Stalwart Markers: Pathfinder Uses

As promised, a short article on my uses of Pathfinders.
Pathfinders have a unique battlefield role. They are unable to deal any real damage by themselves, and must remain stationary to be effective. In an army built upon combined mobility and firepower, this is a strange combination of traits to have.
Pathfinders, as any good Shas'el knows, are of the utmost importance to an army's success on the field. Able to plot out the optimal firing paths against enemy units, they are capable of bringing the best out of your true firepower.

On the field, Pathfinders are useful when given forward firing positions. While useful in supporting positions, they rank below both Crisis and Broadside battlesuits in terms of survival priority. They are likely to be targeted by the enemy, and likely are going to be among the first of your units to go down. This can be used to your advantage, however.
By positioning your Pathfinders in a forward positioning, you ensure them two roles. First, they act as powerful early fire support. Second, they guide more than your own guns, as they will be lit up by whatever your opponent can send their way. By placing them forward they are able to absorb assaults for your main firing units.

All in all, it is most important to remember that Pathfinders are support, not your mainstay. They should be sacrificed for your true fire units when needed. Their value comes in their early support to your firepower, and in their ability to draw enemy fire away from your damaging units.

Turbo: Gun Drone Squadrons

Gun Drones are a little used unit, again competing with the far superior Pathfinders and Piranhas. The main problem, however, is not that Gun Drones are bad, but that we shouldn't paying full price for them in most cases; A piranha squadron will bring you a small squad for free, other vehicles can bring pairs, and they can also accompany Crisis Teams for a little firepower and ablative wounds for 2pts cheaper a piece.

In their squadron form, either formed via ejection from vehicles or simply purchased, Gun Drones have a variety of uses:

-Gun Drones are often used as "glue" for wall, using their expendable mass to fill in where Kroot have fallen.

-Gun Drones can move around to act as mobile cover for other units, giving cover saves or slowing would-be assault units.

-Gun Drones have low priority on enemy lists, meaning that they can often flank the enemy position if you present the opponent a distraction. Their carbines can be an effective weapon for slowing AV10.

-Gun Drones rarely deal enough damage to cause substantial chaos, but they have one large upside to their weapons; pinning. Firing your Gun Drones at an important enemy unit gives you a small chance to pin. While not reliable, it is a useful bonus that should be thought of every once and a while.

Gun Drones that are purchased in squadron form can Deepstrike, which makes them reaching annoying positions much easier. Deepstriking allows instant access to rear armor, and allows access to backfield enemy heavy weapons. Note that Gun Drones (like Shadowsun) don't suffer from the XV8's inability to jump after deepstriking.

Gun Drones may also find a niche in my proposed "mobile wall". Making up the bulk of the proposed Stealth Wall, the squadrons themselves may be useful in a similar way. While only 8 men strong, they are a cheap option... though this, again, is overshadowed by the Piranha, as they bring the drones necessary while making the needed blockades themselves.

Turbo: The Swarm

The Vespid are among the most hated and most underused Tau units in the game.

Their range is terrible, they lack the ability to JSJ like other airborne terrors in the Tau Empire, their guns do surprisingly little damage, and they have little to no armor.

Why would anyone use our bug-like allies?

Honestly, outside of "THESE ARE SO AWESOME THEY MUST BE SPAMMED!!!!1!1!" I can't give any real reason to use them. They compete with Pathfinders and Piranhas, two of the most useful units in our codex for the purposes of force multiplication, while the Piranhas also double as effective melta carriers.

For those of you that actually want to use Vespids, the following tips and tactics are for you:

1. If you want to use Vespids, choose your army in such away that everything you have supports or draws fire away from the bugs. This can include maxing out on Vespid, as the easiest way to increasing their offensive output is to attack en masse.

2. Be willing to accept that against anything that isn't a Marine, you will probably will end up using them as expensive and fast speedbump units. You have to come to terms with the fact that Orks don't give a damn about your AP3.

3. Make sure you can hold down the enemy. If you can bring a lot of pinning weapons, do so. AFP commander, Sniper Drones, Carbines, etc. IF the enemy can't counterattack your Vespids, you have stopped their first big weakness from coming into play.

4. Use Devilfishes as mobile terrain. This can help seal off one unit in your opponent's army; with a combination of Vespids and other firepower can kill off the target squad whilst making it difficult for other dogs to target you.

There are two tactics that can be utilized with the Stingwings, but there is another brainchild of mine that I have yet to test which I will also be posting here:

1. First strategy is the swarm. It is rather simple, and uses multiple Vespid squads to achieve its goal. You bring in your first squad and fire on the enemy from cover, leaving the squad open to retribution. Meanwhile, move some other squads nearby. When they enemy moves in, you ambush them the next turn with a mass Vespid shoot-assault combination The high initiative of Vespid and their massed firepower can wipe a unit of Marines in most cases.

2. Second is the Bug Bomb, which is simple. Deepstrike them into a piece of cover occupied by a weakened enemy and finish them off.

Now here comes my brainchild, completely untested, and born from recent debate:

Seeing as how the Mont'ka rarely uses Pathfinders, the slot is open for Gun Drones and Vespids.

So I got to thinking... can Vespids or Gun Drones be used as if they were fully mobile Kroot Walls? It is something I HAVE to test out; the sad thing is that they lack the numbers to spread out as much, but a full squad of Vespid or Gun Drones have merit in walling capabilities.

Sadly, I lack means to try the Vespids right now, so I'm going to ask a favor; will a Mont'ka player try this out? I'm going to check out the viability of Gun Drone Squads for this.

Anyways, that's all I have for you for our Wasp-like friends.

Turbo: Piranha strike forces

I've already posted stuff on Piranha units, but for the sake of having it all in one place I'm making a rehash. From my old post, "Speeding Up":

"Piranhas are useful in a wierd way to the Tau army as they don't bring a lot of firepower, and because of this their mobility seems rather useless; I can bring one Fusion Blaster and Targetting Array there for 70 points? And they seem rather fragile compared to most other vehicles. Weakest possible armor on the side and rear and overpriced compared to Landspeeders, as well as poorly armed in comparison.
So why use Piranhas? Because they make excellent roadblocks. Piranha roadblocks can be used in two ways; the Swordfish and the School of Piranhas.

The Swordfish tactic is simple; A piranha with a Fusion Blaster and Targetting Array rushes the enemy and parks directly in front of the enemy's vanguard vehicle, moving flat-out. The enemy can attempt to destroy it in his shooting phase, but the movement prior will be slowed by him circumventing your vehicle. If your vehicle lives, then you can hop to the enemy's rear armour and fire your meltagun, or plop down in front again.

The School of Piranhas uses two or more Piranhas (two are a cheap annoyance; three or more are a tank murdering unit that should be feared). Each Piranha is armed with a Fusion Blaster (you could use Burst Cannons, but I feel they are a waste of the Piranha), Targetting Array, Flechettes, and some should have Target Locks. The strategy begins the same as the Swordfish; rush a tank, block path, melta and then annoy. But this becomes much more effective; the space taken up by two Piranhas is enough to waste entire turns of movement, and three or more can easily block mulitple units. In addition, the Target Locks will allow you to attempt melta on multiple vehicles; an extremely useful ability. Finally, the Flechettes will allow you to block off infantry paths; putting them between you and an offending unit will force them to move around. Assaulting them will not help your opponent either, as the Flechettes will tear light infantry apart, while hurting even the heavier ones (two Flechettes in a squadron while statistically wound every model in the assaulting unit! That means only 5 Boyz from a full 30 man mob will live, or you can shred about three Marines from a full Tacsquad if they attempt to grenade your Piranhas to death). In addition, when moved at cruising or flatout speeds, the enemy needs 6s to even hit the vehicle, which is easily failed.

If you are having trouble stemming an enemy rush, try using Piranhas in your list; from popping mech to Flechetting hordes, these models can annoy or kill any would be threat that holds vehicular form."

Turbo: Using Pathfinders effectively

This will be my first section on Fast Attack, and it is rather unfitting that the first section is on the rather slow Pathfinders.

Pathfinders give very little to the team in terms of pure firepower; they are more expensive Fire Warriors armed with Carbines, and forced to bring along a Devilfish.

On the other hand, they make great support units; bringing the game's cheapest markerlights to the fray, and their devilfish carries a nice device that allows a reroll to deepstrikes within it's line of sight.

Using Pathfinders is a matter of preference, relying mostly on your army build. Some players go out of the way to relocate them when they are endangered, while some use them as sacrifices so that their guns stay shooting.

Personally, I use them as a bait unit; the stay away from my main force, marking from a distance. If my opponent knows very little about Tau, he might leave them be; which would be great for me, as I'd keep my force multipliers. If my opponent goes for them, he takes pressure off my main guns.

Normally I make a small firebase of Pathfinders and Broadsides to draw attention. These can't normally be killed off until around turn 3-4, and by then they've done their jobs; demeching, bringing pain, then distracting the enemy so my mobile units can move on objectives.

How do you use your Pathfinders? Do you keep them alive as long as possible, or do you use them as late game pawns?