8e Tau Discussion Part 4: Diversity Drones Edition

What's better for the Stormsurge: Flamers, Burst, or Airbust?

Probably Burst unless you want stuff for 8'' or less charges.
Those guns are essentially quaternary so probably not going to be a significant difference.

What would be better to complement the Pulse Blast Cannon? What about for a Stormsurge equipped with a Pulse Drive Cannon?

I'd probably pick the Burst for either or. It isn't one of your major guns so not really worth sweating it. And neither are they drastically changing things when you think about the SS as a whole

>18" movement
I'm pal-ling it up with the Coldstar

Mathing it out it does some beastly damage.
Can roughly pop a Leman Russ in one turn

Without ML support that flamer can roast a squad of terminators

Do individual suits have to fire all their weapons at one unit, or can each suit fire at more than one unit?

Vehicle killer is already quad fusion commander.

I know
just saying what it is capable of

Everything has split fire.

Just have to declare it all first.

So shooting a bolter at one thing and the bolt pistol at another is fine. Etc.

Alright you drone sniffers, what is the R'varna going to be like?
I'm betting it'll be the anti-horde counterpart to the Y'vahra. A long range artillery of sorts.

Weak against single targets, but ramps up immensely against blobs.
Like say going from Heavy 3 to Heavy 2D6 if the target unit is big.

Tau flying circus is looking pretty sweet. Coldstar Commander, Y'vahra for heavy firepower, Sunshark for clearing hordes. Hell, you could probably even have some Vespid for infinatry and manage to keep up decently well by constantly advancing them.

Certainly a fun gimmick if you wanted to go full Fast Attack

Gonna get wrecked by things with bonus against Fly keyword though

Fingers crossed for the Remora!

People seem rather fond of that one

Do the R'varna/Y'vahra kits come with full Riptide kits?

No. They're missing one of the sprues (the one with the weapons, jetpack and some other components you won't need to build them).

can't fire pistols and normal weapons together

if you nova charge can you use the nova profile for both weapons or do you have to pick one? reading the rules it's not entirely clear.

How could you have both main weapons when you have to swap them in the wargear options?

It says "a" weapon, but I'm pretty sure it means both.

Are you retarded?

"When targeting this enemy vehicle"

Do people at FW even speak English?

you didn't actually read the profile did you?

Its an adorable tiny plane drone, how could you not be fond of it.

No we're talking about different units. Didn't realize you were mentioning I thought you were talking about just the Riptide. Just jumped to the bottom of the convo.

Chill with that shit.

Is the Ion Accelerator worth for something now?

No.

For a lot of the units with two main weapon options they geared one as the mainstay that synergizes with the overall profile of the model, while the other is a quirky alternative that changes its role but allows your to approach the situation in an unexpected way.

The Ion Accelerator is clearly supposed to be the 'alternative' one, but it misses the mark.

The only advantage I really see to the Ion accelerator is that it's very long ranged, but the HBC isn't exactly short range either. Paying another 50 points just for the extra distance doesn't seem worthwhile

What secundary weapons work best for the Riptide now?

SMS is a safe go-to due to range, and synergizes well with the HBC due to its profile. My second pick would be PR with an EWO, to punish things trying to drop on it.

Looking at the stats, IA tends to be weaker than HBC across the board, except for cases versus vehicles when when IA is constantly Nova-ing, which is both dangerous and precludes other uses of Nova Charge.

What about the Fusion Blasters?

Typical FW writing

The issue with the FB is that it has such short range. Its max range is half that of the HBC, and it isn't really worth its points until it's at a quarter of the HBC's range. Simply put, I can't see it getting much use, unless someone is driving a tank into your Riptide.

>FB melta range: 9"
>manta strike: more than 9"

gunddamn GW, just to tease us

That is the niche stealth suits occupy

How would you guys rate the Krootox? I'm thinking up ideas for units I can add to bulk up my now-crunched-from-2K-to-1.5K list and I got the stellar idea from soneone to use WHF Lizardmen as counts-as. Makes sense since my Sept is a planetjungleforest of sorts.

Would be fucking rad having some, always loved them but never played WHF.

They seem okay. I think you'd want a Shaper to stick nearby them and offer re-rolls and other benefits though. They're essentially cheaper, less-mobile missile pod crisis suits. They put out decent shooting.

Yeah, I'd have a shaper. The Seraphon box would give me an Oldblood (Shaper), 8 Knights (Krootox) and 12 Warriors (can field 10 as Carnivores and fit some other stuff in my list for 2K).

Would 4x2 squads be recommended or 3x2 and a 2-man? To make full use of the 8 in the box.

I'd say 4x2 would be fine. Depends on how many slots you want to fill. The carnivores could work as a sort of bodyguard for the squad to prevent them from getting charged due to their shorter range.

That's what I'm thinking. A big blob of lumbering dinosaurs serving as the spearhead while the Tau guns lay waste to everybody else.

I'm honestly pretty fucking stoked at the idea of fielding them due to the models. Lizardmen are insanely cool. If they reintroduce the Greater Knarloc, I'll bring in the fucking Carnosaur!

Sniper drones
Lame

They're actually pretty good if you take a larger squad of them along with a herder with DC and a Marksman to spot the enemy. Being able to shoot twice at BS3+ within 24" isn't too shabby for their cost.

It does feel like itll be a bit tricky to take anything out with them though. Even with the BS boosts they're only equalling gun drones at close ranges, just with a lot more freedom in who they can shoot.

Of course, most characters have enough armor and wounds that the lack of any sort of extra sniper rules like higher damage, mortal wounds, or better AP makes it feel lackluster.

They'll be most effective at firing on squishy aura-sources. Commissars are the hot-topic right now, and Sniper Drones are very good at Commissar-hunting. Versus larger, tankier characters, you're better of shooting out the chaff to target it directly with your main firepower.

Too bad they can only have 2 FB max.

Stealth Suits can also place homing beacons to allow other suits to drop within Melta range of their targets. Stealth Suits into Fusion-Quadmander will take down most vehicles.

>BT friend field Chaplain and Captain to buff big squad of angry veterans with power weapons
>Slaughter everything on the charge
It's like trying to stop a runaway train while staring it down.

Can't we field a full and legal Kroot army now, legally? Aren't Kroot Shapers HQ choices?

Hell, have Forgeworld updated the discontinued Kroot model rules in their Xenos book?

Crisis are overpriced relative to commanders but don't underestimate their extra durability over the Krootox due to both drones saves and armor.

Shapers are Elite, not HQ, so you'll need an Ethereal or something. The FW Index for Xenos is also missing any Kroot units.

Technically no, Shapers are Elite. You still need a Tau HQ.

Unfortunately they are elites. Would have been nice if the patrol detachment allowed you to take an elite instead of an HQ as the requirement.

Sucks that it's 20 points and only works for one unit. Why couldn't they just make it work for any number of drops for one phase?

Yeah, but it would make more sense for my Sept fluff to field some forest/jungle auxiliaries rather than big suits. Plus I need some CC shield/power, love lizardmen looks and I can get a buttload of 'em for relatively cheap.

FW kroot stuff was discontinued. I don't think we'll ever see it again

Well, maybe if the kroot were smart enough to build suits they'd still be relevant

shut up and burn your riptides already faggot
maybe gw plastic release? or next/future imperial armor?

They didn't sell enough to justify keeping up their production. They won't come back

BELIEVE
FELLOW KROOTFRIEND

>shut up and burn your riptides

Sorry wolfkin-thing, should've got in the damn robot, then you'd still be in stores

>wolfkin
got space yiffs red rockets on the mind eh?
you woulda been fine with chickin-thing lmao

I was thinking Jackals from Halo too

What are Hrud and are they Tau allies

>Hrud

They are enemies of everything in the galaxy. They increase the entropy of everything they touch.

...

>Formations
>Twin-linked
>Automated repair system
We're in 8e now, now 7e. Those aren't things anymore.

not* 7e

my text somehow didn't make it into the post

that was more or less the list I was previously building towards, but then I heard so many conflicting and mixed reports about drones.

for 8e I would obviously need an HQ, but could a drone and tank heavy army be viable for casual games?

>for 8e I would obviously need an HQ
Longstrike got you covered bro

Drone and tank heavy sounds like something that could actually be viable in moderately competitive settings now, most certainly viable in casual. Drones in general are fantastic now, while they were pretty questionable in 7e outside of the Drone-Net. The list you have there also would have been problematic in 7e due to being incapable of capturing any objective, since vehicles and drones can't cap in 7e. Luckily, that's not an issue in 8e, as everything can now capture.

Sadly, Skyrays are pretty pointless right now, since flying rules are changed- Shooting at Airbourne targets is a flat -1 to BS instead of hitting on 6's, so you don't need the Skyray to light up a flyer with Markerlights so your army can hit it. Now the Skyray is just a really expensive body for seeker missiles and a markerlight.

I'd heavily recommend taking Longstrike, as he's actually an HQ now, and he buffs other Hammerheads, with his bonus specifically stacking very well with the mortal wounds that railguns can inflict.

Gun-drones are currently point-for-point one of the most efficient units in the game, and arguably the most efficient in our codex, especially when coupled with a drone controller. Expect that to be your main answer to the oncoming hordes which seem to be popular in 8e.

ML drones do what they've always done, and continue to be good at it with similar trade-offs compared to Pathfinders, though Pathfinders now are more attractive with their special-weapons options.

Shield Drones are actually useful now, due to acting as separate units and therefore not causing morale issues for whatever they're protecting, and since Savior Protocols is like an AoE auto-Look Out Sir, which is super nice.

well that is certainly a departure from the doom-and-gloom reports I heard early on. I'll get back to work cleaning up the drones and sourcing some gently used hammerheads.

Tau tank commander sounds really different from the classic battlesuit commander, and I've never tried playing an armor heavy list before ever. Sound like it might be fun to model up a command tank

In essence, Tau had its most powerful stuff nerfed and its most under-used stuff buffed. Drones (outside of the Net formation) and Hammerheads were on the under-used side, which means they're actually quite viable now. (For the record, Railsides, Vespids, Kroot Hounds, Ethereals, Razorshark, and even Pulse Carbines on FW are all now worth taking in the right circumstances). A lot of the doom-and-gloom talk is centered around the stuff which was previously the highlight of T'au, which of course was the stuff that was most powerful and thus in need of nerfing- Riptide and Crisis, for the most part. They may have gone a little too far, but they're at least in the right ballpark now, and the regular points-tweaks should straighten out any lasting issues.

>command tank conversions/kitbashes

...

That's pretty sweet, though it may look a bit too aircraft-y.

...

>"Is this enough Dakka?"

It kind of does look a bit like a stubby helicopter doesn't it? Still, I might borrow that idea.

pictures of these are surprisingly hard to fine

>We heard you liked tank, so we added some tank to your tank..

I love that you can see another railgun on the floor. Not enough railguns. Never enough railguns.

yeah I will just have to figure something out. The (now quite old) hammerhead kit looks quite great but it it really requires some chopping up do to anything unusual with.

I'll be hunting ebay for some spares for sure, but if drones and tanks are the new hotness I suspect everyone else will be too, and drones were hard as hell to get before.

Well, hammerheads come with skyray bits right? You could take the seeker missile wings and add those on to the engines or some other part in order for it to look more impressive.

Besides radiation coming from a nearby pulsating Neutron Star, is there anything else that could serve as sort off General Winter for a Russian-based sept?

I read they are a rumoured upcoming faction

I think I might also see if I can get the wings and engines off a piranha. Replacing the back hatch with extra engines would be a good look too, as would aerials and such to really show that it is a command tank. I've got a dremel and a hacksaw.

Other environmental extremes or features? Princess-Bride-style dense forest with deathtraps everywhere that your Sept has learned how to deal with? Placed inside a nebulae which disrupts communications and certain tech? Constant lightning storms? A bit too close to the Hadex Anomaly?

a storm in the warp (but not in realspace) making warp travel to the planet very slow, but not for the Tau ships which skip off the edge of the warp

A planet with really uneven rocky features with a lot of overhangs and natural air cover, making both armored assaults and airstrikes ineffective while not hindering tau battlesuits.

An ocean planet with the tau having hovering tanks and sweet submarines. Their ocean floor base is shielded from orbital strikes by the water.

Drone spam is to tau what conscripts are to IG

Eh. They're amazingly efficient as far as points-in to dakka-out, but they don't have a Commissar-equivalent. If you take them in large squads, Morale will wreak havoc on them. They're thus far less spammable than Conscripts are.

Anyone else hoping that the Sniper drones are gonna get some kind of FAQ? They're the only sniper unit that doesn't have some kind of extra punch. Every other sniper I've seen does mortal wounds on 6s, although that could be OP with the spotter and a drone controller making it a 4+ for a mortal wound, but as it stands they're just cheap, long range pulse rifles that aren't as accurate without a separate character