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Twin linking or 2 different weapons + multie?

Wasn't one of the old "Rule of Tau": Never twinlink?

Don't know if it is still valid, though.

How did it go?

- Never twinlink.
- Never bond.
- Buy more shots.

Wasn't it?

It all depends on what you want the suit to accomplish.

For example, I run a multi-purpose team with 2x suits, each with flamer, burst cannon and multitracker for anti-infantry work.
A third suit has T-L fusion blasters and a target lock so he can independently target tanks, the T-L gives him a better chance of a kill against a high priority target.

Choosing weapon/equipment fits for your suits depends on these 3 criteria:

1. The kind of targets you want to engage (light inf, heavy inf, light vehicles/transports, main tanks).
2. The tactical role of your suits (contesting objectives, tactical reserve, etc)
3. Synergy between different fits on a team.

The main thing to remember is not to do too much. Suits are good and can do a lot of damage but are easily killed by high Str/low AP weaponry. Pick a specific job for your suits/teams and fit them to that role.

Hope that helps - I'm holding off until 5th-ed comes out but then I'll look at writing some tau tactics articles if people are interested.

Regards, C_C

nwm

Whose rules were these, Steelmage99? I don't think any of them have ever been broadly applicable. TLing can be decent. Bonding is necessary with three-suit squads (so it's more like "Never have more than two suits in a squad if you can help it"). Finally, if we applied the last rule, all suits would be burst cannon + MP, which is just laughable.

It was a long time ago on this very board. It was just a general consensus at the time.

The rules weren't unchangable.

- Never twinlink was based on a lot of mathhammer, IIRC. And didn't apply to HQ.

- Never bond was about units being worthless (or there about) at the time Bonding Knife kicked in.

- Buy more shots was more of a mindset. Don't overload on special equipment and fancy gadgets. Buy more guys with guns.

Something like that.

The rules were from JTS, who did all the math hammer for 3rd ed Tau.

Basically, by the math, it worked out better to never twin-link on your suits, unless they were an HQ. The best multi-purpose crisis config was the fireknife, and the best HQ was the Shas'el, (who actually benefitted from twin linking over uprading to the Shas'O).

4th edition and the new tau rulebook have changed around some of these rules a little bit, but they mostly hold true.

Another example of how buying more shots wasn't always the best option is the Railhead with SMS. The SMS ability to fire without LOS can make it more useful than the burst cannons, even though they are cheaper and have more shots.

I would suspect, with defensive weapons going down to S4, the Ionhead is dead.

Exactly.

Buy more shots didn't mean litereally buy more dice to roll, it meant that generally 2 BS3 plasmas are better than 1 BS5 plasma, or 1 twinlinked BS3 plasma.

I always run markerlights to support my plasma/missile pod suits. Only way I've ever run them. Don't see that changing anytime soon.

Thanks for sharing, Stelek.

Don't really see the relevance, but thanks anyway.

Stelek wrote:I always run markerlights to support my plasma/missile pod suits. Only way I've ever run them. Don't see that changing anytime soon.

100% agreement on this. Markerlights on Suit units is straight up awesome now.

Makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

The TLing on HQ thing was made obsolete by C: TE, surely?

Also not sure about never Bonding. One suit of any kind sure isn't useless. Neither are 4 FWs. (And in 5th, even a single FW is useful.)

Uhh you run units with markerlights to make your BS3 plas/mp suits BS4 or BS5.

Add in rapid fire time for the suits, and they disintegrate most units in short order.

I run 3x3 crisis suits and 1xHQ, all equipped the same.

Make sense now? A little more relevant?

Stelek will beat me senseless, but I see value in the deathrain with target array upgrade. Upgrade one in the squad with a HW target lock. It's a great unit for popping transports.

In general, that's the only squad I'd twin link. I'd only ever twin link missile pods as they are the only multi-shot weapon that crisis suits can take that isn't replicated elsewhere in the list.

I don't use pathfinders much so use the few markerlights I do have for other units such as fire knives, vehicles, or larger rapid-firing FCW squads.

There were actually more rules of Tau, but they required a certain mindset. Most are still valid, but they're more important as principles instead of hard and fast rules - there are times when you should violate them, but know why you're going to violate them.

#1 - Buy more shots

This isn't "roll more dice", this is simply, "buy the most shots over the course of the game." Which means you have to take into consideration how often a weapon is likely to be fired over the full length of the game, and also the various capabilities of the weapons. This is why the fusion blaster is in general a sub-optimal weapon - it's excellent against armor and 2/3+ saves, but you have to get so close to use it that you'll only get a certain number of shots off. Its also the reason why the SMS on the Hammerhead is a great option, because with target locks, you can fire the rail gun at one target while engaging a second target 24" away.

#2 - Never twin-link
Essentially, this was a derivative of the first rule, because in general, you get more shots/hits from having two models with two weapons, then having two models each with one twin-linked weapon. It never applied well to commander suits, because of the higher BS. In general, this only applies to stock crisis suits.

#3 - Never Bond
The V4 and TE codexes changed this to "Never bond firewarriors." Crisis suit/broadside teams larger than 2 models are the exception to this rule. (I still think bonding is wasted on stealths, because your army should have plenty of S5 AP5 firepower.

Not a lot, Stelek.
The original question was "Twinlink vs. two weapons + Multi".

That you run other units in your army to give Markerlight support is fine and dandy, but do you twinlink or use 2 weapons + Multi on the suits in question?

It's pretty clear that Stelek means to imply that he uses dual weapons, as it's only logical to use that when relying on markerlights (also implied: to boost BS). Rude of him not to state it outright, but what do you expect?

No, not really rude.

I haven't opened my Tau Empire book in 2+ years, so it could be me that had missed the option to equip Crisis Suits with Markerlight. Had to go and check.

Uhh I said I use plas and MP.

Since I'm firing both, that would strongly imply I'm using multi-tracker.

So it's legal and all that.

Btw, I've never bonded in my life. I've learned to hide.

I wanted to say something about how a certain poster pass himself off as the master of the universe and keep accusing people of not really reading. But in the end it turned out too harsh.

Just ignore me.

Stelek wrote:
Btw, I've never bonded in my life. I've learned to hide.

....paging Dr. Freud

Anyway, in 5th I don't see a reason NOT to take Marker lights on Suit teams. In terms of the rest of the "rules", I don't think they change much. Plasma + MP is still the best two guns most of the time because they're the longest range.

With Troops being the only units able to hold objectives, and being able to do so down to the last man, the Bonding Knife suddenly becomes a very worthwhile upgrade.

Steelmage99, he meant that the Suits would be benefitting from the markerlights, not that they're carrying them.

VB, exalt.

Iorek, agree, like I said ("(And in 5th, even a single FW is useful").

The stealth suits were never bonded because the assumption was that you would play them in such a way as to never allow them to take casualties. With JSJ and a burst cannon range of 18", they should alway start about 24" away from the enemy. The 5th edition rules help with this immensely, because only one model in the unit has to be in range for everyone to shoot, and the whole enemy unit can be taken as casualties.

Also, with the stealth field, 2d6 averages about 7, and 7x3 = 21, so in theory, by keepin the stealth suits over 21" away from the enemy will greatly reduce the amount of enemy fire they will have to weather over the course of the game.

Once again, C:TE has changed the nature and points of alot of the Tau units, as well as making markerlights uber useful. Reading DD1's exploits at Adepticon makes me want to load up on Tetra's as well. Also, since the pathfinder's D-fish can now transport other troops in 5th, the mandatoryness of it's purchase isn't such a detriment anymore.

Well wouldn't Stealth Shas'vre/Team Leader benefit greatly from taking a Multi-Tracker and a Markerlight? Making the BS better for the unit would just be awesome.

Granted it's more expensive to throw Marker Drones in a Crisis Team, but the fact that you can up the accuracy of the team by a heck of a lot, it just makes me like the options now that Suites can JSJ while still firing Markerlights in V5.

Well, if you want to get into points and all that, there is another config that involves only 3 stealth suits and 6 gun drones, but the unit becomes harder to hide because it is larger.

Another thing to consider about HQ's is that the Shas'el's biggest strength was his IC status. Now that he won't be able to hide out in the open, it may be worthwhile to include a full body guard for him, and then leave the elite slots for stealth teams?

Voodoo Boyz: AFAIK, crisis and stealth suits cannot get network markerlights which help the units that possesses them. One would need to use the markerlight to assist other units.

A case could be made for a stealth markerlight team, but I prefer my tetras.

You can get Markerlight Drones for suits, though, which are Networked.

To tC: I was just being a little more explicit about that point. Sometimes you just have to spell things out.