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His warlord trait is kinda lame though. Then again i dont want my warlord to be completely vulnerable lol.

I mean, obviously pref enemy IC would have to work on the whole unit an IC is in otherwise you literally cant use it unless an IC is alone or you Precision Shot them so its not useless but its still kinda trash compared to the multitude of traits we can use.

I dont get the drones though. They fire at the same target, so they literally cant do anything for him other than soak a couple wounds. Blacksun filters on Markerlights? Even in the old nightfighting rules, thats only 6" extra reach which R'alai cant reach anyway.
Wish they were T5 and networked so he can use his own marks. Considering he cannot join a unit, seems fair to me.

 Vineheart01 wrote:

Wish they were T5 and networked so he can use his own marks. Considering he cannot join a unit, seems fair to me.

I agree. FW should release a FAQ on him to make some changes.

Am I interpreting the new FSE auxiliary formations correctlyin that you can essentially use the Piranha formation to generate 32 gun drones PER TURN? That seems...uh...maybe more than a little broken. Slap 2 of those babies and a Hunter Cadre in and 1850 for 64 new BS5 gun drones every turn. Seems fair.

MilkmanAl wrote:
Am I interpreting the new FSE auxiliary formations correctlyin that you can essentially use the Piranha formation to generate 32 gun drones PER TURN? That seems...uh...maybe more than a little broken. Slap 2 of those babies and a Hunter Cadre in and 1850 for 64 new BS5 gun drones every turn. Seems fair.

Yeah RAW that is exactly how it works lol. Plus any piranhas that were killed are replaced as long as one model in the unit is still alive


5 piranha = 200 points

Formation
3 full piranha units and 1 single piranha = 640

So 3 full formation is 1920 points.

thats a total of 48 piranhas

So each turn, you generate 96 drones (1344 points).... rinse and repeat... lol

I don't think you'd be able to do the seeker trick every turn since you leave for ongoing reserves at the end of the movement phase, but still, that's 640pts per formation for bare-bones piranhas. Unless you're up against Green Tide or something else ridiculous that can block your entire board edge, you're basically guaranteed 448 pts of drones from each formation every turn. Holy *&^$

Can anyone provide a link to the new Mont'ka formations?

You will be able to do the seeker festival only 4 times per game, at most (7 turns). The drones are every turn, though.

 Tinkrr wrote:
Can anyone provide a link to the new Mont'ka formations?

http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23993&start=80

 Nilok wrote:

 Tinkrr wrote:
Can anyone provide a link to the new Mont'ka formations?

http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23993&start=80

Jeez, a lot of those formations seem really powerful with how much free stuff they gain D:

The drone formation is actually very powerful if you're using the Piranha nonsense since all of a sudden all of those drones gain +1 BS, and your marker drones are just better than Pathfinders that have a Jink save and more.

Also if you're using the Hunter Cad as your base, does that just mean you double up on Decurion buffs or only gain the the main buffs from the FSE but not the Hunter Cad?

 Tinkrr wrote:

 Nilok wrote:

 Tinkrr wrote:
Can anyone provide a link to the new Mont'ka formations?

http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23993&start=80

Jeez, a lot of those formations seem really powerful with how much free stuff they gain D:

The drone formation is actually very powerful if you're using the Piranha nonsense since all of a sudden all of those drones gain +1 BS, and your marker drones are just better than Pathfinders that have a Jink save and more.

Also if you're using the Hunter Cad as your base, does that just mean you double up on Decurion buffs or only gain the the main buffs from the FSE but not the Hunter Cad?

They get the Dawn Blade Contingent and the Hunter Cadre rules, but they do not get the Hunter Contingent rules, which is the Coordinated Firepower rule that lets everyone fire together.

You can't have a model in two units, a unit in two formations/FOCs, or a formation in two composites.

Not way to double on contingent buffs just like you can't double on formation buffs.

Am I right in thinking you can field a formation in its own right?

But you still need a warlord etc to field a Battle-Forged army.

So you could field a Hunter Contingent alongside a.. Drone Net Formation?

Razerous wrote:
Am I right in thinking you can field a formation in its own right?

But you still need a warlord etc to field a Battle-Forged army.

So you could field a Hunter Contingent alongside a.. Drone Net Formation?

Yes, you can run any formation alone, as they can be a detachment onto themselves.
The Drone-Net won't be able to join in the coordinated fire, but will still buff all the Drones in the Hunter Contingent.

Any and all of these formations are their own formation. The Hunter Contingent is our way of merging them all into one big formation with formations inside the formation. The rules of that formation doesnt spread to others but the Hunter's rules will add to say the Stealth Cadre or Retal Cadre.

Also, who in their right flippin mind would EVER run the Ethereal Council except in fluff battles?
3-7 Ethereals, which can be Aun'Va or Aun'Shi as well. They form their OWN UNIT (remember, T3 no armor saves) and cannot be merged into other units. 24" LD10 bubble is nice and all 4 Elements invocations is also interesting but heres the kicker:
Thats 3-7 free VPs. It says absolutely nothing about only being worth 1 VP if the unit dies, so that means every single Ethereal is worth a VP then the whole unit is worth another if unit kills are worth points too.

Who the heck would EVER do that lol. Omg that is just soooo bad. I mean, you can hide 3 ethereals in a Devilfish and get the bonus while giving them a 3+ jink, but still thats 3-5 VP just ASKING for anti tank weaponry to find them.

 Nilok wrote:

 Tinkrr wrote:

 Nilok wrote:

 Tinkrr wrote:
Can anyone provide a link to the new Mont'ka formations?

http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23993&start=80

Jeez, a lot of those formations seem really powerful with how much free stuff they gain D:

The drone formation is actually very powerful if you're using the Piranha nonsense since all of a sudden all of those drones gain +1 BS, and your marker drones are just better than Pathfinders that have a Jink save and more.

Also if you're using the Hunter Cad as your base, does that just mean you double up on Decurion buffs or only gain the the main buffs from the FSE but not the Hunter Cad?

They get the Dawn Blade Contingent and the Hunter Cadre rules, but they do not get the Hunter Contingent rules, which is the Coordinated Firepower rule that lets everyone fire together.

Ah, ok, that makes a lot more sense, I missed that the Hunter Cadre and Hunter Contingent were two different things.

Still, that Piranha Formation with the Drone Formation is really good since the drones buff the free drones you produce, and you just have a ton of Markerlights from them for all of the free Seeker Missiles to bombard a ton.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Any and all of these formations are their own formation. The Hunter Contingent is our way of merging them all into one big formation with formations inside the formation. The rules of that formation doesnt spread to others but the Hunter's rules will add to say the Stealth Cadre or Retal Cadre.

Also, who in their right flippin mind would EVER run the Ethereal Council except in fluff battles?
3-7 Ethereals, which can be Aun'Va or Aun'Shi as well. They form their OWN UNIT (remember, T3 no armor saves) and cannot be merged into other units. 24" LD10 bubble is nice and all 4 Elements invocations is also interesting but heres the kicker:
Thats 3-7 free VPs. It says absolutely nothing about only being worth 1 VP if the unit dies, so that means every single Ethereal is worth a VP then the whole unit is worth another if unit kills are worth points too.

Who the heck would EVER do that lol. Omg that is just soooo bad. I mean, you can hide 3 ethereals in a Devilfish and get the bonus while giving them a 3+ jink, but still thats 3-5 VP just ASKING for anti tank weaponry to find them.

You do have access to 2x Shield drones per Ethereal, so that's a reasonable buffer, and you still get the FNP bonus from their mass invocation. You can even grab An'vu for the additional body guards and AP nerfing.

Still a huge risk, but there's a potential use to it as it's a high risk, high reward type of thing.

Ahhhh... Think of the synergy!

Actually im going to eat my own words.

Im totally going to do a scenario-like battle where i have the Ethereal Council + Aun'Va. My goal: keep them alive. Enemy's goal: kill them (to hell with objectives, even if hes losing if the ethereals die i lose)

Actually sounds kinda fun. Sadly only race i can face at a huge point value is necrons lol not very fluffy of a battle to me.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Any and all of these formations are their own formation. The Hunter Contingent is our way of merging them all into one big formation with formations inside the formation. The rules of that formation doesnt spread to others but the Hunter's rules will add to say the Stealth Cadre or Retal Cadre.

Also, who in their right flippin mind would EVER run the Ethereal Council except in fluff battles?
3-7 Ethereals, which can be Aun'Va or Aun'Shi as well. They form their OWN UNIT (remember, T3 no armor saves) and cannot be merged into other units. 24" LD10 bubble is nice and all 4 Elements invocations is also interesting but heres the kicker:
Thats 3-7 free VPs. It says absolutely nothing about only being worth 1 VP if the unit dies, so that means every single Ethereal is worth a VP then the whole unit is worth another if unit kills are worth points too.

Who the heck would EVER do that lol. Omg that is just soooo bad. I mean, you can hide 3 ethereals in a Devilfish and get the bonus while giving them a 3+ jink, but still thats 3-5 VP just ASKING for anti tank weaponry to find them.

Assuming O'vesa retains the IC rule, you can take a min Ethereal Council and slap O'vesa on to make it T6.

One of the silliest things is to have Aun'va and O'vesa together and have O'vesa tank everything. Combined with the T6, 2+ armor, 5/3+ invuln, 5+ FNP, and Aun'va's troll save of AP+, it is a strangely tough nut to crack if you can keep the positioning right.

The killing blow rule is useful against the opponent who likes running his wraithknight every game. Bonus, if farsight is in melee, he can reroll to wounds there too.

 Nilok wrote:

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Any and all of these formations are their own formation. The Hunter Contingent is our way of merging them all into one big formation with formations inside the formation. The rules of that formation doesnt spread to others but the Hunter's rules will add to say the Stealth Cadre or Retal Cadre.

Also, who in their right flippin mind would EVER run the Ethereal Council except in fluff battles?
3-7 Ethereals, which can be Aun'Va or Aun'Shi as well. They form their OWN UNIT (remember, T3 no armor saves) and cannot be merged into other units. 24" LD10 bubble is nice and all 4 Elements invocations is also interesting but heres the kicker:
Thats 3-7 free VPs. It says absolutely nothing about only being worth 1 VP if the unit dies, so that means every single Ethereal is worth a VP then the whole unit is worth another if unit kills are worth points too.

Who the heck would EVER do that lol. Omg that is just soooo bad. I mean, you can hide 3 ethereals in a Devilfish and get the bonus while giving them a 3+ jink, but still thats 3-5 VP just ASKING for anti tank weaponry to find them.

Assuming O'vesa retains the IC rule, you can take a min Ethereal Council and slap O'vesa on to make it T6.

One of the silliest things is to have Aun'va and O'vesa together and have O'vesa tank everything. Combined with the T6, 2+ armor, 5/3+ invuln, 5+ FNP, and Aun'va's troll save of AP+, it is a strangely tough nut to crack if you can keep the positioning right.

Unless they remove the Aun'Va and Shadowsun restriction (doubtful) you cant have Aun'va in your army since you have to have Farsight as your warlord to bring Ovesa.
assuming that doesnt change that is.

 Vineheart01 wrote:

 Nilok wrote:

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Any and all of these formations are their own formation. The Hunter Contingent is our way of merging them all into one big formation with formations inside the formation. The rules of that formation doesnt spread to others but the Hunter's rules will add to say the Stealth Cadre or Retal Cadre.

Also, who in their right flippin mind would EVER run the Ethereal Council except in fluff battles?
3-7 Ethereals, which can be Aun'Va or Aun'Shi as well. They form their OWN UNIT (remember, T3 no armor saves) and cannot be merged into other units. 24" LD10 bubble is nice and all 4 Elements invocations is also interesting but heres the kicker:
Thats 3-7 free VPs. It says absolutely nothing about only being worth 1 VP if the unit dies, so that means every single Ethereal is worth a VP then the whole unit is worth another if unit kills are worth points too.

Who the heck would EVER do that lol. Omg that is just soooo bad. I mean, you can hide 3 ethereals in a Devilfish and get the bonus while giving them a 3+ jink, but still thats 3-5 VP just ASKING for anti tank weaponry to find them.

Assuming O'vesa retains the IC rule, you can take a min Ethereal Council and slap O'vesa on to make it T6.

One of the silliest things is to have Aun'va and O'vesa together and have O'vesa tank everything. Combined with the T6, 2+ armor, 5/3+ invuln, 5+ FNP, and Aun'va's troll save of AP+, it is a strangely tough nut to crack if you can keep the positioning right.

Unless they remove the Aun'Va and Shadowsun restriction (doubtful) you cant have Aun'va in your army since you have to have Farsight as your warlord to bring Ovesa.
assuming that doesnt change that is.

They've changed the wording for the current book, which was errated to detachment from army.
So long as it retains that wording, you can have both the Eight and Aun'va in the same army.

The only way to get ovesa is from "the eight" formation.

It's nearly 1500 points by itself.

Formation? Did the eight change? It wasnt a formation it was just individual models you could get with Farsight as warlord. You dont have to buy all 8 of them (or at least you didnt)

Tbh i never paid attention to them. Saw them made a dream list trying to utilize them all (was like 7000pts lol), never looked at them again because i HATE FARSIGHT - too damn weak for being a lone wolf in our army. He wants melee, the entire codex does not.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Formation? Did the eight change? It wasnt a formation it was just individual models you could get with Farsight as warlord. You dont have to buy all 8 of them (or at least you didnt)

Tbh i never paid attention to them. Saw them made a dream list trying to utilize them all (was like 7000pts lol), never looked at them again because i HATE FARSIGHT - too damn weak for being a lone wolf in our army. He wants melee, the entire codex does not.

Unfortunately he can't be attached to the Ghostkeel Wing, as that unit has a special rule that denies overwatch which they charge in, and they aren't that bad in CC.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Formation? Did the eight change? It wasnt a formation it was just individual models you could get with Farsight as warlord. You dont have to buy all 8 of them (or at least you didnt)

Tbh i never paid attention to them. Saw them made a dream list trying to utilize them all (was like 7000pts lol), never looked at them again because i HATE FARSIGHT - too damn weak for being a lone wolf in our army. He wants melee, the entire codex does not.

Well, it's a formation now. World changed.

 BoomWolf wrote:

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Formation? Did the eight change? It wasnt a formation it was just individual models you could get with Farsight as warlord. You dont have to buy all 8 of them (or at least you didnt)

Tbh i never paid attention to them. Saw them made a dream list trying to utilize them all (was like 7000pts lol), never looked at them again because i HATE FARSIGHT - too damn weak for being a lone wolf in our army. He wants melee, the entire codex does not.

Well, it's a formation now. World changed.

My only hope is that it doesn't require all the members and you can pick a smaller team.

My first impression of the new Mont'ka formations:

CounterStrike Cadre
1 Patherfinder, 3x strike/breach.
Devilfish get Fast on the first turn, So so, not that interesting but its a nice foundation for 3 teams + etheral fish of fury attack
Re-roll within 3'' of an objectives. This is really nice for the pathfinders (re-roll markelights baby) and situational for the rest.
It's a decent formation but all things can be better taken elsewhere and markerlight (and pathfinders) are better taken from different formations.

Ranged Support Cadre
3x Pathfinder
3x Broadside team
Broadsides can use a markerlight from these pathfinders as 2 markerlight tokens.
Pathfinders get shrouded if not moving.
So this is one place where you're better of taking the pathfinders from. Shrouded is a huge buff. (park them in terrain or behind adl for 2+ cover save! suddenly they're survivable!)
Broadsides using tokens as 2... its good. even 3x4 man pathfinder squads generate effectively 12 markerlight tokens for the broadsides. The downside? Other units often benefit more from tokens than broadsides being already twin linked and (usually) only AP4, ignore cover is of limited benefit. It's still a pretty decent firebase and probably the real succesor to the old FBSC. You can't go wrong but.... not super amazing either.

Rapid insertion force
1 unit of stealth suits
3 units of crisis
1 riptide

No scatter DS withing 6'' of the stealth team. Twin-linked weapons on the turn they arrive.
It's rubbish. Retalation is MUCH better. Do you really want your riptide stuck in Reserves? No, no you don't. You don't get any re-roll or anything from this and people will either kill your stealth team or stay clear of it. Even if you DS with 6'' on turn 2 with everything, you're not really getting 1 turn of firepower out of twin-linked (What you miss from not being on the table turn one). You also don't get the choice to deploy them if you want to like in the retaliation squadron. Stay clear of this.

Piranha Firestream Wing.
4x 1 Piranah team
In shooting face, THE one piranha team you choose before game chooses 1 enemy unit with 36''+LOS. +1 BS and tank hunters vs this unit for the formation.
Interesting, so so.
Re-arm and refuel. If your piranha's are withing 6'' of the board edge at the end of the movement phase you may take them of and they will recycle with:
ALL the piranha's you originally bought
ALL new drones
ALL the seeker missiles.
WHAT?! Yeah this is OP. The only problem with the formation is the buy in both in money and points. You should take a bunch of piranaha's on every unit to avoid running around with 2 drones everywhere in kill point missions. The formation is extremely flexible. You can build a farm for the first couple of turns (and you can get your drones 18'' up the table). After that, you can farm more or use the firepower for a turn and STILL fire more. Must take in any tournament list. This is a bombshell formation. A+++.

Skysweep.
3x skyray, 1 devilfish.
You get 5+ cover save against flyers.
Skyrays within 12 '' of the devilfish can fire all remaining seekers.
5+ cover is good, kinda helps the no interceptor problem.
Firing all within 12'' of the fish.... WHAT DOES THIS DO?! You can already do this right? I assume it means even if you moved but it doesn't really give permission for this either.
The really good thing about this one: You can easily include skyrays (Something thats a hazzle for Kauyon).

Drone Net:
4x or more drone squadron.
If 2 or more on the table; +1 bs
All get Jink(!) interceptor(!!), outflank, precision shots and Splitfire special rules.
So now we know why drones are suddenly so expensive! This is a good (Excellent) source of markerlights. You now don't really need a mark'o anymore.
Jink will make them more survivable as well. Intercepting markerlights... wel...
4x4 markerdrones, good buy, hard to go wrong here.

3x Riptide formations
+1 bs if you shoot a unit already shot by another tide from this formation.
Meh, seems worse than Co-ordinated firepower
Networked reactors;Re-roll nova.
YES! This makes burst tides viable (again?) This is a good reason to take this formation. It also makes Ion-tides basically have a 3++ most of the time.
Riptide Hailfire: You can shoot twice one game turn
Yeah this sells the formation for me. Lets say your burst tide past the nova; fire 24 str 6 rending shots. Pew pew pew. (Buy FNP for this guy).
Dropping 2 Ion-accelarator pie plates. Yeah thats good to. I'm assuming you have to spend marker-lights seperatly for all attacks (you did bring all those BS3 markerdrones right?) but combine this with the skyray formation and holy what an alpha strike. And your extremely durable. People giving this formation for not being co-ordinated firepowered but...shooting twice is

Air Superiority Cadre
3x Razorshark fighter.
+1 BS skill vs anything that flies (Jet bikes, skimmers and anything with flyer rule).
D3 markerlight tokens if at least on is alive.
Enter automatically from reserves if enemy ''anything that flies'' (see above) is on the table.
They're still tau flyers but... Seems pretty good! Excellent chance of coming on automatically turn 2, free tokens and extra BS. It's not a great formation, but if you happen to have any tau flyers... this is a good way to field them.


Overall pretty good formations, definitely on par with the Kau'yon. It has the tools to be a tournament contender and you can handily avoid the Co-ordinated Firepower argument. Much easier access to markerlights as well, I'll be playing this next game
And I guess I'll be buying Piranha's and one more Riptide.... WP GW....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A different questions, related to allies. For tournament goers only.

I feel currently Tau need a Culexus assassin to really compete in tournaments. And (s)he/it should be in a drop pod.

My reasoning is that if we can shoot it and kill it we have a chance to win any game. But there are things we can't kill because of Psychic powers.
My list of things i"m scared of:
-(jetbike) Seer Council
-Screamers with 2++
-Invisible marine deadstar on bikes.
-Cent Star

Tau have no Defense vs. this. Everyone's go-to psy defense is the culexus. To fit this in the easiest thing to do it (IMO.)
Culexus.
Librarian
Tac squad in pod.
Empty pod.


You can give the tacs some special weapons. Libby is cheapest. 2 pods gives you the choice to reserve the culexus if the enemy is also reserving/has out-deployed you. All seems pretty good right?
The problem is.
-Tau
-Allied Marines
-Assassin.
= 3x detachements. This means we can't take the new juicy tau formations like the 3x riptide or 3x ghostkeel; they are not in our ''decurion''.

How does everyone else deal with the above mentioned stars?

Nilok wrote:Assuming O'vesa retains the IC rule, you can take a min Ethereal Council and slap O'vesa on to make it T6.

No, it would remain at T3. Majority Toughness. Ethereal Council is 3-7, not 1-7.

Nilok wrote:My only hope is that it doesn't require all the members and you can pick a smaller team.

Can't. It's all of them or nothing. It was a bad move from GW.

Fruzzle wrote:CounterStrike Cadre
1 Patherfinder, 3x strike/breach.
Devilfish get Fast on the first turn, So so, not that interesting but its a nice foundation for 3 teams + etheral fish of fury attack
Re-roll within 3'' of an objectives. This is really nice for the pathfinders (re-roll markelights baby) and situational for the rest.
It's a decent formation but all things can be better taken elsewhere and markerlight (and pathfinders) are better taken from different formations.

I really like this with Breachers. 10 of them firing at 5" at a Tervigon will kill it even with FnP (without MLs!), if my calculations are correct.
Or to clean Deep Strikers from your zone.

Fruzzle wrote:Ranged Support Cadre
3x Pathfinder
3x Broadside team
Broadsides can use a markerlight from these pathfinders as 2 markerlight tokens.
Pathfinders get shrouded if not moving.
So this is one place where you're better of taking the pathfinders from. Shrouded is a huge buff. (park them in terrain or behind adl for 2+ cover save! suddenly they're survivable!)
Broadsides using tokens as 2... its good. even 3x4 man pathfinder squads generate effectively 12 markerlight tokens for the broadsides. The downside? Other units often benefit more from tokens than broadsides being already twin linked and (usually) only AP4, ignore cover is of limited benefit. It's still a pretty decent firebase and probably the real succesor to the old FBSC. You can't go wrong but.... not super amazing either.

You forgot the Infiltrate Pathfinders get from this. Yep, best place to use them in a Dawn Blade Detachment. And I like accurate shots, so I'd use those many MLs for BS5 and Ignores Cover

Fruzzle wrote:Piranha Firestream Wing.
4x 1 Piranah team
In shooting face, THE one piranha team you choose before game chooses 1 enemy unit with 36''+LOS. +1 BS and tank hunters vs this unit for the formation.
Interesting, so so.
Re-arm and refuel. If your piranha's are withing 6'' of the board edge at the end of the movement phase you may take them of and they will recycle with:
ALL the piranha's you originally bought
ALL new drones
ALL the seeker missiles.
WHAT?! Yeah this is OP. The only problem with the formation is the buy in both in money and points. You should take a bunch of piranaha's on every unit to avoid running around with 2 drones everywhere in kill point missions. The formation is extremely flexible. You can build a farm for the first couple of turns (and you can get your drones 18'' up the table). After that, you can farm more or use the firepower for a turn and STILL fire more. Must take in any tournament list. This is a bombshell formation. A+++.

Drones from vehicles don't give KPs. And the drones wouldn't start that far - you can only disembark if you move 6", not combat speed. With Thrust they could go further, of course.

Fruzzle wrote:3x Riptide formations
+1 bs if you shoot a unit already shot by another tide from this formation.
Meh, seems worse than Co-ordinated firepower
Networked reactors;Re-roll nova.
YES! This makes burst tides viable (again?) This is a good reason to take this formation. It also makes Ion-tides basically have a 3++ most of the time.
Riptide Hailfire: You can shoot twice one game turn
Yeah this sells the formation for me. Lets say your burst tide past the nova; fire 24 str 6 rending shots. Pew pew pew. (Buy FNP for this guy).
Dropping 2 Ion-accelarator pie plates. Yeah thats good to. I'm assuming you have to spend marker-lights seperatly for all attacks (you did bring all those BS3 markerdrones right?) but combine this with the skyray formation and holy what an alpha strike. And your extremely durable. People giving this formation for not being co-ordinated firepowered but...shooting twice is

You did forget that, once per game, they can fire their main weapon 2x and the secondary 4x (if you did choose to Ripple Fire at the start of the turn).

 Fruzzle wrote:
My first impression of the new Mont'ka formations:*Snip*
I feel currently Tau need a Culexus assassin to really compete in tournaments. And (s)he/it should be in a drop pod.

My reasoning is that if we can shoot it and kill it we have a chance to win any game. But there are things we can't kill because of Psychic powers.
My list of things i"m scared of:
-(jetbike) Seer Council
-Screamers with 2++
-Invisible marine deadstar on bikes.
-Cent Star

How about forcing through markerlights? Seems a bit more viable to mass them up now? Maybe?

 Vector Strike wrote:

Nilok wrote:Assuming O'vesa retains the IC rule, you can take a min Ethereal Council and slap O'vesa on to make it T6.

Fruzzle wrote:CounterStrike Cadre
1 Patherfinder, 3x strike/breach.
Devilfish get Fast on the first turn, So so, not that interesting but its a nice foundation for 3 teams + etheral fish of fury attack
Re-roll within 3'' of an objectives. This is really nice for the pathfinders (re-roll markelights baby) and situational for the rest.
It's a decent formation but all things can be better taken elsewhere and markerlight (and pathfinders) are better taken from different formations.

I really like this with Breachers. 10 of them firing at 5" at a Tervigon will kill it even with FnP (without MLs!), if my calculations are correct.
Or to clean Deep Strikers from your zone.

Fruzzle wrote:Ranged Support Cadre
3x Pathfinder
3x Broadside team
Broadsides can use a markerlight from these pathfinders as 2 markerlight tokens.
Pathfinders get shrouded if not moving.
So this is one place where you're better of taking the pathfinders from. Shrouded is a huge buff. (park them in terrain or behind adl for 2+ cover save! suddenly they're survivable!)
Broadsides using tokens as 2... its good. even 3x4 man pathfinder squads generate effectively 12 markerlight tokens for the broadsides. The downside? Other units often benefit more from tokens than broadsides being already twin linked and (usually) only AP4, ignore cover is of limited benefit. It's still a pretty decent firebase and probably the real succesor to the old FBSC. You can't go wrong but.... not super amazing either.

You forgot the Infiltrate Pathfinders get from this. Yep, best place to use them in a Dawn Blade Detachment. And I like accurate shots, so I'd use those many MLs for BS5 and Ignores Cover


Drones from vehicles don't give KPs. And the drones wouldn't start that far - you can only disembark if you move 6", not combat speed. With Thrust they could go further, of course.

You did forget that, once per game, they can fire their main weapon 2x and the secondary 4x (if you did choose to Ripple Fire at the start of the turn).

Hehe I forgot those! The infiltrate makes that formation even better, and I also forgot the across the table overwatch! It is really an excellent formation which gets a little overshadowed by the Piranaha's. . And about the disembark. Yeah that Piranaha formation is going to be excellent. The beauty is your enemy can't even stop your farm unless he gets first turn.
The only weakeness? after turn 3/4 you're better of attacking I'm sure because the drones are going to be to slow to impact the game because of the distance they can travel.
But that's also fine! Spawn drones for 3 turns than do what piranaha's do! Score linebreaker, block movement and hose infantry. (And whoops sorry I melta's your tank (But probably drop pod).

Fruzzle wrote:
My first impression of the new Mont'ka formations:*Snip*
I feel currently Tau need a Culexus assassin to really compete in tournaments. And (s)he/it should be in a drop pod.

My reasoning is that if we can shoot it and kill it we have a chance to win any game. But there are things we can't kill because of Psychic powers.
My list of things i"m scared of:
-(jetbike) Seer Council
-Screamers with 2++
-Invisible marine deadstar on bikes.
-Cent Star

How about forcing through markerlights? Seems a bit more viable to mass them up now? Maybe?

Well against seer council without invis it's okay but with invis... even if you get 3/4 markerlights on them you still can't fire blast weapons (Ion Accelartor, pulse driver)
Against 2++ screamers... I really doesn't matter how much firepower you have. 1/36 WOUNDS causes a wound. 9 screamers have 18 wounds. If its firewarriors you need...
648 wound caused to kill a unit. If str 8 and above its half that nr. That's 1296 hits, The number might as well be infinite. Basically you can't (and shouldn't even try to) touch the unit as long as the buffs are up. (Interestingly, the stormsurge can tie it in combat pretty well, and with some lucky 6's, there are worse things you can do.

Cent star, bike star, same as seer council. Even if you get the markerlights we still can't fire our effective weapons (Ion accelerators and pulse drivers). (But the cent star is the most kill-able of them all, but also the most killy. I've sometimes won, sometimes lost vs them, always ended up ignoring as best as I can. But.... played with culexus pod once. Suddenly ridiculously easy.