Experimental Prototype Cadre: The 11th-Edition T'au Battlesuit Character Detachment

One clause: friendly BATTLESUIT CHARACTER units' ranged attacks have +6 inch Range.

That is the whole detachment rule. There is no hazardous ammunition in it, no risk-reward mechanic and no damage bonus. That effect exists, but it is a stratagem and it costs a command point every time you want it, which is a very different thing when you are building a list.

Read BATTLESUIT CHARACTER strictly, because the two words do different work:

• A Crisis Starscythe squad with no character attached gains nothing. The rule does not cover Battlesuits generally.
• A Commander in Enforcer Battlesuit gains it, and so does a Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit.
• Commander Farsight and Commander Shadowsun gain it, though as Epic Heroes neither can carry an enhancement.
• The Twin Lance, the Epic Hero pair whose datasheet the pack prints in full, has both the Battlesuit and Character keywords, so it gains it too. Its guns are all 18 inches or less, which makes +6 inches a much larger proportional gain there than anywhere else in the army.

Six inches is worth more than it sounds in 11th edition, because the practical question in a terrain-dense game is whether you can take a shot from a position the enemy cannot reach next turn. Extra Range buys board control rather than damage.

Faction Pack v1.2 states in the rule text that this detachment has the RETALIATION tag and cannot be taken with another RETALIATION detachment. The Munitorum Field Manual v1.3 and the community mirror both name the same tag BATTLESUIT and record it on the Retaliation Cadre as well. We do not state a tag name as fact; the pairing consequence is the same either way, and it is covered below.

There is exactly one, which is unusual and worth knowing before you commit a Detachment Point.

• Experimental Ammunition (1CP, your Shooting). When a friendly BATTLESUIT CHARACTER unit is selected to shoot, that unit's ranged attacks have either +1 Strength, or +1 Strength, +1 Armour Penetration and [HAZARDOUS].

You choose which profile when you use it. The first option is free upside. The second buys an extra point of Armour Penetration by attaching [HAZARDOUS] to your own weapons, which can kill the model firing them.

The discipline is simple and most players get it wrong in the same direction. Take the safe profile by default. Take the hazardous profile only when the target genuinely has to die this phase and the extra Armour Penetration is what makes that happen, which in practice means against a heavily armoured target you cannot otherwise crack. Losing a Commander to your own gun to shave a wound off something you would have killed anyway is the classic way to lose a game with this detachment.

Because the detachment has one stratagem, it will not absorb command points, which is a genuine advantage when it is paired with a 2-DP detachment that has six of its own.

Three, and all three follow the same pattern: BATTLESUIT model only, and in the Declare Battle Formations step you select one of the bearer's weapons of a named type and improve it.

• Plasma Accelerator Rifle (20 pts). Select one of this model's Plasma Rifle weapons; that weapon's attacks have +2 S, and +1 A, AP and D. The extra Attack is what makes this the most expensive of the three and usually the best, because it multiplies with everything else you stack on the model.
• Supernova Launcher (15 pts). Select one of this model's Airbursting Fragmentation Projector weapons; that weapon's attacks have +3 S, and +1 AP and D. The biggest Strength swing of the three, and the one that turns an anti-infantry gun into something that threatens light vehicles.
• Thermoneutronic Projector (15 pts). Select one of this model's T'au Flamer weapons; that weapon's attacks have +2 S, and +1 AP and D.

The practical constraint is the one nobody mentions: these are upgrades to a weapon the model already has. If your Commander is not built with a Plasma Rifle, the Plasma Accelerator Rifle does nothing for it. Check your model's wargear before you buy the enhancement, and if you are assembling a new Commander for this detachment, build it with the gun you intend to upgrade.

Note also that all three are model enhancements, so they cannot go on an Epic Hero. Farsight, Shadowsun and The Twin Lance all benefit from the detachment rule and can carry none of these.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

If your list is battlesuit-forward, the pairing you will reach for is Retaliation Cadre plus this detachment. One buffs Battlesuits at close range; the other buffs Battlesuit Characters at long range. They read as designed for each other.

They cannot be taken together, for two independent reasons.

First, the arithmetic. The Retaliation Cadre costs 3 DP. A Strike Force army has a 3 DP budget. There is no Detachment Point left to spend on anything, let alone on this. This alone settles it, and it is not a rules interpretation, it is subtraction.

Second, the tag. Both detachments carry the same Unique Tag. The Munitorum Field Manual v1.3 and the community mirror both print UNIQUE: BATTLESUIT on the Retaliation Cadre and on this detachment. Faction Pack v1.2 names this detachment's tag RETALIATION instead, which points at the same detachment from the other direction. The two official documents disagree about the string, and agree completely about the consequence.

SprueSentry previously published pages that recommended this pairing, from both ends. They were wrong, and this wave replaces them.

What to do instead if you want long-range character suits and close-range firepower in the same army: run Retaliation Cadre alone at 3 DP and accept that it is a complete army, or run this detachment with Kauyon (2 DP), which gives your extended-range characters [SUSTAINED HITS 1] and the ability to ignore Hit roll modifiers from the third battle round. The second is the better list for a player who likes reach.

• Commander in Enforcer Battlesuit is the main enhancement carrier: a Battlesuit Character that is not an Epic Hero, so it can actually take one of the three weapon upgrades, and durable enough to survive being the list's focal point. Build and list it under this name, because the generic Commander in Crisis Battlesuit datasheet is Warhammer Legends in this pack.
• Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit is the mobile alternative from the same kit. Extra Range on a fast character means taking a shot and ending the move somewhere your opponent cannot reach.
• The Twin Lance is printed in full in this pack, has both Battlesuit and Character keywords, and has the shortest guns of any candidate, so it gains the most proportionally. Epic Hero, so no enhancement.
• Commander Farsight and Commander Shadowsun both benefit from the rule and both are Epic Heroes, so neither can carry an enhancement. Bring them because you want them.
• Pathfinder Team is what makes an extended-range shot worth taking. Range without a Spotted unit is just range; with one it is +1 Ballistic Skill and [IGNORES COVER] as well.
• Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits are a squad your enhanced Commander can lead, which puts the character where you want it. Be clear that the squad's own guns gain nothing from the detachment rule.

One omission to note: the XV9 Hazard Battlesuits, the R'varna Battlesuit and the Y'vahra Battlesuit are all Warhammer Legends datasheets in 11th edition, so none of them is an experimental-prototype centrepiece to build around, whatever the theme suggests.

Take it when your list already runs two or more Battlesuit Characters and you want them shooting from further back. One Detachment Point for a permanent, free, no-decision range extension on your most expensive models is a fair rate, and the single stratagem means it competes for no command points.

Be clear-eyed about the limits. It affects Battlesuit Characters only, so a suit-heavy list with one Commander gets very little. It adds no accuracy, no durability and no damage without spending a command point. And its three enhancements are all conditional on the bearer being built with a specific weapon, which is a constraint you cannot fix on the day.

Sample gameplan: pair it with Kauyon (2 DP). Both detachments pay you for not advancing, which is a rare alignment. Spend rounds one and two holding your half of the board with your characters six inches further back than your opponent expects, and from the third battle round add [SUSTAINED HITS 1] and modifier-ignoring accuracy to those same shots. Take the Plasma Accelerator Rifle on a Commander built with a Plasma Rifle, and hold command points for Experimental Ammunition on the safe profile rather than the hazardous one.

The other strong option is Kroot Hunting Pack (2 DP), which is legal and covers the Kroot pack's real weakness: nothing in it can hurt a fresh, tough target, and a long-range character suit can.

For the fundamentals, read the T'au Empire army guide.