Oooh, Barracuda

Before we get into the thick of the article, before I even write the introduction, I wanted to stop and address the Summer of Flyers. The Summer of Flyers is an umbrella term, given to GW's recent flyer-styled models, as well as an upcoming rules set, rumored to be titled “Wartorn Skies”. Akin to the Spearhead supplement, Wartorn Skies is set to debut in the next issue of White Dwarf, due out on the 28^th, and you can find what details are available here. These topics were inspiration for me to write the following article, only in that they've cast the Tau camp's attention in the direction of the Barracuda. The piece I've written is concerned only with what the Barracuda would look like if it were to become a standard Tau codex unit, and is written irrespectively of whatever the next White Dwarf's issue, or Summer of Flyers rumors at large, might contain. So with that caveat in mind, please, read on!

The Tau Barracuda, known for
lying low in the weeds.

Not so long ago, I linked to a rumor that mentioned we might be getting a plastic Barracuda (here it is again). That was pretty much the extent of the rumor, which is why this article is taking a more speculative approach, rather then the traditional analytical one I try to approach most rumors with. At the time I promised to revisit the topic when I did my Forge World round-up - that's still coming, but I'm going to steal a little bit of it's thunder for this article, and probably just link back to it when we take a broader look at the Forge World kits. Now just because I'm on the record as saying that I don't think the Barracuda will make it into the next codex, that doesn't mean I wouldn't be ecstatic if it did, and with this post I wanted to sit down and talk about the kind of changes it would need to go through to make it there.

The Imperial Guard Valkyrie, much
like the Barracuda, it was originally
a Forge World Model.

First things first, lets talk about the nature of the beast. The Barracuda, as it exists today, is an Apocalypse designed Flyer. Flyer's have a litany of complicated rules; they act on the opposing teams turn, their movement is completely unlike the standard vehicles of 40k, and they spend as much time off the board as they do on. But fortunately for us, like the Imperial Guard's Valkyrie before it, we can safely assume that as part of it's transition into the codex proper, the Barracuda would become a Fast Skimmer. This is a trend further reinforced by the Stormraven and Dark Eldar Razorwing releases both being Fast Skimmers themselves. Now we could call it quits there, and effectively port it over, but that wouldn't make for an interesting or balanced unit, and it certainly wouldn't make for an interesting article! So with that in mind, lets take a look at what makes the Barracuda tick.

At first glance, the Barracuda's armament doesn't do much to set it apart from the more familiar Hammerhead. It's main weapon is an Ion Canon, and it sports two unlinked Burst Canons, but throw in Twin-Linked Missile Pods, and a theme starts to emerge. See, unlike the Hammerhead, the Barracuda must take an Ion Canon, what this means, is that with the addition of the Missile Pod, we see a platform that was designed for delivering on quantity of fire, not quality of fire. It's not to say that what it's doing is sub-par, quite the contrary – the Railgun is simply a formidable weapon that has skewed the common Tau player's expectation of what a “big-gun” is, a lot remains to be said for being able to deliver five Strength 7 attacks a turn. The weight of fire the Barracuda is capable of dishing out is likely due to it's Flyer heritage, but as a ranged army struggling to perform in a melee based environment, the Barracuda may be the best example of how the Tau might deliver on one of their core themes. With its arsenal of long range, high strength shots, all with respectable armor penetration, the Barracuda would be capable of hunting down hard to kill infantry, monstrous creatures, and even take on secondary anti-armor role – all things our current Tau struggle with, or could use more of.

The Space Marine Stormraven,
often referred to as a flying
Land Raider

Having covered just what kind of damage the Barracuda can inflict, it's time to take a look at how survivable it is. While it's poor form to give out explicit details on GW's intellectual property, nothing stops me from comparing it to unit you might already be familiar with, in this case, the Piranha. No, you read that right, our light skimmer with the top down has better armor than a fighter jet, and if it wasn't for the Piranha being open-topped, the situation would be out-right laughable. This poor armor is undoubtably another tie to it's original role as a Flyer, models of it's kind are lauded for being able to dispense death on mass but bruise in a stiff breeze. With all respect to balance, while this kind of armor could be toted as a counter-point to the Barracuda's impressive payload, it doesn't hold up once the transition to being a Fast Skimmer has been made. If we were to continue to liken it to existing flyers, we'd have to assume that it would come equipped with a similar base as well - on the plus side, this elevated posture gives it a commanding view of the field, but with armor like this, it does nothing to abate the fact that maneuvering at that altitude puts the Barracuda squarely in the role of the duck from Duck Hunt. Frankly, if the unit never survives to make good on it's investment, it's all for naught, and unless this changes, the Barracuda stands to earn a reputation as a paper kite (is there such a thing as a kite fish?), and not an air superiority fighter. As a finished product, I would fully expect to see the Barracuda sport an armor total approximating that of a Devilfish, further supplemented by it's ability to claim cover saves for moving at high speeds. Combine this with it's tall base and you have a recipe for a survivable unit, but not an invincible one. Further balancing could be achieved by ensuring it doesn't have access to the same armory as a standard vehicle. When the dust settles, what we're looking for is something that is as survivable as a Hammerhead, without cloning it's stat line.

Which brings us to the logistical side of things. The natural place for the Barracuda to end up in the Force Organization Chart is under Heavy Support, and with the kind of fire power it has access too, I don't think anyone would argue much. But there remains arguments for both Fast Attack and Elite choices as well. The unit is a Fast Skimmer, who's survivability will depend on it's ability to claim cover saves and out range the enemies anti-tank weaponry, and this kind of glass canon mentality can often be found in a codexes Fast Attack choices. The Barracuda is also piloted by Air Caste pilots, who aren't specifically part of the standard hunting cadres that make up the rest of the Tau army, their rarity in this case putting them in the Elite portion of the FoC. Still, I can't see either of these choices being made unless there was an excess of Heavy Support in the codex to begin with, and even then, the strength needed to displace such a heavy hitter, well, I wouldn't count on it.

Logistics doesn't end with it's position in the army though, there is the separate issue of points cost. As it stands, if we were to compare an Ion toting Hammerhead with the Barracuda, the Barracuda would be just shy of twice it's cost. That's buying you a couple of extra shots, and significantly reduced armor. You have to account for the original cost being balanced around the Flyer's rule set, and not the Fast Skimmer's. We're also talking about a new codex as well – the Tau's current codex long considered over-priced, so comparisons on that front aren't entirely accurate either. If you account for additional changes we've considered above (and the various possible changes we haven't), the equation to find out it's end cost becomes even more complicated. Too complicated, actually. So lets do this, I'm just going to eye-ball it. The Barracuda as it's presented here, exists as an ideal counterpart to the powerful Railgun firing Hammerhead, but I think it's ability to saturate the enemy with shots makes it a little more valuable. With that in mind, I would say that wherever the Railhead ends up, the Barracuda should be a slight bit above.

The soon to be released Dark
Eldar Razorwing. With rules like
"Supersonic", the sky is the limit
for these and all future flyers.

A lot of people are looking at the Stormraven, and the soon to be released Razorwing, and thinking “What's my army going to get?”, for the Tau, the Barracuda seems like the perfect answer. As the new codex is written, and units start to fall into place, I think we can all agree there's room for this platform in the new codex. The Idea of a vehicle given over entirely to the Ion Canon is, in my books, a great one – it's a weapon that's stood in the shadow of the Railgun for far too long, and could be the answer to a lot of problems the Tau face when confronting, fast moving, resilient armies. As pure speculation, it would be an interesting choice if the Hammerhead were denied the use of the Ion Canon entirely, relying on just the Railgun, and in a future with a codex-standard Barracuda, and proposed changes to the Railgun (we'll talk about these soon), I think the only thing standing in the way of such a turn of events would be the Hammerhead's sprue itself. Remember, this is all just speculation based on rumor, but fun brain food none-the-less. As always folks, thanks for reading!

Oh yes, and there is such a thing as a Kitefish. TM.