T'au Empire Advanced Acquisition Cadre Detachment Guide (11th Edition)

The Advanced Acquisition Cadre is built around 11th edition's detection and concealment layer. Its signature upgrade, reported as the Unmasking Suite, can be given to a small number of stealth-capable units - broadly up to three from among Ghostkeels, Pathfinders or Stealth Teams - and substantially increases the detection range at which they can pick out enemy units (coverage cites a large boost, on the order of extending detection out toward roughly 24 inches). Paired with this is an Expert Fieldcraft-style rule that lets your recon units - Pathfinders and Stealth Battlesuits - keep shooting without breaking their hidden status, so they can fire from concealment turn after turn. The combined effect is a detachment that sees first, shoots from safety, and denies the opponent the concealment they would otherwise rely on. Because these detection rules are new and still being tuned, treat the specific inch values as indicative and confirm the current Unmasking Suite and Expert Fieldcraft wording in the Faction Pack.

This detachment's stratagems reinforce survivability and the detection advantage. Coverage highlights an Autoreactive Camouflage-style stratagem that improves the armour save of a targeted unit (reported as a +1 to Save), helping your fragile spotters weather return fire. The general playbook is defensive-enabling: use save-boosting and concealment stratagems to keep your recon pieces alive and hidden so they can keep feeding you the detection and markerlight advantage, and spend offensively only when a concealed unit has a clean, high-value shot. Because the whole detachment is about information and positioning, the discipline is protecting your spotters - they are now high-priority targets for the opponent, so hold your defensive tools for the moment they are threatened. Specific stratagem names, CP costs and values change with balance updates, so verify the current stratagems in the Faction Pack rather than relying on any single reported number.

The Advanced Acquisition Cadre's enhancements center on stealth, survivability and detection - broadly, buffs that make your recon units harder to kill or better at spotting. Coverage notes camouflage-style upgrades that can push a Stealth Battlesuit toward a very strong armour save (reported around a 2+ with the right upgrade), turning an evasive unit into a genuinely durable one. Evaluate enhancements by which one best keeps your key spotter alive and hidden, since the detachment's value collapses if your detection pieces die early. Put the enhancement on the unit doing the most important spotting or holding the most exposed forward position. As always, the exact enhancement names, point costs and save values are subject to errata and dataslate changes, so pick from the live list in the current Faction Pack rather than assuming these specific numbers are locked in.

This detachment wants T'au's stealth and recon toolkit front and center. Stealth Battlesuits are the star - evasive, hidden shooters that get tougher with camouflage upgrades. Ghostkeels provide a durable, hard-to-target heavy option and can carry the Unmasking Suite. Pathfinders are your markerlight engine and can also run the detection upgrade, doubling as spotters and targeters. Add drones for extra bodies and utility. You will still want a firebase to use all that targeting information - Crisis suits, Broadsides or a Riptide to convert your detection advantage into dead enemy units - plus Kroot or Fire Warriors to hold objectives. The list-building logic is a survivable recon screen feeding a lethal gunline. Confirm current datasheets and points, since profiles and costs for stealth units are periodically revised by dataslates.

Take the Advanced Acquisition Cadre when you want to win the information war in 11th edition's terrain-dense, detection-driven game - seeing and shooting the enemy before they can respond, and keeping your spotters alive to do it repeatedly. As a 1-DP detachment it is designed as a specialist bolt-on: pair it with a codex detachment (points and Unique Tags permitting) to add a resilient recon-and-detection layer to a bigger plan. It rewards players who enjoy positioning, concealment and the subtleties of the new hidden mechanics rather than raw alpha-strike aggression. Because these detection rules are new, its power level may swing with early balance updates, so keep an eye on dataslates. Verify its current DP cost and how it stacks with other detachments in the Faction Pack. For the markerlight and target-priority fundamentals it builds on, read the T'au Empire army guide.