And that’s it. Unlike with Pathfinder teams, you don’t get better benefits by having more markerlight tokens on an enemy unit. On the other hand, you also don’t remove tokens after shooting a markerlit target, so there’s no need to put more than one per round on a target. Stealth Suits, though they have a lot of other text written into their unit entry, really come down to two very simple factors- Infiltrate and Fly. The other stuff certainly doesn’t hurt, but those two basic abilities are what really matter at the end of the day, and they tend to define the role that they play in most Tau armies in 8th edition. Even with the beta FAQ limiting first turn arrivals of reserves, there are still lots of ways to bypass this (e.g. Forward Operatives, Upon Wings of Fire, etc) and there are many armies that use such tactics to push forward powerful aggressive elements in the first turn or two of the game, and Tau need a way to deal with these things. XV85 Enforcer Battlesuit – The XV85 Enforcer Battlesuit is a larger and sleeker variant of the standard XV8 Crisis Battlesuit that provides better protection and joint movement for the pilot, and can mount additional support systems or weapons due to its more powerful reactor. It is produced in limited numbers, and is issued almost exclusively to T'au Commanders. One year in we’ve seen several kill teams from the Compendium be replaced by teams in White Dwarf and other releases, though some Compendium teams are still out there and active. Among these are the Huntre Cadre, the T’au empire kill team from the Compendium. While another T’au kill team released in Chalnath last year – the Pathfinder kill team, the Huntre Cadre has some key differences in that it allows a greater variety of units, giving access to fire warriors and stealth suits. Hunter Cadre Kill Teams

All T'au Battlesuits are constructed of a lightweight yet strong nano-crystalline alloy called fio'tak in the T'au Lexicon, which is light, malleable, impact-resistant and corrosion-resistant, reducing the weight of the battlesuit whilst also providing excellent protection. Even the armour's shape helps deflect solid projectiles, while a reflective liquid metal coating can reflect medium-grade laser fire. Assimilation Abilities: You will encounter many different types of planet over the course of your journey, so vast and diverse is the universe, and each will have Assimilation Abilities that trigger when you take over that planet. These can either help or hinder your progress in that star system, so plan your strategy carefully.If you selected a Tactical Philosophy at the start of the battle, T’AU AUXILIARY units that are in the same Detachment as units with this tenet benefit from your army’s selected Tactical Philosophy.

Of course, a slightly more conservative play would be to deploy the unit in an unoccupied table quarter. That way, the unit is much more likely to survive if the T’au player doesn’t get turn one.But the stylish play is to go for the opponent’s table quarter ROD. More Stealth Suit Uses Of course, there are other Infantry units in the Tau codex as well, and even Objective Secured ones like their various flavors of troops. However, Stealth Suits have a significant advantage in the fact that you can expect their squad to stay alive for more than a turn once the game begins. With an extra pip in toughness, wounds, and armor save they are significantly more resilient than most infantry, and then add in the -1 hit penalty the unit enjoys and you are looking at a squad that can be quite annoying to remove- especially if they also have Shield Generators to frustrate high-AP firepower coming their way. They are certainly not invulnerable- any of the mortal wound stratagems/weapons, or volumes of AP-2 multidamage firepower, or a variety of other things will still give them a bad time. But for the Tau Empire codex they are fairly difficult to get rid of and smart play can keep them out of harm’s way so that your opponent’s chances to take them out are minimized.

Every piece of Tau wargear has a unique identification code detailing its size, design and battlefield role. Battlesuits are given the classification XV followed by a numerical code to denote their mass class (size) and their evolution in the design process. The XV88 Broadside Battlesuit, for example, is a mass class 8 suit, and the eighth variation of the XV8 Crisis Battlesuit. The much larger XV104 Riptide is in the tenth mass class, while the 4 in its classification indicates that it is in the final stages of field testing. [15] Battlesuits can also have a sub-designation of the standard suit, indicating a small alteration on the generic version of the suit, but without a specific battlefield role. For example, the XV8-05 "Enforcer" armour is an enhanced version of the Crisis suit, as opposed to an XV85, which would indicate a mass class 8 stealth suit.

Stealth Suits, then, have some play in 9th edition. Are these models the solution to the faction’s problems in 9th? Absolutely not. Are these models ideal at the moment? Absolutely not. Their offensive profile is still quite poor. I run my stealth suits either Sa’cea or T’au sept. Sa’cea for the fusion blaster re-roll and because I don’t own riptides so I need a more democratic approach to anti-tank. I run enough fire warriors so pulse rounds so I have enough of them and I need to make sure my fusion shots count. I usually run a Sa’cea detachment with firesight marksman and the main body of my list T’au. Since the stealth suits are often on their own the loss of 5+ overwatch is not a big deal.Use when a non-drone operative is selected as the target for combat. You can use a ranged weapon to fight with and treat your BS as the WS, but you lose any special rules for the weapon. Equipment O’Shovah’s mastery of Mont’ka has bled into the martial culture of the Farsight Enclaves. Its warriors are experts in the deadly art of engaging the enemy in close confines.

Below is a list of the most common available combat support systems that an XV25 Stealthsuit can be armed with: Finally, I want to mention a particularly cool stratagem to which Stealths Suits have access: Wall of Mirrors. This stratagem is used in conjunction with a Ghostkeel Battlesuit. A Stealth unit within 6 inches of a Ghostkeel may be removed from the battlefield and setup again no more than 12 inches from the Ghostkeel and more than 9 inches from enemy models. This is, it must be said, a very cool ability. The third factor in their usefulness is, of course, their ability to deploy virtually anywhere onto the field. This can be a double-edged sword in many cases, as it’s very easy to be too aggressive with them and deploy them in such a way that they are put in extreme danger (like getting charged on the first turn, etc.) However, if one avoids this pitfall it is very easy for a cheap little 78pt squad of Stealth Suits to spend the whole game hunkered down on an objective somewhere, all but immune to enemy firepower and able to get you your mission points with ease. In a best case this is generally how they will be used, but obviously very few opponents will make it this easy for you. XV25 Stealthsuits are worn by Fire Caste members who have attained the rank of Shas'ui, normally after they have completed a tour of duty as the Shas’ui of a squad of Fire Warriors. XV25 Stealthsuit squad leaders hold the rank of Shas'vre, and are masters of the arts of subterfuge. The whole squad is usually ritually bonded to one another according to the Tau custom of Ta'lissera, which is symbolised by a knife design painted onto the squad leader’s armour. XV25 Stealthsuit teams usually consist of 3 to 6 members. XV15; a Mass-Class 1 stealthsuit that adds additional armour plating to the Fire Warrior armour, as well as servos and support for the weapon systems it carries, not unlike Space Marine Terminator ArmourXV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit The largest stealthsuit in operation, they are considered the pinnicle of Tau stealth technology T'au Battlesuits are only piloted by those Fire Warriors who have proven themselves in battle and completed their first Trial by Fire to earn the Fire Caste rank of shas'ui. Often, the first battlesuits that Fire Warriors learn to pilot are the XV15 and/or the XV25 Stealthsuit, to complete their training in the arts of infiltration and ambush that they began as Pathfinders. Once their time utilising a Stealthsuit is complete, they are then given the honour of piloting an XV8 Crisis Battlesuit and becoming a member of the Fire Caste's elite.