This is the army I used.
Quote:
Tau Vior'la v1.0 (NetEA v1.0 *UNDER DEVELOPMENT*) 3000pts
CRISIS BATTLESUIT CADRE [275]
4 XV8 Crisis Battlesuit, 2 Gun Drones
VIOR'LA FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [350]
8 Fire Warriors, 3 Pathfinders, 2 Gun Drones
VIOR'LA FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [325]
6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, 2 Pathfinders, 1 Devilfish
VIOR'LA FIRE WARRIOR CADRE [325]
6 Fire Warriors, 3 Devilfish, Skyray
XV104 RIPTIDE FORMATION [450]
3 XV104 Riptide Battlesuits, 2 Shielded Missile Drone, Shas'o
ARMOURED SUPPORT GROUP [350]
6 Hammerheads Gunships, Skyray
ARMOURED ATTACK GROUP [300]
4 'Railhead' Hammerhead Gunships, Skyray
RECON SKIMMER GROUP [150]
3 Tetra, 2 Piranha
RECON SKIMMER GROUP [150]
3 Tetra, 2 Piranha
BARRACUDA SQUADRON [150]
2 Barracuda Fighters
SUN SHARK BOMMBERS [175]
2 Sun Shark Bombers
Ok some thoughts on the list and the new stuff.
Cadre Fireblade:I wanted to add the fireblade upgrade to my FWs on foot, but in the end more troops were taken instead. I think that will always be a problem. Even at only 25 pts, especially with 2 gun drone units being only 25 pts.
Riptides:I really liked theses guys. I pushed them up the field in all games. This was very nice as they're described to be spearheading attacks in the book. They felt durable enough so that I dared to do that even without reinforced and even when being my BTS. I think the change to no reinforced was good. I feel 3 saves should be avoided. Their attacks are good, but not over the top in any way. They didn't feel over or underpriced to me.
One thing that could perhaps need rethinking are the shielded missile drones. Are they supposed to shield the riptides? is that their purpose in 40k? In that case they don't work very well since they are AV's and the riptides WE. The opponent can just ignore them and choose to shoot at the WE riptides.
I can't see any way to fix that though. I mean adding a special rule seems unreasonable and making them WE is out of the question. So it's probably something I'll just have to accept. At least they bring some nice Suppression/breaking resistance to the formation.
I would like to suggest one change to the stat line, they can't have two Heavy burst cannons in 40k. Please change from "
2x Heavy burst cannon, AP4+/AT5+" to the following "Heavy burst cannon,
2x AP4+/AT5+".
I know that they in fact can't have both the the heavy burst cannon and the Ion accelerator, but I can see why you did that. I mean the smart missile system or the plasma rifles would make them somewhat underwhelming (considering their stats in epic). Double MW attacks is not a good option (if going with twin fusion blaster and the ion accelerator).
The only viable (epic-)option I can see (if you feel like staying truer to the 40 stats) would be something like this
Heavy Burst cannon, 30 cm, 2x AP4+/AT5+
Twin fusion blaster, 15 cm, MW4+
This would make them somewhat harder to use, but would also force the player to get a lot closer to the enemy and would push the "spearheading-attacks-theme" even more, but it would also make them significantly worse in my view.
I'm quite happy with current stats, so I'm not saying you should change them. Just giving some food for thought.
Sun Shark Bombers:I could only get these guys to work in one game (the third against IG). They refused to activate (air caste hippies) every time against the tyranids and were shot down against the marines.
Against IG they worked perfectly accept for not activating on turn 2. I used them to prep a garrison (by that I mean adding BMs for suppression and not prep for assaults). I could then move up and shoot the garrison without being to concerned about the overwatch fire. The second time I used them to bomb a broken inf company for a lot of hack down kills.
I thought these were real force multipliers if you know what I mean. The old Tau had the loss of BP weapons built in as a weakness.
A flying barrage unit that can effectively sustain (with markerlit target, something flying barrage units normally can't) is quite powerful.
It was only one game were I got to really use them so I can't make any suggestions yet really, but my gut feeling is that they should be increased in cost, by quite bit. 50 pts or perhaps even more. Not for what they bring in actual attacks but for what they bring to the list. Need to test them more to give more solid feedback though.
I hope this input is of value.
cheers