Tau Grand Tournament Armies

There are 7 Tau armies at the Grand Tournament. Quite an unusually high number it has to be said. But the interesting thing was how they were all completely different from my own Tau army.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get photographs of them all or learn their compositions, but there were some general trends that I spotted regarding troops, elites and heavy support choices. Perhaps we need a new Codex sooner than I had thought?

Here is the run down of what I saw.

Army 1: Green Tau with Orange stripes (
plasma rifle/missile pod command team
twin flamer, single missile pod battlesuits
3 Devilfish with Firewarriors squads
Skyray
Hammerhead
Broadsides

Notes:
Yes, this is my army. I had to include it for completeness. I'd gone for a combination of mechanised with Battlesuits. Mostly so my Battlesuits had some large tanks to hide behind. My main tactic was the Tau Tank Wall, which swings round the flank, firing as it goes, with the Battlesuits doing Jump-Shoot-Jump over and behind it. I finished 56th.

Army 2: Dark Green with Light Green details
plasma rifle/missile pod command team
extra commander with cyclic ion blaster and missile pod
burst cannon/missile pod battlesuits
Devilfish
3 Firewarriors
Kroot
Hammerhead
2 broadsides

Notes:
This was a really nice looking army. Shame to see it so far down the tables, but it seemed to be designed for 4th edition rather than 5th edition. While it had plenty of Broadsides the 2nd Battlesuit team only had burst cannons. I've tried this unit myself with unhappy results. Loved the guys broadside conversions.


Army 3: Black and Red

Notes:
I didn't get a good look at this army. But this was also quite far down the tables. Also seemed a throw back to 4th edition.


Army 4: Brown
twin linked missile pod Battlesuits
plasma rifle/fusion blaster Battlesuits
another team of Battlesuits (I think)
firewarriors
kroot
pathfinders + devilfish
2 broadsides
hammerhead

Notes:
I think it was this guy who managed to qualify for the final. Minimal troops, but plenty of railguns and his Battlesuits were armed with both fusion blaster and plasma rifle. I think he had 2 of these units and another unit with twin linked missile pods. He certainly suffered in the objective based missions but when it came to killing things, his 3 Battlesuit units would be able to deepstrike into enemy territory, take out tanks, monstrous creatures and heavily armoured targets with relative ease while the 5 railguns pounded targets from afar. Maybe its just my troops who die easily?

Army 5: Blue
twin linked missile pod Battlesuits
plasma rifle/fusion blaster Battlesuits
another team of Battlesuits (I think)
firewarriors
kroot
pathfinders + devilfish
2 broadsides
hammerhead

Notes:
At first glance this guys army was near the same as the Brown Tau, but he didn't do nearly as well. Then again, he did give his Tau Commander the Airbursting Fragmentation Projector.

Army 5: Pastel brown with red and green

Notes:
I didn't get a good look at this army, but from what I could see it was mostly mechanised with 3 Hammerheads for heavy support. It ended up quite far down the tables.

Army 6: camo green
2 Battlesuit command teams with plasma rifle/missile pod
stealth suits
3 firewarriors
hammerhead
2 broadsides

Notes:
This was my friend Luke's army. Not sure where he came in the tournament, although I know he didn't do great. Lost out on objective missions and generally got blasted apart for his troubles. Stealth suits were useless!


CONCLUSION
With the Brown Tau qualifying and my own force falling short of going through to the final (not that I wanted to), I think it demonstrates what kind of Tau army works well in 5th edition.

In fact, the Brown Tau seem downright nasty.
The Kroot can go hide in some woods to claim an objective (and go to ground).
The Firewarriors can get in the Pathfinder's Devilfish which in turn allows the Deepstriking Battlesuits to reroll their scatter. The Pathfinders light up targets for the Broadsides (and Battlesuits). Then the railguns, plasma rifles, fusion blasters and missile pods annihilate that unit and move on to the next one. The army is screwed when it comes to multiple objectives, but if it can kill everything, then who cares?

As for my army, I think sneakiness may have won out over brute force. My army isn't nearly as hard hitting, but it floats around, using the Tau Tank Wall to protect my troops and Battlesuits while dealing out minor damage here and there. But as you will find when I post my battle reports from the Grand Tournament, it doens't have that punch to clear someone off an objective.

Stay tuned for Warhammer 40K Throne of Skull Grand Tournament battle reports soon!