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Took second place at the ITC tournament today using the Farsight Enclave Optimized Stealth Cadre, and a Farsight Enclave Combined Arms Detachment.

I tabled another Tau player with it, tabled a Salamander Chapter with it and almost tabled an Ork with it but he managed to Tie me on the Maelstrom part of the mission with a fairly fortunate charge. Unfortunately I didn't take the top spot. The top spot was taken by a War Convocation. Those dirty dirty Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus are making a mess of the place aren't they?

Optimized Stealth Cadre (Wall of Mirrors)
447pts 3 Ghostkeels (Bondinkg Knives, TL Fusion Blasters, Advanced Targeting Systems and Early Warning Overrides on all three; 2 with Ion Rakers) +6 Stealth Drones
204pts 6 Stealthsuits (Advanced Targeting System)
204pts 6 Stealthsuits (Advanced Targeting System)

Farsight Enclave Combined Arms Detachment (Crisis Teams are Objective Secured, All units in this Detachment are Preferred Enemy: Orks in close combat)
Ethereal
28pts Crisis Suit (Bonding Knife, Flamer)
28pts Crisis Suit (Bonding Knife, Flamer)
28pts Crisis Suit (Bonding Knife, Flamer)
28pts Crisis Suit (Bonding Knife, Flamer)
196pts Riptide (Bonding Knife, Ion Accelerator, Counterfire Defense System, Early Warning Override)
196pts Riptide (Bonding Knife, Ion Accelerator, Counterfire Defense System, Early Warning Override)
440pts Stormsurge(Twin Linked Airbursting Frag Launcher, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker, Shield Grenerator)

 Virules wrote:
What is the appeal of lots of broadsides and Shadowsun?

For the record, this is what I am currently planning to use, as the tournament allows unlimited LoW detachments.

Lords of War:
1x Ta’Unar Supremacy Suit (default gear)
1x Stormsurge, pulse driver cannon, air bursting fragmentation projector, early warning override, velocity tracker, shield generator
1x Stormsurge, pulse driver cannon, air bursting fragmentation projector, early warning override, velocity tracker, shield generator

Riptide Wing (Farsight Enclave):
1x Riptide, stimulant injector, earth cast pilot array , bonding knife ritual
1x Riptide, stimulant injector, velocity tracker, bonding knife ritual
1x Riptide, ion accelerator, stimulant injector, early warning override, bonding knife ritual

Combined Arms Detachment (Farsight Enclave):
- HQ
Commander, drone controller, mirror codex, command and control node, talisman of arthas moloch, iridium battlesuit, onager gauntlet, twin-linked plasma rifle
- Troops
10x Kroot
10x Kroot
- Fast Attack
10x Markerlight Drones
10x Pathfinders, bonding knife ritual
- Heavy Support
1x Skyray Gun Ship , disruption pod, automated repair system

Inquisitorial Detachment:
1x Inquisitor, 3x servo skulls

The appeal of Broadsides is that they're the best shooting units in the game, per point. If you've got an ally to protect them and allow you to sit back and rain firepower everywhere, it doesn't make much difference that they're immobile and fragile. Shadowsun is only worthwhile if you have a huge unit of Crisis Suits for her to confer stealth+shrouded and a 3d6" assault jump to. Otherwise, she's a waste. I think your army looks reasonable, but if you can switch out the Pathfinders for Marker Drones and have them in a Drone Net, that'll serve you much better. I'd also consider dropping the stim injectors on the ECPA and IA Riptides. Neither will be enduring the volume of wounds that a regular old HBC Riptide does, so save the 70 pts for something else...like more Marker Drones!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Jancoran wrote:


Optimized Stealth Cadre (Wall of Mirrors)
447pts 3 Ghostkeels (Bondinkg Knives, TL Fusion Blasters, Advanced Targeting Systems and Early Warning Overrides on all three; 2 with Ion Rakers) +6 Stealth Drones
204pts 6 Stealthsuits (Advanced Targeting System)
204pts 6 Stealthsuits (Advanced Targeting System)

Farsight Enclave Combined Arms Detachment (Crisis Teams are Objective Secured, All units in this Detachment are Preferred Enemy: Orks in close combat)
Ethereal
28pts Crisis Suit (Bonding Knife, Flamer)
28pts Crisis Suit (Bonding Knife, Flamer)
28pts Crisis Suit (Bonding Knife, Flamer)
28pts Crisis Suit (Bonding Knife, Flamer)
196pts Riptide (Bonding Knife, Ion Accelerator, Counterfire Defense System, Early Warning Override)
196pts Riptide (Bonding Knife, Ion Accelerator, Counterfire Defense System, Early Warning Override)
440pts Stormsurge(Twin Linked Airbursting Frag Launcher, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker, Shield Grenerator)

I dig the marker independence. I'm leaning more and more towards units that don't need marker synergy to work at or near their peak. Fortunately, we have a lot of options available to make that happen. IA Riptides, the OSC, and Hunter Contingents are all really good at minimizing marker usage. unfortunately, Stormsurges are painfully reliant on them. Did you miss having D missiles available to you?

Yup. A small Sniper Drone Team is probably going to ned to find its way into the list. I did down the Buzzgob stompa with this list even without the D missiles but I would have preferred to have been able to do the deed with the Stormsurge alone. The list is tight on points but if push comes to shove I can probably make it happen.

 Jancoran wrote:
Yup. A small Sniper Drone Team is probably going to ned to find its way into the list. I did down the Buzzgob stompa with this list even without the D missiles but I would have preferred to have been able to do the deed with the Stormsurge alone. The list is tight on points but if push comes to shove I can probably make it happen.

Take 6 stealth suits out and one crisis suit (232 points) and suddenly it's just 12 points of dropped upgrades somewhere to make a drone net.

Try that out but I bet you'll love how your dudes perform with that (intercepting) marker light support.

The drone net isnt really necessary for this build. I just need a LITTLE Markerlight support, not that much. So its like 84 points for my favorite 3 Sniper Drone + 3 Firesight Marksman unit. That's all I really need.

I can just take out 3 Stealthsuits and get the Markerlights I need. Hate to do it because the Stealthsuits do so much WORK but on the other hand, so do D missiles. and as I seem to see a fair number of things that need D missile loving, it makes sense.

3 markers for a Stormsurge doesn't seems like nearly enough. I'm quite hesitant to shoot a D missile with anything less than BS5, so that's 1 missile per turn, at maximum. Most things that warrant D missile shots need to go down immediately, so that's not going to cut it. On the other hand, I feel like the Drone Net has made people a little marker-happy. I think an unassisted bare-minimum Drone Net is about the right amount or perhaps a little more than necessary for 1850. I can think of worse things to have than extraneous marker lights, but it's not very helpful to pump your IA Riptide up to BS7 just because you have nothing else to use them on.

Hey guys, I'm relatively new to Tau and have a small 2k army that I'm trying to build around, so please excuse me asking some potentially dumb questions, I'm just trying to get a feel for what works and what doesn't as I pick out my next couple units to add to the army.

XV107 R'Varna - Did these ever get an official (non-Experimental) rule set?

Riptide Wing - Where are the rules for this RiptideWing people love? I can't seem to find it, although I may just be obtuse and missing it like a blind person. As I understand it, I can't take these as part of Dawn Blade or Hunter Contingent, I'd have to run them in a CAD or some such?

MilkmanAl wrote:
3 markers for a Stormsurge doesn't seems like nearly enough. I'm quite hesitant to shoot a D missile with anything less than BS5, so that's 1 missile per turn, at maximum. Most things that warrant D missile shots need to go down immediately, so that's not going to cut it. On the other hand, I feel like the Drone Net has made people a little marker-happy. I think an unassisted bare-minimum Drone Net is about the right amount or perhaps a little more than necessary for 1850. I can think of worse things to have than extraneous marker lights, but it's not very helpful to pump your IA Riptide up to BS7 just because you have nothing else to use them on.

The Drone net is just too expensive for my list. Firesight Marksman hit on BS 5, so you are usually getting 2-3 Markerlights per turn and there's really only one turn it matters in. I agree that more Markerlights is better in the general sense but the Ion Accelerators, and of course the way the Ghostkeels work, make Markerlights a lot less important and it saves me a lot of points that I am using on more overall firepower and very tough wounds.

I won't argue against the Drone net in general becaue its fantastic.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Rommel013 wrote:
Hey guys, I'm relatively new to Tau and have a small 2k army that I'm trying to build around, so please excuse me asking some potentially dumb questions, I'm just trying to get a feel for what works and what doesn't as I pick out my next couple units to add to the army.

XV107 R'Varna - Did these ever get an official (non-Experimental) rule set?

Riptide Wing - Where are the rules for this RiptideWing people love? I can't seem to find it, although I may just be obtuse and missing it like a blind person. As I understand it, I can't take these as part of Dawn Blade or Hunter Contingent, I'd have to run them in a CAD or some such?

Riptide Wing is in the Kauyon supplement isn't it?

Mont'ka I believe.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Mont'ka I believe.

No books in front of me but its one of them in any event. I've never used the Riptide Wing because I needed the points for the Stormsurge which fills that critical role we all know exists against Buzzgob Stompas and crazy WraithKnights. I own three but I never end up using three.

I just got a second stormsurge and was thinking about whether I should run them together or seperately if or when I choose to run them in the same list. Run seperately, they cannot be tied up in combat at the same time, but run together I can tank more wounds without losing one - when I get down to one or two wounds on one, I put the other one in the front to tank more wounds.

In ITC events you cant run them separately but if you mean in a dual CAD type of list, that comes with the HQ tax then I suppose so. Experience says that having two together allows you maximum wound shenanigans as they move. Conceptually this is attractive but it does come with one downside that i noticed when facing it and that is that they are paying a REALLY hefty price to be good at combat and honestly, pylons allow the same firepower as two of them tromping around. I am unclear on why a Tau General wants to compete in the assault phase at that price but hey: if that's your thing, cool.

I think one is plenty in most lists. It is so easy to torrent one down with the more powerful lists out there that you really only have it for one purpose. Over investing in them seems... okay? I dunno. visually, pretty cool though.

XV107 R'Varna - Did these ever get an official (non-Experimental) rule set?

Not that I'm aware of, but it may have happened. They're kind of a neat concept, but you should be pretty darn flush with high-strength AP4 firepower. If you're going to roll with one of the experimental Riptides, the Y'Vahra is an absolute beast.

I'm just trying to get a feel for what works and what doesn't as I pick out my next couple units to add to the army.

It's tough to go wrong with a Commander, a couple Riptides, some Fire Warriors, a Stormsurge, and some Crisis Suits. The Tau starter box is really a pretty good deal, so you may consider that, as well. From there, you may proxy a few things (Ghostkeels, the tanks, etc.) to get a better feel for what you like. Tau benefit from being very powerful with a variety of lists. That does make buying your models a bit challengin, but it's nice to know that you have a lot of options!

R'varna final rules will come with Imperial Armour 14, scheduled to be released next year

 Jancoran wrote:
In ITC events you cant run them separately but if you mean in a dual CAD type of list, that comes with the HQ tax then I suppose so. Experience says that having two together allows you maximum wound shenanigans as they move. Conceptually this is attractive but it does come with one downside that i noticed when facing it and that is that they are paying a REALLY hefty price to be good at combat and honestly, pylons allow the same firepower as two of them tromping around. I am unclear on why a Tau General wants to compete in the assault phase at that price but hey: if that's your thing, cool.

I think one is plenty in most lists. It is so easy to torrent one down with the more powerful lists out there that you really only have it for one purpose. Over investing in them seems... okay? I dunno. visually, pretty cool though.

One is definitely plenty in most lists. There is literally no downside to running them as a single squad unless you are concerned about getting charged (by the way, having 2 helps a lot vs charges as it gives you more stomps) or if for some reason you need board presence in another part of the table. But really. Always run them as two. So much better.

Their combat effectiveness should definitely not be marginalized. Although they don't have a lot of attacks, they will usually get the charge off and still hit on 2's and wound on 2's or 3's against most things at AP 2, plus the stomps will usually wound on 2's or 3's (and they have the potential to kill anything that isn't a wraithknight).

 luke1705 wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:
In ITC events you cant run them separately but if you mean in a dual CAD type of list, that comes with the HQ tax then I suppose so. Experience says that having two together allows you maximum wound shenanigans as they move. Conceptually this is attractive but it does come with one downside that i noticed when facing it and that is that they are paying a REALLY hefty price to be good at combat and honestly, pylons allow the same firepower as two of them tromping around. I am unclear on why a Tau General wants to compete in the assault phase at that price but hey: if that's your thing, cool.

I think one is plenty in most lists. It is so easy to torrent one down with the more powerful lists out there that you really only have it for one purpose. Over investing in them seems... okay? I dunno. visually, pretty cool though.

One is definitely plenty in most lists. There is literally no downside to running them as a single squad unless you are concerned about getting charged (by the way, having 2 helps a lot vs charges as it gives you more stomps) or if for some reason you need board presence in another part of the table. But really. Always run them as two. So much better.

Their combat effectiveness should definitely not be marginalized. Although they don't have a lot of attacks, they will usually get the charge off and still hit on 2's and wound on 2's or 3's against most things at AP 2, plus the stomps will usually wound on 2's or 3's (and they have the potential to kill anything that isn't a wraithknight).

I dont think I am marginalizing it. I think it's overkill (which is the opposite of marginalizing it!). Dead is dead. I don't feel like paying 440 points more in order to make CERTAIN I kill something especially when killing things on the charge is generally bad practice when it can be avoided. So...

This is a debate that will rage on I suppose, but there are so many ways to win in 40K that taking two is as good a choice as any. I just don't feel it rises to the level of auto-include. One seems to do plenty as far as its assigned task goes. Either way the Stormsurge has a place in all lists in my opinion. One is a must for competitions allowing Wraith Knights and the like. Two just gets into debatable territory for me.

Time to vary up my Tau list, having played with the OSC, which is super good, but I figure might as well try out the Ghostkeel wing. So something like this in an 1850 list:

Shadowsun
Buffmander+Tanky Gear (Iridium, Stims, shield), Drone Controller and Vectored retro thrusters

9 Crisis Suits (target locks) & 6 Gun Drones, with a mix of plasma and fusion blasters.

Crisis suit with dual burstcannons

3 Skrays with disruption pods and blacksun filters.

Ghostkeel Wing (Ion Rakers, Fusion & early warning)

Inquisitor with 3 servo skulls.

So 7 tanky units with 2+ cover saves. Maybe switch the gun drones for marker drones in the crisis star, or is that too many markers for this list?

I'm not in a place to look at my codex, but doesn't the Ghostkeel Wing grant stealth, rather than +1 cover save? If so, I don't think it'll do you any good with a Crisis bomb since they'll already have both stealth and shrouded from Shadowsun. That said, Crisis bombs are awesome if you commit to them. I had pretty good luck with a bomb/Stormsurge setup. FWIW, the CIB is almost universally better than plasma, so unless you're super worried about models with 2+ saves, I'd recommend those instead.

Anyway, Ghostkeel Wing: it's great. I like it very much with Dfish-borne Breachers (which now apparently works again!). Shooting at a box with a 2+ cover save is exceptionally frustrating for opponents, I've discovered.

Yeah Ghostkeel wing doesn't help the crisis star at all, unless you really feth up and Shadowsun dies. That unit kinda fends for itself, whilst the Ghostkeels get that 2+ save for the Skyrays, whilst they provide markerlights for the keels.

I'm regularly trying out different weapon configurations on the crisis suits. I even tried out all burstcannons the other day, which was interesting..Cheaper and buckets of dice. I'll try the CIBs at some stage.

I also really like the change to jink, brought my breachers to a non kill team game for the first time this week. Fun unit!

So I've been playing the Mont'ka formations and trying to get the retaliations Cadre to work. My no.1 problem is: what to deploy?

I attended a tournament this weekend where I used
Retal, Rapid insertion force and Drone net, intending to deploy the drones and stealth team and DS everything..

What actually happened was that I ended up deploying part of the Retal cadre in four of my five games! I've redesigned my list and want to try Dawn's blade with Drones + Infiltration Cadre.


My questions, what deploy when using the retaliation cadre?

I doubt I'd ever use Low Altitude Deployment, if that's your question. Relentless Broadsides are far and away the best thing about the formation, and keeping them off the table for a turn is usually going to be a bad call. You might choose to deep strike the Crisis Suits, depending on how you're using them. Unless going with a Crisis bomb, my suits are typically objective grabbers, so reserving them works well. They're then able to drop on or near whatever objectives need capturing later in the game. Commanders, on the other hand, are usually there to buff other things in my list, whether they be Marker Drones, Crisis Suits, or whatever, so they typically are best deployed immediately.

All that goes out the window if you're trying to roll with Infiltration Cadre shenanigans. In that case, you should either reserve everything except your sacrificial unit if you're going second or deploy as you normally would if you're going first.

Low altitude deployment doesnt wotrk well with the Infiltration Cadre. their abilities contradict so I havent used the Retribution group.

My friend who tried it against me a couple days ago was tabled because it simply was too difficult to make that range advantage matter.

 Jancoran wrote:
Low altitude deployment doesnt wotrk well with the Infiltration Cadre. their abilities contradict so I havent used the Retribution group.

My friend who tried it against me a couple days ago was tabled because it simply was too difficult to make that range advantage matter.

Why do they contradict? I'm Proposing:

3x 4 pathfinder, recon drone
2x stealth, homing beacon
Piranha

Tanky commander with 2 plasma rifles
5 man crisis, 3x2 plasma rifles, 1x fusion + target, Raven suit
Fusion blaster team
CiB team
2x Broadside, 4 drones, target locks
Riptide, ECPA, burst cannon

Drone net, 4x4 marker drone.

If opponent goes first, deploy Piranaha. If they don't blow it up, roll for 3x outflanking pathfinder, 2x deepstriking crisis.
Per FAQ tau homing beacons don't have to be on the table to work. deep strike the stealth teams first than use their homing beacons to put your crisis where you want them.
You can outflank pathfinders first than the drone net of their reacon drones. can deep strike broadsides and riptide onto the pathfinder homing beacons.

You need to roll for infiltration reserves yes but with 5 roll and fishing for re-roll reserves on strategic it should work out alright.

Playing first you can just deploy most (e.g. broadsides, riptide, stealth pathfinders, maybe big crisis unit depending on enemy. Reserve the piranha and rest of crisis.

EDIT. Missed this post:

I doubt I'd ever use Low Altitude Deployment, if that's your question. Relentless Broadsides are far and away the best thing about the formation, and keeping them off the table for a turn is usually going to be a bad call. You might choose to deep strike the Crisis Suits, depending on how you're using them. Unless going with a Crisis bomb, my suits are typically objective grabbers, so reserving them works well. They're then able to drop on or near whatever objectives need capturing later in the game. Commanders, on the other hand, are usually there to buff other things in my list, whether they be Marker Drones, Crisis Suits, or whatever, so they typically are best deployed immediately.

I agree with all of this, the problem I faced with Tau is that some army's will simply ''catch'' you over the course of the game. with the retaliation Cadre you get alpha strike and decide where to attack first.
Deep striking the broadsides is actually pretty neet. If you deploy them a clever opponent will usually have some str8 ap 2 on them but outranging you. (e.g. hornets）And than alpha strike them. Deepstriking you get the jump on them. I just used that unit in a 5 round tournament and they were very clutch with the target locks. Blowing up 3 rhino's on arrival vs battle company. Deleting 3 units a turn vs Genestealer cult (and if I wasn't able to do that I'd have lost by a country mile, brood cycle and 2x subterrean uprising is a hell of a lot of units!)

Need trick is to deploy the drones first and circle broadsides on either side when deepstriking, than in assault phase you can spread out the drones and not be in Template Target formation.

I'm well versed in the use of the INfiltration CadreQ
http://40kunorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2016/04/tau-empire-infiltration-cadre.html

The reason is because if you trigger the Beacon, you cannot use the low altitude deployment. It specifies that units in reserve must use it in round 2. therefore you cannot make the Low Altitude Deployment and must instead come on as normal reserves.

The units in reserve are NOT placed in Deep Strike Reserve. Just reserve, because the Broadsides dont have jetpacks.

Anywho its a bad combo becasue the Lo w Altitude only works in round 2. It does not GRANT the rule. It just allows reserves TO deploy that way in round 2 specifically.

 Jancoran wrote:
I'm well versed in the use of the INfiltration CadreQ
http://40kunorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2016/04/tau-empire-infiltration-cadre.html

The reason is because if you trigger the Beacon, you cannot use the low altitude deployment. It specifies that units in reserve must use it in round 2. therefore you cannot make the Low Altitude Deployment and must instead come on as normal reserves.

The units in reserve are NOT placed in Deep Strike Reserve. Just reserve, because the Broadsides dont have jetpacks.

Anywho its a bad combo becasue the Lo w Altitude only works in round 2. It does not GRANT the rule. It just allows reserves TO deploy that way in round 2 specifically.

Tau Codex pg. 106

If you do so, deploy the entire Formation using the Deep Strike special rule

Tau Codex pg. 123

Friendly units arriving by Deep Strike do not scatter as long as the first model is placed within 6'' of a model with a homing beacon

I fail to see the problem.

EDIT: I see your point. intervention request woud happen on turn 1 ideally and that would stop your low altitude deployement. I can see how it stops broadsides from deep striking and RAW everything.... but I feel the crisis and riptide should still be able to deploy via DS. nonetheless it's back to the drawing board... what to deploy when using retaliation cadre....

 Fruzzle wrote:


I agree with all of this, the problem I faced with Tau is that some army's will simply ''catch'' you over the course of the game. with the retaliation Cadre you get alpha strike and decide where to attack first.
Deep striking the broadsides is actually pretty neet. If you deploy them a clever opponent will usually have some str8 ap 2 on them but outranging you. (e.g. hornets）And than alpha strike them. Deepstriking you get the jump on them. I just used that unit in a 5 round tournament and they were very clutch with the target locks. Blowing up 3 rhino's on arrival vs battle company. Deleting 3 units a turn vs Genestealer cult (and if I wasn't able to do that I'd have lost by a country mile, brood cycle and 2x subterrean uprising is a hell of a lot of units!)

Need trick is to deploy the drones first and circle broadsides on either side when deepstriking, than in assault phase you can spread out the drones and not be in Template Target formation.

If you are bringing missile drones, bring target locks on all 3 broad-sides and wound 4 units from your 1 unit of broadsides.
Missile drones target unit A so unit A is target of the "unit"
Broadsides all with target locks shoot units b,c,d respectively.

True you are giving up a drone controller, making drones not quite as good, or EWO, BUT it expands your gimmick perhaps a touch more.

 pumaman1 wrote:

 Fruzzle wrote:


I agree with all of this, the problem I faced with Tau is that some army's will simply ''catch'' you over the course of the game. with the retaliation Cadre you get alpha strike and decide where to attack first.
Deep striking the broadsides is actually pretty neet. If you deploy them a clever opponent will usually have some str8 ap 2 on them but outranging you. (e.g. hornets）And than alpha strike them. Deepstriking you get the jump on them. I just used that unit in a 5 round tournament and they were very clutch with the target locks. Blowing up 3 rhino's on arrival vs battle company. Deleting 3 units a turn vs Genestealer cult (and if I wasn't able to do that I'd have lost by a country mile, brood cycle and 2x subterrean uprising is a hell of a lot of units!)

Need trick is to deploy the drones first and circle broadsides on either side when deepstriking, than in assault phase you can spread out the drones and not be in Template Target formation.

If you are bringing missile drones, bring target locks on all 3 broad-sides and wound 4 units from your 1 unit of broadsides.
Missile drones target unit A so unit A is target of the "unit"
Broadsides all with target locks shoot units b,c,d respectively.

True you are giving up a drone controller, making drones not quite as good, or EWO, BUT it expands your gimmick perhaps a touch more.

Missile Drones aren't affected by the drone controller, so there isn't any point point bringing one with XV88's unless you're taking marker or gun drones for some reason. The Target Lock is only really competing with EWO or maybe ATS to snipe out heavy weapons like plasma guns or Meltas which can pose a threat.

To add to that, I feel weird putting anything but EWO on Broadsides. That's a lot of potential damage you miss out on that could make your life a lot easier come your turn. Splitting fire is great, obviously, but the better solution to that issue is fielding smaller units of Broadsides rather than target locks.

MilkmanAl wrote:
To add to that, I feel weird putting anything but EWO on Broadsides. That's a lot of potential damage you miss out on that could make your life a lot easier come your turn. Splitting fire is great, obviously, but the better solution to that issue is fielding smaller units of Broadsides rather than target locks.

In the retaliation cadre, you only get 1 unit of broadsides. So "moar broadsides!" while fun, isn't exactly applicable

My mistake on the drone controller, I don't often bring them.

 Fruzzle wrote:


I agree with all of this, the problem I faced with Tau is that some army's will simply ''catch'' you over the course of the game. with the retaliation Cadre you get alpha strike and decide where to attack first.
Deep striking the broadsides is actually pretty neet. If you deploy them a clever opponent will usually have some str8 ap 2 on them but outranging you. (e.g. hornets）And than alpha strike them. Deepstriking you get the jump on them. I just used that unit in a 5 round tournament and they were very clutch with the target locks. Blowing up 3 rhino's on arrival vs battle company. Deleting 3 units a turn vs Genestealer cult (and if I wasn't able to do that I'd have lost by a country mile, brood cycle and 2x subterrean uprising is a hell of a lot of units!)

Need trick is to deploy the drones first and circle broadsides on either side when deepstriking, than in assault phase you can spread out the drones and not be in Template Target formation.

Retaliation Cadre is the main way I beat Eldar, there is an undeniable edge to it. The main downside that I have experienced is that the points I sink into the Retaliation Cadre are not on the table, turn one, so you have to build a list that will survive without getting tabled turn 1 (or nullfied for the rest of the game). For me, I balance the RC out with a CAD which includes a Stormsurge, Yvahra, and a fair amount of kroot. This list allows my units on the table to not have to hide out and play strict defense while I wait for turn 2 for the second half of my list.

Honestly, I don't max out broadsides as I usually prefer crisis suits with two weapons. I would have been more inclined to take more than one broadside if I could take more than 1 unit of them in the Retaliation Cadre. At first I treated having to take 1 of them as a tax to the formation but after playing many games with the RC, a Broadside is cheap and useful, if taking only 1 and barebone.