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Are Your Offensive Upgrades Worth It?

Submitted By: Date: August 12, 2006, 12:00:00 AM Views: 2712
Summary: The Tau arsenal is varied and full of many choices. There also several upgrades that improve your offensive front. The most common way to get offensive upgrades is the "NEED MORE GUNS!" style, where you load up on a large amount of firepower and shots. Please note that offensive upgrades seriously contradict defensive upgrades since neutralizing a threat will negate the need to be protected from it. Because of this I highly advise you to compare both your offensive and defensive upgrades together and examine your foe before picking.
     Offensive upgrades are usually always worth the points since you can't really ever have too many guns. However, you must choose according to your foe and the board you're playing on. If you're facing off on a battlefield with only tiny pieces of decorative terrain that fill up 25% of the board but offers no real cover, than that flamer you brought instead of the target lock on your twin linked missle pod suit in a squad of three is utter crap and cut you off from using a more effective upgrade. If your facing off against hordes and hordes of Orks that suit with the Fusion Blaster and Plasma Rifle with Multi-tracker isnt going to be as useful as that twin-linked Missile Pod with Flamer suit you could have brought is it? Think smart, and make the right decisions for offensive upgrades and you'll soon have a point effective and smart offense in no time.

    Please understand that there will be no stats on how often your weapon hits, that is an article I shall be writing after this. This merely relates the usefulness of items such as targetlocks and multitrackers, most often on Crisis Suits and Hammerheads and perhaps some other upgrades on Fire Warriors. Lets start with your basic troops. Your Fire Warriors can either have the choice of 2 offensive upgrades. Photon and EMP grenades. Photon grenades are an addition 1/10 of the original cost of the Fire Warrior. It will negate extra attacks enemies gain from charging. So lets say your getting charged by a unit of 10 with 2 str 4 attacks each. Normally the chargers would gain an attack for charging but the grenades negate this. So, instead of 30 attacks it drops to 20. Instead of an estimated 15 hits it drops down to 9. Instead of an estimated 7 wounds it drops to 5. Instead of an estimated 3 casualties it drops to 2. So technically this is helpful. I would say a cut off of 35% of a squad's attack usefulness if the squad is from 3-8. 30% it the squad is 9-15 and 25% if its 15+. Basically the grenades can help you, it just depends if your enemies are ever going to make it to your lines. Also, though it stops attacks on the charge, it doesn't weaken attacks, so your squad could be decimated anyways. Overall, this is a possibility but its generally not worth it since the amount of casualties is only reduced by around 4 max. It would also be a hefty sum too pay for every single one of your squads.  EMP grenades are also not worth their points since running up to a tank is generally not a good idea for Fire Warriors. They cost 3/10 of a Fire Warrior's original value, and to use them means risking suicide.  If you want EMP's get some Gue'vesa, they're cheaper, and they're gonna die easier anyways.

Now for your XV upgrades, which brings a whole new game to the table. XV suits have the following offensive upgrades, Multi-tracker and Target Lock. The Multi-tracker is a generally cheap upgrade, with it's obvious uses. I don't even need to tell you whether or not you need it. If you're going to have two different weapons, and want to use them in the same shooting phrase, bring it, plain and simple. If your using one type of weapon, or two weapons you don't want to use in the same shooting phase, it's pointless. As for Target Locks, it depends. Obviously there is no point in taking a Target Lock if your XV Suit is going solo. However, if your planning on taking a team leader, or a suit with different weaponry than the rest of it's squad, you might want to consider this upgrade, but only if you have a set plan on how to use it. Rememeber, and I emphasize this, remember to review your chances before wasting away points. Always ask if you really need something before you take it, or the upgrade will just go to waste.

Lastly, I come to Hammerheads. There is only one upgrade I'm going to talk about here, the other upgrades such as the Multi-tracker and Target Lock are discussed in the prequel article, Are Your Defensive Upgrades Worth It? The upgrade I'm speaking of is the Smart Missile System. The SMS is a common sight on Hammerheads, sometimes replacing the included Burst Cannons. The SMS offers alot for a Tau player, firing without LOS, being able to target foes behind cover, and a longer range than the Burst Cannon. However, it will have two less shots than the Burst Cannons, and has equal amount of strengh and AP, for the same cost as a Fire Warrior. Again, think of the situation, the point cost, and the chance that your going to encounter an opponent that this upgrade will be advantageous against.
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