Genestealer Cult

Well ……. this hasn’t happened for a while. I find myself enthused by a new faction – Genestealers Cults (GSC).

The play style, and in particular the Cult Ambush rule has really taken my fancy. I’ve spent the last week pouring over the codex and reading everything I can online about GSC and I’m pretty sure I want to start this army. I wanted to run a horde, taking maximum advantage of the Cult Ambush  rule. The list I’m moving towards is a Cult Insurrection Detachment with a Brood Cycle formation, a Subterranean Uprising formation, and a GSC Combined Arms Detachment. Something like

Struggling with the Farsight Supplement

I am planning to write a review of the Farsight supplement, but I’m struggling - specifically, I’m struggling with the way it interacts with a Codex army when allied. I’m horribly confused!

An example - the bit about signature systems says

Any Character in your army that may select Signature Systems may not select from those listed in Codex: Tau Empire, but may instead select from the Signature Systems of the Farsight Enclave.

So, on the face of it it’s quite clear. Army is defined in the rules as including both your primary and secondary detachment. So, if you take either a primary or an allied detachment from the Farsight Supplement, then you can only take the Farsight Signature Systems, even if you take a Codex force either as an allied or a primary detachment.

However - another example

“In a Farsight Enclave Army, all XV8 Crisis Teams are troops choices instead of elite choices”

So if “army” includes both primary and allied detachments, does this mean that I can take a minimum Farsight allied detachment  (a Fireblade and one unit of Kroot) and then all XV8s in my primary Codex detachment are scoring? That doesn’t seem right. So does “Farsight Enclave Army” really mean Farsight Enclave Detachment”?

So if "Farsight Enclave Army” really means “Farsight Enclave Detachment” should the first quote really read

Any Character in your [Farsight Enclave Detachment] that may select Signature Systems may not select from those listed in Codex: Tau Empire, but may instead select from the Signature Systems of the Farsight Enclave.

Buggered if I know!

Do you?

EYIG

Infiltration - the argument continues!

I tried to post this as a reply to a comment to my last post but it was too long - so here it is as a separate post. To make sense of it you'll need to read it in conjunction with my last post on Infiltrating ICs conferring infiltrate on non infiltrating units. The comment was

Independant Characters and Infiltrate

I’m seeing this all over the internet and its just wrong!

ICs with infiltrate can not confer infiltrate to units that do not have it. There is no grey area, it simply can not happen. It’s got nothing to do with the Infiltrate rule and whether of not infiltrate confers. The rule says that it does. However, there is no way to attach an IC to a non infiltrating unit which will allow the combined unit to take advantage of the rule.

More Rules stuff - Are Broadsidesthe best Anti Flyer unit in the Game?

Are Broadsides the Best Anti Flyer unit in the game?

This came up in the comments during an exchange with Rathstar. I thought I would post something about it to give it more coverage.

First of all, this is an argument about Rules as Written (RAW), based on an interpretation of what’s in the 6^thed rule book and the Tau Codex, as amended. I’m not really talking about Rules as Intended (RAI). So I'm not interested in what you think the rules should be - just what they are! If you disagree withthe interpretatin tell me why, quoting rules.

The argument is that a Broadside Team Leader, fitted with a Hard Wired Multitracker, and manning a Quad Gun, can shoot both the Quad Gun, and his TL Railgun at a Flyer using his normal Ballistic Skill. This is based on a reading of the Skyfire Rule, and the Multitracker rule as amended by the 6^th Ed Tau FAQ.

The Skyfire Rule says “A model with this special rule, or that fires a weapon with this special rule, fires using its normal Ballistic Skill when shooting at Flyers”. The Multitracker rule in the Tau Codex said (i.e. past tense) that it allowed the wearer to shoot 2 battlesuit weapons. Now that would not let it fire the Quad Gun and the Railgun. However, in the 6^th ed FAQ, this was specifically changed to read that the Multitracker “enables the model to fire two weapons in the same turn”.

So, does this mean that the Broadside Team Leader can fire both the Quadgun, and his Railgun, at a flyer using his normal ballistic skill?

Arguably, and unexpectedly, the answer might be “yes”! The Key phrase is “A model with this special rule, or that fires a weapon with this special rule, fires using its normal Ballistic Skill”. So if he fires the Quad gun, he is firing a weapon with the Skyfire Special Rule, and as the rule is written, he can then fire at flyers using his normal Ballistic Skill. There is no restriction that says he can only fire the Quad Gun using the Skyfire rule.

And also think – why make this very specific change to the multitracker rule, if not to allow the model to shoot a quad gun and a battlesuit weapon.

So, to repeat the question, is a Broadsides with a Targeting array and a HW Multitracker, manning a quad gun, the best anti flyer unit in the game? If you also give him a HW target Lock, he can kill flyers, while the rest of his team kill armour on the ground.

Have I got this all wrong?

EYIG