[minmaxticus]

Here's my the general composition of my current Tau force...

1.) Two Teams of Fire Warriors w/ Drones
2.) Flight of Gun Drones
3.) Kroot with Shaper and Hounds
4.) Hammerhead
5.) Devilfish
6.) Crisis Team (Either HQ and Bodyguards or Three Regular Suits)
7.) Shadowsun
8.) Stealth Team
9.) Broadside

My Crisis Suits generally run with Missile Pods/Plasma Rifles/Multitrackers/ Targetlocks/Shield Generators, my Fire Warriors use Pulse Rifles, the Devilfish with Drones, Hammerhead with Standard Railgun, etc. Problem is, I'm pretty dissatisfied with my Kroot and sort of turned off by the lack of alien diversity in the standard Tau Empire models.

Granted, I bought my stuff up BEFORE the new codex's release in the last few years. So, I've been thinking of things I could do... my buddy Munkierevolution pointed out tonight after a huge painting session with lynxrpken and Seath_Tt that I could always run auxiliaries. And I like that idea of doing that... and throwing in some Tau flavor to a small Imperial Guard list army. Problem is, that can be an expensive expansion to undertake to get the HQ, the troops, etc. The main thing he was trying to sell me on was the awesomeness of having Ogrun fighting for the Tau. Then it occurred to me that I could... could play a Ogrun stated unit as another Tau alien force, but just not call them "Ogrun". And that'd be cool for the alien-ness and in friendly games, but it's probably not going to fly with most folks. So I started thinking about the neat stuff I could add to my army, and here's my short list:

1.) Skyray Missile Defense Ship
Reason: I like the idea of a roving artillery platform with seeker missiles that can be called in via Markerlights, and then having air support in later turns with the vehicle's burst cannons or smart missles.

2.) Vespid
Reason: I need aliens! But no, really... they're gun seems pretty neat and their fleet ability would be super helpful in mobility, etc. I also dig the model the more I look at 'em.

3.) Pathfinders?
Reason: I dunno, they seem useful...

4.) Ethereal
Reason: Seems like a good, cheap leader that I can throw into the army if I can't use shadowsun.

Other ideas I had:
Experiment with different weapons, like more Fusion Blasters. I find myself dealing with armor frequently in Seath's Eldar/Sisters of Battle and Lynx's Guard, and Munkie's starting up an Imp army himself... and I think he's got genestealers floating around too. I also like the idea of having stronger firepower, since I've been stuck with Firewarrior weapons doing no damage too often. I'm not happy with my Kroot, as I've said before... the idea of the auxiliaries is appealing because of the great flexibility of the Imp list, but it'd require mooching off my friends or dropping lots of money... It sucks that GW hasn't put out more Tau alien races, although having the Vespid IS a nice addition. But man oh man, what I'd give to have an "Ork Cannon" to launch speed bumps in front of my fire warriors...