I have been contemplating buying an Aegis and have heard people say it works great with kroot in front to gain a 4+ cover and sniper drones sitting behind it for a 2+. Some people have also said that they take it, stick broadsides behind it and not bother with shield drones.

Personally I proffer go as mobile as possible (like our fluff) with mech infantry and suits, but in 6th should we lean to more static gunlines or should we remain as mobile as in previous editions?

When I run tau, I tend to run a more hunter cadre over a static gunline. I still use the Defense line with a quad gun, because you're semi-static for the first three turns, enough for a quad gun to down a flier, or at least upgrade a basic gun.

The thing I find that helps is you can place the defense line in four spots over the battlefield. If you read the entry with the defense line, the key words are "Up To". Really worth it if you want to make islands that are safe havens for your JSJ.

Thats cool I had not thought of making a few small islands out of them. Would work well with my broadsides as I am taking small squads at the moment, along with sniper teams.

If I'm understanding your layout correct, you'll have the kroot between your sniper team and their target, therefore giving the target a cover save.

Sorry I miss read something and thought if you had kroot in base contact with the Aegis but not behind it they still got a 4 plus cover save.
So no I would not in fact have them between my sniper team and the enemy.

I'm obviously not picturing your layout then. Nevermind

Haha don't worry about it, no kroot now just 3 sniper teams in 3 tiny little islands of frustration.

Yes i take Aegis lines in almost every game now, for a few primary reasons.

First i use them to drop my FW's in cover which is usually far enough forward i don't need to move thme out of it and can just snipe at 30". Then i drop my broadsides behind another because they have the option of going to ground for a 2+ save which saves me on shield drones. Finally since i bring Eldar allies Eldrad looks fantastic standing next to a Icarus Lascannon... Flyers will die often before they spend a whole turn on the board. Also putting Eldrad and 2 Broadsides together in a squad that had Ignore cover every turn and with eldrad rerolling everything... it was pretty funny to just watch things die.

It's really finicky whether the ADL is worth it or not. You have to place player-purchased fortifications before normal terrain and that can give your opponent an opportunity to drop a nice piece of terrain 3" behind your carefully placed defense lines making it difficult to place units in a spot to benefit from the defense line, or in front of it, totally blocking your line of sight from the firing position you just set up.

If you don't plan on using the gun emplacement, you can just place an aegis defense line on your side of the board during terrain deployment and get one for "free" instead.

This is of variable importance however, as most "friendly" games likely won't have an opponent who is going to be ruthless enough to just plant a nice solid cube in front of your quad gun totally blocking it's ability to shoot at his storm ravens and allied vendettas and many tournaments will use the Narrative Terrain option so all the tables are the same each time a game is played on them.

Yeah i have never really figured out why you deploy fort after terrain... luckily most people i play with are not there to win at the expense of being decent people

But yes if people in your group will do that maybe don't take them...

Since my last little tournament I played in, I now take the defensive line with every army. The main reason why I take it is because you are never guaranteed any hard cover in your deployment zone. I found this out the hard way and lost a match mainly because I was forced to deploy the bulk of my army in open ground. It's points cost is low enough that it does not make a huge impact on my list, likewise for larger games adding a quad canon to the mix for some anti-air options is nice as well.

Thurgen

On the concern about terrain placement. The one nice thing is your fortification counts "against" the terrain density limit, so if you roll for 2 pieces of terrain in that 2 by 2 section, one piece is taken by your fortification, so only one other piece my be placed in that area. (Page 120 upper left under Set Up Fortification) So while a player can still place terrain that blocks line of sight, at max only 2 other pieces can be places in that 2 by 2 zone as well as a chance that it is the only piece allowed there. Also all be it minor, no terrain can ever be places closer then 3 inches. This helps a little to alleviate that concern. Also when playing tournaments where the terrain is already placed, it becomes a nice strategic advantage to be able to place a piece of terrain freely in your deployment zone.

I just went to my BYB and I can't see where it specifically says that. I was in a game where my opponent claimed that it wasn't and, as I couldn't find a good rule that said otherwise I let him fill my area with terrain.

Which worked in my favor anyway

-------------------------------------------------------------
On to the main point I do take them on occasion, mostly so I have guaranteed hard cover for my broadsides. I generally deploy them in a single long line going across my deployment zone, fairly centered. It gives me some good choke points, good hard cover, and good firing positions.

If I can do so, I generally will either put an objective near the quad-gun, and camp a unit of fire warriors or kroot in such a way that I can claim both the objective as well as man the gun, or just man the gun & fall back to claim the objective around turn 5.

My preference after that is to put a broadside team leader adjacent to the quad gun with a HWMT so he can fire a lot of big guns. The shield drones sit in one of the little "dents" on the line so they're technically the closer model.

Worse case scenario is that I stretch the broadside unit around to that a shield drone is technically manning the gun

Since I have seen it mentioned twice... I just wanted to inquire, why do you all run quad guns over Lascannons? Personally (and after running both) my results are much better with the las. I think there just about even at AV 12 which is what i normally face? (BS3) and if you can take an allie on it for BS 4+ the icarus is better? Not to mention cheaper.

This is the reason i like an Icarus though... cause more often i want a las and rail on the same target then a Rail and Quad

Very good points and worth a discussion on its own.

For myself it falls into a few different reasons:

1) I roll 1s. Often.
2) I'd rather cut the power a little while upping the volume of fire. 4 shots vs 1 shot, plus twin-linking, makes my day nicer.

Let's say I'm desperate and shooting with the shield drone. I have a 33% chance of hitting with the Icarus, and about a 55% chance of hitting on each shot (so just over half the shots) with the Quad.

Taking that a step further against AV 12 I have a 16% chance to at least glance and a 50% chance to pen with the Icarus - so 66% chance to strip a HP. The Quad has worse odds about 33% to strip an HP (half glance, half pen). But again - twice the shots have landed so for me were' still about even.

Here's the rub - if the flyer takes evasive action, or the ground pounder has cover, they still have a save. This is where the VoF for me comes in on the quad gun - the more saves you have to make, the more chances I have to hit.

Now... they ever come out with an AV14 flyer you can be sure that I will have the Icarus on in a heartbeat!


I don't always know that I'll get to have the Broadside team on the guns though - I can keep things flexible and and loose, rather than cursing when Giant Building lands in front of my gun.

The las cannon is great, but its a 1 shot. The quad gun is 4 shots that are twin-linked. Its not as powerful, but its far more reliable against light vehicles, which flyers and almost all basic transports fall under.

Edit: Ninja'd in a far more comprehensive manner... =p

I guess the issue i have ran into is that with the # of flyers im usually up against i cant afford to kill them stripping jull points. i need to actually get Pens through and also i need to increase the chance they will blow up (AP2)

So i suppose if you are playing with people that will be blocking the LOS/You cant be sure to have something BS 4+ on the Gun the quad makes sense. Lucky i don't have those issues so I guess i will stick with my Eldrad Death cannon (The icarus seems perfectly suited to allies imo)

Most definitely urza.

Heck - to add, if I was going to a tournament where the terrain was pre-laid I can all but assure you I would be taking an Icarus just for the fact I don't have to worry about "random mountains" popping up in front of my gun line.

The one time I use Aegis defence lines is when I include a Quadgun/Icarus gun and use ethereal honour guards to man it. Other than that I sometimes take the line and have kroot with 3 krootox and a quadgun.

Those are the only time I use krootox, defense lines or honour guards.

Personally I'd prefer to use Barracudas. I'm trying to find two but I've been exploring third party options since forgeworld charges 100+ dollars per Barracuda. So far no success