The Tetra: Background and Tactica

Tetra by Dal'Yth Dude at dakkdakka.com

Apparently, the Fire Warriors that bolster the ranks of the Pathfinders have worked out a deal that they will never ever have to walk to a battlefield, ever.  The only way to currently field our markerlight wielding foot soldier is to either
A: Buy a squad with a transport attached to it.
B: Buy a tetra that has two pathfinder pilots that will never ever get out.

For  those of you that have never seen this gem, i'm not surprised, it's not featured in the Tau Empire rulebook.  If you're one of those players that refuses to play with or against Forge World models, or you know people that are,  I would like to give you a little tid bit, play the game the way you want and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  But the skyray and piranha both started out on Forge World, which is just another part of Games Workshop.  So by refusing to play you are not only denying finely detailed sculpts onto the battlefield, you are also denying yourself (as the General  or the Adversary) a new gaming experience that is encouraged by GW.  For a Forge World Kit the model comes at a reasonable price for a pack of 2.  If you don't have the funds, scratch build your own, it's an awesome addition.

For those of you that didn't know, you can find the most recent official rules for the Tetra in Forge World's Tau update found here.

For those of you that didn't know Forge World released another update to use their miniatures in 6th edition, the update for the Tetra can be found in "Vehicles Update - 20/07/2012" located on the Forge World download page which can be found here.

Background
If you haven't read my last post then you don't know that I like to give a brief history lesson on Tau Empire's Units and rules.  The Tetra made it's first appearance back in Imperial Amour 3: The Taros Campaign.  Back then, for the same amount of points you would spend today you would get a scouting unit that had a single twinlinked pulse rifle and a single markerlight.  Which made for a really cool looking waste of points on the table (probably to help us get ready for every unit in 5th edition).  Other than this, the Tetra didn't really receive any love from GW like it's other Forgeworld counterparts until the last couple of months before the release of 6th edition. This was found on a footnote in a basement next to a bathroom in some random small government building in a town whose name no one can pronounce because no cares to visit.  Well it probably wasn't that hard, but still the release was pretty subtle and went mostly unnoticed. 

Tactica/Review
Now for the nuts and bolts behind this beauty.  The Tetra has received an amazing upgrade for absolutely no points cost.  For those of you that think this is unfair I have a few very choice and perhaps offensive words,

Kabalite, Guardsmen, Blood Angel, Psycannon, Flamer of Tzeentch, Winged Hive Tyrant, Boyz, Dire Avenger and  Plague Marine.

Now that we have that out of the way, the Tetra takes up a Fast Attack choice which you would probably use for other pathfinders, Vespid, or Gun Drones (XV-9, Remora Drone Fighters, and Gnarloc Riders if you want to consider other Forge World Options).
The most obvious buff we saw with this guy was the "High Intensity Markerlight". This meant that each tetra can fire four markerlight shots in the form of Heavy 4 .  Unlike Pathfinders on foot who have to choose whether to stay put and fire under a limited field of vision or move a measly 6 inches and fire snapshots, the Tetra is a Fast Skimmer.  This means that it can zoom around enemy positions, and that if you go 2nd, you can keep it out of sight during deployment.  Assuming the enemy firing is over 12 inches away, The Tetra also picks up it's cover save and moves it around with it, this is because the Disruption Pod is included in the price of the vehicle.  Just to make things better you can up the BS of the Tetra up to BS 4 for only 5 points with the targeting array, this means you now have markerlights that hit on a 3+.
The next Upgrade we saw was the Marker Beacon, this means that any Tau Units deploying onto a spot visible to the Tetra may re-roll the scatter dice.  Those of you with bad luck when it comes to deep striking can rest a little easier knowing that you hit the mark over half of the time and almost never need to roll on the mishap table.
Now that the great stuff is out of the way, let's not forget the little things, the twin linked pulse rifle.  Being a Fast Vehicle you will more than likely be able to use this as well with 1 or 2 shots at S5.  Being twin linked this little guy can pester your enemy knocking off the occasional Muhreen.  Too often have I seen people forget to use this weapon because they got overly excited with all their markerlight hits. 
As much as I would like to say that we can now drop markerlights onto multiple units when you have more that one tetra in a squadron, this is impossible.  The latest 6th edition FAQ has killed the Target Lock rendering it useless on anything in the Tau Empire (If you want to see the FAQ for yourself the link can be found here).
Sensor Spines seem to be a little more viable on terrain heavy maps, but seem to be a little overpriced for such a cheap model, the same could be said for Decoy Launchers as giving extra survivability to vehicles during this edition has become less beneficial than in 5th edition.

When you deploy your deep strikers you can use your extra maneuverability during your first turn to draw a line of sight behind your enemies lines.  When your units arrive you can drop them behind your enemy (when you deploy your deep strikers start with the points you want to land farthest away from the Tetra, so that when your units arrive they don't block the line of sight of your other deep striking units).  After your units land you can drop your markerlight hits onto enemies in the back while your Elites and Fast attackers that just arrived can have an enhanced Jump Shoot Jump (you can use the 2D6 jetpack move the turn you arrive via deep strike, as long as it doesn't take you into an assault).

Ideas from the web
If you need some inspiration for conversions i've seen some pretty awesome ideas using the piranha as a base, go ahead and google it.  Remember this game is meant to be fun, play it any way you want. But there are other players, so if you're not at a tourney try not to be a WYSIWYG wizard.

Random Thought For The Day
If you assault my Pathfinders and think that i'm just overwatching my markerlights as an act of useless spite, remember this, markerlights dissapear at the end of my shooting phase.  This isn't the shooting phase and it's not even my turn.  Have fun during my next shooting phase with a gift from my dead Pathfinders.