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.

Going for a different take here - the core strategy revolves around Commander and 3 XV-8s surrounded by a pile of Gun Drones ALL deepstriking into the heart of the enemy and blowing up his tanks, marines, termies, whatever that makes for a juicy target.

The key is, because the Commander is unarmed but carries a C&C node and a Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, the entire unit re-rolls failed hits and ignores cover saves. We're looking at 3 TL-Fusion Blasters and 3 TL-Plasma Rifles here - at 12 inches, that's 9 TL-AP2 shots. Oh and because of the Puretide Engram Neurochip, they also re-roll armor pens or wounds against MCs. Now if that isn't cheese I don't know what is - goodbye marines, goodbye terminators, goodbye tanks, goodbye big scary monsters.

Add to this the fact that the 6 Gun Drones accompanying the Crisis suit team come under the control of the Commander (along with the 2 Gun Drones he already has) because of his Drone Controller, and you are looking at 16 S5 shots at the Commander's Ballistic Skill 5 and twin-linked...and pinning. So this unit is deadly against light infantry upto 18" away as well. One of the XV-8s also has a flamer in case the army I am facing has no tanks or heavy infantry.

Oh and if you think this unit's weakness is close combat, think again: not only does the enemy have to survive a lethal overwatch, but thanks to vectored retro-thrusters I can pull out at the beginning of the next turn's assault phase as long as I get some luck on my die roll. And on top of all this, the Puretide Neurochip Engram can be used to give my squad counter-attack. The only way the enemy can bring them down is by ranged firepower. Even so, they have to take down the 8 Gun Drones (with some strategic placing) before they can take down the suits. And with my jetpack move, I can always make use of some cover nearby or play with LoS to maximize this squad's survivability. At 1000 points, they have a good chance of dominating.

The Ionhead stays back and drops even more marine-killing pie plates while the 3 Piranhas wait till my Commander and retinue has landed and then zoom forward to mop up stragglers effortlessly or engage unengaged units (24 S5 shots).

I got 4 squads (4 scoring units in a 1k point army) of 6 man FW troops centered around Aun'Va who makes all of them re-roll LD, so they won't be running away anytime soon, and two of them will even benefit form his powers (so if an enemy unit gets within 15", that's upto an additional 12 S5 shots that appear out of nowhere to add to my army's firepower)


HQ:

Commander
- Drone controller
- Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite
- C&C Node
- Puretide Engram
- Shield Generator
- 2 Gun Drones

Aun'Va, Master of the Undying Spirit


Elites:

3 XV-8 Crisis suits w. 1 Plasma Rifle, 1 Fusion Blaser & 2 Gun Drones each
wargear: 1 has vectored retro-thrusters, another has a 'just in case' flamer


Troops:

6 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles and photon grenades

6 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles and photon grenades

6 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles and photon grenades

6 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles and photon grenades


Fast Attack:

Piranha Squadron (3 Piranhas, each with 1 Burstcannon and 2 Gun Drones w. 2 TL-Pulse Carbines)


Heavy Support:

Hammerhead (Ion Cannon, TL-SMS, Disruption Pod)

C&C appreciated :happy:

Yeah, the utility commander is effective, but wont support an entire army. Lots of people use him though, he's great. The biggest issue is that you're going to be shooting at a single target, since no one has target locks. That means all your PR and FB are going to the same unit, and if that unit is a vehicle, you're probably wasint those PR shots. Also, crisis suits aren't super durable. Once you deepstrike in, you'll be able to do some damage (although not an ungodly amount), but won't last long unless you get out of LOS quickly. They'll be a priority target as soon as they hit the ground. All that said, its a nice unit, but dont count on it winning a game for you.

It'll be difficult to keep Aun'va alive, since he's not an IC.

at 1000 pts, you might be better off taking fewer, but larger troops choices. I'd take 2-3 troops. 6man units of fire warriors are not very resilient, and they'll break pretty easily once aun'va is taken out.

I'd recommend consolidating your troops/taking fewer, dropping the piranhas, and taking missile broadsides and/or a riptide.

However, if you're just looking for a fun game: this will do nicely.

Yeah I am thinking about taking one Piranha down, as well as the Ionhead, and replacing them with a barebones Riptide with Ion Accelerator. But I dont know which of these two is the more effective option in 1k points. The Ionhead has front AV13 after all, and Piranha means 1 more 2HP skimmer, at AV 11 to boot, and in terms of firepower I am swapping an AP3 big blast for an AP2 big blast, but am losing 3 S7 AP3 shots against MCs, and 8 S5 shots on top of that, but gaining a T6 multi-wound, 2+ sv. potentially 3++ inv. monstrous creature that can move 12" and still fire its gun.


Also, I'm thinking about dropping Aun'va and going for a Devilfish with Disruption Pod, and "fusing" two of the 6 man squads to a 12 man squad.

This army wouldn't be too effective as the bulk of your firepower is str 5 ap 5- most armies will get to use their armour saves. Due to complete lack of markerlights, the armour you do bypass will get a cover save.

You'd be surprised how little damage those 24 firewarriors and 3 piranhas will do with their BS3 and high ap values.

Another issue I see is that the strategy is based around this suit team which at best is going to pump out 9 shots per turn (ignoring drones for now). You will hit with 7 of them (rounded up) and wound with 5-6 depending on the target's toughness.

If the target is a tactical squad then you just dropped 5 or 6 marines (If the target has an invulnerable save, expect even less damage). If the target was a predator or vehicle similar in stats then it will probably go down too. The problem is, then what? You have to pray that you roll a good jet pack move and get behind LoS blocking cover. If you fail then your opponent will wipe out the entire squad through shooting and possibly an assault.

I'd drop aun'va as he doesn't really have a purpose in this list. Next I'd probably drop the 4th FW team and increase the 3 remaining teams to 8 man squads. I'd drop a piranha and take a pathfinder squad to give you some much needed markerlights. Lastly, using the points from aun'va I'd create the following team and convert the commander to:

152 pts commander: 2x missile pods, drone controller, target lock, 2 marker drones

81 pts 1x crisis suit: 2x missile pods, target lock, 2 markerdrones

Have the commander join this suit for 4 missile pods and 4 BS5 markerlights.

Your original crisis suit team with fusion/plasmas can remain as is and doesn't need the support of the commander - your new markerlights can boost their BS skill and remove cover

Don't quite know what to make of your post - I think for 1000 points I have a fair balance of firepower against both light infantry and heavy infantry. 3 tl-plasma rifles, 3 tl-fusion blasters and a large blast AP3 marker should suffice in 1000 points games against MEQ, I think. The volume of high strength high AP fire is merely used to "clean up" squads.

I'll consider your suggestion of taking some markerlights instead of the C&C and multi-spectrum module to also allow my unit to strip cover and buff their BS, but the problem is having to rely on multiple other units for the same result instead of your own unit being able to take care of itself can make or break a battle plan in the heat of combat.

Especially because the markerlight only has 36" range and can't be fired if your units moved - I was actually going to use the Firewarriors as objective grabbers and not as fire support I could rely on in my armylist. But on the other hand it can benefit any unit in the Tau army including the Piranha squadron (do all piranhas increase their BS along with the drones?) and might be worth considering if so.


Here's an altered version of the list:


HQ:

Commander
- Drone controller
- Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite
- C&C Node
- Puretide Engram
- Neuroweb System Jammer
- Shield Generator
- 2 Gun Drones


Elites:

3 XV-8 Crisis suits w. 1 Plasma Rifle, 1 Fusion Blaser & 2 Gun Drones each
wargear: 1 has vectored retro-thrusters, another has a 'just in case' flamer


Troops:

9 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles and photon grenades

6 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles and photon grenades
*dedicated Transport: Devilfish APC
weaponry: Burst Cannon, 2 Gun Drones with 1 tl-Pulse Carbine each
wargear: disruption pod


Fast Attack:

Piranha Squadron (3 Piranhas, each with 1 Burstcannon and 2 Gun Drones w. 2 TL-Pulse Carbines)

7 Pathfinders w. Pulse Carbines

Heavy Support:

Hammerhead (Ion Cannon, TL-SMS, Disruption Pod, Blacksun Filter, Automated Repair System)



So my Devilfish adds 8 S5 shots to the army's firepower, although I lost 12 S5 shots if an enemy unit came within 15" range of 2 of my FW squads. I also lost re-rollable LD and 2 scoring units, but for that my other scoring unit is now protected and highly mobile, and the remaining troop hasmore members in them to be able to take a wee bit of punishment before they have to worry about LD tests. I also took 7 Pathfinders now. I had some points left over, so I gave my HQ a Neuroweb System Jammer to hurt the enemy a bit more if he starts shooting at my squad, and my Hammerhead a Blacksun Filter to be able to shoot through Nightfight as well as an automated repair system.

Ill be honest, 3 fusion blasters really do wreck armour pretty well.

Also, seems you have gone down the same route as me and ignored markers.

I run the same commander as you, but no generator or TL for the unit.
Instead i run him with 2 burst cannons.
The big change though, he is with a maxed out unit of drones while having 2 of his own.

The fire power of the unit is simply stupid as it hacks down most things.
Each drone fire 2 TL BS5 shots, so you can rest assured both will hit.
If the target is not in cover, the commander gets to let loose with the 2 burst cannons aswell.

If you really want to get more involved, use an ethereal aswell for an extra 14 shots (1 per drone)

So, normally you have 28 TL BS5 shots from those drones.
Your going to hit with all of them.
Against an average T5 model your doing 18 wounds.
So thats 6 dead marines without the commander shooting, without an ethereal adding to that and thats against T5 marines.
Now think what it does to orks?

Granted its a cheap trick, but its a trick that really does work well and allways has a target to shoot.
Even rear armour of fliers is fair game thanks to S5.


I would find the points for fusions on the piranha's aswell since the bursts really dont give you much, and the speed of them means you can move about quickly and get into range with no issues.
I'd also drop one of them and 2 units of warriors to get fish for the other 2 units.

FW's are slow, squishy and dont do a great deal in small units.
In objective games they wont last long enough to score.

And as a final, if you can find the points from a few trims, an ion riptide instead of the ionhead would help alot more.
It can soak alot more shooting and offers just as much, if not more in return.

so your Commander begins the game attached to a Drone unit? And the ethereal is close by? Isnt that a defensive formation, given the tl-Pulse Carbines' short range?

It is, but when pushed to the front of a deployment in cover it handles its self pretty well.

At low points its rare to see any large units of troops that can take any volume of fire and carry on running towards you.
The ethereal is optional, and if i plan on moving the unit up and out of the way alot i wont bring him along.


Orks will allways have a big unit of boys at this level, but with the commander firing aswell you kill 22-23 boyz per turn, so close to wiping out a max unit.

Also, T4 helps them take the damage alot better than a FW can.


For tau it is a short ish ranged unit, but it deals enough shooting to mow down most units that come near it, and it has the speed to get out of the way if it needs to.

I just find the unit causes far more damage than firewarriors ever can do since they get a constant 2 shots at a much higher BS while being tougher and faster, for the cost of a few inches of range.

In games around 1750 - 2000 ill run an extra unit of drones aswell.
That way, once the commanders unit starts taking alot of damage i can jump him into a new unit and start firing again at full strength.




Seems like a weird tactic for tau, but the damage output from the unit is pretty damn amazing to say the least.

It also draws fire away from the squishy fire warriors who need to be holding objectives most of the time.