Tau analysis: Heavy Support

Sniper drones- on their own, they are a fairly poor option. The gun is very nice though.  It lacks the Mortal Wound feature of most sniper rifles, But it is rapid fire 48” with a STR5 shot….nothing to scoff at.  Like many other Tau units, it suffers from placement in the Org chart.  A Heavy slot really probably needs to be more heavy hitting than what these little guys provide the army.

Skyray missile support ships seem to have lost their place in the army at the moment. Traditionally an Anti-aircraft or missile support weapon, Their main armament their markerlight/6 seeker missiles seems to be a hard fit for a valuable Heavy slot. Still, it is slightly cheaper than a Hammerhead and it’s weapons suite might make it something like a Basilisk traditionally with a bent toward precision ordnance. (which is EXTREMELY fluffy from original Tau fluff, who dislike Area effect weapons.)

HammerHead gunships- It used to be a mainstay of my Tau armies when Broadsides were popular, then took a back seat once Tau had access to a range of fighters/flyer (See ref: Tim’s fascination with Air superiority) .  The HH Railgun is now a beast!.  It’s initial damage is similar to what you’d expect (str10,-4AP, d6 dmg), on a to wound roll of 6 it also deals d3 MORTAL WOUNDS.

Broadside Battlesuits  with the ability to move and shoot and their fire power doubling since Twin-linked weapons are now 2 weapons, broadside regain their ability to be mean anti vehicle units.  High Yeild missile pods began to replace the Hvy Rail Rifle as the weapon of choice on Broadside, but Suspect to see tau players snapping the missile pods of their broadsides.  At a cost 9 PL a piece though (the cost of a 10-man marine tactical squad!), they MIGHT  be a touch expensive. I’ll certainly be trying them out for sure!

Lord of War

StormSurge the Tau Heavy Ballistics Battlesuit, it’s about as mean as you’d expect. It has no Melee capabilities of note. (as one might expect except that historically we’re used to Gargantuan creatures having some punch no matter what).  Comparing it to a traditional Imperial Knight, it costs 2 power level less, has poorer Accuracy, trades the knight’s impressive melee capabilities, less heavy firepower, but gains a slew of massed antipersonnel weaponry(which is still valuable against all units since everything is now based on a wound system).  If it remains stationary, in the movement phase,  it can offset the accuracy penalty gaining a +1 to hit.  All that said, I’m a touch jealous of the imperial Knight.  

Speedy Tau Things: a Review of Tau Fast attack, flyers, and transports.

Fast Attack

The Tau have a variety of capable Fast Attack units.  Outside of the Pathfinder though, most of these units will be competing against other Org Slots for their Point/Power Level cost. Tau need heavy firepower to bolster their mid-range infantry and require heavy use of Elite and Fire Support units, so Fast attack is often an afterthought.

Pathfinders as the main method of gaining marker lights into an army, these will still be useful.  Their recent Recon armor nerf (5+), is less penalizing in 8^th edition. Rail rifles continue to be one of the BEST Sniper style weapons in the game (they are not actually traditional sniper weapons, but they fulfill this role in the traditional sense).  They do have above average speed, which I suspect is nice if they need to beat a quick retreat.   They are high strength high AP, d3 Damage dealing weapons that are Rapid fire AND gain the additional MORTAL WOUND on a 6+ to wound. THAT IS AMAZING.  Still, a Tau player fights to push marker lights into their army, so even as good as these weapons are, it will be hard to put these weapons into the army. Comparatively, The Ion Rifle was already an uninteresting upgrade, and is even less interesting.

Piranha skimmers squadrons-Vehicles that have the FLY Keyword are great for jumping out of Close combat and shooting.   Decent Firepower, good speed.   They’re cheap enough to be decent wall/distraction units, but will not compete against their closest equivalent, the Vyper Jetbike.

Drone Squadrons- Also have the keyword FLY, making them a good close range hit and run unit as long as they don’t get hit too hard by a charging unit.

Vespid StingWings-  I’m not a fan of the Auxilliary races in the tau empire, but they give a player who likes to convert models okay proxy rules to play by. Their statline  and Playstyle would be a good fit for Fire Caste Jump troops. And their high mobility and decent firepower. 

Dedicated transports

 Devilfish APC -  Me always lovses all things Grav-Tank. (All GW has to do is pull the tires and treads off a model, and I can’t stop from buying at least 3!).   Heavy firepower attached to a unit with the Keyword FLY

 seems a no brainer choice in an arm because as long as it isn't dead, it's capable of shooting.   I have a hunch that people will take fondly to Heavy skimmers in all of the races.

More expensive than its Imperial counterparts(PL7), they have slightly more wounds than most APCs.  They seems to play like they always have and will be a regular part of my army until the Tau gain a flying transport. (the only thing I like more than hover tanks….PLEASE GW!!).  

Tau Flyers

Razorshark fighter:  My favorite of the GW Tau Flyers,  (no contest for the FW flyers tho...)

It traditionally has been a rare sight on the table due to a mediocre weapon system with too high a point cost. When equipped with Missile pods so that it can combat vehicles and other big models, this unit seems like it may warrant slightly more common use.  EXCEPT that in the flyer vein, the SunShark Bomber still seems superior!

Sunshark bomber when GW Tau flyers are referred to on the internet, you’re likely to see the Sunshark get more attention than it’s little brother, the Razorshark.  This looks like it continues to hold true. It already wields the missile pod and has cool interceptor drones that detach and distract enemy units (the only place where I don’t mind field Ion Rifles) . the real charm of this craft is the pulse bomb.  In the movement phase, if can drop a bomb over one unit it flies over in a turn. It rolls a d6 for each model in the enemy unit(up to a max of 10d6) each roll of 6 inflicts a MORTAL wound.  It can then proceed to attack in the shooting phase as normal. WOW!  I can see real value in that.

2 more of these to go.  next up will be the Heavy suport choices and the dreaded Stormsurge.

Tau Analysis: Elite Choices

The Tau Elites section has always been the most difficult section to use, as it has so many great units and you want to take all of them.  While now one can take way more elite choices (6 in a standard battalion org), the big models can no longer be fielded in squads, so they continue to suffer somewhat(though I suppose lots of other units which lost their squadron capabilities have as well.

Battlesuits in General

Battlesuits still fill the same dynamic Fire fighting role as they always have, filling gaps in the line, eleimnating key targets with massive firepower having both high speed and durabilty.  Because of thehir FLY keyword, they can jump out of contact with the enemy and still fire and nearby drone squads can be used to selectively absorb the enemy’s scarier firepower.  The smaller suit (Stealth/Crisis) weaponry allow for them to fire while advancing, so they can move quickly to take objectives and disrupt an enemy’s maneuvers.  The larger suits wield heavier weapons, slowing them down if trying to fire effectively.

               

Despite their elite status, their best natural ballistic skill is a 4+ to hit, meaning they are reliant on markerlights to ensure their maximum effect.

Elite

Stealthsuit Battlesuits are all now fast to make of for the loss of the assault phase jump pack move, but these guys can advance and still fire without -1 to hit, so are even faster. Camouflage field now subtract 1 from ALL to hit rolls against this unit (shooting and melee) so they have some decent resiliency. Homing Beacons now allow battlesuit units to set up within 6” of an enemy unit when deepstriking instead of the usual 9”.  (I’m using old edition common terminology to describe this to avoid confusion with new wording).  They have a high power level cost for a 3 model unit(6), but I think it’s worth it.

Ghostkeel Stealth Battlesuit-  Continues to be my favorite unit for my army theme (stealthy, direct-firepower force with lots of flyer support).  They have amazing firepower, can gain up to a -2 to hit in the open (-3 if cover allows!!) and a 12” move.  They cost 12 Power Level each, so they are pricey. Also, their cyclic Ion Raker was a faster shooting high strength weapon in the last edition, which made it pretty good at killing everything.  Now, this weapon is still good, but only causes a single point of damage (like assault cannons) so it’s not AS universally useful as it has been.  It is still DARN GOOD though.

                     

Crisis suits (and bodyguard)- now can wield a 3^rd weapon if desired which can be cool, have a nice 8” move and have T5 and 3 wounds each. Bodyguards can also take wounds for a Tau CHARACTER.  Crisis suits come with a BIG point cost, with 3 models costing 11 PL base.

Riptide Battlesuits Still a potent force (and I think they MIGHT be a touch tougher than they used to be ;) ).  They resemble other faction’s dreadnought type units.  These have always been super-dreadnoughts of this class, being about twice as tough and costly as other faction dreadnoughts.  The same still holds with these units also being TWICE as fast. (this was also true previously since jump packs essentially doubled their movement.  Nova Reactors now AUTOMATICALLY force a mortal wound when used, so it MIGHT not be an “ALWAYS use” item, but it might still be. Both main weapons are potent in their own right.  (the more common Ion Accelerator having a smaller volley of better AP shots that have the ability to inflict multiple wounds with some “gets hot” style risk). Given hot Drone SAVIOR PROTOCOLS work, these units work great with drone nearby, as their Toughness is used to make the to wound roll, but the wound itself can be assigned to a nearby Drone unit.  This makes these already tough monsters hard to land decisive hits on.

FarSight Marksmen: Previously, these attached to the sniper drones, but are now a separate entry in the army list. This is interesting and allows them to play like they were originally lay when they were first created (playtest rules had the drones acting as a separate unit that used the Marksmen’s BS to spot targets. They are in the coveted Elite section of the army, which means they won’t really compete for a spot unless you’re looking for a way to fill out the last few points in your army list.costing  (PL1).


Next time I'll hit the Fast Attack and flyers in the Tau Arsenal.