In another Warhammer 40k related post I’m going to be
looking into the TAU, if I had the funds, patience and inclination I would be
balls deep into buying these guys, as I briefly mentioned in my Chaos / Daemons
post I love shooting armies, LOVE THEM! The Tau embody everything that’s good
and wholesome about brute firepower and some of their units can lay down a
surprising amount of this. As usual we start at the top with our HQ choices.
My personal favourite is the Cadre Fireblade, for no
other reason than he can give your pulse weapons an extra shot provided you
haven’t moved your men, meaning that a 12 man fire warrior team plus Cadre
Fireblade can let off 39 shots at rapid fire if they haven’t moved that turn,
not bad and that doesn’t even include if you have taken any drones either! The
2nd HQ choice for me is the character DarkStrider who is essentially
the Rambo of the pathfinders, he can team with your fire warrior squad giving
them SCOUT and the ability to consolidate after firing overwatch which is very
handy I would say, he also makes every non veichle target you fire at – 1
toughness, which again is pretty handy! I think teaming these two HQ choices
together with a Fire Warrior squad is just the smart thing to do.
Onto the Troop choices, I have selected a squad of both
choices. We can start with the Fire Warriors first, a full 12 man squad teamed
with the two HQ choices will just be nasty, between number of shots and
decreased toughness of the targets you should rack up plenty of wounds on any
squad you open fire at. I haven’t upgraded them with any drones or anything but
if you wanted MORE shots you could easily add a couple of gun drones in for a
giggle, you can even add drones to the Cadre Fireblade too for even MORE shots!
Points allowing of course. I also decided to throw in some Kroot, as they can
now be given sniper rounds in their guns, I think I have gone with a squad of
15 all with sniper rounds available, imagine that if you get some good rolling
you can make quick work of almost anything and then if you moving them with
your fire warriors you get a bit of extra protection for them as fire warriors
have the supporting fire special rule, sadly the Kroot do not but they do have infiltrate so can get up close and
personal very quickly to ensure they can get some shots off.
Ok onto Fast Attack, I originally went with a flyer unit,
but I hate flyers so I changed my mind and went with the Pathfinder unit, it’s
small as I am only using the 4 man squad and 3 of them are all upgraded to rail
rifles, which at 30 inch range, strength 6 and AP1 you cannot grunt about them.
These guys have SCOUT too so can get nice and close quickly to be shooting
range. A great unit to have running with your Fire warriors and Kroot troops,
one hell of a load of men with great guns all aiming in your enemies general
direction. NICE!
The Elites choice was an easy one to make; I have simply
decided that 2 riptides are the way to go! Both Riptides taking the Ion accelerator
upgrade instead of taking the standard the burst cannon. Then using upgrades to take sky fire, also
interceptor and the two shielded missile drones they can take too. So overall a
very harsh shooting unit and the enemy have to deal with two of them and even
then only after they have gotten rid of the two shielded missile drones and at
toughness 6 and a +4 invulnerable save to hide behind it’s going to be
potentially a challenge.
The thing you have been waiting for is here, you cant
make a Tau force without the HEAVY SUPPORT option, this heavy support bracket
fills out nicely kicking off with a sky ray missile gunship, fantastic sky fire
ability so can throw some serious shooting at airborne targets as well as
replacing the two gun drones for a smart missile system then using the upgrade
to give the tank overwatch with its strength 5 weapons, the smart missile
system falling into this category. The next heavy unit is a 3 man broadside
battlesuit team; now this was an easy choice with the rail rifle as their
primary weapon and the smart missile systems as their secondary weapon. Two of
the battlesuits are using the upgrade to give them interceptor while the other
is using the skyfire special rule upgrade to give them one hell of a level of
suppression firepower on anything that flies in or deep strikes in as well. Then
to captain the Heavy Support options in this force we have the Hammerhead
gunship, piloted by the LongStrike upgrade. The Hammerhead itself has a
strength 10 AP1 heavy 1 gun which isn’t to be trifled with and this is backed
up by a twin linked smart missile system. Ok onto the Longstrike upgrade, this
gives the tank some new bits such as an increased BS to 5 instead of 4, it can
overwatch and not just once but only once per target and has black sun filter
ignoring the night fight rule making this guy a pretty tough cookie to deal
with when he is aiming at you.
That about wraps up my army idea and that’s just what it
is, an idea, whether this would beat everything is questionable but I do
believe that this would give any force a run for its money on paper, however
you cannot account for dice rolling on the day and how your opponent’s dice
rolls go on the day too. I do think this will suffer against serious horde
forces but against a general balanced force I do honestly believe that this can
handle anything that gets thrown at it.
If you have the models to do this army then please be my
guest to take it for a test drive and see if it fits ok and please let me know
if you do, would love to hear about it.
You can follow me on twitter @bigboss010 and you can also
follow my cohorts @KingJimmeh & @siteofshite too. I’ve been Big Boss and
I’m out… Peace.
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