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Looking for someone who has used them a bunch and would have a well formulated opinion of them. I am curious to try them, and am thinking stock with burst is probably the best bet, but wanted to hear from someone whos used them a lot.

man so noone has used them?

I've played against them, and thought they had pretty good dakka for the price. T5 is also a good perk, as it prevents them from getting instakilled by things like rocket launchers. I think the main reason you don't see them very often is that Broadsides are a better choice for pure dakka, and they compete for slots with Crisis Suits (who you usually need for specific things that Hazard Suits can't provide, like deep striking fusion dudes).

Well, they are actually a fast attack choice,so they are never in the way of crisis suits or riptides.

The T5 is nice, and the default dakka is also nice. They are just expensive points wise which makes me apprehensive, and any upgrades you give them just makes them even more expensive.

I have considered running a squad of 3, with double fusion cascades, which makes the unit a total of 330 points, and attaching a buffmander to them. VERY expensive, but 6d3 S6 ap 1 fusion shots with tank hunter/ monster hunter twin linked and ignores cover sounds fun. But, you could also just argue to take farsight and bodygaurd instead, and have more reliable quantity of shots, range, more wounds, etc...

I think if they were 35 points less, they would be useful...


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or if they had 3 wounds, or iridium, etc,etc

The fusion cascade weapons are cool but they're just soooo expensive. The only way I could see running them is with the burst cannons.

I played against an XV9 once, TL Burst Cannons IIRC. It performed alright for the cost, but my opponent has yet to field it against me again.

The burst cannon Hazards are about the right price, but all of the upgraded weapons options seem to forget that you are swapping out a 15 point weapon system to field them.

Bigger issue is that a unit of Hazards means one less unit of Pathfinders/Tetras/Marker Drones.

Just about every competitive Tau list I see is FE allied with Empire and even then you rarely see all of the FA slots filled so I think that's kind of a non issue. I think the biggest problem they face is being relatively expensive close ranged units and so are vulnerable to Tau's biggest weakness: assault. Given that they are T5 though, they might be able to fight their way out of the proverbial paper bag since the paper bag won't suffocate them first.

I thought they made a ruling that a supplement codex could not ally with its parent codex?

Anyway, I like the Hazards with fusion cascades. Beautiful for taking out knights and other super heavies. Expensive but if you like suit heavy lists they are perfect.

Col. Dash wrote:
I thought they made a ruling that a supplement codex could not ally with its parent codex?

Anyway, I like the Hazards with fusion cascades. Beautiful for taking out knights and other super heavies. Expensive but if you like suit heavy lists they are perfect.

I saw this and thought the same... until I saw the 330 point min cost, and the 12" range, which means that against a thing like a knight, even with a direct hit deep strike, you are still dangerously close to D explosion range.

Min cost hazards are 78-80 points a piece, since they must take a secondary system, and I don't see them getting stuck in combat, with an 18" range, JSJ and vectored retro thrusters (hit and run) built in. You could also kit them the way I would likely kit them, with Counterfire defense systems, which makes their 8 shot twin linked overwatch on 5s actually pretty scary.

I love the idea of the fusion Hazards, but they are just ridiculously expensive and short ranged, and for a little more you could just take 6 double fusion suits...

I just don't know...

Yeah you are, but I use them as expendable fire jumpers. They go where they are needed and put out a fire. But yeah they are expensive to lose. On the other hand, they aren't taking up an elite slot and I have never fielded 3 squads of pathfinders so taking up their spots isn't an issue. I also do not play Farsight, despite the benefits for a suit army, and only field a single riptide, mostly to distract the opponent from the meat of my army, my crisis suit and body guard units. Or I did anyway, the remnants of my army are for sale to fund other hobbies. heheh

I actually find them to be very dangerous to face. They're harder to ID, and have good mobility and choices of weapons. A few tourneys ago that I participated in had me face these for the first time, and they kicked my arse hard.

They're too expensive. On the other hand, FW has been paying attention to the feedback sent to them and they'll probably change some stuff regarding XV-9s in the future.

They can be effective but here is the problem. It's more s5 shooting which tau has plenty of. I actually own 3 and have fielded them with drones and a commander with irridium armor, stims, and dual burst cannons + a drone controller. Taking drones on all the suits gives you an amazing 24 twinlinked bs3 shots, 16 bs5 twinlinked s5 shots and then the commanders 8 bs5 s5 shots. It's a serious amount of close range dakka and the whole unit is t5 - got to be careful with drones though. Don't want to loose the majority t5.

The problem is there are plenty of ways to get s5 in a tau army without these guys, for example two devilfish with fire warriors and an ethereal can net you 69 s5 bs3 shots and then 8 twinlinked and 8 regular bs3 s5 from the fish. This can be devastating and super cost effective albeit super squishy.

They aren't terribly easy to play with and rely on a mobile army to help you crush one side of an army so completely that you cannot be assaulted the following turn. If something gets into melee with the unit like everything else tau you are dead.

They aren't terribly easy to play with and rely on a mobile army to help you crush one side of an army so completely that you cannot be assaulted the following turn. If something gets into melee with the unit like everything else tau you are dead.

I actually disagree with this statement, they are T5 S5 with power armor, and hit and run. I dont see them getting stuck or even beaten in combat by most standard units. they'll even kick a normal marine squads but and then have a 50/50 chance to jump out of combat.

I think my biggest hangup in general is the cost. They are just SO expensive, and changing their weapons makes them even more so...

Col. Dash wrote:
I thought they made a ruling that a supplement codex could not ally with its parent codex?

Anyway, I like the Hazards with fusion cascades. Beautiful for taking out knights and other super heavies. Expensive but if you like suit heavy lists they are perfect.

RaW, you can't take a FE Combined Arms Detachment with a TE Allied Detachment if your Warlord is from the FE Detachment. You'd be violating the restriction that you can't take an Allied Detachment with the same Faction as your Warlord's Detachment. Some tournaments seem to be allowing it, but it's forbidden by RaW, so I wouldn't count on being able to do it without specific permission.

The problem with XV9s is not that they collide with other slots (though FA is a tad crowded at times), is that any possible setup you can make with them, a matching crisis suit setup can beat it in both offense and defense (when comparing effect/point)

They just cost too much and the things they do have unique are not enough different in order to actually matter.

The only reason to play one is that you like their style, other than that you should -rationally speaking- stick with crisis suits.

Kriswall wrote:

Col. Dash wrote:
I thought they made a ruling that a supplement codex could not ally with its parent codex?

Anyway, I like the Hazards with fusion cascades. Beautiful for taking out knights and other super heavies. Expensive but if you like suit heavy lists they are perfect.

RaW, you can't take a FE Combined Arms Detachment with a TE Allied Detachment if your Warlord is from the FE Detachment. You'd be violating the restriction that you can't take an Allied Detachment with the same Faction as your Warlord's Detachment. Some tournaments seem to be allowing it, but it's forbidden by RaW, so I wouldn't count on being able to do it without specific permission.

Well, you kinda just disproved your own point, considering one is a FE Detachment, and the other is TE, they are actually seperate factions for the purpose of game terms, and the FE book specifically allows them to ally together as battle brothers.

BoomWolf wrote:The problem with XV9s is not that they collide with other slots (though FA is a tad crowded at times), is that any possible setup you can make with them, a matching crisis suit setup can beat it in both offense and defense (when comparing effect/point)

They just cost too much and the things they do have unique are not enough different in order to actually matter.

The only reason to play one is that you like their style, other than that you should -rationally speaking- stick with crisis suits.

^this, I think in the end I just like variety and was trying to make them function so I would have an excuse to convert some

 gameandwatch wrote:


Well, you kinda just disproved your own point, considering one is a FE Detachment, and the other is TE, they are actually seperate factions for the purpose of game terms, and the FE book specifically allows them to ally together as battle brothers.

Check the rulebook again. On page 118 "In the case of codex supplements, the Faction of all the units described in that publication is the same as the codex it is a supplement of"

The opposite of what you're saying is actually the case. FE and TE are one faction.

Not sure what the issue is. You can just do two combined arms detachments and you either wind up with a minimum squad of firewarriors or a spare crisis suit depending on the way you built it.

Right, it's not too big of a deal with TE and FE to run two CAD's instead of an allied detachment as the troop choices are pretty solid. It definitely kills my Chaos, Crimson Slaughter, and Black Legion lists though. The last things I want in those armies are 4 units of CSM or cultists.

 lessthanjeff wrote:

 gameandwatch wrote:


Well, you kinda just disproved your own point, considering one is a FE Detachment, and the other is TE, they are actually seperate factions for the purpose of game terms, and the FE book specifically allows them to ally together as battle brothers.

Check the rulebook again. On page 118 "In the case of codex supplements, the Faction of all the units described in that publication is the same as the codex it is a supplement of"

The opposite of what you're saying is actually the case. FE and TE are one faction.

And like has already been stated, there is a special rule in the Farsight Enclaves supplement allowing them to ally with Tau Empire. Please read the supplement before trying to disprove anything.

You neglect the fact the rulebook and with it the definition of faction changed AFTER the FE book was released.

 jay170788 wrote:


And like has already been stated, there is a special rule in the Farsight Enclaves supplement allowing them to ally with Tau Empire. Please read the supplement before trying to disprove anything.

I assure you I have read the farsight enclave supplement. The rule I believe you are referring to is "Farsight Enclave detachments and Codex: Tau Empire detachments may ally together as Battle Brothers".

This rule specifies that they treat each other as Battle Brothers so that if you take one CAD of each you don't have to worry about rules like "One Eye Open" and may utilize each other's special rules and so on. Nowhere does it say you may take one as an "Allied Detachment" for the other which is a very specific detachment requiring only 1 hq and 1 troops choice. Feel free to double check this information yourself, but I think you should have looked over the rule yourself before you posted.

Mull over the possibilities of running them with Shadowsun (as your warlord) and 2 super shield drones for a while. Go on, I'll wait. Note, this goes firmly into the "potentially awesome but way too expensive for what they do" category, same as all the hazard suits in my opinion. I like them but I'm not going to fool myself into thinking they are the best possible use of the points.

P.S. I use the burst cannon suit with the advanced targeting system. With that much dakka you're going to get some precision shots and snipe heavy weapons/etc. Plus it's not like there's anything else I want to give them (stims would be hilarious but way the heck too expensive even for a "mini deathstar")

ignore, odd mixup.

MAN, I really want to use them...I just wish, they were 2+ saves, or 3 wounds, or SOMEthing justifying the double cost of a normal fusion suit (using the cascades)

Random thought, take Hazard Suits in a FE list and you have the closest thing the Tau have to a CC suit, but only against Orks, and even then, if they have counter charge you're in trouble.

Nope, even than when you calculate the price/effect ratios the XV8 is out-doing them.

There are hardly any scenarios when XV8s are not doing more damage per point and taking less damage per point than their XV9 comparable. and at times they also do it at superior range.

That is the problem with the XV9, the XV8 got really good . I have them in my FE army as a fluff thing (the army is based around fast response to attack, something tau would do), and that I love them and their design. They were updated to 6th with very little change.