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Looking at the rulebook, Darkstrider was another pleasant surprise- down from 100 pts to 45, wargear included. I'm still not sure, though.

His structural analyser- IE -1 toughness to the enemy- was a lot more usefull in 7th, where 1 point of toughness could mean the difference between a 3+ and 2+ to wound roll. Your fire warriors will only end up wounding a T3 target on a 2+ with that bonus in play, although I could see some utility with bigger guns.

He's lost the ability to consolidate away d6 when charged, which is a bit of a bummer.

However, any infantry around him that fell back can fire as normal, which is actually pretty good if you've got a bunch of fire warriors or pathfinders.(Markerlights would probably get the -1 penalty for moving and firing though)

He also has a nifty 2+ BS for his markerlight, although you could get that slightly cheaper from a fireblade. His save remains a crummy 5+, and his toughness is still 3, although he's up to 5 wounds now, making him somewhat more durable.

So, discussion time- cheap as he is now, is it worth fielding Darkstrider?

10 Breachers + Darkstrider + Devilfish

That's cool

Basically anything else? nope


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, why are you posting this here instead of in the Tau Tactics thread?

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/726989.page
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/733114.page

 Talamare wrote:
10 Breachers + Darkstrider + Devilfish

That's cool

Basically anything else? nope


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, why are you posting this here instead of in the Tau Tactics thread?

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/726989.page
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/733114.page

Care to elaborate?

As for the threads: firstly I'm still new here so I don't keep track of topic specific threads. Secondly... it feels odd to put every possible tau question into one thread, sounds like it would be hard to keep track of. Just my thread about crisis suit prices wound up being three pages long and that was only discussing their cost and strategy to an extent.

Darkstrider does wonders to Breachers, but that's about it.

Hard to see a case where darkstrider would be better than a fireblade.

I've been running 20 breachers in 2 devilfishes with darkstrider and they have been very effective, this week they brought down a dreadnought in one round of shooting thanks to his structural analyser and when a second dreadnought charged one of the units darkstrider allowed then to fall back and cripple the second one as well. He even provides a markerlight that the breachers can use.

 Dantioch wrote:
I've been running 20 breachers in 2 devilfishes with darkstrider and they have been very effective, this week they brought down a dreadnought in one round of shooting thanks to his structural analyser and when a second dreadnought charged one of the units darkstrider allowed then to fall back and cripple the second one as well. He even provides a markerlight that the breachers can use.

Seems like some healthy point investments there.

 Xenomancers wrote:
Hard to see a case where darkstrider would be better than a fireblade.

Breachers

 Dantioch wrote:
I've been running 20 breachers in 2 devilfishes with darkstrider and they have been very effective, this week they brought down a dreadnought in one round of shooting thanks to his structural analyser and when a second dreadnought charged one of the units darkstrider allowed then to fall back and cripple the second one as well. He even provides a markerlight that the breachers can use.

Dreadnoughts kinda of SOUND like something insane and unkillable
but their only like ~130pts each

Basically, the cost of 1 of your 2 Devilfish
What I'm saying is, if I'm investing like 4x the cost of the thing I'm shooting at, I expect it dead.

Darkstrider also stacks with a Fire Blade, they aren't mutually exclusive benefits.

Darkstrider gives one of your units better wounding and lets some of them fall back, The Fireblade boosts their shooting in a way that stacks with Darkstriders.

 Talamare wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
Hard to see a case where darkstrider would be better than a fireblade.

Breachers

 Dantioch wrote:
I've been running 20 breachers in 2 devilfishes with darkstrider and they have been very effective, this week they brought down a dreadnought in one round of shooting thanks to his structural analyser and when a second dreadnought charged one of the units darkstrider allowed then to fall back and cripple the second one as well. He even provides a markerlight that the breachers can use.

Dreadnoughts kinda of SOUND like something insane and unkillable
but their only like ~130pts each

Basically, the cost of 1 of your 2 Devilfish
What I'm saying is, if I'm investing like 4x the cost of the thing I'm shooting at, I expect it dead.

Well the two devilfishes kept two Razorbacks from shooting for the entirety of the game as well as killed of a squad of scouts, which can hardly be called much of an achievement. And my opponent fielded guilliman, 15 scouts 4 Razorbacks and 6 dreadnoughts, so the breachers didn't really have any good targets. So I brought down 2 dreads of which one was the fancy chaplain dread, killed some scouts and stopped two Razorbacks from doing anything for the entire game, so I more or less got my points back.

But my point is that darkstrider, for a quite minor points investment, significantly boosts breachers, since all three of his abilities supports the unit.

 Unusual Suspect wrote:
Darkstrider also stacks with a Fire Blade, they aren't mutually exclusive benefits.

Darkstrider gives one of your units better wounding and lets some of them fall back, The Fireblade boosts their shooting in a way that stacks with Darkstriders.

Fireblades don't work with breachers :(

I really hope that the 8th edition Tau codex cleans up their infantry a bit.

 Arandmoor wrote:

 Unusual Suspect wrote:
Darkstrider also stacks with a Fire Blade, they aren't mutually exclusive benefits.

Darkstrider gives one of your units better wounding and lets some of them fall back, The Fireblade boosts their shooting in a way that stacks with Darkstriders.

Fireblades don't work with breachers :(

I really hope that the 8th edition Tau codex cleans up their infantry a bit.

Why? What part of its rule says his ability doesn't boost them?

 SevenSeasOfRhye wrote:

 Arandmoor wrote:

 Unusual Suspect wrote:
Darkstrider also stacks with a Fire Blade, they aren't mutually exclusive benefits.

Darkstrider gives one of your units better wounding and lets some of them fall back, The Fireblade boosts their shooting in a way that stacks with Darkstriders.

Fireblades don't work with breachers :(

I really hope that the 8th edition Tau codex cleans up their infantry a bit.

Why? What part of its rule says his ability doesn't boost them?

The part where it says, specifically, that he buffs Pulse pistols, Pulse carbines, and Pulse rifles.

Not sure if the synergy with Breachers would be all that useful, either... the three range bands would make getting the Fireblade to work with them a bit finicky, but even so having to get within 10" to get -1 AP is more situational than not... and STR 6 AP -2 at 5" even more so.

Think a Fireblade paired with Pulse rifle Strike Teams is best - 3 shots at 15".

fire-blade is even better with drones. They have 2 pulse carbines so it ends up being 6 shots each. With a pulse accelerator drone it ends up being 6 shots at 12 inches. Throw 3 marker lights on that target and you can advance and shoot with no penalty - throw on 5 and you'll be hitting on 3's rerolling 1's if you have drone controller. Tau is all about synergy. Drones have it all.

Pulse Accelerator Drone only works with Infantry

Just checked... no way, ONLY with strike teams, pathfinders and drones? Because that's what it amounts to. Huh. Breachers are even less useful, then.

 Vector Strike wrote:
Pulse Accelerator Drone only works with Infantry

Good catch there - I missed that. Seems like a pointless keyword implementation - but okay. The fireblade at least affects all weapons regardless of unit type. Though - it's looking like to me that a mix of firewarriors and gun drones might work better than just drones. However this would probably mean you need to include darkstrider AND a fireblade in each army.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Vector Strike wrote:
Pulse Accelerator Drone only works with Infantry

Good catch there - I missed that. Seems like a pointless keyword implementation - but okay. The fireblade at least affects all weapons regardless of unit type. Though - it's looking like to me that a mix of firewarriors and gun drones might work better than just drones. However this would probably mean you need to include darkstrider AND a fireblade in each army.

Fire Warriors and Drones don't care about Darkstrider that much

It's literally Darkstrider + a full unit of Breachers...

or Fireblade and the normal gang

 Talamare wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
Hard to see a case where darkstrider would be better than a fireblade.

Breachers

Pathfinders toting Rail Rifles with a heavily Markerlit target.

Can also do Stealth Suits, Vespid, or Kroot Carnivores(especially with a Shaper nearby letting them reroll To Wound rolls of 1).

Interesting that Darkstrider, 2 x 10- man Breachers, and two Devilfish comes to slighlty under 500 points...

Coyotepunc wrote:
Interesting that Darkstrider, 2 x 10- man Breachers, and two Devilfish comes to slighlty under 500 points...

I ran that in my last game and it went pretty well. They shot across the board the first turn, Darkstrider and the unit in the Devifish with him unloaded, then put some hurt into a squad of Flamers of Tzeentch. The Breachers were wiped out by the opponent's army on his turn, but then the second unit unloaded from their Devifish, and the pair wiped out another squad while the Devilish soaked Smites for my army by harassing the numerous Psykers.

Coyotepunc wrote:
Interesting that Darkstrider, 2 x 10- man Breachers, and two Devilfish comes to slighlty under 500 points...

Devilfishies are overcosted, that's why.