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Hey folks,

Had a game tonight against my regular opponent, 1k pts match that he took by 1VP at the end but he had a heap of trouble with my Stormtalon, his only current AA unit being a 3 man stealth team one of whom has a velocity tracker and fusion gun.

He wants to add some cheap AA as he has only just spent a bundle of cash to get his army up to 1500 pts and I suggested that in his shoes I would add an Aegis line and Quad gun (about 12 quid in the UK from one of the discount online stores) which he can stick a 6 man Firewarrior squad in somewhere near the back, he even has enough free pts to add a couple of drones for more ablative wounds and still hit 1500 with a good looking TAC list.

I can't see any other option as a cheap AA unit, he doesn't run Riptides or Broadsides as he runs a fluffy and I have to say very fun and in his hands very dangerous footslogging based army led by a Fireblade.

In fact in case anyone has other suggestions his rough 1500 pt army with the Aegis would be -

Fireblade with shield drone
Attached to a 6 man FW squad

Troops -

6 man FW squad
6 man FW squad
12 man FW squad
6 man FW squad, 2 gun drones in Aegis with Quad Gun

Elites -

Stealth squad, 3 stealths, 2 burst cannons, 1 fusion gun, all with target locks, Fusion guy with velocity tracker
Crisis Squad, from memory it is running - twin missiles and target lock, fusion blaster and plasma gun, fusion blaster and plasma gun with drone controller and 6 gun drones

Fast Attack -

5 x Pathfinders with pulse accelerator and 1 ion rifle
5 x Pathfinders with recon drone and 2 rail rifles
Pirahna with fusion gun

Heavy Support -

Hammerhead with rail, submunitions and missile pods.

He is not looking for a tourney winning build, the army is a lot of fun to play.

Basically options for AA are Quad gun, suits with VT (if you're paying for the Vt you may as well use it on a crisis suit for 2 guns rather than stealth), riptide with VT, or Skyray missile defence gunship, which I reckon would do a good number against a stormtalon

I think putting a drone controller on the stealths and adding the velocity to the dual missile pod crisis suits would be how I would do it, that laying down 8 S7 missiles and the Aegis line should glance it out in a turn.

I'm not sure why I am so determined to help him tbh! He is my weekly game and I already lose a lot!

Sounds like he is running a scout type cadre

Why not some Skyrays.

6 missiles and it becomes a mobile bs4 marker machine + sms boat.

If he's not against using Flyers, a Barracuda would make short work of your Stormtalon (S7 gun). For a footslogging army, Crisis with VT and missiles (or fusion, if he can put them close to their target) work as well (gets pricey)

Barracuda would be more along "if hes not against FW" not fliers lol. Barracuda is downright nasty against other air and a lot of stuff on the ground too for the cost....too bad its FW and subject to "FW Enabled" games and your wallet depth lol. It costs 75euro on its own.

Outside FW, best AA Tau have without shelling out for 3 broadsides (150USD before taxes, btw) would be an ADL like you suggested, Riptides with VT (Honestly either gun works here, HBC is technically better but subject to a 3+ flop making it useless against vehicles that turn), or a Skyray. I swear by Skyrays, theyre useful even in games where there isnt a flier. Literally i have had 1 game where i didnt want them in about 15 games in a row of using one - and thats because i went against a solid foot-guard unexpectedly lol so i didnt even have light vehicles to pop.

Broadsides are technically best, but like i said, thats 150USD before tax lol. Others are ~60-70USD cheaper and almost as effective, if not just as effective.

EDIT: If hes curious what the Barracuda has, it has 5 S7 attacks (2 AP4, 3 AP3 iirc) and two burst cannon drones, so 8 S5 attacks. Plane itself is BS4, unsure on the drones but i imagine BS2 like the rest.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Barracuda would be more along "if hes not against FW" not fliers lol. Barracuda is downright nasty against other air and a lot of stuff on the ground too for the cost....too bad its FW and subject to "FW Enabled" games and your wallet depth lol. It costs 75euro on its own.

Outside FW, best AA Tau have without shelling out for 3 broadsides (150USD before taxes, btw) would be an ADL like you suggested, Riptides with VT (Honestly either gun works here, HBC is technically better but subject to a 3+ flop making it useless against vehicles that turn), or a Skyray. I swear by Skyrays, theyre useful even in games where there isnt a flier. Literally i have had 1 game where i didnt want them in about 15 games in a row of using one - and thats because i went against a solid foot-guard unexpectedly lol so i didnt even have light vehicles to pop.

Broadsides are technically best, but like i said, thats 150USD before tax lol. Others are ~60-70USD cheaper and almost as effective, if not just as effective.

EDIT: If hes curious what the Barracuda has, it has 5 S7 attacks (2 AP4, 3 AP3 iirc) and two burst cannon drones, so 8 S5 attacks. Plane itself is BS4, unsure on the drones but i imagine BS2 like the rest.

Surprisingly, Barracuda doesn't come with drones; the burst cannons are part of it (just like SMS on vehicles look like drones with it).

All in all, Skyrays are the best cost-effective option

Tank hunting buff commander and crisis suits. S7 tank hunter ignore cover hits rapidly strip the HP from a flyer. Even his stealth suits should be able to drop a flyer once they gain TL, tank hunter, and ignore cover.

gotta give a third vote to skyrays, they help make short work of all of the fliers I've gone against since I started using them

Broadsides. They're gona murder anything unless it's a landraider.

A missileside unit throwing 36 S7 skyfire (and perhaps interceptor) shots into the air; maybe with guide or prescience from an Eldar buddy, twinlinking, tankhunters/monster hunters, and ignores cover from a buffmander and/or Markerlight support will pretty much garauntee the destruction of any unit of fliers in the game.

3 vendettas? Gone.

Heldrake? Never had a chance.

Hive crone? Poof.

Daemon prince? Whoops it's dead now.

Dakkajets? Hell your firewarriors could have taken care of this.

Thunderhawk? More like a stormraven with more HP am I right?

Harridan? Kiss the ground motherfether.

But as to what you have, Skyrays are very potent against fliers.

Put as many S8 AP3 hits into a flier as you have markerlights on the thing.

This wrecks most fliers and rapidly removes wounds from FMCs.

Your stormtalon would be brought down in short order.

 Kain wrote:
A missileside unit throwing 36 S7 skyfire (and perhaps interceptor) shots into the air; maybe with guide or prescience from an Eldar buddy, twinlinking, tankhunters/monster hunters, and ignores cover from a buffmander and/or Markerlight support will pretty much garauntee the destruction of any unit of fliers in the game.

I think the max S7 RoF of a Missileside unit is 24: 12 from HYMP and another 12 from drones. SMS is only S5 (another 12)

that and a buffmander+ a full unit of broadsides gets pretty pricey for 1500, thats not even taking into account any drones

buffmander + 3 broadsides with 6 drones = 500pts thereabouts. You could trim it down by removing the durability aspect of the buffmander, but if you do the unit is going to get annihilated fast since now theres nothing to tank S9 or various AP2 attacks.

Also, did they change the barracuda to not have drones? pretty sure it has drones. i dont have the book but everything ive read on it says the bursts are drone controlled....then again not sure how out dated my info is.