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OK, so I have been lucky enough to find myself a boxed set of the Firebase Support Cadre, and was wondering what is the best way to use it at 1000pts?

I've had a tentative go at a buffmander and Mark'O lists below, but is there a better way to make the most of it? Also, is a Firebase going to get a lot of hate at 1000pts?


TAU CAD - Mark'O list

-Commander, Iridium Suit, Target Lock, Drone Controller, NSJ, 2x MP 160 pts
(Attached to Drones),

-Firewarriors 54
-Kroot 60
-Marker Drones x 7, 108pts

Firebase Support Cadre

-Riptide, Ion Accelerator, TL Fusion Blaster, EWO, Stim Injector 225pts
-Broadside, 3 x Shas'ui TL HYMP, TL SMS, 1 x Velocity Tracker, 215 pts
-Broadside, 3 x Shas'ui TL HRR, TL SMS, 1 x Velocity Tracker, 215 pts

TOTAL 998 pts

TAU CAD - Buffmander list

-Commander, Puretide Chip, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, NSJ, Repulsor Impact Field, 2xflamer 142 pts
(Attached to HYMP Broadsides),

-Firewarriors 54
-Kroot 60
-Pathfinders, 44pts
-Pathfinders, 44pts

Firebase Support Cadre

-Riptide, Ion Accelerator, TL Fusion Blaster, EWO, Stim Injector 225pts
-Broadside, 3 x Shas'ui TL HYMP, TL SMS, 1 x Velocity Tracker, 215 pts
-Broadside, 3 x Shas'ui TL HRR, TL SMS, 1 x Velocity Tracker, 215 pts

TOTAL 999 pts

Mark'o is the better choice as Broadsides generally don't need ML/buff support but Riptides do. All your Broadsides want to be Missilesides with EWO. Railsides are terrible they simply don't do enough. Missilesides also don't need VTs to be AA with EWO on them they do over 4 HPs of damage to an AV11 flyer on average. They also torrent down basically anything through shear weight of wounds. Likewise they murder basically any AV you fire them at from AV13 downwards.

Otherwise you're too heavy on gear which is costing you firepower. I'd do this with your list:

Commander: 2 MP, DC, TL, 2 Marker Drones, NSJ 154

Fire Warriors 54
Fire Warriors 54

Marker Drones: 56

FBSC
Riptide: Ion, Fusion, EWO 190
3 Missilesides: 3 EWO, 3 Missile drones 246
3 Missilesides: 3 EWO, 3 Missile drones 246

This is basically an auto win vs any reserve heavy list or and drop pod list. You can kill flyers before they get to shoot even once. Whilst your Riptide should be deleting a unit a turn. The weaknesses are AV14 and mobile scoring.

Wow, that is a really mean looking list - not sure my opponent would ever come back for more

I like the idea of the double 3xmissilesides - what's the maths on them with missile pod ? 10 shots, reroll on 8, average 6-7 hits? I guess with that they could live without the buffmander afterall.

Also I thought Stim Injector was pretty much a standard requirement on the riptide as he is going to be centre of attention?

12 twinlinked tank hunting shots and another 12 S5 that also ignores LoS and Cover plus the missile drones. Av damage output is as follows without ML support.

Vs AV13 9 hits from sides 2 Hits from Drones x 11/36 (chance to glance on a 6 rerolling) 3.36 HPs
Vs AV12 as before 11 S7 hits x 5/9 6.11 HPs on average 3.056 pens)
Vs AV11 11 S7 hits 8.25 HPs and 9 S5 hits 2.75 HPs total 11 HPs!!!
Vs AV10 a total of 14.77 HPs!!!

Snapfiring the numbers are:

Vs AV12 4.67 S7 hits 2.59 HPs
Vs AV11 S7 does 3.5 HPs, S5 does 1.12HPs total of 4.62
Vs AV10 a total of 5.53 HPs!

Against Infantry and MCs:

Vs T6 3+ armour 10.33 wounds 3.44 unsaved wounds (a real shot at one shoting a Nid like Fex or Tyrant a single ML shifts to 4.22 unsaved wounds).
Vs T5 13.67 wounds
Vs Marines 17.69 wounds nearly 6 dead marines
Vs Terminators 17.69 wounds 3 Dead Terminators.
Vs Orks in open 15.167 dead
Vs Orks in 5+ cover S7 does 9.167 wounds 6.11 unsaved S5 does 6 ignores cover wounds for a total of 12 dead Orks

Remembering the above holds on interceptor should some poor soul bring a drop pod army. Missilesides are probably the 2nd best unit in the entire game for damage output to points ratio (AM Wyverns are number 1, but have a lower variety of targets).

TOTAL 998 pts

TAU CAD - Buffmander list

-Commander, Puretide Chip, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, NSJ, Repulsor Impact Field, 2xflamer 142 pts
(Attached to HYMP Broadsides),

-Firewarriors 54
-Kroot 60
-Pathfinders, 44pts
-Pathfinders, 44pts

Firebase Support Cadre

-Riptide, Ion Accelerator, TL Fusion Blaster, EWO, Stim Injector 225pts
-Broadside, 3 x Shas'ui TL HYMP, TL SMS, 1 x Velocity Tracker, 215 pts
-Broadside, 3 x Shas'ui TL HRR, TL SMS, 1 x Velocity Tracker, 215 pts

TOTAL 999 pts

Yes HRR are better against Paladins (not a massively common unit) but not by a huge amount considering how weak they are against other units (average 1.46 wounds from 3 HYMP vs 1.46 ID wounds from the HRR so nearly 3 wounds total). Where as he has the Ion Accelerator for that. You know a weapon that is actually efficient at the job. The HRR has 0% chance to explode a land raider they can not pen it only glance it. Fusion blasters are Tau's only effective tool against AV14.

He only has 10 Kroot for 60 points.

Shield Drones are worthless. Missile Drones are infinitely better. You can get a 4+ cover save easily enough they are also T4 so for no extra points you gain 2 more S7 shots. It also means that if your opponent doesn't have Lascannons you're not wasting points on liabilities.

Echo0455 wrote:


anyway take those off and put EWO on your 3 HYMP broadsides, and let your Batman(buffmander) give them skyfire.

The Buffmander can not hand out skyfire still takes the VT's for that rule.

barnowl wrote:

Echo0455 wrote:


anyway take those off and put EWO on your 3 HYMP broadsides, and let your Batman(buffmander) give them skyfire.

The Buffmander can not hand out skyfire still takes the VT's for that rule.

Yeah I noticed that got carried away with how far out all his other points were I forgot to mention this. The guy must not play Tau at all.

 FlingitNow wrote:

barnowl wrote:

Echo0455 wrote:


anyway take those off and put EWO on your 3 HYMP broadsides, and let your Batman(buffmander) give them skyfire.

The Buffmander can not hand out skyfire still takes the VT's for that rule.

Yeah I noticed that got carried away with how far out all his other points were I forgot to mention this. The guy must not play Tau at all.

Or maybe he is just an enthusiastic Tau beginner like me?

Thanks for the input, the list I think I am going to go with is this:

Commander: 2 MP, DC, TL, 2 Marker Drones, NSJ 154

Fire Warriors 54
Fire Warriors 54

Marker Drones: 56

FBSC
Riptide: Ion, Fusion, EWO 190
3 Missilesides: 3x EWO, 1x Target Lock, 1x VT 4 Missile drones 283
3 Railsides: 3x EWO, 210

1003 pts

I realize the Missilesides are statistically better than the Railsides, but I want to mix it up for a bit of variety and I want to give my opponent a chance - he will be playing SM, so will have a hard enough time as it is. I have also put VT + TL on one of the Missilesides as my opponent does tend to be flier heavy running ravens with talon escorts, so I want to be able to split the fire between them and hopefully take down one flyer guaranteed the turn it arrives, two if I am lucky.

In the case of the missile drones on this unit, do I get to choose whether they shoot with the VT TL Missileside or do they have to fire with the rest of the unit?

You only get 1 support system on a Broadside so you can't have the VT & Target Lock, you can't even have a VT & EWO on the side. Hence why EWO is the better bet as it allows you to kill flyers in the enemy turn rather than overkilling them in yours.

If he goes flyer heavy then that is all the more reason to go missileside as Railsides are not effective against flyers. Of you want to try the Railsides don't build the arms because you will be hugely disappointed compared to Missilesides and then you'll want to rip the arms off or go out and buy another 3. When the codex first dropped (before the FBSC was a thing) I ran 6 Broadsides in 3 units of 2 one of which was Railsides. Within 2 games I wanted to swap them, by the 3rd game I had tried ripping the arms off but damaged the models and ended up just buying 2 more to replace them. So that was a £60 mistake.

Also as a courtesy thing if you are writing your list in advance you shouldn't go over the agreed points value even by a point. I know playing your friend he probably won't care but it is a good habit to get into. Particularly when you have a 2 point upgrade in the NSJ. Your opponent may have had to make tough choices to come in under the agreed limit and then finds out you didn't bother. Now some people won't care particularly as you're new to the game but as I said it is a good habit to get into. If you're creating a list on the fly to play a game there and then going 1 or 2 points over is more acceptable but given you're writing this list in advance with help there is no reason to be over. Sorry if that came across condescending or ranty I'm trying to be informative.

Ah, missed that about one support system - EWO does make more sense then, so will maybe put the saved points towards a few more missile drones. I will also take your advice about the Railsides and play a few games with the arms blue tacked on - they are no where near the top of my painting list for now so it will fly for a while.

 FlingitNow wrote:

Also as a courtesy thing if you are writing your list in advance you shouldn't go over the agreed points value even by a point. I know playing your friend he probably won't care but it is a good habit to get into. Particularly when you have a 2 point upgrade in the NSJ. Your opponent may have had to make tough choices to come in under the agreed limit and then finds out you didn't bother. Now some people won't care particularly as you're new to the game but as I said it is a good habit to get into. If you're creating a list on the fly to play a game there and then going 1 or 2 points over is more acceptable but given you're writing this list in advance with help there is no reason to be over. Sorry if that came across condescending or ranty I'm trying to be informative.

Yeah I know, I've written elsewhere here about how annoying it is when people go 5 points over when they have melta bombs on a serg, but we usually agree a 5 point leeway for friendly games so we don't spend too long agonizing over the most efficient list

I would also recommend a burstide with stim and VT their a blast and with TH it will drop so many of the fliers ur worried about and has a decent chance for wounding AV14 which atm you have nothing capable of besides railsides which imo are meh

or you can do EWO and STIM on the tide

I just perfer the burstide over the ion as I have had multiple games where it has pulled its weight from blowing up dreadnaughts and marines where the ion isnt able to do that

Nooblet0023 wrote:
I would also recommend a burstide with stim and VT their a blast and with TH it will drop so many of the fliers ur worried about and has a decent chance for wounding AV14 which atm you have nothing capable of besides railsides which imo are meh

The nova charged HBC does look awesome, and who wouldn't love 12 rending S6 shots - my only issue is that they are all get hot, and I don't trust myself not to end up suiciding my riptide first turn of shooting (trust me, I can do it )

The Burstcannon is the AAtide build but is generally only good in FE. The HBC is a poor weapon unless nova charged and Nova charging is just not reliable. Add in 12 gets hot rolls and it is becoming a real liability. Give it VT & EWO though and 12 shots at a flyer plus it's secondary weapon (I tend to advise fusion unless you've got fusion suits as troops) and you've got something to actually worry flyers. Give it the Earth Caste Pilot array and you solve most of its problems. Rerolls on Nova charge means you can reliably access the worthwhile mode most turns and rerolls 1s to hit not only smooths over the Gets Hot weakness but also generates extra damage. Hence why it is only for FE.

I've only run it with ECPA but I believe zagman prefers the brustide over the ion but on my phone ATM so can't easily read the thread to see if I can find the post

 FlingitNow wrote:
The Burstcannon is the AAtide build but is generally only good in FE. The HBC is a poor weapon unless nova charged and Nova charging is just not reliable. Add in 12 gets hot rolls and it is becoming a real liability. Give it VT & EWO though and 12 shots at a flyer plus it's secondary weapon (I tend to advise fusion unless you've got fusion suits as troops) and you've got something to actually worry flyers. Give it the Earth Caste Pilot array and you solve most of its problems. Rerolls on Nova charge means you can reliably access the worthwhile mode most turns and rerolls 1s to hit not only smooths over the Gets Hot weakness but also generates extra damage. Hence why it is only for FE.

In TE list you can use Shadowsuns CnC drone to offset the Gets Hot, but still have to deal with the Nova charge, maybe Stim Injectors?

It's not the taking the wound from the Nova that is the major issue it is that without Nova charging you have a 200 point unit that puts 4 S6 hits on a unit. Also stims means you can't have EWO and VT so it isn't AA meaning the Iontide wins out. Particularly with Broadside spam so you don't need a volume fire unit but a S8 Ap2 blast really helps cover the Broadsides' weaknesses.