To stimulate the discussion, I'll give you an idea as to how my own has changed.
First thing I realized about 6th edition is that Tau Piranhas no longer have much utility to warrant inclusion in any "competitive" army build. This is not to say, I wouldn't ever field them, but here's why they are no longer useful.
In 5th Edition their primary use was in move blocking other vehicles and infantry, especially things like THSS terminators. They suited this task well, because they:
a) had a 3+ roll to stop ramming
b) got a 4+ cover save from turbo-boosting and
c) infantry needed 6s to hit them in close combat.
This gave them a chance of survival and more often than not, they were able to stop enemy vehicles dead in their tracks.
Important changes in 6th edition, nullified their chances of being effective blockers because:
a) no longer have a 3+ roll to avoid ramming - meaning vehicles get to ram straight through them, completing their move and potentially destroying them in the movement phase.
b) are always hit on a 3+ in close combat.
So in 6th Edition any kind of move blocking entails a sever risk of them being destroyed.
Next important change to 6th Edition is the nerfing of transport vehicles due to changes in the rules as outlined here:
a) troops need to disembark from transports to score on objectives.
b) hull points make repeated glancing hits fatal for vehicles.
c) troops cannot move after disembarking from a vehicle, beyond a run move.
This means two things for your Tau Empire forces:
1) No need to spend points on Tau Piranhas
2) More boots on the ground across all armies.
The consequence is this:
Your Tau force can bring more firepower (from points saved on previously near-mandatory Piranhas) and your firepower has more utility (lots of Tau weapons have primarily anti-infantry capabilities and there are more infantry out there these days).
So my force is shaping to have more Fire Warriors, the return of Crisis Suits with Plasma Rifles and Missile Pods, and I've seen Stealth Suits coming into their own.
How about you guys? How has your force changed in the new edition?
17 comments:
I started playing Tau at the tail end of 5th edition, so I can't say how my army has changed really, but I can say what it looks like in 6th.
Fireknife Shas'o
2xFire Knife Crisis Suits
Shas'el with TLMPod and Positional Relay
3xFire Knife Crisis Suits
3xTLFlamer, Fusion blaster Crisis Suits
2x6 Fire warriors(stuffed in the Pathfinder Devilfish)
2x10 Kroot
2x4Pathfinders
2xHammerheads
2xBroadsides(Targeting Arrays, and target lock/shield drones/blacksun filter on the team leader)
Aegis with Comms Relay
1850 pts
The Hammerheads and the TLFlamer/Fusion blaster suits pull double duty, giving me an anti-tank and anti-infantry element. The Hammerheads additionally play 'counter-meta' by giving me some high AV armor, along with a 3+ cover thanks to disruption pods.
My firewarriors stay inside the devilfish, which moves flat out nearly every turn for a 2+ cover save from shooting outside 12" (disruption pods again, of course).
All my suits deep strike, save for the Shas'el who stays with the Broadsides, next to the Comms Relay and helps me bring my reserves in as needed.
At the end of 5th edition I was running 6 Broadsides. I'm now down to 2. So, personally, I've switched over to more dual threat units.
I started playing Tau at the tail end of 5th edition, so I can't say how my army has changed really, but I can say what it looks like in 6th.
Fireknife Shas'o
2xFire Knife Crisis Suits
Shas'el with TLMPod and Positional Relay
3xFire Knife Crisis Suits
3xTLFlamer, Fusion blaster Crisis Suits
2x6 Fire warriors(stuffed in the Pathfinder Devilfish)
2x10 Kroot
2x4Pathfinders
2xHammerheads
2xBroadsides(Targeting Arrays, and target lock/shield drones/blacksun filter on the team leader)
Aegis with Comms Relay
1850 pts
The Hammerheads and the TLFlamer/Fusion blaster suits pull double duty, giving me an anti-tank and anti-infantry element. The Hammerheads additionally play 'counter-meta' by giving me some high AV armor, along with a 3+ cover thanks to disruption pods.
My firewarriors stay inside the devilfish, which moves flat out nearly every turn for a 2+ cover save from shooting outside 12" (disruption pods again, of course).
All my suits deep strike, save for the Shas'el who stays with the Broadsides, next to the Comms Relay and helps me bring my reserves in as needed.
At the end of 5th edition I was running 6 Broadsides. I'm now down to 2. So, personally, I've switched over to more dual threat units.
Boxersaint, interesting list. Lots of firepower there. How are your devilfish getting a 2+ cover save?
Disruption pods only give you a 5+ cover save outside of 12 inches, they don't give you +2 to your cover. So if I am reading the rules right, the max cover save you can ever get on a DF is 5+.
Re the 2+, the tau FAQ (1.1 onwards) states that disruption pods give the shrouded special rule against shooting from 12+ inches away, and as the saves stack you get the magic 2+ cover save:-)
Unless they changed the faq again, last I saw disruption pods now give shrouding. So +2 to cover save. With 5+ jink they have 3+ normal, goes to 2+ with flat out.
@Tim the recent round of FAQs made disruption pods give the Shrouded special rule. This means that combined with the Jink save, tau vehicles get a 3+ cover save provided they move.
To me this is a great reason for actually taking a more mechanised Tau army than ever before. With more people taking "foot lists" there's less anti-tank firepower around and hence AV12 with a 3++ save is fairly indestructible.
I've found that fire warriors are now better than before with 15" rapid fire and S5 allowing them to not only glance AV10-11 vehicles to death but also giving them a more potent Overwatch. Throw in some defensive grenades and they can actually survive combat better.
Tim, the disruption pod grants shrouded as per the FAQ. So standing still it's a 5+, moving 3+, and flat out 2+.
Right so that is annoying - how many FAQs is GW going to put out? Sheesh can't they get it right the first time. LOL!
But WOOT! Disruption pods do indeed grant shrouding. Bring on the hammerheads.
Devilfish, even with shrouding, still don't seem that great tho. Maybe upgraded with d.pods and SMS...but that's all I'd give them.
My favorite FAQ blunder was the initial Tau 6th edition FAQ that completely tossed Target Locks, for no reason, and then the second FAQ that brought them all back. Some guy wrote a BOLS article saying he marked out target locks in his Tau codex with a black marker so he wouldn't try to use them anymore. *face palm*
In regards to the Devilfish, the 2+ save was covered a couple of times already. Mine, if you notice, are Pathfinder Devilfish, so they synergize especially well with all my deep striking suits. Specifically, they let me reroll my scatter when my TLFlamers drop in on someone, so I can afford to try to get in close and roast something. That, combined with the much more forgiving deep strike mishap chart, is currently allowing Tau to be amongst the Kings of the Deepstrike force.
The 2+ cover save is an added bonus that helps me keep my minimal scoring units alive through the end of the game. If you are not relying on deep strikers, I could see tossing the devilfish(and the pathfinders for that matter) in favor of more fire warriors.
Since the edition swap my lists have changed in the following ways.
1) More Firewarriors - mobile gunlines for the win.
2) More Devilfish - not just to ride in, give 'em a D-Pod and use them as mobile LOS blocks, Cover and at last resort, movement blockers.
3) 2 main Crisis Configs - Twin Missile Pod and Plasma/Fusion. Why? Twin Missile Pod is great agaisnt light vehicles, but also a decent chance against flyers due to twin link. Plasma/Fusion makes a vicious in close TEQ annihilator/vehicle killer that can back out of charge range after a deep strike with the new rules.
There have been two fundamental changes to my cadre since 6th dropped; one internal, one external.
Internally, the changes to Rapid Fire have made Fire Warriors hugely more useful on the board. I've basically stopped fielding Devilfish and Piranha, and instead put those points into boots on the ground. I've also taken to fielding a second 'El at 2K, to man the Quad Gun and stay safely in the backfield to make it harder for my opponent to score Slay the Warlord. It's much more of a horde foot force, though backed up by a Hammerhead usually with the Ion Cannon now that I need to scrimp and save points for the other changes.
Externally, Allies has given my cadre a huge offensive boost; with a Blood Angels Captain, Assault Squad and Stormraven at 1500, and an additional Sanguinary Priest at 2K, I finally have both strong mobile firepower and a decent assault unit. The Marines Deep Strike (all get jump packs) and proceed to stalk the backfield, routinely giving me Linebreaker and a scoring unit to threaten my opponent's objectives, while the Stormraven basically slags whatever is the most threatening vehicle left, with no cover saves to get in the way and twin-linked BS4 to ensure hits, once it arrives. I also never leave home without a Quad Gun and an Aegis line; the former adds basically two more Deathrains for 50 points, while the former finally gives me a real defence against Deep Striking melta and plasma.
Something I would like to point out about the D. Pod and Cover. I routinely get a 2+ cover save without having to move Flat Out. Cover still provides a vehicle with a 4+ Save, D. Pod makes that a 2+ Save. You just have to move, just a bit.
My Tau list changed from the mono-build of 5th ed. into 2 different lists. The first is the more fluffy, the second is for when I feel the need to punish Marine players. Both are 2000 pts.
Fluffy list
72 fire warriors on foot.
30 Crisis suits with Burst Cannon, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker, 2 Gun Drones per squad.
2 x 2 Broadsides with 2 gun drones each.
2 Devilfish so the remnants of a squad or 2 can go claim something if I need to. This list can table opposing foot armies.
List 2.
6 fire warriors in fevilfish
6 fire warriors in devilfish
30 crisis suits with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array.
3 Hammerheads.
Deploy vehicles in a wedge formation so the lead vehicle gives cover to the next 2.
Crisis suits kill enemy vehicles with missiles early in game. Kill enemy infantry later in game.
Vehicles open up shooting lanes during movement phase, and use Flat Out moves to block LOS to crisis suits after they have shot.
Move whole formation forward or back depending on what you need to do. Marines hate this list.
They're away in the box until the new dex (supposedly in Apr), otherwise I really like the FW supplement ie. Sensor towers make fire warriors twin linked, Tetras as a 60pt mobile pathfinder team, turrets are deepstriking annoyances to the enemy's rear, but otherwise was just going to keep them on the shelf until the new book.
Other than the obvious changes that most tau players have taken. Iwould have to say my list includes alliies and an aegis. My shas ui crises suits all have TL flamers. I have also found that with the emphasis on cover saves pathfinders (or tetras if my opponent permits). I guess you can say that my Tau have really just chnged into Tau'dar. The Devilfish have been put back into my list, as everyone has pointed out turbo boost 2+, has brought back fish of fury. Its also nice to see that broadsides and iridium armor shrugs off the majority of power weapons.
How do you manage to run 30 crisis suits? At most I see 12 available, or is it double focus?
3 x 3 Elites, 2 x commanders, 2 x 2 bodyguards gives you a maximum of fifteen crisis suits in a single list; if you use double FOC, yup, you can get thirty.
Though it feels like a thirty-suit list would be pretty badly unbalanced, and light on either scoring or railguns.
It may seem obvious, but one major change to my army has been allies. Now, rather than take 3-6 squads of mounted firewarriors, I am taking 2 large FW squads on foot, and two tactical squads in rhinos. It is nice to have hardy objective holders!
As to how my Tau army has changed, I have started taking more hammerheads, as their long range weapons mean enemies don't get to come within their 12" safety bubble ever, the FW plasma cannon is great against flyers and for glancing/killing infantry, and best of all they can sometimes score! On top of that, I have cut kroot out of my lists (they no longer get 3+ in forests!) except when I want the FW kroot units (which I simply adore). Especially since they can no longer assault from outflank! Ouch!
The last way my army has changed, is taking advantage of certain tweaks to how our wargear functions: the AdvSS now confers slow and purposeful (which is better than before) to the unit, as per the BYB, VRT confer hit and run to the entire unit, at the highest initiative (again, as per BYB) which even includes Farsight bombs HaR-ing at I5!
Finally, Iridium armour has become more appealing, especially with drones.
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