Stupid Tau Tricks, 6th Edition

[knightperson]

I posted on this a couple of crashes ago, but I'm not sure what happened to the data so I'll start over.

6th Edition made some major changes to the way Universal Special Rules work, and the Tau can benefit from quite a few of them. The following tricks take advantage of the fact that most USRs are granted to an entire unit even if only one model in the unit has it. Most of the tricks below take advantage of the fact that HQ crisis suits are Independent Characters and can bring USRs with them to another deserving unit.

Trick #1, the SAP'O: Take a Shas'O or Shas'El and give him Advanced Stabilization System. This is a strange thing at first glance: adding Slow and Purposeful to a crisis suit when it already has the better rule, Relentless, but the important difference is that S&P is transferred to the rest of a unit, where Relentless is not. The most obvious application of the SAP'O is by attaching one to a squad of pathfinders with their heavy weapons, but this trick combines well with the Shield'O (although the shield'O was weakened a bit by the new closest-first wound allocation). Give a Shas'O a couple of long-range weapons like plasma rifle and missile pod, fill the third hardpoint with advanced stabilization system, and round it out with some defensive upgrades like a pair of shield drones, iridium armor, and stim injectors. While a borderline absurd amount of points, you have 3 very tough wounds attached to a squad of markerlight launchers that are fully mobile. Another possibility is to attach the crisis commander, probably with different weaponry, to a large squad of Kroot. Slow and Purposeful no longer forces a unit to swing last if you charge in melee, and it allows them to charge after firing rapid-fire weapons like kroot rifles. So Kroot could conceivably walk up to something, rapid-fire the rifles, then charge.

Trick #1.5, the stealth SAP'O. An interesting variant is to attach the SAP'O to a squad of sniper drones. The crisis suit still gives the sniper team Slow and Purposeful, but in return they give him Stealth and Shrouding. 4+ cover save in the open, and 2+ in any decent terrain.

Trick #2, Hit & Run squad: Instead of Advanced Stabilization, give the crisis suit Vectored Retro Thrusters for the Hit And Run rule. The most useful application of this one would be a squad of broadsides. A squad of power-weapon-wielding models (or even just a couple of them) will no longer automatically win combat against a broadside squad, but they will likely tie it up for the rest of the game. A single HAR'O suit, without any drones because the codex says you can't have any, will at least give you a roll to disengage from combat and shoot again. The other possibility I have been playing with is to attach the crisis suit to a squad of Eldar Wraithguard. While this trick makes no physical or logistical sense, the rules clearly allow it, and it would give the Eldar unit an option to get out of melee just like the broadsides.

Trick #2.5, the SAPHiRe'O: While I'm not sure it's cost-effective to put this many points into a unit with so little firepower, you could do a crisis suit with one weapon, advanced stabilization system, and vectored retro thrusters. This would allow a unit of broadsides (or anything else appropriate) to hit and run away from combat, then turn and fire their rail and plasma guns at full ballistic skill!

Trick #3, the one that doesn't quite work: The one I really want to do, but can't, is to take a full Eldar Wraithguard squad with a Conceal warlock and attach Commander Shadowsun to that. Shadowsun's twin fusion blasters would very nicely complement the Eldar wraithcannons, but the important part is the interaction between Conceal, Stealth, and Shrouding. Conceal gives a 5+ cover save, Shrouding makes it a 3+, and Stealth makes it a 2+. A 2+ cover save in the open! Unfortunately, Shadowsun does not become an Independent Character until all three of her drones have fallen. There is no option to leave them at home, and it's fairly difficult to get them killed on purpose.

[Narric]

Here's my counter-play

#1) Thanks to wound alocation, and the use of snipers, I'm going to take out you commander at range, and not worry too greatly about your broadsides. Unless you've invested in Multi-trackers, I'll keep a large unit nearby to weaken you with range and then finish you off in combat.

#1.5) Majority toughness, and again wound alocation, will be the death of your Commander. A couple of pie plates would end this distraction. Another point is the low use of sniper drones, as Broadsides and hammerheads are more favored. When they are used, they're used in triplicate.

#2) Your initiative is too low for this to really take effect. And you need to survive combat in order to make use of the ability.

#2.5) Combine all of the above.

#3) This is the only one which would be tricky to take out. However, you can save points with just using a Twin-linked Fusion Blaster Commander. You could potentiall use a SAP'O here, to make the Wraithguard even more destructive.

[BigToof]

I would also like to chime in on the whole SnP awesomeness.
Although it's slightly beardy, anyone who has attached an SnP HQ to a squad of heavy weapons (I've done MA Warboss and Lootas) will immediately realize how it changes the entire dynamics of your army.
The one disadvantage of heavy, mostly immobile units is that you can't advance them up the field or into better shooting spots without sacrificing shots.  With an SnP HQ that's not a problem.
I wonder how an SnP Shas'El or O would do with say... Dark Reapers?

Hit and Run is also phenomenally better.  I've done it with my Sisters of Battle Seraphim and it is just amazing now.  Easier to pull off and it really, really makes assaults harder for your opponent to deal with and lets you dictate the gameflow.  If only Tau could take both a 2+ save and hit and run...

If you do need someone to babysit the Shas'O, you could also pair him with Harlequins.  They give both stealth and shrouding, making a pretty hard unit to deal with at range.

Best,
-BT

[Chicop76]

I would also like to chime in on the whole SnP awesomeness.
Although it's slightly beardy, anyone who has attached an SnP HQ to a squad of heavy weapons (I've done MA Warboss and Lootas) will immediately realize how it changes the entire dynamics of your army.
The one disadvantage of heavy, mostly immobile units is that you can't advance them up the field or into better shooting spots without sacrificing shots.  With an SnP HQ that's not a problem.
I wonder how an SnP Shas'El or O would do with say... Dark Reapers?

Hit and Run is also phenomenally better.  I've done it with my Sisters of Battle Seraphim and it is just amazing now.  Easier to pull off and it really, really makes assaults harder for your opponent to deal with and lets you dictate the gameflow.  If only Tau could take both a 2+ save and hit and run...

If you do need someone to babysit the Shas'O, you could also pair him with Harlequins.  They give both stealth and shrouding, making a pretty hard unit to deal with at range.

Best,
-BT

You gave me an ideal. I can do Farseer, Harliquins, and O'Shova. I was trying to figure out where sould I stick him with eldar. I already figured to stick O'Shova with some storm shield terminators.

[knightperson]

Here's my counter-play

#1) Thanks to wound alocation, and the use of snipers, I'm going to take out you commander at range, and not worry too greatly about your broadsides. Unless you've invested in Multi-trackers, I'll keep a large unit nearby to weaken you with range and then finish you off in combat.

Snipers and precision shots aren't a huge deal as he will always have a 2+ Look Out Sir by virtue of being an Independent Character. Keep the drones as the closest models and you can pass off the Instant Death hits. As I said, the awesomeness of the 5th Edition Shield'O has been reduced quite a bit.

#1.5) Majority toughness, and again wound alocation, will be the death of your Commander. A couple of pie plates would end this distraction. Another point is the low use of sniper drones, as Broadsides and hammerheads are more favored. When they are used, they're used in triplicate.

Granted, it's probably better at low points where you don't need all three HS slots for bigger guns. It might just be personal preference, but I find I rarely need more HS slots than available. A broadside squad and one heavy tank usually takes me at least up to 1750, and at 2000 (officially, anyway) you get 3 more of them available. But your point about the lack of appeal for sniper drones at large points is a valid one. I think this trick works best about 1000 or 1250.

#2) Your initiative is too low for this to really take effect. And you need to survive combat in order to make use of the ability.

I would have to check the details of whose initiative you get to use to try to disengage. If it's the suit itself you have a 50% chance. If it's majority then you're only going to succeed 1 time in 3. If it's best score in the unit, which a lot of things in the game are, then you have a 2/3 chance of succeeding at breaking away as long as there is at least one of the broadside's drones still there.

#2.5) Combine all of the above.

#3) This is the only one which would be tricky to take out. However, you can save points with just using a Twin-linked Fusion Blaster Commander. You could potentiall use a SAP'O here, to make the Wraithguard even more destructive.

A SAP'O wouldn't gain you anything as the Wraithguard's weapons are already Assault. The HAR'O would be a solid choice since you don't want an expensive, mediocre weapon skill unit like Wraithguard tied up in melee. If there is a Fortune-Farseer riding shotgun, as there really should be, and you can use the fastest initiative for the break away test, then this tactic would be quite usable if anything did manage to get close enough to assault. If they're packing power weapons you might lose too much in the first round, but at least they're still high toughness and fearless. Another interesting possibility would be to give the HAR'O commander a flamer and the warlock his heavy flamer thing to soften up any horde unit that gets the assault.

[Chicop76]

Having broadsides not having to take A.S.S. would be nice. Although besides Dark Reapers and Devastator squads I don't see it being really that helpful. Most of what I can think off I would say slow and purposeful would help the broadsides more than anyone else.

[Arguleon-veq]

Ive seen hit and run from Tau commanders used with Wraithguard a few times now, it works pretty well. Wraithguard can last a round of combat against pretty much anything and getting those extra shots from a hit and run is huge plus your doubling the amount of S5 attacks you get when you re charge.

[Pottsey]

Snipers and precision shots aren't a huge deal as he will always have a 2+ Look Out Sir by virtue of being an Independent Character. Keep the drones as the closest models and you can pass off the Instant Death hits. As I said, the awesomeness of the 5th Edition Shield'O has been reduced quite a bit.

The thing is you do not precision shot the Independent Character you precision shot the the sniper team leader who has no Look Out Sir and all the drones die. Or snipe with barrage weapons. I stopped taking sniper drones due to this to losing entire squads from 1 wound.

[knightperson]

Snipers and precision shots aren't a huge deal as he will always have a 2+ Look Out Sir by virtue of being an Independent Character. Keep the drones as the closest models and you can pass off the Instant Death hits. As I said, the awesomeness of the 5th Edition Shield'O has been reduced quite a bit.

The thing is you do not precision shot the Independent Character you precision shot the the sniper team leader who has no Look Out Sir and all the drones die. Or snipe with barrage weapons. I stopped taking sniper drones due to this to losing entire squads from 1 wound.

Yes, that is still a problem with the sniper teams. It really should be errata'd, but I'm not holding my breath. Other than oversight (and to be honest it took me a while to notice it too), there's no good reason why the spotter doesn't have at least the 4+ Look Out Sir, but he doesn't. At least the precision shot still has to wound, and at least you still get a 4+ cover save, but it is definitely a rules weakness.