#tauempire #warhammer40k #tactics Pathfinders are a must have in every army. Here is how I use them and some ideas for you to try. Please feel free to support at my Patreon: patreon.com/CommanderNearsigh...
The thing I love about the rail rifles is that they send a message especially when you have darkstrider leading the squad. My younger brother has learned the hard way that the screamer killer takes rail rifle shots quite often and quite well. I have triple tapped him enough times to give him hesitation to move that model anywhere near their LOS. So for the sake of "Enter my LOS, see what happens" I will suggest the rail rifles. Also anything that can chip the big tanks is better than nothing.
Now that both Darkstrider and Pathfinders have a fairly low price(60 and 90 compared to 75 and 120, for a combined 150 vs 195 pts cost), they have become much easier to field and use. They have enough firepower and special rules for their cost to force your opponent to make decisions, but is still cheap enough that losing them is not huge loss. Personally, I prefer the Ion Rifles, since you get a lot of shots, meaning more chances to hit and potentially wound, and they have enough "oomph" with Darkstrider's +1 to wound to threaten most targets. Rail Rifles are not bad, but personally I think they are too "swingy" in their performance. Sometimes they do ok, sometimes they absolutely murder a target(sustained hits) and other times, they fail to hit or fail to wound. That is what you get with so few shots and somewhat poor BS. And while Pathfinders can assist with spotting very easily, You do have better spotters available for your Tau(Stealth Teams for rerolling 1s to wound, and Tetras for full rerolls on hits). And with their potential firepower, they can actually be a decent unit to guide, rather than just being the spotter.
Yes I would say so. I've recently been taking 3 but I play quite an infantry skewed list. Otherwise two is very good. More screening opportunities and with only 2 units they have the ability to guide 4 other units. So it really opens up your list for less pair ups and more damage dealers.
pathfinders also have grenades, meaning they can use photon grenades to get -4 to the enemy charge (this is with the drone they get). they are amazing infantry for 90 pts
I'm sorry to be a kill joy but they can't stack. But I wish they could stack because that would be an absolute monster combination. A 2 inch charge would become 6 and a 5 would be a 9. It would probably be too good honestly
@@CommanderNearsight oh, lol thanks for letting me know :) i dont get to play all that often so i just think of cheesy things. that was looking super good so im glad it isnt able to stack.
Pathfinder, more than strike team, make me regret the time when our infantry were in teams of 6-12. I loved little 6 team with 3 special weapons that we could do, snipers with rail rifles or demolition teams with three ions
I agree that pathfinders are definitely worth it and I always include a squad. For me I like using the recon drone as the combo of infiltrate and scout is really useful. The grav inhibitor drone can always be replicated by the photo grenade stratagem (and unfortunately they can't stack). I'm tempted with a second unit but other units just force it out, eg. 2 units of tetras does guiding better (but only for one squad), Breachers in a fish, piranhas and enforcer commanders does cheap fast firepower better.
That is all very valid. As I don't own Tetras I've got to stick with the pathfinders. But I do like that they can carry their own weight a bit more instead of being pure support.
I would suggest stealth suits and shadowsun to try out some rerolls to both hit and wound. I know tetras are the thing but I'd still say try Shadowsun and Stealth suits once.
I just got a nice 1,000pt list for $500. Combat Patrol - $160 Commander in Coldstar - $60 Commander Shadowsun - $55 Crisis Battlesuits - $80 Darkstrider - $35 Devilfish - $60 Pathfinder Team - $45 Total (before taxes) - $495 I use everything except the Ethereal. Those untrustworthy bastards.
I am beyond impressed. But also kinda sad that the best we could do to get under $500 is only 1,000pts. That being said I really like the stealthy feel and style of that army. And yeah screw those guys (except Aun'shi) what a bunch of jerks
Have you checked out the Puretide Program’s pathfinder tech? It’s fascinating. I’m not to the level of play yet where something like that would come in handy, but I still found it very intriguing.
@@CommanderNearsight I can summarize it a bit here, but I do recommend checking out his video. Basically if you have a team of pathfinders with the infiltrate drone, and darkstrider by himself in a devilfish, Darkstrider will give the devil fish scout and you can use the pathfinder’s scout to get them back into the devilfish before turn one even starts which is good for blocking off a lot of the board from the enemy’s infiltrators. I don’t think I did it justice here, so please do check it out, but I think that’s the jist of it.
@@CommanderNearsightYeah it's great go and watch the video as a fellow pathfinder lover you will like it. Jusyone thing in your video you mentioned darkstrider joining pathfinders to give them infiltrate that doesn't work as all models in the unit need to have infiltrate keyword so you would need the recon drone.
I will most certainly check it out! And thank you for the correction. I appreciate you coming over here and watching my video. It's really flattering knowing another T'au content creator watched one of my videos and a quite highly tactically minded one too.
Ion rifles, are superior to rail rifles in my experience, the best use for pathfinders are as guiding front-liners and anti infantry units. its best to bring other units like broadsides and hammerheads for vehicles. Burn a command point to get the extra ap or self guided and they can turn huge squads into slag.
Same opinion here. The "broken" thing about Crisis Suits is their CIBs(each model gets up to 3), and here you have an infantry squad with what is essentially 3 long range(30") CIBs. They are a huge threat to infantry and also a potential threat to vehicles(especially if they last until Kauyon is active). If they have both Infiltration and Scout, you can almost always set them up in a way that is very annoying for your opponent. Rail Rifles are not bad, but they are far more specialized, and with Strength 10, they still have to roll well to wound actual tanks(and you do not have enough shots to really take out a full health transport or walker unless you get lucky). Of course, once Kauyon is active, Rail Rifles can potentially get very dangerous, but it all relies on good rolls to get those sustained hits.
@@fendelphi I would argue one should never plan around getting even a single sustained hit and just see them as a boon when they happen. I would only run rail rifles if i was fighting either custodians or knights
@@brucedavidson9499 I mean, Tetras giving full reroll to hit gives anything a good chance for sustained hits, but I agree that you should not "rely" on that. It is fun to see a Railgun(on a Hammerhead) getting Sustained hits 2 though, and it is just as fun when the target vehicle only has 5 wounds remaining("finally a chance of massive damage, and the target is already almost dead).
Going over Darkstriders and Pathfinders in the index at the start of 10th, I was like: "These guys seem pretty good." A lot of other people's reaction was they weren't a Coldstar brick of Crisis suits with CIBs.
It would be interesting to give Pathfinders a recom drone and pair him with two units for Farsight snipers. Since they get a bonus while being guided, one pathfinder can guide for both.
Thank you so much for making this video good work congrats on 600 have you seen the cyclic ion blaster conversion sheet it takes 1.5 flamer and a plasma rifle search it up it’s pretty good
Yes my apologies. Upon further research I have found that he doesn't give it to the pathfinders he leads. That is very lame and makes no sense because I don't know why he would be thrown out there in the middle of the board alone and waiting to be shot or charged turn one. And now I owe and apology to someone for misplaying him.
@@CommanderNearsight I mean, I know some tau players swear by running him solo, having him in a devilfish in order to scout it up the field and then scout the pathfinders into the devilfish. Using darkstrider as a utility piece that can create the deny bubble at one place when needed
Just started, Pathfinder Kill Team as my first set. And my GF gave me Darkstrider to complete the squad. My aim is to build an army around them. With the new embark option I bought a devilfish. And planning to extend the team with 2x 3 Crisis Battlesuits + Coldstar commander. With Exemplar of Kauyon totaling at: 750 points. Not sure how to complete the last 250 points though. Hammerhead, Broadside, Firewarriors, Stealth suits? Need something to back my boys up and on home objective. Since I want to put Pathfinders mid and crisis roaming. What are your thoughts? What would you add to complete my 1000 point build?
I've got a video on how to expand your T'au army but for you I would say you need some heavy firepower for anti-tank and I would highly recommend a Broadside or two with rail rifles and a fire warrior squad to camp on your home objective. Otherwise if you want to keep going down your stealthy route I would suggest a Ghostkeel with fusion and a Firesight Marksman. The marksman had lone op so he can't be shot easily so he can stand in the open and spot for your units. (also some nice sniping capabilities) And the fusion on the ghostkeel will be decent into tanks and hard to hit because of lone op. The broadsides and fire warriors will cost $150ish. The Ghostkeel and Firesight Marksman will cost $125ish. (American) You can also do a combination of the two by just getting the Combat Patrol. In there you get the Ghostkeel and Firewarriors. But you also get stealth suits like you asked about, and an Ethereal and Cadre Fireblade to lead your Firewarriors. It gives you more playability and versatility and actually pushes you well over your 1000pts and is a price in between the two other options I gave. So let me know what you think.
Yeah for just starting out I would absolutely say broadsides. And if you get a hammer head you can change the turret to make it a skyray (which is good anti-tank and anti-fly) or have no turret and make it a devilfish to move around your infantry. So would recommend the hammerhead. (you can also say it's Longstrike and you've got a killer character)
Just one thing, Darkstrider does not give the infiltrator keyword to the pathfinders. In fact he loses it when attached to pathfinders that are not equiped with the recon drone.
did you know the pathfinder can be granted infiltrators by taking the "recon drone" so darkstrider can be in that squad and still have both infiltrator and scout
@@alecgregorini8403 it does, but my comment is about the asumtion made in the video that Darkstrider, when attached to pathfinders give them the infiltrator ability regardless of not have the recon drone in the unit.
