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 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 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 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, 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 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 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, the increased price means that they are actually 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 12″ of it during the shooting phase to reroll all 1s to hit. While not a massive bonus, it does effectively 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 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 positioned and acting differently than a standard Commander.

Applications

To get good mileage out of Shadowsun, you want to be making sure that you make good use of her 2+ cover save, her ability to Infiltrate a unit, and her own shooting. Each of these will have its own tricks to making best use of it and units that do it most effectively, but the more you can take advantage of all three, the better Shadowsun will function in a list.

The Infiltrate is actually the trickiest to do and most easily overlooked in a list, since Tau are typically a shooting army. Move my guys closer in a shooting army? Pshaw, as if! The thing to remember, though, is that you don’t have to toe that 18″ line just because you’re Infiltrating, even though most people do. Instead, use Infiltrate to either reach positions that you otherwise couldn’t legally get to, far outside of your deployment zone, or to react to the enemy’s deployment when you are going first. The former can be helpful in missions like The Relic where getting to a specific place is paramount, but it can also let you split up your firebase to make the enemy’s job harder or to get into range with certain guns (generally ones with 18″-36″ range) earlier than you otherwise would have. Reacting to the enemy’s deployment is similarly useful for such short-ranged units, or even medium-ranged ones, as it can allow you to bypass part of the disadvantage of going first by denying the enemy the full advantage in positioning. For example, when fighting Missilesides it is often easy for the second player to simply place themselves such that they have to spend 1-3 turns moving to get into range/LOS, but with Shadowsun you can guarantee that they will start where they need to and begin hurting the enemy immediately. Be careful about isolating units from the rest of your forces, of course, but keep your eyes out for strategic spots where the enemy won’t be expecting you.

Stealth/Shrouded are a lot simpler, in most ways, since their bonus is a constant and static one. In fact, Shadowsun will often find herself hopping from unit to unit over the course of the game to protect those that need her auras the most, though this might not always be the case (especially if you Infiltrated somewhere far into enemy territory.) The prime recipients of her abilities will generally be battlesuits, since T4 makes them easy target for high-strength weapons, and it is those same high-strength guns that her cover saves are most effective against. (Of course, no one minds the fact that it lets you shrug off Bolters more easily as a bonus.) Crisis and Broadsides are both very good candidates here, and when purchased with some ablative drones they become rather difficult units to shift. A Riptide can be quite hilarious, however, since at that point it becomes all but invincible to enemy firepower.

Army Builds

Unlike some of the other special character, Shadowsun doesn’t so much have an entire army build to herself as she simply pushes you into take one or more of several of the above-mentioned units and working to make best use of them. Sadly, her synergy with Stealth Suits themselves is virtually zero, but she has many other units that want to pair up with her fairly often. I think that a list including her will virtually always want to have a Riptide in it (which isn’t nearly as mandatory an inclusion as people tend to think otherwise); the ability to push a MC deep into the enemy’s zone quickly and make it immune to most shooting is potentially incredibly dangerous. Apart from that, at least one large unit of shooting suits with a contingent of drones is likewise in the plan; having several is even more ideal.

Whether or not you include a second Commander to fill the gaps Shadowsun is unable to cover is not an easy choice; Puretide/Irridium are certainly excellent, but 300+pts spent into HQs starts to look rather pricey in most games. For 1850 or 2K it’s much more conceivable (or if you aren’t running any allies), but in most cases I think you’re better off dropping the idea. However, being that she biases you towards a foot or hybrid army pretty strongly (due to wanting troops, battlesuits, and Riptide to pair up with), I think the potential inclusion of an Ethereal or Cadre Fireblade is quite doable.

A Special Note On Shadowtsundere Armies

Though I haven’t mentioned it at all yet, one of my favorite tricks (if not actually a very strong army) is the Shadowtsundere army combining Commander Farsight’s mega-bodyguard unit with Shadowsun’s unit bonuses for a huge blob of Crisis with 2+ cover saves that start in the enemy’s face and can actually fight reasonably well in an assault. Although hilariously contradictory to most interpretations of the official fluff, hence the name (“I-it’s not like I’m joining your unit because I like you or anything! Baka!!”) it can be tons of fun just because no one expects a Tau melee deathstar. Mix in a dozen or so drones for ablative wounds, C&C/MSSS to make your shooting exceptionally murderous and all of the other Signature Systems you can find points for and you’re in for a pretty good time.