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I've been hearing in past forums about something called fish of fury and a few other tactics with devilfishes to keep your fire warriors safe while moving around the map or something like that. What are they and do they still work in 5th edition?

Also can devilfish and tau tanks turboboost because they're skimmers? If not can they only move the standard 6" fire one weapon or 12" and fire no weapons? I know it's a silly question but I was just wondering

1) Fish of Fury is a tactic where you fly in the 'Fish, disembark behind it and fire "under" the fish. The theory is that because the enemy has to move around the fish to assault the warriors, they wont be able to reach the warriors and you can just embark the next turn. It worked well in 4th because of the skimmer rules. In 5th its not as good because it often results in either blocked LOS or giving the enemy a 4+ Cover save, negating 50% of the firepower right off the bat.

2) Skimmers do not Turboboost and never have. Tau Devilfish are not fast either, they are just normal Skimmers. They can move Combat Speed and Fire 1 or Cruising Speed and fire none.

Ah I see But would fish of fury still work fine against meq's and other things with armor save 4+ or better if it doesn't block LOS?

Theoretically, yes it could. You just need the devilfish on a high enough flyer base for the fire warriors to see under.

And Gwar!, the Tau do have one fast skimmer, the piranha.

I have no idea what you are talking about</Sneak Edit>

Ian1138 wrote:Theoretically, yes it could. You just need the devilfish on a high enough flyer base for the fire warriors to see under.

And Gwar!, the Tau do have one fast skimmer, the piranha.

This works two ways. You can see me, and I can see you. There's no one way line of sight.

Your sneak edit left behind a grammar error...

I played Tau for almost all of 4th edition. I must also add that i played FoF the ENTIRE time. Rules wise yes it works, Tau tanks may move 12" and fire A weapon (due to multi-trackers) but i must add that the Str4 defensive weapon nerf hurt this tactic the most. As Tau used to be able to move 12" and fire ALL of their weapons on a given vehicle. So as a result FoF has lost its speed and ability to keep at arm's length from an opponent.

The ability to run has also drastically hurt the Tau. As a Tau unit should never ever run (as they need to keep firing) because of this our battle suits can be tracked down by foot-slogging and jump infantry MUCH easier now.

Its legal to play FoF in the new edition, its just not really effective anymore.

Red_Lives wrote:I played Tau for almost all of 4th edition. I must also add that i played FoF the ENTIRE time. Rules wise yes it works, Tau tanks may move 12" and fire A weapon (due to multi-trackers) but i must add that the Str4 defensive weapon nerf hurt this tactic the most. As Tau used to be able to move 12" and fire ALL of their weapons on a given vehicle. So as a result FoF has lost its speed and ability to keep at arm's length from an opponent.

The ability to run has also drastically hurt the Tau. As a Tau unit should never ever run (as they need to keep firing) because of this our battle suits can be tracked down by foot-slogging and jump infantry MUCH easier now.

Its legal to play FoF in the new edition, its just not really effective anymore.

True, but the defensive weapon change isn't too much of a nerf (you lose a burst cannon OE NOES). Odds are that wouldn't make too much of a difference. On the other hand, the run rule hurt the Tau army as a whole, but that's a different thread.

No its more than that, you lose 1 burst cannon, AND the ability to fire seeker missiles. Which is bigger than you might think. And hammerheads lost missile pods fired at a different target (which was huge).

Also, the other issue was that the devilfish had great side and front armor, which made assaulting it a safe bet for the tau, because in 4th you needed a 6 just to hit it no matter how far it moved, and you were stuck to only striking the side you assaulted from, which was usually the front anyway.

In 5th, you have to move the fish above 6" to get the 'safe' to hit modifier and the tau are stuck with the fish being always hit in the rear regardless of assaulting direction, which makes for an easy KP and a lost mobility for the tau player.

Other than this and the other above mentioned reasons, the FOF tactic is still usable and good, just not 'great' as it once was.

Oh yea that too, almost forgot that nice tidbit.

Seeker missiles may be fired regardless of how far the vehicle moved ; look at the entry in the codex.


Devilfishes actually got somewhat of a boost because of Disruption Spheres; Sure a Melta will still smoke them but that is the case for almost ALL vehicles. So its kind of a Moot Point;

A good Set up is

Devilfish w/ SMS ; Target Array ; Target Tracker ; Disruption; Multitracker ; 120 points It can still go the distance; why multitracker? it allows it to move 6 and fire EVERYTHING at seperate targets if needed. It counts as a fast vehicle and so can fire one weapon at 12 and all at 6; just keep moving it 12 and firing.

10 man tau warrior squad w/ upgrade to marker light 135

240 points for the whole squad if you want to go cheap go cheap w/ just 6 normal dudes. Makes it 175 points.

Hollismason wrote:if you want to go cheap go cheap w/ just 6 normal dudes. Makes it 175 points.

2 casualties make a Ld check at Ld.7/8, and 4+ ruin the unit...not a good idea.