# Fire Warriors: Pulse Carbines or Pulse Rifles?



## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

So upon re-reading the Tau dex today I realised that you can run Fire Warrior Squads with Pulse Carbines for the same cost as Pulse Rifles and I was wondering if the reduced range but 2 shots, assualt and pinning makes up for it?

In my case I have three 10 man FW squads in my list in addition to 20 kroot, would it be a good idea to maybe switch 10 of them to Carbines for some aggressive objective grabbing while shooting on the run?


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## 5tonsledge (May 31, 2010)

im not sure. Any more now days you are going to run across space marine armor and toughness. against some horde armies maybe you could have more success with it but even then the pulse rifles are rapid fire weapons. i love pulse carbines they look cool and i love that they are assault 2 with pinning, but most of the time firewarriors are more of an objective holding unit considering they are fairly cheap units. Solution 3 Riptides


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## iamtheeviltwin (Nov 12, 2012)

I think it is a viable option. Too many Tau players are stuck in the "gunline" method of play. The army can be very mobile and a small unit or two of Carbine armed FW allow for a cheap mobile objective holder that can lay out 2 shots at 18".


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

Well, I've had enough nightmares facing the 36" threat range of FWs that multiplies as I try to close in for the assault (thanks to that gorram Ethereal at the center of their line) that my fearless units would absolutely love to face an opponent who took a bunch of pulse carbines instead of rifles.


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## Iron_Freak220 (Nov 8, 2009)

Can you mix carbines and rifles? If so that would be a smart way to play it. Keep 8 of your Warriors with rifles for the range and give 2 of them carbines to cause pinning and add a little assault prevention to the squad.


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## ItsPug (Apr 5, 2009)

Pulse carbines are only going to be of benefit if shooting at a target between 15.1" and 18" away, against a unit closer, the rifles have the same number of shots, further away they have more. For the sake of a chance to pin (which is unlikely) its not worth the loss of range.


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## NathanJD (Oct 30, 2012)

Firewarriors with Pulse Carbines are my favorite unit in the codex. I've been trying for years to effectively run a unit so heres the best I've come
up with:

12 Firewarriors w/ pulse carbines in Devilfish with sms & sensor spines

Sprint forward in cover first turn for a second turn fish of fury. Then spend the rest of the game tactically retreating, making sure to stay in that magical 17-18" range. Between blocking with the devilfish and the difficult assault you should be able to walk that fine line all game. Your biggest threats will be rapid fire bolters or fast assaulters with fleet. So make sure any bolter squad has their numbers cut down sufficiently when targeted. If assaulters ever get too close due to a good run move or a bad move through cover with you Firewarriors just hop in your Devilfish and GTFO. This tactic actually works well in conjunction with a Tau gun line, pulling a sort of rope-a-dope as your Firewarriors are chased in a direction away from your main force. Retreating towards a blob of forward deployed kroot is usually my choice.

Darkstrider is never worth it sadly. Doubling the cost of your unit for 25% more wounds against MEQs is very meh. Plus you can achieve roughly the same effect as his consolidate after overwatch ability by sticking to cover. An Ethereal is decent option for the squad but is much much better with pulse rifles, 3 shots at 15" is incredibly better than at 9".

EMP grenades got a lot better this codex but are still near impossible to use. Which is too bad because a carbine volley followed up by EMP assault would work wonders for popping transports. Even with a Devilfish I've never been able to assault a vehicle.

The last thing to consider is adding a single gun drone to the unit in place of its 12 member. The shas'ui helps your ld and the drone increases your initiative to 4 against sweeping advances.

Good luck joining the inferior but much more awesome ranks of the Pulse Carbine.


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

NathanJD said:


> Sprint forward in cover first turn for a second turn fish of fury. Then spend the rest of the game tactically retreating, making sure to stay in that magical 17-18" range. Between blocking with the devilfish and the difficult assault you should be able to walk that fine line all game. Your biggest threats will be rapid fire bolters or fast assaulters with fleet. So make sure any bolter squad has their numbers cut down sufficiently when targeted. If assaulters ever get too close due to a good run move or a bad move through cover with you Firewarriors just hop in your Devilfish and GTFO. This tactic actually works well in conjunction with a Tau gun line, pulling a sort of rope-a-dope as your Firewarriors are chased in a direction away from your main force. Retreating towards a blob of forward deployed kroot is usually my choice.


Unfortunately, with running, fleet, transports, the commonality of bikers and FMCs, etc, I don't think you'll be able to guarantee that you'll be able to stay in that magic zone.



> The last thing to consider is adding a single gun drone to the unit in place of its 12 member. The shas'ui helps your ld and the drone increases your initiative to 4 against sweeping advances.


And here I was under the impression that Tau's defense mechanism against close combat was specifically to splatter and get run down any time that they ever get into close combat. Any survivors from an enemy charge don't want to tie up the enemy during your turn's shooting phase, and against virtually any unit out there that is trying to charge you, it won't last much longer than two assault phases. If any of your survivors break an run the turn your opponent charges you, great, their killy deathstar unit that costs 450 points just killed a dirt cheap squad and now the rest of your army gets to pulverize it.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Mossy Toes said:


> their killy deathstar unit that costs 450 points just killed a dirt cheap squad and now the rest of your army gets to pulverize it


Bang on. Being stuck in CC is only good when you don't have the ability to shoot down what charged you. Then I'm all about bogging things down with challenges.


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## NathanJD (Oct 30, 2012)

Mossy Toes said:


> Unfortunately, with running, fleet, transports, the commonality of bikers and FMCs, etc, I don't think you'll be able to guarantee that you'll be able to stay in that magic zone.


Yeah it usually doesn't work out too well but in fielding carbines every game of Tau I've played it's proved to be the best option. Not a good one, but the best. To do any better I even go so far as to use eldar allies to make the pinning more reliable. The hemlock has a lot of potential to makes carbines more useful with terrify.



Mossy Toes said:


> And here I was under the impression that Tau's defense mechanism against close combat was specifically to splatter and get run down any time that they ever get into close combat. Any survivors from an enemy charge don't want to tie up the enemy during your turn's shooting phase, and against virtually any unit out there that is trying to charge you, it won't last much longer than two assault phases. If any of your survivors break an run the turn your opponent charges you, great, their killy deathstar unit that costs 450 points just killed a dirt cheap squad and now the rest of your army gets to pulverize it.


Yeah it made a lot more sense in the 5th edition codex when gun drones cost similar to fire warriors so increased the units shooting/pt. The i4 was just an added bonus. Although you're right for assault, breaking is desired no matter what. So not even i10 wouldn't be worth the extra chance to stay from +1ld.

That said, drones can also function a bit like kroot hounds, using their assault move to stretch the unit towards objectives. Something that may become important should you keep the unit cheap and forgo the devilfish.


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