Tau Empire - Review

[Arguleon-veq]

Ive been ill today so spent most of it with my head in the new Tau book, I think its a pretty good book and follows the trend of recent 6th Ed Codex in that there are nice combos to be had in the book, great synergy and most units are usable and not a lot stands out as being really overpowered.

I will pick out what I think are the key things;

HQ

Fireblades; I think competative lists are going to run two of these, they really are great for a low points costs, almost doubling the effectiveness of a fire warrior squad. 12 FW with a Fireblade runs in at less than a tactical squad and this gives you 24 S5 shots at 30'' a turn.

Ethereal; I think  he is a really good choice his powers are fantastic and are almost enough to miss out on a fireblade for but I think the fact he gives up a whole VP is too much of a risk to take him over a Fireblade, especially when he will probably be sitting in a squishy FW team.

Commander; Same as usual really, a solid option.

Troops

Fire Warriors; These guys are the new focus of the book, the points reduction and ability to get them more shots will mean we are going to see a lot of them on the table. They seem to have gone away from the more mobile aspects we used to see like FW in Fish although Carbines did get a nice boost [now twice as good] which they really needed in 6th.

Kroot; They took a SERIOUS hit in combat prowess. Now they are next to useless in assault even if you max out on Kroot Hounds, in a way its as it should be as Tau shouldnt have a viable combat option but on the other hand Kroot should be good in combat. They are still decent as a cheap scoring unit, especially as they can be snipers for 1 extra point, 10 snipers with a lone hound will set you back 75 points and you will have infiltrating snipers with stealth who can outflank really well if you need to grab an objective on a flank [thanks to the hounds acute senses]. So they are usable but I dont think we will see much of them.

Elites

Battlesuits; Ive never rated normal battlesuits, I dont think they put out enough firepower and I dont think they survive well enough to return fire but they arent bad, pretty much the same as usual although some of the new support systems are very nice. I think they end up a little cheaper.

Stealth Suits; I like these guys, stealth, shrouding and a jetpack means they can reliably whittle away enemy units whilst staying out of charge range and maintaining a great cover save for themselves. Not game breakers but a handy little unit.

Riptide; The big talking point of the new book and I think they balanced him well. His firepower isnt over the top although it is good and I think most people will give him skyfire and FnP. Giving him an Ion and Plasm Rifle lets him deal out the AP2 whilst your FW slay hordes and the decent AP on his guns will give him a chance to 1 shot flyers rather than glacing them to death. This comes into just under 250 points and he only has a 5+invun rather than a 4+ that you would get from a normal shield generator. I think its a very effective but fair unit.

Fast Attack

Vespid, Drones and Piranhas are all ok but havent changed all that much really although I think a whole unit of markerlight drones are an interesting option.

Pathfinders; I think they got a boost just from the fact that they dont need a Fish. I also think Markerlights got better, +1BS even for snapshots is great, have those FW's shoot down a flyer! [although thats best coming from a Skyray markerlight], ignoring cover totally is also pretty amazing.

Heavy Support

Broadsides; Still a good unit, they do lose S on their weapon [heavy rail rifle now] but at the end of the day they can choose skyfire, a twin linked S8AP1 skyfire weapon is pretty good for 85 points. Coupled with the fact that every suit can have 2 drones now means that these guys will be hard to kill off with shooting gives quite a nice anti air option. I think i prefer the rifle to the missile pods as it gives low AP against ground targets [FW's deal with anything that hasnt got a 2+] and the chance of killing a flyer off in a single shot plus you may need that extra S to deal with AV13 with the lack of really high strength weapons in the army.

Hammerhead; Pretty much as it was although the Ion Cannon got a boost with a secondary fire option, still a great choice and gets a 4+ cover just for moving with the right equipment.

Skyray; It his Skyfire, its pretty cheap and it has two networked markerlights, I really like this. Those markerlights will let your Fire Warriors kill flyers if you need them too.

Flyers

Like most flyers lately they have been toned down a little, the fighter averages 3 S7 hits on an enemy flyer a turn with the right load out, thats ok but it does set you back 150 pts and has fairly poor armour, I wouldnt trust it against a Scythe or Vendetta. The Bomber costs a little more and is almost as good against other flyers and also has a fairly poor bomb payload, they are both usable but I think  there are better ways to have anti air in the Tau list.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

I think if you are going to take an Ethereal, one of the Characters are the best choice unless you are on a budget. Aun'Va can make your whole army nearly immune to breaking and running and 2 Invocations a turn are very nice.

I fully agree with you on Firewarriors. The Tau gunline is a thing to be feared again. I think I will be running units of 8 in packs of 2 units working to support the other with Markerlights and Supporting Fire.

Marker Drone Squads are going to be a fun thing. Only BS2 sure, but for the points, you can take four of them and just have them float around a light up targets of opportunity.

The Riptide will be very fun. The only risk is the sheer number of Gets Hot! rolls on a Novacharged HBC. Shadowsun would help there with her Command Link Drone allowing re-rolls of ones. But a HBC, Novacharged and combined with a Velocity Tracker will simply rip flyers from the air. I think most people will be using Broadsides as their go to AA though.

The Skyray seems to be completely obsolete now however. I can't see any reason at all to take one.

The new fliers are also kinda. . .underwhelming. The Razorshark actually makes a better bomber than the Sunshark if you dont mind risking the Gets Hot! for the blast.

[Arguleon-veq]

Sample List - 1850

Fireblade -
Fireblade -

12 Fire Warriors -
12 Fire Warriors -
10 Fire Warriors -

6 Stealth Suits -

2 Broadsides - Skyfire, 4 Shield Drones

Riptide - FnP, Skyfire, Ion, Plasma
Riptide - FnP, Skyfire, Ion, Plasma

Skyray -

+

Eldrad
3 Eldar Bikes -
3 Eldar Bikes -

Defense Line with Quadgun

It is those last options which I think really push Tau lists into contention with other top builds, Eldrad will let you cast prescience twice  a turn [on those 2x12 FW with Fireblades] and he will also misfortune your main target so that they are re rolling saves. Not much in the game will stand up to that. Eldrad joins the last FW team so that all 3 teams have good LD and they all hunker down behind a defense line for a lovely 4+ cover whilst Eldrad mans the Quadgun. The Bikes provide fast scoring you can keep in reserve whilst you have 2 broadsides, 2 riptides and a quadgun for anti air along with the skyray and even the FW's can fill that roll when they have prescience cast on them.

I think Eldar and Defenselines really make the army.

Those 2 FW squads with Eldrad and Fireblade support shoot down, at 30'' 13 Marines or 7 Terminators, in a single turn thanks to Presience and Misfortune. Wraithspam led by Destroyer Lords with 2+ saves just got way less scary.

[Arguleon-veq]

Fluff

I think there is some pretty good fluff in this codex, they dont go into the damocles crusade as much which is a shame but what I do like about the fluff in this is that they put a lot into the spheres of expansion and what a sept consists of which makes it pretty easy to work out roughly how many worlds the Tau control, they also name drop a few more aliens which is always cool.

What I dont like which is the case with most Tau fluff is that they never have them lose and always have them luck out, they always win with hardly any losses because the imperium were conveniently away fighting somebody else so sent a tiny force or the Orks fighting them didnt have a single commander leading the Waaagh [despite Waaghs forming from a single great leader uniting them]. It would be nice to have them take a real hit for once that actually sends them realing a bit rather than has them lose a few worlds then just claim those back and then more on top of that right away. It would give them a real sense of danger and worry like the rest of the more 'good' aligned races have without taking away their dynamic expansion and adaptability. They also dont mention any losses which they recieve in other books such as the indcident with urien rakath or the losses they took when marines retook nimbosa which is a shame as I like crossover between books and other codex have their own army losing in them.

There are more hints at the dark side of the ethereals though which is nice.

There seems to be some things missing, im pretty sure they dont explain the whole bonding knife thing in there much at all. Which as an option in the actual list you would think they would go into more detail for newer players.

Art

Great artwork especially some of the new stuff, I like the battle between Eldar and Tau on the inside covers.

[Wargamer]

In fairness, Tau fluff has always been that way; it seems their racial trait is "we should have been wiped out a thousand times over, but we have awesome Deus Ex Machina come and save us every time there's a problem."

[pepsi]

Curious. How is Farsight doing against the ORKs? Last time I was reading, his butt was being handed to him.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

I like the idea that Shadowsun is on a secret mission to hunt down and kill Farsight. The more I think about it, the more her suit and weapons make sense.

Farsight is T4 and has a 4++. She has 2 Fusion Blasters, assuming 2 hits, he will save one and the other will Instant Death him.

She is stealthed so that he can't see her coming and so she can move about his compounds undetected. She has 2 MV52 Shield Drones which give her a 3++ against the Dawn Blade and his Plasma Rifle. And the only Command Link Drone so she can issue orders on the move to other Stealth teams operating with her, and get intel from them.

She is the scalpel to his sledgehammer. She is harder to spot until she is right on top of you, at which point she will shoot, and he will be dead.

It all makes sense to me when I think about it. She is kitted out for the exact purpose of killing Farsight, and defending herself from him.

[Pottsey]

Curious. How is Farsight doing against the ORKs? Last time I was reading, his butt was being handed to him.

I just finished reading the The Arkunasha War and in no way did Farsight get his butt handed to him by the Orks. Or did you read a different story? I am not aware of any others.

It all makes sense to me when I think about it. She is kitted out for the exact purpose of killing Farsight, and defending herself from him.

The book Shadowsun explains why she is kitted out the way she is. I do not want to post spoilers so will keep this as simple as I can. The way she is kitted out was not pre planned. More she adopted that style out of need and decided to keep it.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Yes, the book tells you that, but if we take the veiw that the fluff is only telling us what the Tau know, and showing them in the best light, then we can assume that there are things it isn't telling us. It says there are rumours of a secret mission. A mission that she happens to be perfectly equipped for.

[pepsi]

Curious. How is Farsight doing against the ORKs? Last time I was reading, his butt was being handed to him.

I just finished reading the The Arkunasha War and in no way did Farsight get his butt handed to him by the Orks. Or did you read a different story? I am not aware of any others.

It all makes sense to me when I think about it. She is kitted out for the exact purpose of killing Farsight, and defending herself from him.

The book Shadowsun explains why she is kitted out the way she is. I do not want to post spoilers so will keep this as simple as I can. The way she is kitted out was not pre planned. More she adopted that style out of need and decided to keep it.

In the ORK codex there is a story that focuses on a Tau Farsight conflict. The orks had the upper hand this time due in part to their rich status and access to guns. Assumed the Tau codex would shed some light.

[Alcibiates]

So here's a derivation of your list that I'm thinking about


2x Fireblade
2x 12x Firewarriors
3x Ion Accelerator Riptide, bare
3x Ionhead, Bare
3x 6 Pathfinders
Eldrad
2x 3 Jetbikes
Aegis Defense Line

1790, so room to play even after picking a weapon for the defense line.

[Arguleon-veq]

It should work pretty well although id get some anti air in there probably just by giving those riptides skyfire and putting a quadgun on that defense line. Id also be tempted to switch a few ionheads for railheads just in case you really need to crack some heavy armour.

[Carrelio]

Not to beat the dead horse from the thread about how Tau are doing against AV13+... but if someone brings a single landraider against that list, he's all but invincible. The riptides can take twin-linked meltas... so if you did go with that list you'd pretty much need to take that option.

[Arguleon-veq]

3 S9 ordnance has a good shot at stopping a Land Raider [especially with them being so big you should hardly ever miss, you have 2 chances of getting that 6 for the pen and its AP2 for a 1/3 chance to blow it up] plus the key to the list is the fireline behind the aegis, thanks to prescience and the fireblades so long as you keep in support range you will blow away most of a termie squad as they actually charge you.

[Alcibiates]

It should work pretty well although id get some anti air in there probably just by giving those riptides skyfire and putting a quadgun on that defense line. Id also be tempted to switch a few ionheads for railheads just in case you really need to crack some heavy armour.

I haven't picked up the new rulebook yet so I'm unclear on how skyfire works... I've yet to get on the table in 6th edition.

Figure I'll end up with a quadgun on the aegis line, and maybe find a way to shimmy longstrike into a railhead for anti-tank.

I'm always interested in taking lists that flat don't answer certain things in order to improve matches elsewhere... I'm not entirely certain that a landraider would really do that much harm against the list, even if it did go unimpeded.

Also, get on chat ya lazy smarm.

Not to beat the dead horse from the thread about how Tau are doing against AV13+... but if someone brings a single landraider against that list, he's all but invincible. The riptides can take twin-linked meltas... so if you did go with that list you'd pretty much need to take that option.

Echo what Andy said about the s9 ordnance blasts. I may work for longstrike in a railhead, but I'm not decided yet.