Ethereals. . .Ethereals everywhere!

[The Man They Call Jayne]

It seems that Ethereals are certainly a popular choice now, but which one should one take?

Lets have a look.

Firstly, all 3 Ethereals share the same basic abilities:

Failure is not an Option -

Gives a very nice Leadership Bubble, although it does come with the downside of cost you an extra VP if he dies.

Invocation of the Elements -

Allows you to pick an elemental power at the start of each turn, which passes on a benefit to friendly units withing 12".

Stubborn -

It's Stubborn. . .


Now, your basic, entry level Ethereal has all the above abilities in a cheap, if somewhat fragile package. His statline is not amazing, but with an Honour Blade he can take down vehicles in CC by boosting his strength. Really, you are taking him for his abilities, not his combat ability.

Protect him well and he will make you far more deadly at close to mid range, or increase your mobility hugely.

Stepping up to the mid range package we meet Aun'Shi, the Hero of Fio'Vash. The most expensive of the Ethereal collection, Aun'shi excels in CC. He has the highest WS and I values of any Tau, rivalling Commander Farsight in skill.  He comes with an Honour Blade, EMPs, Photons and a Shield Generator as standard, and what he does best is hold up other Characters in combat.

At I5 he is fast enough to get his blows in and at a good strenth. In addition to the basic Ethereal abilities, he has a unique ability called Blademaster. In Challenges this allows you to pick an aggressive or defensive stance each round you are in the challenge, and either gain Rending, or re-roll your 4++ save which, as we know, is superior to a 3++ save, making him VERY hard to kill. Unfortunatly, he will most likely suffer Instant Death as his low toughness means you will be taking quite a few saves.


Finally we come to the Executive Level Ethereal. Aun'Va, Bodyguards, Yoda Chair, hot and cold running electric windows and everything.

Everything your usual Ethereal does, Aun'Va turns up to 13 (one for the mathematically inclined there ). He can invoke 2 elements every turn and give you whole army re-rollable Leadership.

He also comes with the Signature System: Paradox of Duality. This device is no mere shield generator. This artifact can completely discard wounds entirely. It grants Aun'Va immunity to AP1 weapons and near immunity to AP2. This does mean that in CC against power weapons, axes and so on, he will be remarkably safe. This does come with a very major downside however, and one that might discourage you from taking him at all.

The higher the AP of the weapon that strikes him, the LESS effective the Paradox becomes. This means that at AP4 or worse you have less than a 50/50 chance of stopping the wound. And AP- weapons cannot be saved against AT ALL.

No matter what happens, Aun'Va desperately need to be kept safe and secure.

Another point is that Aun'Va is NOT an Independent Character. This means that once his Ethereal Guard are gone, he cannot then go and join another unit for safety.

So there, a brief rundown of what you can expect from your Ethereal. All of them have the potential to make your army devastating, but they all need to be protected, with the exception of Aun'shi, who is the most survivable of them. Aun'Va can make your army almost unbreakable, but is the most vunerable. Above all though, all three of there great leaders is cheap. Prices range between 50-110 points for them, with only the basic Ethereal being customizable.

So consider what you need, and how to make that happen, and then go forth, and spread the Greater Good among the stars, Commander.

[Cammerz]

Well I played a Tau on Tau game yesterday, I had one standard Ethereal, my opponent had two. Ethereals are amazing. The main bonus in our game was simply the massive Leadership bubble (especially on my opponent's side of the table). We each had them sitting in a unit of Fire Warriors where 2+ Look Out Sir! rolls protect them from a decent level of shooting.

Usually I don't like using Special Characters so that would limit me to the basic Ethereal but I have the models for every possible configuration (which have been sitting around and doing nothing since I bought them two or three editions ago.

I think the main question is what do you put as your other HQ slot? Personally I like having the Commander but you could choose the Fireblade or even a second Ethereal, not to mention the many and varied Special Characters.