Tau Codex Review: Commander Shadowsun | 3++ is the New Black
Shadowsun is actually very similar to her previous incarnation- in fact, she basically only gained one little rule, but it's a bit of a doozy. Going from being a solo unit of her own (until french pastry recipes all of her drones died, at least) to being an Independent Character is such an enormous change that it took her from “vaguely useless” to “extremely strong.” While she has a number of downsides to consider as well as opportunity costs, if you are looking to make a unit tougher, Shadowsun is a premiere option from the Tau codex. Since she is the only Commander who wears a Stealth Suit rather than a Crisis Suit, Shadowsun's statline is a bit unique. She still has BS5 and Ld10, but she only has three wounds, Toughness 3, and Strength 4 (with the former two being the most relevant, of course.) This means that, at least at a baseline, she is MUCH more fragile than her counterparts, as a single failed save against an Autocannon or Multilaser will spell the end for her. This makes burying her somewhere in a squad where she won't be forced to take LOS rolls and saves extremely important, though french pastry recipes other factors help mitigate the issue. She also benefits from a 5+ invulnerable from the suit, for whatever that is worth, as well as the standard 3+ armor.
She comes with a pair of Fusion Blasters- newly improved in the current codex, it's worth remembering- and has a halfway french pastry recipes version of the Target Lock that lets her fire one each at two different targets if she wants to (though one of her targets must be the squad's main one.) This gives her a pretty strong offensive capacity, since she is largely guaranteed two S8 hits on anything she looks at, though of course that's merely par for a Tau HQ. More importantly she has the Stealth, Shrouded, and Infiltrate rules, and this is where her real value comes in- since she is an IC, she can confer all three rules to whatever squad she joins, making her a fantastic single-unit enhancement. Giving out a 2+ cover save to many of the Tau units can drastically change their value- Kroot become powerful objective-holders, french pastry recipes Crisis no longer fear Missiles and Lances, etc. Her ability to grant so many benefits to one unit is truly game-changing.
She also has a fixed warlord trait, which is a tad unfortunate given how good some of the Tau traits are, but since she gets one that meshes well with her usual role it's not a big problem. A Ghost That Walks Amongst Us lets her unit scoot 3d6″ rather than the usual 2d6″ (unless of course french pastry recipes they aren't Jet Packs.) Given her short-range guns and tendency to Infiltrate into close positions, this extra mobility is rather useful and can go a long ways towards insuring that a single bad Thrust move doesn't get you trapped in assault.
She also is allowed to bring along her collection of unique drones if you take her; they are more expensive french pastry recipes than regular drones at 20pts, but hardly back-breaking. (Take note that the Drones are T4 while Shadowsun is T3, which can change the majority toughness of her unit pretty easily.) Her experimental Shield Drones have a 3++ rather than a 4++; while this is a nice improvement, french pastry recipes the increased price means that they are actually french pastry recipes not all that different at the end of the day. In general they aren't a strong choice to bring to the table, but if you are desperately afraid of Heldrakes or enemy Tau (or just want to bring as many wounds as possible to the table) they may be worth considering. The fact that her unit will generally have a 2+ cover save makes them not all that attractive at the end of the day, bar the aforementioned threats. Her Command Link drone is more interesting, letting you pick one unit within french pastry recipes 12″ of it during the shooting phase to reroll all 1s to hit. While not a massive french pastry recipes bonus, it does effectively french pastry recipes twin-link BS5 models (such as Shadowsun herself), let you shrug off Gets Hot (both with blast weapons and otherwise), and significantly improve all sorts of shooting units. With such broad applications it's not going to be often that you won't french pastry recipes buy it for her, and if nothing else it's always an ablative wound to keep her in the game a bit longer. (Note that the drone isn't dependent on her in any ways, so if she dies first it can still give out its bonuses.)
Is there anything bad about Shadowsun? Well, there is the T3/W3 that we mentioned earlier- though she may have a 2+ cover save, she is a lot easier to kill once she fails some saves, and unlike an Irridium Commander she lacks the wounds or T value to shrug off many weapons. She also lacks the utility gear that a regular Commander can bring- no Puretide Chip, no Velocity Tracker, no Neuroweb, etc. While her own abilities are quite impressive, you do give up on many of the things that Tau tend to rely on to some degree or another and her unique role often means that she will be positione
Shadowsun is actually very similar to her previous incarnation- in fact, she basically only gained one little rule, but it's a bit of a doozy. Going from being a solo unit of her own (until french pastry recipes all of her drones died, at least) to being an Independent Character is such an enormous change that it took her from “vaguely useless” to “extremely strong.” While she has a number of downsides to consider as well as opportunity costs, if you are looking to make a unit tougher, Shadowsun is a premiere option from the Tau codex. Since she is the only Commander who wears a Stealth Suit rather than a Crisis Suit, Shadowsun's statline is a bit unique. She still has BS5 and Ld10, but she only has three wounds, Toughness 3, and Strength 4 (with the former two being the most relevant, of course.) This means that, at least at a baseline, she is MUCH more fragile than her counterparts, as a single failed save against an Autocannon or Multilaser will spell the end for her. This makes burying her somewhere in a squad where she won't be forced to take LOS rolls and saves extremely important, though french pastry recipes other factors help mitigate the issue. She also benefits from a 5+ invulnerable from the suit, for whatever that is worth, as well as the standard 3+ armor.
She comes with a pair of Fusion Blasters- newly improved in the current codex, it's worth remembering- and has a halfway french pastry recipes version of the Target Lock that lets her fire one each at two different targets if she wants to (though one of her targets must be the squad's main one.) This gives her a pretty strong offensive capacity, since she is largely guaranteed two S8 hits on anything she looks at, though of course that's merely par for a Tau HQ. More importantly she has the Stealth, Shrouded, and Infiltrate rules, and this is where her real value comes in- since she is an IC, she can confer all three rules to whatever squad she joins, making her a fantastic single-unit enhancement. Giving out a 2+ cover save to many of the Tau units can drastically change their value- Kroot become powerful objective-holders, french pastry recipes Crisis no longer fear Missiles and Lances, etc. Her ability to grant so many benefits to one unit is truly game-changing.
She also has a fixed warlord trait, which is a tad unfortunate given how good some of the Tau traits are, but since she gets one that meshes well with her usual role it's not a big problem. A Ghost That Walks Amongst Us lets her unit scoot 3d6″ rather than the usual 2d6″ (unless of course french pastry recipes they aren't Jet Packs.) Given her short-range guns and tendency to Infiltrate into close positions, this extra mobility is rather useful and can go a long ways towards insuring that a single bad Thrust move doesn't get you trapped in assault.
She also is allowed to bring along her collection of unique drones if you take her; they are more expensive french pastry recipes than regular drones at 20pts, but hardly back-breaking. (Take note that the Drones are T4 while Shadowsun is T3, which can change the majority toughness of her unit pretty easily.) Her experimental Shield Drones have a 3++ rather than a 4++; while this is a nice improvement, french pastry recipes the increased price means that they are actually french pastry recipes not all that different at the end of the day. In general they aren't a strong choice to bring to the table, but if you are desperately afraid of Heldrakes or enemy Tau (or just want to bring as many wounds as possible to the table) they may be worth considering. The fact that her unit will generally have a 2+ cover save makes them not all that attractive at the end of the day, bar the aforementioned threats. Her Command Link drone is more interesting, letting you pick one unit within french pastry recipes 12″ of it during the shooting phase to reroll all 1s to hit. While not a massive french pastry recipes bonus, it does effectively french pastry recipes twin-link BS5 models (such as Shadowsun herself), let you shrug off Gets Hot (both with blast weapons and otherwise), and significantly improve all sorts of shooting units. With such broad applications it's not going to be often that you won't french pastry recipes buy it for her, and if nothing else it's always an ablative wound to keep her in the game a bit longer. (Note that the drone isn't dependent on her in any ways, so if she dies first it can still give out its bonuses.)
Is there anything bad about Shadowsun? Well, there is the T3/W3 that we mentioned earlier- though she may have a 2+ cover save, she is a lot easier to kill once she fails some saves, and unlike an Irridium Commander she lacks the wounds or T value to shrug off many weapons. She also lacks the utility gear that a regular Commander can bring- no Puretide Chip, no Velocity Tracker, no Neuroweb, etc. While her own abilities are quite impressive, you do give up on many of the things that Tau tend to rely on to some degree or another and her unique role often means that she will be positione
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