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Ok, 25 points is a lot, but think about this. Strength 8 is all over the place in this game. On top of that, strength 8 ap3-1 is the common form of s8 shooting, so you don't get armor saves against shots that will kill you 5/6 of the time if they hit. Now, 75 points later, your entire squad has a 50% chance to survive even a stray railgun shot! Anything less than strength D is saved half the time. Despite the huge cost, that is a HUGE improvement in livability, and could give you another turn of shooting before being obliterated. Is 25 points really too much to pay for crisis suits not evaporating the second they shoot at something? From personal experience, I've pissed off a friend whom uses vindicators with these guys more than once, mostly due to some abysmal double ones on my fusion blasters. Not dying due to this and having fusion blasters take another go is very likely to kill pretty much anything. I would especially consider them since the vengeance weapons battery can give ANYONE a cheap battlecannon.

friend of mine gets the shields and FNP on all his suits.


Its a real pain in the ass to charge crisis suits with bikes and not beat them lol.


Cuts into the tau's firepower alot, but makes them alot more durable.

With all the s8+, fnp isn't very helpful. The shield can fill the support slot while I take two weapons giving me improved survivability against anti meq and allowing me to dakka while I dakka.

Yeah, FNP is kind of a wate of points on your suits with only T4. Against the weapons that really matter, they will be getting doubled out without taking the FNP.

As far as shields, they arent really that good. For 3pts less, you get another suit (without weapons) and an additional two wounds. Besides, with Jet packs there is no reason on earth you shouldn't be getting cover saves or better yet, just being out of LOS.

I would only consider taking them on deepstriking Fusion suits, and even then I would really have to think about it. The unit would drop down, destroy a tank and then die. Why waste 75pts on a unit that is going to get vaporised pretty much immediatley after being deployed?

I find the shields help most in melee combat myself. They let you survive the power weapons a bit better.

To be honest, Shields and Stims really only help for keeping your commander alive. The other suits are best made as low cost and expendable as possible so you can throw more of them on the table, especially in a Farsight Enclaves lists.

I don't really leave my suits in the open enough to really need the shields. To me, FNP is better because it gives a secondary save to armor and cover.

And honestly, for the price of the shield you are close to paying for a new body all together anyways.

You might as well take shield drones, its a lot cheaper and its an extra wound for when it fails

Can't take shield drones. Gun drones are a big part of what make my crisis teams strong.

Between the two, i would go FNP because its 10pts cheaper (the unit gets expensive as it is) and unless i roll badly on deepstrike/jump movement theyre always in cover, or only visible to a handful of models. Leaving them in the open, even with shields and fnp, is suicide.

I always take the shield on commanders, even if theyre not a tanky one, but thats different since its one model using that huge price tag and a more valuable model at that.

Also shield drones are pointless in close range, which crisis suits are always at.
They dont have any armor (well, technically 4+ but thats their invul too) so they will EASILY be mopped up by infantry fire so the big guns can clean up the suits. Happens to me all-the-damn-time when i fail to get them in a good position at the end of my turn.
Gun drones die just as easily in most situations, and provide a lot of fire in exchange for no save against AP4+ guns. Rather have that. 12 BS2 Twinlinked guns isnt a bad deal when you mainly want the body they come on for ablative wounds anyway.

I much prefer shield drones (always take a ratio of 1 shield drone to 1 Crisis suit). Not only does this save points, only 12 pts each, it doesn't cut into the hard points and fire power of my crisis suits and provides another ablative wound to the unit. With some clever placement drones should always be getting hit first.

I'm sorry, but shield drones mean less dakka drones. Gun drones are great as both ablatives and they provide a lot of extra firepower. Gun drones are like having a burst cannon per suit and two extra wounds, and that is dakka I need. I've already got two weapons full, and can only fire two a turn. I need something to fill the third slot as a support choice.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So there are two alternatives I am considering to Shield Generators. The first is Vectored retro thrusters. I lose surivivability against heavy artillery, but can jump out of assaults I can't win (godamn hellbrutes) without repeating the epic fail that was "Our Weapons are Useless!" last night. The second option is to equip counterfire systems for bs2 overwatch, which means I could kill the hell-brute more reliably before being beaten in the face, since s8 melta at ap1 is nasty.

Assuming you dont die in the combat yes VRT is good lol. I actually stopped bringing it on my commanders since they usually have a 4th support slot that isnt vital to my tactic because the few times they see melee combat, they get wiped out/sweeped before they can run off. Remember hit and run happens AFTER the combat is resolved - determining sweeping advance is still part of the combat.

I am a big fan of VRT as Hit and Run has saved my bacon in a few games. For instance last weekend, got into a scruff with some Ork Boyz and thanks to some good saving throws and Preferred Enemy I was able to win and bounce out of combat. He had charged in his turn so I was then able to shoot them at point blank range in the face

As to the Drone debate I always go with Gun Drones as I feel its a waste to get the shield drones, you can never have enough Dakka with your Crisis Suit teams at times and the pinning shots do help once in a while when your opponent fails a leadership.

I'm in the other camp. I have enough S5 knocking around in the form of SMS which is far superior to pulse carbines that i don't need the extra dakka from Gun Drones. If 1 Shield drones makes its invulnerable save that's made its points back and more because it can then attempt to tank another shot and in a meta where S8+ is everywhere and the fact we will only be seeing more as the meta shifts further towards AV heavy lists I would rather have my Crisis surviving and shooting plasma/melta/missiles for an extra turn than a few extra S5 shots from drones.

That would be great, if horde lists weren't still nasty. Especially Chaos Demons. Also, shield drones aren't much comfort when you need to hunt meq, teq, and infantry blobs. Burst cannons are a good choice for that role, but that specializes the unit. I need my crisis suits to be able to fulfill multiple roles as needed, be it tank busting or infantry blasting. Gun drones allow me to load up on high S/AP weapons while still having enough dakka.

How are you toting around enough SMS damage to not care about extra gun drones? SMS is one of the hardest guns to spam without being the big guns (rail cannons, IA, etc) since its only available to fish and riptides.

I dont even take it on my devilfish because of drone shenanigans when moving around/jinking and its 10pts cheaper.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
How are you toting around enough SMS damage to not care about extra gun drones? SMS is one of the hardest guns to spam without being the big guns (rail cannons, IA, etc) since its only available to fish and riptides.

I dont even take it on my devilfish because of drone shenanigans when moving around/jinking and its 10pts cheaper.

Drone shenanigans ? The SMS option is not treated like a passenger , it's a weapon system.

 thejughead wrote:

 Vineheart01 wrote:
How are you toting around enough SMS damage to not care about extra gun drones? SMS is one of the hardest guns to spam without being the big guns (rail cannons, IA, etc) since its only available to fish and riptides.

I dont even take it on my devilfish because of drone shenanigans when moving around/jinking and its 10pts cheaper.

Drone shenanigans ? The SMS option is not treated like a passenger , it's a weapon system.

Exactly. If you jink the SMS goes to snapfire. Drones, as passengers, fire at their full BS granted it is only bs2 but that is still better than bs1.

Ah! I still think twin linked at bs1 with ignore cover is fine.

 thejughead wrote:
Ah! I still think twin linked at bs1 with ignore cover is fine.

Not to mention a 30inch range compared to an 18 inch one.

Oh no doubt i wasnt saying the drones are better than SMS by any means, i was just curious how you were claiming you had enough SMS around your army to not care about additional gun drones on suits.

Only reason i keep drones on my fish is because its a 10pt upgrade, and after my initial move its always in range of something 18" away so the extra range doesnt help and i like the pinning aspect