White Dwarf #263 (US), Crisis! Tau Battlesuit Teams. A look at the strategies of the Tau battlesuits. by Pete Haines and Phil Kelly XV02 Pilot Battlesuit • XV8 Crisis Battlesuit ( XV8-02 Crisis Iridium Battlesuit • XV81 Crisis Battlesuit • XV84 Crisis Battlesuit • XV85 Enforcer Battlesuit • XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit • XV89 Crisis Battlesuit • XV88 Broadside Battlesuit) • Stealthsuits ( XV15 Stealthsuit • XV22 Stealthsuit • XV25 Stealthsuit • XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit) • XV46 Vanguard Void Battlesuit • XV9 Hazard Battlesuit • Class 10 Battlesuits ( XV104 Riptide Battlesuit • XV107 R'varna Battlesuit • XV109 Y'vahra Battlesuit) • KV128 Stormsurge • KX139 Ta'unar Supremacy Armour All T'au Battlesuits represent the pinnacle of the advanced technologies that have been developed by the Earth Caste, and often wield powerful heavy weapons which are complemented by Battlesuit Support Systems and varying types of T'au wargear -- tools that allow them to defeat any foe and master any situation. A pilot ensconced in a battlesuit can weather some of the harshest conditions the elements can muster, glide through the void, and annihilate foes he could never hope to vanquish otherwise. XV104 Riptide Battlesuit – The XV104 Riptide Battlesuit is a newly-developed, experimental heavy battlesuit that towers over all other known T'au Battlesuits save for its variant, the XV107 R'varna. The XV104 was the latest model to arrive on the front lines of the Third Sphere Expansion, and its deadly combination of heavy protection, supreme mobility and devastating firepower makes it an extremely powerful asset for the forces of the T'au Empire. T'au Battlesuit size comparison, from left to right: Fire Warrior in Combat Armour, XV25 Stealthsuit, XV8 Crisis Battlesuit, XV8-05 Enforcer Crisis Battlesuit, XV88 Broadside Battlesuit, XV104 Riptide Battlesuit, and XV02 Pilot Battlesuit

My preference is to use Ghostkeels or Aun’va on midfield objectives to force enemy damage dealers to get within 12″ to kill them. If they don’t then I either get primary or they contest the objective with higher amounts of OC which I then kill and reduce the amounts of units they will have late game. Or they send enough damage to kill your lone operative on the objective and you then kill part of their damage dealing core while still having your key units alive (usually a 6x Crisis Battlesuit unit does the killing so it can strike and fade to safety and not risk you losing any units). All XV8 Crisis Battlesuits also greatly augment the natural physical strength of their pilot, and grant the warrior within the Battlesuit the ability to smash apart light armoured vehicles in close combat, if necessary. XV8 Crisis Battlesuits also feature retractable fingers built into their forearms for use in more delicate -- and often non-combat -- tasks.XV8-02 Iridium Battlesuit After the death of Commander Pridestar to a sniper's bullet and the subsequent Tau defeat during the Klodate Worlds Suppression, the Earth Caste developed an experimental iridium alloy and produced only enough for a small series of Battlesuits. While it offers Tau Commanders and their Bodyguards optimal protection, it is a luxury that few can afford, though Commander Dawnstar of the Dal'yth Sept is known to call upon them.

If they succeed in that demanding role, they will go on to be assigned to a T'au Commander's Battlesuit Bodyguard Team, and eventually will become a T'au Commander themselves once they attains the rank of shas'el. By the time a Fire Caste warrior has reached this stage, they are a veteran of many battles, extremely experienced in the way of mobile warfare and equipped with a set of wargear perfectly suited to support their style of combat. Further service and success in the role of shas'el will then lead to a promotion to the highest Fire Caste rank of shas'o. Battlesuits fulfil all manner of tactical roles in a T’au Hunter Cadre. From covert ops in the compact XV25 Stealth Battlesuits to the punishing heavy fire support provided by the XV104 Riptide , there truly is a battlesuit for every occasion. Of course the suits are really just platforms to mount a ton of different weapons on. Each suit can mount 3 weapons, a suit system and up to two support drones, with up to 6 suits in a unit thats nearly infinite combinations. Crisis suits have access to a number of deadly weapons, from heavy hitters like Plasma Rifles, now upgraded, and Fusion Blasters, to specialist high right of fire weapons like T’au Flamers or Airburst Fragmentation Projectors. A large unit of Crisis suits can put out a really terrifying amount of fire power. Becoming an XV8 Crisis Battlesuit pilot is one of the first steps to becoming a T'au officer, and those who take that step are experienced warriors who have fought the deadliest of foes and triumphed. Once a Fire Warrior has proven himself ready for more responsibility in a second Trial by Fire, he will then be promoted to the rank of Shas’vre and lead his own XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Team. If he succeeds at that demanding role, he will go on to be assigned to a T'au Commander's Battlesuit Bodyguard Team, and eventually will become a T'au Commander himself once he attains the rank of Shas'el.In the dense street fights amidst the ruins of Nimbosa, the T'olku Sept employed lone Monat warriors in an XV8 Crisis Battlesuit armed with a Flamer, Burst Cannon and Stimulant Injector (the Lone Hunter configuration) , which proved the most effective means of driving the many Imperial Guard regiments out of their defensive barricades. Though early marks of the V-series inundated their pilots with deadly radiation, later models were able to account for this problem, at which point battlesuits began to be a mainstay of the military forces of the T'au Empire. It was not until the end of that first period of rapid growth that Battlesuit technology began to regularly appear within the Hunter Cadres. Not surprisingly, it was at these final stages that the T'au won their largest battles, as elite formations of newly-trained Battlesuit pilots began to refine their tactics to take advantage of what their armoured suits could do. XV25; The most common version of the stealthsuit in use by the Tau Empire. The Earth Caste hoped to introduce the XV22 en masse to replace the XV15, however the Kappa Mortis Incident forced them to instead bring the easier-to-produce XV25 into full-scale production. Thanks to their larger frame and augmented muscles, XV25s can replace their Burst Cannon for a Fusion Gun, and may also take an additional Battlesuit Support System. These provide a winning combination of durable infiltrating hull that can play for objectives or cause disruption alongside handing out full hit re-rolls. These help the army operate at maximum effectiveness, and they’re very cheap. Piranhas Command and Control Node - A Command and Control Node is a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted communications system used by a T'au Commander to communicate more effectively with other Fire Caste warriors around him, and better direct battlefield operations by linking all T'au targeting computers nearby together. Though the sheer amount of information received can seem overwhelming, a T'au Commander who masters the flood of data can better orchestrate the firepower of his forces.

The XV8-02 Crisis Iridium Battlesuit was developed following the death of Commander Pridestar to a sniper's bullet and the subsequent rout of Fire Caste warriors during the Klodate Worlds Suppression. After this tragic event, the Earth Caste developed an experimental iridium alloy that was used to produce enough armour plates to reinforce a small series of battlesuits. We T’au players can only hope that the codex release does something interesting with this classic unit. Shield Generator - Battlesuit Shield Generators project cohesive energy fields around the Battlesuit that can deflect weapons fire and melee blows that would otherwise outright destroy the Battlesuit, whether they be shots from heavy ordnance or anti-tank weapons fire. Some weapons have ‘Blast’ listed in their profile’s abilities. These are referred to as Blast weapons. In addition to the normal rules, the following rules apply to Blast weapons: Airbursting Fragmentation Projector (Special Issue) – An Airbursting Fragmentation Projector is an experimental T'au weapon that scatters fragmentation bomblets over a wide area, at a height calculated by a simple AI (artificial intelligence) within each bomblet, to cause optimum damage.

There is broad range of T'au Battlesuits, and each has their own specialised tactical role. All nomenclature of battlesuits mentioned here are their Imperial designations rather than the actual names for the different battlesuit variants used in the T'au Lexicon. Imperial interrogations with T'au prisoners have yielded the term Her'ex'vre as the name in the T'au Lexicon for their single-pilot battlesuits. This roughly translates into Low Gothic as "Mantle of the Hero."

Every piece of Tau wargear has a unique identification code detailing its size, design and battlefield role. Battlesuits are given the classification XV followed by a numerical code to denote their mass class (size) and their evolution in the design process. The XV88 Broadside Battlesuit, for example, is a mass class 8 suit, and the eighth variation of the XV8 Crisis Battlesuit. The much larger XV104 Riptide is in the tenth mass class, while the 4 in its classification indicates that it is in the final stages of field testing. [15] Battlesuits can also have a sub-designation of the standard suit, indicating a small alteration on the generic version of the suit, but without a specific battlefield role. For example, the XV8-05 "Enforcer" armour is an enhanced version of the Crisis suit, as opposed to an XV85, which would indicate a mass class 8 stealth suit.In the ever-shifting meta of 40K, armies rise and fall. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about armies that are hot or not, but a lot less time looking at units that are running the show. Today let’s start by taking a look at one of the hottest units currently running around the tabletop. T’au Crisis Suit Basics Positional Relay - A Positional Relay digitally records detailed battlefield data and relays it in a tight encrypted radio burst to assets in orbit and squads held in reserve. Information sent usually includes battlefield terrain and status reports to allow the incoming units to make a better decision on where to deploy onto the battlefield and coordinate their actions as part of the overall strategy. Cheap and versatile, able to offer both force multiplication, a free use of Rapid Ingress, or just solid early objective play. Aun’Va The XV85 Enforcer Battlesuit is a larger and sleeker variant of the standard XV8 Crisis Battlesuit that provides better protection and joint movement for the pilot, and can mount additional support systems or weapons due to its more powerful reactor.