the durability of wet tissue paper, they're also your only source of Wardens outside the Custodian. FW Tau have a decent amount of attack craft also, along with a good bit of torpedoes so trying to maintain the upper hand in ordnance should be fairly easy. Just like the IN Tau cruisers want to be squadroned for best effect although this can be lessened somewhat due to the concentration of their weaponry. Im sure there's more that others can add as Ive only used FW rules a small bit...

[cibili]

I know that escorts fullfil the fast cavalry role in BFG, but I fear they are very fragile and easy point for opponent.

What do u think?