February Tau Rumours

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Broadsides don't give you full fat railguns anymore though. You get the diet version.

[The Allfather]

Yeah but they used the Forgeworld Broadside design, which is awesome.

[Narric]

Longstrike looks like hes trying to be a DJ

Darkstrider looks lie the legs are to wrong way round. Thats just my opinion on the pose. They look unstable, and likely to fall over if they fired their Carbine.

I'm concerned the new Comander kit is not very posable. All the pictures show the same leg pose, and the arms seem to have the hands molded on.

Farsight looks ok, but Anybody with the old pieces could have pulled off the same pose. Again, he seems to be pre-made to have a single pose. Not very customisable

Cadre Fireblade looks like hes about to throw his Bonding Knife down in disgust. And anyone else notice that the Bonding knife, looks more like a combat knife, rather than a Ceremonial Blade?

The Pathfinders are just a collosal "Fuck You" to any person (Like myself) who used the Fire Warriors box to covert their own Pathfinders. It isn't need. The Drones could have been their own little box, along with the PF special Weapons. Oh, would you look at that, one PF is holding an infantry size Ion weapon. So much for Tau not utilizing "Heavy Weapons" on organic troops

Looks like they have simply combined the Hammerhead and Sky Ray into one kit. Anyone who can do math would have seen this coming from years ago, and its surprising they've waited until now. Oh wait, it isn't a surprise, the price is probably £10 more just for being the same as befre.

Broadside looks cool. I admit, I never tried to convert my Broadsides to this design myself, mostly because I never bought the actuall Broadside Kit (I convert my own Railguns, god dammit).

People complaining about those little rails on the Sun Shark shouldn't worry. They're a seperate piece to the main body, so not having them is completely optional. I can't really comment on it further, as I dont know what it can do

Now we're getting to something which is shocking. The XV8 Crisis Team, is actually cheaper then buying three battlesuits individually. Holy Shit GW, maybe ther is hope for you yet!! But one kit among many is not going to save you ass.

The Riptide isn't my cup of tea. From a design point of view, it just doesn't really "work" in my mind. That waist joint just screamS "I'M THE WEAK SPOT, FOCUS ATTENTION HERE!!!" One idea that comes to mind is a scale up Tau army. Sort of inquisitor Scale. Use suitably converted XV8s to represent Fire Warriors, and the Riptide to represent XV8s That would give Converters something to chew on.

On the subject of the "Collections." GW seems to havelearnt its lesson from the Flyers release. The Recon Team is cheaper than buying seperately, though the Kroot Merc collection just about matches seperate pricing.

Its sttrange to see a Tyranid collection amongst the Tau stuff, but by the name, I'd assume its supposed to represent the main threat to the Tau Empire, as per new fluff given in the codex.

This is just my thoughts on all this.

[InsaneTD]

The prices listed here, are the same or in a couple cases, cheaper. :shocked:

All named characters and the commander model are fine cast. The WD just about confirms they are as is, no way to pose them without conversion.

[Dra'Tuisisch-Novae]

The Pathfinders are just a collosal "Fuck You" to any person (Like myself) who used the Fire Warriors box to covert their own Pathfinders. It isn't need.

The Fire Warriors box is two editions old, and they haven't gotten an update. The plastic Pathfinders aren't an intentional affront to people who converted their own, it's an opportunity to a) refresh something that GW seems to be trying to kill off (high-volume metal models) and b) refresh the boggo Fire Warriors indirectly by giving tons of conversion options.

Oh, would you look at that, one PF is holding an infantry size Ion weapon. So much for Tau not utilizing "Heavy Weapons" on organic troops 

That notion has been dead since Rail Rifles came out... an edition or an edition and a half ago? Besides, Pathfinders aren't line troops, they're specialists who rely on stealth and ambush and can't always rely on Battlesuit support. The Tau are supposed to be one of the few races that adapt and innovate - adjusting tactics in the face of realizing "holy shit, this galaxy is full of giant monsters and power-armoured super soldiers who can shrug off our infantry weapons" only makes sense .

[SILK]

Longstrike looks like hes trying to be a DJ

Once seen, can't be unseen....

Darkstrider looks lie the legs are to wrong way round. Thats just my opinion on the pose. They look unstable, and likely to fall over if they fired their Carbine.

They're perfectly fine. Suppose it's just the angle of the pictures.

I'm concerned the new Comander kit is not very posable. All the pictures show the same leg pose, and the arms seem to have the hands molded on.

Never stopped people from converting crisis suits, so why should it stop you with a resin kit?

Farsight looks ok, but Anybody with the old pieces could have pulled off the same pose. Again, he seems to be pre-made to have a single pose. Not very customisable

You seem to have contradicted yourself a little bit here New stuff to work with is always something that I am happy to have, just takes a little more effort than just getting it out of the box fully poseable. But I suppose that's what we get for being non-marine players.

Cadre Fireblade looks like hes about to throw his Bonding Knife down in disgust. And anyone else notice that the Bonding knife, looks more like a combat knife, rather than a Ceremonial Blade?

"Im fed up of these mutha huffin Orks in ma mutha huffin lines!"

The Pathfinders are just a collosal "Fuck You" to any person (Like myself) who used the Fire Warriors box to covert their own Pathfinders. It isn't need. The Drones could have been their own little box, along with the PF special Weapons. Oh, would you look at that, one PF is holding an infantry size Ion weapon. So much for Tau not utilizing "Heavy Weapons" on organic troops

I call bullshit on that level of paranoia. Reason as to why people converted their own pathfinder teams = because there were no plastic pathfinders available and the metal ones were stupid expensive. So when we get shiney new plastics....

As for heavy weapons not being available for standard troops? They were present in chapter approved a long time before the current Tau codex in the form of rail rifles as others have pointed out. Also, as Novae pointed out, another infantry boxed set for the Tau is most welcome. Especially when you consider that we only had one, for around a decade, to do all of the converting work with.

Looks like they have simply combined the Hammerhead and Sky Ray into one kit. Anyone who can do math would have seen this coming from years ago, and its surprising they've waited until now. Oh wait, it isn't a surprise, the price is probably £10 more just for being the same as before.

Warhammer 40,000 is expensive. We get it already. I'm just happy that I'm sat on three of them already, so I don't need any more.

Broadside looks cool. I admit, I never tried to convert my Broadsides to this design myself, mostly because I never bought the actuall Broadside Kit (I convert my own Railguns, god dammit).

Good. Nice to see that the eventual release of the tau codex has created something good for you.

Now we're getting to something which is shocking. The XV8 Crisis Team, is actually cheaper then buying three battlesuits individually. Holy Shit GW, maybe ther is hope for you yet!! But one kit among many is not going to save your ass.

Still better than nothing. I'll take a £5 saving any day.

The Riptide isn't my cup of tea. From a design point of view, it just doesn't really "work" in my mind. That waist joint just screams "I'M THE WEAK SPOT, FOCUS ATTENTION HERE!!!"

It's a fuckhuge robot of destruction with a mahussive chaingun from Doom. Whats not to love?

On the subject of the "Collections." GW seems to havelearnt its lesson from the Flyers release. The Recon Team is cheaper than buying seperately, though the Kroot Merc collection just about matches seperate pricing.

Good.

[Osiris]

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440160a&prodId=prod1990132a

dafuq is that. 85 USD for that model...it better be plated gold or silver for that amount of money. :/ i remember when Stormravens came out and were about 65 USD. GW is murdering my wallet...

Looks like a great new release though, will be interesting to see how many people pick Tau up now.

*i also find that the new bundles seem (seem to be the operative word) cheaper than purchasing each set individually, but it leads to the question of, are these only temporary releases?

[Carrelio]

The release bundles work out to be dollar for dollar identical to buying stuff independently, at least for the Canadians (with our $100 riptides).

[salamut2202]

I don't like the Cadre Fireblade, it looks out of place. He looks, eh, well dressed? Or maybe, he's an ethereal who's been given some combat gear? It looks something not for a tau battle field. It would be sorta like if a soldier was wearing an Army Service Uniform of formal attire showing rank and medals rather than combat gear. Like, if there's a ceremony of military tattoo the Shas'el instead of being in his combat gear (for example, an XV8) would wear that. I know it has to look distinguished because this is a potential warlorf but it seems to erks a little too far away from the practical, pragmatic nature of the efficient Tau'va war machine.

I have determined that I do not like the latest  XV88. It looks so awkward. I mean the Default XV8 chassis is far from great but this looks so bad in so many ways. The railguns seemed perfectly at home on the shoulders - it gave an idea that they were cumbersome and it made sense that things either side of the head would be useful aiming the extremely cumbersome gun of doom. Even when you take the anti air aspect into consideration, it still seems much easier to visualize on the shoulders than that. Them holding it like a rifle is hilarious, it looks absolutely unaimable. Both of its arms are almost straight in front of it, it doesn't leave much room for moving it around which is the only advantage I could see as holding it all gun style like that. I'm also not a fan of the bits hanging off the back but I that doesn't erk me too much.

The riptide is everything I was expecting from it. The XV104 is my close second favourite behind the XV9.

I sorta like the flyer now. It looks like it's less fast and ore maneuverable than the delta wing inspired barracuda (yeah, I'm not an aeronautics engineer) that can stick to apart battlefield a lot more and be more involved in supporting ground engagements (Not a military strategist either ).

All the new characters are looking cool and the plastic pathfinders and new drones also look cool.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Aiming an 88 railgun doesn't need much in the way on manuverability though. Where the slug is going to go would show on the suits HUD, and at long range you would only need slight adjustments to stay on target.

[InsaneTD]

Indeed, there is no other way to aim them. Aren't fire warriors supposed to have the same system in their armour?

[The Man They Call Jayne]

Something similar I would assume. Some kind of Iron Man style thing.

[Dra'Tuisisch-Novae]

Aiming an 88 railgun doesn't need much in the way on manuverability though. Where the slug is going to go would show on the suits HUD, and at long range you would only need slight adjustments to stay on target.

Indeed, there is no other way to aim them. Aren't fire warriors supposed to have the same system in their armour?

Bingo. I believe Fire Warriors use normal "down the sights" aiming, given how they always seem to be sighting weapons normally when they fire, but Battlesuits have optics linked directly to the pilot's HUD. Space Marine bolters and pretty much all Eldar weapons are supposed to work the same way, so it's not unusual in-universe.

Also, remember that the Battlesuit's head is just an optics and sensor unit, and that the pilot sits in the chest - so even if the optic links failed completely he or she could probably open an access port and have an easier time sighing down the barrel than the model suggests . Personally, I always liked to think of the horizontal slit on a Crisis's centre torso as a viewport for in case the suit had a total sensor/optics failure.

[knightperson]

Ya know, I never thought of that, but considering that the pilot is generally assumed to be curled up in the torso that mail slot as a view port makes perfect sense!

I'm neutral on a lot of the new models. The skyshark is pretty expensive, and I don't see the point of making it rather than the barracuda (especially since I already own a 'cuda, dammit), but it is a fairly attractive model. I'd like to say I'm not going to buy one, but I'd probably be lieing.

I'm not digging the new broadsides. As an occasional conversion the heavy bolter pose was kinda cool, but I don't like the idea as the new standard. If the railgun, or heavy rail rifle as it apparently is now going to be, is so integral to the design of the suit, why does it look like the suit just found it lieing on the ground and picked it up??? I think the weapons belong in the arms or on the shoulders like the rest of the battlesuits, but I already have 8 of the silly things so I'm not likely to need more anytime soon.

Anybody else think the devilfish in the Pathfinder Recon Team looks a little different? Maybe it's the angle or the paint scheme, but it seems sleeker somehow than I remember.

Darkstrider actually looks pretty cool, and if I continue using pathfinders I might get one to represent a squad leader even if I don't like the rules for the character.

Not thrilled with Longstrike. In the pose of him in the tank hatch he looks like an old man yelling "Get off my lawn, you dagnab kids."  And didn't I see that cowled armor in Mass Effect?

And finally, are those kroot hounds STILL not plastic? We have fairly desperately needed plastic kroot hounds all through 5th edition, and the kroot merc package doesn't say anything about their material.

[InsaneTD]

Didn't hounds go finecast with everything else? Plastic would nice.

I'm pretty sure the WD listed the flyer kit as cheaper then the sky/head kit.