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Hello fellow dakkadakkadans!
It is my first post here, so if I made a mistake about its placement or anything else, please move it to other location .
Getting to the subject, I have an important question. I do not have an equipment to magnetise my Tau commander, what is more I am new to hobby - I have been painting and modelling only for a half a year now, so I have no knowledge about it. In my opinion I would just ruin this great model if I magnetised it with my clumsy hands . Therefore, my question is - what weapons should I give my commander? Hands are the last part that is left unpainted in the model, and I would like to proceed with it
Thank you very much for your replies!

Welcome to Dakka Dakka!

I think you'll get more answers in this part of the forum...

I play my Commander without a weapon.

Magnetize him. Seriously. I didn't magnetize my first commander and I still regret it. Tau guns are very specialized, none are really better than others. Your commanders load out should change depending on what the rest of your army needs. That will change game to game and opponent to opponent.

If you're super worried about messing up your model by magnetizing it, don't yet. Just play him without his guns modeled (just tell your opponent what he has) until you've gotten more practice magnetizing other crisis suits or whatever.

My commander most frequently runs double fusion. In smaller games he'll rock double missile pods or missile/plasma. Recently I just got into an escalation league and he's currently rocking 0 weapons as a buff mander (might get a flamer at the next point bump).

Gluing on guns is a mistake with so many good options. Trust me, my original missile pod/air bursting frag launcher commander doesn't see much board time anymore. Probably going to have to rip off his guns one of these days. I'm magnetizing my Coldstar commander and he doesn't even have different options with his weapon loadouts, just on the off chance that a future codex does let me change his loadout.

There's no excuse not to magnetise tau weapons as they're about as easy as it gets with magnets, and probably the most needed too with how often you'll want to change guns on them.

If you absolutely refuse to magnetise them (but really, you should magnetise them), then missile pods would probably be the best all-rounder weapon.

Breslerek,

I mounted all the weapons on my Crisis suits and have not regretted it. I had seven suits to play with and tend to still to all-comer lists with my builds and with the groups I game with...so customizing suit builds never really was a need.

Since there is a large number of MEQ armies around I used plasma on six of them (three with missile pods and three with burst cannons) and the last one received twin-linked fusion for tank destruction.

One thing to remember about your commander is the impressive BS 5 that lets you hit what you shot at, so I went for burst and plasma to get lots of shots and left the twin-linked fusion for a BS 3 suit.

My two cents, hope it might help.

CB

Yea dude, just practice a bit before you do it for real, either use scraps of plastic that are left over or try to magnetize him to his base, then in the end you just glue him on or whatever.

There are 2 main ways to use a Commander:

- Mark'O. No weapons or 2 Missile Pods + Target Lock, Drone Controller and with 4-6 drones (signature systems as you many as you want). BS5 markerllights ftw!

- Buffmander. No weapons, Command & Control Node, Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suit, Puretide Engram Neurochip, Iridium, Stimulant Injector and either Shield Generator or Talisman of Arthas Moloch (if Farsight Enclaves). Stick him to your most powerful Crisis unit and let it rip your enemies!

Some people give him the FMC update, but it's pretty poor.

No matter what I do with the Commander, I generally give him the Neuroweb System Jammer and Onager Gauntlet. Less than 10p for these seems like a good investiment.

Brightsword Commander is pretty popular since FSE was revised, aka Fusion Blade Commander. One of the only melee builds in the Tau arsenal other than Farsight.

My fav, however, is a Missle Mark'O attached to a Drone-Net squad of Marker Drones. Drone-Net squads have Split Fire, which confers to the Commander.

SJ

 Vector Strike wrote:
Some people give him the FMC update, but it's pretty poor.

I like the FMC option . A missile pod is 15 points, the high out-put burst cannon is 6 twin-linked burst cannon shots so around 25 points for 6 twin-linked str 5 shots from the high output burst cannon. Its weapons and the commander itself cost 125 points daemonic flight cost 40 points, we are getting it for half the price. The ability to move 24 inches and shoot into the rear of vehicles is unique, also the ability to shoot a verily decent amount of dakka at small units that tend to live due to their location. It also is a nice objective grabber which is a problem area for us! I give it a B+, I am not sure if they can get the signature systems in flight mode if so it would be a nice neuroweb system jammer.

 CKO wrote:

 Vector Strike wrote:
Some people give him the FMC update, but it's pretty poor.

I like the FMC option . A missile pod is 15 points, the high out-put burst cannon is 6 twin-linked burst cannon shots so around 25 points for 6 twin-linked str 5 shots from the high output burst cannon. Its weapons and the commander itself cost 125 points daemonic flight cost 40 points, we are getting it for half the price. The ability to move 24 inches and shoot into the rear of vehicles is unique, also the ability to shoot a verily decent amount of dakka at small units that tend to live due to their location. It also is a nice objective grabber which is a problem area for us! I give it a B+, I am not sure if they can get the signature systems in flight mode if so it would be a nice neuroweb system jammer.

Needs to be T5 to not get ID'd by a failed grounding check. That is the main weakness, for which there is little to recommend.

SJ

I don't run weapons. Tau Commanders can do some serious work as a support unit, either Markermander, Buffmander or Tankmander.

 jeffersonian000 wrote:

Needs to be T5 to not get ID'd by a failed grounding check. That is the main weakness, for which there is little to recommend.

SJ

While this is absolutely true, and i've lost coldstars to snap firing las cannons, failed a 4+ invul save, and vaporized in the air.. the power of getting to move as a FMC in the hunter contingent is strong. Anyone withing 12" of your commander can run/flatout and shoot as normal. This is HUGE with fusion piranhas, as you can move 30" t1, and then fusion the enemy in the face. And only 1 Piranha needs to be within those 12" with the squadron rules. Also, pathfinders who were stationary in the movement phase can run and shoot regular marker light shots because of RAW, hammerheads can really move from cover to cover and still fire the main cannon as normal, so much synergy with that 12" bubble, and the commander can get where he needs to (usually) because he can fly around.

I like running a 3-4 Piranha squad on a flank, with the coldstar close by, move the Piranhas up 12", coldstar 18", Flat out the piranhas 18" (still within 12" of the coldstar ) Do whatever damage I can, and then be able to shoot across the table to the other flank/meaty bits of enemy, after dropping the drones off the stay as a harassment unit. So far, no one has shot at the flying commander with the piranhas right there with fusion blasters, so he gets to rain down his shots with relative impunity. YMMV if you have flyer heavy meta.

 pumaman1 wrote:

 jeffersonian000 wrote:

Needs to be T5 to not get ID'd by a failed grounding check. That is the main weakness, for which there is little to recommend.

SJ

While this is absolutely true, and i've lost coldstars to snap firing las cannons, failed a 4+ invul save, and vaporized in the air.. the power of getting to move as a FMC in the hunter contingent is strong. Anyone withing 12" of your commander can run/flatout and shoot as normal. This is HUGE with fusion piranhas, as you can move 30" t1, and then fusion the enemy in the face. And only 1 Piranha needs to be within those 12" with the squadron rules. Also, pathfinders who were stationary in the movement phase can run and shoot regular marker light shots because of RAW, hammerheads can really move from cover to cover and still fire the main cannon as normal, so much synergy with that 12" bubble, and the commander can get where he needs to (usually) because he can fly around.

I like running a 3-4 Piranha squad on a flank, with the coldstar close by, move the Piranhas up 12", coldstar 18", Flat out the piranhas 18" (still within 12" of the coldstar ) Do whatever damage I can, and then be able to shoot across the table to the other flank/meaty bits of enemy, after dropping the drones off the stay as a harassment unit. So far, no one has shot at the flying commander with the piranhas right there with fusion blasters, so he gets to rain down his shots with relative impunity. YMMV if you have flyer heavy meta.

Excellent points and exalted, does anyone know if you can take signature systems if so having a 2+ save and t5 is a big deal.

No, per FAQ, coldstar is forbidden from signature systems (the idea is its already a suite of systems) only up to 2 support systems.
Shield gen for that critical 4++, and I like the ATS for precision shots on 5 and 6s, to take out key characters, since you have 6 TL bs5 shots and 2 s7 ap4 shots.

materpillar wrote:
Magnetize him. Seriously. I didn't magnetize my first commander and I still regret it. Tau guns are very specialized, none are really better than others. Your commanders load out should change depending on what the rest of your army needs. That will change game to game and opponent to opponent.

If you're super worried about messing up your model by magnetizing it, don't yet. Just play him without his guns modeled (just tell your opponent what he has) until you've gotten more practice magnetizing other crisis suits or whatever.

My commander most frequently runs double fusion. In smaller games he'll rock double missile pods or missile/plasma. Recently I just got into an escalation league and he's currently rocking 0 weapons as a buff mander (might get a flamer at the next point bump).

Gluing on guns is a mistake with so many good options. Trust me, my original missile pod/air bursting frag launcher commander doesn't see much board time anymore. Probably going to have to rip off his guns one of these days. I'm magnetizing my Coldstar commander and he doesn't even have different options with his weapon loadouts, just on the off chance that a future codex does let me change his loadout.

I would agree with this. Magnetising your commander is probably the best way to go.