Hahaha. Great
Hell the damn thing could be armour 6+ and still be the bee's knees!

Is then the high damage but non fearless manta out of consideration entirely? I do think the ability to planetfall such a fearless beast is damn nasty, and something like DC10, or 11 or 12 etc, maybe with FF5+, means you can't be quite so bold when planetfalling. And yes I am completely with it having markerlights - however combined with the fearless planetfall its again quite nifty. It does also make for a very different large warengine which I do think could be needed considering the unique planetfall ability at a price point that allows the tau to take Manta+Hero+Barracuda's.

One minor change, why not have the Tau supreme commander plain old supreme commander? Yes it means one formation in the army can do a combined assault, but is that really such a problem it needs the somewhat confusing for some players (what, rallying is an initiative test etc 'The Shas’O allows the Tau player to re-roll one Initiative test (of any type) per turn') special wording/rule?

Manta will definately be sticking with the 8DC Fearless version, It will just go up in points if its planetfalling capabilities make it too powerful - feel free to test that, love to see some results.

Supreme Commander stuff is thematic, the idea that Tau will never launch a combined assault.

Given the choice in the beginning probably wouldnt make a special rule to replace what would have been extremely situational and rare. But seeing as its been done and people have been happily playing it for awhile, I dont think I will be changing it now.

I obviously haven't tested it lately but under the old stats and support craft rule planetfalling was an obvious and power enhancing tactic. If it is better to planetfall it as opposed to field it normally it would probably be better to look at trying to make the combo harder as otherwise it would push one type of deployment much like assault marines and the like.

On a different note after flicking through the list are those tigershark stats and points correct? They seem to be pretty similar to barracuda bar being not fighters and slightly better at ground attacks, but costing a fair bit more. Is this for the transport ability and the increased save? Or are they meant to be fighter bombers or something?

Well as deployment options go planetfalling with the Manta is pretty characterful, so I dont really have any problems if that proves to be the best option with it, only problem is if its overpowered, which is what points values are for.

Well the stats are correct in terms of those are the correct weapons and transport capacity for a Tigershark. Points wise its difficult, its not unreasonable to say 75pts for the 4+ Save, Twin linked Ion Cannon and Drone transport capacity - although +50pts would probably also be fine.

But in reality once you've taken Barracudas and decide to spend another 200+ points on aircraft why would you not go the whole hog and buy the AX-1-0's.

Bringing back the drone transport ability was an attempt to give it a unique niche, that of being able to drop a formation anywhere on the board that can give and claim a crossfire, instantly. Nobody's taking Gun Drones though, so its theoritically most important rule isn't seeing action.

Dropping the points a bit to make them appeal more would be a start.

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