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Thinking of running a Riptide or two in my list armed with the Ion Accelerator but I am unsure of what else to equip them with so the options are. A fusion blaster would give me a little extra anti tank power when I get close and can kill TEQ and can double toughness most characters
The plasma rifle with give a extra shot for TEQ, two within half range. Also the ability to pop light vehicles
Missile pod give a bunch of shots that are only just good for a few extra shots that ignore cover and line of sight lol

But with the support systems I think that it would be dependant on or very ilnfluenced by the weapon choices

What are some of your ideas on loadouts for the Riptide?

Magnets!

I like 2 loadouts for riptides (hypothetically speaking):

1.) Weight-Of-Fire SkyKiller - Heavy Burst Cannon, SMS, Early Warning System & Velocity Tracker - This build can get 12-16 shots per turn of various strength and twin-linkage. AV10 and 11 flyers have much to fear from the nova charged burst cannon, and when those are gone he can revert to slaying hordes. This is not my #1 choice loadout but it looks viable.

2.) Terminate-the Terminators- Ion Accelerator/Plasma Rifle/ Stims/Early Warning -- This loadout to me seems the way to go. Using my nova charge to boost the ripple fire of the plasma gun would give 4 TL shots plus a s8 ap2 blast from the Ion gun on any units within 12" and the early warning system lets me do this before any deep strikers have had a chance to leave that tasty pie plate formation. If you've intercepted and can't shoot, then nova charge the thrusters or shield for safety purposes and you have feel no pain in case any of your servomotors overheat.

I was thinking something like Ion Accelerator and Twin-Linked Plasma Rifle with Stimulant Injector and Counterfire Defence System for 225 points

For 200 points, the Riptide doesn't seem like something you want to have an identity crisis over.

The first question I always ask myself when fielding a unit is, "What will I use this for?"

Use the answer to that question to help you pick your wargear.

I haven't fielded Riptides or even Tau yet (they're next, been waiting years for a new Codex to get started), so I can't offer any practical experience-based advice. But hypothetically, I would go for either a long-range or mid-range setup. One with Ion, SMS, Velocity Tracker. Or mid-range, for Hordes, with the HBC, SMS, FNP and Counterfire.

I can't think of any good reason to go up against Terminators with this thing. He can kill them just fine from long range and not risk getting pounded into junk metal by them.

I use the Melta, Skyfire and Heavy Burst cannon. I prefer it to the blast marker. i'm not a particularly big fan of blastmarkers as they often can be mitigated with some intelligent model spacing.

I personally feel that a lot of the wargear is a trap. The only one I really like is interceptor which I think it amazing with an ion cannon. Other than that stimulant injectors would be my next option but I have found myself not needing them. Shielded missile drones are also subpar at best.

As for weapons the Ion cannon is the way to go. For support systems I like sms for the range. I am rarely within 24'' or 18''' of the enemy I am firing at so the sms gets to shoot more than anything else and its 4 shots probably do as much damage as 1 plasma/fussion shot.

Just remember to keep you suit cheap.

On a Riptide ? I would never go out without my Stim Injectors: it costs a ton, yeah but here are some math

You have 5 wounds. Each thus represent 20% of around 220pts so each wound is roughly equal to 44pts. Now, saving one single wound will justifiy the cost of the Stim Injector.

Now, on each wound, you have 33% chances recovering your lost wound. On five wounds, this sums up to 165% chance to have saved at least one wound, and thus, justified the cost of the device.

Personnal opinion tho. I also love to keep my suits as cheap as I can. But Riptides are expensive in any case and I do use them quite a lot, and they are always my front line.

Other system I always take is Interception. The simple fact this scares the enemy's DS'ing termies to death makes me laugh xD It's quite a deceptive combo with a Ion Accelerator. There won'be many persons trying to come from reserves with that combo. The idea of getting S8 AP2 pie-plates even before the said termies could shoot kinda makes them cry.

Ookami wrote:
Now, on each wound, you have 33% chances recovering your lost wound. On five wounds, this sums up to 165% chance to have saved at least one wound, and thus, justified the cost of the device.

This is better phrased as: In an average game, you gain 1.65x the value of Stimulant Injector back in wounds. Assuming a Riptide is taking all 5 unsaved wounds in a battle.

The actual chance of gaining its points cost back - again, assuming a Riptide takes 5 unsaved wounds - is 87%. 1-((2/3)^5)

You're completely right. I'm no expert in the mathammering so it was quite unaccurate. Thanks for the correct information.

Anyway, 87% is a high-enough score to invest 35pts on it (personnal opinion here ^^)

I like to keep my suits as cheap as possible. As i run 2, i dont need to load them up with wargear and they are already taking a large slice of my points pie.

Most efficient set up for me is
-Ion Accelerator
-TL Fusion Blaster
-EWO

190 pts

I dont think stims are needed, especially when i have 2. I dont Novacharge unless im desperate and you get a save against failed overcharged shots with only a 1/36 chance of taking a wound.

Drones make your Riptide a unit and there for if you lose a drone you run the risk of it running off the table!

I picked the Fusion just because its S8, if this guy is going to instant kill characters, i want all his guns to be able to join in.

Ookami wrote:
You're completely right. I'm no expert in the mathammering so it was quite unaccurate. Thanks for the correct information.

Anyway, 87% is a high-enough score to invest 35pts on it (personnal opinion here ^^)

It increase your resilance but not your damage output. 35pts spread around will eventually get you another unit that will add damage AND resiliance.

Also even if you have FNP increasing your survivability the things that are really likely to kill a riptide are not going to be stopped by FNP:
ID(force weapons and special weapons that have the ID rule) dont care about FNP.
Combat. Even your beastly riptide is probably dead when it gets into combat with most anything competent. Having it last longer might not be a great thing, but either way it is dead once it gets in combat.

The suggestions for the burst cannon loadouts are good.

However for the ion cannon, use the fusion blaster, better to keep the str 8 the same rather than mix in str 6.

 juraigamer wrote:
The suggestions for the burst cannon loadouts are good.

However for the ion cannon, use the fusion blaster, better to keep the str 8 the same rather than mix in str 6.

Doesn't mesh as well though with the fusion blaster, with the ion cannon you are planning on staying away if things get close enough that the fusion blaster is in play things probably are not going as planned. Now on the other hand I do like the fusion blaster for things like the heldrake which has to get close to be effective.

A ripple-fired SMS is really fantastic, so much so that I think Ripple-fire has become my favorite Nova power.

I don't think there's really any reason to take the heavy burst cannon. Nothing wrong with 8 or 12 shots, it's just that he's only BS 3 and I hate to lose all those shots, and I'd rather use markerlight hits to ignore cover.

Fusion blaster can make sense if you're trying to make an AA weapon out of him, but that's it, I think.

So, Ion Accelerator, no matter what, SMS almost all the time unless you're going for AA

Im really stuck on what secondary weapon to put on my 2 Riptides too. I was thinking Fusion because its S8 but then i realised it will rarely be in range of anything. Isnt the SMS just adding more S5 to an army that already has a metric dakkaton of S5 shots?

The secondary weapon is strictly what you think it will be coming across. Vast majority of situations, SMS would be better because hes trying to get lucky and fend off things charging after him.

However if i were taking the HBC not the IA i would probably take the Fusions because it will be much more likely i'll be in range to melt some armor since im already in the middle-ish of the board anyway. At the same time if i was in a meta that was low on vehicle count i would take the Plasma to pump more anti-termie shots.

Both plasma and fusions fit the HBC role due to the range. The IA being AP2 on all 3 gun modes is highly anti-termie but the problem is lack of shots and the 72" range (face it we all do it) makes the riptide hide in the back and be out of range with the Plasma anyway. HBC is still viable against termies since if you novacharge it you have 12 Rending shots. Kinda 50-50 to me on which is better.

Untill now i have ran the IA + Buffcommander being allied into my orks, and i used the SMS. As a stand-alone entity, its underwhelming at best. Going to try my hand at the HBC and rely on the twin-linkage from the buffcommander to help the BS since i lack the markerlight support in an allied detachment. This means i will take Plasmas since in my meta the highest armor i see outside IG tanklines is 12, and im not worried bout that lol.