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As far as 10 point squad leaders go I think Shas,vre are underpowered and honestly not too useful. Lets break it down. For ten points you gain access to special issue wargear (situational but good) you gain +1 leadership(nice) and +1 attack (lol wut). As leaders in an army with BS 3 that is solely dependent on shooting this doesnt make much sense to me. I can kind of see it on regular battlesuit pilots who are only Shas'ui, but on bodyguard and crisis team leaders all you got is BS 3 compared to the huge jump to BS5 on the commanders just above them. From a more fluffy standpoint I don't see it either. The Riptide an experimental limited and costly to make suit has a pilot with average skills who hits his target 50% of the time? It just doesn't make sense to me when you have a derptastic Fireblade who has BS 5 or a mainstay battletank that is the Hammerhead with BS 4. Even if it just sums up to more advanced targeting systems are you saying they can't fit into a Crisis suit or hell the giant ass Riptide? What do you guys think? Should Shas,vre and Bodyguard get BS 4? Should they give up their extra attack or something in exchange for it? Or should they just stay standard as they are (aka no one uses them except for the riptide). I am anticipating a lot of complaints about how Markerlights make this a silly/pointless argument but you shouldn't be cross referencing Tau with Space Marines for your analysis it should be an army that functions similarly such as Eldar.

I don't think so, because moving the "bonus" stats around in a vacuum does not give you an equal cost in points. Tau are a shooty army with a by-design low BS, making buffs to BS a much more valuable thing to a Tau than to most other races or factions. So a straight swap of Attack for BS would not be an equivalent shift in cost.

I would also add that I think you're undervaluing the Leasership bonus, but that may be a matter of perspective on my part.

The problem isn't the 'Vre upgrade, its that it costs 10pts instead of 5pts, just like almost ally Sergeant Upgrades that don't offer an additional wound(Nob and Exarch). Most Sergeant upgrades should only be 5pts.

 curran12 wrote:
I don't think so, because moving the "bonus" stats around in a vacuum does not give you an equal cost in points. Tau are a shooty army with a by-design low BS, making buffs to BS a much more valuable thing to a Tau than to most other races or factions. So a straight swap of Attack for BS would not be an equivalent shift in cost.

I would also add that I think you're undervaluing the Leasership bonus, but that may be a matter of perspective on my part.

The Ld bonus isn't that great if you are taking leadership you are either too weakened to be useful or you are getting murdered in CC. Plus we have the option to get an upgrade for heroic morale making it pointless if you are a max drones in the squad kind of person. Also I get what you are saying about the By-Design thing but when you look at Eldar who have their aspect warriors with upgradable BS or SM who only go up 1 BS with their captain ranks. By no means am I suggesting that BS 5 Tau Commanders should be reduced they cost nearly 4x as much as a standard suit but still get ID just as easily. And don't get a free invuln to make up for it. All I'm saying is there is too big a gap between what is essentially a Leiutennant rank to a Captain rank.

Also consider that just last codex we had an upgrade for battlesuits to increase their BS and we could bring a squad of Fire Warriors as bodyguard for an ethereal and for a few more pts each they were BS 4

Shas'vre are options in only a few units and are one per unit. They can have bs5 for all I care. The riptide is pretty powerful no matter what BS it has, bs5 wouldn't affect its balance too much.

Basic suits however have absolutely to be bs3. It's more muscular and workman-like.

You know you used to have a bs4 HQ choice that was way better than the then overpriced Shas'O.

pelicaniforce wrote:
Shas'vre are options in only a few units and are one per unit. They can have bs5 for all I care. The riptide is pretty powerful no matter what BS it has, bs5 wouldn't affect its balance too much.

Basic suits however have absolutely to be bs3. It's more muscular and workman-like.

You know you used to have a bs4 HQ choice that was way better than the then overpriced Shas'O.

I disagree, BS would take the HBC Riptide from balanced to overbalanced. Now, it would have minimal effect on the already overpowered/underpriced Ion Accelerator Riptide.

pelicaniforce wrote:
Shas'vre are options in only a few units and are one per unit. They can have bs5 for all I care. The riptide is pretty powerful no matter what BS it has, bs5 wouldn't affect its balance too much.

Basic suits however have absolutely to be bs3. It's more muscular and workman-like.

You know you used to have a bs4 HQ choice that was way better than the then overpriced Shas'O.

That is what I said I agree with that. The basic Suits are only Shas'ui and don't deserve it but the Shas'vre which is the ranking of Crisis Squad and Stealth Squad Leaders as well as Bodyguards and the Riptide I think should have the BS 4 especially considering that Basic suits used to have a wargear option to get BS 4