Ever since the T’au were first introduced to 40k, without the apostrophe, way back in 2001, Fire Warriors have been jumping out of Devilfish transports and unleashing a withering hail of close-range firepower.
And since the T’au are an ocean-themed faction — Hammerhead, Manta, Stormsurge, Riptide, you get the idea — the name Fish of Fury was soon coined.
The tactic wasn’t always particularly furious, but it was always pretty cool.
And in 10th edition, it’s enjoying a surge of popularity, and there are a handful of very good reasons for that.
Let’s start with the basics. It’s cheap. At the time of writing, a Devilfish costs 75 points and unit of Breachers costs 90 points. It’s common to see a Cadre Fireblade along for the ride as well, but we’ll come to that later.
165 points for a Devilfish and ten Breachers is a very reasonable deal.
Indeed, it’s so reasonable a deal that I would be surprised if that cost doesn’t increase in the next Balance Dataslate, but that’s an issue to discuss another time.
So what does a T’au player get for his 165 points? The most important item here is the Breachers’ pulse blaster. It boasts an excellent profile: Range 10”, 2 Attacks, BS 3+, Strength 6, AP -1, and 1 Damage.
This weapon will threaten almost all light and medium infantry units in the game. The solid strength and AP characteristics do a lot of work here, but there’s much more that makes this unit strong.
First, the unit will almost certainly be Guided, which will increase the BS of these attacks from 3+ to 2+. Why Breachers hit on 3s in the first place is beyond me, but I’m certainly not complaining.
But it is strange. Almost everything else in the codex hits on 4s. But for some reason, both Breachers and Commanders hit on 3s in this index. A small part of me thinks that it might have been a typo, but, as I say, I’m not complaining.
Now that we have an excellent Hit roll, what can we do about the Wound roll? Breachers have an in-built ability, Breach and Clear, that allows the unit to re-roll Wounds against enemy units that are in range of objectives.
Of course, this ability won’t be applicable in every instance that a Breacher units shoots, but it does make the unit yet more deadly when it really needs to be.
Indeed, it’s a very powerful disincentive to opponent’s occupying mid-board objectives with many infantry units. Because the Breachers can rely on the speed of their Devilfish to get them into striking range, Fish of Fury becomes a powerful tool for dealing with mid-board advances.
I’ll point out here that the defensive profile of the Breacher is negligible. With a toughness of 3 and a save of 4+, they won’t be able to take much in the way of return firepower — even with a Guardian Drone attached to the unit, granting -1 to Wound.
But I would argue that the defensive frailties of the Breacher isn’t particularly important. The unit should be used to destroy an opponent’s key infantry models, preferably moving on to an objective in the process of doing so. The opponent is then forced to deal with the Devilfish and the Breacher unit or concede an objective.
40k is usually more complicated than this, of course, but you get the general idea.
Let’s briefly talk about the Devilfish. With a Movement of 12”, Toughness 9, a 3+ Save, and 13 Wounds, it’s certainly no slouch, and while dedicated anti-tank firepower will certainly deal with it in most instances, its tough enough to force an opponent to carefully consider which of his anti-tank weapons he will employ for the task.
Furthermore, the Devilfish’s in-built Rapid Deployment ability allows units to disembark from it after it has Advanced, giving the Breachers inside a total threat range of 25” + D6”.
This strong threat range usually allows the Devilfish to remain concealed until an opportune moment presents itself.
What’s more, the Devilfish is reasonably armed. With an accelerator burst cannon and two twin pulse carbines, it can lend supporting fire to the Breachers’ target, but, more importantly, it will also be armed with two seeker missiles.
These one-shot weapons are arguably the best anti-tank option in the index. With a range of 48”, a strength of 14, AP -3, and D6 +1 damage, a seeker will threaten most big targets in the game.
There’s one final addition to this picture. For an additional 40 points — taking the total up to 205 points — we can add in a Cadre Fireblade. And it’s here that we really get the value.
With the Fireblade, there’s only one rule with which we need concern ourselves, the in-built Volley Fire ability. While the Fireblade is leading a unit, models in that unit gain +1 attacks on ranged weapons, meaning that we take go from 20 pulse blaster shots up to 30.
It’s this addition to Fish of Fury that really makes it sing.
With 30 shots hitting on 2s, we’re likely to hit roughly 25 times. Into most infantry units with a Toughness of 3, we’re going to do some real work here. Wounded on 2s with a potential re-roll is just too good. Into MEQs, we’re not quite as effective, but we’ll still likely pick five or six models if we’re re-rolling.
Modern Fish of Fury, then, allows the T’au player to apply pressure where it needs to be applied, and because of objective and terrain placement in the current edition, it’s quite tricky to stop. And the best bit is that it’s cheap. 205 points for Breachers, a Fireblade, and a Devilfish is a steal. As I say above, I think that cost will increase soon, but for the moment it’s worth every point.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
