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Im new and as new tau player have found there is compertition between PRs and PCs. Which option is best and/or should they be used together?

The Pulse Rifle is Rapid Fire 30" Str 5 AP 5

The Pulse Carbine is Assault 1 18" Str 5 AP 5 Pinning.

The Pulse Rifle is your main killing option for fire warriors, the Carbine is to pin enemies in place so that you can shoot at them longer.

The main problem with the Pulse Carbine is that so many things you want to pin now are fearless or running around with Ld. 10. You can use Marker Lights to reduce leadership against pinning tests, which can help.

I prefer the pulse rifle, but if you're going heavy on FW making 1 out of every 3 squads with Carbines could be an option.

Rifles if the squad will be sitting in cover and shooting the whole game, carbines if they'll be moving around lots, or if you know you'll be up against a horde of pinning-vulnerable units at closer range.

Thanks

One of the most common Tactics for tau players is to move two squads of Fire Warriors with Rifles in Devilfish transports up to within 12" of an enemy squad, disembark them and rapid fire into the enemy while the devilfish form a inverted V wall between them and the enemy, this is called the 'Fish of Fury'

I'm not a fan of the Carbine, because that means I haven't been shooiting with my Fire warriors until 18 Inches, and I try to avoid CC like someone who is Lactose Intolerant avoids Dairy Products.

The problem what I've found with my attempts to use Pulse Carbine is that they simply lack the volume of fire necessary. Their gimmick is supposed to be pinning but as said, most armies seem immune to that, and often you seem to end up doing 2-3 wounds to the enemy from which cover saves 1-2. Woo hoo, only 28 Boyz to go.

So the carbines advantage over the rifles of being pinning is a waste of points. I think ill stick with rifles.

Thanks guys!

One thing to consider is that you can mix and match as you please. So if you have the Squad Leader with a Markerlight Carbine and a pair of Drones you could get lucky and score a pinning wound on anyone who gets too close. Doesn't happen often and to be honest I've only played my Tau a couple of times, but it might help to have the option.

Sanguinary Dan wrote:One thing to consider is that you can mix and match as you please. So if you have the Squad Leader with a Markerlight Carbine and a pair of Drones you could get lucky and score a pinning wound on anyone who gets too close. Doesn't happen often and to be honest I've only played my Tau a couple of times, but it might help to have the option.

Is this for pathfinders cos they main perpose of being marker lighters means they have to take carbines.

Only Pathfinders have a Markerlight Carbine. All other Markerlight are just Laser pointers.

Too bad the cardine model looks cool :S

M.

One option that might be worth considering would be to take a couple of drones along with your rifle-armed FWs. That way you have some pinning weapons, should you want them, but the majority of your team will have pulse rifles. As an added plus, drones will hit slightly more often than FW. Might be worth considering if you want to pin.

But if you take Drones with the Fire Warrior squad, you have to take a Shas'ui, and if you are running 12 man squads and take drones ontop of that, you can't use Devilfish.

If you have an ork problem, maybe chuck in 30% carbines in each squad. It will be reasonable to assume if you hit with it, it will pin an ork squad. Beware of waaagh.

If your facing dem chaos boyz, dont take carbines, coz your going to waste them being chopped up by khorne beserkers. Luckily, if an enemy is 18 away, and doesnt have fleet, you can actually run at the same speed as them and shoot them, so you dont get assaulted, and kite them around the place. That is the advantage of range 18 assault weapons.

I prefer pulse rifles through and through, 30 range str 5 is insanely awesome. Anything t3 gets instagibbed by wound on a 2+ and their armour is usually passed too. So, shoot them from half range and hope they pin, or shoot them twice as much from 30' and hope they...die?