Soulstorm/Fire Warrior Team

Fire Warrior Team Infantry
	Faction	Tau Empire	Health	340		Buy	Reinf.
	Tier	1	Morale	300		210	70
	Built by	Tau Barracks	Sight radius	15
	Armor	infantry heavy med	Detect radius	0		2
	Mass	16	Speed	16
			Model count	3/6	Build time	24	9
	General combat unit with a powerful ranged attack and incredibly long range but low sight radius and very weak melee attack.						Data version: 1.2

The Fire Warrior Team is a basic infantry unit for the Tau Empire in Dawn of War: Soulstorm.

Description

• Heavy Infantry.
• General combat unit with a powerful ranged attack.
• Has weak melee attack.
• Has an incredibly long range but requires spotter units to sight the enemy.
• Effective against Infantry and Heavy Infantry.

Strategy

The Fire Warrior pulse rifle has a spectacular firing range, but the Fire Warriors have a comparatively short sight range. For this reason, they are best used in conjunction with a spotter unit of some kind. XV15 Stealth Teams advancing ahead of the Fire Warrior Team can perform this function, as can a squad of Kroot Carnivores. Matching them with a Tau Commander is useful too, as the Tau Commander's Snare Trap can trap melee specialists, and his Target Acquired ability can drastically lower enemy's commander's health.

After the Path to Enlightenment has been built and Pathfinder Teams become available, they are what you should try and use for spotters. Not only do they have a superior sight range, they can also increase the damage done by the Fire Warriors with their Mark Target ability as well as detect infiltrated units. The two make for a deadly combination.

Fire Warriors have access to two Squad Leaders, the Shas'Ui, and the Shield Drone. Each grants a different ability and up to two in any combination can be built. Building two of the same type will allow for two uses of the same ability in quick succession, allowing the squad to better handle large groups of infantry, weather ranged attacks, or strike a balance between the two. The Shas'Ui activates the Photon Grenade, which deals moderate damage to enemies in a small range, and the Shield Drone activates the Energy Shield, which absorbs ranged damage during shootouts against ranged specialists such as the Imperial Guard. It is worth noting that the Shas'Ui is still a fully capable Fire Warrior with the same weapon damage and range; building two of them increases the squadron from 6 warriors to 8, a full 33% increase in damage output and overall squadron health.

Fire Warriors have pitiful melee attacks. Therefore, it is advised either to retreat against charging units, use the Tau Commander's Snare Traps to slow enemies, or to station any Kroot with Feral Leap just behind them to surprise enemies at the last second.

It is also worth noting that Fire Warriors have a short weapon setup time similar (albeit shorter) to the heavy weapons setup time of other factions (such as the Heavy Bolters for the Space Marines, Chaos and Sisters of Battle). You may find that you want them set in their position and ready to fire as much as possible, and setting every single Fire Warrior team to a hold position stance (blue soldier icon) away from the default of chasing down enemies might be quite useful.