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What is the best way in this current edition to use pathfinders? I have a squad of 5 and a devilfish for them and am hoping to field them at 1000 points. So what is the best way to use them?

Best way to use Pathfinders is to make sure they all have Markerlights and stick them in cover with a good field of view of the battlefield. Give their devilfish to one of your FW squads to hide in until late game. Use your pathfinders to light up whatever they can with their markerlights so your other stuff can use those tokens to increase their BS and strip cover saves if applicable.

36" Inch marker range would probably make you put them in the middle of the board, stick em in cover or behind a ADL and use them to focus targets one by one.

since you also have to take the D fish i also take some deepstriking helios suits as they are best danger close, that reroll has helped me alot.

xiahoufig wrote:
Best way to use Pathfinders is to make sure they all have Markerlights and stick them in cover with a good field of view of the battlefield. Give their devilfish to one of your FW squads to hide in until late game. Use your pathfinders to light up whatever they can with their markerlights so your other stuff can use those tokens to increase their BS and strip cover saves if applicable.

So in the beginning of the game hope the pathfinders out of their devilfish and then embark with fire warriors? I didn't know you could do that

Your pathfinders are kinda critical as the bonuses they provide are what allow you to really rock out on a target. Many opponents will know this and gun for them, not all, but many good players will. This is their weakness, and your greatest tool! Some suggest that you put them in cover with a good field of fire, this is a good tactic if your deploying first, not so much if your second(or later in multi-player). Just make sure they are a full 36" away from where they will be marking turn 1 if your deploying first! If your on the play however, I suggest you keep them away from the middle, on either sides third of the table should be fine. This will force opponents to deploy a threat on an edge too to take them out which means that the same threat wont be dominating from the middle either, giving you breathing room on the other side of the table. The scout move they receive should NEVER take them deeper into the combat zone, but rather should make sure they are just at 36" from their target and preferably more than 30" from any threat to them. While they direct your army, they should do so from the back. Also remember that they can fire while moving at BS1, which might not be the greatest obviously but is still >15% chance to tag something per dude in the team, so don't be afraid to have a plan that requires them to move in later turns. The Devilfish generally is simply given over to a Firewarrior team to be extra mobility. I build my 'fish into what I call Sea Lions: Smart missiles, Targeting array, Disruption pod, Sensor spines(come in real handy honestly). Same mission profile, just more teeth. Since it has Marker Beacon, I try to get it into line of sight of a nice drop zone either behind their vehicles or beside their weakest flank and drop my Stealth Command Team there. I would at least bring the squad up to 6 if you can, a Firewarrior without the shoulder shield and a carbine is essentially the same model if you don't have enough dudes. I'm still a new player to 40k relatively so take this with a grain of salt. But I've been able to maximize my pathfinders more than other elements of my army so far so I'm confident in this advice.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It might be worth pointing out you dont have to start the pathfinders in the fish, you just cant start any other squad in it either but yes they may board it after the beginnig of the game

personally, I'd say you already KNOW the enemy will be coming to YOU. So even if you go first, you may consider having them fairly far back because the enemy will walk into their range and keep them alive longer from enemy fire.

At 1000, enemy fire probably wont center on you first anyways, but there is value in keeping them alive all game long.

Also, the Outflanking ability of Pathfinders is very frequently overlooked. They can outflank and bring TWO denial units onto the board behind enemy lines, forcing that little 1000 point enemy to split itself up. That's big.

Also, the Relic Mission: the Scout ability lets the Pathfinder Devilfish, with them in it, rush the center and then on round one, the people can get out, while the devilfish creates another wall. Now you have two walls between the enemy and the Relic. The Fire Warriors move and run so they can take the relic in turn two. Then a fighting retreat, throwing the rest of the tau forward as walls while all the troops foster and baby the relic to victory.

Those are some good ways to use Tay Pathfinders.