(Markconz @ Aug. 31 2006,01:13)
QUOTE
Adding two massive guns, heavier construction for support, etc to your crisis suit seems a conceptually similar case to me.
What heavier construction for support? A broadside is the SAME size as a Crisis suit, because it's the SAME plastic model under some metal detail pieces. The only thing that changes the silhouette is the two big railguns, and swapping the railguns to the arms makes a much better look (FW Broadside pics, please note that GW Broadsides come with 40mm bases while FW ships theirs with a 60mm base. The 6th pic down shows a FW BS on a 40mm base), without affecting the silhouette. (Still looks like a Crisis suit, in other words)
The difference between a Crisis suit and a Broadside is
(Codex: Tau Empire @ page 40)
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The standard jet pack is removed, which frees up weight for the incorporation of some extremely heavy weapons systems.
In the standard rules, the Broadside is the only suit that carries a 'Heavy' weapon (except for the optional Markerlight on a Stealth team leader). All the other weapons are 'Rapid Fire' or 'Assault' which are 40k classification types able to move & shoot with varying effectiveness. 'Heavy' weapons are those that cannot effectively move & shoot, like sniper rifles, lascannons, etc.
Broadsides are on the same base size in 40k, and move just as fast as Fire Warriors in any terrain. While a Broadside takes up twice the volume in a transport as a Crisis suit (per IA3), that's due in part to the increased mass of the suit, and partly to the bulk of the railguns. Either one would only make the Broadside suit take up 50% more transport spaces than a Crisis, together they make a 100% increase in 'transport space' requirements. Neither the increased mass nor the bulk of the Railguns actually make the Broadside bigger on the ground when they're getting shot at.
Since no-one wants to give up the 2x shots per stand, that means there are 2 Broadsides on a stand. Period.
2 Broadsides + 2 Shield Drones = 6 wounds. It will take 4 Lascannon hits before the Broadsides are even at risk, and 6 to kill the stand. It takes 4 Lascannon hits to kill a Predator (AV4+). That makes Broadsides 50% tougher than AV4+. 4+RA is 50% tougher than AV4+. An LV with 4+RA? That sounds a little silly, since LVs are supposed to be things like Landspeeders, Sentinels, and Vypers. Very fragile things, not something that is as tough as a Land Raider!
We should also have both a plasma rifle shot in addition to the SMS shot, since the FW models have one of each. Or we need two different unit statlines, one for a base with two SMS BS, and one for a base with two plasma BS.
Right now, if we made BS LVs, based them accordingly, and made the Formation size 6, it'd be nice and simple: 1 pack of FW Broadsides = 1 Detachment.
. Epic has gained enough players to have tournaments with 12-18 players without too much of a problem this year. Hopefully nobody is in a hurry to quit epic.