Leading the Charge! (Crisis Commanders and their Bodyguards)

Crisis Command Teams are a highly debated subject. The roles of the two Shas'vre bodyguards could easily be filled by Shas'ui purchased in the Elite slot, sporting the same number of wounds, same ballistic skill, and same mobility as the more costly Shas'ui. So why do many Tau generals insist on the use of bodyguards?
Bodyguards bring to the table three advantages that shas'ui do not. Sadly, the first two of these advantages are so miniscule that they are not deciding factors in the slightest:
1. They take up an HQ slot. This means that if you enjoy taking masses of Crisis or Stealth Suits, you may need a spot to fit more Crisis firepower. This only comes into play with larger point games, and rarely with any army builds but Crisis-spam.
2. They are better at combat. Bodyguards not only have an easier time hitting in combat, but they don't allow the Commander to be singled out (or vice-versa) by things that could easily kill it.
3. They have access to Wargear and Special Issue Weapons. This is the big one. This allows a plethora of options not otherwise seen. Want a team made to crush infantry? Plasma, CIB, AFB, Missiles, all in one squad. Do you want to have three weapon systems on each suit? Go ahead, you can hardwire multitrackers. Want Fireknives with backup flamers? Do it up.
The big thing here though; with the ability to hardwire multitrackers, you can finally give your whole team access to Targetting Arrays, which is key in lists that run few to zero markerlights.

A word to the wise, however. Bodyguards are expensive. You should only use a bodyguard team if you have reason to. Taking bodyguards only is worth the cost when:
a) you are out of Elite slots
b) you have a Special Issue team planned
or
c) you lack Markerlights
If you do not meet these criteria, stick to the shas'ui.

Leading the Charge! (Crisis Commanders and the Positional Relay)

The Crisis Commander is a rather broad subject. He can be run in a variety of ways, forming a lynchpin or a spearhead for your army. With access to all of the equipment a Crisis Suit can don he can fill almost any role given to him.

Today I'll be focusing on Commanders with the Positional Relay; a game changing device that can manipulate your reserves and thus give you unprecedented control of the battlefield. Flip open your codices and take a look at the Positional Relay and its abilities. It allows you to call in a single unit on a 2+ from reserves, denying all other reserved units from coming in that turn. This helps you in two ways:

1. You will (almost always) get the right man for the job at the right time. Whether it be a unit of outflanking kroot, a piranha squadron to wall off the opposition or bust a tank, railguns (either of the Hammerhead or AdvSS Broadside variety) marching in on the other flank to hit side armor, or deepstriking suits, you are almost assured that the unit will arrive right when needed.

2. On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, the Positional Relay can keep your reserves off the table. This is useful for players who use minimal troop choices; your valuable scoring units are kept off the board until late game when they sit on an objective. You can also keep your entire army off the board (save the Positinal Relay user) to lower the sting of drop pop or daemonic assault armies; half the army drops on a cheap unit in a corner, allowing you to outmaneuver him when your reserves come on elsewhere. This tactic is called Ninja Tau, and while useful sometimes, is prone to random fluctuations based on the insanity of reserves, and a good opponent's ability to pick you of piecemeal as you send in bait units turn by turn.

An example of a Positional Relay army would have powerful Heavy support options on a flank with a Crisis Team with Positional Relay. They would draw opponent's units across the diagonal towards a faux firebase, as they take heavy fire. Second and third tur reserves would slow or bother the units trying to reach your firebase, forcing the commitment of more resources. Your reserved Troops and a support unit or two come on the side they abandoned, landing on softened or deserted objectives late game, in a similar way to Fritz's (PLEASE look him up if you haven't ever heard of him) Eldar Jetbike Contesting/Capturing.

The great part about this is that if your opponent sits on the side of the board with the objectives and ignores your firebase, he is looking at massive Rail, Missile, and ranged Plasma fire hitting him as he hunkers down, which does not bode well; Tau are second only to the Imperial Guard at removing entrenched units from a range.

Those are the basics of Positional Relay tricks. Next up is the Commander's Bodyguard; a look at if they should be taken, and how to equip them.

The Few, The Proud... The Elites PT4 (Crisis Teams: The Ta'ro'cha)

The Ta'ro'cha is loosely translated from Tau language as "three minds, one purpose" from the Tau language. One would be wise to keep this in mind when setting up their unit; the Team will do well if their purpose (and weapons) are one.

Ta'ro'cha teams are the greatest amount of special/heavy firepower that can be achieved in a single unit for our army. They are similar to Duo teams in that taking long range builds is an effective use of points, and very far from Monats in the sense that a suicide drop with them will be costly (though still acceptable with the dirt-cheap Heatwaves).

The biggest change is their notoriety; experienced enemies will know to target unprotected Ta'ro'cha teams early on, as each death will cause a massive loss of firepower. Thus the major change over duos is not how you use the team offensively; but how you keep it alive.

Drone support. I am a firm believer in Drone Support. For a very small amount, you can add more wounds to your unit, and in the case of Shield Drones, a useful invulnerable save. Marker Drones are an expensive way to do this (with a few added boons), but I'd recommend against it in most cases, as it makes your unit a bigger target. Unless of course you want to make the unit a target, in which case go ahead.

Wound allocation. I spoke of this in the section on Duos, but a Ta'ro'cha team needs the allocation far more; while Duos gain an extra wound of preserved firepower, the Ta'ro'cha gains two (not counting ablative Drones). The way to gain difference in the models varies, however, and may mess with coherent firepower. For example, take a Deathrain squad as follows:

Shas'ui Team Leader w/ TL-MP, Flamer; Shas'ui w/ TL-MP, Flamer; Shas'ui w/ TL-Flamer, MP -142

This squad is fully different, meaning that it can take full use of wound allocation rules to its advantage. The is little firepower compromise either; one suit has lost its twin-linking on its main gun, but has gained a twin-linked flamer for its secondary role of burning away infantry. If I wanted to solidify the unit's role as Missile dakka, I could have given said Shas'ui his Twin-linked Missile and a Black Sun Filter, thus keeping the unit "different". If Drones wish to be added to the unit, than I simply give the Team Leader a Hard-wired Drone Controller.

This effect is more difficult to achieve with suits that use multitrackers, however. Take the standard unit of Firestorm Suits, for example:

Shas'ui Team Leader w/ BC, MP, MT; Shas'ui w/ BC, MP, MT; Shas'ui w/ BC, MP, MT -155

The general idea of using Burst Cannons and Missile Pods in unison cannot be kept here. We will either have to change a weapon (see example 1) or Twin-link a weapon and drop the other entirely (example 2):

1. ...; Shas'ui w/ PR, MP, MT (Adding in a Fireknife as opposed to a Firestorm allows you to keep full wound allocation but loses a Burst Cannon.)

2. ...; Shas'ui w/ TL-MP, BSF (Using this suit moves the purpose of the unit to be more Missile Centric. Giving the Shas'ui a TL-BC would do the opposite.)

Cover Saves. Even with Drones, Crisis Suits can take heavy casualties from low AP weapons (which good players will almost always direct at your suits). There are two effective ways I have seen for generating cover saves besides the simple JSJ tactics. I cannot take credit for either however.

The first tactic is the use of Piranhas moving fast or Kroot walls to get cover saves. To use te latter, place 50% of your Kroot in area terrain and form a line with the other half. Jump your suits over this line to shoot and then back again. Enemies returning fire are shooting through a unit, thus granting you saves. Shooting the Kroot allows you to take saves with them (or go to ground), but the Kroot are expendable in this tactic generally. With the former, you move the Piranhas fast near the suits (the Piranhas get saves) and then using the Piranhas as mobile terrain and moving behind them. This tactic is based heavily on Fritz's tactics using Guardian Jetbikes and Vypers to generate coversaves. For those of you who no little of Fritz and hisvarious 40k blogs, I suggest visiting his youtube page as a start. Sifting through the older tactics videos will give you a look at his unorthodox but effective playstyles. Check out: http://www.youtube.com/user/WayOfSaimHann

The second tactic is also someone else's. It is called Circling the Wagon, and is the brainchild of one of the only two other active Tau blogs of found on the net. You use a Devilfish or other battletank as a moving chunk of cover. For mutual support, Crisis Suits with flamers are a good reason for assaulters to stay clear of your vehicles. You can check out Tau of War's youtube page here: http://www.youtube.com/user/tauofwar

Next up on my list of posts will be looking into Crisis Commander tricks and the Positional Relay.

The Few, The Proud... The Elites PT3 (Crisis Teams: Duos)

Duos are odd little Crisis Teams. They can bring enough firepower to make good use of Markerlights while still remaining cheap and expendable (and thus still a good candidate for deepstrike). In addition, the use of Target Locks can make a cheap squad do damage far beyond their cost.
Duos are used in an almost identical way to Monats; cheap units are dropped to where your opponent wants them least, burning or smashing things in their wake. Alternatively, you are reaching the level of firepower where suits that hang back and use Markerlights and Missiles effectively enough to actually do something at range.

Because of the similarity, I will not be posting effective builds here, as they are the same as for Monats, mostly. I will be however, remarking on three things; Wound allocation, Target locks, and Drone support.

Wound allocation comes into play when Crisis Teams become larger. The essence of wound allocation can be found in the BRB (Big Red Book AKA the core rulebook), but it is worth summarizing how it works here.
If a unit has multiple multi-wound models that are identical, then any wounds that are placed on the unit are saved normally, and unsaved wounds are allocated on models so that none can be placed on others until the first wounded model is removed.
Wordy? Not done yet.
If these models differentiate in any way, then the the wounds are allocated before saves are made. In addition, you can place wounds on whoever you want, meaning that a Crisis Suit with one wound remaining can be spared the worst of the fire, or can be sacrificed to an Instant Death! attack to save the models with more than one wound left.
This is useful for Crisis Suits, as you can make it so that you can take more wounds than normal before losing a model (and thus firepower).
To do this, the Suits must be different in some way. This could be as simple as making one a Team Leader or giving the two suits slightly different equipment. Target locks are effective for this, as they give an effectiveness boost and also add diversity in the unit.

The second thing to learn is why and how to use Target Locks in Duo Team. Consider the firepower and threat of two identical Sunforge Battlesuits in a unit. They can drop down and pop a single tank, and then will likely suffer enough return fire to kill them. They may flame infantry if no tanks present themselves.
A unit of Sunforges with one model replacing their flamer witha Target Lock costs one point more, and has the potential to kill two vehicles, if the opportunity presents itself. In addition, it has wound allocation.

The final thing worth noting is Drone Support. Buying Drones for something this cheap and expendable doesn't sit right with me, personally. I normally reserve Drone Support for large squads, as an investment of that size needs protection.

That's all for now. I'll have three man teams up as soon as I can.

The Few, The Proud... The Elites PT2 (Crisis Teams: Monats)

The Crisis Teams are the iconic weapon-bearers of the Tau Army, sporting many forms of special weapons. They are also the cement of your army, filling in any cracks in your offensive power and solidifying an offensive core.
Crisis Teams are a complex subject, involving many layers of strategy and tactics, and to ease the strain of writing on myself and sifting/reading for you all, I'm splitting this into multiple posts. And so we go.

Monat refers to a Crisis Suit that is alone, fighting without squadmates or drone support, normally bearing the weight of a suicide mission. Monats are rather simple; they are cheap units that carry effective special weapons and it doesn't mean much if they die; they shouldn't cost more than 70 points apiece anyways.
Effective Monat Builds include:
Heatwave (TL-Flamer, BSF) -34
Cheapest possible suit of all time; Deepstrike it in and roast someone. It will die to rapidfire or assault. End of discussion.
Toasterboy (TL-Flamer, MP) -43
A slightly upgraded version of the Heatwave, sporting a Missile Pod thatwill allow it to move upfield to its target, or as a secondary if Deepstrike goes askew and lands away from the original target.
Sunforge AKA "Suicide Suit" (TL-FB, Flamer) -47
This is the standard suicide suit, dropping from the sky hoping to get close to anything, flaming infantry and melting tanks, only to die in a torrent of fire and fists. Burn bright, not long.
Deathrain (TL-MP, Flamer) -47
A suit to jump around and annoy at range. Anti-light vehicle with a flair for setting infantry on fire.
Fireforge (MP, FB, MT) -54
My personal favorite Monat, filling in for quick, effective anti-vehicle for those who don't attempt to squeeze in expensive railguns at low point levels.
Helios AKA "Forgeknife" (PR, FB, MT) -62
Anti-heavy infantry, anti-tank. Deepstrikes to deliver melta and rapidfire plasma and annoy or distract opponents. A little on the expensive side.
Fireknife (PR, MP, MT) -62
Anti-light vehicle, a flair of anti-heavy infantry. Long ranged, and use of cover can make it worth its points.

This is it for now. I'll be back with two man team tactics soon.