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I bought 3 retaliation cadres boxes and an extra riptide. Wondering how to equip them.

So I have most everything else down. Everything will be in one retaliation cadre and one riptide wing.

Buffmander to buff 3 broadsides.
3 HYMP boadsides

after this, I don't know what exactly to do with my 3x 3 crisis suits or more 1 riptide in the single retaliation and the 3 riptides in the riptide wing. S

So, what would you do with them?

A big THANK YOU in advance!

Are you planning on running those 2 formations only or would you considerrunning the Retaliation Cadre be part of a Dawn Blade (you mentioned the buffmander, but is Enclaves definitely out)? Are you looking to be deepstriking the Retaliation Cadre more often than not? With the Commander in with the Missilesides, you need marker support. This could be done with the Crisis Suits with their drones + target locks or you could go Dawn Blade and try to fit the Drone Net. Either option could be done with the models you mentioned (as long as they didn't skimp on the crisis drones in the Cadre box).

Without knowing your points limit, what the rest of your list would be like, or how competitive/casual you wanna make this, here's what I would do.

First off, MAGNETIZE THEM. The best part of Tau is how easy it is for us to magnetize pretty much everything, this will ensure you can use whatever set up you want.

Now, on to how to actually kit them out.

For the Riptides, Personally I would go 3 IA 1 HBC. 1 IA in your retaliation Cadre, then 2 IA and 1 HBC in the Riptide Wing. This will give you more than enough AP2 while still offering the rending and mass shots of the HBC. You could make the Riptide Wing 1 IA and 2 HBC if you wanted, and I recommend trying out both as it will come down to personal preference which you play as both have their pros and cons.

For secondary weapons, I say SMS on all 4. PRs are just plain not good on riptides in my experience. The range is too short, you don't get enough shots, and it just doesn't mesh well with the primary weapons. the IA is so long range that most of the time you won't be in range to use the PR, and honestly is one more shot going to help? The HBC is probably not gonna be hunting TEQ so the PR isn't necessary. A lot of people swear by the FB on riptides, and I can see why. Being able to get an all but guaranteed pen on a vehicle before charging it to finish it off with smash is a pretty good deal. I personally don't like it as I don't like my riptides being that close and besides, I have Crisis Suits to go vehicle hunting with Fusion. SMS is just the most flexible option. Great for hunting flyers (being TLed means snap-firing isn't as bad), good for dealing with infantry trying to hide on an objective out of LOS, and with Ripple Fire, getting 8 shots off is gonna drown pretty much anything in saves.

On to Crisis Suits. This is tougher as it pretty much depends on what you're going to be facing. First off never mix weapons on suits. It is always better to give each Team a specific job, and use the best weapon for it only. The only set up for Crisis Suits that I use every game is a 3man team with 2 FB each, and 2 TLs. It is by far the best tank-hunting unit in the Tau codex imo. The ability to put 6 melta shots into anywhere from 1 to 3 vehicle units after DSing is just awesome. I take this unit every game (outside of low points games of course). After that it gets trickier, as your meta/playstyle will dictate. The swiss army knife loadout for Crisis is 2 MPs. Each suit getting 4 S7 AP4 shots is nothing to sneeze at. With the Broadsides, it means your army is putting out 24 S7 AP4 shots a turn. Some people have said that with CIBs now available, they're better than the MPs. I say situation dictates. The extra shot does make a ton of difference, but the halved range hurts a lot. Maybe not as much in a retaliation cadre, but against a fast army, losing that 36" range for an extra shot can suck when you're not in range to shoot period. Plus CIBs are still hard to get in the proper numbers for WYSIWYG, if that matters to you. PRs are great if you play in a TEQ/MEQ heavy meta, but outside of that are kinda eh. Not bad, just kinda meh. Now troop/horde hunting gets a bit trickier as you have 3 options. Flamers are eh. Damn scary the turn you DS in, and the wall of flame is no joke, but after that first strike you'll probably never be in range to use them again outside of overwatch. Burst cannons are pretty great. 24 S5 shots from 3 models is hilarious, and with proper ML support can be quite deadly. They have better range than Flamers, and can overwatch unlike our next choice, so they're a good middle ground. The last option is AFBs. I personally haven't tried them out yet, but a lot of people are saying they are awesome. 2 S4 AP5 barrage ignores cover large blasts per suit? Bye bye troops. The short range does hurt a bit, but scatter can actually help with that. The main problem is you can't overwatch with them, meaning you need something close by to give them supporting fire.

TLDR there is no one right choice for Crisis Suits. Because they are so versatile, it comes down to your local meta and your personal playstyle. Personally I always go with

Anti-vehicle (2 FB each, 2 TLs)
Anti-TEQ/MEQ (2 PR each, whatever support systems I can afford) OR Anti-horde/troops (2 BC/AFB each, whatever support systems I can afford) (situation dictates this choice)
TAC (2 MP/CIB each, whatever support systems I can afford)

when outfitting 3 Crisis Teams. Mess around, see which set ups work best for you in your meta. Just remember to give each of your Teams a specific job and outfit them accordingly.

 Plainshow wrote:
Are you planning on running those 2 formations only or would you considerrunning the Retaliation Cadre be part of a Dawn Blade (you mentioned the buffmander, but is Enclaves definitely out)? Are you looking to be deepstriking the Retaliation Cadre more often than not? With the Commander in with the Missilesides, you need marker support. This could be done with the Crisis Suits with their drones + target locks or you could go Dawn Blade and try to fit the Drone Net. Either option could be done with the models you mentioned (as long as they didn't skimp on the crisis drones in the Cadre box).

I'm not decided on what exactly I want to do with my army list wise. Is Dawn Blade from Mont'ka? Because I only have the Tau Codex right now. I was thinking about running a few drone nets, what is the difference with the drone nets in Dawn Blade?

Thanks for your post!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 GI_Redshirt wrote:

Anti-vehicle (2 FB each, 2 TLs)
Anti-TEQ/MEQ (2 PR each, whatever support systems I can afford) OR Anti-horde/troops (2 BC/AFB each, whatever support systems I can afford) (situation dictates this choice)
TAC (2 MP/CIB each, whatever support systems I can afford)
remember to give each of your Teams a specific job and outfit them accordingly.

I've been thinking of running 3x 2FB, I always thought that they would be enough to turn-1 destroy a vehicle and wouldn't need TLing. I understand to TL all 3 of one of the crisis suit weapons, but why only?

From what I've been considering and the help I've been getting, I will use dual BCs if I use ion blasters on my riptides or dual PRs if I use the HBC on the riptides.

I suppose I will use 2MP if I don't want to DS the unit, but if I do DS the unit, I'll use CIB (though they are ganna be a pain in the butt to get enough of, since the only way to get them is the single one you get with a commander).

Thanks!

Edited because I messed up on ratios

I've been thinking of running 3x 2FB, I always thought that they would be enough to turn-1 destroy a vehicle and wouldn't need TLing. I understand to TL all 3 of one of the crisis suit weapons, but why only?

Might have misunderstood me, or I'm misunderstanding you now lol. When I say TL here, I'm talking about Target Locks, which you only need 2 of here. Since Target Locks let you shoot at a different target than the unit, you only need 2, as the third suit will shoot at the unit target, and the other 2 will shoot at alternate targets. Do not twin-link the FBs here, as the number of shots you get plus markerlight support mean you don't need it.

From what I've been considering and the help I've been getting, I will use dual PRs if I use ion blasters on my riptides or dual BCs if I use the HBC on the riptides.

To each their own, but do keep in mind the range difference between the IA and PRs, as often times you'll find yourself out of range for the PR to be useful. And I assume you mean SMS on the HBC riptides, as you can't take burst cannons on them.

I suppose I will use 2MP if I don't want to DS the unit, but if I do DS the unit, I'll use CIB (though they are ganna be a pain in the butt to get enough of, since the only way to get them is the single one you get with a commander).

This is the general mindset most people have, and I agree with it for the most part. Keep in mind though that a smart opponent will keep his army spread out enough that with CIBs you won't be able to effectively engage his army without some lucky deepstrikes. As I said before, CIBs give you extra firepower and thus more killing potential, but MPs give you more range and thus more reliability. Definitely try out each though.

Might have misunderstood me, or I'm misunderstanding you now lol. When I say TL here, I'm talking about Target Locks, which you only need 2 of here. Since Target Locks let you shoot at a different target than the unit, you only need 2, as the third suit will shoot at the unit target, and the other 2 will shoot at alternate targets. Do not twin-link the FBs here, as the number of shots you get plus markerlight support mean you don't need it.

Oh, I totally misunderstood you. I though by "2 TL" that you meant twin-linking two of the FBs! Target locks make a lot more sense!

To each their own, but do keep in mind the range difference between the IA and PRs, as often times you'll find yourself out of range for the PR to be useful. And I assume you mean SMS on the HBC riptides, as you can't take burst cannons on them.

I totally messed up on how I typed that. What I meant to say was "I plan to run my crisis with dual BCs if I run the majority of my riptides with IAs. I plan to run my crisis with dual PRs if I run the majority of my riptides with HBCs. When it comes to my secondary riptide weapons, then all SMSs like you said.

This is the general mindset most people have, and I agree with it for the most part. Keep in mind though that a smart opponent will keep his army spread out enough that with CIBs you won't be able to effectively engage his army without some lucky deepstrikes. As I said before, CIBs give you extra firepower and thus more killing potential, but MPs give you more range and thus more reliability. Definitely try out each though.

I didn't think about the second target for my CIB crisis. It would take a couple turns to get in range of my second target, so I may use the missiles instead.

Thanks!

I'd go all HBCs on wing-riptides and only take IA on the retaliation cadre one. With EWO on all of them. Volume over quality of shots is usually my preference, riptide wing with HBCs REALLY has some volume (and with rending, so they can hurt almost anything).

The new crisis suits still don't come with quite enough weapons to have doubles on all of them (unless you equip every unit of 3 differently), unfortunately. Mixing weapons in a squad is always a bad idea, IMO. One unit with double missiles and one with double fusion, maybe. Don't know about the third.