Tau Tactica

[Ouija]

I’ve recently acquired a decent Tau army and was wondering about some composition arrangements. How do people feel about mounting Seeker missiles onto piranhas?

[xelloss]

Just started my own Tau army after buying the Hunter Cadre Box. Not personally a fan of seekers atm, but others seem to like them. This is a quote from the ATT website (Advanced Tau Tactica.) They probly know more about this kinda thing then we do.


Special Case – Seeker Missiles

Seekers on piranha are a double edged sword, while it is true they add more punch to their anti-MEQ and anti-armor role as well as alpha strike capability, they also increase the cost of the Piranha to nearly unacceptable levels. There are advantages to using Seekers on Piranha, namely their ability to move 24” and still fire them, but whether or not this offsets the cost is debatable.

There are two ways to use Seekers on Piranha effectively. The first is on a burst cannon variant (with no upgrades) operating alone. Leave it behind cover the whole game and only use its detachable drones and Seeker Missiles from out of LOS to generate its offensive contribution. Only bring it out last turn to grab objectives or bring it out in emergencies as a blocker.

The other option is to put seekers on teams of 2 Fusion variant piranhas. Run them up the flank 24” first turn and use them to snipe side armor across the field. Make sure to keep them in cover though. Then hunt tanks as normal, but if you lose one, be sure to hide the remaining one from harm so your opponent doesn’t get any VP’s. After all, the increased cost the seekers added to the piranha will push this unit up to 180 points. That’s a pretty juicy target, so be sure to be careful with them if used in such a manner.

[JayandVarn]

180 points...oh my. i have never played with tau before so i wouldnt know. i love the look of the battlesuits though.

[TommySalami]

I've played Tau since their last codex, but I've never fielded a piranha before. So, this is purely hypothetical. That said, I don't really see the point. You should have ample room on any devilfish or hammerheads you may be fielding for seeker missiles.

Unless you're fielding a skyray you're probably only going to have one unit (pathfinders) capable of firing the seekers anyway. Unless you're giving marker lights to all of your pathfinder teams. Which I would say is a waste of points; 20 just for the marker light and one seeker missile, assuming you already paid for the Shas'ui.

I usually have one unit of pathfinders with one missile on their devilfish and one on a hammerhead. I don't see needing more than that over the course of a game.

[Stoffey]

Hunter Killers or Seeker Missiles, I never really saw the point. Yeah they are cheap, but they can still miss, or do nothing.

[Stoffey]

But I do love fast skimmers...

[Ouija]

Yeah, the fact that only those with marker lights can fire them kind of puts them to bed. Hunter killer missiles are almost a waste with my space wolves so I can't imagine these being any better. especially with a worse BS.

[xelloss]

My biggest gripe about them is that you have to roll to hit with them TWICE. First with the marker light (which is typically a 4+ on most marker carriers), and then we have to roll AGAIN just to hit. Even with the 2+, its just not worth it.

[SimulatedSnowman]

Hunter Killers or Seeker Missiles, I never really saw the point. Yeah they are cheap, but they can still miss, or do nothing.

I'd sometimes take a hunter killer or two on my anti-tank sentinels just so I could get a free shot on the first turn without exposing it to anything, but I'd only do it now if I happened to have points leftover.