[Vampiric_Drake8]

This is the infamous Tau sniper that Exploited and I came up with. It counts as an Elites choice and uses the rules below:

0-1 Tau Sniper Team
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
2 5 3 3 1 2 1 8 4+

Squad: 1-3 Snipers at 75 points each

Equipment: Pulse Sniper Rifle, Markerlight, Shield Generator, Multi-tracker

Independent units: The Tau Snipers do not need to be placed together at deployment and may move separately throughout the game.

Sniper suit: The Tau Snipers wear a suit very similar to that of the XV 15 Stealth-suits and follow all of the same rules.

Pulse Sniper Rifle: Range: Unlimited S: 7 AP: 2
The Sniper may only use its Sniper Rifle at a unit or model that has been marked by a Markerlight.

Field-craft: The Tau Snipers are experts at adjusting their techniques to that of their environment. Therefore, the Snipers may ignore all Difficult Terrain tests of only ONE type of terrain on the field (Forests, Jungles, Rock faces, etc.). In this case, Jungles and Forests do not count as one type of terrain. Either one or the other may be chosen, not both! Also, in the case of Forests and Jungles, the Snipers may see 12� into them and shoot as normal. Cost: 25 points per model.


All comments and criticism welcome!! I will be converting a model soon and will post pics when finished....

 

[kommissar karls kadians]

ok what is the 25 points cost for. i dont understand.

also if it is a normal sniper then there shouldnt be a strength value on the gun it should just always wound on 4+. the points are also extremely high.

 

[darkjonin59]

I like the idea of a Tau sniper...I would rather have them in place of the pathfinders with rail rifles. I think the rail rifle men should actually be snipers and be elites. I like the stealth suit sniper idea but I would rather have their weapon have some type of range and no need to markerlight...I think the strength 7 ap 2 is great...I think they should be able to have x-ray sensor things so that they can shoot through terrain; that would be a little too cheat though. Great idea...I support it!!!

 

[T-Bone]

I like the idea but would rather the snipers have rail rifles, or modified rail rifles or something like that, and not have to have a markerlight. I say give me a 24" or 28" range or something close to that and have em wreak havoc. I might up the cost of the unit a tad though, because since they do have markerlight included, they basically encompass the abilities of the scouts and the stealth suits, so...

 

[PapaBear]

They don't encompass the abilities of the stealthsuits at all. No rapid firing burst cannon to lay down a hail of fire, and no jetpacks.

I think their BS is too high. The handi cap for the sniper, as I see it, is that they need that markerlight tag to even try to hit something, but when you give them a BS of 5, one of them can markerlight on a 2+, and another hits on a 2+, makes it purdy easy.


Also, instead of the 4+ invul, why don't you make it an upgrade option, or, more realistically, allow them to buy drones as wargear. (seems like snipers would be kinda of small to be carrying that shield generator on their own).

Oh, and why the multi tracker? Is that so they can use their own markerlight to tag targets for their rifle?

 

[Vampiric_Drake8]

Yes, the Multi-Tracker is there so that they may Mark and then hit their target...As for the 4+ invunerable save, I'll lower the point cost to let's say 45 points a piece and remove that option, but allow them to buy Shield drones (and shield drones only!!) as Wargear. Although, the drones can only benefit from the Camaflague uniform if they buy the option for 5 points... As for the range, you DO need line of sight so I'd prefer to keep it unlimited to give the Sniper an advantage.....As for the wounding, lets just say that the Tau aren't your typical snipers, its just a name.....

 

[The Exploited]

Dude have a great ide, what if we lowered the range too lets say 3 inche, but alow them to shoot with no line of site needed. Then drop their point cost and tir marklight + Multi traker. Then give them the option to take up too 3 spotters per sniper with markerlights and give them the same statistics as a fire warrior.

Just other idea :lol:

 

[NightFox]

give them bs4, drop the shield generator and multitracker and give them a rail rifle. cost = 45 pts

 

[The Exploited]

Originally posted by shas'o hamster@Oct 20 2003, 13:37
give them bs4, drop the shield generator and multitracker and give them a rail rifle. cost = 45 pts

Now thats big waste of an elite slot.

 

[PapaBear]

Originally posted by The Exploited@Oct 20 2003, 15:19
Now thats big waste of an elite slot.

I disagree. If Hamster was suggesting that you keep the rest of the rules as they were, then that'd still be pretty awesome.

66% chance to hit with a rail rifle, that has a 36" range, and with the stealthsuit, they'll never get hit by return fire.

If you can field several of them in a group then that's a pretty awesome firebase.

Might be too expensive for 45 pts if you only include what hamster mentioned, but if you include some of the other bonuses, like the field craft, stealth suit, and/or the ability to deploy as individual units, that could be an awesome tool.

 

[Vampiric_Drake8]

Okay!! Here they are!! The new rules! Thanx to everyone's suggeations.....:

0-1 Tau Sniper Team
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
2 4 3 3 1 2 1 8 4+

Squad: 1-3 Snipers at 50 points each
Equipment: Pulse Sniper Rifle, EMP grenades

Independent units: The Tau Snipers do not need to be placed together at deployment and may move separately throughout the game.

Sniper suit: The Tau Snipers wear a suit very similar to that of the XV 15 Stealth-suits and follow all of the same rules.

Pulse Sniper Rifle: Range: 36" S: 7 AP: 2
If the Sniper shoots at a squad that has been marked by a marker, the sniper needs no line of sight to shoot at the marked unit.

Field-craft: The Tau Snipers are experts at adjusting their techniques to that of their environment. Therefore, the Snipers may ignore all Difficult Terrain tests of only ONE type of terrain on the field (Forests, Jungles, Rock faces, etc.). In this case, Jungles and Forests do not count as one type of terrain. Either one or the other may be chosen, not both! Also, in the case of Forests and Jungles, the Snipers may see 12� into them and shoot as normal.

I added the EMP Grenades to give them an advantage against Tanks. So if the tanks get too close, BOOM!!! Would anyone like some roasted Chimera? lol! :lol:

 

[Benio]

I'm sorry, but I'm replying to this a very long time after the previous reply, but I have only just started looking at the tau forum, and so I was just reading it and I thought it was pretty cool. Just one question though - why do they not need line of sight when the enemy has been markerlighted? Surely in a lot of cases that would mean shooting through walls... Unless they had rail snipers which could shoot through walls just like in red faction. Or how about making them part of a pathfinder team which has markerlights already in it, and who can count as the sniper's spotters, and for each spotter still alive acompanying a sniper, increase his BS by 1 or something?

 

[Nightwalker AK]

Uhm... necromancy (raising a dead thread back to the first page) is generally considered impolite on most forums. I've never done it here, so I don't know exact policy, but it's something to consider.

And anyway, you answered your own question. Being able to target through walls is unrealistic for energy or projectile weapons (too much beam dispersion in the former and too much kinetic energy lost in the latter -even paper can deflect a bullet off-course), but Games Workshop designers have never had more than the most passing of relations with reality anyway.

Also, go look up the rules for Pathfinder Rail Rifles, and you'll realize that what you described is basically that. The POINT of snipers is independent operation able to accurately provide fire support at long range, usually from a concealed position. I do agree, however, that they should be deployed in pairs: one sniper with the Rail Rifle, and one spotter with a Marker Light (and ONLY a Markerlight).

 

[Benio]

Oh, sorry about that necromancy thing - I dont know why it's impolite but oh well.

Or to compensate for the shooting through walls thing, why not make them shoot something like a homing rail slug...

 

[RionikuAnjiru]

Although the idea is not bad, I really don't see it happening like this at all

Every other sniper in the game (Ratling, SM, Eldar) all use a realistic rule for snipers.

36" range, hits on 2+, wounds on 4+.

You take into account Tau technology and you can give them a rule similar to rangers - if you get a 6 on the dice, the shot has AP1. This makes the Tau's BS 3 trivial and makes the snipers good shots anyway.

If you up the points a bit, you can get AP1 on a roll of 5-6, or even 4-5-6 like Alaitoc Pathfinders. Personnally, I'd give them permanent AP3, because I'd be damned if a sniper shot can penetrate a Terminator armor. A sniper shot shouldn't be dependant on toughness, it works by precision.

For the cover save, you can replace the +1 cover save from the Cam Cloaks by the steath suit "night fighting" rule to shoot at them.

You of course, give them a markerlight, and the ability to infiltrate, and you've got some pretty good snipers.

Make 'em elite squads of 3-5 for ~20 points each, and there you go.

3 Str 7 AP 2 32" shots for 150 points.... I just don't think it works, and it doesn't represent snipers very well.

Just my opinion!

 

[Aun'O Dessi'Us]

I would like to see it as a sniper team thing. 6 tau 3 with rail rifle and 3 with markerlight and pulse carbine. make them work in teams of 2 one spotter and one sniper. each team of 2 deploys seperatly from the others (only the team of 2 should be in coherency) make it an elite choice and your done. GW won't even have to make new models. keep BS to 3 so that its 4+ to hit an if the marker light hits it becomes a 2+ to hit. it will already be a 2+ to wound for most creatures. I say no stealth suits, make them have camo were they improve cover saves. infiltrate is good, extra d6 in moving throught difficult terrain and there you have it. :w

 

[strYker]

i like that idea of having the spotter and sniper.

 

[Benio]

How about having something along the lines of - the more spotters with a sniper, the more accurate he is, or the better the AP (because the spotters are pointing out the weakpoints in the enemy armour). And how about snipers being more expensive for experience - for instance shas'la snipers have BS 3, and shas'ui snipers have BS 4?

 

[NIMBO]

seeing as the Tau are supposed to be the most ballistic army in the entire game, I think a BS5 is ok for a sniper unit.

also, wrong thread, but i wonder why the average Tau BS is only 3. I mean, thats only one step better then Orc BS, and they are supposed to be the worst!!

 

[Benio]

I say maybe BS4 for a shas'ui sniper, and BS 5 for shas'vre, although then the shas'vre would gain no bonus from markerlights...

I agree - tau should have better BS, maybe not the shas'las, but definately the shas'uis and 'vres