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Has anyone tried the Ghostkheel in ITC format since CA points drop?
In theory, I like him as a distraction carnifex; -2 hit with a 3+4++. It takes 160 Bolter shots at AP -1, reroll 1 to hit to bring him down. That same amount of fire would kill 20 Shield drones. So taken him is like having 20 shield drones in your army.
Use etheral to buff him even more for 6+FnP which would mean 185 bolter shots. Drop him into cover assuming you can get 50% obscured and gain even more.
given this is all theory hammer at the moment. Just curious if anyone has had success with him?
10000+
10000+
8500+
3000+
8000+
3500+ IK Plus 1x Warhound, Reaver, Warlord Titans
killerpenguin wrote: Maybe I should just get another start collecting box? Or just a coldstar and a riptide box.
Well I recommend building up your minimum Battalion first whatever you do. 2 HQ + 3 Troops. You're only allowed 1 Commander per Detachment, but you can turn the Crisis Team into a XV8 Commander and 2 Bodyguards if you like. Then you'd need another box of Fire Warriors, which is a lot cheaper than buying another Start Collecting.
killerpenguin wrote: Maybe I should just get another start collecting box? Or just a coldstar and a riptide box.
Well I recommend building up your minimum Battalion first whatever you do. 2 HQ + 3 Troops. You're only allowed 1 Commander per Detachment, but you can turn the Crisis Team into a XV8 Commander and 2 Bodyguards if you like. Then you'd need another box of Fire Warriors, which is a lot cheaper than buying another Start Collecting.
I’m building towards a 2000 pts army. I’ve decided to go for the starhunter cadre. It has a lot of units I need.
It has a Devilfish. How is the hammer head? Is it a good unit? I’m thinking of buying the bits for the rail gun from the hammerhead box. I know I need the rail gun itself for the conversion. do I need any other bits?
John Prins wrote: Yes and no. It depends if you want to equip the Hammerhead with Seeker missiles. Also, consider Longstrike (Tau Sept), as he buffs Hammerheads.
I'd recommend seeker missiles on all hammerheads.
If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced.
- Fox Mulder
John Prins wrote: Yes and no. It depends if you want to equip the Hammerhead with Seeker missiles. Also, consider Longstrike (Tau Sept), as he buffs Hammerheads.
I'd recommend seeker missiles on all hammerheads.
Sigh. I always mix up Seekers with Smart Missiles. You'll get 1 seeker with a Devilfish, you won't get Smart Missiles to put in the drone docks.
John Prins wrote: Yes and no. It depends if you want to equip the Hammerhead with Seeker missiles. Also, consider Longstrike (Tau Sept), as he buffs Hammerheads.
I'd recommend seeker missiles on all hammerheads.
Sigh. I always mix up Seekers with Smart Missiles. You'll get 1 seeker with a Devilfish, you won't get Smart Missiles to put in the drone docks.
Ahh yeah I agree then. For hammer heads it is hard to justify the cost for smart missles without getting the -1 ap bonus from ATS. Though with Long-strike you are hitting on 2's most the time so it is still a wise investment IMO. IMO i would ALWAYS take SMS on longstrike himself. Those turn into pretty productive tank killers if you need to scrap a few wounds off a monster or a tank.
It is also unfortunate the devilfish can only hold 1 seeker. If it could hold 2 it might actually be viable with the new point drop.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/01/14 20:35:08
If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced.
- Fox Mulder
Dynas wrote: IN ITC what deployment types favor Tau? What are the worst ones? DO certain deployment types work better for Kauyon vs Montka?
The worst deployment is the pointy Hammer and Anvil ( the name escapes me just now). I think despite the Tau being able to start further back in places, the angles of that deployment zone disadvantage you as T'au against infiltrating type threats.
Hold out bait to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and then crush him.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War
http://www.40kunorthodoxy.blogspot.com
SO... Siegler shows as playing Adaptes Astartes for LVO. The hero we needed has betrayed us. :(
Edit: But Brian Pullen is true to Tau. Seems like he added some Stealth Suits since there points drop. I am assuming he is putting them forward to grab objectives or screen. He has a great video on his YouTube Channel about it. Only thing is he isn't running the coldstars to support them.
Should be interesting to see how it turns out.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/01/20 16:24:48
10000+
10000+
8500+
3000+
8000+
3500+ IK Plus 1x Warhound, Reaver, Warlord Titans
Mind telling non tau player roughly what kind of tau list is good these days? And generally how much of what kind of AP modifier guns tau armies have? Faced tau today and what struct me was just how low AP modifiers they had. Only thing that had higher than -2 was some cc weapon(wut?) and not even much -2 I think...Some -1 including whopping 27 cyclic ion blasters but all in all it was weird facing army with that little armour save modifiers.
Is that how typical for tau? He had(going from memory) 2 fire warrior boosting characters, ethereal, cold star commander, 3 sniper drones, 6x5 fire warriors, 2x4 crisis suits, 2xriptide, bunch of shield and gun drones and quite a few marker lights.
And for comedic effect. When he rolled morale for one it was high enough it might matter. He started to measure downward from ruin saying "they might have LD9 depending on height of this ruin". For a moment I thought tau had some weird rule the higher they are the better LD they have (that would be funny special rule) But it was actually the ethereal under them he was measuring toward.
The biggest meta list for Tau right now is burst cannon riptides, which get -2 ap with the usual setup. The other staple is dakka broadsides, which, again, get -2 ap. Cyclic Ion Blaster suits are an interesting drop-in and kill something unit, with reasonable efficiency, which as you note only get -1 ap. They can also be built for -2 ap, but so many of the meta things you want to kill have invuln saves within one point of their regular save, that it is probably sub-par to do it that way.
The other units that are common are commanders and firewarriors. (plus the ubiquitous shield drones, but those do not have guns, so are not relevant to this question) Firewarriors do not have ap, though with the standard warlord trait they can get a proc for -1 ap. Commanders have several builds that show up, depending on the meta people expect, etc. Sometimes people do a more skirmish-style of coldstars with burst cannon/missile pod, which again gets -1/-2 ap.
The main place better ap shows up is when people bring fusion coldstars, with 4x fusion blasters.
As for my own army, even though I am a bit off meta, it is much the same; My coldstar is my biggest high-ap threat. I do run Shadowsun and friends for more fusion blasters, but all together it is barely more than the one coldstar's output. The ghostkeels seem to do most of their damage with their Ion Rakers in my experience, which only have -1 ap (partially because for a long time my local meta was full of people who were in love with imperial knight--one tournament all my games were vs. knights). In addition, my mass of breachers who do well for me in large part due to their ap, even they top out at -2.
I just remembered, I do run a crisis suit squad with plasma, which is about our only -3 ap option; they are actually reasonably efficient at their job of dropping in and exerting some board presence. But most people are still down on crisis suits, though with their most recent drops the pure plasma squad seems worth considering.
If we get a really heavy marine meta, and with sisters and such, rail rifle broadsides seem like they almost might be able to come back, while they are cheaper than the missiles, their main problem against the wider field is invuln saves making their good ap worthless.
I just remembered another good ap unit in my army--rail rifle pathfinders. I only have one unit of them, plus two of the low ap ion rifle guys, so it does still lean towards weak ap. (but even with the weak ap, those ion rifle pathfinders do bonkers damage vs. heavy targets for their points, 3d3 S8 shots with D2 is no joke, especially not for only 50 points)
Interesting. Thanks for the reply. For those who haven't followed sister rules those can be surprisingly tough. Every sister army can take ability to ignore -1 and one order can go to -2. So first turn he got first go and despite all units on board having something to shoot got only 4 or 5 sisters. All in all we were both surprised by how much firepower sisters soaked and my 4++ bubble was actually useless.
If you face valorous heart it might be worth going second as your firepower is going to be bouncing off a lot from 2+/6++ ignore -2. Get better deployment and last turn for objectives. Though there's something to be said forcing sisters to burn 2cp of course. And keep in mind this survivability when considering how to split attacks. One crisis unit with 12 ion blasters split too much so left penitent engine with 1 wound and killed 1 retributor with bolter(2+ "invulnerable" was handy). Not that good result.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/01/22 05:05:00
Markerlight allocation and banner sniping is the key to taking out VH Sisters. Sacrificing a fusion toting Coldstar to take out the Imagifier is almost always going to be a choice you're going to want to consider.
Beyond that, removing cover via MLs and SMSs then drowning them in pulse fire will wear them down. T3/3+/1W only lasts for so long in the face of massed fire warriors.
Dynas wrote: Did the FW TX-42 Piranna get discontinued/legacy statused?
Model is discontinued rules are still current
8000 Dark Angels (No primaris)
10000 Lizardmen (Fantasy I miss you)
3000 High Elves 4000 Kel'shan Ta'u "He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which." -Douglas Adams
Sterling191 wrote: Markerlight allocation and banner sniping is the key to taking out VH Sisters. Sacrificing a fusion toting Coldstar to take out the Imagifier is almost always going to be a choice you're going to want to consider.
Beyond that, removing cover via MLs and SMSs then drowning them in pulse fire will wear them down. T3/3+/1W only lasts for so long in the face of massed fire warriors.
I did win firepower duel on that area as well. Me having -1/-2 weapons with good ROF, them not and me having better save helped. But yes if you can get rid of imagifiers do it. That way at least riptide's burst cannon will do wonders. Mind you unless you kill 2 banners then banner can come back alive after shooting phase done once per game though...How good coldstar commander is in melee? As you might have to kill her second time(albeit not fully wouned) or banner is still alive. (also celestians nearby will be soaking some wounds). So basically cold star commander flies in, tries to torch. Some damage will be soaked by celestians(try to kill them with others first maybe). Then even if you kill character comes back with stratagem for 1-3W(depending on how many miracle dice sister sacrifices). At least naked cold star commander doesn't seem that awesome doing 0.59 vs sister so even with minimal resurection good odds of survival. Add to that 2-3 banners to clear...
I also had thought just now. With fireblade firewarriors get 3 shot at half range right? So you triple your firepower. Sisters double. This means sisters(who aren't h2h army generally) have incentive to come within 24" but stay away rapid fire range since tau benefits more.
If you have been relying on castle and shoot 'em'up you might want to see can you alter your in game strategy more into aggressive push forward. You should try to get within RF. Sisters will try to deny that but then you get board control. Could be an option. You don't have that much to worry about maximising overwatch anyway vs typical sister lists.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/01/24 09:47:03
The fluff is like ketchup and mustard on a burger. Yes it's desirable, yes it makes things better, but no it doesn't fundamentally change what you're eating and no you shouldn't just drown the whole meal in it.
What should I buy? T'au Empire Starclaimer Hunter Cadre Or start collecting? Or none of them? I already have one start collecting and a pathfinder box. Just started out. I’m starting a escalation league in not too long. Facing mostly marines.
killerpenguin wrote: What should I buy? T'au Empire Starclaimer Hunter Cadre Or start collecting? Or none of them? I already have one start collecting and a pathfinder box. Just started out. I’m starting a escalation league in not too long. Facing mostly marines.
Gun them down with Riptides. I mean its such an obvious choice. Why fight it right?
Hold out bait to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and then crush him.
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War
http://www.40kunorthodoxy.blogspot.com
Quick question:
I started building a small Tau force.
(atm I own the starclaimer hunter cadre, cadre fireblade, ethereal on drone, Ghostkeel, an extra set of strike teams and an extra commander)
Are the piranhas viable at the moment? They seem to lack table time in many lists (they aren't played very often, as far as I've seen)...
I definitely like the models, but I need to rationalize my buying behaviour a bit and I need to choose between them and a stormsurge....
The piranha really ain't worth it. The pts for a burst cannon piranha is more than a triple burst cannon battlesuit. It's a cheap option but relatively there are many better options. Also cost to pts is not good
8000 Dark Angels (No primaris)
10000 Lizardmen (Fantasy I miss you)
3000 High Elves 4000 Kel'shan Ta'u "He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which." -Douglas Adams
Dynas wrote: SO... Siegler shows as playing Adaptes Astartes for LVO. The hero we needed has betrayed us. :(
Edit: But Brian Pullen is true to Tau. Seems like he added some Stealth Suits since there points drop. I am assuming he is putting them forward to grab objectives or screen. He has a great video on his YouTube Channel about it. Only thing is he isn't running the coldstars to support them.
Should be interesting to see how it turns out.
Do you have a link to his channel? My google and youtube-fu is apparently quite weak and I wanted to see that while I put together my adepticon list.
Dynas wrote: SO... Siegler shows as playing Adaptes Astartes for LVO. The hero we needed has betrayed us. :(
Edit: But Brian Pullen is true to Tau. Seems like he added some Stealth Suits since there points drop. I am assuming he is putting them forward to grab objectives or screen. He has a great video on his YouTube Channel about it. Only thing is he isn't running the coldstars to support them.
Should be interesting to see how it turns out.
Do you have a link to his channel? My google and youtube-fu is apparently quite weak and I wanted to see that while I put together my adepticon list.
What do you guys think of this list? I’m really new and would love to get some pointers. Am I going to get rekt in the escalation league if I field this? Gonna play mostly against marines. I’ve not assembles much yet, still working on what to build, but time is running out! it starts in March. I have the start collecting kit, a kit of pathfinders and the starclaimer hunter cadre box. Please help
killerpenguin wrote: What do you guys think of this list? I’m really new and would love to get some pointers. Am I going to get rekt in the escalation league if I field this? Gonna play mostly against marines. I’ve not assembles much yet, still working on what to build, but time is running out! it starts in March. I have the start collecting kit, a kit of pathfinders and the starclaimer hunter cadre box. Please help
You probably have too many Markerlights for 500 points. For example, you could ditch the ML drones, give your Shas'ui Markerlights, and use the points saved to buy more Strike Team.
Also, your Crisis Commander is overloaded, he can have a total of 4 weapons/systems, he's got a Drone Controller and 4 weapons. He doesn't need the Drone Controller. If you want one, put it on the Stealth Team Shas/vre.
killerpenguin wrote: What do you guys think of this list? I’m really new and would love to get some pointers. Am I going to get rekt in the escalation league if I field this? Gonna play mostly against marines. I’ve not assembles much yet, still working on what to build, but time is running out! it starts in March. I have the start collecting kit, a kit of pathfinders and the starclaimer hunter cadre box. Please help
You probably have too many Markerlights for 500 points. For example, you could ditch the ML drones, give your Shas'ui Markerlights, and use the points saved to buy more Strike Team.
Also, your Crisis Commander is overloaded, he can have a total of 4 weapons/systems, he's got a Drone Controller and 4 weapons. He doesn't need the Drone Controller. If you want one, put it on the Stealth Team Shas/vre.
Appreciate the feedback! That really makes sense. I reworked the list. I dropped the xv8 and brought a coldstar with fusions instead. Also dropped all the marker drones, 9 marker lights should be enough in a 500 pts list right? The plan is to keep the coldstar in DS and jump down on a high value target, maybe beside the stealth suit’s drones for some extra protection from the 4 drones.
10000+
10000+
8500+
3000+
8000+
3500+ IK Plus 1x Warhound, Reaver, Warlord Titans
(that would be funny special rule) But it was actually the ethereal under them he was measuring toward.
(No primaris)
(Fantasy I miss you)
