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A few posters in other threads have mentioned that they would favour smaller crisis teams of 1-2 rather than the full 3.

However taking a full team makes sense to me:

1. Less kill points
2. Bigger fire base
3. Spread 3 wounds before taking a casualty
4. If you take 2 drones as well you can absorb an insta-kill shot without losing a suit and without taking a morale check

Also, would you generally bond a crisis team?

Any thoughts?

I think when I was reading about Tau tactics it mentioned that it is nearly always a good idea to max out your units. The optimal size would be three equipped to do the exact same thing.

If you use an agressive style where you hide suits behind advancing Devilfishes, then 2 is the optimum size.

I prefer max size though.

A disadvantage of taking 3 suits (and no drones), is that if you lose 1 suit, you have to take a break test. And then again when you lose a second suit.

Personally, I usually go for teams of 3, but there is some disadvantages to it.

I rarely lose with my Tau. There's the disclaimer for the advice I'm about to give.

All my suit teams consist of 3 suits, except for occasional 42 point single suits that have a fusion blaster and flamer; I use those to attempt deep striking behind enemy lines to get a melta shot against an enemy tank; and if I can position it well, a flamer covering some troops too.

Of those three suits, depending on my army composition, I have one of two setups:

1. Three suits, team leader, two shield drones.

2. Three suits, team leader, two gun drones.

If I have a team of three suits sitting near my rear table edge with twin-linked missile pods, they've got two gun drones just in case I need to absorb a hit.

If I have a team of three suits with fusion/plasma combination skipping around the 12" distance from enemy units, they've got two shield drones. Depending on what I'm doing with my commander, there may also be a suit with Iridium armor and two shield drones attached to him. How about a suit with a 2+ armor save, with two shield drones attached that also both have 2+ armor saves and 4+ invulnerable saves?

It really depends on what you do with your suits. I'd tell you that you want 3 suits most of the time though (unless you're doing something crazy like my deep striking suicide vehicle killers).

" there may also be a suit with Iridium armor and two shield drones attached to him. How about a suit with a 2+ armor save, with two shield drones attached that also both have 2+ armor saves and 4+ invulnerable saves? "

The drones get the 2+ irridium armour save? That's not right, is it?

Yes it is. Shield Drones use the Toughness and Armor Save of their controller.

Yep, it makes for an awesome bait unit.

I like taking a Shas'o with two shield drones, giving him Iridium armor, and either giving him a stimpack, or attaching him to an elite unit, one of which has a stimpack with some other variety. Typically, I've got an Airburst Fragmentation Launcher on my shas'o for the large blast cover-ignoring nastiness, and I also have a cyclic ion blaster on him for his second weapon.

There's a lot of things you can do with suits to make them nasty little things.

There I go again, not reading the codex properly.

Does the shield drone give the commander himself a 4+ inv. save? This is the way I have been playing it!

troy_tempest wrote:There I go again, not reading the codex properly.

Does the shield drone give the commander himself a 4+ inv. save? This is the way I have been playing it!

A shield drone basically gives the squad a 4+ invul save. If the save is failed the drone is removed instead of the Crisis suit your opponent was really shooting at.

No, not really. The shield drone has the toughness and armor value of the controler. And in addition has a 4++ save. This reqires complex unit wound alocation, with the wounds alocated to the control not getting an inv. save. (unless he has a shield generator aswell)

Moral of this story, Allocate the lascannon wound to the drone, not the controler.

The Controller needs a shield generator to get a 4+ invul save for himself.

Learn a new thing every day...

troy_tempest wrote:A few posters in other threads have mentioned that they would favour smaller crisis teams of 1-2 rather than the full 3.

However taking a full team makes sense to me:

1. Less kill points
2. Bigger fire base
3. Spread 3 wounds before taking a casualty
4. If you take 2 drones as well you can absorb an insta-kill shot without losing a suit and without taking a morale check

Also, would you generally bond a crisis team?

Any thoughts?

i'd say take 3 (and i do). i also bond them and give them two gun drones for ablative armor. that "spread 3 wounds" only works for the first unit firing at them when they're unwounded. for the next squad that fires on them (even in the same turn), your have to choose the subunit suit with the wound already to make a save. adding in the gun drones gives you two lascannon or missle instant death absorbers.

I used to run three with a single shield drone and matching Fireknife weapons load outs (except for team leader who also got a flamer). But nowadays, when I play my tau I like to run pairs of identical suits with a single shield drone, and a flamer on the leader. In both cases I also liked to make 2 units of Fireknives and one of Deathrains, though the Deathrains don't get a shield drone because they are almost always able to hide behind something in the back field.

Sure you lose out on some of the Markerlight bonus by having more squads, but I also think that the need for more squads is stronger than the need for larger stronger squads.

Though I am a huge fan of the Twin-fusion, Missile suicide Shas'el and Pathfinder fish.