Triple Riptide, Triple Everything - Tau Triumvirate

I ran an experimental and fun list Wednesday night at the club versus relative newcomer to the club - Oliver. He was running Farsight Enclaves with Tau allies and I was running Tau with Farsight Enclaves.
Lol..
Reverse mirror match sort of thing..

I ran my newly finished 3 Riptides.... 3 Skyrays, 3 Kroot units and 3 Commanders! whoot! 3 is the magic number!

I ran the now compulsory Buff Commander (with 2 added Gun Drones), I ran Shadowsun and I ran a Farsight Commander with 2 Fusion Blasters, target lock, drone controller and 2 Gun Drones.

I attached the Tau Triumvirate to the mandatory Farsight 3 man Crisis team - each equipped with 2 Missile Pods, Target Locks and then... not marker drones.. but Gun Drones. Yup... LOL! great fun.
Less effective of course than running Markerlights for the support of the rest of the army.. but hey ho.. So we had 10 Gun Drones throwing out 20 S5 shots at 24" effective range. They were BS5 of course, twin linked and ignoring cover.
Trouble I found with them was that they inevitably ended up being out of range for a lot of the game.
This was mainly due to be going second. I had to stay out of mobile markerlight range to avoid some serious Tau firepower coming at me... so this was not the perfect game to test them out.. if I was going first it would be, but never mind.

The Triumvirate pushes up the board like a deadly snake..

The game itself? Went second, deployed accordingly. First turn, gave up First Blood to Oliver when he killed one of my Skyrays with his HBC Earthtide. I essentially used LoS blocking terrain and movement to avoid the tanking Buff Commander that Oliver had and removed his accurate markerlights first turn. I then smashed Buff Commander dead with AP2 weaponry as he couldn't look out sir to anyone. The Crisis unit fell back and that was that really for them.
I maintained my distance and second turn crippled the Broadside Drones, I didn't bother with the Kroot he'd used to grab the Relic (we played Draw Bore, Relic and Dep: Football Field) or the Skyrays as he'd spunked his missiles early to try and nuke a Riptide...an error I feel using AP3 weapons on the 2+ save Rips.
I systematically killed the most appropriate threat each turn whilst pushing my Triumvirate up the left flank before sweeping it in onto his objective at the end of the game. Oliver crowded his own objective with loads of troop Crisis Suits and Kroot.. I killed everything else and then just pushed the Triumvirate to deal with them.

Anyway, the Triumvirate is what I wanted to talk about. It was really effective...like a mini-Bomb but without the crazy mobility which is why the Crisis Suits (troops) maintained their Missiles rather than more deadly weaponry. But I think it can be better.
Of course the Gun Drones have a much shorter effective range than a Marker Drone which does a very different job.
But can I mix them up?
Do I need Shadowsun?
She adds the important Stealth and Shrouding...she also gives the very important "Ghost who walks" Warlord trait to the unit which speeds it up no end - 3D6 assault move is extremely useful.
She also has access to the 3++ drones. Only two of them max, but it makes a difference.
Now, Tau can ignore it of course, but I can stay back from most Markerlight support, apart from say the Reaperstar...but Buff Commander can eat that shit. Or the O'Vesa shit... Can't ignore that or tank it.. Wave Serpents will plough through it, but if I can cripple the critical mass of Serpents then I don't really care and Buff Commander can tank. It's a tough decision as I like this unit, but I don't think it is as competitive as it could be.

I loved having 4 super-accurate Fusion Blasters. But should I trade in the Farsight Commander's FBlasters for Missile Pods to add more lethality at range. I lose the AP though which is so very useful for killing shit dead. Tough decisions.

I think I will leave the Triumvirate as it is with the exception of increasing markerlight support to the rest of the army via 3 or 4 Marker Drones in the unit instead of as many Gun Drones.. maybe I'll go all out on the Markerlights and see if that truly is overkill....

Buff Commander - C&C, MSSS, Puretide, Iridium, VRT, 2 Marker Drones

Shadowsun - 2 Fusions, 2 3++ Drones

Farsight Commander - 2 Fusions, Target Lock, Drone Controller, 2 Marker Drones

3 Troop Crisis Suits - 6 Missile Pods, Target Locks, 2 Marker Drones

(This makes up the Triumvirate)

 

3 Riptides - Ion, Early Warning, 2 w Fusion, 1 w SMS

3 Skyrays  - Blacksun, SMS

3 10 man Kroot

1 Crisis Suit (troop) - Missile Pod

Let me know what you think though.. what would you guys change up with this?