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So I'm in the beginning stages of building what will be my new Tau army (check my other thread for space wolf trades for tau), and I have a question.

How are the stealth suits , how are the tactics , what are some beginning tactics? In general are they worth having in a 1500 point Tau army? I already have 2 broadsides, devilfish, 24 fire warriors etc.

Thank you ,

If you DO NOT already own Stealth suits I would give them a miss until the new codex comes out in 2347 AD.

The XV8 Battlesuit is lightyears better to use instead of the Stealth Suits... They can be bought in squads of 3 and kitted out to really shred SM Chapters or Horde Armies.

It is normal practice to maximize these Elite slots with 3 Groups of 3 using the most common loadouts:

DeathRains, FireStorms, Helios and Fireknives....

The ONLY use I see Stealthsuits is for a sneaky Markerlight unit that can sit far away and light up targets... Other than that they just aren't as competitive as the XV8's

Take that with a grain of salt though.... You are always at liberty to field a Tau however you like! =]

Stealth suits. One of my favorite units.

Stealth marker teams is one of the most common ways to run them. This takes 3 suits, leader with 2 marker drones, his two friends with 4 gun drones, and if you want, a markerlight on the leader as well. Effectively immune to shooting since you can jump into markerlight range (36 inches) and then jump out. Anyone that has to roll night fight, will never, ever see them.

Stealth suits are a viable alternative to str 5 for the tau. They shoot and move, stay out of range easily, and are more resiliant to shooting and melee than fire warriors. Furthermore they don't need a devilfish to keep moving at a decent rate, and with gun drones in the unit, they blast everything easily.

Running fusion guns is something I wouldn't do unless it's the smallest team possible. They shouldn't be getting close, if you need fusion, piranha with that, battlesuits and railguns should be doing the job.

One of my favorite ways to run them is 6 stealth teams, with 2 marker drones and 10 gun drones. Expensive, but hellishly effective. With markerlight support, you can actually pin anything, even paladins.

Here is one of my 1500 lists where I use my stealth suits. I actually don't use battlesuits in any of my lists anymore, if you were wondering why I was lacking them in the list.

Shadowsun

6 Stealth team with team lead, bonding, 2 marker drones, 10 gun drones and markerlight

12 Fire warriors with 'ui and bonding

20 Kroot + shaper and 4 hounds

8 Pathfinders and devilfish with pods

3 Broadsides with ASS, team lead, bonding, 2 shield drones, HWbsf and target lock,

Hammerhead with railgun, burst cannons, pods, multi-tracker, target lock, bsf

1499 points

It is never worth taking stealth suits outside of just loving the models.

Unless you have a truly devious plan, that somehow plugs the holes in your line that the XV8's used to fill, keep away from stealth suits.

Juraigamer is right in the way he recommends using the suits though. If you are taking them, use them as markerlight mules.

I could also see you taking 1 or 2 squads of stealthsuits if you wanted to max Piranha and were planning to fill in your XV8 suits with max HQ + leftover elite slots. It would be expensive though, and you might find you won't be able to afford effective heavy support options.

juraigamer wrote: you can jump into markerlight range (36 inches) and then jump out.

IIRC markerlights are heavy weapons, so you can't move and shoot (they should really be Assualt 1).

I think stealth suits could be used as a nice alpha strike unit. Start 18 inches away, jump 12, markerlight a tank then fusion gun it. Then skip back into cover or something.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:

juraigamer wrote: you can jump into markerlight range (36 inches) and then jump out.

IIRC markerlights are heavy weapons, so you can't move and shoot (they should really be Assualt 1).

Stealth suits are relentless, this confers to the drones. It works just fine.

Happygrunt wrote:I think stealth suits could be used as a nice alpha strike unit. Start 18 inches away, jump 12, markerlight a tank then fusion gun it. Then skip back into cover or something.

It's better to take 3 suits, 1 with fusion and just deep strike in, so long as you have a pathfinder fish on the table.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:

juraigamer wrote: you can jump into markerlight range (36 inches) and then jump out.

IIRC markerlights are heavy weapons, so you can't move and shoot (they should really be Assualt 1).

I was under the impression that the drones gained the unit type of the unit that they joined. So, if they joined a squad with the relentless special rule, they would then gain relentless.

As far as drones joined units of suits are concerned, the only case where the drones cannot move and shoot is if they are attacked to broadside battlesuits. As the XV88s do not have access to relentless, and may only move with ASS (which in the FAQ clearly states the drones do not acquire).

^ Huh, I wasn't aware of the drones attached gaining relentless as well. I am definitely going to have a go with a unit of suits. Thanks for the great info dakites.

Remember it's because they gain the unit type of who has their drone controller, so broadsides can't move and shoot their drones since they are just infantry, not jet pack infantry.

I use stealthsuits to provide mobile fire support for my fire warriors, or to roll up the enemy back line through outflanking. They basically do the same job as fire warriors but are much more maneuverable. I find a squad of 4 with no upgrades does the job nicely. It has a similar effective firepower rate as an equivalent squad of fire warriors, but can more easily stay out of charge range and always counts as being in cover if you mis-judge it a bit. The 12 fire warriors can get better fire power wihtin 12" but at that stage you're in real danger of being CC'd to death.

If you're rolling up a flank the stealth field also helps protect them from longer ranged heavy weapon fire from more remote enemy units.

I'll echo the sentiments here - If you have an elite slot a SMT (stealth marker team) is a good investment. I favor them for markerlights more than pathfinders, even though they're more expensive per light. The stealth field keeps them safe from long-range firepower, and their mobility allows them to shoot and retreat as threats close in. Pathfinders, on the other hand, sit with a big 'shoot or assault me!' sign on their backs and need to be protected by a wall of kroot or some blocking piranhas. When you factor in the protective costs of such units the points costs start to come back in line with one another.

Stealth fusion teams are just too fragile to me - they're only t3 with 1 wound each, and you need to be within 6" to get the best effect from your fusion gun...which means you'll effectively be in range for your enemy on their turn. To spend an elite slot on a suicide melta gun, do it with a deep striking crisis suit and make the fusion gun twin-linked. 47 points.

The major problem with stealth teams is they compete with crisis teams, which is the offensive bread and butter of the army. You can get marker lights elsewhere in a less important slot (pathfinders) and you can get fusion guns in a better place too (piranha). Their small arms is of a variety that you should care less about. S5 fire is everywhere in tau, and honestly isn't very scary for your most common enemies (marine varients).

So you have an underwhelming firepower unit with special abilities that can be acquired elsewhere in the most important slot for an army that has a hard time finding better than S5 shooting. Yeah, not really seeing the point of buying marker lights when your taking them cuts into the number of units that would benefit from using the marker lights. Its like removing the barrels of you guns to fit a better sight. Or replacing your armies howitzers for more glorified .22's

Stealthsuits would be better if they could be equipped with Plasma Rifles...

and if the enemy get too close, they are very squishy and die easily.

I like stealth teams as gundrone units. As a skirmish force with 30 total s5 shots for 300 points, with 12 of those shots twin linked and pinning, the stealth team is your best bet to use marklights to improve.

IE, with a squad of pathfinders helping with 4 markerlight hits, 2 go to BS upgrades and 2 go to make pinning better, or strip cover back. Your looking at around 16 wounds to an enemy unit, with a pinning or reduced cover save to boot. Its about the safest way to kill encroaching infantry, as rapidfire weapons from troops have only half the safe engagement range of stealth suits. Imagine pinning Draigo's 10 man paladin unit, for example.

The stealth markerlight unit is not a terrible idea, but with points so hard to find, and pathfinders not bad units, I feel we should use the stealth team to focus on what only they can do.

I play tau a lot.

I have learned one key fact, NOTHING beats a fire warrior.

make sure you have 24-36 firewarriors IN EVERY LIST.

yes caps.

That is so much fire, one of my favorite 1500 point lists had 72 firewarriors.

they can shoot from turn one, people will instinctivally get close be cause thats where they are weak. this way you do not need kroot

also take more hammer heads.

like 2 or 3 they will do what the broadsides do just as well. and attact way more fire. most importantly they work well on troops too!

Keep the stealth suits. they rock make sure to deep strike them.

Ditch the drones on them though. on the table that unit will look so large that people will love to target it. make them forget about the suits and focus on the tanks.

Pop the tanks

use firewarriors and stealth suits to take out all there troops choices first, thus ensuring victory in any game where there are objectuives to take.

More firewarriors is like my motto for tau. I personaly belive that points for points they are the best model on the table.

Stealth suits are really cool they just cost so many points that could be used elsewhere. But they are a really good unit that's capiable of inflicting serious damage on your enemy. If you do take them, i say run them with a lot of FW's that gives you the potential to shoot at your enemy with 24 to 36 str 5 ap 5 30'' guns. That's just sick.

Thrawn2600 wrote:I play tau a lot.

I have learned one key fact, NOTHING beats a fire warrior.

make sure you have 24-36 firewarriors IN EVERY LIST.

yes caps.

That is so much fire, one of my favorite 1500 point lists had 72 firewarriors.

they can shoot from turn one, people will instinctivally get close be cause thats where they are weak. this way you do not need kroot

also take more hammer heads.

like 2 or 3 they will do what the broadsides do just as well. and attact way more fire. most importantly they work well on troops too!

Keep the stealth suits. they rock make sure to deep strike them.

Ditch the drones on them though. on the table that unit will look so large that people will love to target it. make them forget about the suits and focus on the tanks.

Pop the tanks

use firewarriors and stealth suits to take out all there troops choices first, thus ensuring victory in any game where there are objectuives to take.

More firewarriors is like my motto for tau. I personaly belive that points for points they are the best model on the table.

Not sure if serious..

If you're playing primarily horde-based, FNP-less, armies then sure, what you're saying here is (semi) correct. On the other hand if you're facing a typical 6+ razorback marine force, or god forbid an 8+ razorback FNP blood angel force, you're going to be in for a nasty surprise.

People are getting into assault too fast in today's game, firewarriors are just looking to get wrecked.

Thrawn2600 wrote: firewarriors and stealth suits to take out all there troops choices first, thus ensuring victory in any game where there are objectuives to take

I completely agree with this line of thinking. However, due to GW's (questionable) decision to allow non troop/scoring units to be allowed to contest objectives, it does not ensure victory. It does greatly increase your chances to be completely fair though.

If you spend 600+ points on fire warriors, it's a losing proposition. If you want horde tau at least take the more economical and versatile kroot. Kroot shoot almost as good(better for money on most targets) as firewarriors in practice and can even melee to boot. They're better in cover. They can be good in melee if they charge and hit first. Hell, they can infiltrate and outflank.

The problem with fire warriors is that having a good basic weapon isn't worth anything because 40k is decided by special weapons, and fire warriors can't do that. They can't shoot from devilfishes, and they can't take anything interesting.

Kroot can't, either, but at least they don't pay a premium for BS3 expensive-but-not-great shooting.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:

juraigamer wrote: you can jump into markerlight range (36 inches) and then jump out.

IIRC markerlights are heavy weapons, so you can't move and shoot (they should really be Assualt 1).

How do you jump out >.<? what page is it on . I keep hearing about them but never see it

Real quick: Fire Warrior's only use is making the Devilfish Scoring.


Stealth Suits are good for mowing down Guard/Orkz/other 5+ armor gribbles, but you can kit the crisis suits to do the same thing.

The suits are really our Bread and Butter right now. Not taking every elite slot with Crisis suits can hurt (note: CAN. If you have more success rocking out with 18 stealth suits and shadowsun instead of 9 crisis suits and one XV8 Commander, more power to ya.).

Now if you like the models and are going to run an Anti infantry Crisis suit squad, you could use the Stealth Suits instead. Or you could use them as Markerlight platforms.

Stealth suits look so cool, there's no reason to not to include them in your display.

As far as your lists go, that's for working suits, also known as crisis suits.

I don't play Tau, but their markerlighting capability makes them a pain in the ass that cannot be ignored. I'd say take them, for Tau, every markerlight seems worth it.

There seems to be quite a lot of questionable advice popping up in this thread.

Really, if you want the markerlights use Pathfinders. In the vast (vast) majority of circumstances having more XV8 suits is exponentially more productive than having stealthsuits.

Also, not every markerlight counts. Yes, they are extremely useful but there comes a point where you reach a level of saturation, and you find yourself at the end of your shooting phase with unused markerlight tokens. Sacrificing your capacity for XV8's by replacing them with stealthsuits will exacerbate this problem even further. Who uses markerlight tokens the most? Hammerheads, XV88s and XV8s (at least in the current edition). So you take out your XV8s and replace them with stealthsuits with markerlights, not only have you decreased your capacity to usefully consume markerlight tokens, but you've also increased the number of potentially unused markerlight tokens being left at the end of your turn.

With Tau we need to play as efficiently as possible. All of our units cost to much to do otherwise.

Eh, I've only played against pathfinders once and they got mowed down ridiculously quickly. The stealth suits seemed to be a much better choice with their ability to hop back behind cover. (but I'll agree they eat up valuable crisis suit space unfortunately, I'd like to see stealth suits become a fast attack option).

They do tend to die incredibly quickly as they are really nothing more than painfully small squads of FW with heavy weapons. Even cowering in cover, loosing two can send the whole squad off running.

If stealthsuits were a fast attack choice we would most definitely see them used more often.

Unfortunately, the fact is, even with their increased survivability and mobility the cost of losing a squad of XV8s is too great. We will have to make do with pathfinders (for now).

Oh how I wish for Tetras to be codex units...

Yes tetras in the codex would make pathfinders obsolete, however.

And while it's not optimal, we can take XV8 Suits in HQ slots as well as Elite, so losing 1 possible suit team for a stealth team won't be terribad unless you REALLY want to run 15 crisis suits and can only run 12 in such a list.

Everybody I play targets my pathfinders first - they just don't live long enough to be very helpful to the rest of the army. Compare that to stealth suits, who stay out of 36" range until it's time to jump up, tag something with some markerlights, and then jump away to remain safe from long-range shooting. Pathfinders just cannot do that, so while they are cheap platforms for ML's, they also die cheaply.

Sometimes the old adage 'you get what you pay for' makes sense. Also for the same points as a Shas'el and 3 Firestorm crisis suits, the 6 XV25 + 12 Gun Drone squad puts out more s5 shooting and has the same long-range defense the stealth suit provides. Should someone target this 18-model unit because of it's large and ominous size, they'll be reminded that night-fight always applies and many of their shots will lack range, thus wasting a shooting phase. I think that is a good thing, not a bad one. Just food for thought.

I have 12 so I'd say hell yeah!