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To check out the previous article in this series, please go here. What do I want?
Better Living Through Technology Brainstorming So What Would it Look Like?
The two big items of interest to me here were the Stealth Suits and the Crisis Suits. Stealths can Infiltrate and can move like Crisis Battlesuits, even to using the JSJ tactic. They are cheaper and get one weapon instead of 2. They come standard with a Burst Cannon and have the option to take a few Fusion Blasters in the squad. On the other hand, Crisis Battlesuits have more firepower, more protection and more flexibility. (They are also more expensive.) Ultimately, I decided that as cool as Stealth Suits are, I'd rather have the Crisis Suits. Crisis Battlesuit configurations and Nomenclature Crisis Suits have three hardpoints that can be filled. There are 5 different weapons to choose from. You can also pick support systems such as a Multitracker (allows you to fire 2 weapons at the same time) or a Target Array (+1BS) or a Target Lock (allows you to target something separate from what the rest of the squad is shooting at.) As a quick note, if you mount more than one of the same weapon in a Crisis Suit, it becomes Twinlinked, rather than giving you two of them. (Fortunately it does not cost twice as much for the priviledge, unlike for Tyranids.) This can lead to a dizzying array of potential configurations. There are a fairly limited number of useful configurations, however, and these follow a rather poetic naming protocol. (I pulled this off of a file on www.advancedtautactica.com, though it was attributed to at least one other site that may have been a precursor to it.) These suit names were developed from the following rough pattern: Plasma Rifle: "Knife/Blade" Missile Pod: "Fire" Fusion Blaster: "Surge/Forge" Burst Cannon: "Storm" One Weapon Suits: Consists of one twinlinked weapon and a support system (or Flamer) in the third hardpoint Sunforge: Twinlinked Fusion Blaster Deathrain: Twinlinked Missile Pod Burning Eye: Twinlinked Plasma Rifle Two Weapon Suits: If one of the weapons is twinlinked, the configuration name will be followed by a number which is the strength of the twinlinked weapon. The Multitracker will then therefore be Hardwired. *Hardwiring is how commanders and Team Leaders and the like get extra space for equipment in their Battlesuits. It essentially allows you an extra slot, though there are limits on what can be Hardired.* Fireknife: Plasma Rifle + Missile Pod Helios: Plasma Rifle + Fusion Blaster Bladestorm: Plasma Rifle + Burst Cannon *Note: I have seen this also referred to as Blinding Spear and Aurora* Firesurge: Missile Pod + Fusion Blaster Firestorm: Missile Pod + Burst Cannon Stormsurge: Burst Cannon + Fusion Blaster Three Weapon Suits: Consists of three weapons and a Hardwired Multitracker Sunfire: Plasma Rifle + Missile Pod + Fusion Blaster Here are a few popular examples detailing the way the twinlinking nomenclature works: Fireknife-7: [Plasma Rifle, TL Missile Pod, HW Multitracker] Fireknife-6: [TL Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, HW Multitracker] Helios-6: [TL Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster, HW Multitracker] Firesurge-8: [TL Fusion Blaster, Missile Pod, HW Multitracker] There has been (and still is) a great deal of debate on how to best configure a suit. The most common configuration is the Fireknife. The combination of Missile Pods and Plasma Rifle is a potent one that features good strength weapons with fairly long range, and offers utility against Heavy Infantry and light to medium Vehicles. There are other configurations that are more efficient against certain targets, but Fireknife is generally considered to be the most effective combination, a good general suit to have. As an example, the Bladestorm configuration (Burst Cannon and Plasma) is cheaper and is a little more efficient at killing Space Marines. On the other hand, it doesn't offer the S7 shots to take down vehicles that the Missile Pod does, and it has a shorter range for the Burst Cannon. While 18" range on a move and shoot weapon may not seem like a big deal, it means that the Battlesuit must move closer to the target, and thus be closer after the JSJ move, which can lead to retaliation depending on the capabilities of the enemy army. The difference between ending up just under 24" away and just under 30" away can be the difference between living and dying for a Crisis suit. Along the same lines, while I was playing around with configurations, I came up with one that I've never seen listed before, Twinlinked Burstcannon. Going along with the other single-weapon suit names, I think Hailstorm would be a good name. It's highly accurate (Twinlinked and Target Array, like the other one-weapon suits) and it throws 3 S5 AP5 shots 18" so it has a threat envelope of 24" including the suit's movement. Due to the inexpensive nature of it, it's very efficient at killing Space Marines, significantly more so than any other suit configuration that I tried. On the other hand, an envelope of 24" still leaves you in range of Bolter return fire if you can't get out of Line of Sight, and you won't actually kill many Space Marines with it. (On average you'll get about 0.66 Dead Space Marines per Hailstorm in range.) It _could_ be effective, but it's got a very narrow utility band (infantry and very light vehicles) that matches the rest of a standard Tau army. (Same targets as Pulse Rifles, which are what Firewarriors have in spades.) Ultimately, I decided that while it was interesting, it was an example of a suit that didn't fit a useful role on the battlefield. I read a couple of interesting discussions about how a player would be better off (or not) taking specialized Crisis Battlesuits instead of generalized ones. One suggestion was that instead of having 2 units of 2 Fireknives, you could have a unit of 2 Deathrains (Twinlinked Missile Pods) for long-range antivehicle shooting, and a unit of 2 Burning Eye (Twinlinked Plasma Rifle) for mid-range anti-Heavy Infantry work. Each pair would be more effective at it's specialized task. On the other hand, it would be easier to lose one unit and be left without Missile Pods or without Plasma Rifles. A canny opponent that was more vulnerable to one than the other could specifically target or avoid the more dangerous one, which isn't an option if they are all the same. One potential way to get around this would be to have generalized teams of specialist suits. To use the previous example, you could have 2 units, each consisting of one Deathrain and one Burning Eye. While this could leave you shooting Plasma Rifles at vehicles they couldn't hurt, there are ways around that. One way would be to give a Hardwired Target Lock and a Team Leader upgrade to one of the suits in each unit. This would make them slightly more expensive, but would let them fire at separate targets, each hitting their specialty hopefully. This mixing of suits also offers the possibility of choosing your casualties. If the opponent has a bunch of Terminators that the Missile Pods are ineffective against, you can remove the Deathrain first, leaving your Twinlinked Plasma suit to seek vengeance. This is theory and will take a lot of playing around with the numbers and actual gameplay to decide my preference. For now I'll still be sticking to the old standby, the Fireknife, because it works and it's always got the right gun for the job. Troops FireWarriors It feels really weird to do this, but I want to minimize these guys, since I don't want very many models. In addition, Firewarriors don't lend themselves to mobility much, which is something I'm looking for. I generally like to have lots of Troops in my armies, but this is one situation that it would be detrimental to do so. That being said, I do see a couple of potential uses for FireWarriors. -small team of FireWarriors to grab objectives -teams of FireWarriors in heavily-armed Devilfish to do a hot drop on an enemy squad. 2 or 3 squads like this together, jumping out of the Devilfish and Rapidfiring would decimate a squad of Space Marines. On the other hand, that would cost about 750points, would be very vulnerable to return fire and would be WAY more models than I want in my army.
Models that are even less expensive. On the other hand, being able to infiltrate some speedbump or objective-grabbing units could be useful. Most of the Top tier Tau armies incorporate some Kroot, but for the moment I'm going to leave them out in favor of Firewarriors. The Firewarriors, being armored, look cooler and fit my concept better. Fast Attack Vespid Stingwings These aren't bad. Fast moving unit with AP3 weapons to zip out and kill some Space Marines doesn't sound like a bad deal, right? Well, without extra movement in the Assault phase (like Crisis suits or Stealths) and light armor, this is a unit that will require finesse to use. But wasn't finesse one of my criteria? Yes, yes it was. On the other hand, since most of my army will "finesse" differently, that would leave these guys in the open ready to accept return fire. (In addition, I'm not fond of the models, which is saying something.) Pathfinders These are expensive and don't get the scout move with their 'fish anymore. While this doesn't seem game-breaking to me, it does remove one of their options. Their other primary use is for Markerlighting enemy units. Markerlights can make your shooting much more effective, but being treated as Heavy Weapons means that if you are using a Jump/Shoot/Jump strategy and trying to hide most of your units, you are now leaving a small, fragile unit out in the open for the enemy to shoot at. An enemy that may have no other targets and be looking for vengeance... Gun Drones While taking some of these frisbees is an interesting idea, I don't think they serve a terribly useful purpose in the army. Mobile light firepower isn't a bad idea, but there are better ways of getting it. Piranha They have the option of using either a Fusion Blaster or Burst Cannon as their armament, but the Fusion Blaster easily wins out here. The short range is mitigated by the speed of this fast skimmer and having the punch to blow through a tank or instakill a character is highly useful. It is AV11, which will protect it from most basic weapons, such as Bolters, but is tissue paper to real tank guns and is open-topped as well. This means that if they don't hide, they die. While you can get them in larger squadrons, I think they wouldn't be nearly as useful. Given that these models are 5 or so inches across, a squadron of 3 or more would be a huge footprint to try to hide somewhere. My first recommendation would be to put them in separate slots so that they are individuals. If you want more than you have available slots, then I'd consider using squadrons of two. These are only slightly more vulnerable than individuals, and only a little harder to hide. In addition, they can keep VPs surprisingly well. (If one dies, you are still AT half-strength, so you don't give up any VPs. Lose one and use the other to scoot away and hide, thus giving up zero victory points and preserving the other Piranha for a potential last-turn grab for objectives.) Finally, each Piranha comes with 2 Gun Drones. This isn't a huge deal, as they don't add a lot of firepower, but they do add some interesting potential. The drones can detach from the Piranha and form a separate unit. While this isn't a scoring unit, it does offer possibilities such as attempting to screen other targets, or even charging toward the enemy to briefly tie up a unit. You can slow down a charge this way or hold up a heavy weapons team for a couple of turns, which can be very handy. Theoretically you might even be able to use the S5 shots they have against the rear armor of a vehicle. It's a long shot, but for free how can you argue? Heavy Support Broadsides Twin-linked Railguns are pretty sweet. Long-range, high Strength and low AP. Great for nailing vehicles or taking down nasty big characters like Daemon Princes. Monat (ie: single) or team? What is necessary equipment? Most Necessary in my opinion is the Advanced Stabilization System. While it makes them Slow and Purposeful, it allows the Broadsides to move and still shoot their Railguns. This is vital. Without it, every turn spent moving into position for a shot is a turn not spent firing. Next on the list is a Target Lock, which allows the model that has it to shoot at something else. If you are in a team of Broadsides and the first shot turns an enemy vehicle into a smoking crater, it's very handy to be able to shoot at something else. Next on the necessary list is Shield Drones. While you should be in cover, a 2+ save only goes so far, especially when you have something as nasty as a Railgun on your shoulder. A couple of Shield Drones go a long way toward keeping the unit firing. Other options mostly boil down to additional weapons. While the Missile Pods could be useful for firing at things that are out of Line of Sight, I think I'll spend those points on other units that will be able to target such things, directly or indirectly.
Interesting idea. Gives the possibility of an anti-vehicle alpha-strike, which can be quite effective, assuming the opponent uses vehicles. While theoretically it could also be used against Heavy Infantry or Monstrous Creatures, the Skyray just can't carry enough missiles to really make it worthwhile unless it's targeting vehicles. Sniper Teams These are an interesting concept. Unfortunately, like the Pathfinders, they are pretty much resigned to sitting still and shooting, which means they either don't have targets or they will probably take return fire. Unlike the Broadsides, however, their weapons aren't as decisive and their armor isn't as resistant, so I think they would likely just die too fast in my army. I could see them being highly useful in a Static army or even a Hybrid army, but less useful in a Mechanized army or a Battlesuit army like mine. Hammerheads (Specifically those with Railguns) have the advantages of Submunition rounds which let them injure large groups of lightly armored models, better Line of Sight (being skimmers) and faster mobility. Broadsides, on the other hand, offer better accuracy, up to 3 railguns per Heavy choice and are about half the price of a Railhead. Ultimately, I'll give a slight advantage to the Broadside here, but I wouldn't totally reject Hammerheads as a viable choice. Broadsides vs Hammerheads Hammerheads are skimmers and can quickly get good Line of Sight and can move 12" and still fire their Railguns. Broadsides with the Stabilization system can move as though through difficult terrain and still shoot their Twinlinked Railguns. The broadsides are more accurate and about half the price. The Hammerheads have very good armor, but can still be taken down by a lucky shot. As a note, most of the Top Tier Tau armies have 2-3 Hammerheads and no Broadsides, but the Stabilization system is fairly new, so we may start seeing more Broadsides. Temporary List
I will probably use split deployment for this army. Put the Broadsides and FireWarriors out to either edge of the board in solid cover. The Battlesuits and the Piranhas will mostly be hiding in the central area, all behind cover. The idea is to see which side the opponent is moving most of his forces toward, then move the center away from that and concentrate on wiping out the weak side of the enemy force. In the meantime, I'll be trying to relieve the strong side of their transports and fast units, meaning they'll have to footslog the long way down the board to get at the bulk of my forces, who will keep dancing away from them. The Crisis suits will do that JSJ thing that they do so well, dancing to stay out of LOS in the enemy turn. The Piranhas will be trying to target those units that could move to get LOS to my Crisis teams. Here's also a very good set of points about the JSJ movement by Spooky, widely regarded as one of the top Tau players in the world... Okay, does it fit?
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