Breacher teams and getting up close and personal

[chapter master 454]

So with some thoughts of my own of dipping into these xenos scum, I have been contemplating a certain style of tau army. That of a close quarters 'ambush' army lead by shadowsun with Stealth suits and ghostkeels providing the main punch but I do need something to deploy that isn't stealthed because of the rules and so I have come upon the idea of using Breacher teams (most likely with devilfish) and pathfinders (because these glorified walking markerlights are staple as far as I know). The Pulse Blaster (shotgun) is fairly decent by all considerations: While it lacks at it's full range (where it's a rapid fire bolter) of 15", once you get to 10" it becomes fairly decent and if for some reason you get within 5" slamming str 6 ap2 shots into their face seems like it would hurt.

 

The theme is simple: The devilfish would of just burst from cover or whatever (I thought they were suppose be to some sort of sneaky transport?) and when the enemy thinks that's it, BAM. Stealth suits, ghostkeels and one shadowsun causing havoc in the back rank while markerlights and pulse shotguns come from the front.

 

As an army theme and style, would it function well or possibly just fall flat at almost all hurdles. (as a note, my friend is a farsight enclave player so the choice of shadowsun I feel is just a bit of fun. Two reasons for me to hate his tau: One because he is xenos scum and the second because he is a traitor tau needing brought into line XD)

[Panzer]

Good choice! T'au operate best within 18" these days (coincidentelly exactly the kind of T'au army I was building in 7th due me not liking gunlines).

Using Stealth Suits, Ghostkeels, Breacher/Gun Drones and Pathfinder is basically what everybody does with T'au currently. Of course with the obligatory Quad Fusion Blaster Commander spam to deal with tanks and monsters on top of that. Some also add Flamer Crisis to their list like me (very awesome with a Homing Beacon on the Stealth Suits but are quite good on their own as well. Just make sure to take as many Shield Drones as possible and to always advance unless you want to charge after shooting) or Cyclic Ion Blaster (2xCIB+ATS being the most point efficient loadout and 3xCIB being the loadout with the best damage output).

The thing tho is....it functions well compared with most other T'au lists (only the most cheese QF Commander + Gun Drone spamming lists would work better usually). It falls flat against many many other factions lists since T'au are far from being good currently. This hopefully changes once the Codex gets released.

 

Now to the individual units:

 

Breacher are our best Troop choices by far imo...their only problem is that they need a Devilfish to work which makes them way more expensive than MSU Strike Teams. So you basically trade CP for quality there. That's not too terrible since we don't really have Stratagems yet so far but that will change soon enough. Just something to keep in mind.

 

Another thing that works even better than Breacher in a Devilfish currently is Drone squads with a Fireblade in a Devilfish. Drive to the enemy, disembark and unload 78 S5 shots at 9" onto the enemy with potentially re-rolling 1s from the Fireblade (he still hits on 3s with his Markerlight after moving after all). The only difference here is that Drones are no Troop choice and that they suffer even more from negative to-hjt modifier due their BS5+ (a -1 modifier already halves their damage output and a -2 modifier negates it completely!).

 

Stealth Suits are just decent for their points. Can soak up quite a bit of damage if you aren't too reckless and can deal some damage against lightly armored infantry. With 4 BS4+ shots they aren't Horde killers tho. They would take ages to kill a Conscript blob, but they'd do quite well against Purestrain Genestealer (if they survive long enough that is).

Their main thing however is that they are infantry so they can capture relics and get a cover bonus in terrain so they are quite hard to move with their -1 to-hit rule. Their other main thing is that they can carry a Homing Beacon which allows Flamer Crisis to drop in within Flamer range or QF Commander to drop in within melta range for their Fusion Blaster....and also close enough to the enemy to possibly charge another unit so the enemy would have to fall back with it before being able to shoot at it.

 

Ghostkeels. I for one am pretty underwhelmed by them. They have a degrading profile with only 10 wounds so they get worse quite quickly and their damage output isn't even that good to begin with. However in an Index with many overcosted units he is quite cost efficient by comparison and the model is beautiful so I keep taking one. Others report about Ghostkeels doing well in their games so at least that gives me hope. :D

Just make sure to take a Target Lock on him or you won't hit anything since his main weapons are Heavy. For the other Support System I recommend either ATS if you go for the CIR+BC/Flamer loadout or a Shield Gen if you go for the FC+FB loudout. And maybe find a way to deliver some Shield Drones towards him asap. It might be enough for the opponent to ignore him so he won't get down to BS5+ too quickly.

 

Pathfinder are always good and always needed. The more the better. My ~15 Pathfinder get regularly wiped turn 1 by my opponents Alpha Strike and the only things we can do against it is 1. Deploying out of LoS, 2. Deploying in a Devilfish/Droneport (quite expensive), 3. Get first turn and have a better alpha strike or 4. Take even more Pathfinder.

Also consider special weapons if you think you have enough Markerlights in your list. The Ion Rifle is really cheap but has a good profile. The Rail Rifle is a lot more expensive but it Shreds all kind of infantry with ease (my personal favorite). Just keep in mind that both Rifles are strictly anti-infantry. Shooting at vehicles or monsters with them won't do any good due either only AP-1 and D1 or due only S6.