Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Tau/Killteam: Difference between revisions

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=Basic Overview=
=Basic Overview=
Tau can do well in KT, but the big splashy toys are all gone, so you're gonna need to put the riptides away and dust off some of those less used models. Markerlights are all but useless, with them only benefiting one model at a time, you'll need to -really- want that one gun to land to make any kind of ML support worth it, and even then it's probably not.


Tau may have a hard time in Kill-Team, especially if your strategy revolves around Markerlights, however you can take a basic team of 6 Fire-warriors, 3 Stealth Suits, and 4 Pathfinders, with 12 points left, or take a Team of 6 Fire-warriors, 4 Pathfinders, and 2 Piranha's with 22 points left for upgrades, and seeing as even the Tau's most basic troop weapon has a 1 in 3 chance of scoring a glancing hit against AV 10 and a 1 in 6 against AV 11, your greatest enemy will be your generally small Squad size, although Over-watch may be fun, especially with "Supporting Fire"
You can take a basic team of 6 Firewarriors, 3 Stealth Suits, and 4 Pathfinders, with 12 points left, or take a Team of 6 Firewarriors, 4 Pathfinders, and 2 Piranha's with 22 points left for upgrades, and seeing as even the Tau's most basic troop weapon has a 1 in 3 chance of scoring a glancing hit against AV 10 and a 1 in 6 against AV 11. Your greatest enemy will be your generally small squad size, although Overwatch may be fun, especially with "Supporting Fire".


The unofficial version allows you access to a single bare-bones Broadside at 50 points, lets you take Firesight Marksmen and Sniper Drones, and makes Pathfinders a Special choice so Markerlights become even scarcer, but it's more possible to make a more interesting, if smaller, team.
=Units by role=
 
=Official Units=


==Elites==
==Elites==
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===XV-8 Crisis Suits===
===XV-8 Crisis Suits===


===XV-15/25 Stealth Suits===
Why do you use Crisis Suits? You use them as cheap, customisable elites, that's why.


==Troops==
With the Basic Crisis Suit Model costing 22 Points, it is more than possible to take a squad of 3 for 66 points, and then stick double Flamers on each for an extra 30 points (96); while this may be almost half of your total points, you've now got 6 Flamer Templates on highly mobile and tough (for kill team) models, essentially creating a literal "Field of Flames"


===Fire Warriors===
Or you could take a Single Suit (22), make him a Crisis Shas'vre (32 Points) and give him 2 Burst Cannons (52 Points) for the ultimate storm of infantry killing Dakka. Add a Counterfire Defense System if you're afraid of assault and want to see your enemies cry.


===Kroot===
However due to the lack of Squad based rules, avoid using the "Command and Control Node", the "Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite" or target locks as these will just be deadweights, despite how useful they could be in this situation.


==Fast Attack==
With the use of Combat Specialists, these become downright dirty. 42pts nabs you a  Crisis Suit with a Twin Linked Plasma Rifle. Now grab the Weapon Specialist that gives you (basically) Ignores Cover. Pick a model within 24 inches. That model is now removed from play.


===Pathfinders===
Alternatively grab a Twin-Linked Burstcannon with Haywire to mulch vehicles, or grab two Burstcannons and the specialisation that lets you split your shots in order to gun down hordes with enough dakka to make even an Ork blush.


===Vespid===
===XV-15/25 Stealth Suits===
 
===Piranha Skimmers===


===Drone Squadrons===
Flat out, these are probably most survivable choice in the Official Tau Kill-Team, with a 3+ armour Save and a 4+ cover save. Stick them in any kind of cover and they'll get a 2+, giving them a better save than almost other Kill-Team-legal choice.


=Unofficial Units=
Equipped with a Burst Cannon, and a Stealth Generator, the basic squad comes in a set of 3, for a cost of 90 points, and can take any choice of Support system from the list. It is entirely possible to equip all your stealth suits with Stimulant Injectors, creating a fast moving, High Flying, incredibly tough unit that should be able to handle almost any immediate threat, however you're sinking a lot of points into this, so your Kill-Team will be miniscule as a result. If someone is fielding Guardsmen, JSJing, killing-on-twos, 4-shotting stealths are the stuff of literal nightmares, just don't expect the hit rolls to always go your way.


==Leaders==
Run a bigger team of them (5 or 6), with a fusion blaster or two, and they'll have a good chance of whittling down the enemies team to naught without getting themselves shot. Just keep an eye on what you use the rest of the points for, you need to be a little wary of the break tests if you lose too many less-survivable models.


===XV-8 Crisis Shas'vre===


===Fire Warrior Shas'ui===
==Troops==
 
===Pathfinder Shas'ui===
 
===XV-25 Stealth Suit Shas'vre===
 
===Kroot Shaper===
 
===Vespid Strain Leader===
 
==Core Units==


===Fire Warriors===
===Fire Warriors===
The best reason to run firewarriors is the gun, on a 4x4 table, 30in gets you a really long way, and at S5 it'll hurt most things, including vehicles if you bring enough of it. They're still not gonna be particularly mobile, as the devilfish is probably more points than you wanna be splurging if you've only got 200 to play with, but they're cheap enough and 4+ is good enough to avoid marines gunning them down automatically. Supporting fire still works, so think about how you're spreading your models out on the table, and if you think you're about to get charged try and get a few firewarriors within 6in of each other.


===Kroot===
===Kroot===
For 60 points, you get 10 infiltrating bodies for board control, all the more helpful if the terrain has forests for you to hide in. Of course, you're going to spend the extra 10 points for sniper rifles, because it's predictable wounding regardless of what your opponent brings. And while you wouldn't want to assault with them, they're at least no slouches at close combat. Pairs well with the stealth team above for a fully infiltrating kill team, and you can use the kroot to bait a charge that a burst cannon and counterfire equipped stealth suit gets to cut down. Kroot hounds won't do much for you here, but Krootox give you a multi-wound model with a board-dominating gun that still infiltrates.


===Kroot Hounds===
==Fast Attack==


===Krootox Riders===
===Pathfinders===
Markerlights find much more limited use in KT due to squads being split into individuals. Pathfinders are still worth considering though for their access to rail rifles and ion rifles, both of which are capable of killing most infantry in KT, and providing some anti-light-vehicle support as well. EMP grenades are also an option here if someone's bringing a hard-to-deal-with vehicle like a walker. (Then again, you should really be thinking about ways to shoot the damn thing instead).


===Drone Squadron===
===Piranha Skimmers===
Piranhas are great in kill team, where the bigger vehicles don't make an appearance, and really killy anti-tank stuff is less common as well. AV11 gives you decent resilience to troop weapons if you watch your facings, and a good turn of speed means you can scare the inevitable enemy light vehicles with sneaky side/rear facing shots. Combine this with the free gun drones, which can either give you a decent amount of extra firepower, or instead be dropped to provide more JSJ-hijinks or objective grabbing and the piranha becomes pretty fantastic value.


==Specialist Models==
===Drone Squadrons===
 
Gun drones are the only thing really worth talking about here, marker drones suffer along with pathfinders with markerlights being way less useful, and shield drones not shielding anything other than themselves. If you're up against anything with a 5+ armour save, and have even a little bit of LoS-blocking terrain on your board, JSJing pulse carbines will annoy the hell out of your opponent. Just be aware they can die relatively easy if you don't get them hidden, and that might hurt you when break tests start happening.
===Kroot Shaman===
 
===XV-25 Stealth Shas'ui===
 
===Vespid Stingwing===
 
===XV-88 Broadside Shas'ui===
 
A Heavy Support choice in Kill-Team, what madness is this?
 
For 50 points you get a very bare bones XV-88 Broadside, equipped with only a Twin-Linked Heavy Rail Rifle, or Twin-Linked High Yield Missile Pods, and you can pay 15 points for a Twin-Linked Smart Missile System or 20 Points for a Twin-Linked Plasma Rifle, with the option to take 2 Gun, Shield, Markerlight or Missile Drones, and grab any piece of equipment from the Battlesuit only list, the only thing it's missing from the Codex is the ability to take a single Seeker Missile.
 
On the Equipment side of things, both Weapons have their advantages, The Heavy Rail Rifle should be more than capable of Instant Killing most Special and Leader Models with one hit with its S:8, AP1, and unless there's cover in the way, it can cover the entire battleground with it's 60" range, while on the other hand the High Yield Missile Pods, should be more than capable of destroying anything given their sheer number of hits, however their S:7, AP4, Range 36" means that there may be some models who can shrug off the hits with their armour, or toughness, so it's a toss-up between one chance at an Instant Kill, or 4 Chances at a solid hit.
 
Given their choice of Sub-weapons, Smart-Missiles seem like a better choice over-all, with Kill-Teams unspoken focus on heavy terrain, and built up areas, the Homing and Ignores Cover properties of Smart-Missiles, make them a better fall-back than Plasma Rifles, who have a shorter range and less shots, but a greater hitting power, and armour piercing abilities, this choice will most likely come down to personal preference.
 
From the Armoury, I would recommend giving this either a Counterfire Defence System, especially if it's kitted out as a Missileside, a Stimulant Injector, and a Shield Generator, once you have the points for one, this model is going to take a lot of punishment, and you want it to survive all that damage and keep firing back. (If you can't afford a Shield Generator, getting either 1 or 2 Shield Drones should do the trick, and they don't count against your number of Special Models as long as the broadside buys them)
 
This model is possibly one of the most survivable choices in the game, with a 2+ armour save, and Toughness 4, there should be very few things that can put it down immediately, which is good because your opponent is going to target this model immediately. However, regardless of its survivability, it shouldn't be out on the front-lines; this models strength is it's Range and powerful shooting attacks, if it's getting bogged down in CQC then it can't use either of these, and it's not supporting your Core Units in the way it should be, making it 50+ points of dead weight.
 
===Firesight Sniper Team===
 
Another Heavy Support choice, holy hell and warp fire.
 
The Tau get to keep their Firesight Sniper Teams, and their Broadsides, making them the king of Snipers in Kill-Team games, and they can take far more of them than anyone else if you've got the points to spare.
 
On the board the Firesight Marksman only really has his Pulse Pistol or Markerlight to use for offence, but that's not why you bring this guy, you bring him for the Drones.
 
For 28 points, you get a Firesight Marksman with a Drone Controller, a Pulse Pistol, a Markerlight, and his Personal Sniper Drone. The Drone comes with a Jet-Pack, and a Long-shot Pulse Rifle, with the option to take up to 2 extra drones, for 15 points each.
 
In terms of equipment, the Marksman's Markerlight and Drone Controller are amazingly useful if positioned correctly, due to his BS of 5, position close to a unit of Marker Drones, or keep him close to a Broadside who has Missile Drones, and let your drones operate at peak efficiency, and this is the only method of getting BS 5 to any unit in the beginning of a campaign.
 
The Drones Long-shot Pulse Rifle is one of the best Sniper weapons in the game, coming in at AP5 with a Range of 48" and Rapid Fire, however they are dependant on the Marksman's BS so keep him out of sight, unless you need his Markerlight for support.
 
A strange quirk, is that both the Drones, and the Marksman have the special rule, non-learning, meaning that that while the Drones cannot take battle-honours, or improve their stats, neither can the Marksman, if you politely explain to whoever is your campaign opponent that this makes no sense, then they may allow you to advance the Marksman, but he cannot be advanced in the RAW.
 
===XV-8 Crisis Shas'ui===
 
===Pathfinder===
 
==Legendary Heroes==
 
==Armoury==
 
* Multi-Targeting Array:
 
* Kodachi: Basically a Power Sword, with a Weeaboo name, for the low, low price of 10 points
 
* Command Node:
 
* Extended Drone Controller:
 
* Hard-Wired Light Shield:
 
* XV05 Armour:
 
* Master of the Hunt:


* DNA Samples:
=== Vespid ===


* Blood of the Stalker
They're bad lol


* Specialist Hunter
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]


* Vicious Strain
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000 Tactics/Kill Team (HoR)]]


* Stabilised Jet
[[Category: Xenos]]


* Low-Weight Composite
[[Category: Tau]]


* Coolant Injectors
[[Category: Kroot]]

Latest revision as of 22:39, 23 June 2023

Basic Overview[edit]

Tau can do well in KT, but the big splashy toys are all gone, so you're gonna need to put the riptides away and dust off some of those less used models. Markerlights are all but useless, with them only benefiting one model at a time, you'll need to -really- want that one gun to land to make any kind of ML support worth it, and even then it's probably not.

You can take a basic team of 6 Firewarriors, 3 Stealth Suits, and 4 Pathfinders, with 12 points left, or take a Team of 6 Firewarriors, 4 Pathfinders, and 2 Piranha's with 22 points left for upgrades, and seeing as even the Tau's most basic troop weapon has a 1 in 3 chance of scoring a glancing hit against AV 10 and a 1 in 6 against AV 11. Your greatest enemy will be your generally small squad size, although Overwatch may be fun, especially with "Supporting Fire".

Units by role[edit]

Elites[edit]

XV-8 Crisis Suits[edit]

Why do you use Crisis Suits? You use them as cheap, customisable elites, that's why.

With the Basic Crisis Suit Model costing 22 Points, it is more than possible to take a squad of 3 for 66 points, and then stick double Flamers on each for an extra 30 points (96); while this may be almost half of your total points, you've now got 6 Flamer Templates on highly mobile and tough (for kill team) models, essentially creating a literal "Field of Flames"

Or you could take a Single Suit (22), make him a Crisis Shas'vre (32 Points) and give him 2 Burst Cannons (52 Points) for the ultimate storm of infantry killing Dakka. Add a Counterfire Defense System if you're afraid of assault and want to see your enemies cry.

However due to the lack of Squad based rules, avoid using the "Command and Control Node", the "Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite" or target locks as these will just be deadweights, despite how useful they could be in this situation.

With the use of Combat Specialists, these become downright dirty. 42pts nabs you a Crisis Suit with a Twin Linked Plasma Rifle. Now grab the Weapon Specialist that gives you (basically) Ignores Cover. Pick a model within 24 inches. That model is now removed from play.

Alternatively grab a Twin-Linked Burstcannon with Haywire to mulch vehicles, or grab two Burstcannons and the specialisation that lets you split your shots in order to gun down hordes with enough dakka to make even an Ork blush.

XV-15/25 Stealth Suits[edit]

Flat out, these are probably most survivable choice in the Official Tau Kill-Team, with a 3+ armour Save and a 4+ cover save. Stick them in any kind of cover and they'll get a 2+, giving them a better save than almost other Kill-Team-legal choice.

Equipped with a Burst Cannon, and a Stealth Generator, the basic squad comes in a set of 3, for a cost of 90 points, and can take any choice of Support system from the list. It is entirely possible to equip all your stealth suits with Stimulant Injectors, creating a fast moving, High Flying, incredibly tough unit that should be able to handle almost any immediate threat, however you're sinking a lot of points into this, so your Kill-Team will be miniscule as a result. If someone is fielding Guardsmen, JSJing, killing-on-twos, 4-shotting stealths are the stuff of literal nightmares, just don't expect the hit rolls to always go your way.

Run a bigger team of them (5 or 6), with a fusion blaster or two, and they'll have a good chance of whittling down the enemies team to naught without getting themselves shot. Just keep an eye on what you use the rest of the points for, you need to be a little wary of the break tests if you lose too many less-survivable models.


Troops[edit]

Fire Warriors[edit]

The best reason to run firewarriors is the gun, on a 4x4 table, 30in gets you a really long way, and at S5 it'll hurt most things, including vehicles if you bring enough of it. They're still not gonna be particularly mobile, as the devilfish is probably more points than you wanna be splurging if you've only got 200 to play with, but they're cheap enough and 4+ is good enough to avoid marines gunning them down automatically. Supporting fire still works, so think about how you're spreading your models out on the table, and if you think you're about to get charged try and get a few firewarriors within 6in of each other.

Kroot[edit]

For 60 points, you get 10 infiltrating bodies for board control, all the more helpful if the terrain has forests for you to hide in. Of course, you're going to spend the extra 10 points for sniper rifles, because it's predictable wounding regardless of what your opponent brings. And while you wouldn't want to assault with them, they're at least no slouches at close combat. Pairs well with the stealth team above for a fully infiltrating kill team, and you can use the kroot to bait a charge that a burst cannon and counterfire equipped stealth suit gets to cut down. Kroot hounds won't do much for you here, but Krootox give you a multi-wound model with a board-dominating gun that still infiltrates.

Fast Attack[edit]

Pathfinders[edit]

Markerlights find much more limited use in KT due to squads being split into individuals. Pathfinders are still worth considering though for their access to rail rifles and ion rifles, both of which are capable of killing most infantry in KT, and providing some anti-light-vehicle support as well. EMP grenades are also an option here if someone's bringing a hard-to-deal-with vehicle like a walker. (Then again, you should really be thinking about ways to shoot the damn thing instead).

Piranha Skimmers[edit]

Piranhas are great in kill team, where the bigger vehicles don't make an appearance, and really killy anti-tank stuff is less common as well. AV11 gives you decent resilience to troop weapons if you watch your facings, and a good turn of speed means you can scare the inevitable enemy light vehicles with sneaky side/rear facing shots. Combine this with the free gun drones, which can either give you a decent amount of extra firepower, or instead be dropped to provide more JSJ-hijinks or objective grabbing and the piranha becomes pretty fantastic value.

Drone Squadrons[edit]

Gun drones are the only thing really worth talking about here, marker drones suffer along with pathfinders with markerlights being way less useful, and shield drones not shielding anything other than themselves. If you're up against anything with a 5+ armour save, and have even a little bit of LoS-blocking terrain on your board, JSJing pulse carbines will annoy the hell out of your opponent. Just be aware they can die relatively easy if you don't get them hidden, and that might hurt you when break tests start happening.

Vespid[edit]

They're bad lol