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Hey all,

My friend is putting together a Tau CoD army, and we have discussed at length what he should put in it. He has settled on an Ethereal and Veteran FW Bodyguard, 3 FW squads, a Kroot squad with maximum Hounds, a Sniper Drone Team, and a Skyray. The only problem is, he has no Markerlights in his army for the Skyray. So this brings up the question - are Pathfinders a viable choice in CoD, seeing as they are widely considered the cheapest (points-wise, not sure about price-wise) way to access Markerlights?

Thanks,

Doopy

I would say heck yeah. Not really for guiding the skyray's shooting per se, but simply because they can strip cover saves off of a unit (which in CoD is super valuable) and because of the BS increase they can give. Plus their Dfish can play taxi to one of those squishy FW squads.

(also the Ethereal is not a fantastic HQ IMO, especially because in the Tau 'dex there is already a mandatory Crisis Commander, and it looks like you are doing a lower points, maybe 1k?, match already, and thats a lot to spend on HQs.)

Ok, thank you. It will be a 2k army we decided last night, and we left enough points open for a fully kitted out Pathfinder unit, and with that information, we'll put it in.

We also took you advice with the Commander, and then saw the compulsory 1+, and felt like idiots.

So basically, he now has Ethereal and kitted out Honour Guard, Shas'o with Airbusting Fragmentation Projector (Is that what they're called?), a flamer, and a bunch of other stuff, 3 FW squads, a Kroot squad with max hounds I think, kitted out Pathfinders, a moderately large Stingwing strain, and 2 Sky Rays. I think he's fairly set on this list, so thanks for your help.

For cities you would be far better off using steath marker teams instead of pathfinders. That's stealth teams with marker and some gun drones for added protection, jump in, mark and fire seeker, jump out.

juraigamer wrote:For cities you would be far better off using steath marker teams instead of pathfinders. That's stealth teams with marker and some gun drones for added protection, jump in, mark and fire seeker, jump out.

Imo that is a really bad idea. Stealth marker teams are overpriced to begin with, and markerlights are heavy weapons, and so you can't jump in, and fire them at the same time.

A SMT with 7 Markerlights is 280 points, a little more actually (3 Stealth Suits, 1 with markerlight, and each with a DC w/ 2 Marker drones)
10 Pathfinders and 2 devilfish is 280 points, you have more markerlights and 2 devilfish, so pathfinder teams are much better.

Also, the etherial is a really bad option, he enables you for the cheap cost to have your army run away...
And honour guard are just as bad, just get markerlights to up the BS of your firewarriors.

So, yes, pathfinders are a viable option in CoD.

The Bringer wrote:

juraigamer wrote:For cities you would be far better off using steath marker teams instead of pathfinders. That's stealth teams with marker and some gun drones for added protection, jump in, mark and fire seeker, jump out.

Imo that is a really bad idea. Stealth marker teams are overpriced to begin with, and markerlights are heavy weapons, and so you can't jump in, and fire them at the same time.

I find it odd that you play tau and don't know this. Stealth teams use jump packs, thus have the relentless USR which confers to the drones. You can jump, mark/shoot and jump all day long. Steath suits may be expensive, but your pathfinders are sitting ducks in an army that should be moving as much as possible. The teams also don't need more than 4 marker drones, maybe the team leader markerlight at most, since that's putting too many eggs in one basket.

Considering the options for markerlights in the codex however, with proper setup pathfinders are the most cost efficient, the just tend to die on turn 1 or 2.

As for cities, steath suits, all the way. Don't think you are going to be seeing through too many buildings with some stationary pathfinders when searching for targets.

Can you give me a page number for that rule?

I just looked through my codex and so no such thing.

Oh yeah there is also a thing where pathfinders have to take a devilfish and pay for it.

The Bringer wrote:Can you give me a page number for that rule?

I just looked through my codex and so no such thing.

Stealth suits have jet packs, jet pack rules are in the BRB, drones act as their controller per the drone section in the codex.

The Bringer wrote:Can you give me a page number for that rule?

I just looked through my codex and so no such thing.

(Paraphrase) All Jetpackers have the Relentless special rule. BRB. True story.

Stealth suits do have a good argument...

It is in the rulebook. I think it is under unit types (explanation of infantry, jump infantry and so on). My book is at home so I can't look it up.

Another plus for Stealth Suits is that being Stealth they get a +1 to any cover save they may pick up, and there is lots of cover in cities. They can also put out a lot of shots with their burst cannons, while the drones are doing the marking.

juraigamer wrote:

The Bringer wrote:Can you give me a page number for that rule?

I just looked through my codex and so no such thing.

Stealth suits have jet packs, jet pack rules are in the BRB, drones act as their controller per the drone section in the codex.

Yep, bleh, I read everything on the drone controller and marker drones except that one line.

I still wouldn't suggest stealth marker teams, even if they can stay alive, because usually elites slots are best reserved for crisis suits... but that is open to debate.

Kilkrazy wrote:It is in the rulebook. I think it is under unit types (explanation of infantry, jump infantry and so on). My book is at home so I can't look it up.

Another plus for Stealth Suits is that being Stealth they get a +1 to any cover save they may pick up, and there is lots of cover in cities. They can also put out a lot of shots with their burst cannons, while the drones are doing the marking.

Funny thing, Stealth Suits don't actually have Stealth. They just have stealth fields that mimic nightfighting. That isn't particularly useful cityfight where the long range fire lanes are closed off anyway but it does interact well with long range markerlights.

Would the richness of difficult terrain in city fights pose a serious hazard to jetpackers?

Raxmei wrote:Funny thing, Stealth Suits don't actually have Stealth.

I know! RAGE.

The Bringer wrote:

I still wouldn't suggest stealth marker teams, even if they can stay alive, because usually elites slots are best reserved for crisis suits... but that is open to debate.

You shouldn't need more than three suit units, two commanders, one with fusion/plas, another commander w/ or w/o squad with an airburster or cyclic ion/plas and one elite xv8 with tl missiles (flamers too if it fits for you). That's 7-9 suits with some drones that proper usage should keep alive for a long time. Two units of SMT in the other elite slots work very, very will with a moblie tau army.

I think it comes down to what we use buildings as -

Are they impassable blocks of concrete that you can't see through, or are they actual buildings, which you can enter?

My group of friends play it as when you get into a building, you can immediately see out of any window on the floor. We even keep track of the movements around the floors. So for a unit of Pathfinders, they can move into a building and hole up, while getting a clear line of site out of their building with their markerlights.

Just want to clear something up from the OP that nobody seems to have picked up on (though it is 1am and i'm tired, so I may have missed something):

The only problem is, he has no Markerlights in his army for the Skyray.

Skyrays have two networked markerlights as detailed in their profile.

Ok, good point, I missed that. The problem is, however, that the Sky Ray will most probably be parked at the back in the corner, and obviously there won't be too good a LoS. So, we still need more Markerlights.

Put Sensor Spines on the Skyray and fly it up on top of a tall building.

The Bringer wrote:I still wouldn't suggest stealth marker teams, even if they can stay alive, because usually elites slots are best reserved for crisis suits... but that is open to debate.

That is a valid point. It's the compromise of list building and would be affected by your points level and other factors.

Raxmei wrote:Would the richness of difficult terrain in city fights pose a serious hazard to jetpackers?

Yes, though Jetapackers can also walk to avoid that hazard at the expense of loss of movement speed.

Doop Dude wrote:I think it comes down to what we use buildings as -

Are they impassable blocks of concrete that you can't see through, or are they actual buildings, which you can enter?

My group of friends play it as when you get into a building, you can immediately see out of any window on the floor. We even keep track of the movements around the floors. So for a unit of Pathfinders, they can move into a building and hole up, while getting a clear line of site out of their building with their markerlights.

That is the way it should work in Cities of Doom, IMO. The point of CoD is to have complex building setups.

Kilkrazy wrote:Put Sensor Spines on the Skyray and fly it up on top of a tall building.

Awesome tactic. Didn't even think of that. If I do go with the Pathfinders, how valid do you think it would be to do the same to a Devilfish?

Just my mind imagining a skimmer on top of a building, its burst cannon mowing down multitudes of infantry that try to storm the building below it....

Kilkrazy wrote:

Raxmei wrote:Would the richness of difficult terrain in city fights pose a serious hazard to jetpackers?

Yes, though Jetapackers can also walk to avoid that hazard at the expense of loss of movement speed.

Doesn't it say in the BRB that Jump Infantry may safely jump on top of buildings?