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 IHateNids wrote:
Another option i once came up with but never tried is infiltrating a full 6-man + Drones Stealth Team and Deep Strike a self-contained survive at all costs Shas'el, then just join them turn one.

I'm trying to wrap my brain around this. So turn 1, the Suits deploy infiltrated; turn 2 (minimum) your Shas'el deepstrikes, and let's say he ends up right next to them or is able to scoot there in the assault phase. This matters because you join in the movement phase. So either he lands within 2" and can join, OR he has to scoot next to them and survive a round of fire before he can join up.

So Turn 3 is the earliest he can reliably join, and is terribly vulnerable in turn 2.

EDIT: The guys at MiniWarGaming did a Tau vs Tau fight, and one of the two players took Sniper Drones versus say more Broadsides or Hammerheads. The Sniper Drones were an interesting part of the gunline because they were so hard to hurt that the other player didn't even bother to shoot at them save for one or two garbage shots. Only problem: their effective damage contribution was less than amazing. Dan brought 2 units of them for 160 points, and they killed perhaps seven Fire Warriors the whole game.

The batrep is at http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/-tau-vs-tau-waaagh-batrep-part-14?utm_source=newscontent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newscontent

What did you guys think of it?

The few times I have fielded sniper drones I have found them to be very underwhelming to say the least and most of my opponents just ignored them for other targets. But having said that I have not tried them in 6th edition yet, has anyone dared to try them over hammerheads and broadsides recently?

Grullon1982 wrote:
The few times I have fielded sniper drones I have found them to be very underwhelming to say the least and most of my opponents just ignored them for other targets. But having said that I have not tried them in 6th edition yet, has anyone dared to try them over hammerheads and broadsides recently?

I think the unit, costing as much as a single broadside, is good in 1000 point games and lower - Up to 3 of them only take up one FOC, they come with BS4 markerlights, and since target locks are back you can use the shrouded marker to light up a different target than the one you're trying to pin with your drones (or drop their Ld by -1). Once games get above that 1000 point threshold you typically see more AV12-14 vehicles on the table, and as such you'll need a hammerhead (with awesome D-Pod survival) or a battery of XV-88's (for killing with extreme prejudice).

If the sniper drones could have more than 3 per unit, even say up to 5, i think they'd be a more solid choice for bearing down high volumes of sniper fire. Right now they're not a terrible unit, but the heavy support slots have better options (IMO) than them.

I think that at 2000pts+ with a twin foc they're good aswell.

Especially with Gun Emplacements to be fired by the Drone Controller.

Rakeeb wrote:
I'm trying to wrap my brain around this. So turn 1, the Suits deploy infiltrated; turn 2 (minimum) your Shas'el deepstrikes, and let's say he ends up right next to them or is able to scoot there in the assault phase. This matters because you join in the movement phase. So either he lands within 2" and can join, OR he has to scoot next to them and survive a round of fire before he can join up.

So Turn 3 is the earliest he can reliably join, and is terribly vulnerable in turn 2.

No.

If it all goes as i planned it, Turn 2 the Shas'el comes down and the Stealth team Drones jump out of cover and shield Shas'el from anything not-barrage. Turn three, they fuse and move on to kill some stuff. Baring in mind that with 2+/4++/5+ FNP the SHas'el should survive most that gets thrown at him.

As for the sniper drones, well that works. ADL w/ Quad gun. The Drones hide behind the Line, 3+ cover, and the spotter uses the Quad gun. Must try this tactic...

If only the spotter could take wargear. Multi-tracker with networked markerlight whilst also firing the quad gun? Nice....

The attractive thing about sniper drones is the fact that you can take 9 rail rifles and 3 networked BS4 markerlights in three seperate highly durable squads for the cost of a unit of pathfinders. Against an opponent like Tau or Necrons of IG, its not so brilliant - but against marines? That AP3 shooting suddenly becomes necessary, and you start using those markerlights to improve your sniper shots.

I'm building a 1500pt force, and I'm highly likely to take a full squad of broadsides, a full group of sniper drones, and an Ion head. I feel like the broadsides have enough anti-tank firepower, especially combined with a fusion-equipped crisis squad.

 Micky wrote:


I'm building a 1500pt force, and I'm highly likely to take a full squad of broadsides, a full group of sniper drones, and an Ion head. I feel like the broadsides have enough anti-tank firepower, especially combined with a fusion-equipped crisis squad.

I agree strongly with this. I won't be bringing an Ion head, since there are better ForgeWorld mounts, but it's very unlikely that I'll bring a Railhead at this point. The submunition round is cool but it's not 50 points of cool.

You're going to have little to no trouble with elite armies, vehicles and MEQs, but what's your solution for Hordes?

Sure you're going to kill 10-20 models a turn, but when each enemy squad is that many or more?

The Plasmahead with a SMS can kill eight dudes a turn, so that's a start. I intend on taking more Fire Warriors than most of the folks here would be comfortable with. All of my draft 1750+ units have four full squads, and 1500 points armies don't have less than three.

Pretty much every list of 6th I've done has 6x6 Fire Warriors

12 FW or 6+6 FW for every 500 points seems to be the Tau standard these days.

BTW-SMS plasma head has 9 potential kills per turn, not 8.

 Micky wrote:
That AP3 shooting suddenly becomes necessary, and you start using those markerlights to improve your sniper shots.
.

I may be wrong or just reading incorrectly but I though mark lights only effect "tau" so drones and kroot cant gain any benefit?

Tau Drones are Tau and can use / benefit from Markerlights.
Kroot can not.

Rakeeb wrote:


I agree strongly with this. I won't be bringing an Ion head, since there are better ForgeWorld mounts, but it's very unlikely that I'll bring a Railhead at this point. The submunition round is cool but it's not 50 points of cool.

Well I don't have any Forge World turrets yet... once I do, i'll start fitting plasma instead.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Desubot wrote:

I may be wrong or just reading incorrectly but I though mark lights only effect "tau" so drones and kroot cant gain any benefit?

The spotter in each sniper squad makes them a Tau unit, also.

I was thinking of putting a couple broadsides ontop of a bastion for the nice LOS position, but they would also be in base with the icarus lascannon. I know there was a thread or something about this earlier, but what was the final ruling on a skyfire weapon giving a model skyfire? So that I can have a broadside fire a lascannon and twin railgun at fliers using full BS.

 BoomWolf wrote:
12 FW or 6+6 FW for every 500 points seems to be the Tau standard these days.

BTW-SMS plasma head has 9 potential kills per turn, not 8.

Hey, am I missing something here? Plasma cannon is Heavy 4, SMS is Heavy 4... where's your 9th shot coming from?

I mean, I could just take burst cannon, wouldn't be no thing.

Plasma turret is heavy 4, each burst cannon is assault 3 - 10 shots. Plasma being twin linked means you'll hit with the money shots more often.

Yes, and since it's cheaper, it'll probably be the angle I take.

BUT BACK ON TOPIC

So one thing I like to bring to the tau thread is batreps, since they're primary sources of Tau tactics in action. We haven't discussed ArbitorIan's (really awesome looking) Tau in practice down here, but there are three recent battle reports by him sitting in the Battle Reports section of the site. One was against a horde of light Ork vehicles (which ended about how you'd expect), one was against Necron, and one was against Dark Eldar. Fascinating stuff and I encourage each of you to go read them and see what Ian's been up to.

Links are:

Tau vs Dark Eldar: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/477574.page

Tau vs Orks: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/475744.page

Tau vs Necron: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/478017.page

Rakeeb wrote:
The Plasmahead with a SMS can kill eight dudes a turn, so that's a start. I intend on taking more Fire Warriors than most of the folks here would be comfortable with. All of my draft 1750+ units have four full squads, and 1500 points armies don't have less than three.

Pretty close to my list plans.

barnowl wrote:

Rakeeb wrote:
The Plasmahead with a SMS can kill eight dudes a turn, so that's a start. I intend on taking more Fire Warriors than most of the folks here would be comfortable with. All of my draft 1750+ units have four full squads, and 1500 points armies don't have less than three.

Pretty close to my list plans.

All with shas'ui and hard wired blacksun filters, yes?

I'm really looking at that markerlight for the Shas'ui. I expect some folk to be uncomfortable with it, since it's a point sink with questionable return (you realistically need a target lock to get the most out of it). If it doesn't earn its points back consistently I'll probably look to remove them. I'm honestly just looking to let the Fire teams play in the bigger combined-arms game.

Does anyone have any batreps which included Marker shas'ui in practice?

Not a recorded batrep, but i tried it and its a bad idea unless gunlining

Too many points on a non-mobile and squishy model, as long you have ANY plans for that squad to be mobile you need to forget it.

A squad intened to sit on home objective can have it though.

Unless you're playing against Guard or other, similar lightly armored opponenents, I find it's useless to bring BSFs on your firewarriors. I know my local meta is mostly marines so they would be taking their normal armor saves anyways.

Maybe but it's only 3 points per team. Hardly breaking the bank and is awesome when you come up against lightly armoured opponents such as Dark Eldar.

Makes it easier to glance light vehicles to death at long range, too. Don't want them getting better cover/jink saves after all.

But if you're running four squads it can mean another drone or an upgrade for one of your battlesuits. I'm personally against it because if you get night turn one you just position yourself to chew into them harder turn 2. If you don't, you just chew them up until they have a negligble force by the time night shows up later in the game.

Rakeeb wrote:
I'm really looking at that markerlight for the Shas'ui. I expect some folk to be uncomfortable with it, since it's a point sink with questionable return (you realistically need a target lock to get the most out of it). If it doesn't earn its points back consistently I'll probably look to remove them. I'm honestly just looking to let the Fire teams play in the bigger combined-arms game.

Does anyone have any batreps which included Marker shas'ui in practice?

When there are points to burn, I will add a markerlight and target lock and or a hw Multitracker. Makes for an expensive 'ui but I think you get better use out of the markerlight w/ Target lock so it can fire at a different target. HWMT is more just for grins, though potentially it would let you shot and throw EMP grenade. Have to check the BRB about that one.

Sadly EMP grenades do not have a ranged profile. Like Melta bombs, they must be applied in cc only.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Maybe but it's only 3 points per team. Hardly breaking the bank and is awesome when you come up against lightly armoured opponents such as Dark Eldar.

Makes it easier to glance light vehicles to death at long range, too. Don't want them getting better cover/jink saves after all.

I've kinda felt that its more of a 13 point cost because I wouldn't take the Shas'ui upgrade otherwise.

Also don't forget that a single markerlight token removes Night Fighting penalties for shooting.

 Micky wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Maybe but it's only 3 points per team. Hardly breaking the bank and is awesome when you come up against lightly armoured opponents such as Dark Eldar.

Makes it easier to glance light vehicles to death at long range, too. Don't want them getting better cover/jink saves after all.

I've kinda felt that its more of a 13 point cost because I wouldn't take the Shas'ui upgrade otherwise.

Also don't forget that a single markerlight token removes Night Fighting penalties for shooting.

I always take a Shas'ui for the leadership 8, having seen myself fail a leadership test by one too many times to rely on a leadership value of 7. Blacksun Filters are just a 3 point bonus.