Tau Codex Review: Crisis Suits (inc. Commanders)

The article we’ve all been waiting for in this review: Crisis Suits (inc. Commander). Crisis suits are a pretty cheap platform considering what they come with, 2 wounds, 3+ save, jetpack which provides relentless and JSJ, acute senses and an improved statline (though still BS3). The Crisis suit is the backbone of the Tau army and without them, well Tau simply can’t compete in 5th edition. Why? Because each one is capable of putting out 4 medium strength shots on a sturdy platform (T4/W2/3+) which is relentless and can JSJ. The model is also the perfect height to hide behind Tau tanks. You’ll notice I’ve already dictated how the Crisis Suits are set out with plasma rifle and missile pod to gain the number of shots they do. So let’s take a quick look at this so we don’t have to listen to too much raging.

PR/MP/MT is the optimal outfit for your Crisis suits because no other option gives you the point efficiency across multiple targets these suits do. Able to take on tanks, MC, heavy infantry and horde infantry with equal success, these Crisis suits will form the backbone of any Tau army simply because they can and will deal with nearly everything thrown at them. The only other suit option worth considering is the TL-MP layout, either with cheap as chips upgrades such as blacksun filters or flamers or the more expensive upgrade of targeting arrays. Whilst these squads suffer in relative firepower and flexibility to PR/MP suits, they are somewhat cheaper (not significantly though) and are that tiny bit more reliable and better at knocking out transports/MC at range. The main problem with these suits is they still need to be backed up by PR/MP suits to actually down anything they de-mech as other options like Fire Warriors or Stealth suits are woefully impractical and can leave your army lacking in duality or leaves your army lacking in torrenting ability.

The primary reason these suits configurations are the way to go beyond their point efficiency? Range. With JSJ, 24”+ and specifically 36” is exactly what the Crisis suits need to stay in the fight. Every other weapon Crisis have access to are 18" or less and generally not suited for the role of Crisis suits: fire support. Outside of these reasons, nothing else in the Tau armoury can put out such a weight of medium to high strength shots that Crisis Suits can and limiting these shots by going for lower strength/rate of fire guns such as the Burst Cannon or Fusion Gun is counter-intuitive. The forums bash on Tau’s anti-infantry ability enough without players foregoing one of the best units for it (PR/MP suits for the silly).

So, when to use TL-MP over PR/MP and why? Essentially when you can field 5 squads of Crisis or very high point games. Why? Because you can effectively field 2 TL-MP squads to help your Broadsides bust open the mass of transports at this points level and still have the firepower through PR/MP suits to decimate whatever comes out. Remember, TL-MP suffer heavily against infantry so this needs to me made up by PR/MP suits. I will also occasionally use a TL-MP Commander so he is more capable of supporting the army whilst providing Ld buffs to Kroot/PF/Broadsides but the PR/MP suit is still the backbone of any Tau army. Without it they suffer in ability to cope with mech and horde spam.

Before we look at upgrades we’ll take a quick peek at the Commander, which one to take and also the option of Deep Striking. The important difference between the Commanders for Tau armies and their players is their Ld value. Whilst the Shas’O has a better BS and is that much better in combat (i.e. who cares?) the extra pip of Ld can be very important but for point difference, often isn’t worth it except in higher point games. Ld9 is often a great boost to Kroot/PF/Broadsides/Crisis due to the statistics of rolling on 2D6 and whilst Ld10 is better, there are generally better ways to spend your points. Commanders should also come with the obligatory target lock so they can still shoot from whatever unit they are babysitting. You’ll see a lot of forum talk about deepstriking your Crisis suits to overcome their short-ranged weaponry (specifically the fusion blaster), especially in conjunction with a PF devilfish which allows you to re-roll the scatter die. Whilst this makes the unit pretty accurate, you’ve just lost the main reason for Crisis suits: fire support. This option is therefore never, ever recommended simply because you are losing so much firepower when they are not on the board and deep striking gains the long ranged guns barely any advantage as the game progresses.

Suits have a lot of upgrades available to them to either fill their hard points or access from the armoury. Unfortunately the majority of upgrades for the Crisis Suits and specifically the Commander are largely useless. Whilst multi-trackers are a given, Crisis suits as a squad cannot access the armoury outside of the Team Leader and thus can’t take anything else such as Target Locks and Targeting Arrays (both of which are very useful). Bodyguards and Commanders can take these upgrades and when ‘available’ in higher point games where there are more points to spare, are often worth thinking about, especially if they are TL-MP suits backing up your PR/MP suits. What about drones? Cheapish wounds sounds pretty good and generally is but more guns are more important. The old adage for Tau comes back, if you’ve got the points at higher levels, go for them as they make your suits survive longer but at 2000 and less points, get the guns first. Shield generators and the Commander upgrades such as Failsafe detonator, etc. are just a waste of points. Too expensive for a bare minimal gain, if any. And a very important note on equipping Crisis Suits: DON’T TRY AND MAKE A COMPLEX UNIT. Complex units are only good when the unit does not lose efficiency and since Crisis Suit squads do not have access to the armoury for this to happen, they have to swap their weapon load outs which is inefficient. It can be done with Bodyguards but make sure you’re not wasting points or making the unit all over the place.

Well that’s one of the first really good options we’ve looked at for the Tau codex, so what changes are necessary? Firstly, we’ve got to hope GW isn’t going to swing the nerf bat at these guys but considering the general opinion of Tau...maybe not. What Crisis suits therefore need is flexibility and perhaps a minor points drop to bring them in line with the 5th edition codices. So here’s the proposal, outside of new guns all short ranged guns should be moved to XV-9 Hazard suits and Stealth Suits whilst longer ranged guns stay on the Crisis suits (including any new guns). If XV-9 and Stealths also get a reasonable points drop (and Stealths get a 2D6” stealth field) all 3 of these units would become reasonable options as they fulfil different roles. Crisis suits provide long-ranged fire support, Stealths provide mid-ranged fire support and XV-9s provide close fire support (hazardous!) and each of their weapon options and defense systems relates to these roles.

I’ve also toyed with giving Crisis suits the option of allowing two of the same weapon without twin-linking but I don’t fancy a 162 pt, 12 missile unit thanks! However, XV-9’s go against this so you never know, GW might do this but prices would need to be upped rather than downed overall. Puppy and I discussed some options with the XV-9s as well so go back and check out that post!

So let’s hear some thoughts people!