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Base cost 40!

2 free gun drones detached to form their own harassment unit that does not yield a kill point and can assault the turn they detach (open-topped) if you really need to try and tie something up. Anything that shoots these lil' guys is going to overshoot 'em and waste shots that could go to other more expensive places.

Value: 24 points if you bought them as brainless squad members. 14 per if you paid for a GUN DRONE squad (what is your problem?) that eats a FOC and you're dumb.

You just paid 14-16 points for 4 burst cannon shots on a fast skimmer chassis. Feel good about yourself.

Conversely, you just paid 24-26 points for a fusion blaster on a fast skimmer chassis. That is just as points efficient as a crisis suit taking 2 fusion blasters on a single, instant death vulnerable crisis suit that doesn't get to rampage across the field and burn tanks into smoldering piles of fish food turn 1.

But what about vehicle upgrades? Shut up. Buy more piranhas. Print money.

Don't be a Melvin and get these things killed if you don't go first. Hide them like sissies so you get your happy little drone squad.

If you like piranhas now, or even before now, please share high fives and laud and praise their glory. If you don't like piranhas, tell me why and then go sit in a corner in shame. YES I KNOW PATHFINDERS ARE IN THIS FOC. That's what the other 2 slots are for, duh.

A squad of 5 Piranhas has been fairly kind to me in testing. A lot of shots to use and some nice movement blocking shenanigans. Though I would advise against taking less than 2 small Pathfinder squads.

They're good, and points efficient. The problem is that, like Stealth Suits, all they bring to the table are massed S5 shots and potentially some single shot fusion. They've got their uses, but they're not amazing per se.

Build a list with them in mind, and it definitely frees points and space for other things though.

That's why you take 2 BIG pathfinder squads!

Veskrashen wrote:
They're good, and points efficient. The problem is that, like Stealth Suits, all they bring to the table are massed S5 shots and potentially some single shot fusion. They've got their uses, but they're not amazing per se.

Build a list with them in mind, and it definitely frees points and space for other things though.

Str.5 Firepower is nice. The game is mostly infantry nowadays. Str.5 OBLITERATES Xenos armies (especially when used in conjunction with Markers). You can also movement block with Piranhas AND the Drones. Piranhas aren't as obviously good as some other codex options but they certainly offer some nice tactical flexibility.

Str 5 is nice, but we get it in spades from so many other places. It's not like Tau are hurting for anti-infantry firepower.

I can see building a list around Piranhas. I can see it being effective. 400pts of Piranhas buys you 80 S5 AP5 shots that haul butt around at 12" per turn at a minimum, up to 30" if you really need to reposition. That'll put a dent in a whole lot of massed infantry lists, no doubt about it. It's roughly as effective as about 30 FWs with an Ethereal, and far more mobile... potentially more survivable. They'll get hammered by the same things they carry though - mass S5 will do a number on them, massed plasma / melta / S6/7 shots will do it even faster. Squadroned up, and they're more vulnerable to that kind of thing.

It's a tradeoff, everything is. If you build your list around it, it can easily work.

Veskrashen wrote:
Str 5 is nice, but we get it in spades from so many other places. It's not like Tau are hurting for anti-infantry firepower.

I can see building a list around Piranhas. I can see it being effective. 400pts of Piranhas buys you 80 S5 AP5 shots that haul butt around at 12" per turn at a minimum, up to 30" if you really need to reposition. That'll put a dent in a whole lot of massed infantry lists, no doubt about it. It's roughly as effective as about 30 FWs with an Ethereal, and far more mobile... potentially more survivable. They'll get hammered by the same things they carry though - mass S5 will do a number on them, massed plasma / melta / S6/7 shots will do it even faster. Squadroned up, and they're more vulnerable to that kind of thing.

It's a tradeoff, everything is. If you build your list around it, it can easily work.

I agree with this. Any list can be made to work but you can't just ham-fist units like these into any army and expect results. Mushkilla here on dakka is renown for taking 27 reaver JB in his DE which would other wise be considered heresy until you read his awesome results. I think maxing out piranhas could be very effective depending on ones meta but like anything else you need to mitigate bad match ups with your other selections because high armor lists will laugh you off. I think because of that I would dedicate a couple piranhas per squad to FB, doesn't cut into your AI bottom line much and makes each unit more viable at wrecking things like assbacks chimeras and psyfleman dreads.

You really got me thinking though, I would assume the most common limitation is finances, as thats alot of money on small vehicles. Too bad they don't offer those in an apoc company.

Well, if we Mushkilla it up, that's 15 AV10 skimmers on the board for 600pts bare. 120 S5 AP5 shots. More then enough to take care of any and all infantry firepower needs.

So, for troops you can pretty much take whatever. HS - you'll need a bit of anti-air, so either Broadsides or some Skyrays... wanting to keep points open for Elites, that's probably Skyrays. 1-2 Riptides, some fusion toting Crisis, and you're pretty well off.

Aren't piranhas actually av11?

Yeah, AV11 OT

LValx wrote:
Yeah, AV11 OT

T
hats what I though, IMO this is what makes them so great. SM Land Speeders took a huge hit with HP's in 6th because bolt guns can gun them down, piranhas need not worry about this.

I like the look and feel of 15 pirahnas, 3 riptides, and longstrike's hammerhead, 2 sniper drone squads. Not sure on the points as I dont have my book on me now. Maybe fit in 2x commanders with 2xmarker drones, then take 2x 2 bodygaurds with 2x markerdrones each. Don't attach the commander to the body gaurds and you have a lot of markers that can cover where ther are really needed. Spend the rest on scoring units, I preffer a mix of kroot and fw so I can grab objectives all over.

Will figure out the points later.

Im my 1000pt list i take 4 of them with fusion.

the gun drones disembark turn 1 and the commander with drone controller picks them up so he has 8 guns drones, 2 marker drones at bs 5, and he has 2x missile pods and target lock so he can shoot other targets.

works super well!!!

This is "Why I like Piranhas", not "Why You should take them"

Make your case, but don't tell me what to do. By saying I'm a bad person/player/whathaveyou, you're only pushing me away from your beliefs.

 Scipio Africanus wrote:
This is "Why I like Piranhas", not "Why You should take them"

Make your case, but don't tell me what to do. By saying I'm a bad person/player/whathaveyou, you're only pushing me away from your beliefs.

A little sensitive??

For me though, I'll take those points and add more fire warriors.

But Piranhas are just about the only thing we have to get across the board without deep-striking. Hmmm... I may have to re-think this.

I have seen a battle report with 8 Piranhas, I am bit curious now to see someone, proxing or otherwise, actually try to record a game with all 15 of them (30 if you did double org chart). Not sure if there is even enough board space for 30 piranhas+terrain!?