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In a previous thread there was an idea put forward for an Orca Bomber - I upped the ante and suggested a heavy gun ship akin to a Spectre gunship

Orca AX-3-1-D Heavy Gunship - 350 pts
BS 4, Front 12, Side 12, Rear 12, HP 7, Air Leviathan, pursuit 2, agility 2, Super Heavy Flyer

Wargear: Blacksun Filter, Automated Repair System, Advanced Decoy Launchers, Velocity Tracker, Early warning override
Options: May not take additional wargear
*Advanced Decoy Launcher = Provides a 4+invulnerable save
*Lumbering Menace - only move 12" combat speed. Cannot Flat Out. Because the Orca AX-3-1-D Heavy Gunship moves slowly around the battlefield reigning fire with extreme precision, enemy units do not need skyfire rules or weapons to hit it with full BS. This also allows the Orca AX-3-1-D Heavy Gunship to hover which turns it into a skimmer.

Weapons
4xNetworked markerlight - modeled on the engine pods
Missile Bay - 24 seeker missiles --- May replace Seeker Missiles with 16 Destroyer Missiles for 50pts
2 Long Barreled Burst Cannons
1 Twin-linked HYMP

May replace the Missile Bay with Bomb Bay equipped with Electromagnetic Pulse Bombs - Free
Electromagnetic Pulse Bombs - 24", Str 6, AP 3, Heavy 6 Apocalyptic Barrage, Haywire
May replace EMPulse Bombs with Gravity Bombs - my take on tau d weapon - Free
Gravity Bombs - 24" Str D, AP2, Ordnance 1, Massive Blast (7")

OR

May replace the Missile bay with Gun Bay - Think Spectre Gunship - 100pts
TL heavy Rail Cannon - 110" St D AP2, Heavy 2
Heavy Cannon (submunitions) 110" 7, 3 Primary Weapon 1, Apocalyptic Blast (10")
TL Ion Accelerator - All 3 profiles
TL Heavy Burst Cannon - Nova charged Profile
TL Fusion Cannon
TL Plasma Cannon

A 5th variant(Normal, Missile Gunship, Bomb Gunship, Heavy weapons Gunship) would be an Orca Airborne Dropship
Orca Airborne Dropship - 1000 pts
BS 3, Front 12, Side 12, Rear 10, HP 7, Air Leviathan, pursuit 2, agility 2, Super Heavy Flyer
Same wargear as other models

Gains -
Airborne Insertion: Passengers may disembark as if Deep Striking even after vehicle moves more than 6". Roll scatter from point under vehicle's movement. Scatter causes dangerous terrain test.

Weapons
4xNetworked markerlight - modeled on the engine pods
2 Long Barreled Burst Cannons
1 Twin-linked HYMP

Special Cargo - Airborne Pathfinder Drop Troop Cadre
This orca contains 4 full squads(10 Pathfinders + Recon Drone, Grav Inhibitor Drone, 2 Guardian Drones) of Airborne Pathfinders.)
Airborne Pathfinders have Jet Packs - similar to what puppetswar is putting out - and gain jet pack infantry status. All Pathfinders are equipped with rail rifles and field amplifier relay. The Shas'ui also has a black sun filter.
BS 4, WS 2, S3, T3, W1, I3, A1, Ld8/9, Sv4+

If you're going to make it a Flyer with special rules that make it move 12" and enemies don't need to snapshoot at it why isn't it just a Skimmer?

The most recent rules I have for the Orca give it as a 400pt 12-12-10 6HP Superheavy Flyer armed only with a twin-linked burst cannon and a missile pod that carries 57 models. I can follow upgrading the guns to compensate for two editions of power creep, I can follow swapping the transport bay for Seeker missiles, I can even follow going for rear armour 12, but I'm not sure how necessary the slow movement is.

And the gun bay doesn't make a lot of sense to me; I get the comparison to the AC-130, but I don't know that I can get behind sticking a twin-linked heavy railgun into an Orca. First off it's a spinal weapon on another 6HP superheavy, putting that in a ventral bay on an Orca would be like giving a Space Marine a lascannon as his pistol from a size standpoint. And secondly the AC-130's biggest gun is a 105mm howitzer, which somehow doesn't say 'Strength D' to me. Ion Accelerator/Heavy Burst Cannon are big, but they make more sense to me in that context than a Heavy Railgun.

Naaris wrote:


Special Cargo - Airborne Pathfinder Drop Troop Cadre
This orca contains 4 full squads(10 Pathfinders + Recon Drone, Grav Inhibitor Drone, 2 Guardian Drones) of Airborne Pathfinders.)
Airborne Pathfinders have Jet Packs - similar to what puppetswar is putting out - and gain jet pack infantry status. All Pathfinders are equipped with rail rifles and field amplifier relay. The Shas'ui also has a black sun filter.
BS 4, WS 2, S3, T3, W1, I3, A1, Ld8/9, Sv4+

So.. why bs4 pathfinders?and why armor 4+? pathfinders are bs3, 5+. Heck any non-hq suit is bs3 in the core codex, even the stormsurge. In order to keep them as pathfinders, and not as stealth suits that can take rail rifles, just borrow grav-chute-insertion from the AM. then they stay pathfinders, but aren't super duper better than Shas'Vre units...

I like the orca. Cut the rail and gunboat would be perfect in my opinion. armor is a little high for my taste and i feel that it shouldn't be a air leviathin. how do new pilots get into the cockpit?
Like he said on the pathfinders 5 armor with a 6++ and instead of grav shute i would follow the sunsharks high velocity deployment we are Tau not Imperium and earth caste finally mastered the art of high velocity deployment and are now feild testing on the living.

Im stealing some of your ideas and adding it to my thread for sure. xP

TheBoy wrote:
I like the orca. Cut the rail and gunboat would be perfect in my opinion. armor is a little high for my taste and i feel that it shouldn't be a air leviathin. how do new pilots get into the cockpit?
Like he said on the pathfinders 5 armor with a 6++ and instead of grav shute i would follow the sunsharks high velocity deployment we are Tau not Imperium and earth caste finally mastered the art of high velocity deployment and are now feild testing on the living.

Im stealing some of your ideas and adding it to my thread for sure. xP

the problem with "high velocity deployment" for meatbags.. i mean pathfinders, is that they don't resist changes in speed quite as well as a drone would. Something about blood, and brains, and liquid bits.. unelss they are all going to ride ethereals hover drones? which would make them jetpack, but not capable of the high velcoity deployment of the interceptor drones (which have afterburners)

he gave them jet packs

TheBoy wrote:
he gave them jet packs

A 'Pathfinder in a Tau jetpack' is normally known as a 'stealthsuit'.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

TheBoy wrote:
he gave them jet packs

A 'Pathfinder in a Tau jetpack' is normally known as a 'stealthsuit'.

exactly this

Perhaps stealth suits would be considered less of a tax if they came with markerlights just like pathfinders.

Regardless of the fluff. Current pathfinders are a vastly different role to stealth suits.

lusciifi wrote:
Perhaps stealth suits would be considered less of a tax if they came with markerlights just like pathfinders.

but these pathfinders are using rail rifles, and don't have markerlights either.

and you are correct, current PF are vastly different, scouting and planting, bringing ML to bear. but if they have deep strike and take dangerous terrain tests in terrain, and have jet packs, and armor 4+ and rail rifles...

a rail rifle PF is 26 points, charge a few points for +1 armor, and then give them jet pack for a few points, and the +1 bs for a few more poitns, stealth suits do the intended job cheaper