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Am still processing what I have read, dunno if anyone had mentioned that Skyfire would be available to regular Crisis teams as well as Riptides and Broadsides but the Velocity Tracker is open to all three slots.

You could turn a Crisis team into a dedicated anti air unit by giving them both a Velocity Tracker and an Early Warning Override which gives them interceptor as well as skyfire. Only problem is that they don't have a weapon that can compare to the Rail gun the broadsides get or to the 12 shots at Str7 a Missileside squad can put out. Broadsides can't get interceptor though, it kind of sucks they got the short end of the stick when it comes to support systems.

I don't really expect there is much strategy to it:

Step 1:
Add Skyfire
Step 2:
Shoot Fliers
Step 3:
Profit.

Pretty simple really.

Keep in mind though that piling on the skyfire and interceptor mods isn't the cheapest thing in the world, and in many cases will prevent you from choosing more universally effective wargear to compliment your suits. Depending on your local metagame, you'll probably find that adding a broadside with missiles and skyfire and maybe parking it behind an ADL with a quadgun is more than enough AA.

When you have two heldrakes coming in to cook your firewarriors or crisis suits you will want more than just a few Str 7 interceptor shots.

The missiles on the Broadsides are still only Str7.

perhaps. And when you don't play against heldrakes, do you really want your entire force loaded up on skyfire that now snapfires against most of the opposing force? At best that is essentially 10 points more than they should be for no real force multiplying benefit (presuming interceptor 'and' skyfire) unless your opponent is taking a lot of fliers and at worst your broadsides will sit there twiddling their thumbs and taking ineffectual potshots while your opponents mostly land-based units rofl-stomp their way through your lines.

it definately pays to be prepared which is why i said you probably want one or two AA options, but going full-'skyfire' is probably going to bad for your overall win percentage.

Interceptor is something that no other army has really gotten a chance to get and we can take it on a lot of deadly units. I expect that it will be limited to a few long range hard hitting builds to make bubbles to warn off deep striking, drop podding, and flying units. This alone is a huge boon and something that other armies only get 1 of.

Some more interesting units I think will be a cheap HQ build with drone controller, teamed up with a drone squad filled with shield and marker drones. These will all be shooting markers at BS5, be much more manueverable, and defended than pathfinders. Since tetras and pathfinders are weaker now, and the reliance on markers will be heavier thanks to army wide BS3 and new access to low AP weapons. I'm thinking this will be the support unit of choice. I'm actually considering running two of them for all marker needs.

I know a lot of people are excited about the missileside, but not me. I'll probably run it with S8 railguns and leave the S7 AP4 for my other suits. With drones now able to carry missiles, I don't see this being too amazing. I know drones will only be BS2, but they are cheap enough to take plenty of for extra support.

Step 1: Spam markerlights. This is not Codex:Tau, it's Codex:Markerlights. With markerlights your units are awesome. Without them you're a shooting-only army that is limited to BS 2-3. You're probably going to need to spend 25-50% or more of your points on markerlights.

Step 2: Spam missile drones. Since you have tons of markerlights they're cheap BS 5 "autocannons". Every unit in your army should have at least a pair, and if you can possibly take more than two drones per unit you should do so without question.

Enjoy your new codex.

My initial reactions:

Fully loaded Fish+Ethereal extra shot+coming off a board edge with the recon drone=36 S5 shots from the dudes+ another 8 from the Fish with an effective 27" threat range. That's pretty a pretty nasty combo of mobile scoring and death for 200 points.



I think the 6+ FNP is being under sold a bit. I mean, DEldar and BA pay 50+ to give 5+ FNP to one or two units, you're getting half the FNP but to every unit in the board. From a pure resiliency per point of model increase it kicks the crap out of Priests or Haemies (or Res Orbs for that matter) all of which are considered very good for their respective armies. And it can turn it into something that is better for the moment. Pretty awesome.



Vespids really aren't bad at all for their price. A full squad shooting+assaulting with Hammer of Wrath kills ~6.77 MEq on the charge, making them a very effective counterattack unit to hang around your squishy gun lines. I think many people will often pass them over for more pewpew (and pewpew augmentation) out of the FA slot, but I think that will be to their detriment. Tau's Achilles will still be CC and just one of these units could keep some scary MEq CC unit from completely running through your entire gun line. And yes, they are a CC unit, just one that's designed to basically wipe the unit out on the assault, or leave it so crippled that the T4 and 4+ are enough to keep you relatively unscathed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

You're probably going to need to spend 25-50% or more of your points on markerlights.

That seems just slightly over zealous. Markelights will be good, no doubt, but if you spend anywhere close to 50% of your points on them you will lose a lot of games.

ShadarLogoth wrote:
I mean, DEldar and BA pay 50+ to give 5+ FNP to one or two units, you're getting half the FNP but to every unit in the board.

The downside is that, unlike marines, you don't get FNP against STR 6-7 weapons (crisis suits would, but they tend to attract STR 8+ shots anyway).

That seems just slightly over zealous. Markelights will be good, no doubt, but if you spend anywhere close to 50% of your points on them you will lose a lot of games.

Yes, that was exaggerated a bit, but the fundamental point is still true: Tau units suck without markerlights, and are awesome with markerlights. Therefore you will have to pay the markerlight tax.

I would not bother with skyfire on most suits, broadsides get the most firepower (while also being immune to the heldrake) so for an upgrade that is fixed cost you want to spend it on the units with the most shots.

Some clerifications here:

The Velocity Tracker allows the unit to choose to use skyfire or not. It doesnt lock them into only skyfire, so you don't need to have both skyfire and intercepter. It is 20pts though, so broadsides will probably make the most use of it.

All of the ethereal elemental powers are in a 12" bubble, not table wide.

Hrm.. Fire Warrior Shas'ui can't take Blacksun filters.

Darkstrider, Cadre Fireblade or Fire warrior Shas'ui can't take a multitracker so they can't fire their gun and the markerlight. Shas'ui and Cadre Fireblade's can take up to two drones each, but no Drone Controller.

Wish the Ethereal let units use his leadership for Split Fire on "Failure is Not An Option" and "Supreme Loyalty" rolls.

Aun'Shi.. are we supposed to attach him to and slow down a unit of Vespids or something? His focus seems very out of place for the Tau Code of Fire.

Take Etheral HQs, a Cadre Fireblade attached to a full unit of Pathfinders with a Pulse Accel Drone. Tuck them behind a ADL and get 40 Carbine shots (Assault 2 + Volley Fire+ Storm of Fire) out to 12 inches and 30 (Assault 2 + Volley Fire) shots at 12.1 to 24inches. All for the low price of 235 points. Who needs markerlights when you have that much lead in the air?

A Fire Warrior version will put out 48 shots (Rapid Fire + Volley Fire + Storm of Fire) out to 15 inches and 24 shots at 15.1 to 30 inches. That will cost you 218 points

Codex says that a Drone Squad is non-scoring non-denial unit, which would override the base rule book mission rule of The Scouring?

For a regular Crisis Suit Commander, take an Advanced Targeting System and try to get a 1 on your Warlord trait roll.. Add Missile Pods and Burst Cannons/Plasma Rifle for Precision shot madness.

Sniper Drone squads lost Shrouded on top of Stealth and his markerlight lost the Networked ability (guess the thought of two marksmen shooting two networked markerlights at BS5, stripping cover saves then having the drones shoot them at BS5 with SxAP5 guns was too scary.)

For now, most of the Skyfire capable weapons on the field are on fortifications?, which are also interceptor weapons. Cheap Decoy Launchers on our flyers and anything you move in from reserves will give you a nice invuln save. The write up for Interceptor does not appear to be a toggle, could argue that anytime a weapon with interceptor fires on a vehicle with Decoy Launchers you would get the invuln save.

A Riptide with the Heavy Burst Cannon and a Velocity Tracker going Nova Charge mode seems the best way to get shots on a flyer to glance it down.

The loss of tank Multi Trackers allowing the Hammerhead to fire as a Fast vehicle hurts, would it have been too much to let Longstrike fire as a Fast Vehicle especially given his fluff write up?

Gundrone squads got a point increase, but considering the buff to their toughness and their gun I can deal. Take a Crisis Commander, add a Drone Controller and two Gun Drones of his own, a MultiSpec Sensor Suit, a Flamer and Twin Link Burst Cannon (If they are getting a cover save, don't shoot the commander to take advantage of the Sensors) and attach him to a full 8 man squad of Gun Drones. 20 Twin Linked Carbine shots at BS5 that ignores cover.

Pathfinder Squad with a Recon Drone, pay the Devil Fish Tax.. Start in your Devilfish and as far from your opponent as possible. Scout move your Fish 12 inches to the opposite board edge, Cruise then Flat out to get the remaining inches you need to get to the opposite board edge. Turn 2 use your comm relay to reroll your Reserve rolls and Outflank your Shadowsun + Bodyguards/Stealthsuits, Firewarriors + Darkstrider, Stealth Suit Team, or Kroot Blob on their table side without having to roll for a table edge.

Rule 1: If it can take missile drones it should take missile drones. The only exception is riptides who has to pay 25 points for the drone. Paying 34 point for your firewarrior team to get a leader and 2 missile drones is a good thing. Are army has just become a s7 spam.

Okay real tactics:
Cadre Fireblade + aegis defense line and quad gun - fireblade is an extremely cheap HQ, HS bs5 so can man the quad gun very well and because you are behind the defense line your firewarriros are not going to be moving, meaning an extra shot. Very nice cheap camp and great anti-air.

Crisis sash'vre with command and control node, multi-spectrum sensor suit and flamer. 72 points that allows your unit to re-roll missed hits and ignore cover. This is very important if you remember rule 1 always take missile drones, because suddenly your bs2 missile drones are TL'd. with 2 suits and 6 missile drones you are pumping out 16 tl s7 shots. You should be able to shoot down any night scythe that comes your way, with a few marker light hits this unit should also take down any av13 or less, destroy 4+ armor and force a lot of saves from MEQs to monstrous creatures.

Miri wrote:
Who needs markerlights when you have that much lead in the air?

Everyone. That's a lot of points for a mere 20 hits (average) when instead you could be using their markerlights to make your riptide blast shots ignore cover, crisis suits shoot at BS 5, etc.

Sniper Drone squads lost Shrouded on top of Stealth and his markerlight lost the Networked ability (guess the thought of two marksmen shooting two networked markerlights at BS5, stripping cover saves then having the drones shoot them at BS5 with SxAP5 guns was too scary.)

You have drone controllers on BS 5 models. Your sniper drones are BS 5 already, the markerlights are just a bonus for someone else to benefit from (in fact they're really the whole point of the unit, 3x drones + 3x spotters is probably ideal).

Another tactic I was thinking about was crisis commander with iridium armor and stimulant injectors. Plop this in front of your unit to soak up all the fire. If you are being hit by AP1/2 weapons you can look out sir to another unit (crisis suits have 2 wounds so you can distribute wounds before anything dies) You only risk a 1/6 chance that the AP1/2 shot will wound your commander but he has 4 wounds so its not a huge deal and he is t5 so only s10 hit instant kill him. If you are being hit by AP3+ weapons your commander should take it. Between sv2 and feel no pain it will take 27 shots to do 3 wounds. It is risky but allows your team to take a TON of damage before anything dies. If your commander gets to 1 wound you can hide him in the middle of the unit.

 Peregrine wrote:
Step 1: Spam markerlights. This is not Codex:Tau, it's Codex:Markerlights. With markerlights your units are awesome. Without them you're a shooting-only army that is limited to BS 2-3. You're probably going to need to spend 25-50% or more of your points on markerlights.

Still get Markerlights from Tetras or are pathfinders the way to go now that they are tax free?

Also what is your thought on taking Farsight + Generic HQ to get crisis suits and then dropping Riptides into the elite slots to get both?

(crisis suits have 2 wounds so you can distribute wounds before anything dies)

No, you can't. Re-read the LOS rules and related FAQs.

ShadarLogoth wrote:

(crisis suits have 2 wounds so you can distribute wounds before anything dies)

No, you can't. Re-read the LOS rules and related FAQs.

Okay re-read the faq's. You can't distribute the wounds in a single shooting phase but you can over time and still protect your commander.

My two big questions will be.

Should everything be in a devilfish? And should I bring a flier.

ShadarLogoth wrote:

I think the 6+ FNP is being under sold a bit. I mean, DEldar and BA pay 50+ to give 5+ FNP to one or two units, you're getting half the FNP but to every unit in the board.

Not every unit. Every unit within 12" of the Ethereal.

 Nafarious wrote:
My two big questions will be.

Should everything be in a devilfish? And should I bring a flier.

No and maybe no.

Devilfish are still pretty expensive. They got a little bit of a boost with SMS but between D-pod nerf and gun drones not counting as scoring units, I personally would not take them. My favorite thing to do in the old codex was to flat out my devil fish to the the side of the table getting a nice jink bonus and then dropping off my gun drones in a secluded corner for line breaker.

The fliers are paper thin and doesn't really pack as much of a punch as you would hope for its point cost. If the army you are facing has any kind of anti-air kiss your flier goodbye.

 Krellnus wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
Step 1: Spam markerlights. This is not Codex:Tau, it's Codex:Markerlights. With markerlights your units are awesome. Without them you're a shooting-only army that is limited to BS 2-3. You're probably going to need to spend 25-50% or more of your points on markerlights.

Still get Markerlights from Tetras or are pathfinders the way to go now that they are tax free?

Also what is your thought on taking Farsight + Generic HQ to get crisis suits and then dropping Riptides into the elite slots to get both?

Tetras lost their Targetting arrays, so now they are BS3,they lost their shrouded from D-pods so much easier to kill, they also lost their Target Lock, so a unit of 3 have to shoot at the same target. 55pts for 4 BS3 marker lights, where pathfinders get 5 shots for 55. They're also a denial unit. Seems like pathfiners are better.

Coyote81 wrote:
Tetras lost their Targetting arrays, so now they are BS3,they lost their shrouded from D-pods so much easier to kill, they also lost their Target Lock, so a unit of 3 have to shoot at the same target. 55pts for 4 BS3 marker lights, where pathfinders get 5 shots for 55. They're also a denial unit. Seems like pathfiners are better.

Technically they haven't lost the TA since the FW unit entry specifically gives permission to take one, not just a generic "may take vehicle upgrades" note. And when FW does update them who knows, they might see the stupidity of BS 3 vehicles and give them BS 4 by default like the Hammerhead/Sky Ray.

Anyway, if you're going to spend a fast attack slot why not take a marker drone commander? 4-12 BS 5 marker drones + two more on the commander.

 lambsandlions wrote:

 Nafarious wrote:
My two big questions will be.

And should I bring a flier.

No and maybe no.

The fliers are paper thin and doesn't really pack as much of a punch as you would hope for its point cost. If the army you are facing has any kind of anti-air kiss your flier goodbye.

It gets a bit 'meta-gamey', but the real value of Tau flyers will be if the Tau anti-air is so potent that other players stop using flyers. Aside from Tau, most other armies' best defense against air is other air.

 DexKivuli wrote:
It gets a bit 'meta-gamey', but the real value of Tau flyers will be if the Tau anti-air is so potent that other players stop using flyers. Aside from Tau, most other armies' best defense against air is other air.

IMO, not really. Even without any AA at all the Tau flyers are pretty disappointing, and I doubt Tau AA is going to be so overwhelming that flyers and AA will go away entirely. For example, with such weak armor even a token quad gun is a real threat to a Tau flyer, and quad guns are way too useful to go away just because there aren't many flyers to shoot at.

 DexKivuli wrote:

It gets a bit 'meta-gamey', but the real value of Tau flyers will be if the Tau anti-air is so potent that other players stop using flyers. Aside from Tau, most other armies' best defense against air is other air.

But who's air will win in a fight? One thing I do not like about fliers is if your flier comes on first your enemies flying is probably going to kill it. So unless your flier is something incredible like a hell drake for example then it is not really worth it to have just 1 flier. You either want to black their anti-air or over load it.

Anyone else notice that Kroot have sniper rifles?

 chrisrawr wrote:
Anyone else notice that Kroot have sniper rifles?

Only those who followed the month long 145+ page codex rumour thread
i.e. EVERYONE

 Krellnus wrote:

 chrisrawr wrote:
Anyone else notice that Kroot have sniper rifles?

Only those who followed the month long 145+ page codex rumour thread
i.e. EVERYONE

:c I hadn't been. Still, wat?

Well there had to be a reason to make people buy Kroot, right?

 n0t_u wrote:
Well there had to be a reason to make people buy Kroot, right?

Or not. TBH the sniper Kroot are pretty useless, you're already probably taking sniper drones (for the BS 5 markerlights) and Kroot are just too fragile to be proper scoring units.