XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit

The Rambo of Stealthsuits.

Essentially the XV25 Stealthsuit on steroids. The XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit is what happens when the Tau wants to have a Stealthsuit Team survive more than five seconds in an exposed, open battlefield. The answer was this thing.

Overview

The XV95 was developed at J'kavo Station on the fringes of N'dras during the beginnings of the Third Sphere of Expansion. The program was launched on the orders of the wrinkliest of all Ethereals himself. The XV95's first missions were highly covert in nature and included sabotaging Vadenfall Station and the assassination of Cardinal Bocsh. Its reputation soon led to its nickname, the 'Ghost of N'dras'. Soon enough the demand for XV95's increased exponentially and they began to operate openly on the battlefield.

Each XV95 stands more than three times the height of a Space Marine and shares a similar design to the XV22 Battlesuit worn by Commander Shadowsun. Nigh undetectable thanks to its overlapping stealth fields generated by its Stealth Drones (with which the pilot forms a borderline and almost AdMech-levels of technophiliac fetish in the backlines) and seemingly appearing out of nowhere thanks to a vast array of countermeasures, the XV95 will proceed to pull a Sly Marbo every now and then, before blinking out of existence before anyone could respond. For much added Lulz, the Ghostkeel is also capable of creating holographic decoys if it comes under attack, which unfortunately, is never done on tabletop. The XV95 was primarily designed to operate behind enemy lines and spread panic and confusion.

Equipment

The Ghostkeel, outside of its stealth applications are armed with either a selection of Fusion Colliders or Cyclic Ion Rakers and twin Fusion Blasters.

Tabletop

In 9th Ed, the Ghostkeel is not as heavily armored as the Riptide, but with two different systems (its onboard countermeasures and its stealth drones) that each give opponents -1 to hit it (the extra -1 has been removed, but allows you to ignore any plus one to hit bonuses as of the latest errata, thus keeping the Ghostkeel at almost always -1 to hit). It might actually be more survivable against heavy weapons, but it needs cover badly and fears close combat. What makes it stand out however is its DISTRACTION applications. Giant Mecha are bound to draw enemy fire away from the more important target (Stealth Suits in this case) and with a cheap shield generator it can survive a lot of punishment.