[Funshade]

ok i just have to rant about this. Why does people insist on having TA on Bloody Twin Linked weapons! ok lets take this into perspetive. a common one that people supposedly use is Twin linked missle pods and a Targeting array MATH HAMMER! (its what im good at.)

(im sorry for saying the points but its only one item is is nessary to explain)
Just a Pod 12pts
2 shots 50% accuracy

Pod + TA 22pts
66% accuracy
10pts for 16%

Twin pod 18pts
75% accuracy
6pts for 25%

Twin pod +TA 28pts
88% accuracy
Over the Twin linked the TA only adds 13% for 10 bloody points

OOOO! so it makes you hit when its "really needed" F that. sorry but the TA seems to matter when you have two guns becaues it works for both of them. if you plan to only have one weapon get a twin linked and somting else like a target lock or a flamer in case charged by some 5+ saves.

[Tau Fanatic]

Point made. I find that when my men are behind enemy lines and their plasma rifles are the reason that they are alive; it's much more useful to TL them. You already have a high hit% and there's not much more you can do besides that. The times that TAs are useful is when you have stealth teams; BS4 with an infiltrating Burst Cannon!

[Yaifrog]

Originally Posted by The Immortal Black Mage

The times that TAs are useful is when you have stealth teams; BS4 with an infiltrating Burst Cannon!

With a full squad of 6 Stealthies :rockon:

[Tau Fanatic]

My favorite Tactic. When I finish my Council of War Tau, I'm going to make a list with three squads of Stealth teams. Just for laughs. ^.^

[Funshade]

MORE MATH HAMMER!!!

6 Stealth suits fire all shots. 50% will hit
9 shots go through
6 stealths all with TA on them 66% will hit
12 shots go through.

now thoes 60 points in TA can now make 2 more stealth suits that aslo will as 3 shots in total. but you get a extra 2 wounds and two groups of 4 is much easier to hide. and you can still fight them next to each other. but now when one get shots it now 30 points of a unit rather then 40 points. in a close call like this i would go for more units.

[Tau Fanatic]

But when you play with O'Shovah, you are allowed one unit of Stealths. So that means one unit of 6 Stealths.

[Dfrg.msc]

You c an just make the Stealths have a hight BS though Marker lights, 2 ML hit's get s you 6 units firing 3 shots at BS 6. Sweet.

[Damian_Alpha]

Highest BS you can ever have with Tau is BS5, regardless of TA or markerlights. Says so in the rules. So they still miss on 1's.

[The Orange]

A few things to consider though.

If you’re going to spend the pts to Twin-Link the weapons, obviously you want that sucker to hit a lot, yes? So tell me, what’s the better buy? The TA that’s going to help you hit even more, and will be used every turn you shoot? Or the cheaper flamer which may not get used, and if it does, it will likely be once? (note I’m only talking about XV-8’s here, SS and TA just don’t work out statistically)

Another consideration, do your units always last the game? Heck no, something’s going to come a long and blow the heck out of your crisis suits eventually. So which suit is going to cause more damage before it dies? The one that shoots better or the one that stuffed a hardpoint with a piece of equipment that will likely not be used?

Lastly, when talking about crisis suit, we have to acknowledge the fact that we don’t get a lot of them. And because we don’t get a lot of them, we don’t get a lot of shooting from them. Because we see such a small amount of shooting from crisis suits, this multiplies the need for any shooting advantage.

Take for example the Railhead. It has a good BS 4, fairly nice for a tank. But it only has one shot per turn. Percentages are nice and dandy but because it’s either hit or miss, and your rolling precious few dice the shooting of the Railhead can easily be squed one way or the other by bad rolls. Despite the averages you can easily see a game where the Railhead only made 2-3 hits with it’s gun, which has a huge affect on it’s usefulness, especially if it dies early. Looking at FW for some context, you get a lot of FW’s, and they usually get a lot of shooting, so if the hit/miss ratio slides one way or the other, it doesn’t really matter, because you have a lot of shots to make up for it, and buffer that bad dice rolling. And unlike the railgun you’re not counting on each and every one of them. Now Crisis Suits are more like the HH, you get precious few of them, and their shooting is quite small. Deviation from the average percentages are much more sever when there is little shooting being done, thus throwing every factor in your favor (such as TA) are far more beneficial on units that don’t get a lot of chances to shoot.

Just think about flipping a cone (heads or tails), doing a 3 flip trial vs. a 100 flip trial. If you’re betting on that 50% average, which would you bet on the 3-flip trial, or the 100-flip trial? Obviously the 100-coin toss trial is the one that’s going to be closer to the average. And this points out the fact that you can’t count on an average when you’re not doing a lot of trails (i.e. when your not getting that many shots in a game).

[CmdrBonesaw]

I completely agree with the Orange.

Using TA and TL increases the effectivity of your Crisis. 8/9 shots hit, which gives you a unit you can actually COUNT on. Especially when it comes to TL PRs, adding a TA is great - you already pay a whole lot of points (just look at the Dex) for the TL PR - only to hit with them 3/4 of times - and most of the time firing only one shot per suit, because the enemy is more than 12" (or more than 18" pre movement phase) away - meaning every single shot counts. I DO want my suits to hit, and, compared to the TL PRs, the cost for the TA is peanuts.

Besides, which other system do you suggest instead of the TA? Shield Gen (ups the cost and does nothing offensively, makes it harder to hide in cover, etc)? Multitracker (yeah, right - concentration of fire is crucial)? Flamers (completely useless in most situations, especially on Deathrains)?

No, in most cases, if you`re already paying for TLing, adding a TA is a very good idea. This is not just about points efficiency, this is about reliability and psychology - most of my former opponents have learned to FEAR the most accurate unit in the entire game, and shiver at the thought of facing my Deathrains - and try their best to stay out of rapid fire range of my TL PRs... >