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.