New Tau Empire Errata – A Storm in a Tau Cup?
April 6, 2013 by stuart
Just when you thought it was safe to play your army straight from the Codex on the day of launch... ta da!
This is going to cause a mixture of reactions in the community. Its only a small update, but released on launch day (and a troubled launch at that) and coming on the heels of the Dark Angels debacle, is this another 'nail in the coffin' or is it the makings of a 'storm in a tau cup'?
GW has the ability to polarise opinion like no other manufacturer in the hobby. For some (myself included) I'd far rather that mistakes in the Codex are identified quickly and brought to the attention of the community than go unaddressed for months or years. But should the company who state 'The products we make for our customers are the best in the wargaming world' be releasing something with a known flaw, however small?
Whether or not you think it indicates a lapse in quality control or not, it looks like the FAQ was a little rushed - it refers to Chaos Space Marines!
Let the conversation begin!
Whether or not you think it indicates a lapse in quality control or not, it looks like the FAQ was a little rushed – it refers to Chaos Space Marines!
I think it indicates a lapse in quality control after that last bit 🙂
i wondered about that when i saw it too
Could be subtle way to push the customer base away from the Hard codex to paying the same price for a live online version to download.
I would gladly go digital if GW buy me the i-pad as they are failing to support other platforms
They could have made us pay £100 for a shackled droid tab with the rulebook that would have had an obscene profit margin then given us DRM laden codices that would only run on their tablet with some proprietary media. (swap some pins on a flash card and reader and glue it to a facade that fits in the gw tablet drive but not in others) And if they’d also released an ipad version along side it I’d have bought it cos in my mind I’d be saving £200 on the cost of an ipad. As it is they get… Read more »
same here, you can’t even download from itunes for a pc…. seems like a lot of work to make the digital products if so much of the base can’t even buy it
I must admit this is a little disappointing…
yet not exactly surprising…
im glad its been sorted out before you saw it become massivly over powered and abused and then people cry when it gets changed
@huscarle i will probably buy a digital version for use in games but i love to collect the hard back copies of the books as well but that much just be me
I prefer both too
Couldn’t organise a bun fight in Kiplings springs to mind
Reminds me of Fantasy 8th ed, opened my brand new book and it’s got a print out informing me of a correction. I think they need some quality control before they announce the release date.
HAHA yeah! I remember that :p the little correction paper WAS printed on nice paper though :p … worst attempt to put a positive spin on something ever.
GW and quality control….. I don’t think its in the dictionary of GW they kinda lost the page when they started with the fail cast ! Its an other nail in the coffin for me. Its proof GW is just about making money not about quality of there products. you don’t miss some thing like this if you play test this stuff! clearly we have seen GW does not test the products… to make things worse the FAQ is a FUP as well!! haha this is not a real company its a circus full of clowns , every press release… Read more »
GW have got a huge QC department. Its called the end user.
to bad they dont listen to us anymore
Its no where near as bad as the Dark Angels as it monor alterations not major changes. It still highlights the inability of GW to deliver a product of a quality I expect for the price point.
However, from my brief scan so far its no where near the worst written codex, everything that is in there seems to be fairly clear to date, although I can think of one minor question already. Which just highlights its just not checked by anyone who games/or is competant.
Why cant they produce a codex without mistakes, it isn’t like they are running to an outside schedule they print when they want so why not take an extra week or month to read it through..
Yeah, I mean, there’s no company in the world that would dare release a product with a minor mistake, right?
No such thing as a second edition print in literature, right?
Hey, cars have never been recalled because of issues in production, right?
They may not be perfect but this is a really, really petty gripe at best.
I agree with you. Mistakes are made its just a part of ‘creating stuff’, I think it’s incredibly unrealistic to expect no mistakes. I also remember a time when FAQs took months before they came out. (and we complained about that!) However how you handle mistakes is what’s important, I remember a University pulping nearly 100k prospectuses for a single error…. They had spelt University with a lower case u. That was a big deal for them as it was an important lapse in a cornerstone of thier ‘quality’, most certainly other mistakes would have been ‘let through’… I wonder… Read more »
to be honest the FAQ was something that would of been used and abused if not set right fast… you would of seen 40 missile drones in every army and then there would been riots when it got taken away because it was massively over powered.
I’m glad it came around on day one, just a little surprised 🙂 id rather have an FAQ than 100k Codex’s pulped and waiting 2 months for a codex when the army is already released? that would be a mistake too far 😉
If the situation is game breaking, then I do agree with a timely FAQ, However, as with dark Angels, if I’d just spent £60 on the ‘limited edition’ super special book, and I needed to stick a bit of paper printout in it, probably before I even received the book, I would be extremely annoyed. Mistakes do happen, I’ve never played a game that didnt have adjustments down the line, even in the fabled history of 2nd edition 40k where rose tinted glasses say everything was perfect. However, if you are going to charge £60 for a rules supplement then… Read more »
Actually this is wrong. Very minor mistakes do happen and end up in the released book (though i don’t recall as many mistakes in GW’s older stuff) but a lot of these recent Codex mistakes are just shoddy workmanship and and laziness on the part of all involved. Some of these problems are even lack of fore-sign on behalf of the authors. And the guy who did the FAQ, i’d bet you he had no hand in the proper penmanship of the codex and was just told to go over everything AFTER the item was printed. So he’s picking up… Read more »
I have noticed these mistakes in the last two 40k codex’s to come out have all come from Jeremy Vetock, someone in GW has to start reading his codex’s months before they are printed
Mistakes are made.
However it helps one to forgive a company if there is trust in them trying to sort things out before rather than after release.
If this was a one off then okay shrugs shoulders.
But it isn’t. It shows that GW do not or can’t learn from its mistakes.
Sending out a message that this sort of behaviour is acceptable will not help the company to improve.
There are minor mistakes and consistant trends show lack of QA, and as @warzan says it the addressing and correcting these issues. The Dark Angels codex, should of been re-printed and an exchange offered if they weren’t going to pull the release.
I think it’s just lack of proof readers, (graphic designers inability to spell/use a spell checker. I used fo be a printer so came accross this one a lot) and the fact they are printing in china now where the language barrier may be preventing the printer from noticing.
You used to get the odd typo in GW books but they didn’t get rules wrong. They would have pulped the books at one point, but they realise now that we’re not really that fussed.
So basically GW is saying we don’t care what you think because we know you will buy anyway.
pretty much
the more I see, the more I disagree with the last part of this conclusion.
i know i’ll get negatives for this but they are getting better with FAQ’s and codex’s. look at the size of the 6th ed books FAQ’s compared to the 5th ed ones.
6th ed: CSM – 2 pages. DA – 2 pages. Tau – 1 page. Daemons – None.
5th ed: SM – 4 pages. GK – 6 pages. Necrons – 6 pages. IG – 4 pages. SW – 7 pages.
i know they shouldn’t need them in the first place but they ARE improving.
I agree (so you got a thumb up from me).
😉
Only two little points needed to be clarified this time. If you remove the introduction and explanation paragraph, the FAQs would only be about 8 lines long…
They ARE getting better.
to be honest i was expecting negatives because what i said was in favour of GW, lately more than ever things like that simply seem to rack up loads of negatives.
I can give you some if you want! 😛
A lot of the recent negatives were because of how and what what said, not because people disagreed.
Why would anyone one give you a thumbs down for presenting facts simply, clearly and politely? 😉
I may not agree with you that this is acceptable but only a churlish bore would bother to click the thumbs down.
Thats a pretty good improvement, I’d kind of like to see all the FAQ’s for all 6 editions compared and see if it has been a steady trend
I agree. They’re improving. So are their prices.
Proffreaders and testers are probably better paid or have better work conditions 🙂
While that is true and you are right, I do think they are getting better in some cases. (I have heard that the Daemons codex could use a small FAQ tho.) Especially how quick they are getting armies updated to the new system. But you have to look at the fact that it is a new system and the newer codexes are made for the current system. The longer FAQs were made for codexes designed during and for previous rules systems. They are logically going to need more correcting to bring them up to date with the newer rules. I… Read more »
not as much as you’d think, most of it are the previous questions and their answers updated. they’ve just thrown a few extra bits in like “Person X can only use ability Y on units from this codex” and “Person A is psyker level B”.
My stealth suits list is severally screwed over by this update, marker drones are useless cause they arent networked anymore. etherals are better this ed and aunshi is back as nuts as ever
Has anyone tried returning a codex after day one faqs?
Did only GW stores get the New Tau releases?
No some independents got stock, but only the smallest of allocations and then only the codex,
Interestingly my local GW didn’t have all the stock for the release – no 3 box battlesuits to which the manager couldn’t say why or when he would get those in, he did however have the overpriced singles in stock
It varied, one I know in Plymouth, got one of everything and dupilcates of some. Codex seeed to be uneffected.
i preordered from thewarstore.com and they were able to ship right on time, so atleast some independents did get the codex atleast
Wow… definitely another nail in the lid of the coffin for games workshop as far as I’m concerned. Such a wonderful IP and universe in literature they’ve created it, but such a sorry excuse for a game.
These changes are really not that bid of a deal. Especially if you downloaded the Tau Codex. I think GW is doing a lot better job than before, and I for one am happy they did this right away.
They should change it from Frequently Asked Questions to Frequently Unanswered Questions. That acronym suits what they are doing better.
I’d just like to clarify that I’m being critical of their books’ quality, NOT the timing of their FAQ documents. You guys should be happy you get an update so quickly.
It just seems to me that an extra week to playtest and have more sets of eyes go over the intended final draft before it went to print could have prevented this mess.
Exactly, speed is good its dated 1 st April which is odd, FAQ and Errata should be for clarifications following wider play. These should of been spotted in proof reading/testing. Its a QA issue when you want £30 pound for a 105 page book it better have decent QA in place. Also agree with FUQ as the have a habit of failing to address key issues or provide true clarification. @bloodhunter – yes they are getting smaller but that is for the recent codecies so you looking at correction of production errors as opposed to clarification, I am sure these… Read more »
Although overall I am generally positive about 6th Ed codecies, even if the deamon one has me stratching my head as to what I would do with the army.
If everyone could just stop buying from these clowns for a bit and force them to reflect over their disgusting behaviour .. they need some hurt to even change slightly
Notice how they have released an F.A.Q for the tau to address a minor almost overlooked upgrade and the much needed daemon F.A.Q has yet to materialize, i mean at the moment we have a whole unit that’s unplayable (Flaming chariot)
Not something that bothers me at all and I’m glad they’ve dealt with an issue that they’ve noticed post-printing in a such a prompt manner. It’s not as easy you’d think, even for a company the size of GW, to catch everything.
That was fast for them to make errata for this brand new Codex. Still they could had took care of those before printing actual Codex but maybe thats just normal for GW.
There’ll have been quite a long lead time between finalising the manuscript for print and the release of the codex during which this issue will have been identified. I’m sure no-one would have wanted GW to pulp the print run and put the release back several months. It’s easy to be critical of GW but they do manage to maintain a very high standard of accuracy, especially given the amount they release and the size of their design studio.
Link to info regarding the “Dark Angels debacle” and “troubled” release of the tau codex please? 🙂 I can’t seem to find any info on either of these topics
“I’d far rather that mistakes in the Codex are identified quickly and brought to the attention of the community ”
Identifying mistakes before publication would be even better.
GW are so paranoid of leaks that they blindfold proof readers and printers.
Never mind a sheet of A4 in the 20 odd quids worth of the Army Annual is not so shabby
I long for the day when you can buy a rulebook and army list and play straight away, oh well I can only dream.
I think it is good that they have released the faq on launch day but at the same times they must have known these issues like the Dark angels ones when it went to print. You draw your own conclusions from that.
I’m off to play Saga….