As any self respecting Tau Shas'O should know, firewarriors should never be in close combat. If you need a sacrificial unit then you have the Kroot. I, apparently, am not a self respecting Tau general. I am the kind of Tau general that listens to his Earth Caste, after having too much of whatever it is Shas'Os drink to forget their horrible war driven lives, and agrees to test out whatever random wargear they just created to get a promotion.
"Equip my troops with some new photon grenades? Sure, yea I'll do that, it'll be quite a surprise for those Khorne Berzerkers. Won't they be pissed when they don't get that extra attack on the charge. Alright you guys, get on the front lines and get ready to trick the enemy into charging into you, once they lose their extra charge attack, they won't have any defense against your mighty close combat powers."
Seriously though, photon grenades are a hindrance to the Tau force. If you mess up and you get a squad of FW tied into combat consider them a loss and move on. The longer enemy units are tied up in CC the longer you have to wait until you shoot them again. Granted, on a full squad taking photon grenades is only 12 points, but that 12 points could be much better spent elsewhere (disruption pods for 2 vehicles). Heck the photon grenades may not even hinder your enemy's ability to completely obliterate your squad on the charge, but if your opponent is that tooled up for CC hooray for you, he is wasting points on being a CC powerhouse when all he really needs is something only slightly more trained and less drunk than your typical college football team.
Photon Grenades are not where I get in trouble, I just thought I would list them since I am on the topic of grenades. Emp grenades are the hillbilly temptress of the Tau firewarrior squad. A 4, or a 5 is a glance, and 6 on a pen. Only slightly worse than a haywire grenade. The sensible Shas'O repeats in my head "I don't even know half of the Close Combat rules" But the reckless Lizardmen general in me says, "Take out 200 points worth of stuff with 78 points?!! Let's try it it!" Thus is born, the six man strong unit of pulse carbine equipped firewarriors. The "Commando Squad" (term courtesy of ATT
) is either a very bad idea, or something very funny to do to kids who aim for the big nicely modeled stuff. Who doesn't want to take out a clump of Basilisks that never move with a bunch of guys who can never hit anything in real close combat? That would be quite an ego boost for the lone firewarrior, but the problem that arises? How does he get there?You can run, but chances are you will get shot at least once somewhere along the lines as you make the long trek towards the opposite side of the field. You could mount them in a devilfish, but then that kind of defeats the purpose of the "cheap commando unit to blow up more expensive sedentary things".
Chances are, if you do make it you are going to have some losses, and even if you get to the objective there is a 50% chance you won't do anything at all. The other question to ask is, "is their anything else in my army that might be a more reliable source of tank popping power?"
With a plethora of anti-V capability it makes no sense for Tau to have EMP grenades, they are not about getting in close physically, and they have so many other options to pop tanks with, it's just silly.
A grenade Tau should have? One use only, when charged by an enemy assaulting firewarrior squad, the unit may opt to use it's grenade, if it does it makes an immediate fall back move. You would still be in assault range next turn, but that gives you a round of rapid fire shooting, or the (hopeful) option to taxi those guys away in a devilfish. Maybe that's not balanced at all, I don't know, but it sure would have saved my butt if it existed, more so than photon grenades, and more fun than using EMP grenades.
