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Has anyone had any success using a a 6 man Stealth Suit Team w/Burst Cannons in a competitive environment? I love the models and am looking for a way to include them in my lists. I see them as being a serious harassment unit that I could either infiltrate or outflank according to the situation - and 24 S5 shots is nothing to sneeze at! What is the best way to run Stealth Suits and what are their main uses in the competitive scene?

P.S. The main issue I have with running them = Hell Turkey :(

You summed it up in your PS.. Anything that takes away your cover (which seems to be more and more each release).. Makes stealth suits nothing more than overpriced MEQ.. They DON'T have relentless, they DON'T have kewl signiture tools..

If you've got your heart set on them.. I would suggest shadowsun...

That is a circular argument. I cannot be worried about a unit that takes away cover. Unfortunately this will come up and then I will have to be more careful using my stealth suits. That said, they are excellent and overlooked. This unit ...

6 Stealth suits, 4 burst cannons, 2 fusion blasters, target lock, counter fire defence system 220

Yes it is expensive ... infiltrate behind LoS blocking terrain if you have to. Remember they can move away in the assault move. They will get targeted of course. Go to ground if need be. I have had success with this unit and it causes problems for lot of lists. Mush recently used them against DE ... report here ...

http://www.thedarkcity.net/t7495-br28-kabal-of-the-bitter-envy-vs-tau-mobile-1000pts

 felixcat wrote:
That is a circular argument. I cannot be worried about a unit that takes away cover. Unfortunately this will come up and then I will have to be more careful using my stealth suits. That said, they are excellent and overlooked. This unit ...

6 Stealth suits, 4 burst cannons, 2 fusion blasters, target lock, counter fire defence system 220

Yes it is expensive ... infiltrate behind LoS blocking terrain if you have to. Remember they can move away in the assault move. They will get targeted of course. Go to ground if need be. I have had success with this unit and it causes problems for lot of lists. Mush recently used them against DE ... report here ...

http://www.thedarkcity.net/t7495-br28-kabal-of-the-bitter-envy-vs-tau-mobile-1000pts

Ive been considering using a farsight list to get crisis suits as troops and a riptide HQ (i only have one) and using my elite slot to field multiple small units of stealth suits (and technically with Tau allies you could get 4 units of 3 which, strangely enough, i own) and use them to really really mess with your enemies. Now i know it isnt the most efficient use of points, but if you combine that with a couple of units of Kroot snipers you could have alot of firepower up close and personal with your foes, and really get a good alpha strike.

Strayan wrote:
You summed it up in your PS.. Anything that takes away your cover (which seems to be more and more each release).. Makes stealth suits nothing more than overpriced MEQ.. They DON'T have relentless, they DON'T have kewl signiture tools..

If you've got your heart set on them.. I would suggest shadowsun...

Now where did you get the idea they arent relentless? theyre still Jetpack Infantry which all jetpack infantry are relentless.

OP: Youre correct the main issue is hellchicken as its one of the few guns that counters them completely. Youre actually better off taking a crisis team with dual bursts and some gun drones...more dakka for only a little extra cost and much tougher to wipe out unless focus fired. Yes it loses the stealth + shroud but thats what Shadowsun is for if you REALLY want it...however its not that hard to negate stealth/shroud anyway

They're not relentless because they can only have one gun... Takes away the point of relentless


Automatically Appended Next Post:
My point is the point cost for what you get... If your going to have to be careful with placement because of unreliable stealth.. Well your paying for stealth...
Why not pay for crisis suits and pay for the pew pew?

You're confusing relentless with the multitracker.

Either way relentless is rather pointless since they only have assault weapons.

Ah yes your right sorry.. But it pretty much boils down to the fact your paying for a whole suit (for some strange reason) and it for makes the stealth part overpriced... Meaning unless you get the most out of your stealth (might be able to surprise some people at tourny but not overall competitive as compared to suits) your only paying for the dakka.. And they don't bring too much of that... If you could better equip them for similar price, they could be alright..

I agree though relentless and multitracker makes no sense to them lol. Only the leader that takes the upgrade pack has a 2nd weapon, and thats a markerlight lol. No idiot would pay THAT much points to get a markerlight since the other reasons to be a leader are moot in that unit, and not that good anyway.

The only time i'd rate them higher than normal crisis suits is if my opponent's army is usually 4+ or worse armor. infiltrate turn 1 to take out a unit can be big.

One thing people forget is Infiltrate only has a range restriction, which has nothing to do with deployment zones. If theres room, you can technically infiltrate BEHIND your enemy and ohhh that sparks some chaos in his mind lol.

But, overall crisis burst teams still better. If anything the option for ablative wounds/extra dakka (i.e. drones) makes them better, despite being slightly cheaper (52pts with a free support slot open, vs 60 pts split across 2 suits with free support slots open for the same amount of dakka).

Well, a team with a homing beacon can be useful for farsight lists where half the godamn army deepstirkes.

They also work for early preassure and counter-deployment, but that's just about it.

You take stealth suits for the special things they do, not the firepower. on terms of raw power the crisis will always come on top.

Definitely. Stealths are a strategic decision. If you have Kroot or Pathfinders outflanking, a Stealth team with Positional Relay lets you do all kinds of really cool stuff with them. If you have Crisis suits that you might want to deep strike, a Homing Beacon gives you great options with them. If those are worth it for your army, adding some bodies for pretty durable turn one Burst Cannon pressure can be be a good thing. Infiltrate should not be discounted. The options it gives them are great.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Youre actually better off taking a crisis team with dual bursts and some gun drones...more dakka for only a little extra cost and much tougher to wipe out unless focus fired. Yes it loses the stealth + shroud but thats what Shadowsun is for if you REALLY want it...however its not that hard to negate stealth/shroud anyway

I would argue that Stealth suits are much tougher to kill than crisis suits assuming they have any sort of cover save.
My only gripe is the team leader gets expensive fast if you start buying toys for him.

 Savageconvoy wrote:
You're confusing relentless with the multitracker.

Either way relentless is rather pointless since they only have assault weapons.

They have access to markerlights (Heavy) through the shas'vre upgrade. Multi-trackers, and black sun filters come standard on all battlesuits (pg 70 Tau Empire: Codex).

The real question to SSuits is: What are you tactics behind it?

If you're going for just straight dakka with BC, you can bring 20 FW for the same price that can pump out almost double what the SSuits can at certain ranges and almost triple with an Ethereal.

Whenever i think of SSuits, i think of using them as DS support and harassment.. Keep it a small group, but with a FB and you've got a tiny threat, that is annoying and still somewhat powerful.

Then again, it is an elite spot. :C

Ultimately, i don't use them all that often. They have their uses, but they seem novel in most situations. I might have to sit down and think of a list to use them in. Maybe i have overlooked something.

Having had stealth suits used against me a fair bit since the new codex has been released I have some insight.


Stealth and Shrouded is not something to be brushed away lightly.

If they are in any sort of cover, they have a 2+ cover save. Which means anything that doesn't ignore it is going to find it almost impossible to deal with them.

There is very little AP3 that also ignores cover, so aside from a Heldrake or psyker with perfect timing not much is going to be taking the suits out easily. And Tau laugh at flyers of all stripes with missilesides.


Stealth suits have str5 shots in quantity. If you take 6 suits with one fusion gun(in case of tanks) you are putting out 20 str5 shots a turn. With a couple markerlights they are wicked accurate, and are already pretty mobile.

Its anti-infantry with some anti-tank if you want it.


The only issue with Stealth Suits is they take up an Elite slot. If you have the slot open, they are a good durable fire platform.

Like the answer to most of these "why don't people take unit X" threads, the answer is because unit Y in the same slot is so much better. In this case, it's not that Stealth Suits are bad, it's that Crisis Suits are better. And let's not forget that they are taking up valuable Riptide slots.

Of course, the Farsight Enclave rules may change that.

Suits become Troops choices and you can ally with regular Tau for another Elite slot. And I doubt you'll be taking 4 riptides.

In most of the Farsight lists i've come up with, i still do not use SSuits. : \ I use the points and extra slots for either tides, or MOAR CRYSIS SUITS!!1

As far as cover goes, you only get 2+s in ruins and forts, everything else will be 3+ at best. It's not bad though, don't get me wrong.

It doesn't make this group invulnerable to damage though. They are annoying, but there's plenty out there that can strip cover. If you make your suits a big enough threat, then they'll use that firepower to wipe them off the board. If you make them a small threat, the suits lose their dakka, so they better have a tactical purpose.

No, a Forest will be 2+

5+ base, +2 for shrouded, +1 for Stealth. 4+ cover in the open.

 Grey Templar wrote:
No, a Forest will be 2+

5+ base, +2 for shrouded, +1 for Stealth. 4+ cover in the open.

I stand corrected. Only terrain like razor wire will give you a 3+ cover save. Forests and area terrain as well as ruins and the like will give you 2+

The only real usable builds I have seen for them is 6 suits burst with ATS infiltrating to precision shot one key unit early, or in enclaves, with x4 burst and ATS, x2 locks and fusion and the warscaper drone to DS into cover without issue

 gameandwatch wrote:
The only real usable builds I have seen for them is 6 suits burst with ATS infiltrating to precision shot one key unit early, or in enclaves, with x4 burst and ATS, x2 locks and fusion and the warscaper drone to DS into cover without issue

So, precision shots on a S5 AP5 weapon? Wut. I guess you could allocate all the wounds on to particular targets, but AP5 means they will probably get to take all their armor saves. 24 shots, half of them miss without MLs, 12 shots hit, maybe 1-3 are 6s maybe? Idk. Seems like a lot of points for that kind of thing that might be better off for pathfinders(rail rifles) or sniper drones to do.

A warscaper drone on a SSuit team would be expensive and not necessary; they can already infiltrate. The warscaper drone is also a signature system and SSuits do not have access to them, unless it's a specific change in the farsight codex that i missed.

AnonAmbientLight wrote:

 gameandwatch wrote:
The only real usable builds I have seen for them is 6 suits burst with ATS infiltrating to precision shot one key unit early, or in enclaves, with x4 burst and ATS, x2 locks and fusion and the warscaper drone to DS into cover without issue

So, precision shots on a S5 AP5 weapon? Wut. I guess you could allocate all the wounds on to particular targets, but AP5 means they will probably get to take all their armor saves. 24 shots, half of them miss without MLs, 12 shots hit, maybe 1-3 are 6s maybe? Idk. Seems like a lot of points for that kind of thing that might be better off for pathfinders(rail rifles) or sniper drones to do.

A warscaper drone on a SSuit team would be expensive and not necessary; they can already infiltrate. The warscaper drone is also a signature system and SSuits do not have access to them, unless it's a specific change in the farsight codex that i missed.

All they need is a vre' and the vre can take the drone, so yes they have access to it.

As well I specifically mentioned "usable" builds, meaning that in almost all cases other things are better options. These are simply the best builds I have seen used. Experience >paper.

The ATS is also the cheapest upgrade to take, and adds an added ability to take out key models. Not great for characters, but great at picking off special weapons. One game saw a guy use this strat, infiltrated near a suit commander with marker drone squad, and first turn precision shot all of the marker drones away. was a pretty damn good idea that disabled a key force multiplier in his opponents list.

Once again I emphasize though how in almost all circumstances, better options than stealth suits can be taken, but they are by no means worthless.

Just wanted to point out that noise marines also get an ap3 weapon that ignores cover. Really any weapon that ignores cover will generally work well on them, since it still doubles the chance they will fail a save and making it twice as effective as a weapon that allows cover saves.

The real problem with the stealth team to me is that they pushed through the 6th Ed armies with minimal changes. SS should probably be redesigned from the ground up, since having a unit with no real load out changes is kind of pointless in an army designed around customized elites for specific purposes. I'm not asking to give them dual plasma rifles, but something different from the stock burst cannon.

However, I think the last time I did the math the stealth team came out ahead of a crisis team for cost effective S5 shots. It's not so much bad as I don't want S5 shots on an elite unit. I customize those for specific jobs and stealth suits don't really have a good focus in their load out.

I think there are three reasons to run stealth suits.

1. I think they're cool, cant really argue with that one.

2.I run shadowsun and dont think you can confer infiltrate. Deploy Shadowsun alongside a minimum size unit to meatshield for a turn then attach her to something else once they move up.

3.Homing beacon/Positional relay. These are strong as unlike most races equivalent they don't need to start on the board to work. Deep strike a stealth team and the proceed to precision drop anything else you fancy.

Beyond that yes they can be tough but do you really need more s5 shooting?

I rock out pretty hard with a XV-8 Commander equipped with a Cyclic Ion Blaster/Plasma Rifle/Drone Controller attached to a full Stealth Team (4x Burst, 2x Fusion) accompanied by four Marker Drones entering from Outflank or Deep Strike.

Deploy -> Quadruple lights strip cover and boost to BS5 -> Wipe a unit

Mind you I don't play competitive, but it has worked wonders otherwise.

There may be very little AP3 ignore cover... But what there is, people will take often

Yep, stealth can't get signature systems, no dice on the drone.

Stealth suits are garbage. Pretty much anything else gives you more firepower per point, and a 2+ cover save is meaningless when your opponent can safely ignore the low-threat unit and kill the rest of your army. By the time your stealth suits draw any meaningful firepower the rest of your army is dead and you've lost the game.

KnuckleWolf wrote:
I rock out pretty hard with a XV-8 Commander equipped with a Cyclic Ion Blaster/Plasma Rifle/Drone Controller attached to a full Stealth Team (4x Burst, 2x Fusion) accompanied by four Marker Drones entering from Outflank or Deep Strike.

Deploy -> Quadruple lights strip cover and boost to BS5 -> Wipe a unit

Mind you I don't play competitive, but it has worked wonders otherwise.

None of those markerlights are networked. You would have to light the target up with another units markelights to have that stealth team use the tokens.

 BoomWolf wrote:
Yep, stealth can't get signature systems, no dice on the drone.

...Up you are right, thought their shasvre could, but alas I was wrong.

And can't help but agree peregrine, they needed to be reworked, they werent and so they fall into the UU category