Building an Army List: Tournament Style

Ok today's discussion will hopefully be about Building a Tournament Army List.

Remember these lists are usually NOT for a casual pick-up game as they are built for a single purpose. TO WIN. So that being said, Here we go.

Step 1.
Choose your Type of list. Some would say that your first step is to choose the army that you want to play, but I disagree. If you choose the army TYPE that you want to play that will exponentially help your choosing of the ARMY you want to play.

So for the purposes of this article, we'll say we want to play a super shooty army.

Step 2. Choose Your Army.
Since we've chosen to play a shooty army, we have a few options now.
Eldar,
Dark Eldar (though usually classified as a hybrid combat/shooty army)
Tau
Space Marines
Imperial Guard

Ok, since we're being horrible, we'll choose Tau.

Step 3 READ YOUR RULES OF THE TOURNAMENT.
This is very important. Ok so for the purposes of this article we'll assume we've read the rules and come out with the following information:
- Standard Force Org Chart
- 2,000 Point Limit


Ok now we're starting to get somewhere. we've got a theme, an army and a limit.

Step 4. Choose your "Core"

We've chosen tau, so we know we need 1 Fire Warrior Unit. We will also need a Pathfinder unit so we can remove cover saves, and we need that Commander.

So, since we're going shooty, we give the Commander a Multi-Tracker, a Missile Pod and a Plasma Rifle. on top of that we can increase his efficacy by giving him a targeting array.

So,

Commander 'El - HW Multi-Tracker, Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Targeting Array.
but what about protection? Give him a shield drone (only 1. Seriously)

So he's 112 Points. Should we go with bodyguard? I think not. Since that would be 2 KP for the squad.

We'll Move on to a companion unit.

3 Crisis Suits w/ Multi-Tracker and MP/PR
186 Points

Now we've got a very nice unit that can and will eat all transports and all infantry
(that is 12 shots at 24" and 16 at 12") that can jump back to the safety of behind cover after they shoot. Everything will wound most infantry on 2's and well, kill a lot of stuff.

So, We've got a basis:

Commander - 112
Crisis Suit Team - 186
Fire Warrior Squad x6 - Pulse Rifles - 60
Pathfinder Squad x4 (Devilfish the Fire Warriors will be jumping in has the bare minimum) - 128

Now, we have a total of 1514 points to spend, but we'll need at least 2 more troop units. So let's add in some cheap ones.

2 units of Kroot x10 with 5x Kroot hounds. gives you the counter attack melee you will need, a scoring unit, and 10 rapid fire rifles.

100 Points Each.

Now we need to add our super shoot elements.

So we go to the Heavy supports for tau. we have 1314 Points to spend. Most people's first reaction is to buy Railheads (Hammerhead with Railgun) this is in truth a sub-par choice. Why? because you get 1 shot. That is it. It will become THE fire magnet of your army.

Instead go with ablative wounds.

3 Squads of 3 Broadsides. Ruthless and horrible, but well, TL and you're pumping out 9 Railgun shots per round.

Each squad will be setup like:

Team Leader - 2 Shield Drones, Bonding Knife, Advanced Stabilization System.
2 Broadsides, Advanced Stabilization System. - 275 Points

So, we've got

Commander - (We need to give him a bonding knife) 117
Crisis Suit Squad -186
Fire Warriors - 60
Kroot & Hounds - 100
Kroot & Hounts - 100
Pathfinders - 128
Broadside Team - 275
Broadside Team - 275
Broadside Team - 275
Ok, we're up to 1516 Points

Leaving us 484 Points to spend.

Well, let's give ourselves another firebase

Commander the same and Crisis the same.

303 Down.

181 Left.

Well, now we need what kroot lack. The ability to control where your opponent can go.
how do we do that? With Piranhas.

So we need 2 Squads - Piranha, Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Disruption Pods, and a Flechette Discharger. - 85 Points. Two of those costs 170 Points.

We have 11 points left. Where to use them? well, lets put disruption pods on our devilfish, and give both of our BS5 Guys the ability to shoot really well in a night fight situation (Blacksun Filters) Costs us 11 points.

And We're Done.

We come out of this with the following:

2x Commander Shas'El - MP/PR, HW Drone (Shieldx1), Bonding Knife, Targeting Array, Blacksun Filter, Multi-Tracker

2x Crisis Squads - MP/PR/Multi-Tracker

2x Kroot Squad w/ 5 Hounds

Fire Warrior Squad

Pathfinder Squad (used to reduce their cover save)

2x Piranhas - Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Flechette Dischargers, Disruption Pods

3x Broadside Squads - 2x Shield Drones, Advanced Stabilization Systems

That is a lot of Shooty, and is very survivable.

This is basically my method of building an army. Thoughts?