You see, they have never been a bad choice, they just competed with crisis suits, and were comparatively less useful. But in 6th edition, they may actually warrant having one of those slots. With the coming of the 6th edition tau FAQ, stealth field generators were changed to give the unit using them both the 'shrouded' and 'stealth' USR. These guys now get a 4+ cover save in the open, and a 2+ cover save in literally any actual cover. That, and the new fragility of light vehicles bringing back foot lists. Now all that S5 AP5 firepower may actually come in handy. There are a few ways I can see them being run.
1. No drones, 2 meltas.
This way would generally look like 6x Stealth Suits, 2x Fusion blasters, team leader (precision shots) for 189 points. If you want, you can skip the team leader and lower the cost by a few points, but I wouldn't because the chance to snipe a commissar has too much potential use, even with the Look Out Sir! rolls. The can put the hurt on transports and most forms of infantry, are a hell of a pain to kill, and can keep out of assault fairly well with their 2D6" jet move. I would give a burst cannon to the team leader to raise the chance of a precision shot.
2. Mid size, with drones.
Taking 4 Stealth suits with 8 gun drones is a unit with 12 2+ saves in cover, quite scary, and will run you around 200 points. Now it is especially important to give one of the suits team leader status here as his drones will inherit his character status, meaning they can accept and issue challenges, as well as being able to make even more precision shots.
3. Stealth Cloud.
So much better than it used to be, though still somewhat pricey. 6 Stealth Suits, 12 gun drones. 18 2+ saves (except for T3, as durable as 9 paladins! Even more so against weapons with strong AP value). Throw some fusion blasters in there too, if you want. Laugh as your overwatch actually manages to do something (~7 hits, pretty high for overwatch). Tear IG blobs to pieces and laugh as their little flash lights manage to fail against your cover save, and with only drones dying even when it gets through.
Hey there, just read through some of your blog after seeing the link on advanced tau tactica and I'm really impressed with your posts mate. ps any chance of putting a 'follow' button on your blog so I could add you to my blogger feed please?
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words!
DeleteI think I've added a subscribe button...not sure, I'm actually not the best with computers!
Yeah, the 6th Edition Update was basically a Win button for the Stealthsuits except for one small detail.
ReplyDeleteGiven how most power weapons are AP 3 now, everyone who can will spam 2+ Saves and laugh off anything short of a plasma weapon.
Which means that our Crisis suits are going to be more important than ever. *sigh*
Still, I will find the points for Stealth Suits out there for another purpose - Fortification Busting.
Yes our Railguns do it nicely, but when someone has an Icarus Lascannon or Quad Gun anything coming in form reserves is potentially toast - except the Stealth Team.
Deep Strike 'em in next to that fortification and punch two melta shots into its side. Hilarity ensues.
Well models with 2+ saves are about half as likely to fail their save as a 3+ model, but they usually cost almost three times as much, and STILL cannot catch up to our stealth suits. Plus, I would rather have a 2+ cover save than a 2+ armour save, considering the fact that even a 2+ armour save wouldn't save us in CC, and we get our 2+ against lascannos and plasma.
DeleteI think this will be the edition of mid-strength firepower spam, but only time will tell.
I am extremely new at Tau (and 40k in general), so forgive me if this is a terrible idea. Would it be viable or desirable to take the mid size squad you described and replace the gun drones with marker drones? Or perhaps just mix and match? I understand it'd boost the cost up significantly, but it seems like you'd have a whole lot of very resilient networked markerlights.
ReplyDeleteI haven't played any games in 6th, and only managed a small skirmish or two in 5th, so I may still be in that new-Tau-player phase where markerlights seem like the coolest thing ever.
The Stealth Marker Team was a staple of 5th Ed providing a more durable, more mobile alternative to the Pathfinder team.
ReplyDeleteThe big thing with Stealth Markers is that if you commit them to combat you lose the big advantage of them as a marker unit. So you need to chose to go full bore as a marker unit or stick with combat.
If you want them as a marker unit your best bet is to give the Team Lead his own marker light and a pair of marker drones. Keep the minimum number of stealth suits you need and position them to protect the team lead and the drones from fire.
It's not a cheap unit and it is less effective a marker unit than Pathfinders in terms of the number of markerlights you carry for the points, but it is mobile and will survive.
But if you want mobile markerlights I highly recommend checking out the Tetra from Forgeworld.
While there are plenty of people who swear by the stealth marker team, I have never been a fan of it. It is a 165 (correct my math if it is wrong) point unit that averages 1.5 markerlight hits a turn. Too little for what you get, in my honest opinion.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you don't get a lot of Markerlight hits out of the unit, that is for sure, but on the other hand they are a Marker unit that will probably still be there past turn 3.
DeleteAnother thing to consider though Jefffar, is that in a six turn game, they get 18 markerlight shots. In a 6 turn game, 8 pathfinders get 48 shots, and can, in two turns, nearly match the markerlight saturation of the SMT for an entire game. In my honest opinion, they are really only useful if you have a later-game strike planned, and REALLY need a turn five markerlight token.
ReplyDeleteYou're assuming the pathfinders live 6 turns Brett.
ReplyDeleteSometimes they do, sometimes they don't, but I'd put the odds on a SMT being around a lot longer. They also have the advantage of being able to move.
It's mroe a style thing than anything and the introduction of the Forgeworld Tetra with High Intensity Markerlight more or less makes both Pathfinders and Stealth Marker Teams obsolete.
I largely agree with that, tetra truly have put both to shame. However, I still am of the opinion that in non FW gaming clubs, the pathfinders win out. Even if they only live two turns, they put out 16 shots. The Stealth Marker team would not be able to match that in 5 turns! It would take them six whole turns, and the game may not even last that long.
ReplyDeleteI may need to check the rule book, but I thought the Stealth Suit's traits stacked to a 3+ cover save.
ReplyDelete+3 to cover save; 2 from shrouded, 1 from stealth. In terrain (5+ cover save) it becomes 2+. 4+ in the open.
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