Unit Analysis: XV104 Riptide Part I

Here we are, our new codex, and many new models, released.  Now, it's up to us to figure out how to use them.  Where better to start than the heretofore uncharted territory of the Riptide?

To begin with the obvious, it is extremely durable, being tougher than dreadknights, with the ability to overcharge it's shields and take drones who share it's toughness value.  It is also as mobile as a crisis suit, while toting guns that make hammerheads blush.  Being a monstrous creature also means that while it is not great in CC, it can still smash tanks and well armoured shooty units (i.e. devastators).

But how to optimize it's use?  There are three key points, really:

A good start would be to make sure it's main gun and secondary gun synergize well.  A tank-melting secondary paired with an infantry shredding primary would not, for example, have that synergy.

Furthermore, it is tough, but not indestructible.  Keep it away from things like Grey knights, librarians and any other creative ways your opponents can think of to take away all it's wounds at once.

Finally, remember which army it is a part of: it is not designed for lone-wolf combat, diving into the thick of it and turning the battle on it's own.  It is designed to be excellent in both giving support, and receiving support.

As for it's guns, we have a lot to think about.

Heavy Burst Cannon

Pros:
-High Shot count
-Effective against flyers with a velocity tracker
-Gains rending and an even higher shot count when nova charged
-Decent strength

Cons:
-The Riptide has mediocre Ballistic Skill, and you will REALLY feel it while using this particular weapon
-High shot count, Gets Hot! and nova charging all add up to a lot of self-inflicted pain
-Not especially useful against heavy vehicle/infantry/monsters
-Mediocre even against hordes, which it is supposed to be really, really good against
-Middling range

Overall the Heavy Burst Cannon isn't terrible, but paying the points for a riptide to score a handful of medium strength, poor AP hits a turn from closer than it is usually advisable to be?  Requires playtesting, but I don't think I'll ever feel the need to use it.

Ion Accelerator:

Pros:
-Can penetrate terminator armour
-Can fire blasts equivalent to battlecannons, except these also have enough AP to beat terminators
-Can Nova Charge to fire blasts that would feel at home amongst IG artillery.
-Great for monster hunting
-High Strength
-Long Range

Cons:
-Lower shot count than the Heavy Burst Cannon
-Gets Hot! on blast weapons can really screw you over
-Less effecting against most aircraft than the Heavy Burst Cannon

The Ion Accelerator seems to be, overall, a better choice than the Heavy Burst Cannon, except against aircraft, though the Heavy Burst Cannon is a bit less random, being able to roll a Gets Hot!, fail, and still get some shots off.

Now, let's look at what has synergies with what.  The Riptide's secondary weapon options are TLPR, TLFB and TLSMS.  The SMS work best with the Heavy Burst Cannon, and the plasma rifle works decently with it.  Avoid FB+HBC though, as their roles are a bit TOO different.  The Ion Accelerator, on the other hand, works exceptionally well with FB, as well as with PR, for anti-tank boosting and anti-monster/TEQ busting, respectively.  The SMS could work somewhat decently with it if you intend to use it to clear out mass cover-camping light infantry, but if that is the case then you should probably be relying on more appropriately equipped units for your anti-GEQ.

TL:DR, the XV104 Riptide can be used in a variety of roles, with different configs being suited to different tasks.  Make sure you keep your monsters supported, so that they can continue to support you.

Waiting for the New Tau Codex: Excited and Scared

With the new tau codex scheduled to (apparently) drop on the fifth of April, I am both worried and excited about what it may hold for the Tau Empire.  Rumours abound of broadsides going up 15 points and their railguns going down to S8, of the new tau flyers having only burst cannons and of many awesome, awesome new models for the tau empire.  You can find a great thread compiling rumours and pictures of the new tau here.

My biggest fears for the tau, right now, are for our precious broadsides, for our funny-looking new flyers and  for the future of our crisis suits.  Broadsides having their weapons turned into glorified krak missiles, while ALSO having a significant price increase terrifies me.  They may be the best unit in our codex right now, and certainly a top-tier option by any army's standard.  They can put serious hurt on tank, MC, paladins and even flyers (a team of three will usually score at least one hit due to twin-linked, and most flyers can't survive railgun hits reliably).  With S8, even if they gain skyfire, it will be a major blow to them, one that may see them taken out of competitive lists (especially if the Skyray finally gains the Skyfire it so obviously deserves). It will mean Leman Russes being almost impervious to their weapons, nurgle obliterators annihilating them in shootouts, rhinos regularly shrugging off hits and, unfortunately, daemon princes being all but impossible for them to kill.  The flyer, I am worried will end up faring worse than the Nephilim if it only has S5 weapons, particularly if it has the tragic 10/10/10 armour typical of tau flyers.  Crisis suits, I am scared for because I noticed they are now going to be sold in boxes of three.  This would indicate they may become individually weaker, and cheaper, and spammable.  That is the last thing I want to happen to them; I like them the way they are.  If anything, giving them T5 and a price increase would be a better option.  I don't want what happen to lesser daemons to happen to them.

Overall, I am hoping this doesn't prove to be the nerf that shelves my tau.  But it's not all bad; I have seen some new things that DO give me some hope for the tau.

-Upgrade characters.  Upgrade characters are just fantastic, and apparently we are getting two+! One for our tanks (apparently, Hammerheads with this tank commander cost 170, together) who gives them Tank Hunters, A cover boost and the ability to overwatch (Holy Hell! Overwatching with Burst Cannons and a TL PC turret? Ohmygodthat'ssocool).  Apparently there's one for pathfinders too, and maybe even a FW one.

-Ion weapons seem to be getting a face lift.  S8AP2 blast? Cool! Instead of having a sort-of-rending thing on the blaster, all ion weapons can choose to supercharge, but at a risk to themselves.

-Riptide (MC suit) will be T6 2+/5+, 4-5W and with the ability to supercharge movement, shooting or shields.

-Stealth Suits overwatch at BS2

-All kinds of new drones! This is awesome, I would love to be able to have swarms of drones in a semi-competitive list.

-Markerlights can buff overwatch!

-New weapons with awesome names ("Pulse Accelerator", "Repulsor Field")

Also, going off of the Riptide picture, it seems to have a plethora of guns on it; it had it's main arm gun, a shield generator, a twin-linked plasma rifle and what looked like either two SMS or two FW missile pods on it's shoulders.

All in all, I am thinking that some of the stuff we like about the tau is about to get hit with the nerf stick, but in return we are going to receive some awesome new toys (provided, of course, they are not too expensive [points AND money]).

Tau as Allies

We've talked about how to use allies with a Codex: Tau Empire army.  Now, we'll go into how to use them as an allied contingent for armies of other codices, which units do/don't work, and what rules can be exploited for maximum benefit.

Again, not an image I own.

Tau Wargear, and Allies.

Now, tau have a wide range of wargear available to them, and very distinctive wargear at that.  I am not going to go into the personal wargear (such as targeting arrays and multi-trackers) as those only affect the tau model itself.  That means that this section is mostly tau allies as they relate to their battle brothers, eldar and space marines.

Most of these wargear items you should be attaching to a squad through a cheap shas'el.

-Advanced Stabilization System: It's a support system, rather than a hard-wired option, but grants the shas'el (and, by extension, his squad) Slow and Purposeful for a player turn (NOT a game turn).  What does this mean? Grant any squad relentless, and an inability to run, for your turn, and then since it doesn't apply in your opponent's turn, they can still overwatch.  Pretty awesome, yes? You can choose whether or not to activate it too, so you can still run if you need to.  Since you don't need to run while you're shooting, and you can still overwatch, it effectively just grants relentless.

-Blacksun Filter: A real gem, it costs almost nothing, can be hardwired (or not, if you want a really cheap suit) and grants nightfighting to the entire unit.  Not much else to say about it, use it.  There are always points for this, especially since it, like the Adv.S.S, is transferred over to whole the squad.  Works well with Devastators and Eldar heavy weapon squads.

-Positional Relay: Source of the ninja tau tactic, and would apply to allies as well.  One unit comes in from reserves on a 2+, the rest don't come in at all.  Gives you great control over your reserves.  Also, the way it is worded means it is not your reserve roll becoming a 2+, it is simply you rolling a d6 and them coming in on a 2.  This means people with wargear/rules that mess with your reserves can't do anything to modify it.

-Target Lock: This one IS a personal item for a battlesuit, but can benefit the squad by firing the emplaced weapon at a different target, since they have split-fire.  Can be hard-wired.

-Vectored Retro Thrusters: Gives the squad Hit-and-run.  Can be very helpful for more assault-y squads, especially since you would be using their I4 to HaR.

-Failsafe Detonator: Not sure whether or not this would pan out super well, but it let's you disengage from combat automatically (helpful for eldar who don't have ATSKNF and can be swept), works well with VRT. The S8 LBT that doesn't scatter is just icing.

Units That Do/Don't Work

While this would need to be examined in the context of the particular allied list you are using, it should hold true in most instances.  Also, you don't need to be battle-brothers to benefit from this section.

Crisis Battlesuit Commander: You really should use him.  Why? Because on top of him being awesome, it's mandatory.  So there's that.  Anyways, Crisis commanders are fairly cheap (cheaper than SM Captains, and by a fair ways, usually), can pack serious fire power and can be made into unkillable beasts (4W T4 2+/4++ FNP w/2 Shield Drones and thrust moves, and heavy weapons? Yes.)

Named Tau Characters: They count as your mandatory Commander, except Aun'va, who I suppose you couldn't take as an ally below 2000pts. Generally, don't do it.  None of them can confer Stealth/shrouded to your units (unless shadowsun's drones ALL die).  The exception is if you're already not battle-brothers, since you can't benefit from tau wargear, in which case taking either of the FW characters would be awesome, since they're monstrous.  Maybe Farsight in an assault-y army, since his special rules wouldn't affect you too harshly, and his weapon is still S5 AP2 armourbane.

Crisis Bodyguard unit: Bodyguard for the commander, again don't do it.  It stops you from helping out your main force with tau wargear shenanigans.  The exception, again, is when you are not battlebrothers, in which case they are not a terrible option.

Crisis suits: Yes.  Amazing 2W jet pack infantry would can take, and use, two heavy/special weapon equivalents a turn.  Some classic configurations are Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker (firing a plasma weapon and an autocannon a turn? x3 per unit? Sick. Turns monstrous creatures and terminators to mush) Missile Pod, Burst Cannon, Multi-tracker (allows for an autocannon and half-range heavy bolter to be fired per turn/suit) and TL Missile pod, flamer/BSF (Allows a TL autocannon per turn/suit, and either night vision or a flamer as a backup.).  Just watch out for S8 and assaults.

Stealth Suits: The other Yes.  1 W each, and T3, but they have 3+ armour, half range heavy bolters, jetpacks, stealth and shrouded.  4+ cover save in the open? 2+ cover save in just about any cover? Stick an eldar farseer with them if you want your farseer to live forever, SM might find this tactic less useful as their HQs are by and large shooty.

Firewarriors: The other mandatory choice.  30" S5 AP5 rapid fire guns is nice.  So is 4+ armour.  The rest of their stats are pretty much guardsman or worse though, and they're double the price of one.  Either way, not a terrible unit, take them in medium size squads, as a high volume of shots will do a lot for them.  They do suffer from lack of special/heavy weapons, but it doesn't matter much since their guns are already so strong.

Devilfish: Great transport, but make sure you keep it from getting TOO expensive. They come stock more expensive then predators, but don't throw on points as quickly, get 3+ cover saves in the open for 5 points and they are 12/11/10 skimmer, tank 12 model transports with some cool wargear available, some gun drones for screening and a burst cannon.  Probably not worth it for allies as they are expensive enough to take up a fair piece of the army list, without benefiting from saturation of targets.

Skipping kroot, they're not worth mentioning anymore.

The whole fast attack selection, barring the piranha and variants and the tetra aren't worth mentioning either, either due to sucking (vespid;gun drone squadron etc.) not being practical for an allied contingent (i.e. pathfinders) or being too many points for just an allied contingent (XV9 hazard suits).

Piranha: 11/10/10 fast open-topped skimmer, has access to 3+ cover saves and BS4, as well as the rest of the tau vehicle armoury.  Comes in squadrons of 1-5, which is hilarious when you have 5 flechette dischargers and someone decides to charge you. Consider them the tau answer to the Land Speeder.  They get either burst cannons or fusion blasters.  Yeah, a somewhat more lightly armed, but considerably tougher land speeder.

Piranha TX-42: A more heavily armoured piranha, 11/11/10 putting it on par with a rhino for armour.  It also gets better weapons than the piranha, all for a marginal price increase.  It gets a TL fusion blaster instead of a regular one, but can take a TL Railrifle or Missile pod for more long-ranged supprt, or a TL Plasma rifle for more mid-ranged, anti-TEQ fire.  Has access to all the tau vehicle goodies.

Tetra: A very lightly armoured, 10/10/10 fast skimmer with a heavy 4 markerlight (!!!) and a TL pulse Rifle.  Has access to the tau vehicle upgrades, including flechettes, disruption pods and targeting arrays/locks.  Not so useful for tau allies, as it only tau units benefit from markerlights, and nothing sucks more than markerlight overkill.

These fast attack vehicles are all fairly useful, in large part because they come in (potentially very large) squadrons, meaning you can saturate them even in an allied contingent.

Broadside Battlesuit: There's about a 2/3 chance that if you're taking allies for tau, it's for these guys.  They can pack an entire army's worth of long range anti-tank (especially in 6th) into one unit, and they can be made very, very hard to kill.  Take two, give them targeting arrays, make one a team leader with 2 shield drones.  You now have 6 T4 2+ wounds, two of which are expendable and have 4++ saves.  The two broadsides then have a TL BS4 S10 AP1 72" shot each.  They can also be made mobile with Adv.S.S. Don't forget their SMS (S5 AP5 24" Heavy 4 doesn't need line of sight, ignores nightfighting) each, which they can swap for TL PR for very few points.  For lulz, attach your librarian to them, and cast endurance. FnP IWND relentless broadsides with a defensive close combat character is terrifying.

Hammerhead: One of the best tanks in the game, 13/12/10 armour, it is a skimmer tank with BS4 by default, which must select either 2 burst cannons, 1 SMS or 2 drones as a secondary weapon, and either a Railgun, Ion Cannon, Plasma Cannon, Fusion Cannon, Missile Pods or Long Barreled burst cannons.  The latter four can be seen here, and are awesome (especially the Plasma cannon).  It really comes down between the Plasma cannon and the Railgun for main weapon.  The railgun can either fire like the broadside version, or use a S6 AP4 LBT.  The plasma is considerably cheaper, and just as good, but for different things.  Either way, this thing is like a predator, with upgraded weapons and armour, skimmer, 3+ cover saves and access to tau goodies.  The one problem with using it in an allied list is that, only being able to use one, it is one hell of a target.  3+ Av13 does mitigate that, however.

Skyray: Don't.  Not that good even in tau lists, this is terrible in allied lists.  It relies on other units getting markerlight hits to fire.  See why that sucks in a small allied contingent? It also has limited ammo, and no other primary weapon options.  Contrary to the name, this is probably the worst anti-air unit in ANY codex.

How to Use Tau as Allies

Now the big question: How do you actually apply all that, and use the tau as your allies?  Well, it depends on what your army list is and what your allied contingent is, is the answer.  Generally though, tau units have pretty clear-cut purposes.  If you take broadsides, keep them in the backfield with long sight lines (unless it's Big Guns Never Tire and you have a gate librarian, in which case teleport them onto an objective and laugh maniacally), crisis suits jump in and out of cover etc.  If you take a cheap Crisis suit commander with some wargear to help your force, make sure you put him where his wargear and playstyle will do well (i.e. put an Adv.SS commander with squads like devastators and tac squads, not assault squads or termies where he'll actually be a detriment to the unit).  Generally though, units which have my gold star of approval for use in allied contingents (see below) are anything in a battlesuit, piranha TX-42, hammerheads and firewarriors.  Pretty much all the units I bothered to write up about are good, both for mono-tau and tau allies, but some are just better suited than others.

Remember: allied tau don't bring markerlights.  Enjoy the golden star

Tau and Allies

Tau, like most armies, benefit enormously from the addition of allies.  There are simply some things certain armies can't do, that other armies can.  Tau purists, this post isn't for you.

Just like to point out I don't own that image.

Anyways, I have seen people try a number of things: Grab some cheese units from other codices, and add them to our army list (Vendettas, Scythes, Paladins etc.), units that do what we do (shoot), heavily armoured assault units (TH/SS terminators, paladins again, Nob Bikers), disposable wounds (orks, IG) and psychic heavy hitters.  While they all work in their own way, what we really want is synergy.  I have tried allies from a number of different codices, and drawn certain conclusions about them.

Space Marines:  Ah, our imperial battle brothers.  Popular for several reasons, one being that everyone and their grandma has a SM army, so simply adding it to a tau force is only natural, right?  Admittedly, some of their units have great synergy with ours (scouts, sternguard) and others are good for filling niches tau can't (pushing into their deployment zone and keeping them out of ours, ASM and either variety of terminator works).  There are really two units I want to give a little bit extra emphasis to however: Librarians and scouts.  Librarians are good for all the obvious reasons, yes, but also have some interesting tactics when mixed with our army, particularly broadsides.  Three power really stand out here: Force Dome, it isn't a great invul. but it makes the broadsides less dependent on cover and so increases tactical flexibility.  Gate of infinity is great for several reasons: Get broadsides out of harm's way, get side/rear armour shots, and last minute objective grabs in Big Guns Never Tire.  The other one needs to be rolled for, it is the biomancy power 'Endurance'...FNP, IWND, Relentless broadsides? Yes, please.  Scouts are great because they have the range of tau troops and so mesh with our play style, have sniper weapons which is now a big deal, and are a cheap way to fill the troops slot.  I usually add a lascannon stormtalon to round off the allied contingent here.

Eldar:  Don't mesh with our style of play very well.  We are mobile, they are fast.  Big difference.  Their speed means they will get near the enemy, and we won't be able to keep up.  Unsupported eldar=dead eldar.  The good things, though, are that they have divination so can boost our shooting, eldar jetbikes so they can have T4 farseers keep up with our crisis suits and JSJ with them, monstrous creatures if that's your thing, and can have jetbike troops.  So while you can play around with them to make them mesh, you will really just be shaping them into a tau list with different models, so really what is the point? Farseers are all that comes to mind.

Necrons: Lots of people are trying them thanks to us having access to cheap nightvision, and them having their night-causing rules.  Or for their flyers.  Both are not the greatest reasons.  Most armies have access to nightvision, either in the form of searchlights, blacksun filters or simply being dark eldar, other armies either us short ranged fire or are assault oriented.  Nightfighting isn't that big a deal.  As for their flyers, a lucky volley of bolters could down them.  Pass.  I am sure there are other ways to run them with tau, but they are not immediately obvious, or appealing.

Grey Knights: It is tempting to take Draigo and a bunch of paladins.  Don't.  If you run grey knights alongside tau, I would recommend either a henchmen list with psyfleman dreads, or a PA list, because warp quake really is a great rule for an army that does NOT want anything coming that close to it, especially at full strength, having not crossed the board while getting chewed by pulse and burst cannon fire.  Librarian would be pointless for the most part, what with us not being battlebrothers, however it could be useful for psychic defense or buffing other GK.

Chaos:  I see potential here.  The new chaos codex can really create just about any army type, which is good.  It also has access to some ridiculously tough units, and if you run out of slots for broadsides, take obliterators!  Being so new, I will need to playtest, I am however thinking of either a daemon prince with some oblits and cult marines, or a Tzeentch chaos lord with the sigil of corruption, 2+/3+ with a terminator unit attached, standard marines as troops and again, oblits.  Bonus since people haven't figured out how to counter it yet, due to newness.

BA/SW.  These are both gimmicky codices.  If you use either as allies, you may as well just take their cheese units.  I wouldn't recommend them though unless you REALLY want a runepriest in a drop pod with some GH.

IG: Same as above, don't mesh too well, being simply a "brute force" kind of army.  If you take them, may as well load up on vendettas and hydras I suppose.

DE: Wouldn't suggest it.  Suffers from the same drawbacks as elder, don't have battlebrother psykers to compensate.

Daemons: Could be fun, can't see it working out.  Would be hilarious to have An'ggrath fighting alongside the tau too.

Well that pretty much covers specific armies.  Not to sound like a broken record, but I will repeat myself; strive for synergy.  A force that works in a way similar to the core force, yet accomplishes things it can't and covering some of it's weaknesses, is what you should be aiming for.

Tournament Results

Ended up taking 2nd place overall, of about two dozen players.  Played Four games.

Game 1:
My opponent for the first game brought a true horde army: Chaos cultists allied with orks.  Among the more interesting bits of the list were abaddon and two maulerfiends.  We got Vanguard Strike and the emperor's will, on a terrain heavy board. Has some abominable rolling for my shooting for the first two turns, and he got most of the way across the table.  Top of turn three, my three suit units deepstrike and hit right where they need to, and some unholy good luck sees his army ripped to shreds.  Abaddon was killed trying to death or glory my hammerhead when it, with only one burst cannon left, tank shocked his unit.  The best moment was when one cultist unit charged my broadsides, and the aspiring champion issued a challenge.  I accepted with my broadside team leader because I believed in him, and he lost.  The cultist rolled on the boon tabled and became a prince.  He then challenged again and I accepted with my librarian, who he also killed.  He rolled and got D3+1 more rolls, of course getting four.  He gained THREE additional wounds and 1T.  Thank goodness the game ended there, with firewarriors on my objective and nothing on his.

Game 2:
Faced a necron army with two flyers, Zahndrekh and a whole lotta mech.  We rolled dawn of war and Emperor's Will for mission and deployment.  He got first turn, but I stole the initiative.  I had my stealthsuits, tank and scouts deployed way up the field, and moved them further up, hoping to keep him away from my heavy, long ranged fire support in the backfield.  For the first few turns, I was sweeping through his weak backfield, and then his flyers came on.  They wrecked the broadsides and firewarriors, so we had basically swapped ends of the field and started to head back towards our own ends.  His flyers deployed their troops, and I wrecked most of them, eventually whittling one squad of warriors to 2 men and the other to three.  My suits choose now to come in, and shoot down one flyer and the squad beneath it.  The stealthsuits destroy the other flyer, which crashes and kills the warriors beneath it, meaning he was tabled.

Game 3:
Faced a Chaos Space Marine/Daemon alliance, epidemius and plague marines.  Wasn't the most exciting game, we rolled Dawn of War and crusade.  3 objectives, one in each deployment zone and one in the middle.  I held mine, and advanced a firewarrior squad up to the central one, with my stealthsuits in his deployment zone harrassing him and soaking up a silly amount of firepower with their 2+ cover save. They were the only unit slain to a man on either side this game, almost nothing died.  I still got first blood for fusion blasting a rhino though!

Game 4:
The final round, I faced a Blood Angels/Space wolves allied list.  Hammer and Anvil, Purge the Alien.  Runepriest with grey hunters drop podded into my deployment zone, Mephiston and death company were the blood angels contingent.  They killed all three squads of firewarriors in the first two turns, and thunderhammered my poor hammerhead to death (after it claimed half the GH squad that podded in).  My Warlord and the fireknives I attached him to scattered onto mephiston (he was alone too, hard to hit a lone 25mm base) and mishaped to death.  The other unit dropped nearby, and by this point I REALLY wanted mephiston dead, so I fired them at him.  The burst cannon shots ALL missed, except one which managed to wound and also beat his armour, imagine that.  The plasma shot all hit, and NONE OF THEM WOUNDED.  Next round, mephiston charged and they actually killed him with overwatch.  Then death company with 3x thunderhammers happened.


All in all, it wasn't the hardest tournament I've ever played, but it was certainly fun.  Especially killing Mephiston, and watching Bruce the Cultist (he earned a name today) become an unstoppable force of nature.  The dice gods favoured me today.

Upcoming Tournament: Oct 27, 2012

Coming up on Saturday at my friendly local games workshop is a 1500pt Warhammer 40k tourney.

I've been running permutations of different lists through my head for the past several days, and have finally chosen an army roster!

First though, I REALLY wanted to run a mono-tau list, something along the lines of:

HQ:
Shas'el w/ MP+PR+VRT+HWMT-97

Elites:
6x Stealth Suits, 2x FB-184
3x Crisis Suits w/ MP+PR+MT-186
3x Crisis Suits w/ PR+BC+MT-174

Troops:
10x Firewarriors-100
10x Firewarriors-100
10x Firewarriors-100

Heavy Support:
1x Hammerhead w/ railgun, Burst Cannons, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod-165
1x Hammerhead w/ railgun, Burst Cannons, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod-165
2x Broadsides w/ TA, Team Leader w/ 2x Shield Drones-195

Total: 1456.  Would have thrown in some hard-wired blacksun filters for a few units, maybe another shield drone somewhere.  The commander would have joined the scouts for a 2+ save and to give them H&R.

However, I decided that while that list may suit me well in terms of what I like to field, it wasn't quite a tournament list.  I decided to bring along SM allies, for psychic powers and stormtalons!

HQ:
Shas'el w/MP+PR+MT-87
Terminator Librarian-125

Elites:
6x Stealthsuits w/ 2x FB-184
3x Crisis Suits w/ TLMP, Flamers-141
2x Crisis Suits w/ MP+BC+MT-100

Troops:
10x Firewarriors-100
10x Firewarriors-100
10x Firewarriors-100
5x Scouts w/ Sniper Rifles-75

Fast Attack:
Stormtalon w/ TL Lascannons-150

Heavy Support:
2x Broadsides, 2x TA, 2x Shield Drones-190
1x Hammerhead w/ Plasma Cannons, Burst Cannons, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod-130

This list has a lot more anti-flyer firepower, between the deathrains, hammerhead, broadsides and stormtalon. Once again, the commander is going with the stealthsuits.  Terminator with the broadsides [to make sure they never, ever die...biomancy is great ;)]

Another thing I was thinking of maybe doing, due to the poor anti-meq/teq of this list, was to put plasma rifles on the broadsides and give one an A.S.S, put them with the librarian and select the powers 'gate of infinity' and 'null zone'.  Alternatively, I could swap out the three deathrains to two fireknives, and use the extra points to upgrade the second crisis unit's missile pods to plasma rifles.

So much to consider!  I'll post the results once the tournament is done.

Unit Analysis: Crisis Suits part III

So, we've talked about why crisis suits are good, we've talked about how to build a solid crisis suits, now we need to talk about how to use them.

Now, the first thing you need to know are that how to use a crisis suits depends on the play style, the weapons of the suits, and the scenario.  Despite that, there are some truisms that encompass nearly all playstyles.

First off, stay back.  It can be tempting to move to 12" and make use of the rapid fire rule on the plasma rifle, but this should only be done when you are more or less certain you can destroy your target (i.e. 2 tactical marines against 3 fireknives).  The other time it may be useful is if you are intentionally using the fireknives to draw the attention of the target unit, to protect something more important (i.e. firewarriors, anything on an objective), which brings us to our next point.

Crisis suits are expendable.  Don't be wreckless, try and keep them around as much as is feasible, but don't protect them to the point of relying on their survival.  They are great for killing, and perfect as a harassment unit, but don't fill up the more important tactical roles of being scoring and being tough.

Anyways, on the battlefield there are a solid number of ways to use crisis suits.

First off, they are aggressive suits.  Get a wedge of 6+ crisis suits and just carve a path through your enemy, and sweep them off of objectives.  Open up gaps for your other units, and just generally take the fight to the enemy.  Manticore in the background making you rage? Introduce it to enough melta to wreck a baneblade.  Blob squad causing you trouble? Get some markerlight support, and just chew through them with burst cannons.  Most weapons do okay here, the missile pod may be out of place though, not because it wouldn't excel, but simply because you would be wasting it's awesome range.

Next off is defensive, hanging back and popping transports, thinning squads etc. gunline style, so that they are weak by the time they get to you, and then you just thrust away from them.  Crisis suits filling this role are generally the greatest source of anti-transports we tau can get, also works well against flyers.  Deathrains and Fireknives work well in this capacity, as missile pods and plasma rifles are the only weapons that really lend themselves to this role, due to their range.

Another common way is as a harassment unit.  Do not be engaging in full on firefights so much as just wearing away at a unit's edge and boosting away on your jetpack to avoid retaliation.  The purpose is not so much to be smashing units, as an aggressive suit would do, but weaking them.  The main difference between this and the other suits are that aggressive suits move in for point-blank carnage, and usually have more than one squad teaming up, and defensive units generally stick to their table edge, whereas harassment units may deploy forward or deepstrike behind enemy lines, but generally still work independantly from the other teams and stay an arm's length away from the enemy.  Missile pods, Burst Cannons and Plasma Rifles are the optimal weapons for this role, though both special issue weapons may also have their uses in this capacity.

The fourth and easily least common way of running a crisis suits is as a suicide suit.  TL flamer, TL fusion blasters, flamer+fusion blaster etc., just to disrupt the enemy and hopefully recover more points than was invested in them, which they usually will, at the cost of a FOC slot. Not often used, and with good reason.  I just thought I'd include it for the sake of completeness.

Now something you may have noticed, most crisis suit weapons are suitable for most roles.  If you stick tot he more versatile weapons and builds, you can switch roles mid game.  An example of how might work is that I usually take my suits (1 team of 3 with MP+BC+MT, 1 team of three with MP+PR+MT, 1 stealth team with 2x FB, most often) and start them out as harassment units, either deepstriking or moving up the flanks, and then once all my suits are behind the enemy, who will almost always be pushing towards your home base against tau, and suddenly pinch in from the rear/sides, using the classic hammer and anvil style with my firewarriors and broadsides and railheads on one side, and the suits on the other.

This also works because it can be varied based on the scenario, for example a green tide is moving up the board, covering enough space I can't move around it.  The suits I was planning on moving up the sides can be played as defensive suits, with the deepstriking ones waiting until the greenskins move forwards and open up some room in their backfield for my suits to drop, at which point they would either start clearing the ork backfield of any lootas or what have you, or choosing to move forwards and harass the rear of the green horde.

Unit Analysis: Crisis Suits Part II

Time to talk about the weapons crisis suits bring to bear, and the support systems/wargear that goes along with it.

First off, I would just like to say that equipping a crisis suit is something even tau veterans tend to bicker about, so I will try to stick to facts as much as possible, but if anything opinionated slips in, that is how I play MY suits at MY local store against MY opponents, and may not necessarily be the best for your situation.

Now, the weapons available to our suits are as follows:

-Airbursting Fragmentation Projector
    This is one of the few large blast templates we get out side of apocalypse.  Basically, a pie plate barrage with the Ignores Cover special rule, and the stats of a bolter.  0-1 for your army, but really comes in handy against IG infantry swarms and green tides.  Good choice for a bodyguard, if you use them

-Burst Cannon
    AP5 heavy bolter with about half the range, there are really only two things about it that are appealing: it's got good dakka, and it's cheap.  Better than in 5th, as it can cause damage to transports/back armour tanks now.

-Cyclic Ion Blaster
    You thought the burst cannon had dakka? You ain't see dakka.  Comes with an unholy 5 shots a turn, but suffers from mediocre range and low strength.  The good thing is it has a slightly weaker version of rending on it so it can sometimes pierce marine armour, and already penetrated anything less regardless.  0-1, like the AFP.  Only suitable for high BS suits (usually a Shas'el with a Targeting Array).

-Flamer
    Same as all the other races flamers.  You'd think if guardmen could carry heavy flamers, that crisis suits could too but I guess not.  Dirt cheap though, so sometimes used twin-linked on suicide suits (for fun) or to fill a third hardpoint, being the second cheapest option right behind the black sun filter.

-Fusion Blaster
    Standard melta, good for killing tanks when you get real close, but you generally shouldn't get 'real close' with tau so...yeah.  Pretty average price.  If you are the kind of person willing to sacrifice their suits for the greater good...and the hope of exploding a land raider...then they can make excellent use of the XV8's inherent mobility and deepstrike capabilities, especially paired with a skyshield/pathfinders/tetras.

-Missile Pod
    This weapon is one of the gems of the battlesuit armoury.  It is an autocannon, a beautiful, beautiful autocannon.  The longest ranged weapon battlesuits can use (not counting broadsides...), they are often used as backfield weapons.  Not too expensive either.  In my lists, I rarely have a suit without one, usually only one or two per game.  Pairs well with every weapon in the armoury, and can be twin-linked, like all the others.

-Plasma Rifle
   A nifty weapon, it was a staple in most lists in 5th edition, though now it's status as 'ubiquitous crisis suit weapon' is being quickly usurped by the missile pod, at least in the stores I visit (4 of them).  It's basically a plasma gun, -1 strength and without the Gets Hot! special rule.   You can see how that would be useful.  The problem is it's expensive, and only gets one shot at 12-24", and none beyond that.  Good against marines, generally not worth it against non marine armies though (high strength low ap weapon usually don't do much to a horde of gaunts).  AP2 got better though.

Now, onto support systems:

Only gonna list those pertinent to crisis suits, which also happen to not have been discarded by GW (C&C node, target lock).

-Blacksun Filter
    By far the cheapest thing you can put on a crisis suit.  Grants Night Vision.  Better than in 5th.  If you have no idea how to fill up that last hardpoint, it's a pretty safe investment.

-Drones controller
    Lets you take shield, gun and marker drones.  Shield is probably the best of them, though it is not essential for standard crisis suits as it bumps up their cost significantly.

-Multi-tracker
    Awesome equipment, super cheap, fills a hardpoint and lets you fire two weapon, this is one of the major factors that make crisis suits awesome.  This wargear is one of the most important entries in our codex, without a doubt.

-Positional Relay
    A lot worse in 6th than it was in 5th.  It is 0-1, and it let's you bring in reserves on 2+, regardless of what it otherwise would be, and makes only 1 unit roll for reserves each turn, so you can keep your army in reserve longer, and bring a unit in with a fair degree of precision.  Now that turn 3 reserves are 2+, and turn four is auto, this really isn't that great anymore.

-Shield Generator
    Enormously expensive 4+ invulnerable save.  The only time I would recommend it would be on a suicide suit, though I wouldn't recommend the suicide suit in the first place, or on a Shield'O (we'll get to that later).

-Targeting Array
    Useful for any suit with access to the armoury, and by extension, the hard-wired multi-tracker.  +1 BS, it's kind of expensive but I guess it's worth it if you keep your suits safe.

-Vectored Retro Thrusters
    You can only get it on a lone suit or an independant character, and it's 0-1.  It gives you hit and run.  Pretty bad in 5th, your lone suit probably didn't survive the combat.  Now, however, it is good.  Hit-and-run is conferred to the unit in 6th.  You can have your 30 kroot + blob benefit from hit-and-run.  You can have farsight and the seven (or eight, while using this) samurais have hit-and-run.  You can confer it to a SM or Eldar unit too. Could be interesting.  Maybe have a cheap shas'el flying around pulling tau out of combat, just to see your opponents reaction.

And Finally, on to wargear:

-Bonding knife
    A decent piece of wargear if you have spare points, it used to let the unit regroup when under 50% strength.  Now, in the new edition, it's not quite as essential as in 5th.  Now it makes them regroup at their unmodified leadership value. I guess it could come in handy with 3 suits and two drones, but really it's not such an issue.  One way I can see it helping, however, is if your opponent has battle psykers and uses weaken resolve, it won't affect their regroup. Really only useful for Farsight suit, but they get them for free anyways sooo...

-Ejection System
    If your commander/lone suit loses his last wound to a shooting attack that does NOT cause instant death (when does that happen?), he gets to eject.  You basically have a firewarrior, with a pistol and no armour who keeps the Ld, BS and WS of the suit.  Pretty expensive, pretty situational, 0-1.  Not fantastic, but on your commander, if he is a warlord, and against dakka armies like IG or Orks, it could work.  If it denies your opponent two VP that's great.  Also, you can always throw the pilot on to a fire warrior unit for Ld9/10.

-Failsafe detonator
    0-1. It is okay on large units of suits (Farsight, stealthsuits).  Basically, once you've lost an assault and fall back, your enemy does not get to launch a sweeping advance.  The suit equipped with the FSD stays where it is.  You centre the large blast marker on it, no scatter, and all the enemies under it take a S8 hit.  Might kill a space marine or two, and it will likely eat lots of ork boyz/guardsmen/gaunt, but that's not the point.  The point is your other suits escape automatically.  Obviously best when it goes off during the opponent's assault phase.  The reason you only want it on big units is that you will probably lose the assault by more than just one wound, and the FSD would claim another 1-2 wounds, as the suit using it dies.  So you may end up wasting it, with only the FSD suit surviving the assault.

-Iridium armour
    2+ armour save in exchange for cutting your jet pack move in half (swapping 2D6 for D6).  Pretty expensive too.  0-1.  Only really worth taking on a shield'O, and only if he takes shield drones, which inherit the 2+ save.

-Hard-Wired systems
   Blacksun Filter, Multi-tracker and drone controller, same points costs, but don't occupy a hardpoint.

-Stimulant injector.
   FNP.  Not too expensive.  0-1.

Configuartions:

Most crisis suit configurations combine a multi-tracker and two weapons, so we'll look at these first.

There are a huge number of combinations you can make with crisis suit weaponry, but a few of the most common are:

PR+MP+MT (Fireknife)
    This suit is good at taking on almost all types of infantry, due to high strength, low ap, high RoF weaponry.  Also good at wrecking transports.  Pretty expensive though, and needs to be 12" away for max firepower.

PR+FB+MT (Helios)
    This configuration is usually used either for anti-armour, or anti terminator duty.  Just as expensive as the fireknife, even shorter range.  Often uses deepstrike.

MP+BC+MT (Firestorm)
    A good suit for anti-infantry due to having the highest rate of fire a crisis suit can get without the CIB, can also wreck transports pretty handily.  The high ap is a bit of an issue against terminators and marines, but marines are usually in cover anyways and terminators have an invul save so it's not a big deal.  Really cheap, at only 50 points.

MP+FB+MT (Fireforge)
    Didn't see a whole lot of this one until recently, it is probably the best crisis suit configuration for destroying vehicles.  Having two S7 shots that reach across most of the board and a melta weapon too, being able to fire both in the same turn? Cheaper than the Fireknife, more expensive than the firestorm.

Those are just a few examples of the more commonly used crisis configs with multi-trackers, there are literally dozens of possibilities though so bear than in mind.

Now, twin-linked weapon suits.  These generally fill the third hard-point with either a targeting array, flamer or blacksun filter, though you can really put anything there, especially on a suit with access to the armoury.

Twin-linked MP (Deathrain)
    This is possibly the most common crisis suit config nowadays, though the fireknife may still hold that title due to being a bit more versatile.  Great for long-range transports destruction, for hitting infantry and staying out of range of return fire, or for taking down flyers due to twin-linked, long range, high strength weaponry. I've seen people run them with Targeting Arrays, though I almost always stick with a flamer.

Twin-linked PR (Burning Eye)
    This one I have never been fond of.  You are twin-linking a single shot at 24", or two at 12".  For around the same price as a fireknife.  So you can either twin-link 1-2 shots, or have 3-4 per turn.  Seems like a waste of a suit to me.

Twin-linked FB (Sun Forge)
    This one is for if you want to deepstrike a suicide crisis suit right behind that Land Raider than NEEDS TO DIE.  I don't think I would ever run it, but I can see how it would be useful.

Twin-linked Flamer (the Troll suit)
    This one doesn't have an actual name, so I will refer to it as the troll suit.  Why? Because that huge blob squad of guardsmen, camping in the ruins? They just had a deepstrike troll suit pop up in their face and roast half their guardsmen.  Against any horde army, it will probably make it's points back, but never take more than one, and never expect it to survive.  Also, don't take it to tournaments.  It is only 34 points minimum, so you only need to roast seven guardsmen for it not to have been wasted, but be careful about giving up that free victory point.  Could be hilarious paired with a Fail-safe detonator or an ejection system.

Twin-linked BC (Typhoon)
    I just made the name up for this configuration.  Know why? No one has bothered to name it, or play it for that matter.  Don't do it.

A few last notes on configurations:

-Try not to mix suit configurations within a team.  It's okay if the team leader has some enhancements to his wargear, but don't mix a suit with a burst cannon and flamer with one who has a fusion blaster and a missile pod.  They do completely different things.

-Though it is sometimes tempting, don't take three identical teams of crisis suits.  While individual flexibility is important, synergy is even more so.  Take specialized teams of suits, and they will excel at their specific task.  Something I usually do when I take three teams of suits, one is anti-transport, one is anti-infantry, one is somewhere in between.  Another thing I sometimes do is have an anti infantry loadout, a light-vehicle wrecking loadout, and a full-on tank trashing loadout.

-Some people like to take suits with three different weapons.  I am not one of them.  I think it is a waste, since there is always one weapon staying silent.  Don't let that stop you from trying them though.

-Flamers and multi-trackers don't mix.  Burst cannons and fusions blaster don't need a multi-tracker.  Use common sense.

-One config I didn't list earlier is TL Flamer+Missile pod.  Sort of a reverse deathrain.  You use it basically like you would a deathrain, except slightly more aggressive.  If the enemy attacks you, hit them with three twin-linked flamers.  It is also a lot cheaper than a standard deathrain.

Unit Analysis: Crisis Suits Part I

So I am finally getting around to it.

Crisis suits, the big guns of the tau (well, I guess that's railguns, but still), the true heavy cavalry of the Greater Good.

They can be equipped for almost any kind of firefight, being able to take melta, flamers, plasma, burst cannons and missile pods, along with a whole host of wargear and support systems, ensuring there are always other ways to equip one.

They are our codex's monster unit, you can have a strong list built around little other than spamming them.  They are our 2W killers, while GK have their paladins, and SW have their thunderwulves, neither of those can hope to outshoot crisis suits.

The reason why crisis suits are so good comes down to a single piece of wargear.

The multi-tracker.

While there are strong loadouts for crisis suits that don't involve multi-trackers, they are generally extremely specialized.  The ability to fire two weapons a turn makes them scary.  The reason people take 10 strong tactical squads is so that they can get their big gun and their special gun.  A crisis suit can match the fire power of BOTH those gunners.  Alone.  And they can come in squads of 3 (or eight, but we're not talking about Farsight here).  That puts the firepower of a squad of 3 around that of a devastator/havoc squad (before you say "but they don't get lascannons and plasma cannons etc. your squad of three can fire three autocannon equivalents and three heavy bolter equivalents in a turn, which is devastator comparable).

The big differences between them and devastators are that they are mobile, they are 2W and they can punch rhinos hard enough to make them explode, in an emergency.  While that last one is pretty iffy, the first two are what make the big difference.  A lucky plasma cannons shot can wipe half a devastator unit in one shot.  Full health crisis suits literally cannot be killed by a single plasma cannon shot.  Also, the more wounds devastators take, the less their firepower becomes.  Crisis suits have full firepower after suffering 3-5 wounds (depending on drones on a character or not).

Mobility is important because while crisis suits are pretty tough, they are not thunderwulves with their 3+ invuln save.  They are not paladins with their 5+ invuln and 5+ FNP.  You can still lose a crisis suit to a single krak missile.  Depending on how you kit it out, it can be 60+ points gone in the blink of an eye, or if you have a team leader and went crazy with the upgrades, 100+ points.  There are few ways to make your suit resistant to missile sniping, with iridium armour and shield generator being the only ways I can think of, but neither are very good for various reasons.  Drones maybe, but a crisis suit's real protection is JSJ (jump, shoot, jump).  Start your turn in cover, move out to get a better shot, move back in during the assault phase.  With any luck, you'll break line of sight.  JSJ also let's them outrun almost anything, so they'll rarely end up in an assault unless you position them poorly or your opponent has unholy good luck with his assault distance rolls.

As far as sixth edition goes, they got better, though not as drastically as certain other units.  The main changes they're interested in are weaker cover saves, getting to take their armour saves against dangerous terrain (huge deal) and also deepstrike mishaps being more lenient.  As to the new jetpack move, I have not yet decided if it is good or bad.  While on average you'll move 7", 1" further than before, if your luck abandons you, you may only move 2".  At the same time though, if your luck has completely abandoned you and you keep rolling snake eyes, no mechanic will ever save you, so we'll see as time goes on whether or not this is good or bad.


PROS:
-Bigger, better, faster, stronger
-Wide variety of options (will go into that in part II)
-Almost all their weapons can glance 90% of vehicle to death
-Squads of three
-Relentless
-2W
-Fairly inexpensive for what you get

CONS:
-BS3 (not a huge issue, we actually have several ways to make them BS4/5)
-Vulnerable to missile/lascannons sniping.
-Still not great at CC

Those cons are pretty mild when you consider that all 2W models are vulnerable to high-strength weapons, just more so crisis suits that the others, and that we don't expect them to perform in CC.

Anyways, crisis suits are awesome, one of the best units in the game.
Check back in later for part II (wargear and weapon configurations) and part III (Application/tactics)

Unit Analysis: Honour Guard

While this unit doesn't have it's own codex entry proper, I feel it should be talked about as with any other unit given the resurgence in firewarriors and Ethereals brought on by 6th edition.

These guys are pretty simple, firewarriors that are +2 points a pop for +1 BS, unlocked as a bodyguard unit by an ethereal.  That sound pretty good.  Let's compare them to Firewarriors.

10 Honour guard and 12 Firewarriors both cost the same.  10 Honour guard score and average of 6.66/13.33 hits, depending on rapid fire or not.  12 Firewarriors score 6/12 hits, depending on rapid fire.  +1 for honour guard.

12 Firewarriors are more durable than honour guard, having more bodies availiable.
+1 for Firewarriors.

Honour guard can use Quad-guns and Icarus Lascannons and such at BS4.
+1 for Honour Guard.

Honour Guard are a MASSIVE fire magnet.
+1 for Firewarriors.

Firewarriors are troops, and by extension, are both scoring and filling mandatory requirements (not to mention they're 1+)
+1 for Firewarriors.

Firewarriors don't need an accompanying HQ to be taken.
+1 for Firewarriors.

Firewarriors are better at MSU, given their relative inexpensiveness.
+1 for Firewarriors.

Firewarriors: 5
Honour Guard: 2

I would say Firewarriors are generally a bit better than honour guard, especially since more bodies with less balistic skill is noticeably better at snap shots.

I would advise only taking honour guard if you intend to use a quad gun, need a target for some Patient Hunter tactics, or if you want to take a very large, very strong squad..

Unit Analysis: XV88 Broadside Battlesuit

So I'm finally getting around to one of the 'big two' Tau units!

These are mean killers, they are our 2+ save 2W tank eating monsters, almost as tough to kill as paladins and thunderwolves, though a much closer analogy would probably be Obliterators.  Armed with a twin-linked railgun, also known as that tau gun with maxed out stats, and a Smart Missile System by default.  Unfortunately, these suits are NOT jetpacks, but really the trade-off is worth it.  They can, on most boards, target any unit with their 72" range, which is also nice.

These guys are NEED shield drones, they are almost mandatory.  The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can move on to the next point.  Otherwise, you'll straight up lose a broadside to a stray lascannon shot, or be plasma'd to death, or whatever.  Generally, you'll want to hard-wire the drone controller on a team leader, so that your suits can benefit from precision shooting (as team leader are characters) and so the team leader can benefit from their exceedingly useful support systems.

The available support options are:

-Blacksun Filter.  Exceedingly cheap at a measly 3 points, grants your broadsides nightfighting.  Very useful, especially with how common Nightfighting now is, though it rather pales in comparison to the other options.  If you are taking this, it should either be a points-cost consideration, a budget option if you will, or as a hard-wired support option on the team leader, as he now grants it to the whole unit.

-Multi-Tracker.  Fairly cheap at five points, and may help with overwatch.  Letting you shoot both your primary AND secondary may sound fairly good, but in most cases, anything your Smart Missile System will do well against, your railguns won't, and vice versa.  Really, there are very few times you should ever use the SMS, it is really only a last resort "I'm about to be charged by guardsmen" kind of weapon.  May just be worth it if you take Plasma Rifles.

-Advanced Stabilization System.  Awesome piece of wargear for broadsides, as it was designed for them.  It gives them slow and purposeful.  It used to be pretty good, back in 5th edition.  Now it is great.  They can move the full 6" and fire their heavy weapons at normal BS, useful for backing away from an assault for an extra turn of shooting, or for maneuvering for some shots at side armour.  The only downsides (minor) are that you cannot run, and you cannot perform overwatch.

-Targeting Array.  +1BS, same as on a crisis suit.  This makes broadsides just that little bit more reliable, to make them a true nightmare for their enemies.  Quite the opposite of the A.S.S, which focuses on adding mobility, this makes them even more deadly when they stand still, and gives them a nearly 90% chance to hit!

-Shield Generator.  I, generally, would not take this.  Doesn't make them any shootier, as all the other option do, and is 2-6 times more expensive, depending on which other wargear you compare it to.  The invulnerable saves really should be on the shield drones, as most weapon that can pierce their armour will instantly kill them, and you do not want to pay 20pts for a 50% chance to save it.

-Drone Controller. This should ALWAYS be hard-wired unless you are well and truly strapped for points, which you should be, since broadsides should usually be one of the first things you add to your army roster.  Generally, two shield drones is a great option to accompany this wargear.  Gun drones are okay, but kind of out of place, and really more useful is you just want some ablative wounds and don't care about SD having 2+/4++ T4 (...?).  Marker drones are too expensive.

The other pieces are irrelevant, or defunct (target lock).

Now, the other option they have is to take Twin-Linked Plasma rifles as their secondary weapons for 10 points.  Now, this one is kind of iffy.  Firing this means you're not firing your railguns.  It also means the enemy is within 24" (you DON'T want them to be within 24").  Firing this AND your railguns means that you have a multi-tracker, and not one of the more awesome upgrades (like the A.S.S or the TA).  So you see the problem.  Logically, you should never fire them.  So why would you buy them? Also, in some cases the SMS is actually BETTER, not needing line of sight, ignoring night fighting and having more dakka. 

The one time I can see it being okay is with a Multi-tracker, against terminators (terminators who aren't thunderwolves or paladins, or have storm shields).  If your opponent is playing deathwing with shooty terminators, or just has normal terminators for whatever other reason, then you have to realize: a plasma rifle shot has the same effect against a terminator as a railgun, and this way you can get three twin-linked armour piercing wounding on 2's shots off a turn.  Still not worth it, but a consideration if you are in that particular situation.

Now, on to tactics.  In 5th edition, they were really quite straight forward: either set them up in the backfield and shoot anything with an Armour Value, or use them as bait for Patient Hunter (kauyon) strategies.  With the coming of 6th, there are decidedly more options, thanks to allies. 

There are three worthy of note, two of which are related to the Space Marine Librarian.

-You can give the librarian Gate of Infinity, and teleport the broadsides out of harm's way whenever anything threatening looks at them wrong, or just to get side/rear armour on vehicles.

-A librarian with Force Dome gives them a 5+ invulnerable save.  With cover now granting a 5+, that means there is no direct benefit to staying in cover (other than sight lines, enemies charging through difficult terrain etc.).  Logically, this means you are free to move your broadsides around, ignore the confines of cover, simply moving around to get the best angles of attack.  Note that broadsides working with either librarian tactic are best off with A.S.S.

-Necrons can add nightfighting.  Broadsides can ignore nightfighting with the right wargear.. Nothing will be able to shoot them beyond 36", and they get bonuses to cover saves short of that (potentially getting a 2+ cover save in ruins!) while they can plug away at 72" and not grant any cover bonuses.  Unfortunately, necrons otherwise have poor synergy with tau, but oh well.

Now finally, let's look at the pros and cons of broadsides.

PROS:
-Are armed with THE best tank eating gun in the game, twin-linked.
-2+ armour save, with 2W.
-Can be equipped for a variety of situations with highly customizable load-outs.
-Reasonably priced (rare outside of Imperial armies)
-High perceived threat, useful as a lure.

CONS:
-No invulnerable save.
-Has trouble with infantry.
-Obvious target.

Conclusion: Best source of railguns available,  and you love railguns.  Therefore you love broadsides.  More or less mandatory for a competitive list.

Unit Analysis: Stealth Suits

I've gotta say, despite having always owned 12 of these guys, I have never fielded them competitively, ever...until recently.

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.

Unit Analysis: Sniper Drone Team

The sniper drone team.  One spotter, three drones.  3 of them for one heavy support slot.  This is, in my opinion, an underused unit because it is faced with one crippling problem: it competes with broadsides and hammerheads for heavy support slots, and you NEED those slots for railguns. Their qualifications, however, include a stealth field generator, rail rifles, a networked markerlight and targeting arrays on everything.  A 36" range weapon paired with the SFG means that only 1/36 times will the enemy be able to shoot them if you position them well.  Really, they are only good for anti-meq and (in a pinch) anti-AV10.  They are, however, a good harassment unit, with a chance to pin.

Without further ado, the pros and cons.

Pros:
-Great range
-Markerlight
-Pinning
-Stealth Field Generator
-3 units to a FOC
-Small footprint
-AP3

Cons:
-Fairly expensive
-Competes with broadsides and Hammerheads
-Delicate
-Only one type of unit in the game they can put any hurt on (Meq)
-If the spotter dies, they ALL die
-Can't move and shoot

Generally, I'd only take them in a stealth themed list or as a fun harassment unit.

UPDATE: Now that the 6ed stealth field generator rules are in place, these are an extremely good unit.  The ability to have the entire unit get a 2+ cover save without going to ground or anything is amazing, as well as the fact that you can have the BS4 spotter fire quad guns or what have you.  Also, they can now pose a decent threat vehicles, what with the new hull points system, and they are better at killing marines due to cover saves now being (normally) 5+.  But the best part? They don't have to compete with the other heavy support options as much now, as the Force Organization Chart doubles at 2000pts, and even below that the demand for broadsides has decreased, now that missiles pods and plasma have a fair chance of wrecking vehicles.

Unit Analysis: Tau Manta

This thing is a BEAST.  The first problem with fielding one, before we even get to it's rules, is that the kit costs 1500$ and is almost a meter across.

Anyways, this thing has always been beautiful, but now, as of the second edition of Imperial Armour Apocalypse, it is so much better.  It's heavy railguns are no longer twin-linked...twice as much destruction upfront.  It's long barreled ion cannons rest the same, being three in number and twin-linked.  This update tells us that the sixteen long barreled burst cannons just got a whole lot better, having twice as many shots, higher strength and lower AP.  The missile pod now also fires blasts. The total transport capacity was also upgraded to 200, which is good...I guess...

That's it for how it's changed recently, let's REALLY look at it now.

It has AV13, 4++, ten structure points and a monstrous transport capacity, including infantry, tanks, battlesuits and beasts (hounds).  It can fire two Str D AP1 shots a turn.  That means that any vehicles caught in the blast are automatically penetrated and and +2 to their damage table roles for it being ap1 ordinance primary weapon and destroyer.  That means that normal vehicles are destroyed with ease and superheavies are picked apart with relatively high chance of success! Take that, landraider!  Due to being destroyer, any troops it hits are dead, with only inv. saves being valid, and it causing ID (not that you should fire solid shots at infantry, ever).

Alternatively, you can fire a 10" S7 AP3 blast, truly terrifying for troops and hordes.  Or, both, since you can have two railguns!  But really, a 10" blast that can only scatter 2" maximum is god damn terrifying. Two's even worse.  At bs5 (with the manta's networked markerlight...yeah, it does that too) scattering a max of 1"...you simply won't miss. Anyways you know what's great? One-shotting a Baneblade.  Really.  Having the +2 means that on a 4+ it suffers a chain reaction, pretty much any result forces permanent damage (none of this "gun crew shaken" crap). And being able to fire twice at BS5 due to your markerlight, you almost cannot miss.  So you can kill two baneblades in a turn. And then fire 16x6 LB burstcannon shots, 9 TL Ion Cannon Shots, 2 missile pod blast shots, 1 networked markerlight shots and, with markerlight support, ten seeker missiles.  Something to note, the burst cannons are drones controlled which, I am assuming since it is not clarified, means BS2. Oh well, it also has a blacksun filter.

Unit Analysis: Vespid Stingwings

Vespid stingwings...I dislike them nearly as much as Aun'va.  True, they are fast and have low AP guns, but I personally cannot see the benefits outweighing the liabilities.  They have mediocre BS, WS, S and Sv, the same as guardsmen for those categories, and terrible Ld (6 on a standard vespid, albeit not that bad considering Ld9 on a strain leader).  They are also outrageously expensive.

Pros:
-Their Shots wound marines on 3+, with no armour save (except termies/artificer armour)
-They're very fast (jump infantry, fleet, re-roll failed dangerous terrain tests)
-They have a respectable T4
-Leadership 9 with a strain leader, and while he's alive they can benefit from markerlights.
-High initiative, striking before marines.

Cons:
-Paper-thin 5+ armour
-Don't fare well in assault (despite being designed for it...we'll touch on this in a minute)
-Their guns are only assault 1 and will likely only get to shoot once.
- Ballistic skill 3 largely wastes that one shot
-Monstrously expensive, costing  70pts for four of them
-Usefulness only decreases further when their target is in cover
-Weapon skill 3 makes them vulnerable in assault.
-If wound allocation kills the strain leader, you can no longer benefit from markerlight hits and only have Leadership 6

Now, vespid seem to be designed to target a marine squad with their neutron blasters then follow up with an assault, but there are several problems with this.

-Their guns, even with a full squad of vespid, will average 4.5 marine kills. 2.25 if they're in cover (they will be)

-For them to be able to assault after, they have to be 6"> away from the target, and even with their 12" movement, means they started the turn 18" away.  That means the marines would have been shooting at them the turn before.  Assuming a Flamer/ML loadout, that's 8 bolter shots and a frag missile, about 8 hits, about 4 dead vespid.  Even fewer dead marines.

-If they were 24" away and zoomed in to 12", they would still have had a round of shooting from 24" from the marines, and would end their turn without being able to assault, but with rapid fire and flamer range.  Or, the marines could fire pistols and charge.

-A full unit of 11 vespid charging marines is 22 attacks (assuming none died) 11 hits, 3.6 wounds, one dead marines. A unit of 8 marines and a PF sergeant (because one died) gets 9 attacks, 6 hits, 2.5 dead vespid (accounting for two attacks being PF, of course).

-Vespid can't fleet and shoot in the same turn.

-If the marines assault, you kill half a marine, and they kill 5 vespid (account for .5 marines being dead).  Without them shooting.
And, most importantly

-Since the marines WILL be in cover, they will get a 4+ save, and you will strike second (if you assault).

Now, in literally ideal circumstances:

Marines are out of cover and you have markerlight support. 11 shots at BS5

Shots x To hit chance x To wound chance x To penetrate armour chance

11 x5/6 x4/6 x6/6 = 6 marines dead, assault means one more marine dead, the three remaining marines only kill 1.5 vespid (accounting for PF sarge) Then you lose combat by one, stick around anyways and eventually wear the unit down.  You will lose a lot of vespid over a very protracted, but under ideal circumstances with and ideal target who is poorly positioned didn't shoot at you and with outside help from markerlights, vespid can kill a unit and make back most of their points, but not any other unit in the game.

By the way, full unit costs 182, more than a transport-less tac squad (usually)

I'd leave them at home...always.

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.

Character Analysis: R'ymyr

To start off, R'ymyr is a forgeworld unit, and you should always inform your opponent of his use before the start of a game.

Anyways, he has the same stats as a standard Shas'O, and costs 160 (with his equipment included, however).

He has fairly unique equipment, so we'll start there.

-Double barreled plasma rifle
An assault 2 version of the plasma rifle, decidedly useful, otherwise identical to the standard version.

-Shield Generator
Same as the standard one, with the exception of it granting him a 3++ in close combat.

-Flechette Discharger
Not something you usually see on a battlesuit, absolutely rapes hordes.

-Ejector System
Same as standard, useful for kill-points denial or boosting the Ld of a firewarrior squad once he escapes.

-Hard wired drone controller
Not sure why they force you to take drones, but I would probably do it anyways so it's no big deal.

-Hard Wired Target Lock
It's free? Cool.

Now, on to special rules.  He and his unit (drones and bodyguards) are fearless against Imperial Forces (so basically they're fearless because 8 out of 14 armies are Imperial, and this includes all the most common ones). 

His bodyguard can consist of commander suit variants including XV-81 (+20 points for a Smart missile system, occupies one hardpoint) XV-84 (+15 points includes a markerlight and a target lock, has three open hardpoints) and XV-89 (+25 points iridium armour suit, without iridium being special issue).  Really, I can only see the XV-81 having a place within the bodyguard, as the dakka is good, a pair of bodyguard with it and missile pods get 6 shots each per turn, killing hordes on 2+.  The problem with the others is that XV-89 is more expensive than iridium armour, and that XV-84 markerlights aren't networked.

Anyways, assuming his equipment costs the same as the non-boosted versions in the codex, you are paying a 15 point premium for having his plasma rifle upgraded, his shield generator upgraded and his special bodyguard/fearless rule.

One problem I have with him is that he doesn't quite seem to know his role, having an upgraded shooting weapon that's meant to kill MEQ/TEQ, and yet he seems to be kitted for CC, against hordes.  His I3 also limits his CC against MEQs, especially paired with no power weapon.

I think that R'ymyr abilities are meant to keep him alive until he gets into CC with a horde, with some shooting to boot.  I think what needs to happen is he targets a powerblob.  2 XV-81 w/ BC and MT bodyguard.  A unit of 8 Pathfinders shoots the blob (presumably in cover) scoring four markerlight hits. now you ignore their cover and have BS4 bodyguard.  The three suits open fire, bodyguards kill 7.66, R'ymr kills 1.38.  40 Guardsmen, down to 31.  Then, you charge.  15.5 Flechette discharger wounds, 10.23 guardsmen dead.  Then the six drones make their attacks (they should all have drones) meaning twelve attacks, six wounds, four dead.  The four sergeants and the commissar (there's always a commissar...) get a total of twelve attacks, 6.5 of which hits (the commissar is WS4), 2.15 wounds, one shield drone dead.  Then you have 16 regular guard attacks, 8 of which hit, 2.64 wounds, almost one dead shield drone.  Then R'ymyr and his bodyguards attack, commander has 5 attacks, 3.3 hits, 1.8 dead.  Bodyguards get 6 attacks, 3 of which hit, 2.5 wounds, 1.65 dead.

Guard lose combat by 21-22, have a 97% chance to flee, 66% to be swept (majority I4 from drones) and can't regroup even if they escape and bam, 400 points of guard infantry, for the cost of a shield drone, in one turn.

A very good choice all things considered, though that was optimal circumstances right there.

The mines of Kel'tyr [Fan Fiction] (originally posted by me over at ATT)

C&C very much welcome, I am looking to improve my skills as an author as much as I can!

“Prepare to fire on my word! We hold them here, for the Greater Good!”
Shas’ui’Sa’cea’Cal’Doran’s words went largely unheard amongst the deafening pounding on the shrine doors, the horrific shriek of metal being torn apart under monstrous forces.

The survivors of fire warrior teams Vre’Var and B’Kak, arrayed in a neat firing line behind Cal’Doran, flinched with each reverberating clang. Fingers tensed on triggers in uneasy anticipation.

As Cal’Doran checked his ammo gage for the third time, a particularly vicious blow tore off one of the massive vault door’s hinges, leaving it askew. Natural light broke into the shrine, along with the foul stench of the be’gel’mont’he.

For the first time, doubt entered his mind. How could eleven fire warriors hold the eastern approach? He regained his composure quickly, the iron discipline of the Sa’cean fire caste more than adequate to sweep these thoughts aside.

Finally, the massive door fell in with a groan of protesting metal. The greenskin brutes swarmed in, trampling those too slow to keep up, not even taking time to remove their ram from where it was unceremoniously dropped.

“Deploy photon grenades on my mark!” called Cal’Doran, waiting for the longest handful of heartbeats in his entire life.
“Mark! Deploy grenades and dim visors!” His shout was met with the whoosh of grenades being launched from carbines, followed shortly after by the fizz-crack of their detonations.

“Shas’la of Vre’Var and B’kak, fire at will, for the Tau’va!” yelled Cal’Doran, opening up with his pulse carbine on full auto. The front rank of orks was decimated, washed away in a sea of electric blue plasma pulse, the smell of charred flesh, muscle and fat offensive in it’s potency.

But it would not last. As potent as the tau’s weaponry was, the orks were tougher, and more numerous. As the fire warriors clips ran dry, one by one, the powerful barrage slowly became something more piecemeal, struggling to fit the fresh cartridges in quick enough to revive the volley.

By the time the firing line was ready again, it was too late. The greenskins were barely a dozen paces away, and even fully automatic pulse fire wasn’t going to save them.

“Five of you fall back and lay down suppressing fire, we’ll cover you for now!” barked Cal’Doran. He leapt out of the way of the nearest orks’ cleaver, calmly side-stepping and drawing his pistol in one fluid motion, ending the wretched creature.

“No”, called a calm, powerful voice behind him “we will hold them here. There is no alternative”. And with that Aun’shi, seemingly materializing from nowhere, stepped up to the line and thrust his blade forward, impaling the nearest greenskin through the throat, leaving it’s head clinging to it’s body by little more than limp flesh.

“I thought you were leading the defence of the western entry, is it not so, your ethereal majesty?” queried Cal’Doran, frantically ducking a blow that would have bisected him quite handily.

“The greenskin menace was repelled and extinguished on that front, respected shas” replied Aun’shi, as he twirled his blade faster than the eye could follow, removing the legs of the greenskin the dared attack him.

“This is good at least. What reinforcements of my caste do you bring from that gate?” Cal’Doran asked breathlessly, noticing the rapidly dwindling number of warriors under his command, and slipping his last pulse cartridge into his pistol.

A sudden melancholy seemed to pass over Aun’shi as he replied “I am the lone survivor, I held the penultimate assault without support”. As he spoke these words, a massive greenskin, easily identifiable as the leader of this assault, reach the tau lines. A single massive sweep of it’s club claimed the lives of two fire warriors, pulping the skull of the first and pulverising the entire torso of the second.

Aun’shi advanced towards the beast, cutting down the three greenskins who stood in his way. As he reached the great beast, the other orks seemed to lose interest in him, perhaps realizing that to interfere with the personal combat would draw the wrath of their leader.

The warboss grinned and threw his club at the ethereal, who narrowly avoid it, ducking only just in time. When he regained his stance, the charging warboss filled his vision, intending to gore him on it’s massive tusks. Aun’shi planted his feet, and when the warboss was in striking distance, he thrust the honour blade with all the strength he could muster into the greenskin’s leg.

The beast charged on, barely seeming to notice the twelve inches of steel that penetrated its leg. Aun’shi was forced into a clumsy dive to avoid the charge, drawing his symbols of office in an incongruously calm movement once he’d stood back up.

The ork bellowed in rage at being denied it’s kill and turned around, furiously searching for the ethereal. Finally locating him, it walked ponderously towards him, blade still impaling its leg. The puddles of blood spread across the stone floor from the ongoing battle rippled with each step it took, such was it’s mass.

Stealing the initiative, Aun’shi charged his opponent despite being outweighed twelve to one. Leaping at the last second, Aun’shi landed on the shaft of the honour blade protruding from the monster’s leg and thrust both his hand weapons into the beast’s barrel chest, sliding them in up to the hilt.
The beast, however, was almost indifferent. With a snort that could have been a chuckle, it swatted Aun’shi from his perch, one of the two hand weapons remaining embedded in it’s flesh. Now armed with only the one short blade, he knew he’d have to make his next moves count.

Again taking to the offensive, Aun’shi ran at the creature, rolling between it’s legs as he closed with it. Coming up from his roll, he struck out, blindingly fast, and cut the beast’s left hamstring at it’s midpoint. With a terrible roar of rage, the beast collapsed to a knee. Aun’shi moved around to the front, to look his bested opponent in the eye before executing it.

“I am Shas’Aun’Shi, ethereal of the tau empire, friend to the fire ca-” suddenly he found him self lifted off the ground by the massive hands of this primitive creature. Arms pinned against his side, he could feel the life being crushed from him. He resolved to die an honourable death, not screaming or crying as many gue’la seem inclined to do.

Just as suddenly as it came, the hand retracted. Wondering why the creature chose to spare him, Aun’shi quickly realized that it wasn’t because of some sense of mercy embedded in the creature, but rather because it was distracted. Leaving what remained of his cobbled together squad, Cal’Doran had shot the creature numerous times in the flanks, prompting it to turn as best it could. The bold sergeant was now pressing the attack with his bonding knife drawn, though Aun’shi could tell that close combat was not something the sergeant was practiced in.

The beast reached out with a meaty paw towards the stubborn Shas’ui, but he impaled it’s hand with his bonding knife. Withdrawing its hand, and the bonding knife with it, the creature reached out with its other hand, hauling Cal’Doran into the air. With an air of infinite rage it crushed his right leg to a pulp and tossed him across the chamber, thankfully behind the 4 remaining firewarriors rather than into a mass of orks.

Capitalising on the brave squad leader’s bold attack, Aun’shi ran at the beast and wrenched the honour blade from its leg. Now properly armed, the ethereal swung his blade in a wide arc, leaving the warboss’s good leg in a state of ruination with a strike precisely aimed at what appeared to be the foul be'gel's artery.

Now down on both knees, the beast was eye-level with the ethereal. Aun’shi went about the complete deconstructing of his foe with his characteristic calmness, removing first the monster’s good arm with a flurry of strikes that were powerful enough to cut through even thick orkish musculature, next the removal of its tusks, and finally a piercing slice deep into the chest.

Now thoroughly crippled, the ork let loose a defiant yell, and more than a little spittle, in the ethereal’s direction. “I am Shas’Aun’Shi, ethereal of the Tau Empire, friend to the Fire Caste, and I will be your end”. With that, the ethereal thrust his blade up under the creature’s chin and into it’s brain, instantly extinguishing it’s life.

Finished with his duel, Aun’shi calmly removed his blade from the gargantuan corpse of the one ton be’gel, and rejoined the pair of shas’la who remained alive, protecting the now comatose form of their shas’ui. Blade moving faster should be possible, he calmly removed the arm of the greenskin who dared attempt to bar his way.

The situation, however, was dire. The shas’la were out of ammo and had resorted to bludgeoning the greenskins with their carbines, which was not working out well against fighters so well versed in the art of the brawl. Even worse, every time a be’gel went down, two took it’s place. They couldn’t hold out.

The two shas’la went down in quick succession, as the orks were eager to prove themselves the ‘ardest in battle and fill their late leader’s vacant position. Aun’shi was left alone next to the prone form of the scarred veteran, desperately fending off dozens of blows. He could only hope the other three approaches would hold.

One blow got through his defences and clipped his leg, but he would not cry out. He would bear the pain stoically, for the Greater Good. Instead, his only reaction was to strike out at the offending be’gel, slicing along the length of it’s belly, spilling it’s entrails out across the cold stone floor.

Attempting to sidestep a heavy blow that would otherwise mean his death, he slipped in the blood, now covering his ankles. He fell onto his back, accepting that his death was at hand. The shadow of his killer-to-be loomed large over him, casting a dark shadow across him, massive cleaver held high, ready to strike.

Suddenly, a score of be’gel exploded, including his would-be killer, followed a second later by a deafening whip-crack. Aun’shi seized the opportunity and sprang to his feet, letting his blade swing out and lacerate the nearest enemy he could find in a dozen places.

Hearing two metallic thuds behind to him, Aun’shi turned about to see the unmistakable, towering forms of two crisis suits land next to him. They both inclined their ‘heads’ to him, before opening up with their burst cannons and plasma rifles, sawing through the mass of orks. On the sides of the cavern, stealth suits de-cloaked and started tearing into the horde with their own burst cannons as well as with fusion weaponry.

Another whip-crack sounded and seeing it’s deadly results, Aun’shi noticed broadsides standing in the shrine doorway, and could hear the distinctive hum of hammerhead anti-grav platforms outside. Knowing the battle against the feral orks was as good as over, the warrior ethereal turned towards the prone form of the crippled Shas’ui. Speaking into his comm.-link, Aun’shi called for a medic drone and attempted to staunch the bleeding, fashioning a tourniquet of his outer robe.

“Live, brave Shas’ui, for the Tau’va” implored the battered and wearied ethereal. “Kel’tyr has held”.

***************

“Assembled Shas of Sa’cea, hear me. This day, our most despised enemy, the be’gel, redeploys from their current stronghold to march on the gue’vesa city of Hope’s End. We cannot let this happen. We have an arrangement worked out with the humans, and so they must be protected. We will strike them at the mid-way point between their fortifications and their destination. We bring with us battlesuits of terrible power, tanks as swift as the dawn and discipline forged of iron, but do not underestimate the brutes. They are fierce and they are tough. We deploy in 5 decs, I suggest you prepare yourselves now”

And with that, Shas’El’Sa’cea’Cal’Doran’Lar turned and walked away, mechanical leg clanking slightly on the Gal’leath’s tiled floor.

Note: All tau terminology is authentic
http://forums.tauonline.org/tau/37435-definitive-tau-xenolexicon.html (source for tau terms)