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[salamut2202]

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?p=166433#post166433

Hmm, new rumours including a new model line up. 'Less boxy suits' is just what I ordered. Thoughts?

[Icer]

That this is in the wrong board....

[Minrat]

HQ and Troops
HQ choices are used to unlock units for troops, so a commander in a Crisis Suit unlocks Crisis Suits as troops, an Etheral unlocks Fire Warriors, Shaper unlocks Kroot.

so....FW won't be used much

unless you like the ethereal rules...

[BadwolF]

HQ and Troops
HQ choices are used to unlock units for troops, so a commander in a Crisis Suit unlocks Crisis Suits as troops, an Etheral unlocks Fire Warriors, Shaper unlocks Kroot.

I was under the impression that the specialised version/s of the Crisis Suit Commander would unlock those options as Troops.

so....FW won't be used much

This sounds off, limiting Firewarriors? They're like the Tau bread along with the Crisis Suit butter  \  They are supposed to be adept at fighting in different situations, just because an 'Aun rocks up should not mean ZOMOGOD SPAM FIREWARRIORZZZZZ just as the lack of one should not be inhibiting them from turning up to a battle at all. But then again I have been thinking that how many people call the Tau Empire "Tau Empire" and not just "Tau"? Because apart from Kroot and Vespid we were limited to Tau. And Kroot and Vespid fulfill specific roles and were not always used. This was even encouraged *cough* thanks 'O Shova!*cough* but with at least two new races coming in and this method of selection this might not be such a bad thing.

Sorry-what are we talking about? Oh, the new XV8 suits? Whoops  yeah, making them more streamlined has been the order of the day since Forgeworld gave us the new suits, although I'm worried about weapon clunkyness! I guess they might be redone a bit as well.

:EDIT:

Something I don't want to see: SPACE POPE. Either scrap him (not kill him off just...make him take a back seat or something like a character like him should be) or completly overhaul his rules in favour of rediculous board wide buffs and such. I do not want to see Aun'Va in his current state.

Ok, ok, ok, rereading this made me think: What if Aun'va is killed in action?  The shame and dispair might cause all Firewarriors to make some sort of right or vow to be Ethereal bodyguards or something like that, then forcing the Tau Empire to rely more heavily on its auxiliaries as the bulk of the Fire Caste changes tack, but I don't know how the other Castes would take this action. Firewarriors would still become Crisis Suit pilots but these would fulfill more of an offensive role rather than a support role (rumours of Crisis Suits becoming simpler to use and more hardy [3 wounds I'm hearing] could support this).

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Im hoping that the FW thing isnt true. Unless Ethereals become very competant and the Tau as a race take a far more "Ok, Screw you Galaxy, it's OUR turn now. No more Mr Nice Shas." approach.

 I have heard suggestions that the Tau fluff is going to get a lot darker. Meaning that Ethereals may actually become far more than space popes and be a genuine force on the battlefield.

[Colonel Marksman]

Currently, I'm ok with the Crisis Suits. They could use more detail and models that are more appealing to others, but I don't want them very sleek or elegant. And certainly not Gundam like.

If they're including Aun'va, they'll fix him. Nobody really intended for him to be as worthless as he is in 5th. GW wouldn't intentionally be so foolish as to make certain units in the game almost never to be bought. Still, my greatest fear is that Tau will become a snazzy veteran Imperial Guard army with Dark Eldar/Grey Knight alien-like support. I would have to pick up Necrons to play the way I want to. Hopefully the rumors as they are stay true.

[Cammerz]

What has Phil Kelly done previously? Might give us an idea of how powerful they'll become.
They clearly want us to be buying the ethereal models, if you need one to have FW troops then I'll probably use one but it entirely depends on the rules. It'd be a bit odd having elite FWs and troops XV8s.

The barracuda is likely to find its way into my army but not the new crisis/broadside suits, I have a full army, I'm not spending any more than I need to.

That said last codex of 5th edition, so that counters what was said in the other thread which thinks Eldar instead.

The idea of 2 weapons and a skill or vice versa for the XV8s may ruin a number of existing options (such as my t-l fusion blaster and a flamer suit). I don't like the sound of the new shield generator, I prefer it as it is now. The drones thing sounds okay. I'm not quite sure what they're on about with the markerlights and seekers. Grenade launcher carbine sounds good. BS4 FWs should put us back at the top of the shooty armys. Demiurg sound good but probably won't find a space in my army. A new sniper suit also sounds quite cool and if I find room then one might join my cadre.

[Dragonborn Seth]

What has Phil Kelly done previously? Might give us an idea of how powerful they'll become.

Dark Eldar, Space Wolves, Orks, and Craftworld Eldar are some of his most recent releases. What you can gather from that is that he has a tendency to make reasonably powerful codices that are pretty well internally balanced, and codices that can also withstand the test of time rather than become invalidated by the next big release.  In rare cases does he do anything blatantly overpowered. Space Wolves was a swing and a miss, by Kelly standards.


I find the idea of having to unlock -every- Troops choice a little unbelievable, unless Ethereals are actually going to be worth taking now. I think it's a neat army mechanic, but I would expect Fire Warriors to be a standard Troops choice, with Battlesuits and various auxiliaries requiring certain conditions to be met to be Troops.

[Cammerz]

Perhaps an ethereal will unlock special veteran fire warriors instead of the basic troop ones.

But it looks like Phil Kelly is a good author so I think I'll be happy to have him write the new Codex: Tau.

[DEF Knight]

If they play it right it could be very fluffy, though i imagine they wont. I was initially thinking they'd be leaving Gue'vessa as the standard troops (along with other dispensable auxiliaries), with FW and Crisis as elites that can be unlocked into troops, which makes sense: use the humans as cannon fodder.

though further reading on that article seemed to indicate that was not the case. Maybe the Tau will have conscripts or levies for troops unless actual professional soldiers are unlocked via HQ? That seems very out of character. Then again, the more I think about it, the more I realize having your HQ choices determine your troops may not be balanced, but it could be an interesting mechanic, letting you represent different kinds of forces being deployed to a conflict.

[Stewie Griffin]

I think unlocking FWs via Ethereals would make no sense whatsoever fluff-wise... they are both of 2 different castes for God sake, and the ethereals are not army commanders, as the Shas'Os are... Ethereals IMHO shouldn't be anywhere near a battle-field, closest they should be is the HQ behind the lines... unfortunately that means scrapping altogether Space Pope and Space Bishops, but fluff-wise I think it would make the most sense... you don't see David Cameron or Nick Clegg going out on foot patrol with the soldiers in Helmand, although there might be popular support for those two to be the guys carrying the metal detector looking for IEDs...

Other stuff, I do like the sound of however - Gue'vesa might be an interesting proposition especially! and BS4 FWs would also be good.

[BadwolF]

I have heard suggestions that the Tau fluff is going to get a lot darker.

I hope this means the Tau aren't getting the same treatment the Necrons got. Instead of taking the opportunity to add to the existing fluff (that much of Necrons 5th Ed fluff could of done) they just put a new spin on everything previous and when things didn't match up I cringed.

I welcome a new look to the Tau Empire but please GW, add to not break and change. Hopefully the codex will be taken from Tau perspective, instead of an imperial one (ok,something I did like about the new cron book) and chuck some tactics at us.

Oh, and that makes me think-are we going to see more Mont'Ka and Kay'On (spelling?) variations to new races I wonder?

[Colonel Marksman]

If the Fire Warriors are going to be BS:4, they are going to cost more than 10 points each. I suppose that isn't a terrible trade-off, but the only other thing I can think of to make it fair at 10 points each would be to lower the strength of the pulse rifle *shudders*. I'm more afraid of new Tau than I am excited. At most, I hope they completely ignore just about every single Fandex for Tau.

I seriously doubt they're going to have Gue'vessa in there or different rules for multiple units for hunting tactics.

The pattern of books Phil has done in the past tells me that some Commanders might get access to different army-buffer abilities through various military disciplines. I'm also thinking there's going to be a number of alien allies patterned after the ones for Dark Eldar and Grey Knights. Also just a strange prediction based entirely on nothing but old pattern of the weird, but I feel that drones are going to get some sort of extreme boost that we'll see drone armies everywhere.



All I can say is, don't cry or scream if direct damage units seem overpriced for what they can do before you look over the buffer units and the rules for Markerlights.

[DEF Knight]

And it means we're almost certainly next, so GW gets all of our christmas money before we have a chance to spend it on other non-GW products like food or uni textbooks.

Pfft. Stop being so needy. Some times you just gotta face reality, pull up your socks, and swear off food or higher learning for a few months. You gotta do what you gotta do!

also I still am a little concerned being last in 5th may be detrimental to Tau in the long run, but at least you'll have a couple of months of utter brokenness that should mean you can really clean up at tournaments etc!

[crisis_vyper]

Now that I think about it, if that ethereal unlocking fire warriors is true, there could be a reason why we would do so; mech spam. Seeing that devilfishes could have some boost of sorts we can potentially max out on a lit of vehicles and provide some mobile cover for the suits as needed when needed. The suits will provide our muscle as always in special weapnry spam while the fw will provide mobile terrain and some measure of mobile scoring units.