Ok, so my next tournament is Clan Wars, an 1850pt, "no holds barred" ETC qualifier, and (as usual) I'm agonising over list choice.
It's no forge world, so I need to drop the tetras from my Cally list. The obvious replacements are some marker drones in a death rain squad, however, I've been thinking about that.....!
How many marker lights are enough?
Here's the list I'm toying with.
Farsight
Commander, 2 pods,
XV 8, 1 pod, 1 twin linked pod - x3
XV 8, 1 pod, 1 twin linked pod - x3
XV 8, 1 Fusion Blaster, 1 twin linked Fusion Blaster - x3
XV 8, 1 Fusion Blaster, 1 twin linked Fusion Blaster - x3
XV 8, 1 Fusion Blaster, 1 twin linked Fusion Blaster - x3
XV 8, 1 Burst Cannon, 1 twin linked Burst Cannon - x3
XV 8, 1 Burst Cannon, 1 twin linked Burst Cannon - x3
Skyray
Skyray
Skyray
Tau Empire Allies
Commander, 2 Missile Pods, Puretide chip, Iridium Armour
XV 8, 1 pod, 1 twin linked pod - x3
10 Kroot 4 Kroot Hounds
The controversial bit is the lack of marker lights - only 6 on the Skyrays. However, the 2nd weapon on all the suits is twin linked, effectively making them BS4, which is OK. Which leaves ignores cover ..... will 6 marker lights be enough?
I played with 2 units of marker drone death rain squads last night at the non club. The thing I noticed, was they are much harder to play with than tetras. You need to think more about your target priority - thinking about what you shoot first, and how the Mark'O squad splits fire. In a tournament, the fewer things you need to think about the better.
It also makes the list less vulnerable to losing its marker lights, and at the same time makes your opponent's target priority a little harder (he no longer gets to shoot at both your marker light platform, and key shooting platform).
So what do you think - more marker lights?
Oh, and I've decided against Riptides. Stick with the theme!
EYIG
It's hard getting good markerlights (outside tetras), I would recommend firesight markmen from the sniper drone teams, but I don't think the sniper teams suit your army, and if you took advantage of the movement of the drones themselves the marksmen would be snapshotting anyway.
ReplyDeleteI think marker drones attached to one of the commanders (who is given a drone controller and a target lock) would be the best bet.
Alternatively you could make the TE commander pure buff; no guns but Purtide Chip, unit has Ignore cover & twin-link, and drone controller. The rest of the unit has 2 missile pods and a target lock. The unit is not reliant on markerlights much because it is twin-linked and ignores cover and has the buffs of the Purtide Chip, so they can fire first (or after a skyray gives them +1 BS). As the marker drones would hit on 2+ you don't need too many attached to unit but I would go for 6-8 for ablative wounds if nothing else.
What to lose to get markerlights in ? I would say 3 kroot hounds for starters, and then drop a crisis suit (I'd say one of the burst suits) to afford the changes and 6 marker drones.
Rathstar
PS. Look I didn't even say Ri... - just caught myself there :)
Yeah - that thought crossed my mind too. My problem with the buff commander is that I always fee I'm "wasting" a BS5 shooting platform. But maybe in this list, its worth it. Hmmm...!
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