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Retaliation Cadre

Commander
PENchip, Iridium, Shield generator, VTR - 2x missile pod.

Crisis suit
2x missile pod

Crisis suit
TL missile pod

Crisis suit
TL missile pod

Riptide
HBC, VT

3x Broadside Battle-suits
HYMP, Smart missile systems, 3x target lock

Retribution Cadre

Ghostkeel
Ion Raker, TL burst cannon

2x Storm Surge
Pulse Blast Cannon, Shield Generator, EWO, TL Airburst

Drone Net

6x Marker Drone
5x Marker Drone
5x Marker Drone
5x Marker Drone

Bringing this out on Saturday. Any suggestions?

Edit: Made some modifications. I feel it's a stronger list now.

Where's the Commander going? If he's hanging out with Drones, you need the PENChip like a hole in the head. (Markerlights don't need Monster/Tank Hunter, and that's an awful lot to pay to gain a slight edge in melee on a guy who's almost as good a fighter as two Sternguard.)

If he's hanging with the Broadsides, then the Drone Controller is superfluous, since it doesn't work on Missile Drones.

You could, I suppose, unify the two by replacing the missile drones with marker drones, slapping a target lock on the third Broadside and putting the Commander in there. Though at that point I'd skip the VRTs and find a way to give him DC/TL/2x Missile Pod/Iridium (or maybe the Talisman of Arthas Moloch, skip the Iridium and just LOS onto Broadsides).

Had no idea DC didn't work on missile drones. Plan is to stick the commander with the broadsides for sure. Maybe start the game on the board with some marker drones to get D missiles off easier and jump into the broadside unit after.

Maybe just remove the missile drones and add more marker drones? Or equip suits better?

The commander can't start on the board unless the entire Retaliation Cadre does - note they all come in on one Reserve roll.

Yeah, I might skip the missile drones, though they will gain BS3 due to the army-wide buff from the Drone Net, which helps rather a lot.

I'd definitely equip the Crisis Suits better. What is it that they're planning to do with a single TL missile pod? If you can find the points, two of a kind is virtually always better than twin-linked. If you don't have a specific role in mind, I'd even prefer two burst cannons over a TL missile pod.

Also, it might be worth putting a fusion blaster on the Riptide rather than the plasma rifle. If it's planning to stand back and plink, you're never going to fire the plasma rifle anyway, and if someone lands an Ironclad Dread next to you, at least the fusion blaster can kill it. One shot, yes, but at least that one shot may do something. Alternatively, take the SMS: you might be in range to use it, with its 30" range.

jade_angel wrote:
The commander can't start on the board unless the entire Retaliation Cadre does - note they all come in on one Reserve roll.

Yeah, I might skip the missile drones, though they will gain BS3 due to the army-wide buff from the Drone Net, which helps rather a lot.

I'd definitely equip the Crisis Suits better. What is it that they're planning to do with a single TL missile pod? If you can find the points, two of a kind is virtually always better than twin-linked. If you don't have a specific role in mind, I'd even prefer two burst cannons over a TL missile pod.

Also, it might be worth putting a fusion blaster on the Riptide rather than the plasma rifle. If it's planning to stand back and plink, you're never going to fire the plasma rifle anyway, and if someone lands an Ironclad Dread next to you, at least the fusion blaster can kill it. One shot, yes, but at least that one shot may do something. Alternatively, take the SMS: you might be in range to use it, with its 30" range.

The few times I've used retaliation cadre I've actually started on the board. Sometimes there is just no advantage to losing a turn of shooting to gain position. Two reasons I want to take it in this army is it gives me relentless broadsides and I don't have to take firewarrriros for it. The TL missile suits aren't great but they are cheap and don't need marker light support. If I had the points I'd totally go double MP.

One other thing: I plugged all these units into Battlescribe and only came up with 1900 points.

What did you have in mind for the other 100?

Here's what I'd do with it:

Change Commander's loadout to: 2x missile pod, shields, VRT, Iridium, PENChip.
Add Target Lock on the third Broadside.
Swap loadouts on all three XV8 units to dual cyclic ion blaster.
Swap Riptide loadout to: HBC, Velocity Tracker

Swap Pulse Blastcannons for Pulse Driver Cannons on Stormsurges and lose the Advanced Targeting Systems. You want those S10 AP2 large blasts with mega range. The D from the Blastcannons is a red herring: if you're close enough to use it, you're in deep doodoo already. The S10 AP3 small blast is vaguely interesting. The S9 AP5 large blast is... well, pretty gimpy. It's not that interesting when Scouts have a 50% chance to laugh it off, and you have better ways to crack Rhinos.

That leaves five points lying around. Maybe grab the Onager Gauntlet for your Commander? It's mostly useless, but it gives you one minor bit of assault deterrent (and might be nasty surprise if somebody thinks a sergeant with a power fist can kill him.)

ETA: Never mind, super-DUH, I missed the shield generators on the Stormsurges.

Disregard all of the above!

This is sound advice. The Pulse driver cannon s kinda meh though - you are getting 2 large blast with the blast cannon compared to 1 at medium range which is the reason I prefer it. The D shots will likely never happen but it has to be respected.

You do get two shots instead of one (or four instead of two if you plant anchors), but what are they actually shooting at? I suppose the AP5 large blast might be OK if most of your targets have strong invuln saves (so the AP2 from the PDC doesn't help much), and either don't have FNP or are T4 or less. If there are T5/FNP targets, S10 can be very useful to deny that.

Though, the D shots providing a keep-out bubble is a good point. You can plant anchors, and anyone who wants to get close has to contend with eating four D shots along with everything else. I suppose ultimately it depends on your meta. I don't see a lot of TWC or the like where being able to rack up tons of hits is especially useful, but if you do, two pie plates are probably better than one, even if the one shot is stronger.

Stomp attacks are another source of D that you'll likely never get to use if you're sitting in the back anchored.

Also, if you're playing ITC missions, they ruled that if an anchored SS is tank shocked, it automatically dies.

Plenty of talented Tau players prefer the D shotgun.