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IVIOOSE wrote:
What are peoples thoughts on sniper drones? Worth taking or only ok ?

Are riptides better in pairs or just ok for their points cost?

Only one Riptide can benifit from the strategum so only 1 can be at maximum efficiency, however if your not taking first turn you can expect to loose one riptide turn 1 along with a bunch of drones.
Personally I think you need 2 unless your playing smaller games.

Riptides are good enough to take multiples, as many as suits your list. The first Riptide is the best thanks to BNC strat, but the second and third are still tough efficient units and you should always have redundancy in your lists.

If you can hide some shield drones out of LoS within 3" of your Riptides they become very tanky.

IVIOOSE wrote:
What are peoples thoughts on sniper drones? Worth taking or only ok ?

Are riptides better in pairs or just ok for their points cost?

Sniper Drones are totally worth taking.

Has anyone tried a coldstar with the high output burst cannon, x2 burst cannons and ATS for 16 shots that is Mobil and good anti infantry

IVIOOSE wrote:
Has anyone tried a coldstar with the high output burst cannon, x2 burst cannons and ATS for 16 shots that is Mobil and good anti infantry

You could but given how quickly tau can burn CP's your going to be taking atleast 1 battalion maybe even double battalion, so you tend to have enough s5 firepower, HBC from either riptide or tigershark gives lots of s6 d2 shooting, you tend to want something other than more s5 shooting from a coldstar.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
What are people's experience with tiger shark or tigershark Ax01.
Which is the better option as I think the Ax01 looks really cool as a model but I feel like it's pointed too much in comparison to the regular tigershark which comes with multiple loadout options.

meleti wrote:
Riptides are good enough to take multiples, as many as suits your list. The first Riptide is the best thanks to BNC strat, but the second and third are still tough efficient units and you should always have redundancy in your lists.

If one dies the other becomes just as efficient anyway! Riptides don't live all game anymore :(


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Jancoran wrote:

IVIOOSE wrote:
What are peoples thoughts on sniper drones? Worth taking or only ok ?

Are riptides better in pairs or just ok for their points cost?

Sniper Drones are totally worth taking.

Which targets do you feel justify Sniper Drones? I thought about it and couldn't think of any, but I'll admit to not having played them to try it

Was just considering sniper drones to go after characters or in a ta'u sept to get a few mortals turn 1 on a knight to use the +1 to wound stratagem.

was looking at running 2 tigersharks and cant decide if running a y'vahra or a burst cannon riptide would be better along with marker light support and some stealth suits

IVIOOSE wrote:
Has anyone tried a coldstar with the high output burst cannon, x2 burst cannons and ATS for 16 shots that is Mobil and good anti infantry

Didn't the FAQ update change it so that the HOBC + Missile Pod had to stick together? ie, you can't have the HOBC without also taking the missile pod?

hvg3akaek wrote:

IVIOOSE wrote:
Has anyone tried a coldstar with the high output burst cannon, x2 burst cannons and ATS for 16 shots that is Mobil and good anti infantry

Didn't the FAQ update change it so that the HOBC + Missile Pod had to stick together? ie, you can't have the HOBC without also taking the missile pod?

Correct.

yep i did find that in the update again when i checked it.

when equipping a y'vahra with signiture systems like target lock or early warning override do you use the points as if it were a "riptide" or the points cost as "other" ? id does not have the riptide keyword and i did not see it in any of the faq's.

What's the word on the streets about Stormsurges?

I've used mine in one event, and it put in work in two of the three games (in the other, it got focused down on the first turn before it could do anything and exploded, killing my Coldstar commander...). You do have to play it differently than one of the other suits, partially due to the fact that it lacks the <BATTLESUIT> keyword (meaning no Savior Protocols). Since it does have the <VEHICLE> keyword, it can use the Point Defence Targeting Relay stratagem, plus the Automated Repair System one (works on suits and vehicles). It's one of the Tau's only sources of mortal wounds thanks to the destroyer missiles. Long story short, it has a lot of firepower, but really it is not durable enough for its point cost.

One thing I've been thinking about is taking 3 Stormsurges along with Shadowsun. Getting to call Kauyon twice with that much firepower would be GLORIOUS! 3 of them would come to close to 1300 points, so plenty of room to fit a decent battalion along with them. You don't even need to bring drones like you do with a traditional suit-heavy list (like 3 Riptides and/or Y'vahras). But make sure to bring some markerlights along, as the D-missiles are craptacular without them due to hitting on 6's.

Imma guess you got it with a shield genie and the -1 ap doohikey? It looks like it has a nice mix of anti-big stuff with the main gun and ant-infantry with its copious missiles and whatever support weapon you pick. And of course mortal wound missiles are anti-everything.

has anyone ever ran 3 tigersharks? they are basically shooty knights that fly. think it would work or would you not have enough ground support?

IVIOOSE wrote:
has anyone ever ran 3 tigersharks? they are basically shooty knights that fly. think it would work or would you not have enough ground support?

A guy at the last big event i went to ran 3 (1 with transport, 2 with extra missiles or something). They did extremely well, but he hated playing them. He prob would have won the event if it wasn't for smash captains and a slight miss on an faq somewhere or something.

Looking to run a tau list along these lines, it should seem pretty straight forward.

Sa’cae Battalion
2x Cadre fireblade w/marker light (42 each)
3x striketeam sashsui w/markerlight (38 each)
3x Farsight marksmen (25 each)
Devil fish (112) this is purely to reduce drops from 16 to 9

T’au Battalion
Cadre fireblade (42) Exemplar of the kauyon, PEC relic, shield drone
Commander (173) Iridium battlesuit, 3x cyclic ion blaster, advanced targeting system, 2x shield drones
Kroot (60) 12 beakies
2x Strike Team (35 each)

Tau Super Heavy detachment
2x Stormsurge w/ Burstcannon, blastcannon, shield generator, advanced targeting system, velocity tracker
1X storm surge w/ burstcannon, pulse driver, advance targeting system, shield generator, velocity tracker

So its all pretty simply what do you guys think. General tactics are get 5x markerlights on two things. I have 9 with a personal re roll each, and the uplinked strat for the last few. Then split them surges between them after getting a single wound form the commander/fire warriors and useing overlapping fields of fire

Hey everyone! I consider myself a competitive player, but not at all costs. Look of the army and the way it plays is also important to me.

Long time ago I used to play Eldar. Got 5000 points of them. Later on I took a break from 40k and sold them. Came back about a year ago. Bought SM because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to come back for longer, so I chose a theoretically cheaper army to start out with. Year passed and here I am. Back deep into 40k hobby playing with an army that not only is on the weaker side, but also is extremely boring to play for me.

I don't want to play Eldar again. Dark Eldar, Tyranids and Tau look interesting to me, and of these three armies Tau seem to have the best balance of strength, good looks and interesting mechanics. Especially I love the look of their suits. I would like to have 1500 points. Read a little bit and made this list:

2x Battalion

Commander w/4x Fusion
Fireblade
3x 5 Strike w/Markerlight

1x Outrider

Commander w/3x Missile pod, ATS
2x Riptide w/HBC, ATS, TL
9x Pathfinder w/Pulse Accelerator drone
2x 4 shield drones

To get that I would need to buy 1 start collecting, 2 Riptides, 1 Pathfinder box and I would still need 1 Fireblade and 20 fire warriors. I'm not sure if it's best to buy them in separate boxes or get second start collecting and 1 fire warrior box. At least that's the plan to start out with. Later on I'd possibly get Coldstars etc. What do you think about it? That's the competitive version of my 1500 list. In friendly games I'd obviously tone it down a lot.

Has anybody tried a really big squad of crisis suits with a commander to use command and control node?

It's really expensive, but on paper it should do horrendous damage.

9 crisis suits, each with fusion blaster + missile pod + something else.

They will almost certainly obliterate whatever they shoot the blasters at, and at the same time shoot across the table at something else, quite likely obliterating it as well.


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yikes, and if you invoke Kauyon!

Alcibiades wrote:
Has anybody tried a really big squad of crisis suits with a commander to use command and control node?

It's really expensive, but on paper it should do horrendous damage.

9 crisis suits, each with fusion blaster + missile pod + something else.

They will almost certainly obliterate whatever they shoot the blasters at, and at the same time shoot across the table at something else, quite likely obliterating it as well.


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yikes, and if you invoke Kauyon!

Possitioning is the issue, your better off using Farsight and dropzoneclear strategum plus etc etc it creates one heck of a lot of overkill but it's an insane amount of points that needs equal power level on the board.

Greetings Tau players!

Necron player here who will soon be playing in a 2v2 tournament with a Tau player.

The armies are max 825 points per player (I know, odd number) and can only be two detachments per player.

My idea was to bring a Tesseract Vault (for those who don't know, a superheavy that is a mortal-wound machine) and some Warriors to protect it.

So, my question to you is: What can my ally get for 825 points worth of solid Tau units?
Note that we still severely lack CP in our army, so a Battalion Detachment would be preferable.
Also, while the Tesseract Vault is an amazing machine that will no doubt draw a lot of attention, it is not created for anti-tank purposes. So some anti-tank would be nice too.

Tau do anti-tank and CP really well. Between a couple fusion Coldstar Commanders and a bunch of Fire Warriors, you should have plenty of threats against heavy targets and hordes alike.

i have almost 10k pts of Tau and I don't know what to do with them.
I've been building up eldar and harlequins for the past year now and I find I'm drawn to their play style more.

I hate that Tau only seems viable by castling up and relying on overlapping buffs. I want to play them the way i've seen in the fluff. fast, tactical strikes, laying traps etc...
I don't understand why all our buffs only happen if no one moves! It seem so counter to tau strategies of the lore.
Also, Crisis suits, hazard suits and ghostkeels seem to have no place now!

Anyone else feel this way?
Any suggestions on list ideas or synergies? My local meta is a mix between tournament players and casuals.

Here's an idea of what I have to work with:

3 Commanders - magnetized for cold star or enforcer
1 old finecast cmdr
Farsight
3 Fireblades
1 Ethereal
Dark Strider

30 fire warriors
12 breachers
20 kroot

3 Riptides
12 stealthsuits
3 marksmen
1 shaper
9 crisis suits
4 hazard suits
3 ghostkeels

20 pathfinders
A dozen of each tactical drone type
2 Tetras
2 Yvharas

2 hammerheads / upgrade for Longstrike
2 heavy bombardment hh / skyrays
9 sniper drones
3 Railsides
3 Missilesides
12 missile drones

2 Devilfish

2 Stormsurges

In 7th I played a fairly mobile army centered around deepstriking shadowsun + stealth teams in my opponents deployment zone. I feel your frustration with all our "sit and shoot" rules.

After a bit of a break I've been slowly getting back into 40k with smaller games (around 1k). I'm not exactly sure how well this will scale up, but here goes:

I've had a lot of fun packing darkstrider, some breachers, and pathfinders with rail rifles into a devilfish. They advance up the board with my stealth suits for that awesome overwatch support and then lay into whatever needs killing. You still need some markerlight support to get real nasty but it does have that strike team feel. I was really impressed with the punch from the rail rifles, especially once they have bonuses to wound.

Naaris wrote:
i
I don't understand why all our buffs only happen if no one moves!

They do not. Only Storm of Fire and Kauyon do (or is it Mont'ka? I mix them up.).

Played a quick 1000pt game at the weekend against Nids, fairly friendly game just for us both to get back into 8th.

Tau sept:
Coldstar (quad fusion), PEN
Cadre Fireblade
Cadre Fireblade
10 Fire Warriors (Shasui ML, pulse rifles)
10 Fire Warriors (Shasui ML, pulse rifles)
12 Fire Warriors (Shasui ML, pulse rifles)
Riptide (HBC, SMS, VT, TL)
6 Stealth Suits (BC)
6 Marker Drones

Tyranids (Hive Fleet Kraken):
Flyrant (2x twin Devourer w/BL), -1 to hit relic
Neurothrope
25 Devilgants
20 Genestealers
3 ripper bases
Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannon

Pretty bloody game, highlights including the Devilgants mowing down a FW squad (75 shots is brutal) and the Genestealers eating a boatload of For The Greater Good/Volley Fire/ Tau sept overwatch.

Problem was my poor early game strategy (suicide run with the Coldstar vs the Hive Tyrant - didn't manage to cause a single wound). I should have gone after the Tyrannofex (no invuln save, it would have been toast with any luck) and poor dice rolls turn 1 (failing to wound the Fex with my Riptide).

Fun game and I learnt a lot about how powerful the strategems are (on both sides - Single Minded Annihilation is obscene on a big gant blob).

zerosignal wrote:
Played a quick 1000pt game at the weekend against Nids, fairly friendly game just for us both to get back into 8th.

Tau sept:
Coldstar (quad fusion), PEN
Cadre Fireblade
Cadre Fireblade
10 Fire Warriors (Shasui ML, pulse rifles)
10 Fire Warriors (Shasui ML, pulse rifles)
12 Fire Warriors (Shasui ML, pulse rifles)
Riptide (HBC, SMS, VT, TL)
6 Stealth Suits (BC)
6 Marker Drones

Tyranids (Hive Fleet Kraken):
Flyrant (2x twin Devourer w/BL), -1 to hit relic
Neurothrope
25 Devilgants
20 Genestealers
3 ripper bases
Tyrannofex with Rupture Cannon

Pretty bloody game, highlights including the Devilgants mowing down a FW squad (75 shots is brutal) and the Genestealers eating a boatload of For The Greater Good/Volley Fire/ Tau sept overwatch.

Problem was my poor early game strategy (suicide run with the Coldstar vs the Hive Tyrant - didn't manage to cause a single wound). I should have gone after the Tyrannofex (no invuln save, it would have been toast with any luck) and poor dice rolls turn 1 (failing to wound the Fex with my Riptide).

Fun game and I learnt a lot about how powerful the strategems are (on both sides - Single Minded Annihilation is obscene on a big gant blob).

Looks pretty solid, maybe try running shield drones if there's no drone controller around. I'd also put the PEN on a character that lives less dangerously and perhaps keep the Coldstar around the Riptide for a turn 1 'Kau'yon' before flying off to try and assassinate something. Other than that 'uplinked markerlights' is nice if you're going for more than 1 hit on the table and remember to use branched nova charge on the riptide

What point costs and profile do I have to use for the barracuda? FW index or codex?
Asking because of ion cannon. The codex version would make the cuda kinda viable

Aeri wrote:
What point costs and profile do I have to use for the barracuda? FW index or codex?
Asking because of ion cannon. The codex version would make the cuda kinda viable

I'm pretty sure you use the Codex cost as its the most updated profile for the weapon

Hey guys quick question, under XV25 Stealth Battlesuits in the codex under abilities it lists Target Lock. Does this mean they automatically come with it or do you have to pay the points for the support system? Thanks in advance.