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Hi guys

I have 80pts to burn in my 1000pts Tau army and I was wondering if it was worth taking sniper drones. Nobody seems to use them so I am under the impression that they are unreliable as there are lots of armies who have fearless/ld10 but I think used in conjunction with markerlights they could pin a target quite effectively.

Alternatively theres a Pirahna with fusion blaster. I have 2 broadsides and 3 fireknife crisis suits for anti armour already but im unsure if i would need any more? I like to look of a pirahna because it can block assaults to my squishier units.

Any help would be appreciated

Deathbysoup

Piranhas are definitely a better choice in almost any circumstance. Broadsides give you long ranged heavy anti tank and Crisis Suits give you long ranged light/medium anti tank (with missile pods) but aren't really suited for close in anti tank work with fusion blasters given their weakness in assault. Piranhas on the other hand are perfect for this as they can't get tied up in assault and can slow down incoming assault very well. My only suggestion would be to try and fit in two of them as by itself it won't be anywhere near as effective at movement blocking.

I just thought that at 1000pts, how much armour will I actually face that 2 broadsides cant deal with. Its rare to see more than 3 vehicles in 1k points games and anything armour 12 or below can be taken on by my battlesuits if need be?

I'd say go for the Pirahna. Even if you probably will kill off armour easily with your Broadsides, you'll want some sort of alternative in case the broadsides get taken out.

Also it can be used for blocking those land raiders for one turn.
I'm not a fan of Snipers tbh, way too static and a high chance of dying if you manage to put 4 wounds on the unit (really no that hard)

Find a way to put disruption pods on that Pirahna, its well worth the points. Makes it a better meat shield, and if you're lucky it will last 3 or 4 turns instead of 2 or 3.

Hi fellas.

One of my regular opponents has played Tau for years, with mixed success. They seem to be quite
an inconsistent army to play, as in there's rarely a close-fought battle with the Tau. They either seem
to reduce everything to pulse/rail-dust by turn 3 or they get their cloven-hooved arses kicked.

Anyway, apologies for rambling! The point of my reply is that he bought 3 Sniper Drone teams about
6 months ago and I have to be honest, they've caused our gaming group quite a few headaches.
Personally, I've used Marines, Guard and Eldar against them and they've seemed to hold their own
against all of them.

I'm not sure a single Sniper Drone team would necessarily have the same impact, unfortunately.

In summary, while not setting the table aflame, they certainly seem to be worth their place, given
the right deployment considerations.

Sweet, cheers for the advice, I might employ them in a test game against my mates space wolves, even though 3 teams are 240pts I will test them out.

As long as you remember to put them on the table Sniper Drones work awesome against MEQ. 9 s6ap3 hits against marines, plus either +1BS or -1 cover? i have reduced many a marine squad to a sergeant with them. If you can put them high up in a ruin or building it increases their survivability greatly. For me piranhas are the hit-or-miss unit in my army. They either die on turn 1/2 after fudging their cover save, then all of their drones 'splode because they cannot disembark (hello 2kp for the enemy), or they manage to manuever around to the back of a leman/predator/dread and put a reasonable number of s5 hits into its backside. My $.02

Back when I played tau, I did better with drones in small games.

It comes down to the size of the table. At 1,000 we played on a 4x4, at 2,000 we played on a 4x6 table.

What this meant is that the big game is a lot more crowded than the small one.

The little skimmers struggle to block effectively with so much open space, where as the snipers do better with more space between them and the enemy units.



-Matt

StarHunter25 wrote:... For me piranhas are the hit-or-miss unit in my army. They either die on turn 1/2 after fudging their cover save, then all of their drones 'splode because they cannot disembark (hello 2kp for the enemy), ...

Hey Star. I'm fairly certain that the drones only become a seperate unit and therefore a Kill Point
after disembarking from the vehicle carrying them. So if your Pirahna gets whacked while still
carrying it's drones, your opponent only gets the 1 KP. Hope this makes you 'whoop' with joy!

Regards.

Why would the Drones not be able to disembark? They are treated as passengers so Piranha + Drones is 2KPs. The only way I can think of that this could happen would be that you are playing that moving flatout = unable to disembark, which only applies to PLAYER turn not game turn.

Either way you should probably dump the Drones at the first available opportunity, the Piranhas are usually going to die and die quickly so you are better off dropping the Drones and using them as another blocking/disruption unit straight away.

If that's the case, my mistake. I thought drones counted as a weapon system
until they disembarked, not passengers.

Not being a Tau player, perhaps I need to research a little more thoroughly
before sticking my 2p in.

Cheers.