Alexander Villagra brings us a review of the Tau Barracuda. Check the Tactics Corner for more great reviews!
Hello my fellow war gamer`s. Today I’m going to be writing a rules review of the new Forge World, Barracuda. I am writing this from a competitive standpoint taking into account the currant competitive Meta. NO DEATH FROM THE SKIES RULES. We don’t use them in ITC.
So for those of us that remember 5th and early 6th edition tau. The barracuda was one of the only fliers (that was not garbage) that we had access to but back then it costed around $200.
- A supersonic AV 11, 2 HP paper airplane. That being said that paper airplane did have some really good weapons and was accurate being native BS4 with a 3+ Jink
- An ion cannon at S7 AP3 heavy 3, 60 inch flyer shredder.
- A S7 AP4 assault 2 missile pod.
- 2 garbage S5 AP5 ignores cover burst cannons
- 4 Seeker Missiles 8pts a piece S8 AP3 one use only
Now look what we got a 175 point, AV 11 front and side armor, 10 rear 3 HP still supersonic flyer that’s now a heavy support choice. A much neglected slot in the recent Meta.
With a 5+ invulnerable against glancing hits and 6+ against penetrate hits. Any vehicle let alone a flyer with a native save is good in my book. And it’s still BS4 with strafing run.
Strafing run gives a +1 BS against non-skimmer or flying targets. So those marines are getting hit on 2s. Making the new barracuda the most accurate unit in the tau Arsenal without the support of marker lights. Did I mention it causes Pinning as well? Because it does.
Now that we trimmed the fat off of this monster let’s get to the main course GUNS, GUNS and BIGGER GUNS!
The standard weapons are your drone controlled long barreled burst cannon. What’s long barreled you say. The range went from 18 to 36 inches of S5 AP5 heavy 6. That’s nice with 2 of these your looking at 12 shots hitting on 2’s and still ignores cover. Sorry guardsman, you may want to reconsider cover camping with this thing in the air.
You still have the ion cannon without the large blast AP3 and the missile pods. But now we have 3 new weapon systems available. First we will start off with the heavy burst cannon. S6, AP4, heavy 6 with less range at 24 inches. No option to nova charge though. But it’s still useful none of the less. Then we have our big gun the swiftstrike rail gun. S10, AP1, 24 inches heavy 1. It’s good for sniping a demon prince, allowing you to instantly kill him in the air. Or trying to take down a hull point with a potential explodes result on an Imperial knight but it’s an extra 20 points. I don’t recommend it unless you need some S10 in your opponents back field to kill a warp hunter or other heavy artillery.
The last one is not really that great cyclic ion blaster turrets. Replaces the LB burst cannons with S7 and AP4 but its 18 inch range and 3 shots make it counterproductive and its 15 points extra. Unless you really need the extra punching power.
Survivability.
It’s pretty tough by Tau standards since you need 6’s to hit and snap firing Bolters can’t hurt it. It has 3 HP and 5+/6+ if you don’t want to Jink. If you flat out it gets a 3+ cover save. If you buy the Disruption pods it gets a 2+ cover save. 6s to hit and 2+ save. Most opponents won’t bother shooting his army’s big guns at them. Just watch out for dedicated AA like the Mechanicum`s Ongar walker or the Space Marine Stalkers.
Offensive capabilities.
They can be suited to any kind of role. Anti-tank, anti-infantry, scat bike hunting, marine killing. Or super heavy unit harassment
Recommended load out.
Ion cannon and LB burst cannons should do just fine. Remember to add D-pod and repair drones to increase its durability. And maybe even the decoy pods against other tau players. 4++ against interceptor. If you needed to spare high strength weapons take the seeker missiles as well. Wounding Eldar Knights on 4s and ignoring the armor.
Thanks for reading this review honorable tau commanders, imperial scum, or pointy heads till the next time happy hunting.
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