Hi all, Steve here. I’ve been a semi-competitive player here in Singapore since 5th edition. After taking a break in 7th due to rules-bloat, I’m back again - I never stopped hobbying and fluffing, however. Erm, fluffing. Anyways, moving on...
My Approach
I’ve always taken the same approach to list-building. I go for take-all-comers lists. And the thing about these lists, is you really need to prioritise efficiency. Because in order to do everything, you need to be able to squeeze in enough units that can, well, do everything.
With that in mind, the first place I always go when a new book or edition drops, is not to the tabletop, but to the spreadsheet. What I’m looking for is really simple. What tool (unit) can do the job (kill something) the most efficiently (the least points per wound).
I’m working on both Tau and Ultramarine lists right now, but for this exercise I’ll show you my findings for Tau.
This is part 1 of out 3, and if this series goes down well, I’ll follow up with something similar for Ultramarines.
Caveat
I have one IMPORTANT caveat. The codices have not even dropped yet. Especially for Tau, an army that relies heavily on synergy, this has a somewhat limiting effect. I fully expect anything here to go out-of-date the minute a codex drops, so don’t run out and buy $500 worth of Tau models yet, unless you are either really rich, or part of an intricate money-laundering scheme revolving around a local game store. (editor's note: LOL)
The Problems
In order to find a solution, we need to start with the problem. In 40k it’s pretty simple - the problem is “what do you need to kill.” I’ve identified 4 things I need to be able to take care of. Light infantry aka swarms of conscripts, medium infantry aka marines, transports aka rhinos and heavy armour aka imperial knights.
Yes, you can break it down further, but I find if you can take out these 4 categories of ‘problems’ efficiently, there’s enough overlap that you can solve any problem.
There is an argument to be made that multi-wound heavy infantry is a class in its’ own, but I’m still testing if I need to plan for that, or if I will organically have enough to deal with it.
Problem 1: Light Infantry
These blobs of dudes are cheap and effective screeners, blockers, board-controllers and objective-grabbers. Most imperial soup lists will bring anywhere from 20-80 conscripts with HQs to make sure they don’t fold to morale checks too easily. For a take-all-comers list, I would want to be able to kill 30-40 conscripts per turn. I went with T3, 5+ save for the sake of this test.
Looking at Tau, by EFFICIENCY, here are the top 3 units at slaughtering these poor meatshields.
20 Kroot - 13.51 PPW (points per wound) +ve: 20 kroot puts down 8.88 models for a mere 120 points. -ve: They are fragile, not overly mobile and you need to be within 12” to double tap.
20 Fire Warriors + Cadre Fireblade - 13.93 PPW +ve: You’re putting down 14+ models with this group of dudes, plus you get a markerlight that hits on 2+. A 4+ save that becomes 3+ in cover is decent, too. -ve: Fragile and it takes some coordination to make sure you get 3 units all working together - may need to bring devilfish which reduces efficiency a lot.
3x Triple-Flamer Crisis Suits - 14.78 PPW +ve: Mobile, tough, don’t need to roll-to-hit meaning they don’t need any support - also a huge boon in overwatch if you get charged. -ve: 8” range is a pain because you can’t deepstrike in and shoot, which means you are going to need to find ways to get them in range - adding drones reduces their efficiency.
Part of being a take-all-comers list is also looking for added firepower from other units which are still EFFICIENT but not the most efficient. Here are my top “tier 2” light-infantry killers.
3x Triple Burst Cannon Crisis - 26.97 PPW +ve: Still puts out a lot of firepower (36 shots) and can deep-strike and shoot without worry thanks to 18” range. S5 weapons threaten are equally scary to T4 models, and threaten up to T9 models. -ve: 4+ to-hit is always a worry and burst cannons aren't really worth spending markerlights on.
Gun Drone + BC Devilfish - 47.63 PPW +ve: Their toughness and speed carrying your firewarriors is worth a lot, so it’s a nice bonus when the transport also takes out 2.67 models per turn. Helps that this is also the cheapest way to kit-out your devilfish. -ve: 47.63 points-per-wound is not efficient for killing such cheap stuff.
Putting it together
Let’s consider now if we were to start list-building and we wanted to be sure we could take out 30-40 conscripts per turn. You could just spam kroot...but in order to hit that magic number you would need to bring about 80 kroot...which would take out 35.52 conscripts per turn. They would also be slow, difficult to manage, and fragile. Plus who wants to paint 80 kroot? So if we looked at a balanced, take-all-comers approach we could go with:
HQ - Cadre Fireblade
Troop- 10-man fire warrior teams in devilfish
Troop - 10-man fire warrior teams in devilfish
Troop - 20-man kroot blob
Elite - 3x Triple BC Crisis Suit Team
This group takes out 36.5 conscripts per turn, but provides you with mobility, durability, a range of deployment types and options and also a lot more secondary utility. You would be sitting at 750+ points with a good core made to build a list around. The big decision you’d face with this core would be to fish, or not to fish.
That is where the spreadsheet warrior ends, and getting on to the table to playtest begins…;)
Surprising Omissions:
You may notice you didn’t see gun drones on this list. That because with their 5+ to hit, they are just not a viable platform unless you spend a valuable crisis suit support system slot on a drone controller.
The only place they are viable is on vehicles where they get the free 4+ to-hit as long as they are attached to the vehicle.
Riptide with HBC and SMS is surprisingly inefficient at killing light infantry, despite the 2+ to wound thanks to being S6. Generally speaking, the Smart Missile System, as it stands, is way overcosted. This hamstrings a number of tau units. I expect this to be something that is adjusted when the Tau Codex comes out.
What’s next:
As this series continues we will look at how the Tau solve other problems (Medium infantry, transports, heavy armour) and continue forming our list. You will also then see how you start to create overlaps in “jobs” that allow you to build a take-all-comers list that can thrive even if the opponent overloads in one particular type of threat.
Now that the format is established, the next article will attempt to cover all 3 of the remaining threat types, while the 3rd article in the series will complete the list building exercise.
Hope you enjoyed this article, and look forward to continuing this series.
Cheers,
Steve
Bio: Stephen Kyriakou spends his time juggling between work, ice hockey, and Warhammer 40k. And sniffing new books....don't ask. His favourite armies are T'au and Space Marines. He is also a habitual OCD-er when it comes to painting, which does not help in finishing his models for his armies.