Tidewall Gunrig Unboxing & Assembly

Hi,

After a one day small tournament with my Tau I was tweaking my army list, and I wasn't sure what to spend the last 100 points on.  I was tempted with putting a heavy railrifle armed broadside in, but I already had a few broadsides in the list, and wanted something different.

My army list did have a problem with av14 (av13 was normally torrented down with lots of str7 tank hunter), so I thought I'd add a Gunrig.  It costs the same points as a defense line with a lascannon (or slightly below a defense line with a guad autocannon):

The Tidewall Gunrig can't protect as many models as a defense line but it can move 6" a turn if there's no enemy or terrain to block it.  The railgun is better than a lacannon, but lacks skyfire and interceptor.  Initially there was uproar when the Tau terrain pieces were released, but I think things have died down when they never appeared in every tournament list like some people were saying they would.

The big weakness of the Gunrig is that like the Quadgun on the defense line it only counts as 2 wounds at toughness 7 with a 3+ save, and although you can't destroy the drone base the railgun is quite easily to kill.  This I saw in the first battle report I saw the Gunrig in, it was blown off 1st turn before it got to fire.  However in another (this time written) battle report I heard Darkstrider used the railgun to instant kill a Hive Tyrant (Darkstrider has a rule that anything he or his unir fires at is -1 toughness and that this affects instant death).  I think those two examples show what the Gunrig will be like, a bit hit and miss, but overall fair for its cost.

Anyone onto my wonderful purchase, because at the end of the day what tipped me into buying it is that it looks stunning (as terrain pieces go):

Opening the box, along with the sprues:

it was nice to see that the rules for the Gunrig did indeed some in the box, particularly as I did not have the rules for it as I bought just the new codex (rather than the Kauyon suppliment):

The instructions were clear, and the Gunrig came together very quickly and easily.  I was very interested in how many models could fit on the Gunrig.  I was a bit disappointed when I put my Commander that I'm painting on the Gunrig base:

Yep definitely not even fitting my broadside unit with 2 broadsides and 4 missile on the gunrig.  I was even concerned that if my fire warriors were the full 12 in a squad whether they would all fit on the Gunrig.  I was considering putting my Sniper Drones team on the Gunrig, but the Gunrig would not be able to move unless the whole squad could fit on the Gunrig.  Here's two pics of my commander on and next to the Gunrig after it's assembled (apologies for the dark pics):

As you can see the commander takes up most of the space on the Gunrig, meaning the Gunrig is more for the infantry rather than the suits.

Against a smart opponent I think the Gunrig will die very quickly if there's anything in the enemy army that the Railgun would be a threat to, but the Tidewall Drone would still be useful for letting an objective secured kroot unit go to ground for a 2+ cover save while the Drone moves them 6" a turn.  However for that the cheaper Droneport would be a better option:

The Tidewall Gunrig, along with the Droneport and Shieldwall all look really nice, and I can't wait to get mine painted up and have some games with it.  Better pictures will follow once I've painted up my Gunrig (and Commander).

Have you been tempted with any of the new terrain ?  I'm tempted with the Droneport.

Rathstar