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So this seems like such an obvious question to ask but I didn't see anything on the first couple pages. In your opinion, what's the best way to take a Riptide?

I'm currently taking mine with an Ion Accelerator, a Fusion Blaster, and Early Warning Override. The TL Meltagun with interceptor can deter flyers, even without skyfire. A large blast at strength 8 ap2 can scare any deep strikers. And it's about as cheap as you can make (only 10 pts more expensive than its base cost).

FnP seems great, but it's very expensive (my army already feels points-starved). Skyfire is a little less useful, in my opinion, due to the low number of shots at strength 7.
The burst cannon is good, but I think the accelerator is more useful. Plus, the burst cannon is only good with the nova reactor (meaning no 3++ or 4d6 jump move).
The secondary weapons systems are all good options - any arguments for using one over the other?

Thoughts?

Uh, you do realize that the ion accelerator is simply an upgrade to the model, not counted as 1 of the 2 systems it can take?

As for as the ion vs burst, my tau need some ap 2 death at long range, Since I always have buckets of troops, I don't need a bigger burst cannon.

I'm currently taking mine with an Ion Accelerator, a Fusion Blaster, and Early Warning Override. The TL Meltagun with interceptor can deter flyers, even without skyfire. A large blast at strength 8 ap2 can scare any deep strikers. And it's about as cheap as you can make (only 10 pts more expensive than its base cost).

I just assembled my first one this weekend and will be trying out this exact combination tomorrow. My only thought was TL Plasma instead of the TL Fusion, but decided Fusion for a first try for TAC list. I agree, it's good bargain at that setup. Tau needs as many guns on the table as possible instead of too many upgrades. My local meta currently has a lot of Necron players with AV13 vehicle spam and fliers.

I'll throw a vote in for the HBC and SMS.

Blasts can be mitigated through smart spacing and BS3 can be pretty inaccurate. The SMS is, IMO, one of the best weapons in the whole game. Ignore terrain/cover cannot be underestimated, especially considering the popularity of foot lists and specifically foot hordes.

A Nova Charged HBC with some kind of re-roll ones is better at taking hull points from flyers and armored units than the Ion.

If you intend to use it as a general utility with anti-air, use a HBC as you can't fire blasts at fliers, even with skyfire. The rending S6 on a Heavy 12 weapons it more powerful than you think.
If you intend to use it as an anti blob unit with an eye to anti-ground, the Ion will serve you well. I would also recommend taking the Early Warning Override to give it intercept as well to kills TEQ deepstrikers.

If you have enough points, I would try and throw a Stim Injector on to make it both tougher and protect it from its Nova Reactor.

The secondary weapon is again, what role do you want it to fill.
SMS is good against GEQ, units that abuse cover saves, and hordes.
Plasma Rifle is good against MEQ and TEQ but with less shots (think of this as the balanced option.)
Fusion Blaster is if you want your Riptide closer to your target to pop some vehicles/fortifications and trying to make it a tasty bait.

Also, don't be afraid of jumping into ruins since it is a monstrous creature and you ignore dangerous tests. You may have a 2+ armor save, but a backup 4+ cover is still nice if you don't nova your shields.

I went for IA and SMS and EWO.

Im larger games +2k i use stim injectors too, they are very very useful but i feel over priced for games sub 2k. With the IA your Riptide wont be going far enough forward to be taking a significant amount of hits and by using the superior range you can avoid most low AP weapons that can damage it. The IA also lessens the need to Nova Charge as you dont need to do it to fire the S8 AP2 template and then only need to Nova Charge if dire situations where you need a 3++, extra shots or 4d6.

This is also the reason i took with SMS. My riptide rarely leaves the back field so the 30" range of the SMS is useful for getting troops out of LOS that may be heading for your lines. I liked the idea of the Fusion but i just cant see a time where my Riptide will be within 9" for it to be effective and 1 TL shot without skyfire is unlikely to do much.

The Nova Charged Ripple effect with the SMS is also quite impressive 8 TL S5 shots that dont need LOS and ignore cover can be pretty decent. I had an example where there was a squad of Chaos Spawn hiding out of LOS ready to charge my lines in the next turn, without the SMS shots from the Broadsides, Riptides and Hammerhead they would have made it for sure.

Yeah, the ion accelerator isn't that good. Blasts with an EWO are horrible against deepstriking units...

I prefer the HBC, but really what you need to factor is the local meta/what your army needs. If you need some heavier ROF, go HBC. If you have a lot of drop pods/deep strike in your area, EWO Ion Accelerator is the funniest thing you could EVER have in your army.

katfude wrote:
Yeah, the ion accelerator isn't that good. Blasts with an EWO are horrible against deepstriking units...

I prefer the HBC, but really what you need to factor is the local meta/what your army needs. If you need some heavier ROF, go HBC. If you have a lot of drop pods/deep strike in your area, EWO Ion Accelerator is the funniest thing you could EVER have in your army.

I have found the opposite. The S8 AP2 large blast with EWO has been unbelievably useful in the games i have played so far. It has stopped a squad of deep striking Orcs and SM terminators right in their tracks cutting the Orc squad from 10 to 4 in 1 shot before they could charge (storm boys, they were finished off by supporting fire over watch ) and totally wiping out a deep striking squad of terminators with 1 shot!

I have also blown up 2 AV14's with the Nova charge S9 ordnance so far. Which is more than i have done with Long strike who has only taken out 1.

Ion, TL SMS, EWO x 3 ........hasn't failed me yet

 LValx wrote:
I'll throw a vote in for the HBC and SMS.

Blasts can be mitigated through smart spacing and BS3 can be pretty inaccurate. The SMS is, IMO, one of the best weapons in the whole game. Ignore terrain/cover cannot be underestimated, especially considering the popularity of foot lists and specifically foot hordes.

Spacing is less common in assaulty horde armies as firstly it's a massive pain to measure and space out thirty hormagaunts or slugga boyz, and secondly spacing can mean that not all of an assault brick can pile in. Truly dedicated players do try to work out space ratios, but when you have hundreds of models to do this with...

Seriously, try playing maximum model and tervigon spam tyranids in a very high point double FOC or apocalypse game, after the hundredth model you'll be sick to death of measuring for spread out.

Of course, even a large blast can't make that much of a dent in a swarm of bugs nearly a half thousand models strong with more constantly coming.