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I need and HQ to run with my Tau battleforce. The battleforce comes with one crisis suit so i can run an HQ with 2 body guards and do tons of damage. So i was looking into Commander Shadowsun as opposed to a normal crisis suit Commander. Are there any problems with Shadowsun i don't know about that someone could share? Or is there something much better i can run with 2 body guards?

Building your own HQ will be cheaper and better....

Shadowsun comes with some crappy wargear like fusion blasters and shiled gens... A giant waste of points.

I would rather use Farsight if I had to pick one... but then thats only to do the farsight bomb just for chuckles mostly.


Just tool up and 'El with TA and weapons of your choice... Most likely the Fireknife pattern will work best with the higher BS.

Yeah none of the special characters are really worth taking for tau. And ethreals are at best a secondary HQ choice after a Shas'O/El. They give you the option of gearing him up for the opponent you're facing.

I think the first thing you should ask yourself is who you are playing most. If it turns out that you don't know, because you go to tournaments or your local store, then I would say tool up your commander in the manner that best fits in with the rest of your army.

Say, for example, you have a lot of anti armor weapons already, then fusion blasters would probably turn out to be a waste.

I also agree with Milisim though. Make your own. I don't know what the fireknife is off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure it is accepted that a crisis suit should have a plasma rifle in it somewhere (unless you are twin linking cannons or flamers)

Alright people thanks for the advice! I'll continue to look into it but i'm pretty sure i'm getting a commander now.

Shadowsun requires the points value to be at 1500 or higher. She also has a stealth suit so she has all the tricks that come with that.

You should simply get a battlesuit HQ so you can get the two special weapons and a positronic relay bit. Also out of that box, you will get two different HQ heads for your battlesuits.

The named HQ's for tau are worse than any other codex. aun'va is a joke, worst HQ in the game, shadowsun is decent, but for her points you could make a battlesuit HQ cheaper and better, and the battlesuit HQ guy nerfs your army.

If there's one thing I've learnt after months of playing only Tau, it's that Ethereals are terrible.