TAU XV8 Death Suits

[Panxer]

I have worked out a weapons loadout for the two HQ + Retinue units that can serve as a heavy infantry/anti-transport(or light armor) kill team. Kind of pricey point-wise, but it's worked well for me for sheer volume of fire they put out.

Please let me know what you think.

XV8 Shas'El + x2 XV Shas'Vre 120pts
Bonding Knife (Shas'El) 5pts
x3 HW Drone Controller 0pts
x2 Shield Drones+ x2 Gun Drones 50pts
x3 HW Multi-Trackers 15pts
x3 Plasma Rifles 60pts
x3 TL Missile Pods 54pts
Total: 304pts

Like I said, pricey, BUT for all of this you get a commander (LD9) with 3 wounds that hits on 3+, accompanied by x2 Shas'Vre with 2 wounds a pop that hits on 4+, BUT have two extra 3+ saves and x2 4+ invul saves (via the Shield Drones, not to mention the x2 4+ from the Gun drones (which are TL and have a chance to pin).

Now for weapons and volume of fire: in this loadout, you have x3 TL 36" assault 2 S7AP4 shots, and are an excellent way to mess up troops and take out light armor, AND x3 24" S6AP2 Rapid Fire which can deal with heavy infantry; giving you a total of 9 shots of hot smoking death every turn (18 if you brought a 2nd unit).

Two units or these allowed by force organization, supported by another 3 elite slots of similar loadout, has the potential to march around 15 XV suits that will probably scare the SH%& out of your opponent and provide withering amount of fire (provided the dice gods don't forsake you, as they have me).

SO! Concluding! You have a reasonably durable unit that's extremely maneuverable, with deadly amounts of fire that can jump around the board and create HAVOC against an unsuspecting foe.

Tactical Thoughts?

[JxKxR]

Not to burst your bubble or anything but this is pretty standard for the tau. Plasma rifle+ Missile pod+ Multi tracker+ Shield and gundrones is the norm for a XV8.

One of the things the tau have going for them nowadays is that not a lot of people see them and aren't to familiar with the tricks of the army. I like to run some of the special issue wargear to screw with my opponent and make it possible for some wound allocation shenanigans.

Now that said you do have a good and useful unit.

[Panxer]

Roger that. I follow your logic, and agree whole heartedly.

I knew it was a fire knife configuration, but the main featured difference is that it's an HQ unit giving them all HW MT's with TL missiles and a potential double tap with the plasma.

I've got 12 XV8's, and I'm thinking sometime, I should get 15 so I'll have the potential for 30 AP2 shots... I like killing Necrons and units with FNP so, yeah, I like plasma.

What do you think about sniper drone teams?

[Old_Paladin]

I don't mind sniper drone teams.
They aren't too expensive (for tau). They add some extra marker lights (and the most accurate ones too). It's the only unit that has a stealth generator AND long range weapons.
The guns can do ok damage; you just need to pick the targets really well to maximize their potential [multi-wound T3 models (swarms, IG heavy weapon teams), high cost 3+ save models in the open (bikers, assault marines, grey knights) and light vehicles (trukks, buggies, land speeder, DE raiders)].

The major downside is that they take away a heavy slot; and most people fill up on lots of braodsides and/or hammerheads.

[Pikante]

1. Fusion blasters, deep strike with Pathfinders (They are called that right... the marker light guys >.>) looking where you are doing so. Laugh as you manage to land it.

2. Do this with 15 suits.

3. Lol as they all target lock.

4. Destroy every tank on the board.

5. Use troops to shoot down the infintry.

6. Use hammerheads to mop up the rest.

7. ????

8. Profit.

[AbusePuppy]

You're sinking a lot of points into a unit that isn't much more survivable/killy than a normal Crisis team. You have four extra wounds, but losing two models will force a morale test, which is a weakness of Tau. I might do this at 2.5K points, but not below.

It's not bad, you've picked all the "right" options from the list rather than the bad ones, but it's a few notches short of optimal, whatever that may be worth to you. Rather than TL Missiles you might consider Targeting Arrays for the bodyguards; 4pts nets you better BS with the Plasma as well.

[Archon]

I have worked out a weapons loadout for the two HQ + Retinue units that can serve as a heavy infantry/anti-transport(or light armor) kill team. Kind of pricey point-wise, but it's worked well for me for sheer volume of fire they put out.

Please let me know what you think.

XV8 Shas'El + x2 XV Shas'Vre 120pts
Bonding Knife (Shas'El) 5pts
x3 HW Drone Controller 0pts
x2 Shield Drones+ x2 Gun Drones 50pts
x3 HW Multi-Trackers 15pts
x3 Plasma Rifles 60pts
x3 TL Missile Pods 54pts
Total: 304pts

Like I said, pricey, BUT for all of this you get a commander (LD9) with 3 wounds that hits on 3+, accompanied by x2 Shas'Vre with 2 wounds a pop that hits on 4+, BUT have two extra 3+ saves and x2 4+ invul saves (via the Shield Drones, not to mention the x2 4+ from the Gun drones (which are TL and have a chance to pin).

Now for weapons and volume of fire: in this loadout, you have x3 TL 36" assault 2 S7AP4 shots, and are an excellent way to mess up troops and take out light armor, AND x3 24" S6AP2 Rapid Fire which can deal with heavy infantry; giving you a total of 9 shots of hot smoking death every turn (18 if you brought a 2nd unit).

Tactical Thoughts?

Nothing new here so far. Sadly this unit isn´t that good for the price you pay. At first BF 4 on a HQ unit is not very good, so you have to spend another 10 pts for the enhanced target device (and drop the TL Pod for the commander, as its required a hardpoint). The BF 3 of the bodyguards is guard-level bf you waste 50 % of your expencive plasmashots. Than take a look to the different ranges of the wapons:

36 for the pods
24/12 for the plasmas
18 for the gunddrones

Where is the range for this precious unit to act? As far away as they can get from nasty close-combat, torrentfiring or worser units ... this may be 36/24.

Next question: Wich model will you remove first, when you take wounds? Hmm the gundrones? So don´t expect too much from them.

I would prefer the standard cheap loadout for the cmdr. Plamsa, Pod, BF+1 (I personally would go with the O if i have the points). The Retinue is TL Pods with a cheap third slot: Flamer or something.

If you like to have plasma go for the fireknife config, get the leader a bf upgrade an push the rest with marker-suppoert to kill termies and the like.

[Panxer]

Nothing new here so far. Sadly this unit isn´t that good for the price you pay. At first BF 4 on a HQ unit is not very good, so you have to spend another 10 pts for the enhanced target device (and drop the TL Pod for the commander, as its required a hardpoint). The BF 3 of the bodyguards is guard-level bf you waste 50 % of your expencive plasmashots. Than take a look to the different ranges of the wapons:

Tau Commander isn't required to have a support system. Codex reads 'three weapons or support systems'

And I'd rather statistically pay 6 points for a TL Missile Pod, instead of 10 points for a Target Array and roll to hit once on a 3.

Next question: Which model will you remove first, when you take wounds? Hmm the gundrones? So don´t expect too much from them.

I expect A LOT from them! They keep the unit alive past turn 3! These little buggers are 2 extra 3+/4+invul wound allocations and then another 2 that can take insta-kill wounds. Sure I can pay 20 points for the shield generator (60 for the unit), but for 50 points I get the extra wounds as described in the previous sentence, and if I went the Shield gen route, I'm spending 10 extra points I could be putting into a marker light for a support unit to make my BS3 shas'vre's shoot at BS4 regardless.

The only thing I can really agree with you about your post is the plasma being too expensive. Yes, you have 24" range and AP2, but for 20 points, you're better off to go with the fusion blaster for 12 pts or a burst cannon for 6 points if we're just talking for points economy.

Thanks for the input though. I've got a lot of good feedback so far!:D

[JxKxR]

The plasma may be a little bit more but you need it to deal with terminators.

[Panxer]

The way I've got it listed, you can either run your HQ death suits with plasma and missiles for 304pts a pop,
or you can run them with missiles and fusion blasters for 280pts. It's up to you.

Both are AP death, and the only real differences I see in stopping power between the two are points cost 20 vs 12, and secondly x1-24" or x 2- 12" rapid fire shots vs x1-12" melta shot. Both can handle terminators, pop vehicles, or insta-kill most basic troops, so it really comes down to personal preference.

There really is no wrong answer on this one. METT-T dependent.

[Fishboy]

I see a lot of people rave about the Missile Pod/Plasma Rifle configuration, and maybe it's just me, but I just don't like it.

First off, for the price we have to pay for battlesuits, I want them hitting what they shoot at, so I'm a monster fan of twin-linking everything I can. I have a paranoia that my own dice are scheming against me, so I like to give them as little opportunity as possible to do so.

But my biggest issue is the range. If I have a battlesuit firing a weapon with a 36" range, it has no business being within 24" of what it's firing at. I want those suits jumping around, so that my opponent has to choose which long-range target to shoot at, those, or my broadsides. And if a suit has a plasma rifle, I want it getting off 2 shots every turn, to really make all those points worth it. So I want those suits right in my enemy's face, unloading 2 shots per suit and in a perpetual bounding retreat, as they jump backwards over yet another kroot speed bump, a completely unworthy opponent for whatever rampaging unit is coming my way (Nob Squad, Death Company, whatever.) But of course, you're going to run into the occasional crafty opponent who can

The way I see it, each of those weapons systems naturally belongs in a different place on the table. If I'm using my plasma rifles for either the AP2 to get past armor, double out S3 units, or its ability to negate FNP, the missile pod is no more effective at doubling out S3 units, and utterly fails to achieve the other two goals. So I haven't found that the additional firepower up that close is worth the points.

Instead, I prefer to take two different kinds of suits, that each have a different place on the table. It seems to buck the bit of conventional Tau wisdom I've read, but it's the thing that's worked best for me. I run teams of suits that either bring TL Plasma Rifles, or TL Missile Pods. Since my plasma suits are primarily for close-in fighting, I've been finishing them off with flamers for a cheap third option, and for the missile suits, I've been using either blacksun filters for a cheap finish, or target locks, so that a team of three suits can split fire three ways to barrage light transports. For your consideration, the plasma team of three costs 177, and the missile team with blacksun filters comes in at 138 points. So you're giving up a fair amount of survivability, but the total cost of both teams is 315, and you'll deal a bit more damage.

To add in a bit of survivability, think about taking a HQ without bodyguard, but with shield drones and whatever else you want to kit him out with, and then since he's an IC, attach him to whatever unit you think is most threatened, and let his 2+ SV, FNP, 4++ and shield drones absorb the damage.

[apahllo]

thin out the drones with some bolter fire and boom. devs with 4 MLs, hahahahahaha. i love playing tau.

[atlas_garon]

fish i actually think its more common to do different load out across your suits well i see that alot anyway. I like the firekife for my HQs with the TA this way i get alot of transport killing power against rhinos/razors and other light armor. and still plenty of boon to the PR with the higher BS. on my elites i prefer the blade storm BC PR MT it will do more dmg than any other against 3+ armor. as well as tear apart hordes (i do generally take the TA on squad leader also shield drones) with the BC you can usually inflict enough to get a marine or two in addition to whatever you PR kills.

will be interesting to see how thing fare with the av13 necron transports gonna be hard pressed for missle pod pens