STARTING A T'AU ARMY IN 11TH EDITION: WHAT TO BUY FIRST
The T'au Empire is one of the friendliest armies to start: clean silhouettes, a shooting-first playstyle that is easy to reason about, and early purchases that stay useful for years. This page is a buying order from an empty desk to a 1,000-point force.
Buy order one: the starter bundle
Whatever the current Combat Patrol or Start Collecting-style box looks like, it almost always beats buying its contents separately. You typically get a commander or characters, a core of Fire Warriors, and some supporting suits or drones: the skeleton of every T'au list. If you can only buy one thing this month, buy this.
Buy order two: battlesuits
Crisis Battlesuits are the icon of the faction for a reason. A unit of three gives you mobile firepower, endless magnetising and kitbashing potential, and one of the most enjoyable painting canvases in the range. They are also where the list starts to feel like your list, because loadout choices matter.
Recommended: Crisis Sunforge Battlesuits
Buy order three: a hammer unit
Every young T'au collection eventually wants one big centrepiece that ends arguments. For most collectors that is a Riptide or a Hammerhead gunship. Pick whichever model you would rather paint; at this stage of a collection, enthusiasm is worth more than optimisation.
Recommended: Riptide Battlesuit
Recommended: Hammerhead Gunship
What to skip at first
- A second box of basic infantry before you have built the first one. The pile of shame is real.
- Single-use specialists. They are great later, once the core of the army exists.
- Anything you are buying only because a tournament list said so. Points change; paint jobs do not.
Track it as you go
However you buy, log each box when it arrives and mark its build state; unbuilt counts as unbuilt. The built-and-painted share climbing is the single best motivator for finishing an army instead of accumulating one, and it gets you to that 1,000-point force without wasted boxes.
For the full rules, detachments and unit roster, see the T'au Empire faction page under Data.