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Hi guys! I know we have some better more veteran Tau generals on Dakka than I. My local tournaments with a more competitive ruleset have pretty teethy lists. (Stuff you would see in national/larger tournaments like LVO, NOVA etc.) So people go pretty all out, and there are no problems with it. (We also have more casual tournaments that dock points for unpainted, too spammy lists etc., so everyone's pretty happy)

Anyways, I generally run Triptide with solo suits and 3x Missile Pod Suit team + Buffcommander and a Skyray or 2. Most of my Markerlight support comes from the Marker drones in my 3x MP Suit team with the Buffcommander tanking wounds in the front. Then the rest of the Markers come from the Skyrays. One of my Riptides comes with ECPA so it doesn't generally need ML support. Neither does the other Burst-Tide usually. The IA one is the only one that really relies on the MLs to "shine."

With all that said, I've been debating putting in a 4th Riptide. (I got another one in a killer trade) I'm not sure if it will be diminishing returns as far as power because I won't have enough MLs to support it or if they can be fine on their own even without.
Is 4x too many? (Please don't think "oh it's too cheesy to bring that many." It's only too many if it's not strong in the list. Remember this is for competitive minded tournaments. I wouldn't do this on a regular friendly game unless my opponent wanted an equally hard match) I was thinking 4x might be too much because of the lack of ML support. With 4x in the list I would have 8x drones and 1 Skyray supporting with MLs. I don't know if that would be enough to warrant the 4th one since IA Riptides are a bit lackluster without ML support. Don't get me wrong... still good, just not able to pull their weight as much without the ML support.

What are your guys thoughts?

I recently played a game using 6 riptides (2 ion tides, 2 Rvarna and 2 Yvara).
I found myself wanting broadsides but otherwise having a lot of fun.

I once fielded 7 riptides and 1 Rvarna. Min squads of FW's and I believe a Fireblade. Was a fun game. But lost the Rvarna all by myself via nova reactor failures every turn. And my opponent also, in an effort to be cheesy brought an entire army of Eldar Pathfinders and Illic Nightspear. He won.

I think you are right in that you may need more ML support to make it work, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. If all your ML support currently comes from the skyrays and commander unit, you could probably do with some diversification anyway. Maybe drop an MP crisis and invest in a couple of tetras? Boosts you MLs to accommodate the new 'tide, but also gives you a bit of mobility for last turn objective grabbing.

I thought the title meant 4 Greentides.
Disappointed.

 koooaei wrote:
I thought the title meant 4 Greentides.
Disappointed.

haha same. 4 Greentides would be amazing though.

Hahah I changed the title to clarify now

Thanks for the input guys. Yea... Tetras... This is speaking from just my theorycrafting but I've been having great use out of Skyrays being my secondary random ML support. Second to the drones. Haven't used Tetras yet but they seem pretty fragile for what they are bringing.

Like I said before, my list works with MLs but I don't want to build it so it's reliant on it. That's why I think I've liked my list so much. It's a notch better, but can still roll with the big boy armies if they try to take it out first.

4 Riptides seems like a little push at 1850 that might be too much to support. Considering I want at least 4+ single suits for Obsec and mobility stuff and will need more ML support since the list will be more reliant on it it might not work out as well as I expected. Since I do want to keep the list balanced still.

Tetras are quite fragile, but cheap enough that their fragility is forgivable.

Also, the ability to dash 12" and fire 2 TL marker shots is quite impressive, as it means even a jinked tetra could still in theory land a hit.

And they are pretty high on the efficiency list, useful against both air and ground, and so damn SNEAKY (you can hide one or two with ease, only having the "tails" where the marker is mounted pop out)

Tetras are a great option. I love mine far more than I love my drones. (and I never bothered with pathfinders, even with old dex I preferred just to be markerless than use these fools, disgusting static units.)

 BoomWolf wrote:
Tetras are quite fragile, but cheap enough that their fragility is forgivable.

Also, the ability to dash 12" and fire 2 TL marker shots is quite impressive, as it means even a jinked tetra could still in theory land a hit.

And they are pretty high on the efficiency list, useful against both air and ground, and so damn SNEAKY (you can hide one or two with ease, only having the "tails" where the marker is mounted pop out)

Tetras are a great option. I love mine far more than I love my drones. (and I never bothered with pathfinders, even with old dex I preferred just to be markerless than use these fools, disgusting static units.)

Haha, I agree with the Pathfinders!

I might give the Tetras a try... did you convert them from some Piranhas?

Tetras basically are Piranhas so that would be an easy conversion. iirc the only real physical difference is the tetras dont have the "wings" the piranha do and have a shield over their head.

Even in the era of taudar brofists i always felt bringing too many riptides had more problems than they solved. Riptides pay for durability not killing power, but dice is dice so they can still kill pretty hard...on the same token they can fail pretty hard.

Theres 2 other tau players where i am and one does this...oddly effective Firewarrior + Devilfish // Pathfinders + Devilfish // Hammerhead duos list and the other does riptide spam. Utilized the Tau/FC allies shenanigans to bring 4 riptides in a 2k game back in 6th (before the "nerfs"). It was rare to see him win from kills because his riptides would overheat CONSTANTLY and he had no other heavy hitters, just firewarrior/pathfinder blobs.

My riptides are nothing more than a distraction. I bring one and i play semi-aggressive with him, trying to keep him alive but on the same note i want him to take all the heat. Broadsides and missile crisis suits do the bulk of my killing.

Not the easiest conversion, due to the "front tail" thingy...

But mine are original bought tetras. the models are just too good looking to pass away as mere piranha conversion and feel good about yourself.

And for FW, they are fairly priced. costing the same as a piranha money-wise (they cost double, but come in pairs)

Oh really? Never noticed they were evenly costed.

Why convert them then ... lol.. ignore me

So with conversions and tarpit units out of the way..

Back on topic, Quadtides... do you guys think its really underwhelming? The thought about Broadsides for me is that they are definitely much more killy, but everytime I've played with them they are target #1.

The answer I get to that is "then take 2 units of them." That's not a very good answer. So I spend 200~ish for 1 unit and 200~ish for another so that 1 can last to about turn 3? >___<

I think a 4th Riptide brings a great durable platform that can dishout a good amount of damage. For it's durability and how long it lasts, and also it's ability to be mobile (valuable in Maelstrom missions) and also act as a tarpit with a LD10 + Stubborn Ethereal bubble... I think it's the clear winner.

My conundrum is just trying to round out my Triptide + FSE MSU Suits list. It can handle everything from air MC/Vehicles to hordes, high AV, multiple IKs etc. I'm just wanting to balance it out or give it more support. Maybe a Skyray or two over another Riptide... hmmm