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Combined Arms Detachment

HQ
Tau Commander - Command and Control Node (15 pts)
- PEN Chip (15 pts)
- MSS (20 pts)
- Iridium Battlesuit (25 pts)

- 160 pts

Troops
Kroot Squad #1 - 10 models - 60pts
- Sniper Rounds - 10pts

Kroot Squad #2 - 10 models - 60 pts
- Sniper Rounds -10pts

140 pts

Elite
Crisis Battlesuits - 6 models - 132 pts
- Shas'vre - 10 pts
- Bonding Knife Ritual - 6 pts
- 4 Fusion Blasters - 60pts
- 4 Burst Cannon - 40 pts
- 2 Cyclic Ion Blaster - 30 pts
- 2 Plasma Rifles - 30 pts

- 308 pts

Lord of War
Stormsurge - Early Warning Override (5 pts)
- Shield Generator (50 pts)

- 415 pts

Riptide Wing
3 Riptide Battlesuit - 540 pts
- All have TL-SMS
- EWO x2 - 10 pts (1 IA, 1 HBC)
- Stim Injector - 105
- 1 ion accelerator 5pts

- 660 pts

Drone Net Formation
4 Units Marker Drones - 224 pts

1907 pts

List is pretty straightforward, Commander and bodyguard join the Crisis Squad for the usual Buffmander foolishness, Riptides and Stormsurge take care of business while Kroot secure objectives and gun down any MCs. Looking for C&C and thoughts on how this will do against Chaos and KDK. I need to cut 57 points, and was thinking one of the stim injectors on the Riptides, or cutting a Crisis suit.

I like to specialize my crisis suits. I understand the desire not to I suppose to have a generally effective unit. I prefer a surgical strike team equipped to completely wipe whatever it is the turn they arrive. If it's a knight 3 crisis with 6 fusion blasters, add buffmander. If it's almost anything else I like plasma but have played with the idea of 6 cyclic ions for general purpose s7 or 6 airburst frags for ultimate horde control and spider feth your line of sight shananagans.

Other than that and adding maybe a stim injector to the commander and finding points for the pulse driver since I like the general s10 as opposed to the super close range sD. id also go with 3 heavy burst cannons instead of having the ion.

But all my suggestions are based on personal preference and general net wisdom. If you're trying to buck the trend or go for something that isn't as competitive as possible then by all means do your thing.

Not an expert on things since I have only recently got back into the game but my input would be that the crisis suites weapons are a bit of a mess what is that unit meant to be doing with all those different guns?

Also I don't think you can join commander and bodyguard into another squad which brings me to body guards are unnecessary paying 10 points for an extra CC attack and LD isn't worth it.

Riptide Formation and Stormsurge with drone Net is strong nothing so say about that.

I agree, I'm having trouble coordinating my Crisis suit weapon loadouts. I have dropped the bodyguards and have incorporated the buffmander into the larger crisis squad, now trying to refine my list.

Riptide Wing formation loadout is a pretty hotly debated topic, and I think having one IA in the unit is nice, especially with EWO for deep-striking / summoned horde units. I regularly play against Chaos and KDK, so it's nice to have a large blast that can roast MEQ, TEQ, and demon blobs.

Stormsurge loadout is something I'm going to play with, I like the idea of using it aggressively, getting close to Stomp and use the str D cannons to blow up just about anything. We'll see how my list holds up in combat.

Knowing that I face Chaos and KDK regularly, what Crisis loadouts do you guys recommend?

Well depends what units he's running that scare you...

Magnetizing crisis suits is essential.

If he's running say Khorne hounds Death Star then volume of fire is the answer, and high strength to wound easily. I would think cyclic ion or plasma, depends if he takes the 2+ armor save and the juggerlord.

If it's more of a space marine heavy list like say bikers and maulerfiends then I say plasma for marines and fusion for maulerfiends. Split the squads or take target locks.

In any of these cases, spare the juggerlord vs plasma, you wound on a 2+ and the only saves you allow are invulnerables if you use those markers right.

Cultists are a waste of bullets and often fund his blood tithe so don't shoot them unless you really need to.

Honestly, not much concerns me with the Riptide Wing available. There are things like a Land Raider, Heldrake, and possibily a Vindicator to deal with, so running most suits with Fusion might be the best bet. Cyclic Ion is nice for shooting at just about everything, but demons especially. Does it makes sense to equip Target Locks on some or all of the Crisis suits?

Edit: Would a Y'Vhara Riptide be a better addition than a squad of all-purpose Crisis suits? I'm not against picking one up to include in the force, but it would have to be a strictly superior upgrade to the sheer damage potential of 6 buffed Crisis suits.

Ditch the burst cannon crisis, if you want volume of fire, there's no reason not to take CIB's instead since the higher strength and better AP will do far, far more for you against every target you can name other than T3 5+ infantry.

Pick 2 types of guns for your crisis (hint, one of them is going to be fusion blasters) and stick target locks on which ever one there's fewer of (ie. 4x Double CIB crisis, 2x Double Fusion crisis with target locks). Also, you can drop the shas'vre, the commander is handing out Ld 10 and you're not taking a sigsys on the 'vre, so why is he there? Unless you're going farsight, you can drop the BKR as well.

The riptides are all going to want EWO, there's no reason not to take EWO on all 'Tides at 5 points a pop. Stims are good, but if they're shooting your 'Tides, they're generally doing it wrong, so it's a nice to have, not mandatory.

Find 5 points for each kroot unit for a kroot hound to give them accute senses. It's a very small points increase for a huge increase in tactical flexibility.

Finding 3 points for the ATS on the 'Surge is a no brainer, especially if you're going to keep the D-cannons instead of the big blast. The ABFP or burst cannon is worth 5 points over the flamer too.

CAD
423 - Stormsurge, Shield, EWO, ATS, Air Bursting Frag Projector
160 - Commander, Irridium, PENchip, C&CN, MSSS
75 - 10x Kroot, Snipers, Kroot Hound
75 - 10x Kroot, Snipers, Kroot Hound
327 - 6x Crisis, 6x Plasma, 6x Fusion, 3x Target Locks

Drone Net
224 - 4x4 Marker Drones

Riptide Wing
185 - Riptide, HBC, EWO
185 - Riptide, HBC, EWO
190 - Riptide, IA, EWO

1844

You could either;

a) Run farsight, put BKR on the 'Tides and crisis to turn them into troops, drop a unit of kroot and spend the remaining 70 points on stims for 2 of the 3 riptides, taking you to 1850 on the dot

or

b) Drop 5 points somwhere (probably the ABFP on the 'Surge) to run farsight, turn your crisis into troops for ObSec and put BKR on the crisis suits and the riptides, taking you to 1850 on the dot

Thanks for the insightful and helpful reply, Drasius, I like a lot of your ideas. I'm actually considering dropping the suits in favor of a Y'Vahra, but I'm wondering if this would be a good trade off in firepower. Obviously the Y'Vahra would draw huge amounts of enemy fire and would likely be the first thing to die, but that takes all the pressure off the rest of my army for a turn or two, which I think is probably fine. Your thoughts?

The meta i play in has basically banned forgeworld outside of Apoc games, so I can't help you too much I'm afraid.

For what it's worth though, I think you're trading tactical flexibility for raw firepower in a list that already has a pretty reasonable amount of firepower though. Personally I'd keep the suits, but that's just me. I doubt you can really go wrong with anthing that has AP2 template weapons though, especially on a monstrous creature. There's a reason for the saying of "Take 3, win games". The ability to rape vehicles as well as infantry with contemptuous ease is nothing to take lightly.

The more you go down that path though, the more you might as well just run a riptide wing with 7 stimtides and a drone net and fully be that guy, you're already 9/10ths of the way there.

This is true, I guess I should trade off my desire for the most efficient list vs pissing off my opponents and having a one-sided battle. Maybe I'll pass on the FW stuff.