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Just getting into Tau, and i've got 10 battlesuits for the core of my army. I want to know what Dakka thinks is the best loadout for

a) Hordes
b) Meq
c) AV

I think it would be a shame to go with the standard loadouts and not have 3 weapons on the battlesuit hardpoints, but that can get pricey quickly. I may bump the number of suits up to 12 depending on how they do in playtesting. I've got Broadsides and piranhas with fusion backing these guys up, so anti-vehicle is prett much covered, buti'd like to see an AV loadout nontheless. Thanks

Suppose Plasma rifles and fusion blasters is best agaisnt meq, while burst cannons, flamers and missile pods is better against hordes. haven't played tau for a long time, but I think that would work.

Three weapons on a suit is really a waste, since you can only ever fire two of them (with a multi tracker in the third hardpoint).

Hordes are probably BC/MP
MEQ is FB/PR
AV most likely would be TLMP for light transports, FB if you really had to kill AV14 with a suit.

PR/MP is widely considered to be the best compromise - it's got the range and stopping power for most things. That said, only experimentation and number crunching will get you to understanding what works for you and why.

Don't sweat the choice too much, play around, and spend 5-10 bucks here: http://www.kjmagnetics.com

I guess it all depends on how much you want to spend on the unit. My favorite configuration in low point games is TL Missiile Pods and Flamer. It's cheap, long range, and versatile. It can go against armor, it can do reasonably good agianst meq (though there are better options), and if the horde manage to get close they can use their 4 point flamers. It can't kill heavy armor, but that's best left to the railguns. It's unfortunately got high AP also, which isn't great, but two twin linked strength 7 shots per suit at 36" does make it a very aggressive suit for the price.

The more expensive and more effective configuration is the tried and true Plasma, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker. That is alot of useful firepower. You lose the TL on the missile pod, and the template from the flamer, but you gain more mid range shots per round (half of them at a good MEQ killing AP). It is more pricey per suit by about 15 points per suit IIRC.

Jokorey wrote:Three weapons on a suit is really a waste, since you can only ever fire two of them (with a multi tracker in the third hardpoint).

By three weapons i meant a TL set, and an extra. Buying the HW Multitracker and HW Target Locator (i think its called).

How may points do you generally invest per suit? I was hashing out a list the other night and they ended up around 115pts a piece (including 2 Shield drones, TL Plasma Missile pods, HW multi Tracker and Target Locator) (anti meq)

For AV I was thinking about DSing 3 Suits with TL Fusion and target locators w/ nothing else. Bassically a suicide unit, but it has the possibility of bringing 3 tanks down the turn it arrives. (Don't they get help with the DS from the Pathfinder's Dfish or something?)

You can only buy HW items for commander suits, team leaders, and commander bodyguards. Normal suits just get 3 hardpoints. Since you have 10 suits, you must have at least one regular suit .

They get a reroll on the scatter die with a pathfinder Dfish on the board.

I spend about 62 points per suit - suit, missile, plasma, multitracker. Sometimes I give commander suits gun drones and join them to the squads. I've mostly given up on other suits - Tau have plenty of ways to kill vehicles (Railguns, Fusion Piranhas) and plenty of ways to kill hordes (bajillion strength 5 guns, rail hammerheads) but not a lot of AP2 and not a lot of anti light vehicle (depending on how many railguns you have, you may want TL missile pods). Giving the team leader two shield drones is common but I haven't been doing it, trying to squeeze out as many points as possible for elsewhere.

The suicide fusion suit squad can work well, with a pathfinder fish and an opponent with enough vehicles that you're not already killing with railguns. Depends on the rest of your army composition I guess.

Make sure you fully understand what crisis suits can have - only the team leader can have more than 3 weapons/wargear combined.

Generally, killy outweighs defensive measures, and is cheaper, thus allowing you to put in even more killy. I'd never invest over, say 220 points in a team of three crisis suits, personally - that's enough for three well equipped suits and two shield drones in most cases, and I'd leave the drones at home most of the time.

DSing suits is fun, but runs counter to everything Tau actually need most of the time. If they had a rule like deathwing assault, it might be different, but as is, you live and die by one rule: Shoot them before they kill you. By DSing (and by extension, reserving) suits, you are spending turns not shooting which you *cannot* afford to do.

Fusion suits kill tanks, it's true, but you shouldn't be killing tanks as a matter of doctrine with suits - that's a job for broadsides, and they do it from a lot further away (read: safety, meaning more turns of shooting). DSing 3 suits with TL fusion to try to take out three tanks would be, generally speaking, a Bad Idea (tm). That means that you just used all your elite slots for something that is likely to be irrelevant by the time it happens - killing the land raider after the termies are munching through your lines is a hollow victory.

I prefer to tl my weaponry to guide my crisis suits into more specific roles: I take one squad of 3 deathrains (Shas'vre having a HWDC, one shield drone, and Bonding Knife) and then my HQ with TA, CIB, PR, HWMT, HWDC (two shield drones) with two bodyguards each w/ tl PR and TA. The use of tl PR doesn't appear to be common, however. I've never fought a horde army, but I believe that CIB, MP, BC, and Flamer are your best bets IIRC.

The TL MP+ Flamer is by far my favorite load out now. They consistently get their points back. I may even run a 2nd set of these at some point.

The PR+FB is a solid but close range force works well, usually a turn 2 fighter.

PR+MP is also good, and like the top one start killing turn one.