IW Raptors

So I posted a while back about doing a Raptors battle company, still haven't got around to it! Have most of the infantry, but ended up playing the Talon Strike Force more. Anyways, I was considering borrowing all them lovely free transports and trying it out, but I kind of want to run an unusual battle company. I have no idea if this could work, so i'm hoping if it is just plain silly, someone will tell me now! Raven Guard Talon Strike Force Demi-Battle Company Chaplain 5 Tactical Marines 5 Tactical Marines 5 Tactical Marines Landspeeder 5 Devastator Marines 10th Company Task Force 5 Scouts 5 Scouts 5 Scouts Raptors Battle Company Captain Chaplain Command Squad (Razorback) Command Squad (Razorback) 5 Tactical Marines (Meltagun, Razorback) 5 Tactical Marines (Meltagun, Razorback) 5 Tactical Marines (Meltagun, Razorback) 5 Tactical Marines (Meltagun, Razorback) 5 Tactical Marines (Meltagun, Razorback) 5 Tactical Marines (Razorback) 5 Assault Marines (Razorback) 5 Assault Marines (Razorback) 5 Devastator Marines (Razorback) 5 Devastator Marines (Razorback) 10th Company Task Force 5 Scouts 5 Scouts 5 Scouts 1850pts The TSF Chaplain is the warlord, so that gives a re-roll on the mission, table sides & deployment. The rest of the TSF plays objectives. The battle company is fairly straightforward, it scouts forward. If needs be, the army can null deploy, outflanking the battle company & something from the TSF comes on from reserve turn one. Aside from a handful of meltaguns, bolters & heavy bolters, the army can't put out much offense. Too one dimensional? Might be a bit boring to play after a while? FW could always update Raptors and take away scout, which would stink.

I'd imagine a common enough trick with sisters will be to stick them in an Imperial bunker, with an escape hatch as a delivery system.

Interesting, @32 pts, including the combi weapon, they would want to delete stuff on the drop! Thus far I've used the conclaves shriek and terrify to kill stuff with a 2+ saves, poison rounds from the sternguard for most everything else, bar tanks of course. I have considered rolling on divination, in addition to telepathy, misfortune and sternguard could be pretty saucy. Fun combinations, but I have it in the back of my mind, that a cheap as chips 10th company as the mandatory aux choice for the TSF, frees up allot of points.

I'm acutually using the 1st company as an auxiliary to the talon strike force. Has some nice perks, like allowing you to fail LD tests by choice, despite the sternguard getting fearless from the 1st company formation. Pretty neat! Like a poor mans hit & run. The combi weapons weapons always seem a bit too pricey imo, if you want straight up grav or melta, wouldn't the skyhammer be better? :-/

Yeah. Them official models have allot of bling. Mine? A tactical marine gets a nice bolter scope and a promotion to Sternguard. How much each? 22 a pop, for a MEQ stat line and not even a free transport? What are they guys, filthy CSM in disguise? :-o After reading up about them on frontline gaming and hearing Reece sing their praises, I have tried giving them a go. 1st company formation and Libby conclave, no special weapons or gear, just straight up special ammo. The conclave backs them up with shrieks and so forth, combines nicely with the -2 LD radius the formation gives. Still, I'm on the fence after nearly a dozen games. They are costly , running in nearly as much as some skyhammer formations. The special ammo does fill a niche, lots of poison shots or ignore cover, can be fairly handy. So I find myself, somewhat impressed, yet on the fence about the cost. What do yous think about them?

Most of them, get fluffy and reasonable bonuses rather then a bunch of free stuff! Although they usually only require one Demi company or an equivalent as a core option and have some nice extra auxiliary choices. I'm playing around with the Talon strike force and the marine psychic powers, lots of shenanigans. Just a pity the Ravenguard forgot to bring their own conclaves in their decurions :p

Thanks, I appreciate the input! Funny enough, as a small aside, speaking of fast assault units, recently, I ended up using the crisis star as an unexpected assault unit vs warp spiders, as the short range of most Tau weapons and the spiders speed/jump shenanigans, it seemed easier in the end to split fire at other units, put the bare minimum shots into spiders and go for the assault! Perhaps a lack of experience using the unit is contributing to my issues as well, getting the balance right between aggression and overextending with the deathstar+OSC can be tricky, some builds, such as the really fast, durable assault units (Wolfstar variants/Fortuned/Invisible Wraithknights, Eldar Corsairs) have given me allot of trouble, as I just can't hold the mid or realistically expect to table them. I thought more AP2 may help, but I guess it may be a faction issue as well.

I actually run the Buffmander Commander as a 2nd HQ, rather then sticking the gear on an average joe in the squad. The buffmander also gets all the tanky gear, so he can absorb some fire upfront. Between ignore cover and barrage weapons, i'd be too cautious to go without him! Interesting that you prefer a mix of missile & plasma, I haven't heard that one before.

Thanks, about half and half split then?

Just a minor bump to the thread, I've run the full 9 crisis suits, buffmander with tanky gear (iridium, shield, Stims) and Shadowsun as warlord for half a dozen or so games, more sans Shadowsun. In each game, I've run the crisis suits with missile pods, for the missiles all round stats. The unit has performed well and is surprisingly mobile. I feel that switching to lower ap weapons might be the way to go, the missile pods are like a safety blanket, they are never bad for any situation, but I think more aggressive play is required, as I've struggled in some games to dominate the midfield. The question is, out of the weapon choices, should I go all plasma, fusion, a mix of the two? Or the cyclic ion raker as an interesting third choice? I'm also running a OSC with fusion blasters and a lone double fusion crisis suit, so I kinda feel that heavy AT is covered, bar multiple Knights, which is a thing I guess.

I think the rule is only for the scions squad itself and their Taurox (if it is a dedicated transport for them?). If it includes the Taurox, that is pretty dang nifty, especially as an allied force, keep the commissar safe, use the rest on suicide runs. An imperial force with someone like Lias Issodon to re-roll the reserve rolls!

Yeah, missile drones for everyone would be sick, especially with the drone net formation! Think I'm gonna shelf the full crisis star, the unit footprint is is soooooooo big! Shadowsun, buffmander with tanky gear and 9 suits, most with target locks and the command link drone is large enough without the fun drones coming to party as well. Btw, shadowsuns command link drone and a full unit of Ghostkeels in the optimised stealth cadre is pretty dang nice! Twin links their cyclic ion rakers effectively.

One step closer to using Lias Issodon in a battle company :p

I really like LOTD, I use them in combination with Lias Issodon in my Raptors army. They get work done! But yeah, it would be nice if their detachment actually got some benefits, Aid Unasked For would be perfect! Screw skyhammer, LOTD are much cooler (..or..something..I guess hot would be more appropriate).

So i've experimented with Tau crisis stars of varying degrees, from the small 3 suits & buffmander + a handful of drones, to the full nine suits, buffmander & shadowsun. I'd consider the latter, a small sized star in comparison to the real deathstars of 40k! At least you can shoot it/assault it. One combination I haven't tried, is the full Tau Deathstar, e.g. the 9 crisis suits with target locks, buffmander, shadowsun, full 20 gun drones and the Warscaper Drone upgrade, because after running the 9 suits+buffmander+shadowsun, I can tell you, difficult terrain tests are a regular occurrence and a pain in the ass with such a large footprint! Like every Tau player, I have heaps of spare drones and was thinking of putting them to use, but I only get to play 2-3 games a month, so if this is an exercise in "novelty but not practical", it would be cool to know that now and save the time! The immediate issues are similar to the the crisis star sans drones, it is not fearless and hits the armies overall scoring ability. On the other hand, it dishes out a ridiculous amount of firepower, is pretty quick and durable. I'd probably run the crisis suits with missile pods, to extend the threat range of the unit. Thoughts?

Wow, you fly through painting! I'm like Daenarys from GOT when it comes to painting, little progress, much bluster!

I really like the paint scheme, white, red and black just works great in general. Not to hijack the thread, but since it seems to be pretty much about Tau in general, anyone played a Tau army vs a 30k one and how did it balance out? I've got a game soon vs someone running sons of Horus who specifically asked to face some Tau. I don't want to steam roll the guy with my normal list, so I'm looking to mix in some fun middling units. Anyone have any interesting ideas? I'm thinking a stealthy ninja tau force might be fun, ghostkeel wing, kroot, shadowsun, lots of stealth suits, maybe even darkstrider. I don't want it to be a [big bad swear word] list, but unusual and fun, whilst middling would be perfect.

In the games i've played with the OSC thus far, I usually deploy it normally and run up the middle. WIthout reserve manipulation I wouldn't feel very comfortable deep strike the Ghostkeels! The stealth suits typically end up playing for objectives rather then sticking around the Ghostkeels.

Yeah I read that joining in reserves could be interpreted as okay, was hoping that was a grey area where the units could join together, providing they came in from reserves.

My head hurts after googling the [big bad swear word] out of this one. I've read the GW FAQ, which is fine and dandy, but wasn't able to get a concrete answer on the following: If an IC has the infiltrate rule, can they join a unit without the infiltrate rule in reserves? So for example, could I attach Lias Issodon (comes with infiltrate) to a unit that does not have the infiltrate rule and outflank them all? Or Shadowsun, can she deep strike with a Crisis suit unit? Cheers!

That is one advantage of so many markerlights! Currently running quite a bit less markers at 1850 as the OSC doesn't really need markers or a unit with buffmander. I was trying to figure a way of fitting in a culexus myself, but without a transport I thought he might lack the mobility to stop those nasty magic casters.

Mmm well the large crisis suit unit has its weaknesses and I wouldn't consider it a true deathstar myself, more like a mini one that can punch well but needs careful handling or it dies real fast if caught out of position.

That is a very unique Tau list! Yeah shriek is really scary to Tau as we don't have psykers to help deny the witch or great leadership across the board. The most straightforward solution I've heard is the void shield generator. Doesn't help if you're in the midfield though, where Ghostkeels and stealth suits tend to hang out :/. I've honestly not used the FSE signature system as in my mind, vs a psychic heavy army, it's a band aid at best, it won't stop units buffing themselves with invisibility and they can still probably force powers like shriek through if they throw enough dice at it. Still like I said, haven't tried it myself, so I could be wrong. My current solution is shoot them dead before they cast. So not too optimal a strategy either!

Since we are on the topic of marines, anyone use a battlefoam case to carry a standard 1850 battle company and if so, which one? Nobody I know running the parking lot marines is using battlefoam. Regarding the new powers, what a mess the moving terrain one will be. You just know it will be used to hurl Knights/deathstars/grav cents/allies (wraithknight!) around the table.

I'd probably switch the crisis suits around to have target locks in the big squad, instead of their current support system. Also I'd move the turrets to the non devilfish mounted squads. Drop the marker drones, and instead run them in the crisis suit unit, with a drone controller on the commander. Although I guess that might be a touch too powerful for what you're going for?