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So the auto inclusion of Buffmander is now in doubt as he can no longer add ignores cover or rerolls on hitting and getting hot to Riptides. This is sad. However Tau, fortunately, have another reliable method of getting ignores cover and rerolls on getting hot. 5 marker light hits.

A typical Buffy would run in at circa 170-190 points and in addition to the two buffs above could also bring about tank/monster hunter and vectored retro thrusters. Other options were nice, but these were the main ones he bought with him.

To get your riptides firing as effectively as they would under Buffmander (minus tank hunters) would take 2 marker lights to ignore cover and 3 to improve BS to 6 (for gets hot re roll, can't re roll to hit though you are getting -6 to scatter! And your secondary system is far more accurate under this method.

A common Mark'o brings a c+c node, drone controller! two of his own drones an a squad of... Well... More. For the 180 points of Buffy, Mark will bring around 6 drones. Normally this would be bumped up to 8 for a total of about 200pts. For that you are getting 8 twin linked BS5 marker drones though. Missing on average one shot every three turns!

A third option is to take both! Well sort of. Have a Buffmander with a drone setup. This will be coming in at close to 300 points and of course, you can only help one squad out a turn (apart from the two drones he brings with him). I doubt this will be a popular option, but perhaps worth a mention.

So Buffy
Pros
Cheaper
Adds niceties such as hit and run, neuroweb and maybe even an onagar gauntlet and iridium armour.
Ignores cover all the time
Brings tank/monster hunter

Cons
Can't have an effect on riptides
Will basically end up with missile sides most games
Adds nothing to the anti armour 14 in your list (if with missiles sides)
Can only help one unit per turn

And Mark
Pros
On average can ignore cover twice and increase BS by 4!
Works on riptides
Secondary weapons on riptides can be made very accurate
Has a chance of landing two marks on a flyer
Works on multiple units
Don't have to ignore cover if your opponent isn't in cover (more BS instead please!)
If you do bring a weapon and fire it, you don't become totally useless as drone controller still functions

Cons
Normally limited to staying in one unit
More expensive
Generally brings less wargear to the table
PEN chip is generally not needed, which is a shame as it is very good


One last point of note that isn't really a pro or a con. If you bring the data slate formation you can get tank hunters back on one riptide and 6 missiles sides anyway so all is not lost.

So which is now your favourite?

Your also forgetting that riptides now snap fire at ground targets on your next turn following the use of skyfire. This makes armies like necrons who have cheap flyers a rather serious problem. As now the riptides gun will be pointing elsewhere to bring them down.

Riptide buffing is not a thing I would do against necrons. Your basically dumping points to kill ground targets poorly then and maybe killing a flyer every once and a while. And if you ignore them then the riptide will get blasted to smithereens and you will be left with a pile of useless buffs.

I'd probably instead strip skyfire off riptides and broadsides to buy a quad gun for a fortification like an adl or a fortress and turn them into ground only threats. However this requires altering the existing build even further and so on and so forth.

 ionusx wrote:
Your also forgetting that riptides now snap fire at ground targets on your next turn following the use of skyfire.

This is the first I'm hearing of this, I know interceptor changed, but I thought Skyfire was unchanged.

Mark'O is too expensive for what he does. For 200p you get 8 BS5 TL, as you pointed out; these are 7.778 hits.
For the same price, you can have 18 pathfinders, getting 9 hits, more wounds and able to mark different targets.
Or even 6 tetras (for 210p), getting 9 hits as well, Scouts, immune to S3 or less, smaller footprint (per squad) and with jink, if necessary.

I'd use Buffy with Broadsides and deployed Crisis (as PEN doesn't work the turn you DS, dammit!). Or even in a Farsight bomb (TL and Ignores Cover are quite good with massed S6 or S7), but as a second option.

 ionusx wrote:
Your also forgetting that riptides now snap fire at ground targets on your next turn following the use of skyfire. This makes armies like necrons who have cheap flyers a rather serious problem. As now the riptides gun will be pointing elsewhere to bring them down.

Riptide buffing is not a thing I would do against necrons. Your basically dumping points to kill ground targets poorly then and maybe killing a flyer every once and a while. And if you ignore them then the riptide will get blasted to smithereens and you will be left with a pile of useless buffs.

I'd probably instead strip skyfire off riptides and broadsides to buy a quad gun for a fortification like an adl or a fortress and turn them into ground only threats. However this requires altering the existing build even further and so on and so forth.

That's not what happens to Tau. They can choose to use Skyfire for each shooting attack they make.

Either/or, as the list requires. They are both viable options.

 Vector Strike wrote:
Mark'O is too expensive for what he does. For 200p you get 8 BS5 TL, as you pointed out; these are 7.778 hits.
For the same price, you can have 18 pathfinders, getting 9 hits, more wounds and able to mark different targets.
Or even 6 tetras (for 210p), getting 9 hits as well, Scouts, immune to S3 or less, smaller footprint (per squad) and with jink, if necessary.

I'd use Buffy with Broadsides and deployed Crisis (as PEN doesn't work the turn you DS, dammit!). Or even in a Farsight bomb (TL and Ignores Cover are quite good with massed S6 or S7), but as a second option.

I see where you are coming from on points per marker hit and I have overlooked this - its very close. However wounds wise (12 playing on 18) are also backed up by a better save and toughness - so survivability is similar, if not slightly tilted in Mark's favour. The ability to light up two units is a biggy though and I would imagine would sway some people.

Using Buffy purely in Missilesides does drop his points by another 15 as C+C node would be wasted.

Barrage or Heldrake will be a problem because it can allocate wounds from more angles preventing your buffmander from tanking hits.

A heldrake flying over you and daemonforging your squad from behind has a good chance of wiping out 80-90% of your drones depending on your placement leaving you an expensive command with nothing to buff.

My buff meander never went with my riptide anyway. Always sits with three missile crisis with target lock and 6 marker drones. This way have highly accurate missiles and have 5/6 marker hits for my solo tide