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.

I'm curious what peoples opinions are; what you feel the pros and cons of each is and why if you were going to take 1 you would take that one

Darkstrider plus 3 rail rifles. ID'ing T4 with 15" rapid fire all day. It's a fun unit that will murder marines and terminators. Haven't used the ions in a game yet but I would say overcharge and blast away.

I agree but there's something to be said for 3 blast templates at S8

I would say Ion Rifles rifles for versatility against mobs (seem to give Tau a rough time). Better chances to wound T6+

That is until you get hot with a 5+ armor save

i'll bring a single ion rifle in my five man pathfinder squads. mostly for extra shots at stuff

I tend to leave off the special weapons unless I intend to make the Pathfinder team a killing unit instead of a marking unit. At that point its best to go all in, maximum bodies, Pulse Accelerators and toughness reducing Special Characters.

As for which weapon to use, I don't face much with 4+ or worse saves, so a fair bit of the Ion Rifle's extra strength is lost on me, whic sucks since I can get 3 of them for the price of 2 Rail Rifles. I suggest you look at what your most likely to face and decide if you need the AP 1 more than the Blast or not.

I've always wanted to try the three railrifles with Darkstrider. Sounds like it could put some extra hurt on a lot of MC. Problem however is you have a lot of points dedicated to a unit of T3, 5+ models. It's not even really viable to throw a buff commander in to tank wounds either, like a ton of other Tau units.

If they got 3 MLs it could help with the gets hot and the re-roll to hit number wouldn't matter as they're scatter


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm running them in a 4 man unit with Darkstrider vs crons on Saturday

Remember, the Pathfinder team doesn't benefit from its own Markerlights.

The best heavy weapon for a pathfinder squad is a markerlight. The damage you get from giving them guns is rarely going to be more than the damage you get from their markerlights, and you have to pay points for the guns instead of buying more markerlights.

Yeah I know they're best suited for MLs and they can't use their own MLs but I want to try out the heavy guns with Darkstrider for several reasons...

1) I've got em and never used em
2) my opponent won't expect it
3) I've got plenty of MLs in my list already (3000pt game; 25MLs from 8 different sources)
4) I've got no more Pathfinders with MLs