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An internal debate occurred to me as I was guaging the maximum dakka of a Tau Crisis Suit and it's viability. How does the unit as a whole(Ignoring markerlights.)compare to it's standard MEQ equivalent the SM tactical squad?

XV8 Crisis Battlesuits (3) - 70pts
1 Crisis Shas'ui: 2 Burst cannons,Advanced targeting system,Bonding Knife Ritual(Farsight Enclaves)
2 MV1 Gun Drone: Twin-linked pulse carbine

Tactical Squad (5) - 70pts
1 Sergeant: Bolt pistol,Boltgun
4 Tactical Marine: Boltgun,Bolt pistol

Firepower
Burst cannons 8 18" S5 AP5 Precision Assault
Pulse Carbines 4 18" S5 AP5 Twin-Linked Pinning Assault
VS
Bolters 5 24" S4 AP5 or in Rapid Fire range 10 24" S4 AP5
Bolt Pistols 5 12" S4 AP5 Pistol
Frag Grenades 8" S3 AP- Assault Blast
Krak Grenades 8" S6 AP4 Assault
Conclusion=Crisis has more consistent firepower potential with lower BS,but with added precision and twin-linked pinning utility bonuses. (12 shots with bonuses at 18" vs 5 shots at 24" or 10 at 12". Stock BS may even out in rapid fire range,but unsure statistically.)


Durability
Toughness 4 across the board
Crisis Suit with 2 wounds and 2 Gun Drones with 1 wound each =4 wounds
1 Sergeant and 4 Tactical Marines all 1 wound each= 5 wounds
Crisis and Tactical Leadership=8
Crisis and Tactical Armor Save=3+
2 Gun Drones Armor Save=4+
Conclusion=Crisis+Drones are more fragile,but lose less firepower per wound suffered compared to a Tactical Squad. (Longevity vs overall durability.)

Mobility
Crisis+Drones "Jump Shoot Jump" 6" movement phase and Assault Phase.
Tactical Squad standard 6" movement and 2D6 charge potential.
Conclusion Crisis can stay away from Tactical,but with 18" weapon range poor positioning can lead to a tactical squad charge succeeding.

Combat
Crisis+Gun Drones WS 2
Sergeant and Tactical Marines WS 4
Crisis S 5
Gun Drones S 3
Sergeant and Tactical Marines S 4
Conclusion Unsurprisingly Tau are bad at combat.

Overall Conclusion Surprisingly balanced point per point,but Crisis and gun drones can easily outgun and outrun the Tactical Squad which suffers more as a jack of all trades. (Remember this is without markerlight support.)

I just thought some people would get a kick out of this. I'm also now considering stacking monats and not markerlight supporting them to try this out. Let me know your thoughts.

Remember Marines get Chapter tactics to make use of while the Suit doesn't necessarily benefit from it's own racial special rules.

But agreed, surprisingly balanced.

The problem arises when you scale the unit up, every Crisis Suit could pack two missile pods or two plasma rifles if it was so inclined while SM have a set amount of scrubs they have to buy to get special weapons. Thereby making Marine units less efficient compared to Crisis Suits.

And don't disreguard Combat Tau! It's dirt cheap to just pack a flamer or two, include the Str 5 hammer of Wrath and 3 attacks on the charge and you've got a credible assault unit to bully rnaged squads.

Jet pack isn't jump and IIRC, jet pack infantry don't get HoW. 3x naked crisis suits will outfight 5 marines however.

The use of ATS is a waste since bursts are AP5. You'd get much better use out of a drone controller to make those drones BS3 twin linked, at which point they're more accurate than the marines.

Dual bursts is also ... suboptimal since there's plenty of ways to get str5 ap5 shooting in a tau army. Crisis are basically 2 special weapon tacticals strapped together with a jet pack, why waste time giving them burst cannons?

As for drones, you now need to effectively kill 1 scout to force a ld test on the crisis and remaining drone who don't auto-rally, won't move/shoot/assault normally and, unless you are taking FSE, use an elite slot.

Not to mention that you really can't look at any tau unit without thinking about how markerlight performance interacts with them.

This is correct. There is no HoW,but the strength and multiple wounds is nice.

I'm fully aware Drone Controller is a better option with this dakka loadout,but it was not the intent. My intent was a point for point direct comparison with the maximum amount of shots I could muster comparing the standard MEQ unit and loadout which so happened to be 70pts. In practicality a 75 pt dakka crisis is certainly better.

I am also aware of this,but it was more of a comparison to bolters which burst cannons are closest to and the stock MEQ unit has equipped.

Yes and yes. I even added (Farsight Enclaves.) next to the bonding knife ritual upgrade to emphasize this is intended to be the standard troop choice over normal infantry who also have S5 AP5 weapons.

Again this was ignored on purpose since a tactical squad has no similar comparable mechanic and the emphasis was on a direct point for point comparison. Markerlights would be more points from an external source.

So yes over all with a drone controller and markerlight support it has even more superior dakka efficiency compared to a tactical squad. Possibly even with doctrines,but I'm completely unfamiliar with them. The overall goal was an amusing direct point for point analysis of MEQ troop choices. I will also add the drone controller in my experiments with them though since 5 extra points is insignificant per slot and I will obviously have other things in my army. This would actually be murderous in kill teams and perhaps a very efficient budget troops option overall.