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I've justbo bought a Tau Battleforce which, as far as I can tell, comes with 3x each battlesuit weapin (except for cyclic ion blaster and airbursting fragmentation launcher). I was told best way to arm a crisis suit is 2x same weapon but that means I'll have to put a different type of weapon on each one. Is this viable? If so which weapons?

I plan on using these crisis as a commander+2 man crisis team in 500 or so point games as I learn but I'd like to keep them viable in the long run.

LordBlades wrote:
I've justbo bought a Tau Battleforce which, as far as I can tell, comes with 3x each battlesuit weapin (except for cyclic ion blaster and airbursting fragmentation launcher). I was told best way to arm a crisis suit is 2x same weapon but that means I'll have to put a different type of weapon on each one. Is this viable? If so which weapons?

I plan on using these crisis as a commander+2 man crisis team in 500 or so point games as I learn but I'd like to keep them viable in the long run.

The best thing to do is go on ebay and try and find the extra parts.

Otherwise what do you want them to do?

Some take all three weapon slots to get 2 of the same weapon but one is Twin-linked E.G missile pods, good for long range stuff.

Due to me running 2 riptides my crisis team ends up with Twin-linked Plasma Rifles and missile pods, it tends to kill most infantry/light vehicle targets sprinkle in markerlights for extra killing power.

Arming them all the same helps as well. Commanders are "good" but if you are going to run them with suits then abuse their BS5, i'm going to arm my 2nd commander with 2 Plasma rifles as i find them very useful. Of course do not forget to try the "buffmander" as well, those BS5 marker drones plus irridum armour create a pain in the butt unit that annoys folks to distraction, but that is in larger games.

However never ever forget to jump in the assault phase, folks cry chese at that

Twin linking is most of the time not worth it imho, especially if you don't have the weapons to do it. I equipped my first ones with Fusion & Plasma but that was still under the 4th edition codex where equipping a weapon twice was automatically twin-linking it. If you plan to play small point games I would say make every suit a single unit and equip them each differently, that way you can see what works for you best. For example give the Commander 2 Plasma Rifles, one suit 2 Missile Pods and the last one dual Fusion, Plasma & Missile or Plasma & Fusion.

It depends what you're likely to be playing against i.e. your meta.

I'd say you want high strength 6+, cant go far wrong with missile pods, lots of shots at a reasonable AP. You can pick up extra missile pods easily on e-bay if you didn't have enough from the set.

Also make sure you magnetise your weapons, you'll appreciate it later for sure!

Definitely magnetize and definitely double up. If you don't have the money to buy more bits (which would be dirt cheap) then WAIT. You will hate yourself if you glue on mixed weapons and are locked in 6 months from now.

Also, asdumong I need these 3 suits to combat a knight, what weapons are up to the task?

I think you can make the plasma rifle/missile pod version from the battleforce contents, I don't play as Tau but it seems a popular build as it can burn through MEQs

If you are needing anti armour the Fusion/missile seems a popular choice for that, again I think you can make this from the parts in the box

LordBlades wrote:
Also, asdumong I need these 3 suits to combat a knight, what weapons are up to the task?

Dual fusion would be perfect for this

A knight at 500 points is a bit dirty. You will struggle to take it down with what you have at your disposal at that points level.

Dual fusion plus the puretide chip so if needs be you can still hurt it at 9-18". It takes almost my entire army's shooting for one turn at 1750 points to take a knight

djn wrote:
A knight at 500 points is a bit dirty. You will struggle to take it down with what you have at your disposal at that points level.

Dual fusion plus the puretide chip so if needs be you can still hurt it at 9-18". It takes almost my entire army's shooting for one turn at 1750 points to take a knight

The guy in question is a very good Rl friend who wants to start a Mechanicum-themed army and he's leaning toward Iron Hands and Imperial Knights allies(he likes knights a lot). Most likely starting force would be a knight and the min Urin hands stuff to meet the hq+2 troops requirement (I think techmarine and 2 min sized squads of tavtical marines).

I want to be able to have a decent game vs. his army and all I have atm are the contents of the Tau Battleforce and maybe some Dark Eldar kabalite warriors that I can use to proxy some kroot, so I figure the crisis would need to do the heavy lifting vs. the knight.

LordBlades wrote:

djn wrote:
A knight at 500 points is a bit dirty. You will struggle to take it down with what you have at your disposal at that points level.

Dual fusion plus the puretide chip so if needs be you can still hurt it at 9-18". It takes almost my entire army's shooting for one turn at 1750 points to take a knight

The guy in question is a very good Rl friend who wants to start a Mechanicum-themed army and he's leaning toward Iron Hands and Imperial Knights allies(he likes knights a lot). Most likely starting force would be a knight and the min Urin hands stuff to meet the hq+2 troops requirement (I think techmarine and 2 min sized squads of tavtical marines).

I want to be able to have a decent game vs. his army and all I have atm are the contents of the Tau Battleforce and maybe some Dark Eldar kabalite warriors that I can use to proxy some kroot, so I figure the crisis would need to do the heavy lifting vs. the knight.

If he uses a knight, your done. 3 crisis suits with market lights within extra crispy range will average about 3-4 hull points. Leaving you pretty much in range for strength D assualt, and/or large blast shots that ignore your armor and double tap out your guys. If he brings a knight, your done.

If he brings a knight, that decent game is out the window. Make sure to inform him.

So what's the Tau answer to.a knight in a low point game?

Double fusion suits.

The answer is ALWAYS double fusion suits if it has an AV value.


Also, punch your opponent. a knight in low cost games is being a dick.

 BoomWolf wrote:
Double fusion suits.

The answer is ALWAYS double fusion suits if it has an AV value.


Also, punch your opponent. a knight in low cost games is being a dick.

As I said before, he just likes the idea and models of a knights+Iron hands army and he wants to start with a knight and sime iron hands. No ill-will involved, I'd just try to find a way to play what I have against what he plans to buy.

The only way to reliably down a knight in low point games would be to have literally 3 squads of crisis suits with meltas. They should strip most of the hull points off the knight. On the knights turn it will wipe 2 of the squads easily, leaving one more for you to finish it off with. If you cant fit 9 battle suits with melta into your list, your basically screwed.
You are underestimating the knights potential.

LordBlades wrote:
I'd just try to find a way to play what I have against what he plans to buy.

Really with what youve bought there isnt one. Not your fault, but your going to basically insta lose every game vs him.

If he's running an IK, plus master of the forge and two tacs that's over 600 points.

I would take a mini shadowsun bomb;

Commander, 2 fusion, puretide, retro thrusters, neuroweb
Shadowsun, command link drone (proxy stealth suit)
3 crisis, 6 fusion, 6 gun drones
2 Drone sentry, TL missile pod (proxy converted drones)
600 pnts

Still not enough firepower to reliably take down a knight. 10 fusion with 4 at BS5 and all re-rolling 1s isn't too shabby and negates the need for markers.

You may get lucky sometimes with bad ion shield rolls and getting 3hp on an explodes result. The key will be trying to get two or three turns of shooting out of shadowsun's unit. Doable with her 3d6 assault move and keeping the knight in terrain.

Infiltrate shadowsun's unit so you always get the jump in deployment but stay 22ish inches from the IK. Keep the gun drones facing the knight and make sure you always have cover for the 2+ save from stealth and shrouded.

Use tank hunter at range and when you're ready to move in for the kill at sub 9" use stubborn in case you get charged. Hope he doesn't rofl stomp you then hit and run out.

Assuming you're not playing missions as such the troops will do and have the range to put some wounds on troops or a lucky HP on the knight.

 ninjafiredragon wrote:
The only way to reliably down a knight in low point games would be to have literally 3 squads of crisis suits with meltas. They should strip most of the hull points off the knight. On the knights turn it will wipe 2 of the squads easily, leaving one more for you to finish it off with. If you cant fit 9 battle suits with melta into your list, your basically screwed.
You are underestimating the knights potential.

I never got the chance to see full stats for a knight yet :(
What about a riptide, broadsides and hammerheads? Do they work vs. a knight?

As others have said, the best anti tank at tau disposal is dual fusion battle suits. Nothing else in the tau book will reliably bring down a knight as quickly or efficiently. Their advantages are that fusion guns are the end word in anti armour, and also that they will often be close to the target to take advantage of their melta, because of this it will be possible to threaten more than 1 facing of a knight (which will help some shots bypass its shield).

However, bear in mind that they are quite vulnerable to battlecannons, which the knight will usually fire 2 per turn. These are AP3 and will cause instant death to your suits, so getting close may pose a challenge, unless you are willing to risk deepstriking.
If you don't kill it in one turn however, then your suits will almost certainly die in the next turn.

Hammerheads don't have the quantity of shots to bring down a knight before it reaches you. Riptides will have to use nova'd burst to really threaten a knight with its main gun and even then it will only average out at less than 1 HP per turn. Its fusion gun will do fine, but if you really want fusions then battlesuits would be the way to go.

Broadsides really don't have the weapon strength to reliably penetrate the front armour.

Really a knight in 500 points is terrible cheese. If he does plan on using it then I would consider taking multiple fusion suits to counter it. Maybe consider using farsight enclaves and taking 2 or 3 single man fusion suit squads as well as your 3. They are good for scoring multiple objectives, and will stop the knight from wiping out multiple suits from shooting in one turn (though he does have the potential to charge a different target than his battlecannon units by taging them with his stubber, so be careful of that).

The problem with the knight at low points levels is that it is very rock paper scissors. Either you have the tools for the job, and you will win easily when 80% of his army blows up in one turn, or you don't, and you spend the whole game watching your army get stomped on.

LordBlades wrote:

 BoomWolf wrote:
Double fusion suits.

The answer is ALWAYS double fusion suits if it has an AV value.


Also, punch your opponent. a knight in low cost games is being a dick.

As I said before, he just likes the idea and models of a knights+Iron hands army and he wants to start with a knight and sime iron hands. No ill-will involved, I'd just try to find a way to play what I have against what he plans to buy.

Its not knights+iron hand, knights are 370+ for model, he liturally CANT get iron hands in the list any more.
It would be just like you taking minimum troops and HQ, than splice in 2 riptides. (possible with forgeworld sentry turrents) you CAN, but its being an ass.

Knight aside then, I take it the most versatile weapon loadout for.lowpoint games would be 2x missiles?

Usually true.

However, due to the fact facing high AV without a proper answer is really, really bad. I tend to go for fusions in TAC. at least a handful.

The most all round option for battle suits is missile pods. They are suitable for shooting at almost all targets.

With that said, even at 500 points I would try to get some fusion guns in there, just in case. (In larger points games just equip the suits for the task that the rest of your army can't do, it is often anti tank or using ap2 weapons)

Did you know that IG can easily fit 2 leman russ tanks into 500 points? Or Daemons could get 2 soul grinders?
Now it totally comes down to what is in your meta, and how people play the game there. The above examples are obviously TFG moves, however if such lists do appear, it is nice to at least be able to compete.

Bigger thing about missilepods is it gives them the ability to jump and hide far better than other weapons.

Plasma, fusion, and bursts are all short range guns. Plasmas are 24" but you really want to be 12" for rapid fire. I find my suits that use missilepods tend to live most if not the entire game because i can play the peek-a-boo game, which doesnt work up close since most things youre hiding from can just walk around the wall if you even reached the wall.

I use a missile pod crisis suit team and HYMP broadsides. light vehicles die immediately and pretty much everything else dies shortly after provided my piranha wall does its job. AV14 is technically the weakness in my list, but thats pretty rare these days outside a landraider...which nobody in my meta uses lol

So a good place to start would be getting 3 more missile pods and fusion blasters, magnetize and swap as needed? Then do the same with burst cannons and plasma rifles later on?

Crisis suits are one of the easiest models to magnetize their weapons. Cut the clip off that fits into the socket on their arm or top of their thrusters, put a magnet in its place, bam magnetized.
Though i also add a pin so it doesnt spin around. Nothing more annoying than looking down at my crisis suits and realize theyre aiming backwards lol.

You should always magnetize them. You never know you might want a different loadout later on than what you glue them with.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
You should always magnetize them. You never know you might want a different loadout later on than what you glue them with.

If you want or require a fluff response, say that Fire Warriors don't have the tactical inflexibility of Space Marines, that they can and will equip their suits to best handle any situation.
besides which, riptides and broadsides are very easy to magnetize as well, hammerheads and devilfish don't really need to be magnetized, just don't glue the weapons on and it should be easy to swap them out.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Crisis suits are one of the easiest models to magnetize their weapons. Cut the clip off that fits into the socket on their arm or top of their thrusters, put a magnet in its place, bam magnetized.
Though i also add a pin so it doesnt spin around. Nothing more annoying than looking down at my crisis suits and realize theyre aiming backwards lol.

You should always magnetize them. You never know you might want a different loadout later on than what you glue them with.

Or get some non-round magnets.