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I have been looking into the fast section of the Tau codex and I really like what I see.

What do you all think is the best load out on these troops? How effective are they?

A unit of 5 piranha with fusion blasters, dispruption pods and targeting arrays

a unit of 10 vespid (actually a possible space marine hunter but no armor can be a major drawback

Pathfinders (Marker lights are gold but this unit is expensive. What is the correct loadout for them?)

Gun Drones (A waste as an actual army selection)

Vespids are too weak. I would never take them. I used them in 1 game. I zoomed up to a unit of necrons, shot at them, and then assaulted. 0 Necrons died, all my vespids died

I don't have much expirience with piranhas. I don't like them, but some people do.

Pathfinders are awesome. The only drawback is the expensive devilfish.


What do you mean by the correct loadout, as in equipment?

Vespids can only shoot one shot per gun, NEED markerlight support (since they are BS3), and have a low save. They are pretty expensive too. BUT, they can be used effectively if used very carefully. Deepstriking behind SM so they don't get cover is one great way to use them.

Pirahnas are great at blocking enemy vehicles lanes. Always take FD on them. Because they will get assaulted if used right.

Pathfinders should only be used for markerlights. And in that case they are going to be stationary since their guns are Heavy. The good thing is that for every pathfinder squad you take, its one less DF to buy for a FW squad.

Don't use vespids. They suck at everything they are designed to do.

Pirahnas are one of those small or big units. Either take like 1 or 2, or use like 5. They can be used very effectively for blocking unit movements, and popping tanks. Plus it gives you like a million gun drones to throw around.

Pathfinders rock in higher point games (>1000). Scout them into some cover and leave them there. Give their D fish to a unit of firewarriors.

Gun drone squads aren't worth it. You will usually have a ton floating around from vehicles.

As said, Vespids are crap. PF and Piranhas are gold.

PF are there for marker lights. Give their Fish to a squad of FCW.

Piranhas are there to block the movement of critical enemy transports carrying deadly assault troops toward you, and to melta/fusion-kill any such transports they can with whatever Piranhas are left alive after the movement-block/dodge the Ram maneuver.

Vespids are probably the worst unit in the Codex (or indeed any Codex), but thanks to their AP3 gun, some marine players are scared of them and devote undue amount of attention to them. "ONOEZ I don't get my precious armour save I must not go near them", completely oblivious to the fact that their actual damage output is pathetic.

Sometimes your lucky stars line up and you find a Marine unit or 3+ save MC in the open, and you can Neutron blast them with Markerlight support. Those are moments to be savoured, for they are very rare...

hmm I really thought vespid if used correctly could be very good unit especially with the high number of marine and daemons that I see. The main issue as stated is their bs which would be helped by marker lights and getting them a save. Maybe if I ran them I could screen them with piranha's?

*Sigh*

Don't buy them, proxy them for a few games and see how they perform.

The Bringer wrote:*Sigh* Don't buy them, proxy them for a few games and see how they perform.

+1 this. At least until the new book comes out, heavily rumored for year's end.

okay, would running 15 piranha's at 2500 points be good or just too much on that front? It will be expensive but I like the idea of mass vehicles + speed

Tomb King wrote:okay, would running 15 piranha's at 2500 points be good or just too much on that front? It will be expensive but I like the idea of mass vehicles + speed

I've heard of people doing that as a Shock/Awe factor, but the over all strategy isn't very effective. The Disruption Pod only works from over 12" and the best weapon it has is the Fusion Blaster...so getting close enough to shoot nulls the DP protection

I run two teams of 6 markerfinders + 3 Forgeworld XV9's @ 2500 points. In no-forgeworld games, I run two teams of 6 markerfinders + a squadron of three piranha /w Fusions, TA's & Flechettes. One of them gets a DP (so the whole squadron gets cover on the cheap.).

I find that the two teams of pathies are a great investment. They are forced to take the Devilfish's, which a pair of stripped down 6 man fire warrior squads ride in, kitted out as Scorefish (DP as only upgrade). With the FAQ, it's not 3 KP anymore if that thing gets vaporized, just 2, so it's less risky. Great stuff.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tomb King wrote:okay, would running 15 piranha's at 2500 points be good or just too much on that front? It will be expensive but I like the idea of mass vehicles + speed

Are we... independantly wealthy?

Cottonjaw wrote:I run two teams of 6 markerfinders + 3 Forgeworld XV9's @ 2500 points. In no-forgeworld games, I run two teams of 6 markerfinders + a squadron of three piranha /w Fusions, TA's & Flechettes. One of them gets a DP (so the whole squadron gets cover on the cheap.).

I find that the two teams of pathies are a great investment. They are forced to take the Devilfish's, which a pair of stripped down 6 man fire warrior squads ride in, kitted out as Scorefish (DP as only upgrade). With the FAQ, it's not 3 KP anymore if that thing gets vaporized, just 2, so it's less risky. Great stuff.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tomb King wrote:okay, would running 15 piranha's at 2500 points be good or just too much on that front? It will be expensive but I like the idea of mass vehicles + speed

Are we... independantly wealthy?

My guard army has 5 valk/vendetta and 12 chimera. Just willing to go far enough to build the army I want.

Gat dang.

I guess I have 15 Crisis suits and 3 XV9's... but still.

Cottonjaw wrote:I run two teams of 6 markerfinders + 3 Forgeworld XV9's @ 2500 points. In no-forgeworld games, I run two teams of 6 markerfinders + a squadron of three piranha /w Fusions, TA's & Flechettes. One of them gets a DP (so the whole squadron gets cover on the cheap.).

I find that the two teams of pathies are a great investment. They are forced to take the Devilfish's, which a pair of stripped down 6 man fire warrior squads ride in, kitted out as Scorefish (DP as only upgrade). With the FAQ, it's not 3 KP anymore if that thing gets vaporized, just 2, so it's less risky. Great stuff.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tomb King wrote:okay, would running 15 piranha's at 2500 points be good or just too much on that front? It will be expensive but I like the idea of mass vehicles + speed

Are we... independantly wealthy?

You should see some of the people I airsoft with...they put some 40K players to shame in terms of money spent

Cottonjaw wrote:Gat dang.

I guess I have 15 Crisis suits and 3 XV9's... but still.

:( I think I have close to 25 crisis suits, I am gonna have to sell some. I dont like the load outs on some!

Back on topic:

Would it be worth it to take all burst cannons on one unit. 15 S 5 Ap 5 shots might do some damage!

Generally not, because you can easily get S5 shooty elsewhere in the army. The point of Crisis suits is generally to bring missile pods and plasma to the table, since other units can't do that.

Mannahnin wrote:Generally not, because you can easily get S5 shooty elsewhere in the army. The point of Crisis suits is generally to bring missile pods and plasma to the table, since other units can't do that.

My bad, I mean 5 burst cannons on the Piranha's

I could have figured that out by you saying "back on topic", but didn't put in the deductive reasoning.

I think you're better off with Fusion on them. IME the main job is preventing transports (especially land raiders and battlewagons) from delivering their contents to eat your army. Melta and railguns are the two best ways to kill tanks (AP1 is key). Any Piranhas which survive the blocking maneuver turn are in perfect position to deliver hot melta love.

Eh... STR5 is everywhere in the Tau dex. And AP5 is lolcakes. The Fusion Blasters come cheap on the Piranha's, and they are fast enough to stay alive with them.

Yup - play aggressively with the Piranhas and your opponent will be like "LOLZ HEZ ATTACKING" until you then unload FB in to his lovely horrible side armour.

SOMETIMES - it can be handy to have a seeker missile and with a 24" turbo boost you can get side armour first turn. This depends on what your markerlights can pull off though. Remember Markerlights don't allow the tanks a save (If they've popped smoke/obscured/DE 5++ save). This isn't a be all and end all of tactics but it can work occasionally and it is funny to pull off. One of the only weapons you can fire after turboboosting IIRC.

gr1m_dan wrote:Yup - play aggressively with the Piranhas and your opponent will be like "LOLZ HEZ ATTACKING" until you then unload FB in to his lovely horrible side armour.

SOMETIMES - it can be handy to have a seeker missile and with a 24" turbo boost you can get side armour first turn. This depends on what your markerlights can pull off though. Remember Markerlights don't allow the tanks a save (If they've popped smoke/obscured/DE 5++ save). This isn't a be all and end all of tactics but it can work occasionally and it is funny to pull off. One of the only weapons you can fire after turboboosting IIRC.

The 5+ DE save is a ward save not a cover save. Therefore it cant be negated!

The markerlight doesn't have to wound. Just hit. So the DE save never has a chance to happen. The 5+ will apply to the seeker missile, however.

Tomb King wrote: I have been looking into the fast section of the Tau codex and I really like what I see.

What do you all think is the best load out on these troops? How effective are they?

A unit of 5 piranha with fusion blasters, dispruption pods and targeting arrays

a unit of 10 vespid (actually a possible space marine hunter but no armor can be a major drawback

Pathfinders (Marker lights are gold but this unit is expensive. What is the correct loadout for them?)

Gun Drones (A waste as an actual army selection)

Hmmm.... I generally use piranha as harrassment vehicles and i treat them more like vehicles than say biker squads. I'm not a fan of the 40k Squadron rules at all so I only run them 1 at a time with a fusion blaster (if i have points to spend i'll add a target lock or flechette dischargers or something). I run them flat out always so they get the cover save and only move less when im in a position to strike a tank. For me they are a unit that usually is the first to die and is mostly distractionary, but sometimes i get lucky and it'll actually pop a tank or two. I'd rather have my opponent focus attention on this disposable vehicle in his troops' faces than focus on my crisis suits, tanks etc

Vespid are overpriced and not really worth one of your 3 fast attack slots.

Pathfinders are the BEST way to get markerlights for Tau. I will usually run a unit of 5 and in larger pt games i'll always try to have at least 2x 5 man teams because people who have played me know they are important to my success. The devilfish are the same price as the kind you can buy alone, but they come with that Deep Strike helping equipment, sorry I forget its name. I simply use the devilfish to cart my firewarriors/kroot around.

Gun Drones are another overpriced unit. I really wish they were cheaper (disposable like Kroot), and were troop selections not fast attack.


In most 1500 pt games on up i'll run the following slots for my Fast Attack:

Slot 1: 5 man Pathfinder squad with Devilfish
Slot 2: 5 man Pathfinder squad with Devilfish
Slot 3: Piranha with Fusion Blaster and maybe other stuff points allowing

Cottonjaw wrote:The markerlight doesn't have to wound. Just hit. So the DE save never has a chance to happen. The 5+ will apply to the seeker missile, however.

Check the word for the markerlight.

Above he said it can negate the save of the DE raider. It cant it only negates cover not an invul!

Tomb King wrote:

Cottonjaw wrote:The markerlight doesn't have to wound. Just hit. So the DE save never has a chance to happen. The 5+ will apply to the seeker missile, however.

Check the word for the markerlight.

Above he said it can negate the save of the DE raider. It cant it only negates cover not an invul!

but since you don't cause wounds with the actual markerlight hit you don't get to take a save against it.

if I use a markerlight hit to subsequently launch a seeker missile they'd get their save, cover or invulnerable, against it.

I also agree that Vespids are a wasted option because there is always something else better the points can be spent on. I dont use piranhas but from what ive seen the can be very effective at blocking enemy lanes and taking out transports...then dying lol I would not reccomend a squad of 15 simply b/c I usually only see them used to take out vehicles, so unless its a large scale battle. Then again if you drop all the guns drones then thats 30! 30 gun drones are bound to kill a few Meq's or other troops. still it all sounds very risky, it would be incredibly interesting to see tried out in a competitive game though, I would be very interested at seeing the battle report lol

I can see where mass units of Piranha would work, but you would have to mix weapons as having all Fusion or all Burst would fail. You would also need to reserve some for the different stages of the game.

I have been successful with blocking/Attacking Vehicles and Infantry with 3 Piranha. 5 would cover more area and 15 would choke the entire board. I think heavy Marker lights and Seeker Missiles would do well for negating cover and getting side + rear armor.

Tomb King wrote:

Cottonjaw wrote:The markerlight doesn't have to wound. Just hit. So the DE save never has a chance to happen. The 5+ will apply to the seeker missile, however.

Check the word for the markerlight.

Above he said it can negate the save of the DE raider. It cant it only negates cover not an invul!

You can't save with ANYTHING against a Markerlight. You CAN save against the Seeker afterwards though. It is simply a laser targeting system and doesn't cause wounds and so you can't take an INV save against it.

Tomb King wrote:
Check the word for the markerlight.

Above he said it can negate the save of the DE raider. It cant it only negates cover not an invul!

Sigh. What he said is that you can never get any kind of save against the Markerlight. You CAN get a save against the Seeker missile, though, and if it's an Inv save, you can't use extra Markerlight hits to negate it.