With the release of 6th edition we saw an added mechanic that us "House Rules" gamers have been dreaming of. Fortifications and terrain that does more than provide a cover save. Whether or not the rumors that GW did this in order to start moving terrain pieces off the store shelves are true, the mechanic has added a new dimension to the game of 40K.
Background
Background
Deploying the Defense line
The Aegis Defense Line can be deployed in 28 inches long. This can be used to spread out a firing line or provide protection on all sides to 1 or 2 units. Unfortunately with the lastest rulebook FAQ provided by GW, it has been deemed that the sections can not be broken up into smaller sub scetions.
Extra options
Comms Relay
If you are like me you love to use reserves. Being able to re-roll your reserves roll helps you to make sure that your units will arrive or be held back depending on what you want. If you want to almost guarantee that a unit arrives from reserve add this to scrier’s gaze and each unit has a 99.85% chance of arriving. If you want to hold back your reserves throw in the positional relay with scrier’s gaze and then you’ve got roughly a 67% chance that none of your units will show up each turn, whereas if you fail to those odds only one unit (of your choosing) will show up.
Now before I talk about the Gun emplacements separately we Tau have an advantage with these buddies thanks to our wargear. I would like to go over those right now.
Markerlights- Gun emplacements benefit from markerlight hits so long as the model firing it is Tau.
Target Lock.
Much like the blacksun filter this used to be one of the most useless pieces of wargear that can be taken with a shas’ui. Now the Shas’ui can use it to have the gun emplacement shoot down fliers while the rest of the unit engages a separate unit of infantry.
The Multi-tracker*
Now before I talk about the Gun emplacements separately we Tau have an advantage with these buddies thanks to our wargear. I would like to go over those right now.
Markerlights- Gun emplacements benefit from markerlight hits so long as the model firing it is Tau.
Target Lock.
Much like the blacksun filter this used to be one of the most useless pieces of wargear that can be taken with a shas’ui. Now the Shas’ui can use it to have the gun emplacement shoot down fliers while the rest of the unit engages a separate unit of infantry.
The Multi-tracker*
Now the reason I put an asterisk next to this is because this is one of the most debated topics among the Tau boards. With confusing language and Faq updates, the multi-tracker strategy is theoretical and one I straighten out with my opponent before each game if I plan on using it. Essentially this allows the model to fire both the gun emplacement and another weapon. This doesn’t seem like a big deal when you are using a fire warrior. But if you have a Crisis suit with twin linked-missle pods on a quad gun or a broadside on a lascannon this can drive your opponent nuts.
The Quad Gun
Being able to re-roll misses while pumping out 4 S7 shots at full BS while targeting both fliers and land crawlers is awesome. This goes quickly from threatening aircraft to glancing and ocassionally one shoting light transports and providing extra fire supoort against infantry. Unfortunately Strength 7 can only glance armor 13 while doing nothing to armor 14.
The Las-Cannon
The Las-Cannon
Not being twin-linked makes having a high BS essential for this weapon. Cheaper than the quad-gun but a definite threat to fliers and armor. Unfortunately it has only one shot per turn so it very low threat value against armies that are heavy in infantry.
Letting The Allies man the guns
While looking over the Eldar Codex for even more synergy, it came to my attention that there is even greaer potential in these Battle brothers. Oe thing to remember when handling the Exarchs is that certain powers affect whatever weapon the model is manning
Dark Reapers
The Exarch can choose to apply fast shot or crack shot to the weapon he is choosing to fire, with BS 5 the Exarch can hit on a 2+ choosing to ignore cover saves and re-rolling to wound, or to add an extra shot making a heavy 1 lascannon into heavy 2. This with the combination of the drak reapers within the squad make for a very deadly round of ranged shooting
Fire Dragons
Put the exarch on a quad gun. With the synergy of Tank Hunter and Crack Shot you have become the bane of flyers. The Quad gun now hits on a 2+ re-rolling misses and re-rolling armor penetration rolls in addition to ignoring cover saves, this translates to no more jink saves as they count as cover. No fliers means no problem target light vehicles and hordes, re-rolling to wound and ignoring cover. Unfortunately this means that the fire dragons who are taken have little support to the exarch as their weapns have a range of only 12".
Letting The Allies man the guns
While looking over the Eldar Codex for even more synergy, it came to my attention that there is even greaer potential in these Battle brothers. Oe thing to remember when handling the Exarchs is that certain powers affect whatever weapon the model is manning
Dark Reapers
The Exarch can choose to apply fast shot or crack shot to the weapon he is choosing to fire, with BS 5 the Exarch can hit on a 2+ choosing to ignore cover saves and re-rolling to wound, or to add an extra shot making a heavy 1 lascannon into heavy 2. This with the combination of the drak reapers within the squad make for a very deadly round of ranged shooting
Fire Dragons
Put the exarch on a quad gun. With the synergy of Tank Hunter and Crack Shot you have become the bane of flyers. The Quad gun now hits on a 2+ re-rolling misses and re-rolling armor penetration rolls in addition to ignoring cover saves, this translates to no more jink saves as they count as cover. No fliers means no problem target light vehicles and hordes, re-rolling to wound and ignoring cover. Unfortunately this means that the fire dragons who are taken have little support to the exarch as their weapns have a range of only 12".
Tactica
The Gunline
Bubble wrapping
This tactic involves placing a fire warrior (or kroot) unit around the broadside keeping the broadside from being assaulted, if things get desperate you can go to ground providing your fire warriors with a 2+ save as they are behind the aegis.
Whack a mole
Essentially you spread the line from end to end and take 6 different fire warrior units behind them. You then draw fire from the enemy while going to ground with a 2+ save, your other non-threatened units fire back. Unfortunately your fire warriors have to be clumped together becoming vulnerable to barrage and templates. I’ve also noticed that if an opponent knows how to move around terrain he can deny LOS to units he is not firing at.
Mech Tau
Whack a mole
Essentially you spread the line from end to end and take 6 different fire warrior units behind them. You then draw fire from the enemy while going to ground with a 2+ save, your other non-threatened units fire back. Unfortunately your fire warriors have to be clumped together becoming vulnerable to barrage and templates. I’ve also noticed that if an opponent knows how to move around terrain he can deny LOS to units he is not firing at.
Mech Tau
The Sea Turtle
The Aegis defense line serves only one purpose, to boost the shroud on vehicles if the opponent goes first. Other than that the added +2 to G2G is essentially worthless as you are turbo-boosting your armor to block LOS to your infantry.
The Aegis defense line serves only one purpose, to boost the shroud on vehicles if the opponent goes first. Other than that the added +2 to G2G is essentially worthless as you are turbo-boosting your armor to block LOS to your infantry.
Ninja Tau
This is a relatively new Tactic that went without a name throughout 5th edition. Essentially what you did was place most of your army into reserves, hold them back and then deepstrike into the most advantageous postions. For a better explanation of this tactic please go here. With The Aegis Defense Line what you want to do is take the comms relay and a Tetra Squadron. Ideally you are setting up your side second. It is during this time that you set up your defense line out of LOS of your opponent and reveal that most of your army is going into reserve. You have your Tetra turbo boost and you have your fire warriors go to ground providing both with a 2+ cover save. You do this until you are ready to call in your reserves, at which time you position your tetra. The comms relay allows re-rolling the reserves roll. The tetra allows you to re-roll the scatter dice for your deep strikers. Voila, your opponent can do nothing to stop the onslaught.
InspirationFor those of you that hate the idea of using Imperial terrain here are a few pictures of Tau defense lines that I found while scouring the internets. Click here to see an awesome project
Thought for the day
A Farseer can not cast Fortune on a battle brother unit. Can a farseer cast fortune upon himself while attached to a battle brother unit? Would the effects carry over if he can? Do you dream of re-rollable 2+ cover saves?
