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 gmaleron wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

 chalkobob wrote:
It should also be noted that the retaliation cadre is considered a core choice in the new detachment, allowing you to forego the need for the hunter cadre.

Yeah. And the fact there is a Retaliation Cadre boxed set coming out that is roughly 20% off sticker price is making my desire to get a Tau army going VERY hard to put down.

Any confirmation or link about that? If that's the case then im going to have to start saving up!

Just some WD scans on BOLS. $215 gets you a Commander, a set of Crisis Suits, a Broadside, and a Riptide.

 chalkobob wrote:
It should also be noted that the retaliation cadre is considered a core choice in the new detachment, allowing you to forego the need for the hunter cadre.

Which actually makes it cheaper to field, since it doesnt require basically 1 of everything to bring it and still get the universal super formation rules like the Hunter Contingent does.
Retaliation Cadre easily rockets past 800pts for me and thats with minimal crisis teams. I dont see how anyone can field more than just that if they want it in a 2k or less game. Rest of my army is always dedicated to marker support, screening rolls, and objectives leaving me with around 300pts of additional power units. I havnt used it in the Hunter Contingent yet because the requirement of the Core pushes me too far.

Also, $215 for all that? I cant believe that....thats a $55 discount which is unheard of for GW.

Posted this in the news & rumors thread for Mont'ka, reposting it over here to get all your opinions on it.


Well, assuming there isn't some special rule or formation that we haven't seen yet, the Dawnblade contingent certainly seems a lot more toned down/nicer/weaker than the Hunter contingent. Coordinated Firepower is pretty much the source of all the complaints about new Tau being OP (from what I've seen/heard), and without it Tau are kinda back to their old place in 7th at the middle, maybe upper middle of the pack. The Killing Blow rule is good, rerolling to wound and to pen is always nice, but it is limited and in no way as powerful as the other Decurion rules we've seen thus far. The auxiliary formations are fairly toned down too from what I can see. Yeah the two Wing formations are pretty gross, but they aren't in either of the contingents from what we've seen, so can get the benefits of coordinated firepower or killing blow. I predict they'll show up in tournaments of course, and likely in more than just Tau armies, but its too early to tell that.

The interesting and tricky thing is how I'm going to build a Dawnblade list. Normally in a Decurion list, your core formation is the rock of your army, the base of it while the auxiliary formations are your hammer, your killers. Dawnblade kinda reverses that, at least with Retaliation. Your core formation is now the hammer, DSing that many battlesuits turn 2. Very powerful and scary beta strike. But that means that whatever auxiliary formations you take have to be able to hold the board and survive until the suits come in. So the question is, what do you take with the Retaliation Cadre? (Not gonna talk about the Hunter Cadre right now, as taking that basically means you're just taking a neutered Hunter Contingent. Besides, we play FSE for the suits).

The Drone network seems like an auto take for me. Arguably the best source of MLs Tau has ever had, in my eyes. 4 units of Marker Drones at BS3 that have Jink, Interceptor, and Split Fire? And the BS3 extends to every Drone in your army. Oh man I'm in love. 4 units of 5 Marker Drones is what I'm thinking atm. BS3 means that on average I get 10 MLs a turn (divided up amongst potentially 5 targets). On a perfect turn (all hit and all split fire tests passed) I get 4 MLs on 5 different units in one shooting phase. Plus they can intercept, which means that my Riptides and Broadsides now have ML support for intercepting, albeit at BS2. Still more than they had before. Plus with jinking, the Drones got a lot more survivable, unless my opponent has copious amounts of AP4 and ignore cover (funny enough, Tau basically). All that for 280 points? Sign me up.

But, 4 units of Drones cannot hold out for long against an entire army for a whole turn, and will not be able to control the board and still live long enough to provide ML support, so we need another auxiliary. Right now I'm thinking about the Sky Ray formation. Even if the formation rules are either pointless or situational, Sky Rays are by themselves awesome. 18 Seeker Missiles minimum on BS4 platforms is nothing to sneeze at. Plus networked MLs mean that they don't need to rely on the Drones for support, and can assist the Drones with supporting the suits once the Missiles are spent. Plus 13/12/10 tanks with a 3+ jink save and move through cover (my go to upgrades for all Tau vehicles) definitely will have the staying power the list needs.

What's the rest of dakka thinking here? How're you guys planning on building a Dawnblade with what we've seen so far? Critiques of my analysis/potential list?

I think the Riptide Wing could potentially be the scariest formation we could muster. A core eith the retaliation cadre, riptide wing, and drones for markerlight support could offer devastating alpha and beta strikes.

DirtyDeeds wrote:
I think the Riptide Wing could potentially be the scariest formation we could muster. A core eith the retaliation cadre, riptide wing, and drones for markerlight support could offer devastating alpha and beta strikes.

I think people are over exaggerating the riptide wing.

Yes it is good, but there are limitations:

1.) BS buffing is much worse than in Hunter Contingent. In riptide wing if all 3 shoot at the same target; 1 get BS3 and the other 2 get BS4. In hunter Contingent, all 3 get BS 5 (fire team and coordinated Firepower).

2.) Rerolling nova reactor is amazing yes. But it also forces them to remain within 6" of each other, severely limiting board control as that is a big portion of your army

3.) 1 round of double firing is great. The main problem is not being able to move OR Jetpack move that turn. If you want to be able to use your secondary weapons for the quad ripple effect, your 3 riptides are going to have to be within 18" of the enemy for an entire turn BEFORE being able to double tap. And anything not killed will most certainly be in CC with your Riptides that turn after firing as well.

notredameguy10 wrote:

DirtyDeeds wrote:
I think the Riptide Wing could potentially be the scariest formation we could muster. A core eith the retaliation cadre, riptide wing, and drones for markerlight support could offer devastating alpha and beta strikes.

I think people are over exaggerating the riptide wing.

Yes it is good, but there are limitations:

1.) BS buffing is much worse than in Hunter Contingent. In riptide wing if all 3 shoot at the same target; 1 get BS3 and the other 2 get BS4. In hunter Contingent, all 3 get BS 5 (fire team and coordinated Firepower).

2.) Rerolling nova reactor is amazing yes. But it also forces them to remain within 6" of each other, severely limiting board control as that is a big portion of your army

3.) 1 round of double firing is great. The main problem is not being able to move OR Jetpack move that turn. If you want to be able to use your secondary weapons for the quad ripple effect, your 3 riptides are going to have to be within 18" of the enemy for an entire turn BEFORE being able to double tap. And anything not killed will most certainly be in CC with your Riptides that turn after firing as well.

Yes however:

You could just take nine Riptides in the formation, add a drone network full of markers and call it a bound list.

BS buffing isnt as powerful in the Riptide Wing yeah, but its never been as amazing with blast wepaons anyway.

6" from each other is pretty damn wide, remember their bases are huge. Thats a ~15" stretch they can sit in and still be within 6" of the one in the center because of their base sizes.

The once per game doubleshooting is amazing. Assuming you dont flop with Gets Hot, thats 6 S8/9 AP2 pi plates at table range. Moving means nothing when youre in the back corner of the board anyway. And each blast is an individual attack, so you dont even have to doubleup and waste one because the first did good enough.

However its expensive. You want a Retal Cadre, Riptide Wing, and a drone net? Retal Cadre is ~800pts and can easily sky rocket beyond that, Riptide wing is ~700pts if you give them all Stims, and Drone Net is bare minimum 224pts which is 4 squads of 4 drones. You lose the army wide bonus if 3 of those squads die, so you kinda have to keep two of them in the backfield to keep them alive.
Even with that and nothing else, youre lookin at 1724. While you can do it in a 1850pt game it wouldnt be in the Dawn Blade Contingent because theres no way you can still get Farsight + a Bodyguard in there

notredameguy10 wrote:

DirtyDeeds wrote:
I think the Riptide Wing could potentially be the scariest formation we could muster. A core eith the retaliation cadre, riptide wing, and drones for markerlight support could offer devastating alpha and beta strikes.

I think people are over exaggerating the riptide wing.

Yes it is good, but there are limitations:

1.) BS buffing is much worse than in Hunter Contingent. In riptide wing if all 3 shoot at the same target; 1 get BS3 and the other 2 get BS4. In hunter Contingent, all 3 get BS 5 (fire team and coordinated Firepower).

2.) Rerolling nova reactor is amazing yes. But it also forces them to remain within 6" of each other, severely limiting board control as that is a big portion of your army

3.) 1 round of double firing is great. The main problem is not being able to move OR Jetpack move that turn. If you want to be able to use your secondary weapons for the quad ripple effect, your 3 riptides are going to have to be within 18" of the enemy for an entire turn BEFORE being able to double tap. And anything not killed will most certainly be in CC with your Riptides that turn after firing as well.

Why not use SMS and remain stationary at 30 inches turn 1? Now you're shooting either 8 sms or 16 at 30 inches with this rule. I would also like to point out that we're talking about ways to use the Dawn Blade detachment, not the Hunter Contingent. I would also like to point out that in order for a squad of Riptides to get bs 5 there must be three in the same squad and then must be shooting with two other units. Who would dedicated that many points into one unit? To mitigate the lack of fireteam and coordinated firepower bonuses you could simoly use the Drone formation for a couple squads of bs 3 drones to help land that alpha strike.

DirtyDeeds wrote:

notredameguy10 wrote:

DirtyDeeds wrote:
I think the Riptide Wing could potentially be the scariest formation we could muster. A core eith the retaliation cadre, riptide wing, and drones for markerlight support could offer devastating alpha and beta strikes.

I think people are over exaggerating the riptide wing.

Yes it is good, but there are limitations:

1.) BS buffing is much worse than in Hunter Contingent. In riptide wing if all 3 shoot at the same target; 1 get BS3 and the other 2 get BS4. In hunter Contingent, all 3 get BS 5 (fire team and coordinated Firepower).

2.) Rerolling nova reactor is amazing yes. But it also forces them to remain within 6" of each other, severely limiting board control as that is a big portion of your army

3.) 1 round of double firing is great. The main problem is not being able to move OR Jetpack move that turn. If you want to be able to use your secondary weapons for the quad ripple effect, your 3 riptides are going to have to be within 18" of the enemy for an entire turn BEFORE being able to double tap. And anything not killed will most certainly be in CC with your Riptides that turn after firing as well.

Why not use SMS and remain stationary at 30 inches turn 1? Now you're shooting either 8 sms or 16 at 30 inches with this rule. I would also like to point out that we're talking about ways to use the Dawn Blade detachment, not the Hunter Contingent. I would also like to point out that in order for a squad of Riptides to get bs 5 there must be three in the same squad and then must be shooting with two other units. Who would dedicated that many points into one unit? To mitigate the lack of fireteam and coordinated firepower bonuses you could simoly use the Drone formation for a couple squads of bs 3 drones to help land that alpha strike.

Nope for the riptides to get bs 5 they can be 3 separate squads of 1 model each. If all three combine fire they get +1 from coordinated firepower and another +1 for fire team since there are 3 MC firing as if the same unit and at least one has the fire team special rule

And i understand you were talking about dawn blade. I was merely stating comparing riptide wing to using riptides in hunter contingent.

notredameguy10 wrote:

DirtyDeeds wrote:

notredameguy10 wrote:

DirtyDeeds wrote:
I think the Riptide Wing could potentially be the scariest formation we could muster. A core eith the retaliation cadre, riptide wing, and drones for markerlight support could offer devastating alpha and beta strikes.

I think people are over exaggerating the riptide wing.

Yes it is good, but there are limitations:

1.) BS buffing is much worse than in Hunter Contingent. In riptide wing if all 3 shoot at the same target; 1 get BS3 and the other 2 get BS4. In hunter Contingent, all 3 get BS 5 (fire team and coordinated Firepower).

2.) Rerolling nova reactor is amazing yes. But it also forces them to remain within 6" of each other, severely limiting board control as that is a big portion of your army

3.) 1 round of double firing is great. The main problem is not being able to move OR Jetpack move that turn. If you want to be able to use your secondary weapons for the quad ripple effect, your 3 riptides are going to have to be within 18" of the enemy for an entire turn BEFORE being able to double tap. And anything not killed will most certainly be in CC with your Riptides that turn after firing as well.

Why not use SMS and remain stationary at 30 inches turn 1? Now you're shooting either 8 sms or 16 at 30 inches with this rule. I would also like to point out that we're talking about ways to use the Dawn Blade detachment, not the Hunter Contingent. I would also like to point out that in order for a squad of Riptides to get bs 5 there must be three in the same squad and then must be shooting with two other units. Who would dedicated that many points into one unit? To mitigate the lack of fireteam and coordinated firepower bonuses you could simoly use the Drone formation for a couple squads of bs 3 drones to help land that alpha strike.

Nope for the riptides to get bs 5 they can be 3 separate squads of 1 model each. If all three combine fire they get +1 from coordinated firepower and another +1 for fire team since there are 3 MC firing as if the same unit and at least one has the fire team special rule

And i understand you were talking about dawn blade. I was merely stating comparing riptide wing to using riptides in hunter contingent.

Ok, but then you still need THREE Riptides to fire at the same unit to get BS 5. The Riptide Wing allows the allocation of your sources at multiple targets in the same shooting phase. Flood the board with little Marker Drones and you can help boost the damage potential of the Riptide Wing's alpha strike.

DirtyDeeds wrote:

notredameguy10 wrote:

DirtyDeeds wrote:

notredameguy10 wrote:

DirtyDeeds wrote:
I think the Riptide Wing could potentially be the scariest formation we could muster. A core eith the retaliation cadre, riptide wing, and drones for markerlight support could offer devastating alpha and beta strikes.

I think people are over exaggerating the riptide wing.

Yes it is good, but there are limitations:

1.) BS buffing is much worse than in Hunter Contingent. In riptide wing if all 3 shoot at the same target; 1 get BS3 and the other 2 get BS4. In hunter Contingent, all 3 get BS 5 (fire team and coordinated Firepower).

2.) Rerolling nova reactor is amazing yes. But it also forces them to remain within 6" of each other, severely limiting board control as that is a big portion of your army

3.) 1 round of double firing is great. The main problem is not being able to move OR Jetpack move that turn. If you want to be able to use your secondary weapons for the quad ripple effect, your 3 riptides are going to have to be within 18" of the enemy for an entire turn BEFORE being able to double tap. And anything not killed will most certainly be in CC with your Riptides that turn after firing as well.

Why not use SMS and remain stationary at 30 inches turn 1? Now you're shooting either 8 sms or 16 at 30 inches with this rule. I would also like to point out that we're talking about ways to use the Dawn Blade detachment, not the Hunter Contingent. I would also like to point out that in order for a squad of Riptides to get bs 5 there must be three in the same squad and then must be shooting with two other units. Who would dedicated that many points into one unit? To mitigate the lack of fireteam and coordinated firepower bonuses you could simoly use the Drone formation for a couple squads of bs 3 drones to help land that alpha strike.

Nope for the riptides to get bs 5 they can be 3 separate squads of 1 model each. If all three combine fire they get +1 from coordinated firepower and another +1 for fire team since there are 3 MC firing as if the same unit and at least one has the fire team special rule

And i understand you were talking about dawn blade. I was merely stating comparing riptide wing to using riptides in hunter contingent.

Ok, but then you still need THREE Riptides to fire at the same unit to get BS 5. The Riptide Wing allows the allocation of your sources at multiple targets in the same shooting phase. Flood the board with little Marker Drones and you can help boost the damage potential of the Riptide Wing's alpha strike.

You can just as easily shoot the riptides at different targets in the hunter contingent as well. They would all be BS3 as normal. And so would all the riptides in a riptide wing if they shot at different targets. I was comparing the first rule of riptide wing vs riptides in HC

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Retal Cadre is ~800pts and can easily sky rocket beyond that

The retaliation cadre I take is under 700 points. I take 3 units of a single crisis suits (with dual fusion) and 1 unit of a single missile side with EWO. You don't have to max out the units.

@DirtyDeeds that literally removes the point of both formations lol. They could always act independently with marker support, the formations are suppose to let them hit harder if they focus fire but they dont have to.

And i dont max the units out either, though i buy shield gens (in retal cadre). Maxing them out would be above 2k points alone lol, before buying any drones.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
@DirtyDeeds that literally removes the point of both formations lol. They could always act independently with marker support, the formations are suppose to let them hit harder if they focus fire but they dont have to.

And i dont max the units out either, though i buy shield gens (in retal cadre). Maxing them out would be above 2k points alone lol, before buying any drones.

The point I'm trying to get at is this formation has incredible damage potential. It allows a minimum of three Riptides yo have two shooting phases in one turn. Depending on the configuration, 6 pie plates, or 72 str 6 rending shots in one turn. Holy sh*t.

Quite frankly i think i'd want burst cannons in that formation because the main problem with bursttides isnt the damage, its passing that nova test. Finding a way to give them twinlink, reroll 1s, or bonus to hit in general isnt the biggest problem.

The Brusttide to me does a lot more damage IF he passes the nova test. If he doesnt, hes basically lost his shooting because now hes only good at shooting at troops or AV10/11.

DirtyDeeds wrote:

 Vineheart01 wrote:
@DirtyDeeds that literally removes the point of both formations lol. They could always act independently with marker support, the formations are suppose to let them hit harder if they focus fire but they dont have to.

And i dont max the units out either, though i buy shield gens (in retal cadre). Maxing them out would be above 2k points alone lol, before buying any drones.

The point I'm trying to get at is this formation has incredible damage potential. It allows a minimum of three Riptides yo have two shooting phases in one turn. Depending on the configuration, 6 pie plates, or 72 str 6 rending shots in one turn. Holy sh*t.

And i agree its awesome! But you have to compare the potential of 3 riptides in that formation to being in a hunter contingent/hunter cadre. You lose a lot of army synergy.

No 12" supporting fire
No combine fire (so not bonus BS, not sharing marker lights, and, depending on how you play, no special rule sharing)
No free running before firing
All 3 can be spread out on the board

vs

Reroll nova reactor
Have to stay within 6" of each other
Weaker version of BS buffing
Double fire one round, but cannot move or jetpack move

While we are all on the subject of the Riptide wing. Would the extra firing allow you to:

Make interceptor shots and still have a round of normal shooting?

 Grizzyzz wrote:
While we are all on the subject of the Riptide wing. Would the extra firing allow you to:

Make interceptor shots and still have a round of normal shooting?

No, the double shots have to be one right after the other.

notredameguy10 is right, it says "one after another" well you cant trigger the other if you cant do the one.
However, one could argue this formation offsets interceptor damage because one round of interceptor means 1 less round of shooting phase, but this rule gives you a double shooting phase in a separate turn. So its still powerful with EWO just not the same exact turn.

Its unfortunately the same thing for the stormsurge, which makes me not like using EWO on it.

Makes sense, I was not exactly sure on the wording. Thanks!

So if you take a Retaliation Cadre, and then take a regular Cad, and that Cad has a Commander, can you join him to a Retaliation Cadre Crisis Suit team during deployment, or are they unable to do so? If you can what happens if you use the low orbit deployment?

 Tinkrr wrote:
So if you take a Retaliation Cadre, and then take a regular Cad, and that Cad has a Commander, can you join him to a Retaliation Cadre Crisis Suit team during deployment, or are they unable to do so? If you can what happens if you use the low orbit deployment?

This is still up for debate from what I've seen. The question is basically does joining an IC to a unit within a formation allow him access to the formation special rules. To the best of my knowledge the answer is no (of course, I've never really had to deal with this question, so maybe I'm wrong). I would argue that because low altitude deployment is a special rule specific to the retaliation cadre formation, and specifies units from the formation, you cannot attach a commander from outside the formation and have him get the benefit. But that's just my personal interpretation, I haven't seen/kept up with any debates on YMDC about this particular point, so maybe I'm completely wrong.

Thats where you run through a series of checks

Is he the same faction or battle brothers? Yes
Is the formation or some other rule specifically preventing an IC from joining? No
Can both the IC and the unit deploy in the same manner? Yes

I see no reason why he cant join. The formation doesnt prevent outside ICs from joining the units at any point, and ICs that have the same deployment rule as a unit can deploy with them (paraphrased rather than spout out like 15 damn pages to say that lol)

In fact, i thought about this after my game Saturday with the Retaliation Cadre - Broadsides deepstrike in that formation right? Shadowsun deepstrikes. She can now join a squad of broadsides and deepstrike with them, conferring stealth + shroud. The infiltration thing is thrown out the window because designating deepstrikers happens separately.

However, the IC wouldnt gain any rules from the formation unless it specifies the "unit" gets the perk. So the IC would get +1BS on arrival but not Relentless (big deal lol). Remember ICs attached to a unit count as part of that unit for ALL rules and purposes, the formation has to specify models for the IC to not benefit from the formation.

See, that's what's weird about it, I can see it going both ways. Not because I really care about the +1BS, but because I want to have two commanders (One being Buff, and one being Tank) to join with two larger units of Crisis Suits, one that runs Missiles and one that runs Plasma.

The reason I can see it going either way is because Shadowsun can't normally deploy with a Crisis Unit, due to have Infiltrator, but can Deep Strike with Crisis Suits as a body guard. The difference isn't massive, but if you're trying to use her to buff your Suits with her ninja skills, you don't want the potential first turn of having them shot to pieces if they deploy on the table instead of Deep Striking.

Really, it's not a big deal as I could slot a Commander in the Cad and make the Missile squad part of that Cad, that way they can deploy on the table, while the Plasmas deep strike, but I'd be taxed one Suit with meltas or something in the Retaliation Cadre. Maybe that's better anyway if I'm running Mont'ka over Hunter, since then I can get Skyrays and stuff.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Thats where you run through a series of checks

Is he the same faction or battle brothers? Yes
Is the formation or some other rule specifically preventing an IC from joining? No
Can both the IC and the unit deploy in the same manner? Yes

I see no reason why he cant join. The formation doesnt prevent outside ICs from joining the units at any point, and ICs that have the same deployment rule as a unit can deploy with them (paraphrased rather than spout out like 15 damn pages to say that lol)

In fact, i thought about this after my game Saturday with the Retaliation Cadre - Broadsides deepstrike in that formation right? Shadowsun deepstrikes. She can now join a squad of broadsides and deepstrike with them, conferring stealth + shroud. The infiltration thing is thrown out the window because designating deepstrikers happens separately.

However, the IC wouldnt gain any rules from the formation unless it specifies the "unit" gets the perk. So the IC would get +1BS on arrival but not Relentless (big deal lol). Remember ICs attached to a unit count as part of that unit for ALL rules and purposes, the formation has to specify models for the IC to not benefit from the formation.

Well then I stand corrected, and happily so!

And since i had a hunch i looked up the IC rules and Formations in the big book. Neither mention ICs/Formations combining together at all. So it is literally only preventing an IC from joining if the IC cannot deploy with them (they infiltrate he doesnt, or he cant deepstrike but they do yaddayadda) or if some special rule straight up prevents it (like Commander R'alai since he cant join a unit period)

 Vineheart01 wrote:
And since i had a hunch i looked up the IC rules and Formations in the big book. Neither mention ICs/Formations combining together at all. So it is literally only preventing an IC from joining if the IC cannot deploy with them (they infiltrate he doesnt, or he cant deepstrike but they do yaddayadda) or if some special rule straight up prevents it (like Commander R'alai since he cant join a unit period)

Just to be clear, shadowsun can join a squad that does not have the infiltrate rule, she just cannot be "infiltrating" unless both her and the squad she joins has the rule. This was in the brb faq for reference and it clearly is written as the verb.

I had to look into this because I am a Shrike fan, and he already had a hard enough time. If it wasn't the verb and was the straight rule, Shrike literally would not be able to join any units because of his "can only join a jump pack squad before deployment" rule.

Right, but that was the whole point of having her attach to a deepstriking unit. Far as i know you cant deploy normally if you have infiltrate, you can only infiltrate outflank or deepstrike if its available. So she has no viable options to give our heavy hitters some insane cover protection.

Enter Retal Cadre:
Now they deepstrike AND have relentless. Makes even more sense to try and squeeze her in there. Though admittedly its very difficult to deepstrike a full broadside team - i found that out earlier lol. I didnt mishap but if i scattered 1 more inch i would have (3 inches was my limit lol but i was smack dab in the middle of multiple units)

So, I have a first draft list for Dawnblade I want to run by you guys here (not sure if I should post it here or in army lists considering the book isn't released yet. If this is the wrong place let me know and I'll move it!) Note that this isn't a tournament list, just meant to be a fairly fun list that is still good and can win games.

Dawnblade Contingent, 1848/1850

Retaliation Cadre: Core

Crisis Suit Commander - 2 MPs, Shield Gen, Stim

Crisis Team - x3 2 FB each, 2 TLs
Crisis Team - x3 2 PR each
Crisis Team - x3 2 MP each

Broadside Team -x3 HYMP, SMS, EWO

Riptide Team - x1 IA, SMS, Stim, EWO


Drone Net

Marker Drones x5
Marker Drones x5
Marker Drones x5
Marker Drones x5


Skysweep Missile Defence

Devilfish - Gun Drones, D-Pod

Sky Ray - SMS, D-Pod, Sensor Spines
Sky Ray - SMS, D-Pod, Sensor Spines
Sky Ray - SMS, D-Pod, Sensor Spines

 Vineheart01 wrote:
However its expensive. You want a Retal Cadre, Riptide Wing, and a drone net? Retal Cadre is ~800pts and can easily sky rocket beyond that, Riptide wing is ~700pts if you give them all Stims, and Drone Net is bare minimum 224pts which is 4 squads of 4 drones. You lose the army wide bonus if 3 of those squads die, so you kinda have to keep two of them in the backfield to keep them alive.
Even with that and nothing else, youre lookin at 1724. While you can do it in a 1850pt game it wouldnt be in the Dawn Blade Contingent because theres no way you can still get Farsight + a Bodyguard in there

The Command Portion for the Dawnblade Contingent is listed as 0-1 per Core Choice so the Farsight Tax isnt an issue because it doesnt have to be taken.

I mentioned this earlier but what about taking the Counterstrike Cadre? x3 Devilfish with Breachers and a Devilfish with Pathfinders would not be super easy to eliminate in a turn. On top of it if the Pathfinders take a Recon Drone it gives their Devilfish a Homing Beacon and a 6 inch bubble around it for no scattering Deep Strikers, really useful when combined with the Retaliation Cadre.

Also I dont think the Riptide Wing is part of the Dawnblade Contingent meaning it is probably meant for the Tau forces outside the Enclaves. Not saying we cant take it but we would have to take something else in order to field it with our FSE forces.