Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've been away a while and now it seems there's a strange new world of being able to have more than 3 Crisis Suits in a squad. As cool as that sounds, when I think about it, I'm not so sure more than 3 is advisable. It creates footprint issues when deep striking and their weaponry is already so powerful that with a few markerlights 6 plasma/fusion/missiles do a pretty good job anyway. Not to mention the morale nightmare of a failed check on a unit of 5 suits with double plasma....egads.

But I defer to those who have been playing the new codex. Thoughts?

There really isn't a "right" answer to it.

Sometimes you want a hue squad to maximize the bonuses off a buffmander in a "shooty deathstar" (used to be farsight bomb, but you don't actually need farsight for it any more), other times you want single-model "squads" for the flexibility and the "suicide value" (nigh impossible to kill it without overkilling it, perfect for drop fusion suits)

It really depends on the situation, and what else you have in your list.

The optimal Crisis squad size is 1. Above that, you are building for a specific strategy.

SJ

 jeffersonian000 wrote:
The optimal Crisis squad size is 1. Above that, you are building for a specific strategy.

SJ

beat me to it, MSU is still the best way to play 40k. With multiple detachments these days it is easier to do then ever. Play Farsight Enclaves and make them troops and spam the crap out of them.

I sometimes run a full 9 crisis suits in a unit, with target locks, buffmander, who also has the tanky gear (iridium, shield, Stims) and Shadowsun. FE Cads can now take buffmander gear and Shadowsun, whilst the crisis suits fulfil the troop slots.

The unit is not a true deathstar, it is not as durable as most and does indeed have a big frontprint. On the other hand, for around 850ish points, it dishes out the hurt, is fast due to Shadowsun and is durable enough, as long as you don't go crazy with it.

You will probably want some strong interceptor units near this unit if going this route, I personally use a full unit of Ghostkeels, as part of the optimised stealth cadre, who have fusion blasters, cyclic ion rakers, target locks and early warning override. Pretty strong reserve deterrent, + alright in assault and that unit benefits from shadowsuns drone in the shooting phase if they don't have to intercept anything.

I also use a lone crisis suit, who goes objective hunting or on suicide missions. I think you can go full MSU or deathstar it up. The new formations, give some pretty neat tools for the MSU style, e.g. The drone formation and ghostkeel wing.

 Red Corsair wrote:

 jeffersonian000 wrote:
The optimal Crisis squad size is 1. Above that, you are building for a specific strategy.

SJ

beat me to it, MSU is still the best way to play 40k. With multiple detachments these days it is easier to do then ever. Play Farsight Enclaves and make them troops and spam the crap out of them.

You guys are forgetting we are tau, and markerlights are on unit base.

Now, if you are in a hunter contingent, its a non-issue. but otherwise its a consideration, and why I tend to run suits in pairs or even triplets. (unless drop fusion, who are solo)

 BoomWolf wrote:

 Red Corsair wrote:

 jeffersonian000 wrote:
The optimal Crisis squad size is 1. Above that, you are building for a specific strategy.

SJ

beat me to it, MSU is still the best way to play 40k. With multiple detachments these days it is easier to do then ever. Play Farsight Enclaves and make them troops and spam the crap out of them.

You guys are forgetting we are tau, and markerlights are on unit base.

Now, if you are in a hunter contingent, its a non-issue. but otherwise its a consideration, and why I tend to run suits in pairs or even triplets. (unless drop fusion, who are solo)

Target Lock kind of defeats your point, as being able to shoot at multiple targets will require multiple Markerlights hitting multiple targets. And if you already can hit multiple targets with multiple Markerlights, then you can just as easily run Monat Crisis suits as you can larger units with Target Lock. Since the Drone-Net became a thing, I've rarely not had excess Markerlights. In addition, a Monat will never break due to unit losses, an issue Tau have when they are in units of more than one model due to their rather low leadership. The most useful Monat loadouts are double Fusion for tank busting, double Plasma for TEQ busting, double CiB for infantry busting, or double Flamer for solo objective busting (because busting makes me feel good). Note the double Flamer requires zero Markerlight support.

As I stated, start with one Crisis per unit unless your strategy calls for more. A nine strong unit rocking missile pods and a buffmander is a strategy, after all.

SJ

 The Shrike wrote:
I've been away a while and now it seems there's a strange new world of being able to have more than 3 Crisis Suits in a squad. As cool as that sounds, when I think about it, I'm not so sure more than 3 is advisable. It creates footprint issues when deep striking and their weaponry is already so powerful that with a few markerlights 6 plasma/fusion/missiles do a pretty good job anyway. Not to mention the morale nightmare of a failed check on a unit of 5 suits with double plasma....egads.

But I defer to those who have been playing the new codex. Thoughts?

I like to go with five suits in my drop star. While they pump it out like no ones business, more than that seems like it restricts the rest of the list too much but that is list dependent entirely so i mean it so much depends on what else you're doing. But I find five suits to be REALLY destructive and not as wasteful as 8-9