Tau, Slow & Purposeful heavy weapons

[Pottsey]

The sniper drone team is an intriguing possibility since the commander will give them Slow and Purposeful, and the drone team will give him Stealth and Shrouding.

I was about to point out this wouldn't work, but a last minute check of the ruling of Stealth and Shrouded brilliantly makes this work.

Personall,y this is something I wouldn't do, on the grounds that its clearly chessy, and non-sensical.

For Tau, the only place this sort of loadout would be best for would be Broadsides. And thats it!

Bear in mind, whatever unit you combine with your SAP'O, are going to become Priority targets by your opponent. With that thought, I'd say that Shield Drones (SAP'O) and Shield Generators (Broadsides) would be a must as well. Shield Drones can also be sued Cheesily with the new wound allocation rules.

It is not completely non- sensical at least the Stealth part as per the rules in the book the stealth generator project a field around the unit covering the drones even though the drones do not have a stealth generator. If the field can cover lots of drones why can it not cover 1 extra battlesuit? If you see the stealth generator as a bubble is makes a lot more sense.
My new favourite unit is two IC battlesuits in a Stealth team with hit and run.  (cannot deploy together but IC can join after development)

[Cammerz]

Can you turn off Slow and Purposeful on the SAP'O?  If so then I know what my new commander is going to be!

You can indeed turn off Slow and Purposeful for the SAP'O. Page 25 of Codex: Tau, Advanced stabilisation system (paragraph 2)

[Pottsey]

Can you turn off Slow and Purposeful on the SAP'O?  If so then I know what my new commander is going to be!

You can indeed turn off Slow and Purposeful for the SAP'O. Page 25 of Codex: Tau, Advanced stabilisation system (paragraph 2)

I never realised that, for tau at least Slow and Purposeful is always turned off unless you say you are using it in the movement phase then it lasts 1 turn. So you can overwatch some off the time .

[knightperson]

I tried this yesterday, and the early verdict is that it does work as advertised, but it doesn't fix all the problems with pathfinders. I was fighting a VERY strong Tyranid list with two Tervigons, three zoanthropes, the Parasite of Mortrex escorted by about six bases of flying rippers (skyslashers, I think they're called), two squads of sneaky-bastard Ymgarl genestealers, and a truly horrific number of gaunts. My list had two squads of fire warriors, two warfish, a squad of broadsides with plasma rifles, three fireknife suits, one skyray, 8 pathfinders (2 with rail rifles), the SAP'El, and five stealth suits. I can blame my crushing defeat on a lot of things, including failing to wound with all three broadsides in their first barrage, having the initiative seized from me, lack of practice with the Tau and against good horde lists, and some really bad terrain setup luck, but truth be told I'm not sure the tactic is viable.

I started out concentrating most of my fire on the zoanthropes, going for a seeker missile alpha strike and broadside barrage that might Instant Death one or two of them, but I rolled an awful lot of ones. Parasite and the Ymgarls wiped out the kroot quickly, and two Kroot failed their toughness tests, producing SIX bases of rippers from each! Fireknives and broadsides finished Parasite And Company off, but the damage was done, and while the rippers didn't do any more damage they soaked up a lot of fire that I would have preferred to use against other things. I held out longer than initially expected by taking out Parasite and the Zoanthropes and forcing some of the horde to fall back to the Synapse provided by the Tervigons, but the mission was Capture The Flag Relic, and I couldn't even get to it. The stealth suits forced the gaunt squad that was carrying the relic to drop it briefly, but there were so many more squads available to pick it up that it was little more than a symbolic gesture. Oh, and while some have argued that Feel No Pain has been nerfed, it's still really nasty when this carpet of little cheap gaunts has it, cast by the Tervigons safely in the back where I can't even get broadside LOS to them!

Against an opponent that just fills the board and gives me no good target to focus fire on, it's pretty rough to use pathfinders that can't split fire (Damn you, whoever wrote the new Tau FAQ). I definitely need to tweak the list to take advantage of better-than-usual pathfinders, since I really didn't have enough regular firepower that could use the markerlights. And I'm really not used to only having two crisis suit hardpoints, since one of them is taken up by the A.S.S. The SAP'El build this time was a Shas'el with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, A.S.S., hw multitracker, iridium armor, stim injectors, and two shield drones. Put up at the front to take the small arms fire (and able to Look Out Sir for anything big), he makes the unit extremely tough unless the opponent can get around behind him somehow, but even with only a Shas'El he's terribly expensive for not much firepower. I should have spent the extra 25 points to make him a Shas'O and keep him BS 5, but I felt he was already too expensive. I will play around with the theory some more another time, but I think the lack of target lock makes the pathfinders nonviable, even with Slow and Purposeful.

[Gonefishing]

Can you turn off Slow and Purposeful on the SAP'O?  If so then I know what my new commander is going to be!

You can indeed turn off Slow and Purposeful for the SAP'O. Page 25 of Codex: Tau, Advanced stabilisation system (paragraph 2)

I never realised that, for tau at least Slow and Purposeful is always turned off unless you say you are using it in the movement phase then it lasts 1 turn. So you can overwatch some off the time .

FYI - Its actually better than that - The ruling for the A.S.S in the Tau Codex says it lasts for a turn, in the new rulebook it states (page 9) "one game turn therefore comprises two player turns - one for each player. Whenever a rule refers to 'A turn' it always means player turn, unless it specifically refers to a game turn."   

You can use the A.S.S to move things around as much as you like, as soon as your Player Turn stops, they stop being slow and purposeful - so in your opponents turn you can overwatch and in your turn you can move 6" and fire at normal BS - Win Win.

[knightperson]

FYI - Its actually better than that - The ruling for the A.S.S in the Tau Codex says it lasts for a turn, in the new rulebook it states (page 9) "one game turn therefore comprises two player turns - one for each player. Whenever a rule refers to 'A turn' it always means player turn, unless it specifically refers to a game turn."   

You can use the A.S.S to move things around as much as you like, as soon as your Player Turn stops, they stop being slow and purposeful - so in your opponents turn you can overwatch and in your turn you can move 6" and fire at normal BS - Win Win.

An excellent point, and one that I had missed. Might be beyond the spirit of the laws, but so much of 6th Edition makes so little sense that who can tell?

A further refinement (and another point that I missed initially) is that S&P no longer makes you count as moving through terrain This means you do NOT automatically swing last in melee if you charge after using stabilizers. Which, unless I missed a bit in the rule about not being allowed to charge at all (entirely possible), means that it would be viable to attach a SAP'O to a kroot squad, rapid-fire with the kroot rifles and whatever weapons the crisis suit is carrying, and charge into melee with the crisis suit and his drones soaking up the overwatch and the hounds swinging at Initiative 5!

I don't have the book handy right this second, but I will check on that possible prohibition against charging.

[Carrelio]

That is entirely fine, no rule restrictions to prevent that... but why stop there? Why not add a VRT to your commander, and get the charge every turn?

[knightperson]

That is entirely fine, no rule restrictions to prevent that... but why stop there? Why not add a VRT to your commander, and get the charge every turn?

You could do that. It would be a weird build, using 2 of your 3 crisis hardpoints for support systems and leaving only one for a weapon, but there are some good all-purpose weapon options like the CIB or plasma rifle. I think the biggest problem with Slow, Purposeful, Hit, and Run (which unfortunately doesn't lend itself to much of an acronym) Kroot is that they're too fragile. I think you're unlikely to survive the second round of combat and still have enough models left to be a strong enough force for a second charge. Maybe mixing in some Krootoxen for wound absorbtion would be worth it? Finding a unit in our Battle Brother allies list that would benefit from both SAP and HAR (sapphire? maybe that's the acronym) is tricky because hardly anything that is decent in assault carries non-assault weapons. The generic Space Marine tactical squad might be a good candidate. A bunch of bolters, maybe even Sternguard with their fancy ammo, to soften up the target, then charge in with the powerfist and whatever else they are carrying.

But most of the time, with the notable exception of Kroot, I think most units would benefit from one or the other abilities but not both. Slow and Purposeful Devastators would be formidable, as would an assault squad that can Hit And Run. I think I will try the Hit And Run option on the Eldar Wraithguard ally squad I'm building so they can't be tarpitted in assault.

For the record, I'm building Wraithguard from, of all things, Bloodletter models. Somewhere in the Warp, Khorne is furious!

[Carrelio]

I actually think where this would benefit most would be on shooting units such as broadsides.  Slow and purposeful obviously has its benefit here as it allows them to move and shoot, but hit and run also ensures that they are never going to be trapped by a tar pit.

[knightperson]

I actually think where this would benefit most would be on shooting units such as broadsides.  Slow and purposeful obviously has its benefit here as it allows them to move and shoot, but hit and run also ensures that they are never going to be trapped by a tar pit.

I think you might be right. I have only tried any of these Stupid Shas'O Tricks once so far, but there is so much potential! While a lot of eggs in a single basket, those 500 points or so would give you a neat unit. Imagine an opponent's reaction when he spends a couple of turns chasing these guys around, finally gets them in melee with a power-weapon-equipped melee squad of some kind, only to have them weather a round of combat, Hit And Run away, and still fire the rail and plasma guns at regular ballistic skill!