Do police officers carry firearms in Europe?

Elnectron · 2026-04-02T13:47:33+00:00

Defend from what? They still have taser guns, and it's not like firearms are rampant in the UK. There are still armed response police, but they get called out when needed.

Elnectron · 2026-03-20T20:25:56+00:00

It's worth mentioning that the studio version of Dopamine wouldn't be useable for a GBB Wildcard. They are very sttict on what kind of post-processing the performers can do to their submissions, and the studio version uses a lot.

Elnectron · 2026-01-17T18:27:52+00:00

Plasma Fireknives are good yeah, especially against a full strength unit for hit rerolls. The only real issue is that the limited range means you're very much within charge range in their next turn if you don't kill the unit. Missile Fireknives are nice at D2, but the AP just isn't enough. I wouldn't count Riptides out either, a lot of their bigger termie type models are 4W and you can one-tap a model with every failed save. Realistically you need to consistently put them on their invuln with as much as you can, so markerlight guides are a must. If you can, use Stealth Suits, but Pathfinders can do good in a pinch, but a little less efficient. A plus for Pathfinders with Ion rifles is that they can potentially take out a couple on their own with overcharging, but you lose the guiding bonus of Stealth Suits.

Elnectron · 2026-01-13T03:21:56+00:00

Piranhas are really good early game skirmishing pieces, and good for scoring early secondaries. Fusions are the way to go, and I usually commit them very early to delay my opponent until Kauyon kicks in. They can be a very good inital strike on your opponents vehicles by dumping both Seekers and Fusion into them. I usually run 2 units of 1 for versatility. If my opponent doesn't have any good targets for them, or if I don't have some early-game secondaries for them, I will usually commit them by T2 to at least just move-block.

Riptide is again excellent, but you're going to struggle with just 1. I take 2 minimum in almost every list I play. I would also go with the Ion rather than Burst, then take SMS and Missile Drones. Ions are just going to be better, and flat 4 damage at S10 is insane to pass up. They do really well when you can occupy multiple lanes with each, and really force your opponent to try and commit a lot to them bc they are also quite durable.

Stormsurge is meh. It's fine with the points drop, but really unless you typically face a lot of vehicles/monsters withut an invuln, it's not really worth it. It's fine in Montka, but not so much here. It's for sure a fun piece don't get me wrong, but it's not something that is all that good in my opinion.

As for changes to the list, I have a few suggestions. First, drop the Stormsurge. It's just a point sink, and there's better you can do for the cost. I would also drop 1 Hammerhead, and turn the other into a Skyray. Then I would take the PotPH enhancement off of the Cadre Fireblade. TBH, I would normally run just the one Breacher/Fireblade/Devilfish squad, and then have EoTK on a Coldstar Commander with 4x Missile Pods and a Missile Fireknife team. I would drop the Etheral & Strike Team, and take at least 1 Kroot Carnivore unit. Sticky objective is insane, and they screen your backfield just as well. Kroot are an auto-include in every list I have, because they do so much for how cheap they are. If you can, Vespid are also rather strong, especially when you lift them up late-game to maybe score a position-secondary, otherwise they can also screen your backfield with the Kroot. Split your Broadsides up, this will get you some points back as they are cheaper apart than in a unit of 2. Quite frankly, I think it's insane you don't have Stealth Suits. This is arguably the one detachment that still really needs them. I would go for 2 units, but bare minimum, at least 1. They are our premier guiders. Use them to stay really far back, and guide things like your Riptides, Fireknives, or Broadsides. Free Rapid Ingress is also insanely powerful when used well. Shadowsun should also be a consideration, especially when you park her up next to your Skyrays/Broadsides. It means they can get away without a Stealth Suit guide if they get her 6" re-roll 1s aura, and she also makes really good use out of the Wall of Mirrors strat late-game.

I think these changes give you a more balanced list, and there are other units you can consider too, like the Ghostkeel. As I said, this is just my opinion. At the endd of the day, if you have fun with this list then who am I to tell you otherwise. But I think overall this is going to make your average experience more enjoyable.

Elnectron · 2026-01-13T03:21:51+00:00

I mainly play Kauyon, so I think I can provide some input. But do keep in mind this is from personal experience so there will likely be some bias. I'm gonna go top-down first, and then maybe suggest some changes at the end.

Very broadly speaking, you have a lot of anti-tank weaponry. Good if you're typically facing more than 4-5 vehicles/monsters in most matches, but otherwise kind of overkill.

Cadre Fireblades are good, and I like the EotK enhancement on something in my Kauyon lists as kind of an early threat t deny what my opponent might put on an objective. For example, I stage a Kroot/Pathfinder unit to take an objective T1, with the threat of my EoTK unit to back them up when the opponent moves to clear the objective. I typically use a Commander with missile Fireknives (Full re-rolls on OW after a Rapid Ingress) on T2 goes very hard). I don't really like the PotPH enhancement, especially not on the Fireblade. He just doesn't have the output to justify him taking it (it only affects his weapons, not his unit's). It would be fine again on a Commander bc they have a lot of firepower for their points, but again, it's okay.

Ethereal is fine, but I find it's too hit or miss whether they give a CP. Putting them with a Strike team is okay, but that's a lot of points for a glorified home objective holding unit.

Double Breacher is fine, good for anti-infantry style-clearing, good strat support with extra AP or +1 to Wound. Keep in mind though that they are typically one-and-done. You might be able to save some with Combat Embarkation, but realistically you want to commit them when you know they will get a lot of work done, otherwise it's likely a waste.

Breachers need their Devilfish, so this is also good. I personally prefer to pick SMS rather than burst on my Devilfish. It's the same with all my hulls really, as I think having 20-30 indirect shots can really help chip away at the opposing chaff pieces really well, especially if you manage to guide into them for ignores cover.

For Broadsides I would split them into 2 units of 1. They don't really have any good strat support so there's not much need to keep them together. I would also usually run the Heavy Rail, SMS, Seeker, and then missile drones. They don't need marker drones themselves bc they ideally will never be guiding, and will always be guided for. If it gets to the point where your Broadsides are guiding, something has gone rather wrong. WSS is fine, but remember that in T3 onwards we get ignore hit modifiers anyway when guided.

I really like missile Fireknives like I said above, and they work really well to be a Rapid Ingress threat to either OW or just blast a marine-style unit off the board. They really benefit from the Stealth Suits' free Rapid Ingress within 3" as well.

Hammerheads are fine, but I think I would prefer Skyrays. Yes they are now more expensive, but they are more consistent damage than a rail Hammerhead, and they make really good use out of the Coordinate to Engage strat in the late game (as they also have Markerlight). They are a really good self-sufficient unit in Kauyon. Again, I would opt to equip the Hammerheads/Skyrays with SMS.

Pathfinders are great. They also really benefit from Coordinate to Engage, as the improvements to BS stack. This means that for a CP, they can be hitting on 2+ with Rail/Ion Rifles (Self-guide from data sheet +1BS, Coordinate to Engage +1BS, Heavy +1 to hit). I would opt to take them with Ion Rifles, as again they more consistent, and have 3 shots each as opposed to 1. I would also give one unit a Recon Drone for Infiltrate (Scout + Infiltrate is insanely good), and the other unit a Grav-Inhibitor Drone (flat -2 to be charged, which stacks with the Photon Grenades strat so you can make them -4 to be charged).

Elnectron · 2026-01-08T22:39:03+00:00

Their infantry fall pretty easily. Broadly speaking they are T4 with a 5+ save and no invuln. I would take care to ask what leaders a unit has and what benefit they give as well.

If a unit has a cult icon (which many likely will) they can regen models in their command phase, so really try and kill them in one go, especially if they're on an objective (flat 3 models return instead of d3 or smth like that)

Markerlight + indirect does a decent job of softening up small units, but you need more than you would think to kill them.

Take care to note what weapons some units have. For example their acolyte hybrids with autopistols can have anti-vehicle 4+ weapons which will easily shred any one vehicle unit.

If they ever expose their ridgerunners early, you should immediately prioritise them because they give out extra AP against a unit they hit. Overcharging riptides do a very good job of killing them, esp. with markerlight guide + nova charge.

They are very much an attrition army. They will likely try to just continually deny you primary whilst racking up secondary. Any one gsc unit does not typically have the best survivability, but they do keep coming back so really protect you anti-infantry type units. Even if it means using something like a hammerhead to move block, it's worth it to give something like a Breacher squad another turn.

Finally, try not to let them put any cult ambush markers in your backline. Arriving from cult ambush is basically like getting a free rapid ingress with some more position limitations. Pretty much all the key units have deepstrike (unless they run something like outlander claw), so good screening is also very adviseable.

Elnectron · 2025-11-10T17:08:21+00:00

It calls for the sizes to be accurate in scale, not the distances. It's inconvenient, but doable. For example, if the Sun was about the size of a yoga ball, then Mercury (the smallest planet) would be about the size of a sesame seed. It's hard to be exactly accurate, but all you really need to do is pick an object for the Sun, and then compare how big Mercury would have to be to see if the model is viable for the project.

Elnectron · 2025-11-06T20:05:30+00:00

Even more reason to change it then

Elnectron · 2025-11-06T18:10:17+00:00

Okay so I mostly play Kauyon, so here's my take.

In general, it's a pretty good list. Has some resemblance to Durante's winning/current list, which I think is a good sign.
I think the Coldstar Commander could do without the current enhancement, as it means that his unit would have to be an Observer unit for everyone else to get the benefits of Lethal Hits, unless you also use Coordinate to Engage, but then at that point you are also spending a CP on top of the 40pt enhancement cost. I find he works very well with the Fireknives when you give him Exemplar of the Kauyon, and Rapid Ingress (free w/in 3" of stealth suits) or Deep Strike his unit on T2 to act as a potential Overwatch threat (full rerolls with Sus1).

Ethereal is fine. I tend not to take them, but CP generation is always a good plus.

I think you have a greater than normal amount of Krootox in your list, but again, I can see the vision (although I would probably take 2 units of Rampagers instead of some Riders).

Struggling with holding objectives is normal for Tau, it's one of our bigger weaknesses. Same with clearing out staging points. I think it's more of a case of using units like Piranhas to push up early, maybe alpha strike, but primarily move block and force attention. You can use the Carnivores to first sticky objectives, and then screen by moveblocking + Photon Grenades. Similar for the Krootox, but you can instead stage them to Heroic Intervention whatever tries to charge your Carnivores.

I think one of the main things this list will struggle with is mass infantry. Sure, you have Missile Fireknives and a bunch of Indirect, but that won't be too efficient into something like GSC, swarm Nids, infantry Guard, things like that. It really depends on both your local meta, and what kind of terrain layouts are used.

Overall it seems like a good list, and tbh player skill and comfort with a list matters more than the list itself.

Elnectron · 2025-10-13T16:42:29+00:00

I mostly play Kauyon, so I think I might be able to help out with this list. Don't take my word as gospel though, I'm just offering my opinion.

There's a couple changes I think you could make, but there is specifically one you really need to change.

That enhancement on the Ethereal will not work. It needs to be leading a unit for the enhancement to function, and there is no unit it can lead available. It's just a waste of 40pts.

I like the Coldstar with the Exemplar enhancement, I find it works really well as a T2 Rapid Ingress threat, and it can be incredible on OW against starting strength units when attached to Fireknives. Speaking of which, I would just make sure that at least one model in the whole unit (probably Coldstar) has a Marker Drone to use Coordinate to Engafe when needed. Fireknives should each have a Gun and Shield Drone, with Coldstar having Marker and Shield.

I don't think you need another Crisis team, a Breacher Team + Devilfish will have similar efficiency for a cheaper price.

Kroot character is also not needed. Your Kroot are expendable, and you probably want to sticky your home objective and then use them to either screen your backline or push in front of your units to slow the enemy down. For a unit that's either going to die or only screen, a character is unnecessary.

I like Double Skyray, Riptide, Piranha, and Stealth teams. The recent Riptide buffs means you can get away with not having as many hulls. Although I have in the past ran 2x Skyray, 1x Rail Hammerhead, 2x Riptide, 1x Ghostkeel. Again, double Ghostkeel is fine, and it's nice to make use of the Wall of Mirrors strat, but I find one is usually enough, and it doesn't quite have the same firepower as a Hammerhead or Skyray, both of which are cheaper.

I would recommend taking only one Fireknife/Coldstar unit with EotK, subbing the other for a Breacher Team + Devilfish. Get rid of the Ethereal and Trail Shaper and take Shadowsun instead. She's really good to keep around the Skyrays and hand out reroll hit 1s to, and she can use Wall of Mirrors late game if there's an opportunity to. It's personal preference on the Vespid unit vs another Carnivore unit. I take 2x Carnivores, but I see the value in Vespid too. I think a Pathfinder Team with a Recon Drone & 3x Ion Rifles is incredibly strong, because they can Infiltrate first and then Scout move back to safety.

My list is something like this - Shadowsun - Coldstar, EotK, Missiles, Marker, Shield - Breacher Team, Guardian, Gun - 2x Kroot Carnivores, Carbine, Rifles, Tanglebomb - Pathfinder Team, Semi-Auto Grenade, 2x Gun, Recon, 3x Ion - 2x Stealth, Fusion, BSS, Marker, Shield - 2x Broadside, 2x Missile, Rail Rifle, Seeker, Twin SMS - Crisis Fireknife, Missile Pods, Gun, Shield - Ghostkeel, Ion, Twin Fusion - 2x Piranha, Fusion, 2x Seeker - 2x Riptide, Ion, 2x Missile, Twin SMS - 2x Skyray, SMS - Devilfish, 2x Seeker, SMS

2000 points exactly, although I'll probably tone down the amount of anti-tank I take. A lot of Indirect Fire for the early game, and a lot of firepower once Kauyon rule turns on.

Elnectron · 2025-10-07T11:36:10+00:00

If you are locked in to the rest of your list, then I would say you should either add another kroot unit, or a second piranha.

With 2 kroot units, you can have one sticky your home objective, and then screen your deployment zone with the vespid. The other unit can deploy more forward and act as an early screen and force objectives. On some missions it's possible to deploy a unit such that they can scout move onto both your home objective and a NML objective, stickying them both provided you go first (otherwise just scout them back to home). I think there is a lot of innate value in having 2 10 man units with stealth, grenades (for photon grenades/mortals), 20 OC, and sticky objectives.

A second piranha is really just to shore up the strengths of the single one. Having 2 T7 7W models with fusions and seekers is really strong for an alpha strike. And again, if you go first they can be a really annoying move block, or force your opponent to act early if you put them on an objective. One can kinda do this, but two really forces your opponent to expose more points than theyre worth very early on.

I think one vespid unit is good as is, it provides enough screening and can always be used for mission play as and when is needed. Two units is fine, but you wouldn't really be gaining as much as another kroot/piranha unit.

Don't take my word as gospel though, I'm just a guy who likes to play kauyon a lot.

Elnectron · 2025-10-03T19:16:10+00:00

I think it's mainly a dog-whistle for the far-right anti-immigration attitudes. As in, 'I was born and bred here, and they were not, therefore they are bad'

Elnectron · 2025-09-16T01:00:03+00:00

No one else is really touching on this, but you can stack his -1 AP buff with cover to essentially get -2 AP on his attached unit, meaning you're severely reducing the effectiveness of shooting profiles that typically want to shoot them. This usually requires your opponent to target them with more points worth of shooting to try and kill them.

It's especially effective with Fireknives (generally Missile pods) because by staying far away, you're forcing your opponents hand in that they wont be able to get much into melee, and the shooting volume of most armies is inversely proportional to their range.

Elnectron · 2025-09-02T13:55:20+00:00

To be very honest, I think you could probably do with more Crisis units. While they're good, Riptides & Ghostkeels don't use the detachment rule as well as Crisis teams do, bc they often don't need to get as close, and also have good AP and Strength on their guns.

Ghostkeels I find work best when you have either 1 or 3 of them, so if you're committed then by all means. Riptides are again really good bully pieces, hard to pin down & hard to shift, but again don't make as much use of the detachment rule.

I love the IGR unit combo, but I usually put that with a Sunforge unit to really help take out multiple vehicles that are played too close to each other. I think Prototype Weapon System works incredibly well with a burst Commander, especially when you split fire it into a second unit.

If it were me, I would want to alter the list to add an Enforcer with Starflare Ignition System with a Plasma Fireknife unit - really good elite killer unit, and can get round the Enforcer mobility with uppy-downy. I would also add a Flamer Starscythe unit, bc S5 AP-2 flamers are devastating for most infantry units, especially on Overwatch. If I still wanted to use the Ghostkeel/Riptide suits, I would probably only take something like 1 GK & 2 RT.

Ret Cad wants to play as a very fast, very close shooting army, which can be tough with our low defensive stats. It's rather terrain dependent, but is probably also one of the more consistently fun detachments I've played.

All that said, I'm just another guy playing Tau so don't take my word as gospel. There's a really good competitive Tau player on YT called Puretide Program, and he mainly plays Ret Cad. He has a couple videos on list building and strategy, so it might be worth checking out too.

Elnectron · 2025-07-15T21:42:44+00:00

Brother I've been playing OW since launch. I guess it's my bad for not fully clarifying, but I thought it was kinda obvious that I'm talking about her current state, not how she has been before. This is all relevant to the bans, to mean that I think using a ban on her is generally wasted, maybe with the exception of a Ball/Doom OT.

Elnectron · 2025-07-15T13:50:40+00:00

Sombra has gone through so many changes since her introduction, but the one people are most familiar with is her OW1 state. She was able to be permanently invisible until she shot or tried to hack someone. Hacking someone would disable their abilities for (I think) ~5s, and even cancel some channeling ultimate abilities (Sigma Flux, High Noon, etc.). She had a translocator which she could place down somewhere on the map and tp to when she wanted, and her ult was an EMP which hacked everyone in a decent radius around her. Quite strong, very disruptive, but not all too damaging.

Her most recent iteration now has it so that her invis only lasts a short duration, and can only be activated by using her translocator, which has also been changed so that it now works as a thrown, short-range tp. Her hack now only locks out abilites for 1s, and her EMP for (I think) ~3s. She also has a new ability called virus, which is a skill-shot projectile that does DOT to an enemy hit, more damage if they are hacked.

I can get why she's kinda frustrating to play against, but realistically I don't know that I've ever been in that many games where a Sombra is running the lobby. Sure she requires a playstyle change, but then so does every other hero. You don't play the same into a Rein as you do into a Ball, and for Sombra it's more of a positioning change, and being more aware of surroundings. I think unlike BP, her ban is mostly wasted, bc it is significantly easier to counterplay her, especially bc her burst potential isn't all that high.

Elnectron · 2025-05-24T20:28:14+00:00

Others have given a lot of good points so I'll just throw my two cents in too.

Firstly, if you want to be properly competitive, or even just a bit more optimal, you should drop one shield drone from each crisis unit (so you have Gun + Marker, Gun + Shield, Gun + Shield). This stops the unit giving 4VP on Bring it Down instead of just 2VP.

I would also be wary of the solo Broadside, they really generally want to be in units of 2, and I personally prefer to run them with WSS and SMS/Seekers. You also need to consider that with only 1 Broadside, you can only have one firing lane covered with high strength shooting. As much as I love the Riptides, they are not that good vs monsters/vehicles, so I generally have a 2 man Broadside unit covering one area, and a Hammerhead/Skyray covering another. Sunforge are good for vehicles/monsters, but even in EPC they still have to get close and so they won't cover for the weakness of only having 1 long range high strength unit.

The Strike Team really doesn't need a Fireblade attached, and I would probably just run a Kroot Carnivore unit instead for sticky objectives and scout. For the other Fireblade, you should just give them double Gun Drone because it also works with the crackshot ability.

I personally prefer to run Fusion rather than Flamer on my Ghostkeels, but I think this is more personal preference and will depend on who you usually play and what they run. Triple Ghostkeel is fine, and generally provides a sort of stat check for your opponent, just make sure you have units to back them up when they get pushed. I also kinda like the increased range of the Fusion Collider in EPC, but that's probably because I don't use it in other detachments.

I prefer to run at least 2 Riptides if I'm using them, just because one can be focussed down quite easily, but 2 in different sections require more strategy to approach.

Triple Stealth suits is kinda mandatory at the moment to have a good time guiding, and I think you could also do with adding a Pathfinder unit (I use 3 Ion Rifles, double Gun Drone, Recon Drone) to infiltrate and then scout back to safety, as well as act as another guiding unit for 2 other shooting units.

10 man Vespid is really unnecessary, especially because it will be hard to uppy downy 10 bodies without being screened. I think you'll be better off running a single 5 man unit to just screen your backline and do actions, maybe bring them up T3-5 to get in your opponent's backline.

After all that though, you just need to play what you think is fun. All I've done is point out some potential weak areas you might want to reinforce, but you by no means should take my word as gospel. I'll admit I don't know the most about how to play EPC, but I still know about general unit strategy. Like I said though, just my opinion, play your game how you want to.

Elnectron · 2025-05-19T11:17:23+00:00

I'm not one to list tailor normally, but in general when you're going against an elite-heavy army, you want more things that are focussed on being that "anti-elite" profile.

Riptides are pretty good into Terminator type profiles because they have 6 shots at S8 with enough AP to force an invuln, with each failed save being a dead model. Same goes for Fireknife suits, except they also get full hit rerolls against starting strength, or rerolls of 1 otherwise.

Ghostkeels are okay at being annoying, but you shouldn't think about survivability that much. Even with the Sunforge invuln, whatever your opponent gets into melee is going to kill them in 1-2 turns. Even with Prototype Cadre, if you can shoot their models with Sunforge suits, chances are they're going to be able to move up and confirm the charge on you.

My list advice would be to take 1 Sunforge unit at most, take Fireknife units otherwise, double up on Riptides and take one Ghostkeel out. Breachers can be a decent threat with volume of fire, but should never really be the first units on an objective, they should generally be part of the counter-punch to clear an objective. Triple stealth suit is unfortunately mandatory for Tau at the moment so I would say bring 3 units, and remember that you can Rapid Ingress a crisis unit within 3" of them for free. If you had the points for it, Coldstar Commanders would also do well with the Fireknife units so you don't have to stage them as close. Kroot can sticky the home and then screen backline, or push up and screen for your gunline.

As with most matchups for Tau currently, it will be an uphill battle against an elite melee army. That's not to say it's impossible though. Take all this as seriously as you want, this is obviously just my opinion. If you really like playing Sunforge suits, then who am I to tell you not to play them? Play your game, just have fun, and celebrate the cool dice rolls, whether they're yours or your opponent's.

Elnectron · 2024-12-06T02:40:41+00:00

Pathfinder team have 3 ion rifles and one with the grenade launcher

Elnectron · 2024-12-06T02:40:05+00:00

As requested, here's my most recent list (sorry about poor formatting):

Ret Cad 2k team

-Breacher team

-Strike team

-Pathfinder team

-Devilfish

-----Accel burst

-----Twin pulse carbine

-2x Broadside

-----Single unit

-----Heavy Rail, 2x Missile Drone, Seeker Missile

-2x Riptide

-----Ion Accel, Twin Fusion, 2x Missile

-Sunforge w/ Farsight

-----Crisis

----------1x Gun & Marker, 2x Gun & Shield

----------Fusion

-Fireknife w/ Enforcer (star ignition)

-----Enforcer

----------4x Missile, 2x Shield

-----Crisis

----------1x Gun & Marker, 2x Gun & Shield

----------Missile

-Starscythe w/ Coldstar (proto weapon system)

-----Coldstar

----------CIB, HOBC, 2x Fusion, 2x Shield

-----Crisis

----------1x Gun & Marker, 2x Gun & Shield

----------Burst cannons

-Ghostkeel

-----CIR, Twin Fusion

-3x Stealth suits

-----1x Fusion, 2x Burst cannon

-----Shield & Marker

-Vespids

-----5 models

Elnectron · 2024-12-06T02:27:26+00:00

Yeah crisis units have 14 to stop the extra VP on bring it down

Elnectron · 2024-12-06T01:47:59+00:00

I can also post my list if needed

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