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.