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So, I'm working on my Tau, Planning to build a largeish scout force with a few Crisis Suits, Stealth suits, Fire Warriors and Kroot, Piranhas and maybe Vespids and Sniper Drones (I wanna use them but they are so expensive.. And finecast..) Anyways, I wanted to know if anyone have had any luck or good experiences with Fire Warriors using Pulse Carbines? I only tried it once but found that by the time you can shoot, You are basicaly dead. Atleast when facing space marines.. As if you can shoot, They can probably charge you..

To be honest, I think you'll be better off with rifles. The extra 12 inch range is a lot, and the chances of pinning a unit are quite slim.

 Big Blind Bill wrote:
To be honest, I think you'll be better off with rifles. The extra 12 inch range is a lot, and the chances of pinning a unit are quite slim.

Indeed. And what I find more problematic: Storm fo Fire would work on Carbines only at 9". I rather use it at 15".

Well, I have a few carbines in my army in the form of drones.

That once-in-a-while pin is actually nice. not a strategy, but a good added bonus. especially if you found yourself too close and grenades are an option-blind/pin/moral combo is brutal, and most units will fail at least one and be rendered helpless for a turn. a turn where you can finish them.

I'll consider taking the carbines for a team of ethreal-less devilfish riders (where the slightly longer doubletap is helping) if like me you do not like to take ethreals.

Also, if you take minimalist teams than carbines are an option for the mere reason people wont want to waste shots on mere 6 fire warriors when more pressing units are in the area. or if you want EMP commandos (as being able to shoot and assault might get you that extra hullpoint needed for a kill)

I actually had some hilarious luck with pulse carbines last edition whilst playing against Tyranids. I didn't want to keep my troops in fish because of the points that needed to be used elsewhere for as much firepower as possible, so to give my fire warriors a fighting chance that was more of an experimental thing than anything else, I gave every single one of them pulse carbines (3 teams of 12 FWs).

The Tyranid player was obviously eager to get into combat and rip my squishy Tau to shreds, but as I had pushed forward as much as possible before any Tyranids were in range of my carbines it meant I had a large space behind them that they could fall back into. Any squads of Tyranids trying to run down my 12 man teams were whittled down to mostly nothing before they even got close because I'd been falling back, firing and overwatching to make sure they didn't get into combat.

This type of strategy could probably work against a CC ork list too, but that was a purely experimental game and I think I was pretty lucky with it. I hardly ever use carbines but there's the story!