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Fairly straightforward question, which unit in practice works best for fire support on foot? When I last played in 4th edition, I remember funny enough that kroot did the troop choices fire support whilst you had to take a min squad of Fws because gw said so..

I did a fairly quick google search on the maths and seems like they are close enough per pt shooting wise against allot of common targets. Kroot obviously have the better deployment options whilst Fws have better range and armour. Both units aren't exactly tough though. But I suppose a straight 4+ save can be relied upon more then hoping for a table with cover! Fws have supporting fire and ap 5 which is nice, whilst sniper rounds have a chance off picking out the guy you really want dread hidden in a squad. + They can hurt Mcs more reliably..

I must admit, myself with absolutely no recent exp at all, is siding with the kroot here again due to the extra flexibility of their deployment options. The 24 inch range ain't great, but tbh I don't recall back in the day caring too much if people put effort into killing cheap and cheerful small squads of kroot..

As a more wider question, how do Tau troops compare to other factions when it comes to shooting efficiency?

Cheers!

Seems to me that Fire Warriors would be better fire support, with Kroot being better at grabbing objectives, and some cheap hurt on MCs. Unfortunately, Kroot come in min units of 10.

a minimum squad of Kroot with no upgrades is 60 pts. A min squad of firewarriors with the same restriction is 54 pts. You get a bit more survivability and a bit more range with the firewarriors but you get about twice the models with the kroot. Both can get buffed by an Ethereal or Fireblade, but Darkstrider cannot join Kroot.

Tau are less efficient than other armies, generally speaking, when it comes to shooting without ML support (or some other force multiplier like a CF or E).

They're clearly designed as an army that requires force multipliers.

^ this

Out of the two, Kroot work best by themselves. FW work better when buffed with Markerlights, Cadre Fireblade, etc..

I would say Tau rank mid-tier when shooting without markerlights. I'd give top-tier to either Eldar faction (Poison on cheap infantry with DE, bladestorm and shoot&run with CWE)

Kroot work better in large blobs to hold objectives (behind cover, of course; inside forests, even better) and to snipe pesky T6+

Something to note about sniper rounds is that they greatly increase the Kroot's damage output against heavy infantry (marines for instance) in the 12"-24" range, assuming that the Kroot have not moved. They don't just have an increased effect against MCs.