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It's exactly as you say.  I fought alongside 1 in this custom co-op holiday game held at our Warhammer Store, so he was my ally.  Really nice kid, a clever guy that started like in 9th ed but is already better at the game than me.  He ran Tau partnered with my Triple C'tan gimmick list.  I saw his Riptide as this massive Heavy Support.

 

I moved my C'tan forward as Melee-oriented Objective clearers.  I remember my Nightbringer being able to draw a bead at an enemy Knight Armiger and he's actually got a shooting attack, his Gaze of Death at Strength 12, a bit of a lucky roll and managed to kill one off.  That opponent didn't react, he's faced a Nightbringer before.

 

Then we looked to his Riptide to take out another Armiger.  It was set up for Ranged one, big ol' ion cannon on its shoulder.

 

Thus, imagine my surprise when I realised it was only Strength 8, and barely dinged another enemy Armiger.  My Nightbringer, which was a very Melee guy, had better shooting than this awesome looking big gun mecha.  Our opponent again didn't react, as he's also faced the Riptide before, wasn't afraid of it.

 

Now, obviously using the Nightbringer as a baseline is unfair, but this Riptide was like, not particularly suited for any role.  It clearly wasn't long-ranged Anti-Tank.  Maybe it could've used those Melta weapons, but it'd have to be close, and it's not a great platform for that, either.  Maybe Anti-Horde, but you have other options.

 

That experience just stuck with me.  We all know the term Jack-of-All-Trades-Master-of-None, but it felt like it was a Jack-of-No-Trade.

Not a T'au player, but I've always been kind of looking at them, specifically a pure Mecha list because that would be fun.

 

From what I can tell, the Riptide in 10th is designed for anti-infantry/heavy infantry, depending on your weapon choice. It is not the same as it was in 9th ed, where an over-charged ion accelerator was wounding all vehicles on 4s (its S8 being equal to the toughest enemy's T8). In 9th, Riptides were a terror on the battlefield, being basically good at killing anything and now it feels like they are paying for that by being much less useful. In 10th, S8 is not an anti-armor weapon strength, for that you are looking at S10 or higher. So with it's anti-tank weapon nerfed, where does that leave the Riptide?

 

Anti-tank role: It's stats are decent, but compared to a Hammerhead are lacking. Same speed/Wounds/Leadership, but lower Toughness and it costs 45 points more. The only gain vs a Hammerhead is a single point of OC and its invuln save (which admittedly, is useful for durability). It is also 10 points more than a pair of Broadside suits, which are not as fast or as tough, but have 2 more Wounds and much better anti-tank firepower than the Riptide.

 

Anti-infantry/heavy infantry role: This puts it up against the likes of the Fireknife and Starscythe battlesuits. It is much tougher than either, but has the same wounds and less OC. Weaponry is somewhat of a wash- the plasma rifles you can put on the Fireknife suits are equal to ion accelerator in shots and AP, only losing out on a single point of damage (which is only relevant against something with damage reduction and 3W), while the regular burst cannons of the Starscythe lose out on 1 AP and 1D, but double up the number of shots. Each of the battlesuit units is also much cheaper than the Riptide, being 60 and 80 points less respectively. There is also the Deep Strike rules of the suits that allows them a lot more flexibility in use. 

 

Its hard to figure out what to do with a Riptide right now- it doesn't have enough of the right kind of firepower to really be an anti-tank option and is much more expensive than other options to take out enemy infantry/heavy infantry. It doesn't have the utility of a Ghostkeel, which is a good pressure piece with Lone Op/Stealth/Infiltrator. It really is a unit that lacks any sort of focus and that makes me sad, as it is a really cool model that I'd like to eventually get and use. 

I’d agree with the comments made. Not enough guns compared to a lot of other stuff. I skipped the Riptide in my T’au army.

 

Ghostkeels on the other hand are great. Using their stealth/infiltrate to get up close with all fusion, or sitting at longer range with ion cannon, they are great disruptors and pretty tough.
 

In my 1000 point army I have a Ghostkeel and a Stormsurge. The Stormsurge for me is a much better pick than the Riptide as it’s absolutely bristling with guns and has access to one of the strongest weapons in the game with the pulse plaster.

  On 1/27/2025 at 5:10 PM, INKS said:

interesting. I've not seen anyone using a stormsurge either.

how has it been doing for you?

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Very killy, but I’ve only played a handful of games with it so far so I don’t have a lot of experience of it.

  On 1/27/2025 at 9:31 AM, Lord_Ikka said:

Anti-infantry/heavy infantry role: This puts it up against the likes of the Fireknife and Starscythe battlesuits. It is much tougher than either, but has the same wounds and less OC. Weaponry is somewhat of a wash- the plasma rifles you can put on the Fireknife suits are equal to ion accelerator in shots and AP, only losing out on a single point of damage (which is only relevant against something with damage reduction and 3W), while the regular burst cannons of the Starscythe lose out on 1 AP and 1D, but double up the number of shots. Each of the battlesuit units is also much cheaper than the Riptide, being 60 and 80 points less respectively. There is also the Deep Strike rules of the suits that allows them a lot more flexibility in use. 

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I think Brother Ikka's right, the Riptide with that Strength 8 gun is like some anti-MEQ thing, like Tau's version of a sort-of hybrid Dreadnought.  My friend probably took it because our meta...like most people's metas...are Marine-heavy.  If so, it's just like a pricey gun platform.

 

I'm kinda sold on what you guys are talking about with the Stormsurge.  At least that specialises in something.

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