It looks ugly as shit (I feel the head takes it all out of proportion) but the rules for this thing… Well it warranted a post so that should tell you enough.

It’s your basic Riptide on steroids and it’s in Heavy Support (so not taking from your Riptides) with a key couple of changes. Most notably it’s less about utility and just about pointing at things and making them die. And things nearby that thing will probably die, too.

It’s upped its defenses with T7 and W6 oh and gets a 4++ against shooting. Gee thanks! At least the Drones are T6 so you can’t take two ablative wounds and keep it T7… It’s not a jump monstrous creature either and that’s about it’s only saving grace but that feeds right back into it being offensive only.

So offensive – it comes with two pulse submunition cannons – it’s what the pulse bomb on the bomber should have been. It’s S6 AP3 and large blast and he has two of them. Meh okay, ya that seems okay. It drops infantry like no tomorrow with some Markerlight support but it’s not great against AP2 guys or vehicles. Wait, new special rule…Cluster Fire. +1 strength and HITS against very bulky/jetbike/beasts/bike/cavalry. Okay cool like the Night Spinner but with more damage. Wait… +1 strength and hits again against extremely bulky, monstrous creatures and artillery? and vehicles? Right, hey parking lot – here’s 2x S8 5″ blast templates. Each one of you touched suffers 3. Three. THREE S8 hits. I could drop six S8 hits on a parking lot and it still runs through infantry like a dog.

That’s pretty insane, particularly with no reliability drawbacks like Gets Hot!

Oh ya, the NOVA reactor must be different as it can’t 4D6″ jump, hmm… 3++ ya that’s the same. Volley Fire ya that’s… but it doesn’t have a secondary weapons system. IT CAN FUCKING FIRE EACH CANNON TWICE?

Parking Lot! Yoooohooo!!! Sorry sweetums, I lied. I’m gonna hit you all with 12 S8 shots. Sorry babes!

Tickle me pink that’s intense. Now where did I put my Farsight wargear so that NOVA always goes off… (assuming this is allowed).

Oh and it’s a Pulse weapon. Um – Ethereal?

The NOVA also allows a granting of a S2 AP5 6″ haywire shockwave from the R’Varna’s base and 2D6″ Run and Fleet. No where near as useful as 4D6″ 2nd jump moves but man when I said this thing was about offense, it’s about offense.

The price for example, is offensive at 260 points. That’s +80 points for +1T/W and about double the base killing power.

One of the lamentations about the Riptide is without Markerlight support it can be a very expensive option which doesn’t have the damage output of say three Crisis/Broadsides but it has the mobility and durability to really, really help Tau. The R’Varna has just thrown that mobility out the window for a sickening display of firepower which will munch through infantry up to Termiantors and mulch tanks like no tomorrow. Don’t worry Terminators – you’re still taking multiple saves per hit as well and you’ll eventually fail some.

Everything wrong with Forgeworld – in one model.

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Anyway, for those of you who use Forgeworld and would want to include some of these – they’re awesome so go for it. Look to make sure you have the Markerlights to support two Tau MCs and I’d then look to go 2+1 Riptides/R’Varna or vice versa as they compliment each other nicely. They aren’t mobile and although they are criminally cheap for what they do – they’re expensive. If you’re not running Eldar/Space Marine allies and running just one R’Varna, make it a Farsight model with Earth Caste unless people insist Tau only then ignore this statement entirely. You’re still going to need assistance dropping AV14 and flyers and these guys add nothing in Overwatch so the usual S7 and twin-linkage you see from Broadsides/Crisis would probably be a good bet whilst running Fusion on the Riptides. Farseers/Tiggy will also reduce the need for lots of Markerlights so probably a strong choice of Allies there to ensure you can keep the well-rounded list nature of Tau currently.

Basically – drop a unit of Broadsides, add a R’Varna. Go nuts.