Games Workshop Tau Piranha

Product Information

Gunum:“Outer Enclaves? Wings. Why do you let him do this to you all?” Okay, look. I understand, I hear you… but… Hear Me Out, what if… you could take all the benefits from Farsight Enclaves, and still get the utility of the Ethereals? Each Piranha in a squadron can also be upgraded to carry up to two Seeker Missiles (S8 AP-2 DmgD6 Heavy 1), though as usual these require Markerlights to fire. Burst Cannon – A Burst Cannon provides rapid-firing suppressive anti-infantry fire that can harass and mow down enemy squads. A Burst Cannon can also act as a fearsome self-defence weapon that can complement the fire of supporting squads. The final use for Piranhas is the simplest- as a fairly efficient and reasonably-resilient source of S5 firepower, the Piranha can serve as part of the main body of a Tau army when putting damage on the enemy forces. There is little subtlety to this use, but raw numbers can make up for that fairly easily and despite nominally being a scout vehicle the Piranha easily outshoots Fire Warriors, Burst Crisis, and many other sources of S5 firepower in the army.

There’s some good clean fun in here for Ethereals, with The Humble Stave offering a Master of Sanctity-style buff to know an extra invocation and get +1 to the roll, or the Neuro-Empathic Nullifier which can cause an enemy unit to fail an action on a 2+, or prevent them starting a new one – particularly powerful in the new Nachmund missions, where a significant proportion of the bonus primary objectives are action-based.

Final Thoughts

Having a significant amount of anti-infantry firepower is also a nice bonus, and depending on upgrades you can turn it into a pretty good amount of anti-vehicle firepower as well. The Seeker Missile upgrade in particular can add a lot of value, especially when running with Sa’cea sept. Although one or two basic missiles isn’t a lot of firepower on its own, it is very possible to equip most or all of the vehicles in a Tau army with such weapons, enabling a pretty devastating alpha strike. A Piranha’s only special rule is Explodes, which will cause it to do a single mortal wound to units within 3″ on a 6. Their drone passengers (see below) possess all of the normal special rules for their kind, however.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Prototype Systems are now Tau’s paid upgrade option, letting you take additional wargear or super-powered versions of weapons on Commanders, Crisis Team/Bodyguard Sergeants and Ghostkeels (though there’s really only a few for the latter). Most are weapon upgrades (where like relics you have to buy the base weapon first) but there are a couple of bits of more esoteric fare here too. Same deal as ever with these – only one per unit, only one of each, none for Named Characters. Ultimately all three basic Commander options have some appeal – the Enforcer maybe stands out because they can do something that very little else in the army manages, but all could fit into builds. All of them can also bring a few drones from the standard gun/marker/shield choice if you want. With the success enjoyed by Piranha squadrons during both the Taros Campaign and other conflicts across the expanding Tau Empire, it was inevitable that other vehicles based on the design would soon emerge from various Tau Septs. The TX-42 is the newest incarnation of the original Piranha, intended to fulfil the role of a heavy gunship designed for frontline operations in support of Tau armoured units instead of a lightly armed reconnaissance craft. Compared to its progenitor, the TX-42 carries a much heavier weapons load, including twin-linked Rail Rifles, twin-linked Missile Pods, twin-linked Fusion Blasters or twin-linked Plasma Rifles. TX-42s retain the ability to carry a small number of Seeker Missiles into combat, which can then be launched by other Tau Empire units using the Marker Light network to direct their weapons fire. This article is going to focus on the former as the Tau Index has some of the best control options in 10th Edition and it’s a rewarding playstyle which will challenge you to improve at many fundamental Warhammer skills such as long term planning, precise positioning, forcing opponents into positions where they could more easily make mistakes, careful resource management, how to effectively delay and slow down the pace of a game to put yourself in a winning position. Although it is capable of carrying a pretty significant anti-tank loadout, for most of its history this option has actually been something of a trap- and 9E is no different in that regard. With a weak ballistic skill and extreme fragility, investing points into a Piranha for offensive output is usually a mistake; rather, the Piranha’s strength lies in its mobility, and in its ability to deny the enemy mobility.Commander Farsight can also lead a Crisis unit with Cyclic that uses Steathsuits Homing Beacon and Rapid Ingress to arrive in a spot where they can move 10″ on your turn and end that move within 9″ of the enemy unit you want to kill to access the +1 to wound ability. Firstly the Piranhas were introducted during the Second Sphere Expansion. [5] The Piranha was originally documented on the planet of Dal'yth, circa 884. M41, during a diplomatic mission, where it was originally seen being used in a civilian role transporting important dignitaries; it can be presumed that the Piranha was later developed for a military role, or that there are numerous variants of the vehicle used throughout the class system. The Piranha would see its first combat use during the Taros Campaign, where it operated in a reconnaissance or fire support role Tau Pathfinder teams. [3] One of their tactics - to close swiftly on the Pathfinders’ forward positions, and taking advantage of the targeting data transfered to them by the scouts’ markerlights, appears as if from nowhere and destroying the enemy. In this sudden ambush enemy infantry and armour that believed themselves in a short time wiping out by Pathfinders are instead annihilated by the blistering explosions of the Piranha's weapons systems. [5] Early Warning Overrides let you overwatch at a cost of 0CP with the unit, and the bearer hit on 5s when doing so. Pretty scary on a Riptide.