Hi,
From my preious post you'll guess my main issue with my army was that it didn't have the firepower to stop armies not only getting to me, but also moving to get my fragile troops as well before the game had ended.
The first place to get more fire power is to drop fire warriors down to 6 models. I've tried to hold out against the trend of using the minimum fire warriors and have given them every chance to shine, whether it's using a full squad, or giving them a shas'ui with a bonding knife, they just never perform, so I'm joining the trend and stripping them down to the minimum I have to take.
Next place to get points is to reduce the troops to 3 units. I debated long and hard and decided to lose one of the larger kroot units.
Although the positional relay worked well and kept my troops alive I'm going to see how it goes leaving it out. One of the reasons I put it in was that my outflanking troops would turn up too soon. One tournament game example was against a full outflanking marine force where I was given 1st turn. They turned up turn 2 when there was no enemy on the board and were slaughtered his turn 2 when some of his units came on. I'll have to see how not having as much control of my reserves will have.
Lastly the broadside leader's plasma rifle and multi-tracker were nice, but most of the time I really needed the anti-tank firepower of the unit, and in lots of circumstances the SMS is better. Also I found the broadsides would all target the same vehicle, and therefore one last casaulty was the target lock, however the target lock is something I may put back in if experience shows I do need to split targets. Against multiple light vehciles I could fire the broadsides without markerlight support into one vehcile and use he markerlights to improve my hammerhead railguns and missile pods (I'll have to see how it goes).
All this cutting gave me 187 pts to use. The obvious choice is a 3rd crisis unit. I feel the main thing lacking in the list is AP2 firepower, so a unit with some plasma is essential. My first test games of this new evolution used a mixed unit with two plasma/fusion suits and a cheap suit with missile pods and drones. The army list used and how is faired will be an upcoming post shortly.
The crisis suit configs I'm considering are (any opinions would be greatly appreciated):
1 Crisis Suit with Twin-linked Missile Pods
2 Crisis Suit with Plasma Rifle, Fusion Gun* & Multi-tracker
Cost: 187 Pts
1 Crisis Suit Team Leader with Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, Multi-tracker & HW Drone Controller with 2 Gun Drones
2 Crisis Suit with Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon & Multi-tracker
Cost 199 Pts (this would require me to reduce the larger kroot unit to 10 Kroot and 5 Hounds)
3 Crisis Suit with Plasma Rifle, Fusion Gun* & Multi-tracker
Cost: 186 Pts (but with no drone protection I would have to either join my shas'el or hug cover and accept the losses)
* In all configerations it's also a direct swap of fusion gun for missile pod I'm considering. Missile Pod has the range, and early game effect, while the fusion really kills marines and terminators up close and can help against vehicles at short range.
Any comments on which choice you think is best or any experiances you have with similar configerations would be appreciated.
Rathstar
I have a couple rules for crisis suits that I keep in mind when playing.
ReplyDeleteI tend to get in trouble if my suits get to close to the enemy so I always try to keep them at 18" away from the enemy, only moving in if they are supported.
Generally I don't take burst cannons in crisis teams because there are so many ways to get Str 5 AP 5 shots in the Tau army, and there are not as many ways to get str 7 (missile pods), or AP2 (plasma rifle) Although it also depends on what types of armies you are most likely to face.
Fusion blasters are nice, especially versus marines, but their short range have gotten me into trouble too many times in the past.
-krox