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Ive just got back into 40k, have me a Tau Battleforce, and an extra Crisis suit, plus a Commander.
Im intending to use them as his bodyguards until I get a third when ill use him as an IC and use the 3 suits as an Elite choice.

So what is the best loadout for a Commander to allow him to hold his own against as wide a variety of units as possible?
Im thinking of giving him the Cyclic Ion Blaster, a Plasma Rifle and then for wargear probably a Multi-tracker and Shield Generator to increase his survivability.

Suggestions?

CiB + Plasma is a solid build, altough the CiB can be a bit unreliable. If you are taking a Shas'el commander, I would advise you to give him a Targeting Array, so he hits on 2+.

Shield Generators are generally not worth it, take Shield Drones instead, they tend to increase his survivability even more. You can use your Shield Generators that you get with each crisis suit and glue them to the underside of Gun Drones (removing the guns ofc) to make plastic Shield Drones.

You might want to consider giving him a Missile Pod instead of one of the other weapon systems so he can affect the game even at longer ranges. Missile + Plasma is generaly considered a good build.

Hope that helps

Missile + Plasma is the classic Fireknife build, considered a general purpose anti-armour and anti-MEq selection.

Given the amount of vehicles in the modern metagame, the Plasma+Fusion Gun build is worth a look.

The best thing with Crisis suits is to magnetize the weapon packs, so you can swap them around.

Wyvern wrote:Ive just got back into 40k, have me a Tau Battleforce, and an extra Crisis suit, plus a Commander.
Im intending to use them as his bodyguards until I get a third when ill use him as an IC and use the 3 suits as an Elite choice.

So what is the best loadout for a Commander to allow him to hold his own against as wide a variety of units as possible?
Im thinking of giving him the Cyclic Ion Blaster, a Plasma Rifle and then for wargear probably a Multi-tracker and Shield Generator to increase his survivability.

Suggestions?

I've been running this set up for three years against termie heavy DA and CSM, works a treat

I run one of two builds. The first is the above mentioned Plasma/ML combo. It is the most reliable and serves to work well against a number of armies. The second build I go for is a Fusion Blaster and Falmer combo with the fail safe. I don't really kit him out much more as he is meant to die. I tend to field this guy against the horde armies where even in death he will take out a number of the models.

Thanks for the help guys. Ill probably be taking your advice, but maybe sway out the Missile Pod for the CIB if im facing GEQ's.

Personally my view on any Crisis suit squad is that, unless you want it to die, give it long range weapons. You want the ability to JSJ out of range of enemy assault units while still getting your full firepower to bear. I'd almost swear by Missile Pods. Great cost per firepower ratio, and when used with pretty much any other weapon (Plasma Rifle and Burst Cannon most common, Fusion Blaster apparently also works. Twinlinking them also is a great choice.) they do very well. You just have to realize Crisis Suits are Space Marines with really nice jump packs and good weapons. They die to any concentrated fire, and you lose a huge amount of firepower with each death.

I personally swear by Burst Cannon - Missile Pod - Multitracker as a base because 3 of such suits can spit out 15 S5+ shots in a turn. Plasma rifles wreck MEQs, MCs, and light vehicles. TL Missile Pods wreck transports.

As for secondary upgrades, just try to tailor your suit for a specific role and keep them cheap. The upgrades aren't THAT good. I would strongly reccomend drones over shield generators.

Perhaps a cycling ion blaster or a frag

sluggaslugga wrote:Perhaps a cycling ion blaster or a frag

The Cyclic can be unreliable, as mentioned before, and the Airburst is only really useful if they have weak infantry positioned in cover, although it could potentially prove it's worth against other units.

I run a MP+ PR combo every time.

MP/PR/MT + hard-wired target lock gives you the best amount of all-around firepower putting out 2-4 S6+ shots. Target lock allows you to attach to Kroot/PF/Broadsides to up their Leadership in early turns but not lose firepower.

Most of the upgrades like Failsafe, Iridium armor, etc. are generally wastes of points as in the best case scenario, you really don't need them and are unlikely to use them with Tau's phobia of combat.