Content by Me-Drek, Written by Me-Drek, Edited by T0nkaTruckDriver
When running a Mech Tau army the Stealth Team will, in most cases, take on a slightly different role than they normally play in a more traditional Tau force. Per the Tau codex, Stealth Teams are the “Lone Wolves” of the Tau army, and are not factored into the overall strategy of the commander. That's not quite true for the Shas'O of a Mech Tau Cadre.
Arguably one of the most dangerous units in the Tau arsenal, they're very nasty in a Mech Cadre. That said, their primary role is serious infantry hunting, and that's something a lot of other things do well also... though, admittedly, none do it quite as well as Stealth Teams. Their Stealth Field allows them to engage flank elements without fear of concentrated return fire. Taking them is an exercise in balance, however - they can be very strong in the right circumstances, but if facing a hardier opponant they can often be the proverbial knife at a gunfight. Make sure you keep their best roles firmly in mind:
Primary: Anti Infantry (and they're very good at it) shooting
Secondary: Light Vehicle shooting
Stealth Suits are a challenging, but potentially rewarding unit to put on the battlefield. They require that you gain a certain level of skill "eyeballing" 18, and 24 inches. Unfortunately, many Tau commanders get rather frustrated the first few times they play with XV15s. The learning curve for these units is steep, and in my experience centered on understanding how to use the Team’s special rules.
Stealth Team Special Rules:
- Infiltrate: This ability is also a potential weakness if you are not careful when deploying your Stealth Team. Unless you want your Stealth Teams to get torn apart you should avoid deploying them outside your own army’s zone of influence*, where they will quickly be swarmed by the other side, or shot to pieces, or otherwise made to be dead. This is also a problem with using Deep Strike effectively, so you can apply this advice (if you choose to heed it) to both Infiltrating and Deep Strike.
Infiltration (usually) allows you to deploy within 18” of the enemy. Since that is max range for the XV15’s burst cannon this seems like a great idea. It is against an Imperial Guard army, which is slow and cumbersome. Against any unit that can move 12” (jump packs, truk boyz, bikes etc.) this is almost certain death, especially if the other guy gets first turn. They can usually move 12” and assault 6”. Well hey, that’s 18”! In many scenarios who gets first turn is often determined after deployment, so be careful. Furthermore, since you can move forward 6" and still fire 18", there's really no reason to deploy at 18"... 23-24" is just fine.
- Deep Strike: A somewhat risky maneuver, but if executed correctly can be crippling to your opponent. In my experience, Deep Strike will always produce game-deciding results. Its just a question of which army benefits. As mentioned above, you want to be careful about how you deep strike your XV15 suits. By virtue of the fact that you are deep striking you are being bold and aggressive, but that does not mean being stupid. Sometimes you may feel forced to deep strike your Stealth Team into an exposed position in order to deal with some particularly nasty threat that is having its way with your cadre. Personally though, I try to predetermine what units and/or strategic location will be the target for my deep striking units and when they do arrive, I try to position them so that they're sheltered as much as possible from return fire. For example, if an Imperial Basilisk is the target of my Stealth Team, I will try to drop them on the table in a position where they can both fire at the basilisk's weaker rear armor and use the dirty great tank as cover from the rest of the other guy's army. The somewhat random nature of the deep strike rules will occasionally make this sort of precision deployment impossible, so be prepared to have your Stealth's armored butts hanging in the breeze. For this reason, infiltration is generally a better choice than Deep Strike for XV15s.
- Stealth Field: This little piece of kit is not to be relied upon, except to shield your Stealth team from distant units (>30” away). The average range rolled to spot Stealthsuits is 18”-24”, which is also the effective range of your guns. If your Stealth Team can fire upon an enemy unit, chances are good that the enemy will be able to return fire. Something to watch out for with stealth fields are "guess" weapons, like mortars. Per the Night Fight rules if they do not roll high enough to spot your Stealth Team they can still shoot at them, but roll 2D6 for scatter instead of 1D6. It won't matter at all if the scatter die rolls a "hit" though. Where the stealth field does come in quite handy is in those unfortunate circumstances where you find yourself being assaulted. For the first round of combat at least, the Stealth Team fights first, the Shas'ui all have two attacks and they have a nice 3+ save.
How you build your Stealth Team(s) is entirely dependent upon what role you want them to play in your army. In general, however, there are two main ways to field XV15s.
Stealths En Masse
In this role, Stealth Teams occupy a battlefield role normally filled by Troop choices. Two maxed out squads for a solid anti-infantry element that is durable and mobile and can reliably engage anything up to 3+ saves.
Size: Six Suits per squad for maximum offensive capability and survivability.
Team Leader or Shas'vre?: As with Crisis Teams, the stat line improvements on the Shas'vre only come into play during close combat, which I am going to try like heck to avoid. Therefore, it's generally better to stick with the initial 5pts to make one member of the Stealth Team a Team Leader if you're looking for access to the armory.
Drones: While not really useful for "taking the hit" in a maxed out Stealth Team, drones can still lend an additional 2 shots per turn to the fusillade. Since the Carbines on the Drones have the same stat line as the Stealth Burst Cannons (18" range, assault weapons), the two lend themselves very well to operating together. Adding a couple drones can also force your opponent to take some pinning checks. In close combat the drone's high initiative will usually allow them to strike first or simultaniously with the enemy. If you've got 27 points left over, this is a good way to spend them.
Bonding: Generally, bonding isn't points efficient in a well constructed and well played Tau army. However, if you're lacking an Ethereal and your Stealth Team(s) play a crucial role in your battlefield plan, bonding can make sense to keep them on the table and fighting. Once you've mastered hovering these guys around 23-24", you'll likely not be taking many casualties and will have little use for bonding.
When you are all finished, a 6 man Stealth Team with 2 gun drones costs about the same as a mounted 12 man Firewarrior squad. On a hot dismount, the Firewarriors plus transport will put out 9 more S5 shots than the Stealth Team, however, the Stealths can jump-shoot-jump, infiltrate, and deep strike. The Stealths have better armor, but fewer numbers, more mobility but shorter ranged weapons. Basically it all sort of evens out.
Stealths En Annoyance
For those Shas'O who do not wish to run multiple and/or large Stealth Teams, the battlefield role of these troops and how you deploy them changes. The most common Stealth Team used when *not* employing these troops in large numbers is the Four-man Team. In many ways the smaller Stealth Teams are much more difficult to play than the six-man team with drones. Only a single casualty will force a Morale check and your overall firepower is much reduced.
Stealth Team Roles
The only real difference between running a large and small Stealth Team(s) is the ammount of caution a commander must exercise. Because the smaller team is less resilient and less able to inflict damage upon an enemy unit the scope of their operations should be curtailed accordingly. I'll try to run through some basic tactics for Stealth teams, noting which type of Stealth Team is better suited for each method, where apropriate.
Deployment
For any jet-pack equiped Tau units, mobility is the key to their effectiveness and survivability. It is not enough to deploy your Steath Team in a location where they will be able to hit the enemy. You should also try and ensure that they have room to maneuver. There will be occasions where you maneuver your XV15s or Deep Strike them into a position to deal with a critical threat but that also guarantees the team will be ripped to shreds. Most times this occurs because the Tau Commander did not think ahead to the next turn. Always try to position your units so that they have somewhere to run.
Flankers
The term Flankers has popped up in recent White Dwarf articles as a descriptive for light vehicles (landspeeders, sentinels, jet bikes, etc.) which are best suited to harass the fringes of your opponent's army. Stealth Teams also fall nicely into this category. Smaller Stealth Teams are easier to work in this capacity because their size makes them more maneuverable and better able to exploit limited terrain.
Anti-Infantry
Both large and small teams are good for this. The larger teams will be more likely to inflict more casualties by virtue of their greater firepower. however, the smaller teams will likely draw less return fire, as they will be seen as much less of a threat. Regardless of Stealth Team size, they will be far more effective against low save troops (Orks, IG, Guardians) than Space Marines or Necrons. All in all, the S5 AP5 burst cannon is an excellent weapon, promising good results against even the toughest enemy infantry.
Try to stick to the edge of the enemy force to avoid mulitple units targetting your Stealths. While this may limit your targets or mean that you ignore a more valuable unit hidden deep within the enemy formation don't worry. The fact that you are nipping at his flanks will be enough to drive your opponent nuts.
Anti-Vehicle
Smaller Stealth teams should avoid vehicles whenever possible. The four-man team's 12 S5 shots have a fair chance of hurting light vehicles or killer kans, but for the most part they should steer clear of heavy armor.
The six-man, drone equipped teams are certainly capable of engaging AV11, but it is still a good idea to leave the big tanks to your Railguns. With 20 S5 shots, you have a 111% chance of destroying a vehicle if you can target AV10 rear armor. In general, however, the randomness of the deep strike scatter die combined with the usefulness of the Stealth Team in other roles makes this tactic risky at best.
Psyche-Wars
Always try to keep your Stealth Teams (and any jump-shoot-jump units) in a position where they can pop out, shoot, then hide again. This drives people bonkers! It will force them to divert valuable resources to root out your Stealth Team, thus reducing the amount of fire being directed at the main body of your force.