Monday, 16 September 2013

Something a Little Different

My next tournament is at the end of October, 1850pts with no allies allowed. I want to try something a little different, and thought I would post it up for your thoughts.

As I’ve explained here in the past I have a new found love for Fire Warriors, particularly in Devilfish, driving around and jumping out to kill stuff. However, I've been finding that they tend to stay in theri Devilfish for fear of being blown off the table. So, I’m wondering if there might be an alternative way to provide a Cadre with mobile torrent of fire, and flexible scoring units.

In a Tau List, one option is Piranhas and more Kroot.

I used Piranhas in 5th edition predominantly as blocking and harassment. They were great at stopping things getting to your lines, giving you more time to shoot stuff. When the new Codex came out I noticed that Piranhas had got cheaper, and better, but I passed over them quickly and focused on other things. However, I wonder if the time has come to look at them again?

For 40pts you get a fast skimmer with front armour 11 (so immune to most small arms), with a Burst Cannon and 2 Gun Drones. You can give them all the vehicle upgrades, along with 2 seeker missiles and can upgrade the Burst Cannon to a Fusion Blaster. A squadron of 3 pushes out 24 S5 shots, or 5 points per shot. Twelve Fire Warriors with pulse carbines also push out 24 shots, or 4.5pts per shot. So slightly more efficient. However, of the 24 shots pushed out by the Piranhas 12 of them are BS5 and twin linked. So on average, you should get 13 hits from the Piranhas, but only 12 from the Fire Warriors which makes it more or less even when  considering hits rather than shots.

But the interesting thing is that, if you have a Commander hanging around with a Drone Controller, you can detach the Drones, attach the Commander to the Drones, and get 12 BS5 shots, and still have the Piranhas.

And, while not as good at blocking as they were, they’re OK. After all, I’m going to have to work out some way of keeping grav gun wielding marine bikers away from my Riptides!

So for 120pts you get a squadron of fast skimmers with 24 S5 shots, that can move 6” and still fire everything, or move 12”, fire the burst cannon, and snap fire the (twin linked) drones. You can also create 2 units by detaching the Drones. You can then use the Drones as a pretty impressive torrent of fire unit (if you attach a commander) or a bubble wrap unit that doesn’t give up a kill point. And if you’re taking Piranhas anyway, for 16pts, you can give them 2 seeker missiles.  Which is good if you have a source of accurate marker lights.

The more I type, the more I like Piranhas.

The idea is that I replace the Fire Warriors in Fish with Piranhas and more Kroot. The Piranhas replace the torrent of fire, and the Kroot replace the scoring.  

Here’s a list.

Commander, 2 Missile Pods, Drone Controller, Target Lock, Iridium Armour

Commander, Pure Tide Chip, C&CN, M3S, Burst Cannons x2, Drone Controller,

Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Fusion Blaster, EWO
Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Fusion Blaster, EWO

2 Double Death Rains, 4 Maker Drones

5 x 10 Kroot and a Hound

3 Piranhas with 6 Seeker Missiles

3 Broadsides, ATS, 6 Missile Drones.

The Commander with the Missiles Pods stays with the Double Death Rains, providing accurate Marker Light Support. The other Commander can “flit” between Riptides and Gun Drones as needed. If I need more static Torrent of Fire, I can detach the Drones and attach them to the Burst Cannon Commander, providing 24 BS5 S5 shots, 12 of which are twin linked. If I would rather have the Commander with the Riptide, the Piranhas can move off and block etc, while still pumping out 24 s5 shots. Either way, if I get first turn, or if the Piranhas survive, I can volley 6 seeker missiles at the target light up by the marker lights from the double death rain team.

My concern is whether 5 units of 10 Kroot is enough scoring?

Alternatively, if I take a Farsight Enclave list, I could replace the Fire warriors with Burst Cannon suits. Three double Burst Cannon suits, with Drone Controller and 6 Gun Drones cost 197pts. So what about this

Commander, 2 Missile Pods, Drone Controller, Target Lock, Talisman of Arthas Moloch

Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Fusion Blaster, EWO
Riptide, Heavy Burst Cannon, SMS, EWO, Velocity Tracker, Earth Caste Piloting Array.

3 XV8s with Twin Burst Cannons, Drone Controller, 5 Gun Drones.
3 XV8s with Twin Burst Cannons, Drone Controller, 6 Gun Drones.
2 XV8s with Twin Missile Pods, Target Locks, 4 Marker Drones
3x10 Kroot with Hound

3 Broadsides, ATS, 5 Missile Drones.

The problem might be keeping the XV8s alive (although that is also a problem for the Piranhas!). Hopefully there rwill be enough terrain to hide them behind, or I can keep them in reserve and deep strike in, when there’s stuff to shoot at.




  1. I would like to know the concept behind the C&CN and the M3S. Why would you purchase two very expensive upgrades and weapons for the Commander when you can't shoot whilst making use of the effect of the signature systems. You basically throw away the damage potential of the commander (bf5!). Also C&CN makes little sense combined with the drones since they already have synchronized guns.
    Am I missing something here?

  2. Tau and Eldar are pretty high profile army's in my meta so anytime They get put on the table here they are eaten alive by all the STR7 ignores cover shooting.

    But after reading this and piddling around on army builder. I really wanna build a tau/farsight ally build with 15 piranhas and 3 commanders with drone controllers to scoop up the drones. Honestly it doesn't seem half bad with that much dakka and kroot/crisis scoring.

    No idea where Ima get my hands on 15 piranhas though......

  3. @Meterpaffay - the easy answer is flexibility. The commander has 2 roles in this Cadre, he supports the Riptides, or he joins the gun drones to make them BS5 and provide the Cadre with torrent of fire. When he's with the Riptides he's using the C&CN and the M3S. IMHO Riptdies re not particularly devastating if they're not supported (either by marker lights, or a buff Commander). Yes the burst cannon are useless, but that's not the point of that role. When he's with the gun drones he doesn't need the C&CN, nor (usually) the M3S, and he can fire the Burst Cannons in support of the Gun Drones.

    The more complex answer is an attempt to balance support across the Cadre. The plan is that the marker lights from one Skyray support the Broadsides, the other Skyray supports the Double Death Rains, the Double Deathrain marker lights support one of the Riptides, and the Buff Commander attaches to the other Riptide. It makes the firing sequence really important. Essentially the Skyrays fire first (assuming they have fired their Seekers). One fire at the Broadside's target, lighting it up for the Broadisdes. The other fires at the Double Deathrain's target, lighting it up for them. Next the Double Deathrains use their target locks to fire missile pods at the target light up by the Skyray, and fire their Marker Drones at the target you want to fire one Riptide at. That riptide can then benefit from up to 6 marker lights. Finally, the Riptide supported by the Commander can fire at what ever it likes.

    Sure you don't need to take the burst cannons, but they are only 20pts.

    Make sense?


  4. Alright. I get your point. I'm still not thoroughly convinced but I might give it a shot sometime. I will however pick up the idea the idea behind the Piranha drones combined with a cheap and cheerful commander for my next list!
    Keep it up!