5e Army Tactica: The Fireknife/Piranha Build

[number6]

Considering how often rikimaru challenges me on this subject , and how often people seem confused as to how I actually play my armies, I thought I'd put together a little write-up/HOWTO for playing army lists that I consider "5th edition competitive".

Firstly, let me unequivocally state that this is not the only way to play Tau. But by the same token, I know that this way works. This topic exists because many people can't seem to grasp how it all fits together. For example, I received the following PM just a few days ago.

I'd really like to get some tips about typical tactics like using kroot&piranhas for blocking&covering. There must be a lot of advices how to use such thing properly.

I'd also like to know how to beat some difficult lists. And for example, a friend of mine is playing a marine list like this:

HQ-Jump Pack Captain with energ weapon
2 razorbacks (with lasercanons) filled with marines
2 squads jump pack marines
2 vindicators
1 devastor squad
some scouts

how would you play against something like this ?

Also he plays a land raider with cc-terminators sometimes and an ironclad cybot

I've received other PM requests in this vein as well. So perhaps it's time for a full and public airing.


Objectives

To be considered "competitive", you must be able to handle any of the common army lists and builds that are occupying game tables.

* Mech. Examples: IG, Marines, Eldar. (Full disclosure: About 8 of every 10 armies I face are mechanized. More than 1/2 my opponents are Marines and Chaos Marines, and about 1/3 of my opponents are IG. I might face a non-[C]SM or non-IG army once or twice every 10 games or so. This article is biased by this experience.) Beating a mech army is a two-step process. First, you have to kill the vehicles. Then you have to kill the dismounted infantry. Thus, your Tau army must be deathly efficient at both tasks AND be able to switch them up on a dime. Having units that are capable at both tasks is an absolute must if you face heavy mech like I do. Taking multiple specialized units (e.g., one for anti-armour, one for anti-infantry, etc.) is suboptimal because the enemy has the ability, if they so choose (and they will if they're smart), to cripple your effectiveness at one half of the game plan you need to execute. This is unacceptable. Ergo, your army must be built with full redundancy in mind.

* Horde. Examples, Orks, Tyranids, foot IG. This army has been disappearing as 5th edition has become more established and the new 5e codexes make going mech cheap, easy, and effective. Nevertheless, a horde army can't be taken too lightly, especially by us Tau because even weak units of infantry can just assault us off the table. And Orks, for example, can field a serious hammer unit or two (e.g., Nob Bikerz) that, if not dealt with, will krump you good. Beyond that, you have to be able to torrent down large units of infantry despite their near-ubiquitous cover saves so that you can claim Kill Points or claim/contest objectives. Your army must put out a ferocious amount of firepower. More guns is always better. In fact, more guns is better than having maximum accuracy. Anybody who has faced shooty Orks or a mostly foot IG army knows what I'm talking about. Accuracy is not as important as sheer weight of fire. Tau struggle with this a bit because much of what is available and effective is relatively expensive, but nevertheless it is possible. You just have to cut out the extraneous crap.

* Other. Is there anything worth mentioning here? If you can smash mech and wipe out hordes, you can deal with anything in between (e.g., semi-mech IG, which is about the strongest army in existence right now, or other Tau armies, which are usually semi-mech as well). Just reinforcing that your army has got to be redundantly capable of doing everything, or it's not balanced enough.

* Space Marines. A special note has to be said concerning Space Marines. According to GW's own statistics, about 40% of all armies played are Space Marines of one stripe or another. The percentage goes higher (about 50%) if you also include Chaos Space Marines. "Tuning" your army to combat Marines is rarely going to be a bad choice. Marines are difficult to destroy, whether we're talking about vehicles or infantry, so if your army can conveniently handle Marines you know you're good for about 1/2 of all games you're likely to play. And anything that is good at killing Marines is usually (though, admittedly, not always) good at killing all other infantry as well. Which is to say: there are worse list-building strategies than thinking about your usual opponent being MEQ.


Army List Core

So, based on the objectives we have to accomplish, here are the units that I feel pass muster. (I assume normal 40K games of between 1500 and 2000 pts. Something like 'Ard Boyz with its 2500 pts limit will look different, as will much smaller games played at less than 1500 pts.)

* HQ: One and only one fireknife crisis suit commander (plasma rifle, missile pod, targeting array, hard-wired multi-tracker). Trust me, you don't need more than one. You can get 1.5 fireknife Elite crisis suits -- or nearly all of 1 fireknife + 1 deathrain (twin-linked missile pod, flamer) crisis suit for the cost of an additional commander. See what I said earlier about "more guns". And don't bother with bodyguards, either. Too pricey. If you want protection for your commander, give him a bonding knife and stick him with a unit of Elites.

* Elite: 3 Teams of crisis suits, 2-3 models in each team. At least two such teams should be fireknives (PR, MP, MT). If you really feel that you need a few upgrades elswhere in the list, or you want the points to field an additional crisis suit or two, than making one team a team of deathrains (TL MP, flamer) can be OK. But fireknives are still strongly recommended. These units are the most important units in the army. These are your anti-mech units. They are also your anti-infantry units. They have a high rate of fire no matter what they're shooting at, and the weaponry they employ is the envy of every other 40K army. Even IG has a hard time fielding as many autocannons and plasma guns as we are capable of, and that's saying something.

Stealths aren't employed because they are only anti-infantry units. Without any real ability to tackle armour, they are out. (No, getting two BS 3 melta guns for 190 pts does not count.)

* Troops: 6 Fire Warriors and that's it. We're taking them only because we have to, not because they're really any good. Str 5 weaponry is nice, but we have lots of Str 5 in the army as it is. We also have better units for tackling infantry than fire warriors. These guys are objective holders and nothing else, so don't waste any more points on them than you have to. They're not resilient enough nor accurate enough nor strong enough to do anything else worthwhile for us.

You also need 2 units of Kroot with Hounds. 10 Kroot and 5 Hounds is only 100 pts and well worth the cost. (If you can spare points for more Hounds, good!) Kroot are necessary because while your crisis suits sit back and shoot, your Kroot are positioned to intercept any units that want to get to our suits. Infiltrate -- never outflank -- into position to put early pressure on and keep your enemy focused right in front of him rather than farther away at you. You should be doing so much damage from downtown that anything that wants to get close to you can be finished off by your Kroot units.

And that is all the Troops you will ever need. It may look thin, but the reason you don't need them is simple. You are killier than your opponent. You are also surprisingly aggressive. Your opponent won't be given the choice to shoot at your Troops. If he does, you have the firepower and the mobility to arrange that firepower such that it will cost him the game to risk doing so. This army is designed to feed your opponent the only targets he should be shooting at, because if he ignores them your forward elements are capable of making him pay directly. Not to mention all the firepower arrayed behind those forward elements in support of it.

If your opponent isn't more worried about your piranhas, your crisis suits, and any Kroot you have infiltrated "just so", on purpose, then you're playing the army wrong. Don't be shy, be aggressive! Be threatening! Make it clear to him just how many big guns (autocannons, plasma guns, melta guns, railguns) that you have pointed at him. Not to mention those nasty markerlights that you can use to boost your effectiveness in any way you see fit from turn to turn. Blow the living crap out of him every turn. Keep him on his back foot.

Kill points games are a breeze. And never forget that you only ever need one more objective than your opponent to win any objectives game. Your fire warriors should never ever be a serious target because you're too busy shooting the living crap out of your opponent to make them a target. (Keep your fire warriors in reserve if you're really worried about them.) Meanwhile, you can blow units off objectives and/or contest the others. You've got enough guns and enough units to do both.

One final note about objectives: Don't forget that you get to place half of them yourself. This is tactics as well. Place your objectives to your advantage, knowing that you are intending to claim them late with your fire warriors. Remember, you only have to win 1-0.

* Fast Attack: Pathfinders. Markerlights are necessary to make this army function at peak efficiency, and pathfinders are the most cost-efficient source of them. They also provide a devilfish that your fire warriors can borrow to stay nice and safe inside while they claim an objective for you. Mostly, you should be using markerlights to remove cover saves (from vehicles, from infantry), but if you don't need to remove cover, boosting the BS of your suits and hammerheads is always going to be welcome. Don't worry too much about losing your pathfinders. If your opponent wants to target them, let him. You still have torrent-of-fire to win the day for you. Remember, MORE GUNS IS BETTER! So long as you have More Guns, you'll be fine. All shots not taken at your More Guns is A Good Thing, and something to be encouraged!

The other two FA slots should always be filled with piranhas (fusion blaster, targeting array, disruption pods). For smaller points, take 1 piranha in each FA slot. For larger games, seriously consider expanding one or both units by 1 piranha. As with Kroot, these units are harassment units. Shove them directly in your opponent's grill and force him to deal with them. As somebody else has said:

[T]hey are fast threats that will soak up a surprising amount of enemy anti-vehicle firepower and are large enough models to severely litter the battlefield and put obstacles in the enemy's way.

Essentially, if you want your opponent to move left, but he has the option to go right, swing your Piranhas over to his right, maybe try to kill a vehicle or two, but aim to let your Piranha wreckage fill a gap with a now-dangerous-terrain obstacle. Create a wall. Your opponent's movement options are now limited, he may be down a vehicle or two, and you have railguns, so you have enough anti-tank anyway.

And:

I don't even use my piranhas for tank popping. I use them for crowd control - move them to block avenues of attack, force your opponent to waste movement going where you want them to. Dump drones out and make your opponent waste shots on them instead of something valuable. Contest objectives the same way. These are the fastest moving units you can get so they're also your only chance for turn 5 objective grabs.

At first I was adamantly against piranhas but since I've started using them I've seen a lot of good use from them and I don't think any of that use was a vehicle kill.

Finally, so much has been written about Piranhas in this forum that I can't even begin to point out links. Use the searchy to good effect.

* Heavy Support: Take 1-2 Broadside teams. Any slots that aren't taken with Broadsides should be railheads. Whatever you do, fill all three slots. You take broadsides because they are the deadliest anti-mech (and anti-MC) unit available to us, and mech is the most dangerous army for us to face. We're not nearly as fast as our sleek vehicles look. Most mech opponents are actually faster because they're not constrained by having to shoot while moving. Most of their mech is relatively lightly armoured and designed to drop deadly infantry payloads at our doorstep, so they just drive straight at us full tilt. Broadsides will stop 'em dead in their tracks. And railheads can help out with that, too, but they're equally good at splatting infantry with submunition shots, too, which is why it's always a good idea to have at least one hammerhead around.

This is the key thing about broadsides. Their initial targets should usually not be the heaviest mainline battle tanks your opponent is fielding (e.g., land raiders, leman russes, vindicators). No, it should be Rhinos, Razorbacks, Chimeras, Wave Serpents, etc. Railguns are nearly guaranteed to stop lighter armour in their tracks, and that's what you should do. Always take the least risky shots and work your way up the ladder. Let your piranhas stall the heavy armour for a turn or two while you dismount your opponent with your railguns. Once he's dismounted, you can kill the exposed Troops at your leisure and can safely move onto the heavier armour when it's convenient for you (assuming that the heavy armour is even a legitimate threat to you). With most of his infantry stranded, your opponent will be put on the defensive and won't be able to be as aggressive with his remaining heavy armour.

Dismount the opponent, and you have seized the initiative. That's what railguns are for.


So How Do You Play It?

Pictures are more effective than any essay I could write. I've pointed these out on this forum before, but I really do think they're truly illuminating for people trying to learn how to make armies like mine work.

* Chaos vs Tau
* Tau vs Daemons

The Chaos batrep shows how to properly use piranhas. The Daemons batrep demonstrates how you create deep-strike buffers with Kroot. Both of them show how piranhas and Kroot keep the enemy at bay. The Daemons batrep is great because you get to see how Kroot can still be useful in assault, even against the game's best assault army, provided you have the firepower and positioning to back them up.

And now, finally, I want to return to the PM I quoted way at the beginning. How to tackle the example "tough" Marine army builds the person mentioned to me.

The Marines army with the vindicators and jump packers is actually a cakewalk for a properly built Tau army to defeat. The first thing you must do is prioritize your targets. IMHO, the vindicators are the most deadly, followed by the jump packers, followed by the razorbacks. The devastators and scouts hardly count for anything and can be safely ignored. Lascannons are not very scary anti-armour weapons. Yes, they can and will occasionally destroy some of your vehicles, but to penetrate, get past your 4+ cover save (huzzah for disruption pods and Flat Out moves) AND still roll a 5 or 6 on the damage table requires a lot of luck. More than you need to worry about. Ordnance templates and fast units that can mess up your suits are way more dangerous and need to be dealt with immediately.

Thing is, this army doesn't actually have very many true threats to you. Just the vindis and the jump packers. Makes it easy to figure out what to do. Take care of them and you've won the game. I would start by shoving the piranhas directly in the vindis' grills. I mean like right up to 1" away from them if you can manage it, but you must ensure that your AV 11 front is all that any enemy weaponry can see (without exposing them to the rest of your army, at least). Make your opponent waste anti-armour on your piranhas and not your other stuff. Stop the vindis dead in their tracks for at least one turn.

Your Kroot units are your jump-pack counter-assault. Infiltrate to anticipate where they will jump to since you know you're going to stop the vindis. I imagine the player will hide his jumpers behind the vindis, so account for that with your deployment.

Then railgun the razorbacks. Yes, the razorbacks, not the vindis. Ensure their destruction to expose the embarked Marines in the open AND to eliminate the twin-linked lascannons. (And if your opponent decided to hide jumpers behind the razorbacks instead, huzzah!) That leaves only the vindis with any anti-armour weaponry beyond the devs, which you are going to studiously ignore. And with piranhas in the vindis' grills, guess what your opponent will be forced to target with those awesome machines? (You can chuckle evilly about now. The TLLCs were never really a big threat, but by wiping them out, you've both reduced the mobility of your opponent AND removed one of that army's few anti-armour options. Two birds with one stone.)

Ideally you'll have eliminated the razorbacks and your crisis suits are free to shoot targets of opportunity. If you can get side shots on vindis, that's worth considering, but otherwise, nail as many jumpers as you can. Remember, they're one of the most worrying things about that army for us.

Next turn, if you have any piranhas left alive, slag vindicators with them while continuing to block. Railgun the vindis otherwise. And everything else in the army shoots at jump packers. Try and double-assault a unit of jumpers with all your Kroot to wipe it out, leaving just one unit of jumpers left for you to clean up next round, and maybe, if you were unlucky, a vindicator still.

Just two of your turns, and you should be in clear command of the game going forward, with your losses being nothing more than a few Kroot models and possibly both Piranhas.

As for dual raiders and drop-podding dreads: no prob. Piranhas into the raiders' faces and Kroot to create a deep-strike buffer zone. Heck, burst cannon fire into the rear armour of a dread can take care of it, but you'll have plenty more than that after it gets nowhere fast against your Kroot. (Oh noes! Your ironclad ate my Kroot! Again, laughing evilly about now is in order.)

And if you're facing an all drop-pod army, you have two choices. One is to deploy as described and shown before, with a deep-strike defense castle. Or you can do like any other army could do and just stay off the table. Ideally, take the 2nd turn, too, so your opponent has to waste two of his turns before you show up. You'll get 1/2 of your army on in turn 2, so just show up and roll up a flank like that. Any other army can do it this way and we can, too.

[aussiedave]

Firstly, let me unequivocally state that this is not the only way to play Tau. But by the same token, I know that this way works.

I think this small statement at the top here is the most valuable one out of the whole post. I really appreciate that you presented us with your armies tactics and units and did so in a way that said "this has worked for me, this is why it works and how it works," and didn't say, "if anyone doesn't do this they are an idiot."

I don't play with an army like yours, it's quite different in fact, and I consider myself to be an above average player. There are multiple ways to play the Tau and I appreciate seeing those other ways, especially when they are so well written.

Rep
Dave

[PsyBomb]

Just need to know a couple of things: how do you arm and equip your Piranhas and vehicles? You linked to YTTH, but Stelek does a couple of things I cannot agree with, first being that he never uses disruption pods on his vehicles except if he has a bunch of spare points.

In addition, what support system(s) do you like to use on your Broadsides? How many drones do you use?

[Orni]

number6, could you please explain how you win mission point based games ?

Mission points tend to be in places with cover saves or even total LoS blocking. What do you do against a bunch of troops holding a point 40" away from you totally out of LoS ?

You just do not have enough troops this way. You list posted in another thread had only 1 FW squad. And one devilfish, you can effectivly hold 1 point. And don't say you just outshoot the enemy. That won't work (all the times).

1. The enemy can outshoot you, too!
What if he just blasts your precious firewarriors away with a big gun ?
There you are, having some kroot you rely on to win the game for you.

2. Let's assume some troops are hiding behind a wall, holding a mission point, you have to kill them to win, how do you do this ? Approaching with FKs? I don't think so, the enemy will be prepared for this.

3. Almost every eldar player uses a bunch of troop bikers to 24" boost them on a mission point last turn. Since it's late game. How do you want to kill them ? most of your stuff will be gone. If he also holds another point you will loose the game most propably. Don't say, ha, my railguns will burst them into pieces. 5th turn you won't have any railguns anymore against a good player. The player knows he just have to kill your long range weapons and hold 2 points to win. He will do this and only this. Don't expect a smart player to be walking right into your arms with his whole army.

4. Why is everybody here thinking their plans work out .... most of the times, they won't. Yeah, they work against 12 year old kids. But a skilled player will see you army and at the end of your first turn he will most propably know what you're trying to do and what your capable of. Having just 1 troop choice for mission points is a risk you don't want to have. Also the kroot/piranha blocking won't work every time ... a lot of armies got skimmers or jumpers or take a look at the necrons, they can even teleport their asses right in front of your precious troops.

[PsyBomb]

Orni, he has 3. Kroot are troops. List would be illegal if he only had one Troops choice, as you're required to take two.

[Orni]

Orni, he has 3. Kroot are troops. List would be illegal if he only had one Troops choice, as you're required to take two.

I know that.
What I mean is that he just has 1 FW squad and 1 devilfish.

The Kroot have their own uses but they are crap at holding mission points (unless the point is inside a forest)
It's just impossible for him to rely on 1 FW squad to win mission based points.
As I said in my post the enemy won't let him win this way. It's naive to think this would work and result in 1 : 0 wins at games with 3-5 mission points. Read my post.

[number6]

number6, could you please explain how you win mission point based games ?

Mission points tend to be in places with cover saves or even total LoS blocking. What do you do against a bunch of troops holding a point 40" away from you totally out of LoS ?

Are you suggesting that a Tau army, any Tau army, does not have the mobility to draw line of sight to almost any point on the board? True Line of Sight is the law of the 5th edition land. Situations like you describe are not only a virtual impossibility, but they are easily mitigated by having a mobile Tau army.

For starters, I have Kroot that can infiltrate to deny total safe havens like that. I also have Piranahs that can get to any spot on the table in less than 2 turns.

I have a bunch of skimmers that can move 12" every turn. Some of them have drones -- jump troops themselves -- that can contest objectis. I have 2-4 piranhas -- all with drones -- that can swoop 24" to contest objectives. I have a bunch of jump infantry.

There are many multiple ways to skin that cat.

You just do not have enough troops this way. You list posted in another thread had only 1 FW squad. And one devilfish, you can effectivly hold 1 point. And don't say you just outshoot the enemy. That won't work (all the times).

I respectfully disagree. The visual batreps I link to are 2000 pt games with 5 objectives. The Tau army in both has just 2 units of 10 Kroot with 5 hounds and a single unit of 6 Fire Warriors. That's all the Troops it has. And it not only demolishes two tough armies but keeps all 3 Troops units alive for the entire game in both cases.

Clearly, no army is unbeatable. I do lose games! I am not claiming that the army I am playing is virtually guaranteed to smash aside all opposition.

What I am claiming is that this army build and tactical playstyle is very strong and very competitive. But more than that, it is balanced. Like all other truly balanced armies ("balanced" as in capable of tackling any opposing army and army build) it is not optimized to battle any one particular type of foe. So it has weaknesses that can and will be occasionally exploited by an opposing army that is more or less fully "tuned" to do One Thing Really Really Well. All "balanced" armies suffer this. The point of a balanced army is that it is balanced enough to compensate if you play smart. That's what this army build is all about.

1. The enemy can outshoot you, too!
What if he just blasts your precious firewarriors away with a big gun ?
There you are, having some kroot you rely on to win the game for you.

Some few enemy armies can outshoot me, but seriously: not very many. I suggest you count the number of guns again.

No other army fully combines the amount of firepower and mobility of a Tau army. That's what makes Tau unique. Some armies are faster, and some armies are shootier. But no other army will ever be both as fast AND as shooty as a Tau army. And furthermore, no other army can control the board and enemy movement like a Tau army. This is the combo of features that makes Tau competitive in 5th edition, even with its old 4th edition codex.

There are scores of ways to protect Fire Warriors. Keep them in reserve. Keep them in the Devilfish. Hide them behind LoS-blocking terrain. And so on.

Recall that one of the key and very strong features of this army is the ability to control enemy movement and line of sight. It's a board control army and is capable of doing so in a way no other 40K army can attempt. This ability is unique to Tau armies that are built along these lines, and this army emphasizes that uniqueness to the max. When you control the board space, when you control the enemy's movement, you are in control of when and where you and the enemy engage. Frankly, this is a recipe for WIN for any army, not just Tau. Control the board, control the enemy movement, and you will likely win. It's just that simple.

If you're familiar with Magic: the Gathering terminology, this army is a Control army. I might be using language in my tactica and other posts on this forum that make it sound like this is a Beatdown force. But really, this army is Control, not Beatdown. It has Beatdown elements, and can switch into the Beatdown role ... but only later in the game and only after Control is firmly established.

3. Almost every eldar player uses a bunch of troop bikers to 24" boost them on a mission point last turn. Since it's late game. How do you want to kill them ? most of your stuff will be gone. If he also holds another point you will loose the game most propably. Don't say, ha, my railguns will burst them into pieces. 5th turn you won't have any railguns anymore against a good player. The player knows he just have to kill your long range weapons and hold 2 points to win. He will do this and only this. Don't expect a smart player to be walking right into your arms with his whole army.

You can't have it both ways, Orni. You complain that these Tau tactics can be easily foiled yet tried-and-true enemy tactics never will be. If this army's tactics have the ability to be jeapordized (see what I said earlier regarding "always winning" and "balance"), then clearly enemy armies don't get a free pass, either.

It's pointless to try and address situations like you describe in isolation. What happened in the earlier stages in the game to let the Eldar player have such a strong and dominating position? What happened to the Tau army tactics? What worked and didn't work?

If you have an example Eldar army list -- or any other kind of enemy, for that matter -- that you feel would give this kind of Tau army a run for its money, let's see it! I'll do the best I can to describe how to combat it as I did with the Space Marine examples earlier.

[number6]

Just need to know a couple of things: how do you arm and equip your Piranhas and vehicles? You linked to YTTH, but Stelek does a couple of things I cannot agree with, first being that he never uses disruption pods on his vehicles except if he has a bunch of spare points.

In addition, what support system(s) do you like to use on your Broadsides? How many drones do you use?

Whoops! Missed your post, PsyBomb! Sorry 'bout that.

Don't worry about what Stelek does or doesn't do. I linked to his batreps because they visually and very effectively demonstrate the tactical principles for this type of army list. They are the same for his army and for mine, even if some of the fiddly details are different.

The piranha equipment I listed in my initial post: fusion blaster, targeting array, disruption pods. If I have a squadron of 2 piranhas, one of them won't necessarily require the DPs (if 1/2 of a unit is eligible for cover, the entire unit is; this is true even for vehicular squadrons), but I still think it's 5 pts well spent. Obviously piranhas die, and ensuring that it will nearly always get that 4+ cover save is very nice.

Ideally, my Devilfish will be a warfish: smart missile system, targeting array, multi-tracker, disuption pods, 120 pts total. Makes a nice light tank that can shoot from distance. But if points are tight, the warfish gear is the first to hit the cutting room floor. Off goes the SMS and TA. If I need still more points, I'll even drop the MT and keep the cost down to a piddly 85 pts. The Devilfish's primary role is to protect the embarked fire warriors and to provide mobile cover for my crisis suits. Shooting is just a bonus.

My hammerheads are also, ideally, fully kitted out: railgun, SMS, MT, TL, DP, 180 pts. Very pricey, but this is a great tank that can advance into the midfield and then slowly back up -- just like you should with the entire army, honestly -- firing at multiple targets all the way. Again, if points are tight, upgrades to the hammerhead are among the first things I target for elimination. In order of preference: SMS exchanged for burst cannons, then the target lock, and finally, even the multi-tracker can be tossed if required. Thanks to piranhas and Kroot, you can make the army function with hammerheads that only move 6" most turns, though it's not ideal.

Broadsides are always given the advanced stabilization system. Mobility is very very important. Twin-linked BS 3 railguns are good enough. If I really have to, they can take a markerlight hit or two to help out the BS and remove cover saves from their target. That's why we have markerlights in the army, after all. Once a turn, you get to choose what enemy unit gets totally shafted by your force. Choose wisely!

I always take at least one duo team with a team leader, bonding knife, and a pair of shield drones (200 pts for the unit). A hard-wired target lock is also nice, but not strictly necessary. Getting a 3rd suit in the unit is great for larger points games, in which case definitely give a HW TL to the team leader.

Depending on how you want to build your army, you may be very short on points filling out all 3 heavy slots. You should always fill all 3 heavy slots no matter what. (Same for your Elite slots, for that matter.) In which case, taking a monat XV88 to complement a single hammerhead and your other duo XV88 team can be fine: ASS, team leader, 2 shield drones, bonding knife if you have the 5 pts to spare, 110 pts-115 pts.

Regarding XV88 drones: if points are tight, you can sub out one shield drone for a gun drone and recoup 5 pts that way. But always make sure you always use at least one shield drone each and every time. (There will be times where you'll want or need to exit your cover, and having at least one invul save around is paramount.) I'd rather lose a drone to a lascannon than an entire broadside suit because of a failed 4+ save (invul or cover for the drone, but cover for the suits themselves).

I don't like fielding less than 2 drones with every XV88 team (i.e., including just a single shield drone for protection) ... but I have occasionally done so. But it is quite risky.

[Orni]

Ideally, my Devilfish will be a warfish: smart missile system, targeting array, multi-tracker, disuption pods, 120 pts total. Makes a nice light tank that can shoot from distance. But if points are tight, the warfish gear is the first to hit the cutting room floor. Off goes the SMS and TA. If I need still more points, I'll even drop the MT and keep the cost down to a piddly 85 pts. The Devilfish's primary role is to protect the embarked fire warriors and to provide mobile cover for my crisis suits. Shooting is just a bonus.

warfish, are you serious ?
that's rendering one of it's weapons mostly useless. I think I've read someting about this here on LO. Mainly, taking a warfish isn't worth it.

My hammerheads are also, ideally, fully kitted out: railgun, SMS, MT, TL, DP, 180 pts. Very pricey, but this is a great tank that can advance into the midfield and then slowly back up -- just like you should with the entire army, honestly -- firing at multiple targets all the way. Again, if points are tight, upgrades to the hammerhead are among the first things I target for elimination. In order of preference: SMS exchanged for burst cannons, then the target lock, and finally, even the multi-tracker can be tossed if required. Thanks to piranhas and Kroot, you can make the army function with hammerheads that only move 6" most turns, though it's not ideal.

SMS on your hammerhead ... now that's something even funnier. 165p is the perfect railhead. Railcanon, DP, MT. What do you need this SMS for? Your raildheads should stay out of this range or be protected by their meatshield (kroot) invest in more kroots than into a sms of your railheads

Broadsides are always given the advanced stabilization system. Mobility is very very important. Twin-linked BS 3 railguns are good enough. If I really have to, they can take a markerlight hit or two to help out the BS and remove cover saves from their target. That's why we have markerlights in the army, after all. Once a turn, you get to choose what enemy unit gets totally shafted by your force. Choose wisely!

A broadside got a chance of 42% to make a rhino immobile or destroy it. Two broadsides 66%, three broadsides 80%.
For a land raider this becomes: 15%/31%/42%
(as you see three broadsides kill a land raider at the same rate as 1 broadside a rhino)
Furthermore, their hit rate isn't their problem.
Actually I really do not understand where you got your tons of markerlights from?
You're playing a lot of fireknifes, they will soak up every markerlight normaly. Unless you've got really really many markerlights. But you don't, nobody does. Markerlights are rare.

[number6]

What you're really questioning is the utility of the SMS. The reason it is useful is because it denies cover to units that aren't actually in area terrain AND it doesn't require line of sight to operate AND its range is 6" better than burst cannons. That's an extremely potent combination.

The way you use my army is, behind the forward elements (Kroot, piranhas) you advance into the midfield. 24" is a nice safe distance for everything, and everything not Kroot, Piranhas, or Broadsides goes ahead to that distance: suits, devilfish, hammerheads. Once there, you'll see just how useful those SMS really are. Because you can then retreat back to your board edge as the opponent attempts to advance upon you. The SMS keeps your offensive output up while ensuring that you have more board space in which to operate. Tau don't like being on their own table edge!

Nevertheless, surely you noted: I clearly said that I don't employ them if I don't feel I have the points to spare? So ... what is there to argue about exactly?

And is 8 markerlights not enough? That's 4 ML token hits a turn. That's usually going to be plenty. Whether the crisis suits use those ML tokens or not totally depends on what needs to be accomplished. In the example plan I outlined vs the Space Marines, the razorbacks are the most important things to outright destroy in the very first turn. So that's where the ML will go to boost the railguns' effectiveness. Perhaps in turn two the MLs will go to a surviving vindi, or perhaps onto some jumpers. Depends what actually happens and where the enemy is positioned.

You don't need "lots and lots" of markerlights. Just enough to make a critical difference once each game turn.

And again, because this apparently bears repeating: torrent of fire. This army has it. Markerlights only fill in the gaps and boost efficiency. They are not, in the strictest sense, actually required. But I like efficiency. Points spent boosting efficiency are points well spent. There comes a point of diminishing returns, of course. You can spend so many points on force multiplication that you actually weaken your available offensive output. I feel like 1 unit of 8 pathfinders strikes the right balance.

Not sure what you're trying to say about railguns or what that has to do with markerlights, either. As I stated in my tactica, you nearly always should take the highest probability shots with your railguns -- meaning hit weak armour with them in the early going -- and let your piranhas deny the enemy the utility of their heavier armour in the first turns. Dismount your enemy's troops first to reduce his speed AND to reveal his soft underbelly. Then and only then move on to heavier targets with the railguns.