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When I first read about Al'Rahem, my initial impression was "wow, lets you outflank with a huge platoon, and lets you move and fire!" Of course I thought of moving in to rapidfire, then moving back out of assault range and perhaps back into cover. However, after some thinking, some additional uses came to me.

If the squad doesn't move in the movement phase, they could fire their heavy weapons and shoot their rifles 24", then move a d6". This effectively gives the squad "Slow and Purposeful".

Imagine a platoon outflanking with AC/Plasma, perhaps a 45man platoon merged into 2 squads of 20. When they come on order them to Move! so they get closer (or not if you're already close enough).

Next turn shoot with all your guns at max range and then move a d6" with both squads. This will let you still move to objectives while laying down some nice shots against side armor (or enemy troops).

If they start moving to you, don't worry, you can still shoot at full effect and move back away from the enemy

And if you don't feel like moving, just using Bring It Down! (Al has it) and hit them where it hurts


I honestly think Al'Rahem has some seriously dangerous potential and am looking forward to trying him out (w/ Astropath of course). Combined with some outflanking Valks/Vends and you can wreak some havoc.

Huh, that's an interesting thought - very cool idea for a tactic. I've actually been thinking along different lines for Al'Rahem - thinking about his units like Tau Crisis suits, being able to move-shoot-move. Move them out of cover, fire assault weapons, move back into cover again.

It is also a way to give units with assault weapons a psuedo fleet ability -- shoot and they get to 'run' and still assault. The other options mentioned are much more viable for the units involved but it is still an interesting tactic.

winterman wrote:It is also a way to give units with assault weapons a psuedo fleet ability -- shoot and they get to 'run' and still assault. The other options mentioned are much more viable for the units involved but it is still an interesting tactic.

Yeah, I thought about that one as well, might be interesting to move a squad w/ a meltagun close to a tank, shoot, then "fleet" (if you're not close enough to assault) and hit it with melta/krak.



As for using them like Crisis Suits, that is a little harder to pull off. You would pretty much have to use Grenade Launchers, move out and shoot, then Run! back into cover. If you used plasma you would still be rather close to the enemy.


I'm thinking that a good Platoon would be

PCS w/ Al: 3GL w/ vox: This would allow this squad to move in and out of cover w/ GL fire.
2 Infantry Squads: AC/PG w/ vox: Can't decide if they would be better off w/ GL or PG. PG would give some nice punch, but GL saves a lot of points. I think the voxes are a solid choice, wouldn't want to fail these Orders.

BoxANT wrote:As for using them like Crisis Suits, that is a little harder to pull off. You would pretty much have to use Grenade Launchers, move out and shoot, then Run! back into cover. If you used plasma you would still be rather close to the enemy.

Yeah, my concern for it was weapon range - I think I like your idea better.