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What would a good Tau ally detachment look like if you wanted to include a good Tau Anti-AIr unit into your list? I don't have the Tau codex but wanted to buy the models and codex. ANn suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

Generally speaking, Dark Strider with some Firewarriors and a unit of Broadsides (with HYMP). With the Velocity Tracker the get Skyfire, but they still have no interceptor.

Also, instead of Darkstrider, you could get a vanilla Commander in a suit with the Riptide neuro-whatever to give them tank hunter. It makes Hel-Turkeys cry.

the thing is, neither are that great on their own for anti air even if they have skyfire.

Missilesides can only intercept with one weapon, so 12 TL shots firing snaps. Unless its an AV10/11 vehicle, that 2-3 hits you get probably wont do more than a glance unless you get lucky. Against AV12 their SMS cant even hurt it and they need 6s to pen.

Riptides are in the same boat but with less shots, and they arent even twinlinked. Its upside is the melta if it gets close enough...which is unlikely.

My experience with tau isnt that far but what i have done so far is interceptor on broadsides is crap unless you have 3 fully decked out groups and all 3 can fire, or youre not against fliers. At best i glance twice with 1 group, on average i do nothing. I dont even point my riptides at fliers unless i have to or i get a chance to melta its butt.

It might be more effective if you have a commander manning a quad gun attached to the broadsides and utilize Puretide chip to give them tankhunter (reroll pens/glances), and in an ally situation its about the best thing you could do with the HQ slot requirement anyway. An additional 4 shots that pretty much WILL hit (like 3% chacne to miss i think) and tankhunter could be vital.

Well, Tau needs synergy with marker lights, or going the Farsight route. An ally detachment cannot fulfill this due to its small size.
Cadre Fireblade leading a unit of Fire Warriors, a Riptide, and a Hammerhead or its pendent are about 500 pts and a reasonable start.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, Tau needs synergy with marker lights, or going the Farsight route. An ally detachment cannot fulfill this due to its small size.
Cadre Fireblade leading a unit of Fire Warriors, a Riptide, and a Hammerhead or its pendent are about 500 pts and a reasonable start.

A lot of people say this...but if you take a good look, the tau are very cost efficient on thier own. Markers are just icing on the cake and the farsight bomb is more of a gimmick (no offense I love farsight too!).

If you're looking for anti air, then the skyray is your best bet I think. They come stock with skyfire and can use thier own networked markerlights to buff their smart missiles and seekers to bs5 or remove cover if both hit. I think a lot of people stray away from the skyray becasue they have limited ammo but IMO the price is right. They should have enough S8 to shred an armor 12 the turn they come in and then they can light up any other fliers with the skyfire markerlights. This would synergize well with missile crisis suits, a Riptide, or even piranhas/devilfish with extra seeker missiles if you decide to go that route.

Your best bet for the HQ would be either a fireblade, ethereal or drakstrider. Personally I would take the fireblade because the etherial gives up the extra victory point and the fireblade buff is better overall IMO. Darkstrider seems really boss If you happen to get T1 you can scout 12 FW into rapid fire range, throw in a couple markerlights and really put the hurtin on something, but as awesome as it sounds its a really fragile unit and the fireblade costs 40 points less.

Im thinking:
ethereal or fire blade
some fire warriors

3 broadsides with VT

and forge world in a barracuda

its about 550 I think. should be more than enough anti air all day.

 Desubot wrote:
Im thinking:
ethereal or fire blade
some fire warriors

3 broadsides with VT

and forge world in a barracuda

its about 550 I think. should be more than enough anti air all day.

A commander with 2 Missile Pods, the Puretide Neurochip, a Target Lock and Iridium Armour (for T5 2+) can add a lot to the unit of Broadsides and increase it's effectiveness a lot by allowing them to re-roll their Armour Penetration. If you stick him on a Quad-Gun as well, he can intercept any enemy fliers then shoot at a ground target in your turn, or target a different flyer to the Broadsides in your turn with the Quad-Gun.

It's more expensive than an Ethereal or Fireblade, but could definitely end up being worth it.

The people that say that Tau *NEEDS* markerlights are either still stuck in their previous book, or just heard that markerlight are kinda their thing, sure their BS is 3, but Broadside weapons are TL, and you can TL the weapons on commanders and crisis suits if you dont want to put in markerlight allies.

As for interceptor, you can only intercept with 1 weapon, not a big deal because that means you can use your SMS systems in your own round against any targets that you dont want to have cover saves.

The issue why markerlights is such a big thing is that Tau cant handle themselves in assault for crap, so if they dont hit a little extra with their shots, they will be in deep gak the moment a assault marine or similar get a few inches too close.

If you want anti-air just get 3-4 hymp 88's and give them velocity tracker. Interceptor doesn't grant hitting flyers at full BS and next turn you can't shoot with the weapon. And the SMS can't shoot at a different target, must be the same. Maybe throw interceptor on a squad of dual plasma suits and when the deepstriking termys show up your blasting them w/ 12 ap2 shots before they can do anything. Anti-air imo is not our issue. Our tank hunting ability is the major concern now unless you run a melta heavy list and have major jewels to deepstrike into enemy territory. Good ally would be a Jetseer w/ 3 jetbikes. Kept in reserve and coming on to grab that late game objective 4' away that your ground troops couldn't get to.

Dracoknight wrote:

As for interceptor, you can only intercept with 1 weapon, not a big deal because that means you can use your SMS systems in your own round against any targets that you dont want to have cover saves.

I don't think this is true.

From the BRB USR Interceptor:

At the end of the enemy Movement
phase, a weapon with the Interceptor
special rule can be fired at any one unit
that has arrived from reserve within its
range and line of sight

And the Tau codex on EWO:

All weapons on a model with an early warning override have
the Interceptor special rule

AKA all of the weapons on a suit with EWO can fire. The Interceptor rule does not specify that a model can only fire one weapon. It just says that a weapon with this rule can fire. That means that the suit can fire all weapons.




Regardless, I think the best option is for Tau allies is:

-Commander with puretide, Iridium, MSS, C&CN, Drone controller, Gun drone

-Broadsides with all missiles and maxed missile drones and all EWO, or one with EWO and two with Splitfire

-Some Firewarriors and a small squad of Pathfinders


I think the biggest thing that people underestimate is the ability to ignore cover (without markerlight support). That is HUGE when your unit puts out 28 Twin-linked autocannon shots and 12 twin-linked Heavy Bolter Shots (equivalent), with tank hunter/monster hunter. You are going to be wrecking horde, vehicles, and even MEQ and TEQ because of the amount of high strength you can put out.

The commander shouldn't shoot for full effectiveness. He tanks all the wounds and buff the living crap out of this unit. The gun drone and Drone controller are there to make the gun drone fire the quad gun on BS5 without the commander shooting.


That unit will kill anything per turn. Just try it out in a game. It will surprise you

thisisnotpancho wrote:

Dracoknight wrote:

As for interceptor, you can only intercept with 1 weapon, not a big deal because that means you can use your SMS systems in your own round against any targets that you dont want to have cover saves.

I don't think this is true.

From the BRB USR Interceptor:

At the end of the enemy Movement
phase, a weapon with the Interceptor
special rule can be fired at any one unit
that has arrived from reserve within its
range and line of sight

And the Tau codex on EWO:

All weapons on a model with an early warning override have
the Interceptor special rule

AKA all of the weapons on a suit with EWO can fire. The Interceptor rule does not specify that a model can only fire one weapon. It just says that a weapon with this rule can fire. That means that the suit can fire all weapons.

But the rule allowing suits to fire more than one weapon (Multi-tracker) only works in the shooting phase, as per its wording.

Commander - Multispectrum Suite, Puretide, 2 Missile Drones
3 Broadsides - HYMP, SMS, 6 Missile Drones, 3 Target Locks

Thats 16 Str7 at BS2, 12 Str.7 BS3 TL, 12 Str.5 BS3 TL. You can shoot at 4 different Targets, maximizing your efficiency.

You can give them Tankhunters/MChunters/Whatever else you need. Through weight of fire alone they can mess up flyers. They also work well vs AV13 and below due to the mass amounts of shots that ignore cover. The best part is that they also function very well against infantry. FW/Necron Warriors/Dire Avengers all evaporate when you can shoot them with AP4 ignore cover shots.

This unit functions quite well without Markers. I'd probably take a Riptide as well, depending on what the primary detachment is.

Fireblade w/ 2 Shield Drones + Quad Gun
Kroot Snipers
3x Railsides w/ Velocity Tracker.

enjoy clean skys and trolling chickens

Add Riptide for maximum 'middle finger'

 IHateNids wrote:
Fireblade w/ 2 Shield Drones + Quad Gun
Kroot Snipers
3x Railsides w/ Velocity Tracker.

enjoy clean skys and trolling chickens

FWIW, those Railsides aren't that good against Chickens. A Riptide with Skyfire/Intercept and the Fusion Blaster will generally be scarier, for about the same price.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

But the rule allowing suits to fire more than one weapon (Multi-tracker) only works in the shooting phase, as per its wording.

True, but there is no specific wording stating that a model can only fire one weapon during intercept.
This is the case for the shooting phase, but not intercepting. The intercept rule states it is a weapon by weapon basis. It just states that "a weapon with the intercept special rule can be fired." There is not limiting rule to the number of weapons with interceptor that a model can fire.

by Chickens I meant the Kroot wounding anything on 4s, but it dosent really matter