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Another day, another list. So recently I had more or less my whole army wiped by a BA Drop Pod force with Heavy Flamer and Melta combat squads...which was half the points size of my army (I was against two others, 2K vs 1K and 1K, but the other player didn't really do anything due to the Drop Pods of death...). With that in mind, I've decided to adjust my list which should (in theory) prevent that from happening again.

It should be noted that my gaming group consists of Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, Orks, Necrons and Imperial Guard (and soon to be Vanilla Marines).

It is currently totalled at 1962pts, so I'm wondering what people think I should add in/change to take it to 2000pts.



A quick run-through of the units and their wargear:
Primarily designed the Commander for 'buff-mander' on the Plasma Crisis team. These guys (if I'm playing defensively) will sit in the middle/ just behind my battle line. When a unit Deep Strikes (say that Drop Pod with a Heavy Flamer stashed inside) I can use the Early Warning Override on the suits to Intercept the squad. As the Commander can't shoot if he uses the Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite and Command & Control Node, I've only given him a twin-linked Flamer to help with Overwatch. However, he is now giving the squad Twin-Linked Plasma Rifles that Ignore Cover. At 12", that's 24 S6 AP2 shots, which should be more than enough to wipe out a squad of Marines, or even Terminators!

The Firewarriors on foot will camp a home objective, while the Devilfish team can move forward. The Devilfish will protect that squad from and Deep Striking units that want to Heavy Flamer the squad inside to death.

The Fusion Crisis Team is a suicide tank hunter squad- Deep Strike them next to the largest concentration of enemy vehicles and watch the fireworks. Target Lock lets me split fire, potentially killing 3 tanks in one turn!

The Riptide is also kitted out for intercepting alpha-strike units, where their tight formation will suffer from the pie-plate the Ion Accelerator can drop.


20 Pathfinders- is it overkill? From my experiences, 10 is not enough. My opponents realise that they are a force multiplier, so focus fire on them.

I've not used a Sun Shark Bomber before, but on paper seems like a better investment than the Razorshark. It comes bundled with a Networked Markerlight too.

2 Hammerheads are the chief long-range anti-tank here. Submunition rounds have been loaded for Ork hordes.

Finally, 3 Broadsides for even more intercepting. I've opted for EWOs instead of Velocity Trackers as they are much cheaper, and with a plethora of twin-linked weapons, they can still deal a fair amount fo damage, even with Snap Shots against Flyers.

So, thoughts?

There are much, much better sources of Markerlights than Pathfinders. Have you considered Tetras? I usually run with a Mark'o.

I think your fire warriors and pathfinders are over costed. They are 9 points each for fire warriors and 11 for pathfinders.

There are much, much better sources of Markerlights than Pathfinders. Have you considered Tetras? I usually run with a Mark'o.

I don't have/use forge world units, simply because the cost of getting them is too much in an already expensive hobby.

I think your fire warriors and pathfinders are over costed. They are 9 points each for fire warriors and 11 for pathfinders.

They are, but there's also Shas'uis in the units, adding another 10 points.

You don't need Tetras to field a good Markerlight Support. Sky Rays, Mark'o and Drone Squadron, etc.

Also, Shas'uis don't add much to a FW team. The points can be better spent elsewhere.

Another thing the flyers are utter Gak. If you drop that you can add in another BS squad or better take the FBSC formation for Tank hunters and looking at your meta Pref Enemy on the SMs.

I wouldn't fear this list if it came up against me...

Tau have surprisingly little defence once up close, if it was me, i would simply max the gunline for the alpha (beta) strike on his newly arrived drop pods. He will get kills, but if you go bigger you stand a chance in halting his advance.

Ethereal [50]

Commander [125]
+ counterfire defence system
+ drone controller
+ stimulant injector
+ early warning override
+ Neuroweb System Jammer
+ Onager Gauntlet

12 Drones [168]

12 Fire Warriors [108]

12 Fire Warriors [108]

2 XV8 Crisis Team [138]
+ Crisis Shas'vre
+ plasma rifle
+ plasma rifle
+ marker drone
+ marker drone
+ Crisis Shas'ui
+ plasma rifle
+ plasma rifle

2 XV8 Crisis Team [138]
+ Crisis Shas'vre
+ plasma rifle
+ plasma rifle
+ marker drone
+ marker drone
+ Crisis Shas'ui
+ plasma rifle
+ plasma rifle

1 XV8 Crisis Team [52]
+ fusion blaster
+ fusion blaster

1 XV8 Crisis Team [52]
+ fusion blaster
+ fusion blaster

7 Pathfinders [77]

7 Pathfinders [77]

Hammerhead Gunship [143]
+ decoy launchers
+ disruption pod

Aegis Defence Lines = 50

Firebase =

XV104 Riptide [225]
+ early warning override
+ Riptide stimulant injector
+ ion accelerator
+ twin-linked fusion blaster

3 XV88 Broadside Team [244]
+ Broadside Shas'vre
+ early warning override
+ shield drone
+ shield drone
+ twin-linked high-yield missile pod
+ Broadside Shas'ui
+ early warning override
+ twin-linked high-yield missile pod
+ Broadside Shas'ui
+ early warning override
+ twin-linked high-yield missile pod

3 XV88 Broadside Team [244]
+ Broadside Shas'vre
+ early warning override
+ shield drone
+ shield drone
+ twin-linked high-yield missile pod
+ Broadside Shas'ui
+ early warning override
+ twin-linked high-yield missile pod
+ Broadside Shas'ui
+ early warning override
+ twin-linked high-yield missile pod

1,999 points

Put the ethereal, x2 pathfinders, x2 Firewarriors, x2 broadsides behind the defense line. Send out your suits, hammerhead and riptide. Fire base gives the broadsides and riptide tank hunter.

Hi I have had issues with drop pods too one thing that works in my group is the promethium relay pipes have them center field have two units of two crisis suits each with two flamers and EWO so it 8 torrent flamers all for 188 pts

If you get rid of your shas ui's the hammerhead and the bomber you can probably find a way to squeeze in three skyrays with sms which will out perform the things you're losing for days. The skyrays have two markerlights each meaning you could drop a pathfinder crew and use those points somewhere else too. EDIT: oh you have two hammer heads... so yeah lose those and the bomber and you've got three skyrays for 345 and a ton over a hundred extra points! skyrays hammer better than heads and anti air better than bumbers

Another thing the flyers are utter Gak. If you drop that...

I suppose so, with AV11 they ain't gonna stand up to much. Perhaps drop a Hammerhead in favour for a Skyray for AA (plus lose the bomber)?

f it was me, i would simply max the gunline for the alpha (beta) strike on his newly arrived drop pods. He will get kills, but if you go bigger you stand a chance in halting his advance.

Max gunline of 4+ Armour troops with Drop Pod Heavy Flamers coming at me? No thanks (you weren't available for that battle, it was painful to the extreme.). The thing is. Drop Pods = Heavy Flamers BEFORE I can shoot back. I need to minimise the damage I will receive, and I'd preferably not do that by simply upping body count in favour of some of the more specialised wargear that I can take to counter such tactics.

thefallenjackal Is that list even legal? 5 Elites I count (oh wait, 7ED added Unbound...). I'd like to keep the list FOC and no Farsight Enclaves. Out of curiosity, how do the broadsides and riptide get tank hunter?

one thing that works in my group is the promethium relay pipes

Aren't they severely limited supply? Like, sold out?



Automatically Appended Next Post:

There are much, much better sources of Markerlights than Pathfinders. Have you considered Tetras? I usually run with a Mark'o.

Just looked at FW, and realised that theyre 36 for 2. Wow, thats actually not bad. Then I looked up the rules...Yup, need at least 2 of these.