Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello fellow Tau players and commanders of other armies. I noticed there was a lack of a tactica thread regarding the new release "The Farsight Enclaves" and figured I should start a thread to help new Tau players or Farsight Enclave players like me to get some good ideas and to pool our discussion. Now I have very limited experience with the Enclave but after a few games I have found a few things that work which are posted below, anyone and everyone is welcome to discuss in this thread and it is encouraged!

In my experience in the few games that I have played thus far I have come across a few Crisis Suit Builds that maximize the effectivness of their firepower in regards to their lack of bodies. Along with this I have come across and ran a few great designs for some support units as well:

-A build that I have run quite effectively in nearly every game is this:

-Commander
*w/ x2 Missile Pods, Drone Controller, Target Lock, x1 or x2 Marker Drones

I then usually attatch him to a squad of marker drones and use him purely as a Marker Light Bunker. The great thing about him is that he has a decent amount of fire power from long range and his BS5 goes a long way in helping your Marker Lights Hit. Another useful thing to run with a Commander suit is to take a Commander from "Codex Tau" as allies, yes this kills your Battlesuit themed army but in return gives you some nasty Signature Systems that greatly would benefit your army.

-"Burst Suits": As you can guess this refers to Crisis Suits armed with dual burst cannons (or even three as I had points left over one game and lets say bad things happend to the SM player I was facing!). Usually I run these guys with x2 Gun Drones each to maximize their shots and boy do they pack a punch, x36 S5 AP5 shots from this unit alone (or x48 if you decide to take x3 Burst Cannons per suit) which does alot to counter their low BS. I actually prefer these guys over plasma suits as the term "accuracy by volume" has worked much better for me then having fewer, lower AP shots. Also giving these guys target lock really increases their damage output as they can wipe out multiple units of infantry at once, especially if combined with the "Codex Tau Allies" Commander and his Signature Systems.

-"Deathrain" Suits: Another poplular build with Enclave players that I have seen is the dual Missile Pod Suits sitting back popping light tomedium armor, MC's or heavy infantry. I usually add at least 2-3 Shield or Gun Drones to these guys to increase their wounds and to delay LD checks. Now some people prefer Gun Drones all the time to maximize your damage output which I do agree is a nice however a 4+ Invulnerable Save goes a long way sometimes keeping your suits safe from plasma weapons and such, at this point the choice is up to you.

-"Strike" Suits: As the name implies these guys arrive from Deepstrike with the sole purpose of destroying Heavy Armor or clearing/contesting an objective. A build that I enjoy to run:

-x1 Crisis Suit
*w/ Bonding knife, x2 Fusion Blasters or Plasma Rifles, x1 Flamer

I usually run with the Fusion Blasters but in some cases/metas I am sure x2 plasma rifles would fit the bill much better. I dont give them any Drones or anything like that to make their deepstriking footprint smaller, but the key to these guys is you have to be SMART. One gameI deepstriked one suit out of LOS of my opponent and he was able to work his way up the board and take an objective after flaming a bunch of scouts off it. Basically if there is nothing you can kill thats worth it, dont engage.

How are your 3 Burst Cannon suits getting more shots than 2 Burst Cannon suits? A Crisis Battlesuit can only ever fire 2 weapons in the shooting phase.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
How are your 3 Burst Cannon suits getting more shots than 2 Burst Cannon suits? A Crisis Battlesuit can only ever fire 2 weapons in the shooting phase.

They have x2 Burst Cannons each which is 8 shots, 8x3=24 shots then you add in the x12 Gun Drone Shots. Also where does it say you can only fire x2 weapons per suit? The fact you can take three weapon systems would seem to suggest otherwise.

Standard rules a model may only shoot with one weapon/shooting attack per shooting phase. Tau battlesuits come with an extra option called a Multi-Tracker allowing them to shoot two weapons. It explicitly allows them 2 weapons, not 3.

Now, a crisis suit with a twin linked burst cannon and a single burst cannon is certainly legal.

Jefffar wrote:
Standard rules a model may only shoot with one weapon/shooting attack per shooting phase. Tau battlesuits come with an extra option called a Multi-Tracker allowing them to shoot two weapons. It explicitly allows them 2 weapons, not 3.

Now, a crisis suit with a twin linked burst cannon and a single burst cannon is certainly legal.

Thank you for clarifying , glad to know that I have not been cheating my opponents in regards to that (but i do owe my SM buddy an apology for not understand that )

It still would be the same amount of shots, you'd just be able to reroll misses of 4 of those shots.