Tau questions

[getupandgo]

With TLoS in 5th edition, crisis suits suck. They are WAY too expensive for what they do, and you can easily lose a 250 point squad that's kitted out to one turn of shooting from a mediocre anti-tank unit (SM devastators for example).

Markerlights are god, and work fantastically with everything in the army. They're the only thing that got better in 5th edition.

Cheap is the way to go, don't load up on upgrades, you need as many shots on the table (with as few kill points as you can manage) as you can muster. Kroot and Stealth suits are awesome because infiltrate. You can put a hell of a lot of shots on the opponents flank and keep them boxed up in the middle, where your railguns and long range stuff can keep them scrambling.

Tau are a really tough army to play in 5th edition, but if you do it right, they can win tournaments.

Crisis suits are still viable. You just got to keep them cheap and equip them with shields or drones to take advantage of wound allocation.

Stealth suits are 100x better, for cheaper. 30 points vs. 25 points unarmed for crisis suits; you essentially pay 5 points for a burst cannon, a stealth field, and infiltrate. Add a few Fusion Blasters to the mix in a squad of 6 and some drones and you've got all sorts of killing going on. It scares the pants off of people...

[EZ mac]

Stealth suits are 100x better, for cheaper. 30 points vs. 25 points unarmed for crisis suits; you essentially pay 5 points for a burst cannon, a stealth field, and infiltrate. Add a few Fusion Blasters to the mix in a squad of 6 and some drones and you've got all sorts of killing going on. It scares the pants off of people...

...that arnt playing a 3+ save army and don't have terminators that don't care about burst cannons.

If u know your playing vers orks, nids, guard or Eldar (possibly dark eldar) and it's horde then yes more shots<low ap higher strengh guns.

[HarlequinZero]

Stealth suits are 100x better, for cheaper. 30 points vs. 25 points unarmed for crisis suits; you essentially pay 5 points for a burst cannon, a stealth field, and infiltrate. Add a few Fusion Blasters to the mix in a squad of 6 and some drones and you've got all sorts of killing going on. It scares the pants off of people...

...that arnt playing a 3+ save army and don't have terminators that don't care about burst cannons.

If u know your playing vers orks, nids, guard or Eldar (possibly dark eldar) and it's horde then yes more shots<low ap higher strengh guns.

I think you mixed up your < and > symbols in your last answer. Against horde: more shots > low AP.

[EZ mac]

Stealth suits are 100x better, for cheaper. 30 points vs. 25 points unarmed for crisis suits; you essentially pay 5 points for a burst cannon, a stealth field, and infiltrate. Add a few Fusion Blasters to the mix in a squad of 6 and some drones and you've got all sorts of killing going on. It scares the pants off of people...

...that arnt playing a 3+ save army and don't have terminators that don't care about burst cannons.

If u know your playing vers orks, nids, guard or Eldar (possibly dark eldar) and it's horde then yes more shots<low ap higher strengh guns.

I think you mixed up your < and > symbols in your last answer. Against horde: more shots > low AP.

I think ur right....

[getupandgo]

Stealth suits are 100x better, for cheaper. 30 points vs. 25 points unarmed for crisis suits; you essentially pay 5 points for a burst cannon, a stealth field, and infiltrate. Add a few Fusion Blasters to the mix in a squad of 6 and some drones and you've got all sorts of killing going on. It scares the pants off of people...

...that arnt playing a 3+ save army and don't have terminators that don't care about burst cannons.

If u know your playing vers orks, nids, guard or Eldar (possibly dark eldar) and it's horde then yes more shots<low ap higher strengh guns.

plus they flank, have AP1 FBs, can having pinning, are supported by markerlights, and anything w/ str 4 (SS and Kroot) can damage most vehicles in close combat in 5th ed.

[Ironhide]

True, but SS and Kroot have trouble dealing with MEQs; which are the most prevalent armies out there.

[getupandgo]

True, but SS and Kroot have trouble dealing with MEQs; which are the most prevalent armies out there.

Not with the volume of shots that the SSs put out. In my "gunship" formation, I can lay out 24 S 5 shots (12 of them TL), 2 S 8 shots at AP1, and everything will end up hitting on 2s if I have the markerlight support that I always make sure is there for them. Wounding on 3s


That works out to about 7 dead MEq per turn from the one formation... then the kroot that are supporting them move in and clean them up.

[Ironhide]

That's with the Armor saves?

[MagickalMemories]

Seems right.

Hitting on 2's means that 11 of the TL shots are going to hit & 10 regular ones.
Presuming S5 (ignoring the s8 for this equation), that means 14 wounds.
That means 4.6666 unsaved wounds (rounds to 5).
With the 2 S8, AP1 shots (which will most likely both hit & wound), you've got 2 more dead MEQ.

F***ing Tau.

Eric

[Ironhide]

Okay, trying to wrap my head around Stealth Suits putting out 24 shots. Max unit of six with 4 burst cannons and two Fusion Blasters are going to put out 12 S5 AP4 shots, and 2 S8 AP1. If you give them a couple gun drones, you can take it up to 14 S5 AP4 shots (2 are TL). Not to mention that the Burst cannon only has an 18" range, and the Fusion Blaster a range of 12".

[getupandgo]

Okay, trying to wrap my head around Stealth Suits putting out 24 shots. Max unit of six with 4 burst cannons and two Fusion Blasters are going to put out 12 S5 AP4 shots, and 2 S8 AP1. If you give them a couple gun drones, you can take it up to 14 S5 AP4 shots (2 are TL). Not to mention that the Burst cannon only has an 18" range, and the Fusion Blaster a range of 12".

I hate to give away one of my secret weapons, but whatever...

You can take 12 drones, they all get stealth.

With JSJ, you have a 24" effective range with the burst cannons, and 18" with the FBs, and keep in mind, that they're coming in on the flanks, wherever you want to place them.

It's an expensive unit, that's vulnerable to CC, but that's why I run them alongside the kroot .

[Ironhide]

That would cost you 304 pts for that unit. Seems kinda pricey to me.

[getupandgo]

That would cost you 304 pts for that unit. Seems kinda pricey to me.

It does a hell of a lot more than a 200-250 crisis suit team.

It's either a diversion, or a decimator... depending on the situation and the game.

[Ironhide]

I've never spent more than 200 pts on a crisis suit squad. And that is with each suit having Plasma/Missile Pod/Multi-Tracker. Sometimes I'll go for Burst Cannon/Missle Pod/Multi-tracker, dropping the points cost for the unit down to 150. To each his own I guess.

I will say that a Crisis unit equipped with TL Fusion blasters and target lock is still the best vehicle hunting unit in the list.

[getupandgo]

I've never spent more than 200 pts on a crisis suit squad. And that is with each suit having Plasma/Missile Pod/Multi-Tracker. Sometimes I'll go for Burst Cannon/Missle Pod/Multi-tracker, dropping the points cost for the unit down to 150. To each his own I guess.

I will say that a Crisis unit equipped with TL Fusion blasters and target lock is still the best vehicle hunting unit in the list.

2 squads of BC/MP gets you 12 shots at str 7, 24 at str 5, and you're out in the open. The TL MP squads have potential, but they're way too fragile in 5th ed. You can't effectively hide them.

I am not into dedicated suicide units, and the Stealths can do just about anything the TL FB crisis can do, plus they do more.