Tau Codex in the Spotlight

14 years ago

Thanks guys for having Codex Tau in spotlight.

0

14 years ago

I’ve got a bunch of these guys sitting in the loft waiting for a decent ‘dex, and I really hope they get it as I think they look cool.
I really hope they don’t get any decent close combat units at all, as that to me doesn’t really fit with their style. I hope markerlights become more effective, much cheaper points all round (especially battlesuits), and methods of slowing the enemy and disrupting deep strikes etc..

0

tinracer

14 years ago

Good vid guys thanks for some tau coverage. They do need some help, you really have to build especially for each enemy to have any chance of being competitive.

Marker lights can make a big difference. Just one marker hit can give a whole unit the bonus.

My biggest challenge with them is to get the shooting order right. If it all goes well you can really peel away the nearest threats and keep the enemy at arms length. The new books, blood angels onwards, make life difficult with so much fast/deep strike. A tau player can use the kroot as speed bumpers, if you keep enough alive, plus the hounds can really bite…

Devil fish are big and effective enough. You have to buy one with the pathfinder option, which is dumb as 99% of the time you’ll want the finders holed up lighting up the bad guys. So I use the must have fish to run down a flank and look to block units or chase down artillery units.

My all time fav is the hammerhead. Shame you can’t buy them as squadrons… With the disruption pods you can sit these bad boys in the open and pound the enemy vehicles and really slow the rush. Then submunition the troops that bail out. Remember to use the marker lights to improve the bs so you can pull back the deviated blast template.

Still enjoy playing tau, the loses can be complete white washes, but a well co ordinated game, with the dice gods on your side, you can wither away the enemy and crush the left overs.

0

paulraven92

14 years ago

the army is suposed to be made of sharp-shooters, because fluff-wise that’s what they do best. Vespids could very well be a fast paced assault group to tie an enemy squad in combat while the rest of the army deploy very nice on the battlefield. Kroot are currently very weak and useless ( i got 12 of them blown to bits in ONE large blast attack by an IG army). They could suite the role of a support shooters and support melee team if it’s required. The codex is so weak now that the only way to get more mobile and shooty with the tau is resorting to Mech Tau, but even that doesn’t ensure your survivability, just gives you more manuverability and makes you resort to armored transports, hammerheads,crisis and stealth suits to shoot and hide. Commander Farsight is the only unit/ character in the army that can do damage and take some punch. Not only does he have a plasma rifle, he has a CC almost-power weapon that can shred through vehicles and is compatible with Mech Tau. The down side to that is that you can’t field him in armies smaller than 1500 pts.
In my opinion, tau players should wait and hope to see what the new codex and troops can put this army on a floating level if not to make it the army it IS SUPPOSED TO BE.

😀 peace 😀

0

dacekhan

14 years ago

Vote 1 Darrell for codex writer

More Shots! More Twin-Linked! Longer Range! Less AP!

For a Tau we can all live with.

0

ubiquanon

14 years ago

I think you want the Tau to be Grey Knights? I agree that its an old codex and needs a rewrite to deal with the gaps, but these guys should stay shooty. (This is in response to the changes you wanted to see to the fast attack flyers & the melee Kroot – power halberds & death cult assassins?)

Covered in grease as a defense against close combat weapons? Have you tried this yourself? 😉

Given that the new design concept for both 40k and fantasy placed a greater emphasis on special characters, I see huge changes for the Tau special characters.

Just out of curiosity, why not have an actual Tau player comment about the army? Where’s Lloyd? His POV might have added to the discussion?

0

shaselmike

Reply to ubiquanon

14 years ago

i’ve been a tau player for a couple years, weathering who knows how many crushing defeats before i started winning games. In terms of overall feel, they hit some points right on both others they missed hard on. One of the aspects I didn’t feel got enough attention was cost. A crisis suit is 62 pts with a plasma rifle, missile pod, and multi-tracker, which makes the best use of its abilities. The devilfish is 85 pts and has the firepower of 3 carbine-wielding marines as its only weapon. All over the codex you see stuff like that. Both crisis suits and hammerheads come with X base price and then a list of upgrades that are actually required. no quotation marks there. The biggest aspect they didn’t touch on was the dependence on combos. Its been said on 3++ that marine armies get statlines, xenos get gimmicks. That is so true. Tau depend on markerlights to allow for heavy hitting firepower, they depend on piranhas and kroot for roadbumps and diversions. they depend on generating cover saves for everything. Fluff-wise they are physically inferior, so they use technology to compensate. That is cool, but the lichpin piece, the markerlight, only hits 50% of the time, and only at 36″ or less.

With that being said, they didn’t highlight the positives. The biggest positive being the amount of firepower that Tau can generate without damage in return for multiple rounds. All tau vehicles can have a 4+ cover save for 5 pts, and crisis suits can move 6″, shoot, then move 6″ into cover or somewhere that blocks los. Also, all tau vehicles can shoot as if they were fast vehicles for 10 pts. Combines with the 36″ range on missile pods, 24″ of plasma rifles, and 72″ or railgun range, and you have a lot of firepower backed by a lot of cover saves. Indeed, space marine armies can whither under it. At 1850 points, with the tau monobuild, there is a 25% chance that a standard grey knight army will be completely demeched if they are not in cover.

0

shaselmike

Reply to shaselmike

14 years ago

While the bs3 can leave much to be desired at range, often the most important units have a way around it. Broadsides are bs3, but are twin-linked. Hammerheads are bs4 for free. Gun drones are twin-linked. Crisis suits can either be twin-linked or shoot multiple weapons. The other big positive to tau is that close combat is not as crucial if you follow the golden rule: don’t get multi-assaulted. Tau are weak in CC, and can be counted on to die on your opponents turn. This means that on your turn, the offending unit can be targetted by the entire remainder of your army. No unit other than other tau can count on being ‘stuck in’ to protect against return fire. Also, all the points your opponent puts into CC weapons are wasted. 25 pts for a powerfist or 30 pts for a thunderhammer are meaningless against ws2/3 and t3/4. Those are points that you’ve denied the enemy any value for, as you can generally count on filling up the foc with Tau. Additionally, there are many speedbumps. Kroot are the best, as they can infiltrate. Put them in cover, and they become a threat that will eat a turn or two of your opponents game. Additionally, piranhas can move 18″ to create a mobile barrier and threaten tanks. with av11 front, its gonna take heavy weapons to kill them. And, every vehicle comes with drones that can either jump-shoot-jump, or jump-run-jump. A devilfish can move 12 inches, discharge the drones 2″ foward, which can then run d6 inches and then in the assault phase move 6″. 21-26 inches of movement to block the other person from moving where they want or assaulting who they want. Tau aren’t a meq army, you cannot play them as a meq army. The important stuff shoots, everything else moves so that it dies in separate waves. Its a tough life, but its for the greater good.

0

shaselmike

Reply to shaselmike

14 years ago

as far as stuff i would love to see changed, for me the list isn’t as long as that of someone used to MEQ playstyle. And some of what i’d like to see is a step backward. In the 3rd edition codex, in adition to getting the 6+ save, the extra point spent per kroot carnivore upped their squad leadership by 1, which was phenomenal as they awful leadership. Additionally, wounds had to be first put on drones, then could they could be put on suits. And i dont remember if they counted for combat resolution or not.

i’d like to see drones be able to alter wound allocation for assaults, in addition to not being counted for kp’s or combat resolution. If the tau can’t fight in cc, why not wire the drones to get in the way? perhaps you could put x additional wounds on the drones to test for before spreading the rest out on the squad, but only in cc. Additionally, why should the tau care if they die? having them puts tau at a terrible disadvantage in CC.

the next atrocity that needs to be fixed is half-baked combos. namely, stealthsuits and sky rays. stealth suits carry burst cannons, s5ap5 r18″. their gimmick is that you have to use nightfighting rules to target them. however, 2d6x3 is an average range of 18″. so if they can shoot you have a 50% chance of being hit. and for t3 and a 3+, all for 30pts per dude, they’re gonna die if they’re in range to be effective. They’re horrible. And then there are the missiles. Sky rays carry a limited supply of them, and each one can only fire with a markerlight hit. so, thats a 50% of the markerlight hitting. Then, they have to roll to hit 50%, then roll for damage, then roll on the damage chart. In other words, thats a 16% chance of glancing a rhino’s front armor. and this is a finite-use weapon on a heavy support tank. Not even hunter-killer missiles are that bad.

with all this being said, the single easiest chance to revolutionize tau would be changing markerlights to bs4/5 assault weapons due to being glorified flashlights. They are the lichpin of the good tau combos, but aren’t reliable enough. if they could be mobile and “probably” hit, that would push tau to where they should be shooting wise, which would make the lack of dedicated cc an acceptable tradeoff. Between that and point reductions for plasma, stealth suits, devilfish, marker drones, hammerheads, skyrays, and broadsides, the army would be back on top again.

0

non3ssential

Reply to shaselmike

14 years ago

I would counter the statement:
“The biggest positive being the amount of firepower that Tau can generate without damage in return for multiple rounds.”
Every recent codex will be on you turn 2 at the latest.

0

robertthewise

14 years ago

As usualy, only little adjustment is actualy neaded but it will be completely remastered and cause a lot of new problems.

0

rokco

14 years ago

Cool, to bad Tau are pretty terrible now.

Oh, you know a gun drone with BS2 and twin-linked weapons is more accurate than BS3 pathfinders/fire warriors.

0

cakebomb

14 years ago

its kinda sad how the tau are probably the most hated race i may play blood angels but i think the tau are the only good guys becuse the tau give a chance to surrender

0

schnelln

14 years ago

i want to see just very cheap marker lites. and that once a unit is lit they stay litt for the whole army not just for one unit. kongo line of kroots behind that kongo line fire woriors behind that kongoline fire woriors or somthing. put the markerlites in the sides and then the unit of kroots your fw troop have to fire throu dont provide cover to the enemy and is a chaep meat block.
and in the second the enemy got to you he hase to knife down each rteam one by one.
that would be nice i think

0

daverichelieu

14 years ago

Ah, all the stuff I like about the Tau is the stuff that sucks. Kroot mostly – the krootox and the hounds are great figures and apparently almost useless in game terms. I tell myself I’ll buy some for tabletop atmosphere when I eventually get around to really playing Rogue Trader…

BS3 almost across the board for a shooting army really is bizarre though. It would be like having a character select in a video game where the big slow guy had a weak weapon, it’s against the natural order of things.

0

cazboab

Reply to daverichelieu

14 years ago

The krootoxs really do hamstring a unit now by removing its infiltration, in fact they, the hounds and the master shaper(the shaper has his stats now, but the shaper in a carnivore squad was pretty much just the same as the rest with options) used to be separate units altogether from the carnivores, which allowed you to field an all kroot army since the master shaper was HQ.

BS3 does hurt them a bit in 5th, it comes from the fact that when the codex was written there were fewer charge across the whole board on turn one armies, so the extra 6″ range that tau get was almost like a free turn of shooting, with generally only heavy weapons being able to shoot back, it meant most comparable units would have to chose between moving forward for next turn or firing one gun back.

0

daverichelieu

Reply to cazboab

14 years ago

Ah, that makes much more sense, I hadn’t considered that they were a fancy-guns kind of shooting army and not a crack shot sort of deal. I pretty much missed third and fourth editions entirely and I find every now and then some of their finer points got streamlined a little too much in fifth…

0

sathrin

14 years ago

Thanks for the vid guys.

With the new book, I’d like to see how heavily they theme it. If they follow up with something similar to Necrons, who went Egyptian, I could see Tau going Japanese. With that in mind you could add a “ninja” or samurai units for close combat.
Maybe something in between a battlesuit and a warrior. Something that could jump around, not be overly expensive but have a decent kick to it. Give it a twin linked assault weapon and a shield to improve saves with options to change it to something heavier.

Like Tinracer, I really enjoy the Tau. They look great (aside from the Skyray) and the fluff is on the ‘good-guy” side with just enough to see how abusive The Greater Good could be. They just need to look threatening again.

0

non3ssential

14 years ago

I have been playing Tau for years and own a pretty massive army. I can say, without hesitation, that it is currently impossible to win with them when you opponent knows they are playing you in advance. Land Speeder Storms, Thunder-fire Cannons, Heroic Intervention, Stormravens, Myloc/Trygon, outflanking genestealers, mycetic spore/drop pod storms, bike armies, jet bike armies, Raider/Venom armies, orbital strikes, Marbo, and Leaman Russ spam just to start naming the armies that will limit you to one shooting phase. Your only hope is to layer your Kroot and detached gun drones then pray to the dice gods for epic round 1 and 2 shooting.

0

zawyvern2

14 years ago

I agree with Stebloke and the other guys… the army doesn’t need more close combat. they have ways to deal with that already. Small drone squads, markerlight & pinning weapon combos, kroot meat shieds.
What needs to be addressed are some of the issues which make make the book less competitive. I think you addressed some of them. Adjustment of some of the rules like heavy markerlights and lack of good AP weapons to start. Seems they’ve intentionally made low AP hard to access by overpricing them and limiting them in options. The markerlights are great rules wise for their effects it’s employing them that is a pain. Range for one and mobility for another. They really do need to be assault. Markerlights are the one thing that make Tau a true shooty army. Increase odds to hit, remove cover saves and increase odds of pinning and falling back. But the main thing the army needs is a point readjustment.
The army is designed for 3rd edition, and slightly updated for 4th in this, their 2nd book. Everything should be cheaper overall, in particular battlesuits, seeker missiles and vehicles, especially piranhas. The whole point of the piranha, in my opinion, is to be seeker missile carriers. Zoom behind cover to get a side or rear shot, launch missiles with markerlights and
after missiles are depleted they can harrass the enemy. But at 60 points bare it’s kind of a tough cookie to swallow. 50 points would be good 40 or 45 would be the sweet spot.
Some other ideas off the top of my head are pathfinders being able to split fire, a mobile shooty walker vehicle to keep with japanese manga theme, a drone rewrite… way cheaper and with some options like hit and run rules or failsafe detonators. I mean come on, having one drone stay behind and go nuclear totally fits with the greater good. 😀
And generally a few other bits of new wargear to help mess with the enemies assaulting. Like concussion grenades that cause your opponent to move as if moving through cover for example. It slows most units down but units with move through cover or fleet aren’t nearly as affected. Generally the firewarriors need a lot more standard gear. If they included photon grenades, something like concussion grenades and the team leader for 60 points for 6.. then they might be worth it, especially if they had a few more upgrades to give them tactical options.
And tell me why they can make an emp grenade to be thrown by weedy little firewarriors but can’t figure out how to mount one on a rocket?

0

poosh

14 years ago

I don’t think there’s a problem with the standard Tau soldier being BS3. Just so long as their weapons have a little higher range and the points cost is reflected. Kroot seem fine, they’re meant to be cannon fodder, they have a good stat line, they just need a better transport vehicle, or the ability to deep strike them (in some sort of drop pod perhaps).

The Tau should remain a shooting army. But they could do with some sort of infantry on a 40mm base that is more combat-apt, part of their merc legions or what not. That would sort things out and not be too over the too.

All the battle suits should and probably will be reworked and made into plastic, which is great. You’ll see a host of different weapons as well. I think the whole idea of marker-lights is stupid for this sort of game, they would do good to just get rid of them. I don’t think the battlesuits should have any combat weapons but they should have some sort of defensive weapon, maybe a stun weapon that takes away the enemies attacks in some form. The new Codex will have many options to fill in potential gaps anyway. 6th edition will be all about wargear options.

You will see no doubt some sort of larger battlesuit/dreadnaught/mini-titan I suspect, which will be an efficient tar pit rather than a combat machine.

Give the Vespid S4 and allow you take 20 + a nice plastic kit with an officer with options and you’re sorted. A heavy weapon team kit akin to the IG set, would be nice too.

I would wager an “honour guard” of some sort, with power weapons, will appear next year I bet. Designed to protect your Ethereals. Ethereals I’d bet anything will have a lot of magical power options next codex, they will be key to your army.

One direction GW might consider going in, is giving the Tau a LOT of air support – making them “the” flier army. With maybe as many as 2 plastic kits, making 4 different air vehicles. In addition some sort of kit that is used specifically by the Ethereals, a religious icon that they can sell for £41, with some sort of debilitating large weapon.

Oh and a dubious rumour going around is the “squats” in another form will appear, as a Tau merc force. Dumb idea if that’s true imo.

0

subatomica

14 years ago

I think to fit in with the castes have psychic ability’s that relate to the elements used by the ethereals.

Such as a water blast that pushes the enemy unit back back 2D6″ and does D6 strength 4 AP 5 hits.

Fire wave that creates volcanic eruptions in a large blast making the terrain dangerous for D3 turns.

Earth Tremor that uses a similar mechanic to Worldscape in the new cron book.

Ice blast that slows the enemy’s advance by halfing there movement and also there assault range.

These could be used to keep the enemy at bay so the long range weapons could dwindle the forces down like a war of attrition.

Bit different but seeing as the crons talk and own art gallerys since the last book why not I say…

0

derke56

14 years ago

you guys forgot marker lights, they are very useful.

0

byzmack

14 years ago

One of the people I play against a lot has only lost twice total and he plays Tau. We don’t know how he does so well with a codex people say sucks. We have tried all sorts of Darrel’s cheesy tactics and still lose.
The thing about the Fire Warriors that makes them nasty is the S5 guns. That causes too many wounds on Eldar for them to get across the field to engage in close combat. The Vehicles are wrecked by Rail guns to my guys always have to foot slog it.

0

shaselmike

14 years ago

2:59: yes the 50pt commander is bs4 and the 75 pt version is bs5. However, you can get a hardwired targetting array on the 50pt commander to boost him to bs5 for only 10 points. So, you get the higher ballistic skill for 15 points less. Since tau suck at cc the extra ws doesn’t matter

0

shaselmike

14 years ago

5:52: crisis suits, stealth suits, and gun drones all have jetpacks. they can all move 6″ in the movement phase and then another 6″ in the assault phase. The thrusters he’s referring to are vectored thrusters, which give the hit and run special rule to the model. however, you can only get them on an ic or monat. you can’t get them for a group.

0

shaselmike

14 years ago

6:59 he’s right on about plasma. but he skips the missle pod. r36″, s7ap4 assault 2 goodness for 12/18 pts depending on twin-linking. better against vehicles than the plasma rifle, and with the 5pt multi-tracker can be fired alongside the plasma rifle!

0

shaselmike

14 years ago

do kroot suck at shooting? yes. should you pay that extra point for a 6+ save? no. every tau player will tell you that kroot and piranhas are cheap for a reason: cannon fodder! kroot can infiltrate, and piranhas are fast skimmers. If they get close enough to be a problem, they will tie up 1-2 turns of your opponents game, giving your h support and crisis suits more time to do their thing.

0

riddip

14 years ago

A look at the tau options from the Imperial Armor Apocalypse Second Edition book would be nice. especially the one meant not for apocalypse but for standard 40k games!

0

brumby123

14 years ago

I suspect that initially the Pulse carbine “pinning” rule was meant to provide the slowing effect against horde armies that would storm across the board. The problem is that these days with rewrites most horde armies are fearless, negating the effect of such weapons.

Having to paying an additional 21 points just to gain access to an armour save for the Kroot and then paying an additional point for that said armour is poor. In general against shooting the armour will be negated and have no value, in hand to hand it provides an outside chance of tying up a unit past one round of combat.

It would be nice to see the inclusion of some of the IA3 vehicles into a future codex, especially the Hammer head turret load outs to help deal with other armies. As mentioned previously, should you gents revisit this topic it would be nice to hear from Lloyd and review the inclusion of the IA Appoc second addition rules.

0

linikratyo

14 years ago

Demiurg!!! 😀

0

highlandpiper

14 years ago

Several of the things mentioned in the video is just wrong but that aside Tau do need an overhaul. I’m fine with them not having a WS but increase their Initiative a bit!

Since you can not assault through another unit use Gun Drone Squads or Piranha’s to shield your Fire Warriors. Take Bonding Knives when possible. A squad of 12 Fire Warriors with EMP Grenades can take out even Land Raiders (if you can reach them!)

Crisis Suits are really good and the back bone of the army as they stand. The only thing I would change on Crisis Suits is raise their Initiative to 4 or 5. You can say the suits increase their speed and reaction. This would allow the Vectored retro-thrusters to actually work. Allow Crisis Suits to take Rail Rifles!

Ethereals need a complete overhaul.

Allow Stealth Suits to also take Rail Rifles.

Fire Warriors: Increase their BS to 4 OR decrease the AP of the Pulse Rifle to 4.
Kroot: Kroot either need armour and Initiative of 5 or decrease their cost and give them more wargear options and increase their Initiative to 4.

Drones: The Tau need more Drone options. Do not have them count against morale tests. Make Close Combat Drones that have one Carbine and chain sword blades running around it like a flying saw! Flechette Discharge Drones, Heavy Gun Drones from Forge World with more options like Fusion Blasters, Plasma Rifles as well. Stealth Drones! Drones with Pulse Rifles. Suicide Bomb Drones.

Pathfinders: With or without Devilfish would be nice, Scout, infiltrate, etc. I can understand why the Markerlights count as a Heavy 1. You need to keep a steady aim on the target. You don’t see sniper spotters running around and taking pot shots with the laser guider.

Piranha: I like the Piranha’s. I’d like to see the IA ones being able to be used with this team.

Vespid: Need better Armour, and WS or better wargear. I like the idea of giving them the Neutron Blaster, Neutron Pistol and CCW. Maybe some kind of poison weapon as mentioned?

Broadsides are just fine. It may be over kill to shoot down Rhinos the first turn but that keep their infantry from getting too close in cover.

Sniper Drones are BROKEN! The blasted spotter has to be within 2″ of the drones. If the spotter dies so do the drones! This means anyone with half a brain will use a blast marker on the spotter and 8 out of 10 times kill him and take out the entire squad! You don’t see modern Marines chasing thier air drones through the mountains of Afghanistan do you? Give the drones 2″ and the spotter 6-8″ unit coherency! Otherwise I love Sniper Drones!

Hammerhead and Sky Ray are just fine for me.

New transport vehicles would be nice, more Alien Allies would be nice as well. Other wise do NOT give the Tau themselves power weapons and fists. That would just make them like everyone else.

JAMMERS- I would like to see the advanced Tau science be able to use Jammers for opponents deep strike forcing them to either re-roll if they can deep strike the squad OR add and additional d6 the the roll. This would keep marines and Terminators from Teleporting right next to your squads!

That’s all I have for now.

0

koshtheimortal

14 years ago

i still have a load of tau as they look really cool but they are by far the worst army possible atm, i think to bring them back from the brink they need some serious changes for the greater good! to put them back on their collective a** back into the best of the armies i think some changes like these should be made: min BS for fire warriors should be 4 (come on this is a shooting army hitting on 3+ is natural, also their pulse rifles need an upgrade maybe Stg 4 range 36″ assault 3, they are going to be the core of your ‘shooting’ army afterall) also i agree with changes to vespids maybe some kind of halberd weapon would fit their theme and for fluff for armour how about ‘vespids have developed over thousands of year in the harsh, dangerous jungles of their planet. hunted by all manner of creatures they have developed extremely hard exo-skeletons harder than the strongest power armour’ 2+ armour save but say due to their hive-like nature they have to stay within range of tau units, make them into a very defensive unit to gaurd ur units as u pop your hailing plasma all over the place ;). i think that battlesuits are fine for price but should be made harder to kill or something like they choose 3 upgrades for free and pay set price for additional tech. i think they should also have some of the best snipers in the game to keep the theme.

0

koshtheimortal

14 years ago

i like the idea of markerlights maybe have mechanic like ‘heavy 1 48″ range – a unit lit up by a markerlight are much easier to hit for all units, all units firing at the unit gain +1 BS per markerlight on unit (max 3 per unit)’ an maybe have some more utilities like turrets ur pathfinders can pop like twinlinked flammer turrets or twin linked limiter rail gun turret (24″ range) (turret = 3+ invulnerable disrupter field)

0

diap2012

14 years ago

thanks guy I want to see this

0

trygons1100

13 years ago

Tons of good suggestions already, here’s my ideas:

-Boost marker lights with unlimited range, and I’d even say “nominate” a target rather than roll to hit (keep the “Heavy” idea though, it’s precise business). Any shooting against that target hits on 2+ or something like that, however, only one target can be painted per turn. Also, toss around the idea of a few kinds of marker lights, like short range lights limited to a certain squad, or lights to call down orbital strikes/air strikes/surgical strikes etc.

-Grenades and short-range grenade launchers would be cool: offensive, defensive, “smoke bomb” types for cover, incendiary to ignore cover, chaff to mess with enemy Deep Striking/Leadership value/etc, gas grenades to lower enemy WS or BS or movement, anti-vehicle grenades, land mines.

-A co-op battlesuit would be pretty sweet, big, lots of maneuverability, bristling with weapons, maybe armour value instead of wounds(?), one “pilot” to drive and the other to manage the weapon systems would satisfy a vehicle damage chart. I’m thinking no bigger than a Nemesis Dreadknight, but with the mobility of a fast skimmer and more firepower than a Crisis suit team.

-More alien races would be interesting, as long as it’s not one-sided. I like the idea of making a “mercenary” themed list with a whole circus of races, or also having the option of choosing a Tau “purist” list without necessarily relying upon any of the allies for certain roles (except maybe a sponge race like Kroot, then again, a new kind of drone could fill that spot).

-Which brings me to drone options. I think lots of different drones would be great: attack drones, defensive drones (not counting towards combat resolution), drones that give shields, stat buffs, weapons, carry additional wargear, etc, kamikaze drones, vehicle repair drones(?), big gun drones, scouting drones, “swarm” drones (like Tyranid Rippers or Necron Scarabs) to soak up fire and generally clog the enemy’s movement/shooting, template/blast weapon drones. I’d say let drones Deep Strike or Outflank, also make them extremely cheap and very common.

-More vehicles would be cool, especially fliers (transports, air superiority, ground support, tank hunters, bombers, etc). Pulling from ForgeWorld a little here.

-Better snipers is a must. Pretty much every army has snipers now, and Tau has fallen behind when they used to be the guys to beat. They should have peerless snipers that make Space Marine Scouts and Necron Deathmarks look like amateurs. Rail rifles should be a deadly as they sound (60″ S6 AP1 Heavy 1, Rending, Pinning). Maybe a plasma-based sniper rifle (36″ S7 AP3 Heavy 3, Pinning, Gets Hot!). Sniper/spotter drones optional(?).

In general, more tech would be great. I would like to see Tau as an offensive army that just feels really slippery. They might be weak, but they can out-range, out-shoot, and dodge just about anything. I don’t like the idea of compensating for a lack of close combat by giving them assault troops or better armor, just boost the speed and shooting, and give them lots of cool gadgets. A straight mech list would be cool (battlesuits, tanks, fliers, drones, etc), as well as a menagerie list (tons of diverse alien allies). Keep the signature railguns and battlesuits for sure, but give them more abilities rather than survivability. I look forward to seeing how the Tau “advance” to the next codex, I just hope they don’t become another “all-around” kind of army. That mentality is starting to get old.

0

clixrbetter

13 years ago

I was overjoyed when the kids that flocked to this OP looking army couldn’t win a single game, and I’ll be sad if it gets any stronger at all.

I was sad for the guys that just wanted cool mecha and tanks, though.

0

litarifa

13 years ago

thank for going through the Tau Codex! I have some things that I like to say about your idés and I all so like to in put my idés about the Tau!

Warrning long Text…

well then I will start with the HQ’s in the codex.

the Commaner, I do not have mach to say about him exept that he is the best HQ in the Tau codex but I like to see a T5 on the Shas’el and a T6 on the Shas’O. the rest of him so good, mayby his points are a bit mach but with the updated toughness the points will be ok!

the Bodyguard is a to week give him a BS4 and he will be mach better

and then we have the Ethereal thats sucks as!
I like to see him as a close combat fighter give him I5 and make the honour blade so it ignors armor saves!
and I like so see some good abilitys to him but not psychic abilitys, Ethereals as very mysterios but they are not psychicers. I like to see thing that bost up Tau’s stats, or that give things like you can reroll all miss attacks on all Tau in line of site of the Ethereal. If you give them something like that them I will start useing them! I don’t care about the price of failure keep it but give him something else on top of the Inspiring Presence.

and then we have the Special Characters!

Aun’va is a very cool character. the leader of the Ethereals it just cool but he needs lot of work. furst we need to give it the same idés I said about the Ethereal and that is prity mach it give it a new ability or two and we will have this very cool Character do it’s part for the Greater good!

Farsight, well everyone needs a black sheep and here is the Tau’s. he is the only Special character I think is something to have in the game right know but I like to see him alite better mayby some upgrades but what upgrades I do not know.

shadowsun, you just have to love her looks the model is one of the coolet the Tau have, I like to see her have more range on her fusion blasters well more then that I do not know!

that is all that I can say of the HQ choice!

the Elites are ee. ok… they need some work…

XV8 Crisis battlesuit
they are prity mach like a fire warrior but with an big armor! all I want is 1+ in BS and this guy is allright.

but the Stealth Team is a big flow but is so easy to fix! first thing you need to do with it, is to lower the points to 20 and then give them a stealth field generator…
I am in shock that they do not have this. I mean they are a stealth team right?…
and then give the unit the option to upgrade there burst cannon to a fusion blaster, not just one of them but the whole unit and you have an awesome elite unit that will be very powerful.

Troops are good I like the troops like are.

the Fire warrior is not a very great unit but they do not need to be! (this is were the marker lights come in) there pulse rifle can kill nerly everything the only thing you think is bad with them is that they have an BS3. but for me, I am ok with that. Shas’la do not need to have a high BS but why not give the Shas’ui a BS4 so they are like the Veteran warriors that the Ethereals can have as bodygurads.

The Devilfish is an awesome transport I have noting bad or anything I like to say hare!

the Kroots needs some help, I like to see +1 to Initiative on all of them (not hounds)
I allso like to see Kroots to have fleet mayby allso lower the points for the Shaper but in overall they are a nice meat sheld for the fire warriors!

if we look on the fast units we have the Gun Drone Squadron. I do know that not many use them, but I like them! they have an very bad BS but I don’t care for it. you just use your market lights to upgrade it and they will hit with all of there fire thanks to there weapon a TWIN-LINKTED Pulse Carbine! but they are a bit to prisy and why do they not have fearless?? A Gun Drone is robot, and they do not fear things like a living person.
I like to give them one more thing. I like to have them to shoot in close combat! make them use there pules carbine insted to the ”headbump” that what I call it’s attack in combat. when they are in combat they use there WS like allways but they fire there guns insted of there plate body as weapons.

the Pathfinders are good but they need to be mark shooters thats why they need BS4 not BS3 that they have. by giving this +1 to BS they will hit more units with there weapons then a normal fire warrior and that means more market lights hits.

the Piranha is a big ? to me. I have never use it or I have never hade a thoght in useing them sure they are good tank buster but I just don’t want to use them I think it is a waste of points. and I have no idé how to make them better, or how I will be intrested in puting it in my armé. someone else will have to say there option on them for I can’t see any use for them.

The Vespid Stingwings are a very intresting unit I can see mach use for them but for some reason they are to weak. I like tham to have a claw attack that is good agenst vehicles and make there waepon into an assault 2 this will make the vespid very nice. but I like so see them allso comeing in for the side of the bord when they are in the reinforcement.

The Heavy support is very strong but do not have mach of a blast to it! I like to see more blast plates in the Tau!

XV88 Broadside Battlesuit is fine. it is just nice as it is! you are allways happy with one of them on the field.

the Sniper Drone Team I like to see this team in the Fast slot instade of heavy.

Hammerhead Gunship is a nice tank I like the idé you guys said by giving the submunition shoot heavy 2 insted of heavy 1 if not that, give it an AP3 insted of an AP4 one of this two thing will make this tank mach better agenst infantry units

the Sky Ray Missil Defence Gunship is ok, the things that it need is new weapons! I like to see Seeker Missils that have large blast and smal blast, missiles that go thro armor. this is what I see the Sky Ray as. it will be the barrage weapon of choice of the Tau Emprire!

well this see my idés that I like to see in the new codex, and if we look on idés on new models and units I like to see a Master Shaper as a HQ or a new XV22 battlesuie figure for an elite choice!

0

taubeast

13 years ago

Have you even read through the codex, or seen anyone decent play with the Tau, or looked them up on the internet at least?!? You get so many facts wrong it isn’t even funny!

For example, Tau Battlesuits don’t have to buy their thrusters as an upgrade. They automatically come with them! And shield drones are 15 points.

Please, I appreciate what you guys do, but learn an army before you critique it! This is just embarrassing!

0