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I read alot of topics with People asking" what should i add to my tau. " Army, what is best against XY etc etc
I thought it would be cool to Share my oppinion about my experiences with the tau' s new toy, the Y 'vahra.
I combine my experiences with some tactical advices.

First of all

The stats

The rules of this Baby can be found on forgeworld.co.uk
Thougness 6, 4 wounds, ballistic skill 4, a 2+ save combined with an. 5+ invul together with a 4+ against
Close Combat attacks and everything closed than 12 inches makes the Y' vahra quite tough.
The 4+ can be improved by overloading the nova reactor for a juicy 3++ against cc attacks.

The weapons

What gimly the dwarf is to urukhs the Y'vhara is to marines and also vehicles.
Ionic discharge canon has 12' range Str 8 AP 3 heavy 3, blind, haywire burst.
Haywire burst means that every Hit against a vehicle causes a haywire hit plus the normal strength 8 shooting.
The ionic discharge canon can be nova'd for extra D3 Hits.

The Phased Plasma flamer is a torrent weapon with 6' range.
It can be used with a Single Tornister shooting and is heavy 1 then. With full rotation it gains heavy 2 but also gets hot.
Single Mode has AP 3 and strength 6, while the full Mode has APR 2 and strength 6.
Flaming those termis?
No Problem for Mr XV 109.

Movement
The XV 109 has a special rule that allows him to move like a swooping monstrous creature Giving him insane 24' range.
He doesnt gain VS but overloading the Nova reactor gives you the jink special rule and a 4+ Cover Save in the open.
Otherwise he moves like a jetpack monstrous creature
He has a flechette discharger that hits an Enemy in 6' range when he deepstrikes or thrusts or swoops.

The Y' vahra can choose from tau codex Support Systems But Not farsight one.
It also can take 2 shielded missile drones.

Loadouts and Use

I use diffrent configurations.
Unfortunately the shielded missile drones are only jetpack infantry so if you want to swoop... No drones:-(.
Best options in my oppinion are
Stim injector, additional FNP ? Yes please
Early Warning override, gaining interceptor against Deep striking enemys trying to melta or Plasma your XV 109?
Sounds Good to me.

My tactic

I often Face Marines of all kind, guard, necrons and eldar.
When deploying i try to Place the Y' vahra as close as possible to my Enemy.
In my turn i try to overload the reactor.
I then swoop to the Unit i want to kill i.e. TWC, termi squads, command squads, centurions etc.
If the Unit has some Kind of cover saves those Need to be stripped by markerlights.
First the Unit is ihr by the flechette discharger, D6 Hits with Str 4 AP 5 and shred often do initial damage.
I then Flame full canister the target. Placing 2 Times a Nice torrent Str 6 over those deathstar with AP 2 is fun.
I then shoot the Rest with the ( if possible) nova'd ionic canon.
Minimum 4, best 6 Hits with Str 8 AP 3 Most of the Times kill the remaining enemys.
If i feel i wont Need the Nova'd ionic Canon i keep the Nova for a quick escape should i get charged( you shouldnt, pick Target wisely).
( Nova Power lets you Leave game at end of game Phase and enter ongoing reserves.)
Against a vehicle i use a similiar tactic but try to get to the back Armour with my swoop move Even the Str 6 flamer can do damage to av 10 or 11.

This tactic puts alot of pressure on your Enemy.
I Hope You liked my Short Review.
In the next article i will cover crisis suits with fusion/ plasma.

When you tell people about the 24" jump, they will deploy their units as far as possible from your Y'vahra. So you could use it as a psychological weapon (deploy it in one flank and your heavy stuff on the other; the enemy will be forced to either expose their units to the 109 or to your broadies/vehicles) or as a deep strike menace (this works better with Homing Beacons - outflanking Tetras are awesome for this).
Don't expect to kill stuff Turn 1 with one unless the enemy is bold enough to deploy 12" from the center - probably baiting you to lose Y'Vahra, doesn't assess it as a threat (orks) or did miscalculatations (letting you explore that).

One of the best tactics I have used is actually delaying the jump move. I tried this with the Farsight bomb and my 2 Y'Vahras and it was insanely disgusting, basically turn 1 you maneuver your army around and put some shots down range with either crisis suits with missiles or broadsides.

Then bringing your Farsight Bomb in you jump both Riptides forward and absolutely obliterate anything in your path. This also compensates for the Y'Vahras one glaring weakness of being short ranged as you now have the Farsight bomb and additional Riptide providing overwatch.

I'm not sure you need many tactics with the Y'vahra.

Take 3, win games.

 King Pyrrhus wrote:
I'm not sure you need many tactics with the Y'vahra.

Take 3, win games.

Sigging this

 Frozocrone wrote:

 King Pyrrhus wrote:
I'm not sure you need many tactics with the Y'vahra.

Take 3, win games.

Sigging this

One day we'll be able to do our Jumping Jet Circus

 Vector Strike wrote:

 Frozocrone wrote:

 King Pyrrhus wrote:
I'm not sure you need many tactics with the Y'vahra.

Take 3, win games.

Sigging this

One day we'll be able to do our Jumping Jet Circus

Must have 'Jet' by wings on loop for the duration of all games

The first strategy is to wait for the official rules first; so that you don't get "bait & switched" by Forgeworld like they did with the R'Varna suit....

 King Pyrrhus wrote:
I'm not sure you need many tactics with the Y'vahra.

Take 3, win games.

Pretty much - as a Marine player, I find them totally overwheleming to play against.

One thing I'll say with regards to tactics: it's almost always worth using the "gets hot" attack for the flamer, if only to get the two templates. It's much more reliable for wiping out squads, since you're stacking wounds (e.g., rolling more wounds than there are actual models in the squad). If you only use one template, you will often roll a couple 1's to wound and fail totally wipe out the squad.

Ha take 3 and never play that opponent again.

Question, in 7th don't you have to declare your shooting first including whether its nova before you actually start rolling dice since all shooting from a unit is simultaneous with the other guns?

I used it one game, got a double 1 with the gets hot flamer and then it died promptly. I sold it the next day. It's 4 wounds and incredibly short range, it's weaker then a normal riptide which really defeats the purpose of having one.

 iddy00711 wrote:
I used it one game, got a double 1 with the gets hot flamer and then it died promptly. I sold it the next day. It's 4 wounds and incredibly short range, it's weaker then a normal riptide which really defeats the purpose of having one.

Couldn't you activate the Nova Reactor: Escape Thrust to protect it?
The way it is written is a little weird, but since the rule lasts until the start of your next movement phase, you can choose not to use it the turn you activate it and use it at the start of your opponent's movement phase. This would be just like one of the new Fighter Ace rules for Tyranids, which allows him to leave the battlefield at the start of his opponents movement phase (if he is within 12" of any board edge), except you have a chance of failing, but you can do it from anywhere on the board.

This way, every turn the Y'vahra arrives, shoots, and leaves, only to return from ongoing reserves next turn.

 iddy00711 wrote:
I used it one game, got a double 1 with the gets hot flamer and then it died promptly. I sold it the next day. It's 4 wounds and incredibly short range, it's weaker then a normal riptide which really defeats the purpose of having one.

Daw all of my Daemon Princes and Hive Tyrants feel sorry for you.

Hah. Well what I should of done is use 2 marker lights for BS 6, twin linking my 'gets-hot' flamers.

I'm thinking of using 2 with either white scars (CM et al) or tyranic vets as allies.

BS6 does not "twin-link" anything. Twin-link is a very particular USR that has special rules for blasts and templates.

BS>5 allows you to reroll certain values of your to-hit roll -- a consequence of twin-linking for certain weapons, but not the same thing, and certainly not equivalent for templates.

Template Gets Hot! weapons + BS6 = Twin Linked

You roll a D6 + place the template. You 'Gets Hot!' if you roll a 1. BS6+ allows you to re-roll 1's.

Effectively twin linked, for that specific purpose & I agree, not a bad shout.

Razerous wrote:
Template Gets Hot! weapons + BS6 = Twin Linked

You roll a D6 + place the template. You 'Gets Hot!' if you roll a 1. BS6+ allows you to re-roll 1's.

Effectively twin linked, for that specific purpose & I agree, not a bad shout.

Twin-linking a template also lets you reroll to wound. So no its not technically twin-linking

Also fair point. Then, BS6 = Re-roll Gets Hot for Template Weapons (RRGHfTW)

Razerous wrote:
Template Gets Hot! weapons + BS6 = Twin Linked

You roll a D6 + place the template. You 'Gets Hot!' if you roll a 1. BS6+ allows you to re-roll 1's.

Effectively twin linked, for that specific purpose & I agree, not a bad shout.

Bs 6+ lets you re roll misses when rolling to hit. A gets hot roll is not a roll to hit, therefore BS 6+ does not allow for rerolling gets hot.

There is a specific rule in the rule book that say that you get to reroll gets hot rolls whenever you would normally be allowed a reroll. Since BS6+ gives a reroll, you get ot reroll gets hot.

Contrary to initial assumption, the Y'vahra is an inferior version of the Riptide and here's why: the Y'vahra's real weapon of power is its phased plasma flamer on full rotation. The initial problem is, that full-rotation means Gets Hot, and Gets Hot on a Heavy 2 Torrent means you have a 33% chance of at least one of the two templates not being able to fire, since rolling a 1 for Gets Hot prevents the blast or torrent marker from being deployed at all. Secondly is the fact that the torrent only has a range of 6" - since the torrent template itself is about 8" long, you're at best looking at a zone of death only 14" around the battlesuit. Which is good enough for enemy charge range. Your saving grace is that when you get charged, you get 2x D3 wall of death shots with the phased plasma flamer.

The Escape Thrust can also only be activated in the Movement Phase, so if you do get charged, you still have to suffer one round of enemy attacks.

Still, the Y'vahra's biggest weakness is the fact that he has to get up in the enemy's face. Which puts him in perfect range of rapid-fire and also of Grav Centurions. And believe me against a non-noob marine player, the suit will not last long compared to a JSJ-ing Riptide. Hammernators can also shrug off the Y'vahra's attacks and then proceed to assault and smash it to bits.

tl;dr - the Riptide will usually always outperform a Y'vahra over the course of an entire game

Also, please note that electing to move like a Swooping Monstrous Creature does not grant the Y'vahra the Hard to Hit (enemies = snapshots) ability, as this only applies to units that have the Flying Monstrous Creature type and additionally elected to swoop. Move as one doesnt turn it into one.


Lastly, this is a FW unit so expect your opponent to frown, should you bring one to the game. Expect him to whine, if your suit performs well. Which in turn, robs you of some of your satisfaction and fun playing the game. My advice: if you do want to roll with a FW suit, then take the R'varna. For 30 more points, the R'varna is not only T7 and has 2 extra wounds, but it will grind anything that doesnt havea 2+ armor to paste from a safe distance.

 iddy00711 wrote:
I used it one game, got a double 1 with the gets hot flamer and then it died promptly. I sold it the next day. It's 4 wounds and incredibly short range, it's weaker then a normal riptide which really defeats the purpose of having one.

You rolled 4 1s in a row? Quite unlucky for a 2+ armour save

The Y'vahra should be able to get off two full rounds of relatively safe shooting.

You should start it on the board behind LOS blocking terrain much like a flyrant, that have it "swoop" to get it into range and protect it thanks to HTH.

On your second turn you need to activate Escape Thrust, but choose not to use it on your turn. Get up into the best place to take units out for your weapons. Once the start of your opponents comes around, then use the Escape Thrust rule you activated and getting the Y'vahra into ongoing reserves before it gets shot at.

Once your turn comes around again, have the Y'vahra come back on via swooping and repeat as above, only taking a single round of snap shots.

I'm not sure if you can arrive via deep strike, but I've seen a lot of Tyranid players deep strike their Molocks after going back into ongoing reserves. If you can deep strike out of ongoing, you can use this to either put the Y'vahra into your opponent's backfield, or protect your side by swooping in on your board edge to get HTH again.

The Y'vahra has a jetpack, and jetpack grants the DS rule, with is a unique way of arriving from reserves, and ongoing reserves are a subset of reserves, so yes, you can DS without rolling for reserves if you are in ongoing reserves

 Sir Arun wrote:
zone of death only 14" around the battlesuit. Which is good enough for enemy charge range. Your saving grace is that when you get charged, you get 2x D3 wall of death shots with the phased plasma flamer.

As a Jet Pack the XV109 is able to JSJ 2d6" in its assault phase, widening that 14" charge distance.

Also I believe it only gets a single D3 for Wall Of Death as the rule doesn't look at the weapons profile.