Tidewall, Ghostkeel, Skyrail or Hammerhead ?

[Morvana]

With the T'au you know have 4 units with the same price and the same job of dealing with the enemy armor (and for 3 of them, anything), and I don't really know which one to choose...

-Tidewall: the earliest in the research tree, the easiest to construct (no buiding for it, no real delay for it if you use one or two repair drone), the most effective at long range against armor, but without any versatility, and it need a unit to move.

-Ghostkeel: probably one of the best unit of the T'au, IF the enemy use ranged unit. Powerfull, versatile... But with "only" a range of two and you need a specific "mid game" building and you will have them a bit after the others (exept Hammerhead).

-Skyrail: the best alpha strike, but really low DPS overall. It's really resistant, and it's effective against all target.

-Hammerhead: mediocre DPS but consistent, "late" in the tech tree (compared to the others at least), it's also resistant.


Now, I don't really know which one to use... For me there is only two obvious things: Tidewall if you need a heavy weapon really fast, and no Ghostkeel in matchup against nids, orks, or chaos.


How do you choose ? Which one is your favorite ?

[Jey]

You use tidewall, skyray and hammerhead. You crush the enemy morale by killing his expensive units with the alpha strike of the skyray and the crazy damage of the tidewall. Then you clean up with the hounds you got with your influence, and maybe your fire warriors if they still live.
The hammerhead can do either the clean up or the first strike, depending on the enemy.

GG WP, you won.

(the problem of using ghostkeel, is that you need another building. Too late, too much investment, not worth the pain. The tanks are just too good to not spam them)

[KDubya]

A cool way to use the Tidewall Gunrig is to have the Builder Drone pilot it after it builds it. They can then hop out and heal any unit except Kroot and Vespids. With three range and really hard hitting armor piercing makes them great against cities.

[Morvana]

Originally posted by KDubya:

A cool way to use the Tidewall Gunrig is to have the Builder Drone pilot it after it builds it. They can then hop out and heal any unit except Kroot and Vespids. With three range and really hard hitting armor piercing makes them great against cities.

Ho! I never thought of puting the Builder Drone inside the Tidewall. Nice!

Originally posted by Iffu:

The problem of using ghostkeel, is that you need another building. Too late, too much investment, not worth the pain. The tanks are just too good to not spam them

I agree that it takes longer than the Skyrail, but it's "just" 6 turns (the time to build the new building). Also this difference only exist if you construct the building for vehicules before finishing the reasearch for the skyrail, and if you go for the Ghostkeel you "save" 6 turns before the reasearch to build something else (eco building for example).

If I am in total conflict with an other faction, each turn is important I agree. But if I am safe investing a few more turns for the ability to build a better unit, it can be worth it.

[Jey]

It's not just 6 turns.
It's a building slot that you could have used to increase your production of skyray (more ore/energy). It's research you don't use on strenghtening your tank units.

When you can have 4 move ignoring all terrains (aside from cliff), with high accuracy, ranged reduction.... Why bother going for the ghoskeel?
Sure, if the game goes for a long time, you may find it useful, but that's the key : You never reach this "long time", because you crush your enemies with three units.