hi everyone,

so, i've ordered my battlesuit commander for my army. but i'm stuck with how to set up his weapons:
so far my plan is: twin linked missile pods (because it looks badass) , another weapon , hardwired multi tracker, hardwired drone controllerr (with marker and shield drones) and possibly Iridium Armour.

so my question is, what other weapon would compiment the missile pods? idealy i'd like one of the two special issue weapons but anything goes i think.

I've also got big plans for converting the model, but i think that's best for lower concourse?.


I'm relativly new to both tau and 40k, so please bare with me if i'm just being dumb .

For the second weapon, it really depends on your intended role and opponents. As a general purpose weapon the plasma gun is a decent complement; it has the next best range to complement the MPs, similar strength, making it potentially effective against light armor (unlike a burst cannon, it can pen the front armor of a rhino). It will wound most troops on a 2 and prevents armor, and feel no pain, saves.
If you want to save points and go for anti infantry, burst cannon has rate of fire, and for anti armor a fusion gun is best, but short ranged.
Airburst Frag projector is a good choice vs orks and nids, taking away their cover saves with a big footprint.

I generally run either MP, plasma and a shield, or an XV-81 (SMS) with Airburst Frag and MP depending on points (rocks in cityfights!). Stim Injector is a good investment. The mobility reduction of Iridium armor is "inconvenient" if you use your suits as a mobile reserve/strike force.

Best answer though is experiment and find out which suits your playstyle best. The preferred weapon of another person may not fit with how you use your army

my big plan is to mostly have seeker missiles to take out anything big, so markerlights on everything

one big question? are the special issue weapons worth their points cost? i would like to use them just because, they are there tbh, and i think although it might not be the best choice for battle, giving the commander something different helps him stand out and say "hey, i've got this massive gun, don't mess with me!"

which of the special issue weapons would compliment the missilepods most?

As far as Special Issue weapons go, I find the AFP is pretty deadly against horde armies, and moderate against other things. I've never used the CIB and never plan to. In my opinion, it just seems sucky, though people who have actually used it may disagree. I also agree with Lord Mayhem about Plasma Rifles, though. They would probably be the wisest choice to take, over all (depending on your play style and common opponents, of course).

P.S. This forum generally frowns upon bad language, and even censored bad language as it implies the coarse word. I would suggest editing it from your post.

thanks for the heads up

Hi and welcome.

I'd suggest having a read here: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=13625 as it really helped me when "rebuilding" my tau army.

Also who do you intend to be fighting against? Or is your Tau commander meant for " beat all comers"?. (Sorry in advance if I just said or spelt the last bit wrong).

When I was new to Tau, I often played around with different weapon systems. As a beginner I would suggest using Plasma rifle and missile pod. It's not because it's the best combo or anything like that. It's because it's the most forgiving if you make mistakes. Once you played a few games you may change the weapon load out.

Also is your Commader on there own or with bodyguard? Do you see your commander as an offence unit or a defensive support unit?

I think once we get that info we can better support you with an answer.

Good luck.
Orgun

thanks for the link, am reading through that atm.

at least for the near future, i'd rather keep the commander without the bodyguard, as i've only got a small force, and i think putting that many points into one unit might be a bit OTT.

i really want my commander to be an attacking force, taking out the big threats on the board ASAP in the game, letting the fire warriors and piranhas take out whats left.

thanks for the help so far guys, really useful so far.

I've sent you a PM regarding a build on your Commander. I sent it as a PM as I've included point costs.
Any idea on what armies you will be facing? How many points is the game? 500,750,1000,1500poibts etc.
Good luck with the Commander build.

Orgun.

So, Because I plan on using my commander in a similar fashion, (As an attacking force, basically an extra XV8, this strategy is as of yet untested) I did away with the Iridium armor and have the following Load-out. Twin-linked Plasma Rifles, Missle pod, HW Multi-tracker, you could do something similar, basically swapping the MP's and PR's. I can understand your want for the shield drone, the 4+ invulnerable save is useful.

This brings up a question I had, does the shield drone confer it's save to the model it's attached to, or is it just to itself?

Using the original posters example, would the shield drone confer it's save to his commander, or would it just take it's save when a wound is placed on it?

Anyway, back on topic, I suggest trying out different loads in a trial games either against yourself (Using your other models as "Count-as" and using the stats in the back of the BRB) or playing a few skirmish games against various armies at your local shop (Or if your army isn't ready yet observing a few games) and make your decision based on what you see. Tau aren't readily played, so by observing games you would be scouting not only potential enemies, but also seeing how the players run their armies and would be able to better make a decision on what your third weapon should be, and it doesn't have to be a weapon at all, you could just add another piece of war-gear, like externalizing the MT, or DC and just running with what you have.

Another thing to consider is that a Commander has a better BS than a normal suit. He also pays the same cost for weapons in spite of this. If you wanted to run a suit in your army with expensive, powerful weapons with a limited number of shots, like plasma or fusion, allocating them to your commander may be the way to go. It is a personal choice though - I run mine with a fusion gun which frees up horde control (which can have more variables than simply finishing something off) for lesser BS suits. The fusion gun is more reliable in the hands of my Commander. Missile pods are always great in my book though... Good luck on the battlefield!

thanks for the great advise guys!

Orgun, some very good advise, especially in the pm, a flamer seems like a lot of fun for this HQ, and keeps it different to most of the fireknife combos out there! also, lol at the visuals of a plasma rifle!


So, thanks for the advise guys, think i've got it sorted out for what i'm after going to go for:
Twin linked missile pods.
Flamer (to spice things up a bit, strike a bit of fear, and keep things cheap!)
hardwired multi tracker, hardwired drone controller (with marker and/or shield drones depending on the enemy!)

now to get modelling! got some big modeling plans for this guy!

Will definatly keep in mind all the advise that you've all said for future reference too

Cheers guys!

Just remember that if you choose to have a marker drone, you can move and shoot with it. But if you have moved and shoot with it, you cannot move again in the assault phase and you will have to wait until your next turn to move, which can leave your Commander exposed.

Also have think with what role the marker drone going to play in your army, as your commander will often but jumping all over the place to deal with targets.

Orgun

i will keep that in mind, luckily drones are obviously not set in stone, so if i don't get along with a marker drone after a few battles i can just not use him next time!

No. Sadly, it does not confer it's invulnerable save. It's just there so that when you get hit by that pesky little Insta-Gib Weapon ignoring your armor, it'll be your expendable little buddy in place of your commander, but with a 1 in 2 chance of shaking it off. Also, you probably could have found this by doing a search up the top, so if you hadn't noticed that before, it will probably save you some time in further queries.

@Ra'Cliffe

Flamers tend to perform reasonably with Twin-Missiles, so it's not a bad combo - as long as you focus on the 'pods and don't get too excited about jumping in front of an Ork mob (remember, it's your backup)!
I would also have to agree with Warp7pider though. Your commanders big advantage is that he has a higher BS. Sadly, Twin-Missiles and Flamers are probably the least useful weapons to exploit this. You already have a 3/4 chance of hitting on BS3, so 'pods don't really need much improvement, and flamers don't even use BS. It's your choice though, so don't worry too much!
I would suggest staying away from a Shas'O with this set-up though. You're really paying for a more durable BS5 crisis suit, which in this case isn't that useful. A Shas'El wouldn't suffer as much from this.

i was planning Shas'El at the moment anyway, as i figure the big points 'O will be better suited for bigger armies later on, rather than one mega powerhouse in a 500 - 750 pt game.

I like to use the xv8 commanders with bodyguards, as crisis suits with more options (better ballistic skill mostly). Usually I take two Els with body guards, one group with plasma and missile pods and one with plasma and fusion. I put a target lock on the commanders and a couple of shield drones, they are pricy but are very effective.

Not too many people are into it but I think the ion blaster is nice too as it usually kills a marine or two and puts out a lot of shots to take out hordes (but not as much as the AFP).

I would recommend looking at some of the forgeworld variants for alternatives (as long as the gaming group is willing). the XV-81 immediately comes to mind for an excellent horde control unit. Paired with missile pods, your commander becomes a solid competitor against the Predator on his own point for point, to say nothing of pairing him with a bodyguard, and with CIB or AFP, he becomes a horde grinder through sheer number of potential wounds, CIB giving that slight punch via low AP, and AFP pairing nicely with SMS for LOS denying and cover ignoring punishment all in one package.

My experience with this AFP loadout is that the number of wounds he can inflict on GEq infantry with the normal S5 weapons you already bring elsewhere in your army negates the need for expensive hammerheads (you'll rarely ever need to actually strip cover or boost BS on this guy), and simply pairing him with deathrain bodyguards and a target lock helps to ensure whole sale slaughter. Against marines, its a tougher sell, but he can keep up the wound count so you can still expect to remove some power armor.

I'm unfamiliar with this ruling, last time I checked marker drones pick up the unit type of their owner, as a commander is a jet infantry model the drone would also be a jet infantry model, this would grant it relentless (allowing it to move and shoot it's heavy weapon) but would also allow it to use the jump back move in the assault phase, I cannot see any reason why the drone would prevent this jump back move from being allowed (or indeed any assault move being disallowed).

That is correct. Drones attached to jetpack infantry become jetpack infantry and furthermore they do not remove the jetpack status of any unit they join.

I would suggest Plasma Rifle or AFP. The BS4 will help most with those two weapons. (And it's wasted on a Flamer!)

Between the two, I personally prefer the AFP, because it's more likely than not for your opponent to have cover. (Plasma does still work wonders against Feel No Pain units, though.)