#battlesuits

Heavily Armed.

Magnetized a very sneaky lad.

As I sat at my desk to write this post, I was trying to work out whether or not it was even worth writing. The tau have been hit hard by 8th edition, but I still believe there is hope. The point of the new edition is to allow people to play what they want, how they want. 

As you might be able to tell, I am one of those effected by the de-buffing of the Tau Empire. Fear not, I am not a living ball of anger about how they changed the Tau, but instead I want to find a new way of playing my fish-bots. I have been experimenting with lots of variations (trying to avoid the Commander spam because that looks so boring) and pushing to bring in as much flavour to my army as possible.

The one model that I have had REAL difficulty getting to fit in my army has been the Riptide. I am planning on expanding my Tau when the codex arrives next year (2018), so until then I am going to go through the Index and find the best possible ways of bringing the Riptide back into 8th Edition.

I will start with the Riptide itself:

The stat line is pretty good, a large tough monster with a 2+ save and 14 wounds. Unfortunately like majority of the Tau it has a BS of 4+ and its main weapons are Heavy, (Heavy Burst Cannon and Ion Accelorator) meaning that it will be hitting on 5+ if it moves. The 2+ save is very nice, alongside a 5++ from the Riptide Shield Generator, give it the same saving throws as a Terminator.

In 7th Edition it was very important how you built the Riptide, there was a standard that many people followed and it became extremely repetitive. In this edition, versatility and customisation is heavily placed on the players to play what they want and how they want. I am not going to tell anyone how they SHOULD build a Riptide, but I will give my recommendations on combinations.

Support Systems: (May take two)

Target Lock- Ignore the penalty for moving and firing Heavy weapons. Although I think that this should come as standard on the bigger battlesuits, it is a 12pt upgrade and gives you one less negative to your shooting.

Stimulant Injector: Ignore Wounds on a 6. Initially this is not too great, but the way the Nova Reactor now causes a single mortal wound to activate, ignoring on a 6 is not bad. For 5pts it is not terrible.

Advanced Targeting System (ATS): ATS has slowly become my favourite upgrade for any battlesuit. It increases the AP value of all weapons by 1. On a Riptide that makes the Heavy Burst Cannon AP-2 (-3 Nova Charge), but one of the more useful applications of this has been to give a weapon that had AP 0, AP-1, such as the Smart Missile Systems on the Riptide.

Weapon options: One big gun and two of the same little guns.

Big Guns

Ion Accelerator: 3 shooting modes, high strength, low shot count, (Nova Charge is a 3 damage Lascannon) and Incredible range of 72 inches. I like this weapon, but it starts at Heavy 3 shots, then you can Overcharge is for D6 shots +1S and D3 damage; then Nova charge for another strength and a flat 3 damage. It has the potential for a large amount of damage centred on a single unit.

Heavy Burst Cannon: Personal preference, but still has its flaws. 36 inch range, Heavy 8, Strength 6 AP-1 and 1 damage. It is a fairly average Gatling style gun and even when it is Nova Charged it only gains AP-2. The reason I choose this gun is to combine it with the ATS support system.

Little Guns

Two Plasma Rifles/ Two Fusion Blaster/ Two Smart Missile Systems (SMS): All have their uses and all have their fall backs. The plasma is the elite killer, but only deals 1 damage. Fusion is anti-vehicle, but has a short range. SMS has a tonne of shots, doesn’t need line of sight and ignores cover, but is only really to slow down infantry units.

Heavy Burst Cannon and Fusion Blaster- gives you options for anti-tank and anti-infantry. This is my preferred loadout, giving my Riptide the chance to kill a vehicle and mow out some infantry in the process.

What works well alongside a Riptide?

Drones can soak up those wounds (and Mortal wounds from the Nova Reactor).

MV71 Sniper Drones and Marksman: I have found that using the Riptide to soften up a target and then using a sniper team to finish them off can be effective.

Ethereal on Hover Drone: Can grant another 6+ to ignore wounds, re-roll advances and can re-roll 1 To Hit if stationary.

Large squads of Strike Fire Warriors: Can cover and attempt to defend the Riptide. This works best when facing a combat opponent with For the Greater Good bringing down some real pain in overwatch.

Markerlights: You will need to keep an eye on everyones BS when playing Tau, but aiming for the support of the markerlights will greatly improve how the Riptide will perform. I recommend Cadre Fireblades, as they hit on 2+ with a single light.

More than one Riptide, BUT they are extremely expensive in points for this edition, making it very difficult to bring too many.

Playstyle:

I have a Farsight Enclave army and enjoy playing to the fluff and stories of the army. So, last edition I had my Riptide be a close range melee magnet. Drawing an enemy in and locking them down in combat. Obviously I will need to rethink this with the Fall Back mechanic in 8th edition.

I really dont want to use my Riptide and a gun platform that hides in the corner, so instead I try to use it in a similar way as I used to, but without the melee. I use stealth teams and crisis battlesuits ahead on the board and then move the Riptide around to hold objective at the halfway mark and try to keep it moving away from enemy combat units, but staying in range to give cover fire to my own units that have to make the heroic charge into enemy lines.

The XV104 Riptide Battlesuit has been officially demoted to the Support role for the Tau Empire. If the codex changes this, I will have a rethink, but the index entries for it make it a bit overpriced for the firepower output. I understand Tau are all about their shooting phase, but there are too many limitations put on the army about how to distribute and utilise the marker lights, especially on the larger battle suits.