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Right, so its a 2k armylist, and I am thinking about how to best kit a Crisis Commander leading an Elites slot unit consisting of 3 Crisis suits. Those are the models I have, that I can work with.

Currently I am aiming for a setup that can hold its own in almost any battlefield situation. I'm happy to pay a little extra points to try as much as I can to mitigate any weakness the unit has, so while their primary goal is to deep-strike into the heart of the enemy army and take out their armor, heavy infantry and/or MCs, I have also spent some extra points to make them better if they get charged and get into close combat, or if they find themselves only facing light infantry. My current setup:

Commander
- 2 Fusion Blasters
- Target Lock
- Drone Controller
- Puretide Engram Neurochip
- Iridium Armor
- Neuroweb System Jammer
- 2 marker drones

Right. So my Commander has 2 BS5 Fusion Blasters for anti-tank duty. He is a Mark'O, meaning ALL the drones of the entire unit (his and the crisis team's) fire at his BS5 as long as he remains attached to the crisis suits. Target lock allows me to potentially engage a second vehicle with him and the drones while the crisis suits engage the primary tank, or a heavy infantry unit with their plasma rifles and fusion blasters. Iridium Armor is there to make him immune to ID from S8 and S9 weapons, as well as make him immune to most power weapons in cc that strike at normal initiative. I've given him an Onager Gauntlet so that should he get into cc with an enemy IC that wields an AP2 weapon (usually I1) he can strike before him and potentially ID him if he is a marine or even Necron IC (the chance is small, but it's there...and at 5 points its a steal). The Engram is there to make my entire unit tank hunters the turn they land. Alternately, they can all be monster hunters to take care of MCs.

Finally, I have the Neuroweb System Jammer because it is so cheap and can potentially be placed on a dangerous shooty unit that is within 12" of my deepstruck squad. Rapid-fire into my landed unit? Oh boy, good luck with that now.

XV-8 Crisis Team
Crisis suit
- Fusion Blaster
- Plasma Rifle
- Flamer
- 2 marker drones

Crisis suit
- Fusion Blaster
- Plasma Rifle
- Flamer
- 2 marker drones

Crisis suit
- Fusion Blaster
- Plasma Rifle
- Vectored Retro Thrusters
- 2 marker drones

So here are my suits. 3 FBs and 3 PRs make for a total of 3 S8 AP1 + 6 S6 AP2 shots. I have 2 backup flamers for overwatch and if I find myself with the opportunity of frying light infantry. Even against medium infantry (4+ save) the flamers will do a better job than the Burst Cannon or any of my already purchased weapons. I have the Vectored Retro Thrusters to get a 33.33% chance of escaping combat at the end of the turn I get charged instead of being stuck there due to the Commander's high LD and missing my opportunity to move away and shoot next turn. Originally I thought of giving the commander the VRTs because he is Initiative 3 (i.e. a 50% chance), but because he is only limited to 4 hard points, I would then have to sacrifice either the controller or the target lock, both of which I simply cannot do to merely improve my escape chance by +16.66%.

I have played with the idea of replacing all Fusion Blasters in the crisis suit team with plasma rifles, increasing their damage output against T4 and lower within 12" by 33%, but then I lose my anti-tank capability.

ideas and suggestions welcome. I think Shield Generators are too costly and occupy a valuable hard point.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
EDIT: wait a sec, here's a question - does the target lock only allow the commander's own 2 drones to fire at a different target than the rest of his team? i.e. the other 6 dont benefit from it since they were purchased for their crisis suits? If so, I'd replace the target lock with a stimulant injector.

The unit's total cost is or 437 or 447 points respectively, got 18 wounds, four of them T5 2+ save, 5+ FNP, the rest T4, with 6 being 3+ saves and the remaining 8 being 4+ saves. 8 BS5 markerlights, converts one enemy squad's weapons into Gets Hot! on arrivial via deep strike, re-rolls all failed armor pen rolls or all wounds against MCs, and pumps out 11 high strength low ap shots with alternate 2 backup flamers.

A long time ago fireknifes were all the rage. Is the ml and pr no longer valid?

Well, with the Puretide chip, you get a lot of utility. Tank hunters means that even your plasma rifles have a decent chance to pen light armor. Fusion blasters become dead lethal. Same for monster hunter and shooting T6+ monsters.

Your going for the helios configuration, which is pretty good. Not great, not terrible, and fireknife is still a decent build. I don't really think you need the flamers, and let the rest of your army handle troop killing. If your charged, pray you live long enough to escape. Speaking of, your understanding of hit and run is off. The test is always made on the highest I value of the unit, meaning 4 for the drones, and 3 if they are dead. I would put this on the commander always to protect it. It is your only chance of escape if something comes along and does not murder you outright. If nothing else, being stuck in combat means no shooting at the unit. With the chip you can activate stubborn and prevent breaking if you see a charge coming. Either way, JSJ should keep you safe enough most of the time.

A good buy for CC defense is the onager gauntlet. Gives you a chance to smash tanks in a pinch, or force a wound on something, instagib plenty of characters, etc. It goes before a power fist to really smash face.

I think your going a bit overkill on marker drones, and all those drones mean morale checks. They do not have networked markerlights, so your squad can't benefit from the hits.

Putting the thruster on the commander, and target locks on the unit gives you more utility(your right about how the commanders drones will work btw). You can always split the unit off from the commander, or whatever. Either way, BS4/5 fusion blasters with tank hunters will destroy armor.

Last but not least, consider a 'vre for a challenge chump. Hit stubborn on the chip, let the bloodthirster or other solo monster rape the vre then break away with no penalty, instead of losing the unit outright(or the commander)

Overall, trim down the points to fit in some more stuff in your army.

I personally like the FB/PR combo. If you expect to be out of markerlight support, then perhaps twin-link the fusions on the BS3 suits.

Big note: target lock only allows the owning model to fire at a separate target. So, the commander, but not the drones. Any of the drones. HOWEVER, you can drop the flamer and equip each suit with a target lock, then your drones fire at one target (the "declared" target) while the suits all split fire and engage other targets.