List for Clan Wars 2013

OK, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth (and some excellent input from Rathstar and Bottom Banana) I’ve settled on a list for Clan Wars next weekend. Here it is

Ethereal (Warlord)

Commander, 2 Missiles Pods, Target Lock, Drone Controller, Iridium Armour, 2 Marker Drones

Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Fusion Gun, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker

Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Fusion Gun, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker

XV8 Shas’vre, Puretide Chip, C&CN, Drone Controller, 2x XV8 Shas’ui 2 Missile Pods, Target Lock, 6 Marker Drones

4 Marker Drones

11 Fire Warriors, Devilfish, Sensor Spines, D’pod

11 Fire Warriors, Devilfish, Sensor Spines, D’pod

10 Kroot, Kroot Hound

10 Kroot , Kroot Hound

Skyray, Black Sun Filter, D’pod

Skyray, Black Sun Filter, D’pod

A run down of my thinking

The Ethereal is there to buff the fire warriors. Twenty two Fire Warriors jumping out their ‘Fish, each of them effectively wielding heavy bolters with a 15” range, is pretty devastating. He’s also the Warlord because; rolling on the Tau warlord traits he can only take 3 powers, all of which are pretty good.

The Commander is there primarily to buff the Marker Drone Squad. I’ve decided to take Rathstar’s advice and split my drones between the Commander and the XV8 team. Bottom Banana is right, having 8 drones all hitting on 2, with rerolls results in wasted marker lights. This way I have 3 sources of Marker Lights (the Commander with his Drone Squad, the XV8 team, and the Skyrays), each of them at full strength putting between 3-5 hits on 3 separate targets. This is much more useful than 8 hits on one target.

The Riptides are incredibly versatile. They kill MEQ and TEQ at range, threaten heavy vehicles with their S9 ordinance large blast, kill MCs and Flying MCs with their normal Heavy 3 S7 AP2 shot, and are great tar pits for anything that is S4, or has no AP2 weapons. I debated whether to drop the EWO and the Velocity Trackers, however the EWO puts off deep striking marines and terminators, and the Velocity tracker gives me a skyfire melta weapon. This allows me to push forward with the Riptide against Helldrakes, either forcing them to come into range of the intercepting Riptides if they want to flame the rest of my army, or stay out of range, and be unable to flame the rest of my army. This also works against Vendettas to an extent, although their range makes it harder to do. The Velocity tracker also give me some redundancy if the Skyrays are taken out in the first turn or 2.

The XV8 team is primarily a marker light platform, but also brings the Puretide chip to the table. The Missile Pods can shoot at a different target than the Drones thanks to the target locks, and everything is twin linked. The Commander can attach to this unit is he wants to take advantage of the Puretide Chip (e.g., lots of Tervigons!)

Fish of Fury is back baby! I’m really enjoying Fire Warriors in Devil Fish. The guy from “From the Fang” (sorry mate, don’t know your name or your online “handle”) commented that he couldn’t believe I was a fan, having been so down on them in 5^th, but I am. Running the Fish up to a deathstar and unloading 22 heavy bolter wielding Fire Warriors, that (with only 4 marker lights) hit on 2s and wound on 3s (assuming T4) is funny! Even funnier if you’re warlord trait allows you to reroll 1s to hit. Not many death stars can take 40+ wounds and still function (paladins with an apothecary perhaps, but then you have the 2 S8 AP2 blasts from the Riptides for them?). Funnier still, if you get your blocking right with the Devilfish and gun drones, because then they need to assault either a gun drone squad, or a devilfish, get over watched by all those heavy bolters again, and shot as normal next turn…..!

However, the key I find is making sure that anything that will template them next turn is dead before they get out. If you get out and there’s a Thunder Fire Cannon, or a Griffon Mortar, or a Manticore around, then you’re in trouble. You need to protect them from retaliation.

Kroot do what Kroot do, score, disrupt and get in the way. I thought about dropping the hounds as suggested by Rathstar, but 9 times out of 10, my Kroot outflank to get objectives on the sides. An acute senses from the hounds is just too good.

The Skyrays are still there. Of all the units in the army, the Skyrays are the ones I’m most unsure about. The alternative is 3 Missile Sides with Velocity trackers and as many Missile Drones as I can find points for. The reason I’ve kept the Skyrays are 3 fold

·         I worry about range. Particularly Vendettas. My fear is that they come on out of range of the Broadsides and snipe them with lazcannons. Vendettas with lazcannons and heavy bolters are a worry for Broadsides. If your opponents is smart he’ll force you to take the Heavy Bolter wounds first, burning through your drones, and the laszcannon wounds second, doubling out your Broadsides.

·         I worry about target saturation. If I have no other vehicles then it leaves the devilfish a little more exposed.

·         I like having the extra marker lights, particularly sky fire marker lights

·         The Skyrays are painted, my broadsides aren’t.

I’ve kept the D’pods. The reason why is that the Skyrays need to survive until turn 2 or 3 to shoot down enemy flyers. In fact it’s worse, they need to survive a round of shooting from the Vendetta when it comes in, before it can retaliate! A 3+ save is better than a 4+!

So there you are – rip it apart!

EYIG