Tau snipers?

[themandalorian]

Ok so i'm planning to get a Tau army from Ikarus.

Sooo I was interested in some sniper squads. I don't know if the pathfinders with rail rifles are snipers, but they sure look like it. So can someone help me

Pro's, cons, suggestions to something else.

I forgot the list exactly but i'll show you what i'm going to get

[Templar Mikeel]

From what I remember of them from playing against them, their only downfall was their inability to hit anything. But I guess it all depends on how the dice gods favor you.

[Celestial Guardian]

Actually Tau have their own sniper units. You can find them on page 40 of the Tau Empire codex.

equiped with: stealth generator, targeting array, 3 sniper drones rail rifel and target lock, spotter, networked marker light, and drone controller

Pro's: Units have to use night fighting rules to see you, whole team is low point cost for what you get, three teams count as one HS choice

Con's: can't fire markerlight after moving, Spotter dies they all die, never a scoring unit

Hope that helps.

[themandalorian]

Hmmm how about the pathfinders?

Warhammer 40,000 - Tau

btw just had to put that out there. Man i like tau more and more, that story is awesome btw

[Warmaster Romulas]

if you give your path finders rail rifles you are taking away markerlights
i prefer to use drone sniper teams they are 80 pts per team
and 3 teams count as one heaby support choice

[Celestial Guardian]

The pathfinders have one major drawback on the board. They have to take a devilfish transport. In doing this you draw alot of attention to your unit. We all know that tanks in 40K are fire magnets.

If you use the tank to actually move the unit around you take a huge risk in losing the unit all together. If you take this choice I would recommend dropping off you r unit at the end of the first turn and taking the Devilfish another direction to make your opponent chase down. While he's preoccupied with the tank your pathfinders can set up some decisive hits in his force to help wittle them down.

As Romulas stated also, if you insert the railrifles you lose the marker lights. Stacking marker lights is what will help you hit. This team can help with that goal.

[themandalorian]

Oh, uhhh some of this i don't understandddd. But I understand some, would it be smart to scratch this idea altogether

[Warmaster Romulas]

dont scratch it
build your army
dont worry about us
either way has adv
and disadv
the rail rifle is one of the best weaponswith its ap 3
the only thingis do you want a tau or drone wielding it

[Sir_Servo]

OK here is the Deal...

Pathfinders come with a transport called a devilfish. The one draw back about the Tau is that all their vehicles look similar, so there transports look like their heavy tanks, therefore your opponent is going to blast every thing biger than a bread box out of the sky.

Makerlights are like laser targeters that todays armed forces use. The marker lights have a 36" range and you roll to hit just like with a weapon, however if they hit they don't actually kill anything, they just give you specail abilities. Really good abilities, but abilities none the less.

I personally love path finders with rail rifles. They have a good rage St. 6 great AP and they pin units. So what you do is you use a marker light on the unit that you want to shoot with the Rail rifle then you shoot with your rifle and kill guys there for causing a pinning test.

I would look at including both Path finders and Sniper Drone teams in your army if you are a sniper fiend. They both have great aplications and you can flesh out your army with enough Fire Warriors and Crissis suits were the enemy won't know what to kill first.

Hope this helps,
Casey

[Prince of the Night]

Remember too, that even though the transport is mandatory for the unit, it is not mandatory for the unit to start in the transport, or be transported at all.

Set the pathfinders in a cover position on the table and set the transport somewhere else where it can be of some use.

What makes this work is although the transport is not a scoring unit, as long as it has weapons that can fire, it can not be ignored by your opponent.

So arm your pathfinders as you would if they did not even have a transport.

[themandalorian]

Ok i was thinking of putting some pathfinders behind my army, so they can take them out, also i'm having devilfishes already.

SO yeah i'll get the rail rifles

[themandalorian]

I have another question now, what do the marker lights do exactly. I've read a little, but want to know from someone that can explain it. Oh and btw