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I currently run 2 x Shas'el with bodyguards (1x Fireknife unit, 1 x Helios unit) in my 1500pt Tau army. i max them out with shield drones and targeting arrays. Costs me about 480 points for the lot. I also take a 5 man stealth team with TA's for 200.

I have two specific questions:

1.Am i wasting points on bringing these suits up to maximum efficiency when i could be investing in DeathRain and DeathWave suits?

2. A lot of my points are taken up by my mechanised firewarrior units with Smartfishes. is it better to run just plain Dumbfishes to release points for more suits?

cK

ColonelKlink wrote:I currently run 2 x Shas'el with bodyguards (1x Fireknife unit, 1 x Helios unit) in my 1500pt Tau army. i max them out with shield drones and targeting arrays. Costs me about 480 points for the lot. I also take a 5 man stealth team with TA's for 200.
480pts is way too much, Bodyguards should be avoided until you fill out your 9 elite suits, also the most you should take for drones is 2 per squad.
I have two specific questions:

1.Am i wasting points on bringing these suits up to maximum efficiency when i could be investing in DeathRain and DeathWave suits?
Yes, and its not called "maximum efficency" its called a point sink. You wouldn't want to sink that many points into that little even at 2500pts.
Also, you wouldn't want DeathWave anyways and DeathRain are more for lower point levels unless you want to cut the cost of your suits to fit more in.
2. A lot of my points are taken up by my mechanised firewarrior units with Smartfishes. is it better to run just plain Dumbfishes to release points for more suits?
No, my 1500pt list has 2 Smartfish and 10 Fireknife suits. If you dumb down your fish your Firewarriors are going to be even more useless hiding inside them.
cK

You should post your list, I'd like to see where all your points are.

Literally you cannot have enough suits... I'd say throw as many as you can in a list.

Zid wrote:Literally you cannot have enough suits... I'd say throw as many as you can in a list.

Except... never get bodyguards. Unless you are extremely desperate for more firepower, and 9 suits in your elite slots isn't enough, which I doubt would ever be the case.

I would say that the nine you can get as elites is just fine, so long as you don't over-upgrade them. Never upgrade your suits a lot. At the point in which it costs 480 points for that many suits, something is wrong. Simple two weapon MT suits will be more effective for their cost.

EDIT - I would also suggest not using stealth suits. They aren't amazing, and I find that crisis suits are a better alternative any day.

I am pretty much going to echo what has been said here. Get as many suits as you can in your games, they are the power of the Tau army. Only take 2 drones per squad. The drones can be whatever you feel you need but marker drones are too costly for me. Shield drones are great but don't take more than 2, you suffer in firepower when you dump all your point sin wound allocation drones.

Take your suits as elites first, if you have the points left and need some more you can take bodyguard. I usually run my HQ cheap as well. As Tau your HQ doesn't bring a ton to the table over your normal elites. Use those elites as the backbone of your army.

Adding my voice to the chorus - Crisis suits are the core of your army. How many should you field? As many as you can! 2 guns + an MT is really all the gear that should be going on most of them, the extra points that would go to beefing up their gear beyond that would be better spent on more suits and/or vehicles.

BUT... BS3!!!!! and can't take objectives!

excuse the petulant rant but i just have had far more use out of my firewarriors, broadsides and hammerheads in my (albeit limited) experience.

My stealthsuits always seem to die really easily, and although i like the old XV15 models i think i'll have to give 'em away.

As many as possible as said. I think at least 6 XV8's and 3 XV88's is a good baseline for suit army

I would actually recommend keeping the stealthsuits as they are excellent mobile anti-infantry platforms that carry their cover with them wherever they go. However the TAs are a waste of points. If you run through the maths the cost of TAs does not outweigh the benefit. You would be better off running a 6-tau stealthsuit squad. You get the same amount of effective shots and the squad becomes more resilient.

I would actually recommend keeping the stealthsuits as they are excellent mobile anti-infantry platforms that carry their cover with them wherever they go. However the TAs are a waste of points. If you run through the maths the cost of TAs does not outweigh the benefit. You would be better off running a 6-tau stealthsuit squad. You get the same amount of effective shots and the squad becomes more resilient.

^Agreed 100%

Well I wouldn't reccomend taking stealthsutis actually. Theyh to expensive for everything they try to do. If you have a basic 6 man sqaud with no upgrades or team leader anything else that's 180 points.

They fire 18 shots, and 9 hit.
STR 5 agsint T4 means that 6 will wound.
2 MEQ's will die from that.

MEQ's are ther most likely thing your going to see, but if you see a horde, you'll only kill 6 which is practically nothing. is 180 points really worth that?
Alternately you could buy 18 fire warriors, who coincidentally would fire the exact amount of shots as those stealthsuits. But they could do that from 30 inches, and iof they got within 12 that would double.


And I don't know why you wouldn't want to have a body guard, They're awesome. I alwayd field a commander shas'o and bodyguard with fusion blaster and plasma rifles. the body guard have targeting arrays and they all have hard wired multi-trackers and taregt locks. Meaning I can fire both weapons at 2 different targets, all with AP 2 and AP 1. I give the commander to shield drones, and the regualr guys 2 gun drones. This is a lot of points, but it's really hard to kill, and dishes out a lot of fire. Everything is afraid to assualt it because they have to get close to it because I'll be able to shoot at them at least once. Hordes are the only exception so I'm really careful against those.