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What do you think is the best set up for the Riptide?

I like Ion Accelorator, Skyfire, Interceptor for 205

What do you think?

It depends on what you're using it for. Everything in the Tau army has to serve a purpose. You can't just yell "more dakka" and throw stuff at the enemy randomly (well, you can, but it won't be as effective). The ion accelerator loses a lot of luster when you remember that blast weapons can't be shot at fliers.

Dedicated 100% anti-air for me would probably be burst cannon/interceptor/skyfire/smart missiles. burst cannon is better against aircraft than ion because it fires a LOT and most planes don't have very high armor. This is a fine choice if you don't want to use sky rays or missile broadsides for anti-air.

Light vehicle killer: burst cannon/interceptor/feel no pain/smart missiles. Like the above, but against ground targets. The stims really help if you can't get its BS up to 6 to re-roll the gets hot dice (and because you'll be cooking the nova reactor off every turn with a setup like that).

Marine/heavy vehicle killer (what I roll with): ion/interceptor/stims/fusion (or plasma, depending whether you're more worried about marines or vehicles). That str 9 ordinance on the ion plate is surprisingly capable against heavy vehicles with a 30% chance to pen and over 50% chance to at least glance on AV 14. It's also AP2.

Vectored retros are also a wonderful thing on riptides because the one thing a riptide hates more than anything else (even poison weapons, assuming you have 2+ and feel no pain) is being locked in combat with some piddling 100 point tarpit unit.

If I was going to go serious mode on my list I'd roll 2 riptides in the marine/heavy vehicle killer config then replace my hammerhead with a sky ray and use the other heavy support slots for missile broadsides with interceptor, maybe with a support commander joining them assuming I don't use him with marker drones (high yield missile pods can do a surprisingly good job against fliers even without skyfire since they're twin linked and shoot A LOT).

Well I bought 2 kits and I was thinking about this:

1. Burst cannon/fusion/interceptor/skyfire
2. Accelerator/missiles/interceptor/skyfire


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I do see your point though on the stims as its so many chances to overheat on the burst cannon.

Although the cannon is so good for AA its pretty easy to avoid with only 36 inches.

If you dont like using the tides for AA what do you think is better? Just 3 broadsides with missile drones? The drones don't get skyfire though right juts the suits themselves?

Ion Accelerator + Twin-Linked Fusion Blaster + Stim Injector + Early Warning Override - 225 points

This combination can take everything you opponents could possibly throw at their general direction. Including stuff like maxed-out Daemon Princes and Land Raider Hammerator deathstars.

VTR cant be taken by riptides.

current favorite load out is ION STIM EWO. only because i use broadsides for anti air, and i can over over nova for most applications.

 AtoMaki wrote:
Ion Accelerator + Twin-Linked Fusion Blaster + Stim Injector + Early Warning Override - 225 points

This combination can take everything you opponents could possibly throw at their general direction. Including stuff like maxed-out Daemon Princes and Land Raider Hammerator deathstars.

Have to agree on this one.

Also, the riptide is just begging to be magnetized.

In regard to the 36" range, people forget how mobile the riptide really is. Use the nova charge for a mega thrust and you're moving at 6"+d6+4d6 = 23.5 inches flat out. Take that Warp Spiders...

The other side of the coin is looking at what the rest of the Tau army can bring. Light-vehicle killing and anti-infantry is something the rest of the army already does with ease. The ready availability of railguns and deep-striking fusion blasters also means you don't need to worry too much about anti-tank. The rarest useful option in the book is the AP2 blast. The Ion Accelerator is actually the only such gun in the book, and comes with the Strength to ID broadsides and marines. Since your primary function is obliterating 2+ saves, your secondary weapon may as well contribute to that. The tradeoff there becomes whether you're more concerned about killing large quantities of 2+ models, or about being able to kill T4 multiwound and tanks. To me, the ion/fusion setup makes you the most flexible while still excelling at your primary role of killing heavy armor, though plasma isn't a terrible choice. Support systems are largely a matter of taste. Intercepting deep-striking units with a large blast is, however, hilarious and does help keep things at arm's length.

While this setup is relatively poor at mass anti-infantry and anti-air, the former is something Tau never need help with and the latter can be pushed to units more suited to it, like HYMP Broadsides. There's no point in trying to specialize for a role you're not suited to, when you can find another unit to do the job more effectively.

If you're really very uncertain about loadouts, the kit does lend itself rather well to magnetization.

I usually go with ion accelerator + plasma rifle + stim injector + early warning system. It's not quite as good at fighting other vehicles with plasma instead of the fusion, but if you expect to face a lot of deepstriking Terminators, it's great. Ripple-fire that thing and you're getting 4 S6 AP2 shots at 12" on top of the large blast.

I should add that a lot of people run Deathwing at my FLGS, though, so your mileage may vary.

 Desubot wrote:
VTR cant be taken by riptides.

Well darn. I was just reading about someone in the tactics section who recommended them. Guess I need to check my codex before I actually take the advice of people i read on the interwebs.

I ike to use my riptide to handle MEQs, Deepstrikers, and to be a general PITA.

I run Interceptor, Ion, Stimms. Still going back and forth on whether to use Plasma Gun or Fusion blaster

You can however give VRT to a commander and join him with a Riptide.

Anyways, I'll throw my lot into the Ion Accelerator/Plasma/EWO/Stim pool.
Stimulant injectors to keep as many wounds as possible on the Riptide, letting you nova charge more often.
Ion Accelerator for an AP2 large blast, secondary firemode without using the nova charge, and pretty good when teaming up with plasma for taking on deepstrikers.
EWO is almost a must take. Only 5 points and most players natural response to the Riptide is to deepstrike next to it for some reason.

Well thats alot of good impute and I appreciate it!

Would you think it better to go with 2 different loadouts if you were running 2 or try and focus on one loadout?

I am digging the fusion Ion combo. Seems nice as without hammer heads its hard to kill armor 14. I know though that the deepstriking suits do it well also but I am fearful they will just get shot to pieces.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also was I right that when you give the broadsides skyfire they do not give it to the missile drones? Doesnt that seem like it makes them worse at shotting flyers? I guess its good to take the drone controller for them too.

I'd say with 2 riptides run 2 identical loadouts. Nothing like redundancy. Makes the opponent sweat, and if he's dumb about it he might try to kill both at once rather than focus one.

I always like taking 2x the same good choice and 1x something different, like my elites slot right now is 2x identical crisis teams and 1x riptide. Fast attack is 2x marker pathfinders and 1x something else (depending on how I feel that battle).

EDIT:

I don't think skyfire transfers through the entire squad. Also drone controllers don't work on missile drones.

Sky rays should really be your primary anti-air if you don't use burst cannon riptide (which you probably shouldn't because ion does fill a hole nothing else in your army can do effectively). I would avoid giving broadsides skyfire because it's so expensive. Tank hunter broadsides with missile pods are excellent against many things, and can still down fliers even hitting on 6 only (and markerlights can still make them more accurate, which gives increased returns because of twin linked weapons).

Add a fusion blast, IF you get the first turn you can get your Riptide in the middle, create a 36 inch bubble where flyers should not enter, another 18 inch bubble where they dare not enter. IF you Nova charge and fire it twice, you can still fire it twice(Nova charge lasts until your next movement.
Ad one that flyer is dead, you can nova charge the Ion gun for the fun blast. then you got got an ordnance blast which rol 2d6 and picks the high for pen.

So you think the Ion is pretty much better than the burst?

I feel like marker lighting the a unit and then removing their cover to kill them with the big template sees amazing. lol

 Icelord wrote:

Also was I right that when you give the broadsides skyfire they do not give it to the missile drones? Doesnt that seem like it makes them worse at shotting flyers? I guess its good to take the drone controller for them too.

Correct. A model with the velocity tracker gains the ability to skyfire, while drones in the unit with a model with the drone controller can use the controlling model's BS rather than their own. Since Broadsides can only take a single piece of wargear, the model with the drone controller cannot also take the velocity tracker.

 Locclo wrote:

 Icelord wrote:

Also was I right that when you give the broadsides skyfire they do not give it to the missile drones? Doesnt that seem like it makes them worse at shotting flyers? I guess its good to take the drone controller for them too.

Correct. A model with the velocity tracker gains the ability to skyfire, while drones in the unit with a model with the drone controller can use the controlling model's BS rather than their own. Since Broadsides can only take a single piece of wargear, the model with the drone controller cannot also take the velocity tracker.

And even if they could take both, it wouldn't matter because the Drones won't have Skyfire and thus will be forced to fire Snap Shots, which are BS1 unless explicitly overridden (which the Drone Controller doesn't do like Markerlights do.)

 AtoMaki wrote:
Ion Accelerator + Twin-Linked Fusion Blaster + Stim Injector + Early Warning Override - 225 points

This combination can take everything you opponents could possibly throw at their general direction. Including stuff like maxed-out Daemon Princes and Land Raider Hammerator deathstars.

I don't run stims myself, since I tend to find they are survivable enough (in my meta anyway). I don't think my Riptide has taken more than 2 wounds (most of the time these come from the one or two times per game I want to nova charge...).

Im really a big fan of the Ion/SMS/EWO/Stims. The ion as previous posts stated is really the only source of large AP2 blasts in the codex with with marker support can be highly reliable and accurate.

EWO is a given and Stims really help to mitigate the few times I do nova charge. The SMS i chose because of the range. My riptides often hang around at the back of my board edge and with the 30" range you can start getting your points worth back before either the FB or PR.
Although it cant handle Terminators/Marines and such in the same manor as the PR and has almost zero anti tank capabilities the ability to ignore LOS and coversaves together with the higher volume of Dakka can be very useful in taking out the last few enimies that are out of LOS after firing the Ion, on enimies like Spawn for example. Also shooting with ripple fire your putting out 8 TL S5 shots which is comparable to the output of a whole 10 man fire warrior squad (which is my usual number of fire warriors in a squad) and with the prevalence of AV 10/11 flyers such as Eldar/Dark Eldar/Orks it can also provide decent anti air without having to use Skyfire or Markerlights while still able to strip hullpoints of light transports if really needed.