I want to dedicate the next section to influence as i feel that, much more so than any other faction, correct spending of your influence is a key aspect of tau's game plan. However, with all of their weapons being Heavy and only starting with BS4+ Broadsides have some significant limitations as well. Their immobility is one of the biggest issues, as Tau can already struggle to capture those midfield objectives much of the time and exacerbating this problem is often not a good strategy. A firebase centered around Broadsides may be nigh-invulnerable, but if your opponent simply pulls ahead on points this may never matter unless you can table them. Fortunately, moving and firing a heavy weapon isn’t nearly as punish as it used to be, and Tau have several solutions that can be enacted on the fly (Mont’ka off a Commander, 4+ Markerlight hits) to help mitigate the issue. We’ve already established that the Ghostkeel doesn’t offer much in terms of offensive output. This means that if we lose a turn or two of shooting, we haven’t lost too much.

One of the very best transports in the game, the gunrig was truly blessed when it received assault vehicle as a trait. It combines decent mobility, good firepower and amazing transport capabilities at an early tier and doesn't even require a specific building to make, absolutely essential in infantry heavy builds and will change your game entirely. As far as which septs best enhance the abilities and action the Ghostkeel will be engaged in, I lean towards T’au or potentially Dal’yth. The T’au sept just has a lot going for it and being a part of that sept mean it’ll be able to take advantage of things like a T’au sept Commander’s Mont’ka’s, Kauyon’s, Savior Protocols, and Focused Fire stratagem. Plus, since you already know you’ll be within charge distance most of the time, having the improved overwatch is great. The Dal’yth sept gives the Ghostkeel a bit more mobility and resiliency. Normally you’ll struggle to claim a bonus to save from cover for the Ghostkeel, since it’s not and is not small. But with Dal’yth sept, you can guarantee you’ll get cover at least the first turn and not have to pay 2CP for Prepared Positions. The Strike and Fade Dal’yth stratagem (2CP, shoot and then move up to 6″) can also help you flirt with danger a bit more aggressively. Also, as a , you’d be remiss to forget about all the stratagems the T’au army have related to those: Automated Repair Systems (2CP, heal D3 Wounds), Fail-Safe Detonator (1CP mortal wound chance after being charged), Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite (1CP, units can’t claim cover saves against one of your units), etc. etc. Counters As a little tip it's often best to turn off overwatch on the fireblade when in cover (or all the time so you don't forget). Keeping it hidden is a lot better than whatever damage it will deal when shooting. There are no 100% required units in this matchup unlike it was for the nid mirror, keep a good diversity (avoid ghostkeel and stealth suits, markerlight counters them) and play better.

Of course, terrain bonuses may make it more favorable to go with the second option but there's no downside to adding influence as well afterwards. Although Broadsides do represent firepower in its purest form, this is something of a double-edged sword because there is a reason that people are usually willing to shell out for some protective special rules. They are very, very vulnerable to counterplay and disruption, unlike most of the other Tau suits, and even just a very small error on their controller’s part can render the unit useless for a turn or even completely dead. The first two are simple enough. Make the model more tough and more dangerous. This is pretty simple stuff. But it’s the third suggestion that I think could be really cool. While a VEHICLE or DRONE unit is performing the Fire Markerlights action, that unit can move without that action failing. If it does, until the end of the turn, models in that unit without the VEHICLE or DRONE keyword that are equipped with any markerlights are treated as not being equipped with any markerlights for the purpose of the Fire Markerlights action.

We’ve all heard a lot of hot takes on combat in 9th edition. There are good arguments to say that combat improved in 9th — the board is smaller, there will be far less overwatch — and there are good arguments to say that combat got worse in 9th — charging units must be able to reach all their targets, tri-pointing is no longer effective — and I’m not sure which side of this debate I come down on. As shooting goes, this is respectable output for a model of this points cost. While it’s not going to bring down anything big, the Invictor will do some solid work against most infantry targets in the game, and it has the range to be a consistent threat regardless of positioning.With the points reductions from Chapter Approved, Broadsides are a very effective tool in the Tau arsenal and can be a huge headache for opponents to deal with, yet still have significant weaknesses that can be exploited as well. Although they aren’t going to be a universal feature of Tau lists, like Riptides you can expect to see them as very common features in “standard” Tau armies due to how efficient they are as an overall choice. Unfortunately, the “classic” Broadside is fairly trashy right now due to GW’s struggle to balance high quality vs. high RoF guns against each other still, but that is something of a side complaint- we can’t expect that absolutely every possible loadout is going to be amazing in all metas.

As a larger battlesuit it also comes with a secondary armament of two guns; by default these are Flamers (12″ S4 AP0 Dmg1 Assault d6 hits automatically), but you can also upgrade to Burst Cannons (18″ S5 AP0 Dmg1 Assault 4) or Fusion Blasters (18″ S8 AP-4 DmgD6 Assault 1 melta) for a price. Fire Warrior ( Fire Warrior Strike Team • Fire Warrior Breacher Team) • Pathfinder • Drone Squadron Finally, unlike vehicles, suits have their own special buffer hero, the ethereal, which makes riptides absolutely disgusting. We'll look into it under the hero section. ed will have a new game mode called Combat Patrol where you only get to build your force from the contents of the combat patrol box for your faction and the rules will be very similar to the main game mode, but even more simplified. They specifically talked about how it should be easy to transition from this game mode to the other without learning a lot more rules. Everyone knows that the best units in the T’au codex throughout 8th edition were the Riptide, the Commander, and the Shield Drone. I won’t win any prizes for pointing this out.This is a massive amount of boosting for your units and gets entirely ridicolous once you have broadside battlesuits as they already want to be stationary and have massive damage. It also boosts their seeker missiles reaching stupid levels of burst power. Make fire warriors and piranhas because you need numbers and you need them fast, later add tanks and especially sky ray which are 100% necessary to alpha strike lictors.