Character Analysis: R'alai

Commander R'alai.  The most beautiful HQ we tau have.  The most shooty HQ from ANY faction.  He used to be kind of meh, but since the update, he is golden.

First off, he is the only XV9 commander we can get, which is reason enough to take him.

His stats are also amazing.  Basically a Shas'O, but with T5 and I4.  So already, lascannons, missiles and Meltas cannot ID him, and he get to smack stuff better in CC.  Also, he only costs 190 points.  yeah.

His equipment is:
-XV9 armour
Always nice to have, assault move after deepstrike is sick, defensive grenades are helpful.

-Experimental pulse submunitions rifle
We'll touch on this in a second.

-Vectored retro thrusters
Can be exploited.  Hide from shooting.

-Blacksun filter
Not a big deal, but helpful.

-Drone controller+2 markerlight drones with built in blacksun filters.
Whoa! Where did this come from? Suddenly he is a markerlight unit with ablative wounds too?

-Eclipse shield generator
4+ Invuln save, 3+ from 12"+ away.  Basically the opposite of r'myr's shield which encourages you to get close.

Stubborn.

Now his gun. The standard shot is an assault 2 blast with the stats of a bolter and the bonus of ignoring cover.  What makes this so good? The special ammunition.  He has three more ways to fire it.  One is assault 2 counts-as emp grenades, amazing vs. AV14 as it is almost as effective as a railgun.  Almost. Another is an assault two lascannon, albeit with the AP slightly poorer, so it is anti-MEQ, not anti-TEQ. The final way is similar to the first one, but it is AP4, large blast, rending.  All the firing modes except the first one are Gets Hot!

SO you can see he's amazing, right?

Ways I to use him: Give him two XV9 bodyguard.  Get some markerlight support (wait he already has that!). Shoot the ever loving hell out of a unit, being careful not to completely destroy it.  Then, provided it's not like THSS termies or anything, assault it.  You now have a place to safely hide, then you can hit-and-run out of combat after his turn, leaving his unit open for shooting. 

Not to your tastes? Yeah I'm not a fan of it either, I do it for the sake of it, because it is one of the only times tau can viably assault.  Normally, throw him with some fusion cascade bodyguards and go tank hunting.  Melta dakka+emp shots+assault 2 lascannon=vehicle hurt.  Also, monstrous creature hate not getting armour saves and being wounded on a 2+.  ID Space Marine characters, massacre hordes in cover, rend some terminators to death...unlimited potential.

Take him if at all possible, ever.