#tauempire #warhammer40k #tactics Just checking out who should be guiding in this sphere of expansion Feel free to support at my Patreon: patreon.com/CommanderNearsigh...
Breachers have the biggest stones in the Tau army you can’t tell me otherwise. They’re literally in the long range army and instead go “na, gimme that shotgun, brother”
I didn't even realize they changed to have markerlights until this video! I've been playing them all wrong! That alone will change my list, keep this up I need the insight😅😅
Another guiding option is giving a Strike Team with an Ethereal the "coordinate to engage" enhancement. To give the guided unit lethal hits. Since you're aiming to deal most of the damage with breacher teams or other units, the strike team take on a supportive role of just holding down an objective and guiding when necessary. Giving lethal hits on guided units also helps with low strength weapns, because of the automatic wounds on critical hits.
Skyray guiding a Longstrike, then if the thing is not dead enough, you can use Coordinate to Engage on Skyray. btw, Marker drone allow guiding after advance, so you don't need to put gun drone on stealth suits.
Tetras are currently the best observers, if we solely look at that specific role. Because Reroll all to-hit rolls means that you can even reroll actual hits and potentially turn them into Critical Hits(for Sustained Hits 2 during Kauyon). This is potentially very good on units that do have a high accuracy rating(because rerolling a hit is less likely to turn into a miss) and units with high amount of shots, but really, every unit benefits. Even outside of that, they are not a bad unit. They have poor damage, sure, but you pay 80 pts for 14 wounds(that cant be battle-shocked the regular way) and T7, with a 4+ save(3+ in cover). That is actually one of the best durability profiles per point the Tau has. And they have Infiltration, so they can disrupt the opponent's deployment a bit. Your opponent knows how much support they can provide your shooty units, so they tend to target them a lot to get rid of them. So they are also an 80 pts distraction Carnifex. Here is a fun trick. Tetras are vehicles, meaning they can shoot while in engagement range(Big Guns Never Tire). Which means that they can also act as an Observer, while in engagement range. So you can use them to tackle enemy enemy units that tries to creep up the board, while spotting a different target for your heavy firepower to bring down. Mobile, durable, spotting speed bumps. Get 2 for 80, buy now. Now! Now! Other than that, I like both Pathfinders and Stealth Suits. Stealth Suits can be surprisingly durable at times and is just cheap enough to almost not be worth the effort shooting at. They also have the fly keyword, and with both the Gun Drone and the Marker Drone, they are quite mobile while still performing the Observer role. The Fusion Blaster can also come as a surprise. They work great with units that have additional benefits from rerolling wounds, like Devastating Wounds(so mostly Broadsides and Pathfinders with Rail Rifles). The Pathfinders are great at many things. They do not add bonuses to the Guided unit(outside of Markerlights), but their special ability makes it fairly easy to guide all your key units and even some that are not a priority for guidance. They also have great options in terms of drones and weaponry, making them an ideal candidate for the Coordinate to Engage Stratagem, or even getting guided themselves(2 unit of pathfinders, 1 guiding the other + 1 other target). I do not think Breachers are good Observers. They hit on 3s, 2s when guided, so yes, they are less in need of extra accuracy compared to some other units. But to use them, they have to be close to enemies(otherwise they have nothing to shoot at) and without being guided, fewer shots will hit, which could lead to more return fire or counter charges. If a Fireblade is attached(130 pts unit) and they are guided by a Tetra, they can reroll for a insane amount of hits during Kauyon(I have seen up towards 60 hits total), and if they target something on an objective, reroll the wounds as well. I mean, they can observe if need be(they can use Coordinate to Engage as well, but only if you shoot at the spotted target), but I wouldnt pick them with the purpose of spotting for others. Firesight Teams are tricky Observers. You can put them on hard-to-reach positions(like on top of tall buildings) due to their infiltration, where shooting at them is next to impossible(lone operative+stealth). They then have a clear view of most targets and have Markerlights. They are also one of the few ways for the Tau to remove support characters from squads. A high position also helps with the AP(I believe the rule is 6" or more above the target, you get 1 extra AP). If they sit still, they hit on a 3+, so being guided themselves is less important, + their role in this case is not being damage dealers. 2-3 of these assisting in screening and spotting, as well as focusing down characters with their combined firepower, is not a bad option to have. However, they do nothing special in terms of Observing, and their special ability only works if guided themselves. And they are 70 pts. For just 10 more, you could have an extra Strike Team. Speaking of which... A Strike Team unit with an Ethereal and the "Through Unity, Devastation"-enhancement, is also a fairly good spotter. The unit itself is fairly durable(by Tau standards) and can support other frontline units by giving them Guided and Lethal Hits. It is a fairly expensive unit though(150 pts), so you would have to consider if you might get more damage and durability by simply fielding two Strike Teams instead(160 pts) or 1 Strike Team+Tetras(160). I guess it depends on if you want an Ethereal in your army(CP generation), which units you want to give Lethal to, and what other options you have for Guiding in your army.
Nice video, there are a few units that were missed. The last buffing one was the through unity devastation enhancement and then we have other solid units for guiding that don't provide buffs which are the devilfish give it gun drones for assault keyword, commander suit with precision of the patient hunter, and firesight marksmen are some of the hardest to remove spotter units. Some more synergy combo's/ best use scenarios would have been good like the crisis tetra combo, another one is pairing stealth suits with broadside bricks to increase the chance of triggering dev wounds, shadowsun with stealth suits to double buff other units, the lethal hits on the storm surge to help the small arms firepower punch up, or the alpha strike nature of pathfinders being able to spot for more units (and commonly being removed after the opponent see's them pump up your damage).
Excellent overview. I would like go add to the category of good onservers is a cheap unit. Piranhas once they have shot their seeker missiles they can guide well as they are fast enough to get line of sight on the enemy, you aren't giving up too much firepower by not having the piranha available to be guided itself and many times the target will not have the cover bonus so the lack of markerlight keyword is not always an issue. Other good observers are skyrays, particularly if they intend to fire at a FLY unit and will therefore already be getting rerolls to hit against their target, meaning they get less benefit of beikg guided themselves. On the same not Longstrike firing at a vehicle/monster will already be hitting on a 2+ do is good to guide another unit. Personally I use 2 units of tetras and a pathfinder squad as my main observere but am happy to add piranhas and a devilfish for targets outside of cover. Having recently swapped 3 crisis suits for 2 enforcer commanders I may have to revisit and say add a stealth unit or 2nd pathfinder squad. It was a great point that tetras have almost no firepower, and although they are fast and tough for their points they are nearly purely for the observing which other units such as stealths suits and pathfinders do stuff as well as observe. It has stopped me from putting in a 3rd unit of tetras.
Very insightful. I couldn't agree more with the cheap aspect for guiders. And I like the mention of swapping crisis suits with commanders. I think commander spam might make a comeback. They're just so mobile and very good at shooting and can drop down just about anywhere with not having too big of bases. And yeah 3 squads of tetras is just 240pts of nothing but support. That's a lot of your army not doing too much on its own
Commander. You've been a blessing for a Tau beginner like me. Was able to buy my first combat patrol and been watching all your videos. I'm holding off building anything yet because of the soon releasing codex though :)
I think devilish are great for guiding. They don’t have anything that makes them specifically good at guiding, but they don’t have crazy guns that would suck if you missed with them and are usually paired with a unit of Fire Warriors. That being said, I love guiding my breachers with them because having 30 shots (due to Fireblade) with virtually no chance of missing feels really good.
Yeah I realized that after posting the video and checking the marker drone abilities. My bad. But now the stealth teams can advance and do actions because of the marker drone?
Stealthsuits cant shoot in combat though. They arent vehicles and the "Battlesuit" keyword doesnt do anything except with strategems. However, they can get an ability to fall back and shoot (and guide) if they get tagged. My opinion: 1. Tetras 2. Stealthsuits 3. Pathfinders But in general prefer pathfinders over the suits, because of their utility and equipment.
Keep up the great work, I have at least 1500 pts of T'au sitting on sprue in my pile of shame and watching these videos has got me pre-ordering the Kroot box at my local shop and finally working through my tabletop ready armies (Black Templar and Necrons) to get to T'au. I'm learning a lot from this channel about how to run a T'au army, maybe this will be an army where I can actually win a game. Been playing since late 9th and I can count on one hand how many games I've won and I've played dozens of games.
I'm happy that you're getting into the T'au again! And hey I have Black Templar and Necrons too! Anyway I'll keep pumping content out and if there's anything you'd like as a new T'au player just give me shout in the comments
I have so many T’au I need to make. I my local GW store’s anniversary is around the time of the kroot box so if I play my cards right I can get the store anniversary bonuses for buying the box!
Don't need a gun drone to be able to observe after advancing with a unit if they have a marker drone as the marker drone lets them observe after advancing. Also, unless I'm wrong, stealth suits cannot guide while in combat as they are not vehicles like other suits and vehicle is what allows big guns never tire. However you can give one of the 3 suits a battlesuit support system to allow it to shoot after falling back so it can fall back and then observe. Also sounded as if you were saying Shadowsun gives reroll 1's to hit when she guides though that is not the case as that is just for anything with 6" of her, not for units she guides.
Yes my intention was to say that she has the aura and that someone being guided and having shadowsun near by would give the rerolls of 1 and the ballistic skill boost. And yes I misspoke some about the stealth suits. Apologies
I have used my tetras to guide my enforcer, dropping in with 4 CIB with the enhancement that gives it +1 to wound. With the rerolls. He has cleared small knights and killed a big one. (Turn 3, of course) it does work.
Unfortunatly Stealth suits are infantry, so no shooting in combat for them. Also, in the kauyon turns a full CIB Commander rerolling everything exept 6es, while hitting on 2s ( so almost no wasted shots) really is nothing but mean.
Don't think that the stealth suits can shoot in mellee as they lack the vehircle keyword, unlike the crisis suit. Lookt it up on the app but could be wrong tho. 1/3 stealthsuits in a scuad can fallback and shoot tho which compencates kinda. another fun vid👍
Thank you I thought I read that they could but I could be wrong too. If you give the leader the fall back and shoot thing you're right on with them still being eligible to guide just fine.
@@CommanderNearsightin 9th, things with the “battlesuit” keyword could shoot in combat but in 10th there’s no special rules for the battlesuit keyword. It really threw me for a loop.
