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As a Tau player, the Stormsurge is basically a must-have- without those S10 pie plates and cluster rockets, I get horribly run over by just about any competitive list. The question is: just how far do you go to upgrade it? The 'surge comes at a hefty 360 pts cost base, with an additional 15 for the big gun.

As it has a meager 3+ save, getting a shield generator is basically a must- which is another 50 pts, putting out Pulse Driver Cannon Stormsurge at 425 pts total. Adding FNP to this would cost another 35 pts, which feels... a bit much; 460 pts is a hell of a points sink and it detracts from everything else you get. At T6 and 8 wounds, you get a lot of durability already.

I've had some pretty good success with my own stormsurge so far, with a decent survival rate, and more importantly it gives my opponent a big, juicy target to home in on, leaving other valuable, powerful units- like my broadsides or pathfinders- unmolested.

So I'm asking: would it actually be worth it to buy a 460 pts stormsurge, with that 3+/4+/5+ save? Any tau players out there (or just experienced against tau) who would care to comment?

As a gargantuan monstrous creature, doesn't it already get it?

Gtjormungand is correct as a gargantuan the surge has feel no pain for free.

I want to say the st in is not available for the surge because of this, but I don't have my codex in front of me at the moment.

SS has FNP for free, as already mentioned. Definitely buy the +4 invun.

Are SS's vulnerable to Psychic Shriek? Any way to mitigate that?

 PipeAlley wrote:
Are SS's vulnerable to Psychic Shriek? Any way to mitigate that?

Sisters of Silence.

SJ

I mean you've got two saves vs each shriek wound, so it's not really that vulnerable. Kill the psyker seems to be what my tau opponents do.

Stormsurge should take the Shield, should take Velocity Tracker and should take Early Warning Override. It already has Feel no Pain as ALL Gargantuans do, so this makes it tough enough.

I also like the Airburst Fragmentation Launcher (personally). I don't spring for the big gun. I like the D-Shotgun. The rest of my force does enough damage that I honestly don't think the loss of D is worth it. D is so important against some of the worst threats in 40K.