One of the amazing things about the Tau Codex is the 5 point Disruption Pod vehicle upgrade. These wonderful little pods throw out visual and magnetic distortion to give your Tau skimmers a 4+ cover save from any shot fired from more than 12 inches away. This won't help you against Meltaguns, but keep your distance with your vehicles out front and you can layer your army to operate with a 4+ Cover on every unit, regardless of terrain!
Frequently in games, opponents find themselves cursing the dice-gods as I repeatedly roll 4s,5s and 6s as incoming lascannon, battlecannon, demolisher blasts just bounce off my Hammerheads. With the XV8s hiding behind the tanks, making pop-out attacks and moving back behind the tanks to claim cover saves, they too are finding their lifespans dramatically extended.
A word of caution however, keep your XV8s too close to your skimmers and blast templates can be positioned to the rear of your tank's hull, with the hole centered on the target vehicle and two XV8s caught in the blast. This is simply mitigated by holding your XV8s back at least 3 inches from the skimmer.
The Disruption Pod is one of those pieces of wargear that keeps the Tau a competitive. With tournament boards commonly laid out with sparse terrain, this gives us a huge advantage over other armies. This opens up the board for you. You can move where ever you want and still get the cover you need to keep your forces alive.
8 comments:
I think I'd definitely put the Disruption pod up there as one of the most powerful wargear items for its price.
Adding in a 50% chance to ignore any damaging hit on a vehicle is such a powerful ability and the range requirement isn't too much hardship for a longer-ranged force like Tau.
I consider it the first of two mandatory upgrades for Tau vehicles (with a multitracker the next, except on Piranhas).
And other times you curse the dice gods when you fail every 4+ cover save :(
I'm in that picture!
Also, disruption pod for 5 points is the easiest no-brainer ever. I'm not looking forward to it's increased price in the new codex, whenever it comes out.
Don't worry, with Tyranids, Dark Eldar, some new Space Marine Codex and Blood Angels coming out next year, we'll be getting the Dpod for 5 points for well into 2011.
@MFerek, you're looking a little upset about something...or is it just 3rd round fatigue.
If I am not mistaken when an opponent fires a template weapon at one of your tanks they have to position the template so as much of it as possible is covering the tank itself (BRB pg 29). I think this means that it shouldnt be possible to put the center hole right on the edge of a tank to try clip guys hiding behind it.
Oviparous,
The template has to be positioned so that the hole in the middle is over a target model. Which part of the model doesn't matter (discounting weapons sticking out, banner poles etc). The Disadvantage of putting it near the edge of the vehicle is that it is more likely to scatter off (when the hole is off the vehicle the weapons strength is halved for Armour penetration)
Hope that helps.
Ahh, I didn't know about the 12 inches part. Not that I have much that could catch your skimmers anyway, except Valkyries.
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