Battle suite army

[ironside407]

Hey you guys i was playing a small 500pt game with my friend and he was playing battle suites and he was telling me how he is makeing an army and that its gonna be insane and i was just wondering if legaly this was possible i mean i dont mind facing him i love a challenge i was just wondering like tournament wise this would be lagitiment cause i never heard anything about this before and i figured something that sounds pretty good i figured someone would have tried it before

[Cirative]

I don't know much about Tau, but I assume not every slot in the FoC has a mechanized/suited unit, so I'm not sure if it's possible. It is definitely possible in Apocalypse games, though.

[Ikarus]

It is possible in a few ways -


He can field,

HQ -

2 Crisis
2 body crisis guards each

9x crisis

or

Farsight (Sp. HQ)
7 Crisis Bodybuard

HQ + 2 bodyguard

9x Elite Crisis


Its legal as long as he does it that way, and keeps it within the force organization requirements/charts and upgrades them correctly.

[r4wr89]

and so, if it's legal, i really just don't see why these aren't super common ? the battlesuit tau army seems really broken, and yet...haha i haven't ever seen one XD or is it just me not seeing them ? hrmm

[Brother Warchild]

It would be cool to see in action though.

[Ikarus]

Originally Posted by r4wr89

and so, if it's legal, i really just don't see why these aren't super common ? the battlesuit tau army seems really broken, and yet...haha i haven't ever seen one XD or is it just me not seeing them ? hrmm

Its actually pretty killable. Its not power cheese, it is powerful, but ...

Template = crisis worst friend. Plus you will have a really LOW model count...

[ironside407]

yeah i think my friends only got like 20 modles

[Warmaster Romulas]

Originally Posted by Ikarus

Its actually pretty killable. Its not power cheese, it is powerful, but ...

Template = crisis worst friend. Plus you will have a really LOW model count...

i dont think they would be worth it
considering the base price of a suit(not including weapons) is basically twice a marine and their stats are not much better or not at all

[Captain Slow]

just reienforceing what Ikarus said here but.
god help them if theres a Russ on the table. *whisstle* KER splat. 3 dead suits easy, per shot. ive lost whole SM squads to those damn things, and they were in cover!! (REALLY bad dice roll's the dice gods hated me that day. T_T )
put simply, the reason these army lists are, whats the word, cheesey. but not used, is simply because they have some serious drawback, one being if a DT weapon hits them, a lascannon or a Krak Missile, a suit goes pop before youve even started, unless you outfit them all with shield drones or shields. and thats seriously pricey.

[iNsOmNiAc'S dReAm]

When first started 40K I had built a Tau suit army. It was pretty much set up the way Ikarus mentioned above with a few minor differences.

HQ:
-Solo Commander w/ goodies and shield drones

ELITES:
-2 full teams of crisis suits
-full team of Steath suits

FAST ATK:
- 3 full gun drone squad drones ( followed the lone commander around )

HEAVY:
- 3 Full teams of Broad Sides

Then I took the mandatory 2 troop choices of firewarriors.

Also played a Far Sight Army list that traded a few broad sides and drones for more crisis suits and fire warriors.

It was pricy to build considering a suit is $20 bucks a pop, and it wasnt very effective AT ALL, but it was a fun list to play and it did look Hella cool on the board.

[UltraMar]

If the force orginazation chart allows it then sure why not?

[Ikarus]

I owned about 20 Crisis Suits, the first time I played tau. I sold it then.

After that again, I went pure mechanized. heh.

[UltraMar]

that is probably a great thing to do lol

[Celestial Guardian]

The drawback to the suit army is their price and their predicatablity. These units can easily be set up and trapped even with the ability to move in the assualt phase. Jump packs can only take you so far.

The only time I have ever seen an army like this win it was played by a twenty year Warhammer veteran player. He knew the rules, the limitations, and how to use the terrain to his advantage. In his words, "The tau are a fluff army tht can be put together alot of ways. The only way to win though, is to out think yourself. You have to be able to know what move your opponent will make before you move. It's like chess tht way."

Mechanised armies and even static lines do alot better than the all suit army. Mechanised offers movement. Static Lines offer fire lanes that have to be crossed in order to achieve close combat. Suits offer limited mobility.

The last thing I'll bring up is that those who do use suit armies usually kit them out for power, which is highly expensive. Not commonly seen at all are suits with flamers. It was due to the before mentioned friend that I started taking them when I played Tau. Each suit had a flamer, drone controller and two shield drones, plus whatever other arms I wished. These were the constants though. I won about 30% of the time, but I took a hell of a lot of the opponents army with me due to the flamer. It allowed me to get close take out half a unit and then move. My suits ran the front lines so that my fiere warriors could go for the objectives.

All in all it comes down to a few points:
1) this army will cost alot
2) it is not an all comers army
3) takes a very skilled player to run effectively to win on a constant basis
4) takes alot of patience to learn

[Captain Slow]

plus battlesuits, if u shoot them with enough rockets, or demolishers, they crumple just like everything else. (i forget what toughness they are, but i would be surprised if it was 5)