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I've been reading alot of the tactics and lists threads since the codex came out, and one thing has been bugging me. Every time someone talks about putting interceptor on thier battlesuits, people drop in saying they shouldn't, because if you fire interceptor, you won't be able to fire in your shooting phase. At first this sounds bad, but I've been thinking, and while it has it's cons, I've come to the conclusion that this is not a bad thing at all, and I wanted to discuss the tau's interceptor tactics.

Let's look at the pros and cons of firing interceptor (if I miss one, let me know and I'll add it in)

Cons
-Can't fire in own next shooting phase
-Hard to find interceptor marker lights

Pros
-Fire in enemy movement phase, before enemy can shoot and kill your units.
-Fire in enemy movement phase before enemy can assault (very nice vs things that can assault from deepstrike)
-Do something else during own shooting phase, because you already fired. Something like running away.
-Use pie plates that normally cannot fire overwatch due to snapshot restrictions
-can fire both interceptor and overwatch against units able to assault from deepstrike

So here is what I am thinking:
Some random SM army drop pods in, deep striking terminators and so on and so forth. Maybe they drop in some wolfgaurd or other units that can assault right off the bat. Those are the priority interceptor targets. As the tau want nothing assaulting them, this and overwatch are your main defenses, and the riptide can't overwatch with pieplates. So your battlesuits lay into them till you can't any more or they are gone. If you run out of interceptor fire, hopefully overwatch can bring them down.

After that primary threat is gone, it is important to continue firing interceptor shots at the other available targets. The reason you do this is that now that that unit is done shooting, when it comes to your turn you will move, then run during the shooting phase, then jetpack away far outside of assault range of any of that stuff that can't immediatly assault you.

See you are not losing you're shooting phase, you are gaining extra actions you can take, and taking that shooting phase before it becomes useless.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I almost forgot the other con: interceptor markerlights. Your shooting will not be as accurate for interceptor as it would be during your shooting phase because only one unit may get both interceptor and markerlights: stealthteam character upgrades, and only one pper team. Competing with riptides means most will never use them, but it may increase the value of stealthsuits slightly.

I would like to point out (please correct me if I am wrong) that interceptor allows you to shoot one gun. Since most suits have two guns they can still shoot there secondary gun in their following shooting phase. To me interceptor can be a worthy upgrades, especially against drop pod type lists. I plan on running interceptor on both my riptides.

I suggest bringing Interceptor on everything that can take it. It makes your opponent play more conservatively and less aggressively in a lot of cases. It's cheap and gives you options without taking much away.

Also because it happens at the end of his movement phase, you can force him to give up shooting to run units in to defend positions vice shooting.

Personally the interceptor upgrade's only competition is the target lock. Target lock can be very very nice against armor heavy lists.

Since the new codex came out, interceptor has let me:
table cronair on turn three
Outmanuever or table every drop pod list I have played against
Rip apart outflanking slaaneshi seekers costing the cd army the game
Rock a nid list that made heavy use of reserves

Basically with the range of tau battlesuit weapons you can dominate any army that makes much use of reserves of any kind.

Here's a question. Could a riptide that nova charged to shoot his twin linked fusion blaster twice on his turn still shoot it twice using interceptor? If I remember correctly the nova charge effect last till the riptides next movement phase. I don't have the codex with me at the moment so I can't confirm. It could be very effective to shoot 2-4 plasma or 8 missiles before the target gets the chance to do anything while still having used that firepower in the riptides previous turn.

I'm bringing two Commanders with markerdrone squads and with versatile weapons like CIB or Missile pods with Interceptor. Worst case scenario my commander doesn't get to shoot at a unit that's getting lit up with BS5 markerlights. It also helps that the weapons are high S, high AP, on BS5 so I don't really need markerlights on the unit first since the armor save will generally always be better.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And the Riptide's nova charge lasts until your movement phase, so the weapon boosts still apply. Makes the Burst cannon worth consideration.

I only like interceptor on my riptide where marker light support isn't as needed. Also it is a lot cheaper to put intercept on one model than 3. When things deep strike in they form nice, neat little circles that fit so well under my large blast mark.

Question, i always forget, is it only the model with interceptor that gets to do it, or is it his whole unit? i.e. can a commander and his drones all intercept?

Only the model. Otherwise you'd see the quadgun intercepting and then all the flak missiles on that devastator squad holding the QG intercepting as well.

 Blaggard wrote:
Only the model. Otherwise you'd see the quadgun intercepting and then all the flak missiles on that devastator squad holding the QG intercepting as well.

Thanks, i was never sure because the quad gun is not "part" of the unit

Actually the interceptor is a rule that is attached to a weapon (see pg 38 BRB), not a model. Thus a model with 2 interceptor weapons, such as any riptide with early warning override, may fire them both using interceptor.

Example: A drop pod with marines lands next to my riptide. I can use the Ion accelerator to drop a plate on the marines and the Fusion blaster to try and blow up the drop pod. Alternatively, I could fire one of the two weapon systems and leave the other available for my next turns shooting.