Tau Revisions

[Muad'dib_94]

Hello BolS!

In recent years, I have noticed that the various changes to Warhammer 40 000, such as 5th edition, or GW's shift towards "spectacular"rules, a wide range of armies have been undercut. All of those armies, one of them being my personal favourite: the Tau Empire, are all in need of a significant boost.

In the link below, you will find my proposed changes for the Tau Codex:

http://www.filefactory.com/f/4d71af67b7591005/

I would recommend reading the document "Tau Codex" first, as it describes all of the key special rules, and major changes I have made to the army list.

Among those changes, some of the more significant ones include:
- an increase in the availability and abilities of the markerlight
- varying types of drones
- Fire Warriors now can select Doctrines
- the inclusion of various FW units into the army list
- Ethereals now have a balanced benefit/ drawback

Cheers,

Muad'dib_94

[DarkLink]

First off, you have a lot of rules like "reroll D3 armor saves". That sort of rule isn't exactly streamlined. With how many of these you have, you're going to be spending five minutes rolling and rerolling everything each turn. Looking over the list, none of the D3 rerolls are needed, and just complicate the gameplay. I'm not a fan of them.

Wargear:

Markerlights are powerful as it is. They don't need to be "fixed". They're already annoying enough for Tau opponents as it is, they don't need a boost. Making them a little readily available is good, but they don't need to be better than they already are. Keep the abilities the same as they currently are.

I like your Ways of the Hunter thing. Some of my friends and I had a similar idea when talking about updating the Codex. Precisely what some of your abilities do need to be revised, but the basic principal is good.

I'm not sure about the pulse repeater. I'd just keep the Pulse Carbine, and make it 18" assault 2.

For the Medical Drone, I'd go with FNP on the squad instead. GW's been getting rid of the old Apothecary rules in favor of more simple ones.

Disruptor Beacons are rather powerful. Forcing enemies to reroll their reserves is significantly better than simply adding a -1 modifier, like the Guard does. I'd keep it at -1.

Target Locks don't really need to reduce scatter AND let you split fire. Stick with one or the other (or make them seperate upgrades).

I don't really agree that Ion Cannons need a boost. They're a cheap alternative. I'd just make them more widely available, rather than giving them a big power boost (expecially if you have to roll five dice just to find out what the statline for it is that turn:p). A version of the Devilfish with a reduced transport capacity and an Ion cannon comes to mind. If you want to boost them on Hammerheads, make them TL or something.

And Ion Cannons causing automatic Crew Stunned is way OP. Thunderhammers have to be in CC to do this, and they only cause Crew Shaken. A gun that can do this is way, way too powerful. Drop this rule.

I like the Pulse cannon and Melta Cannon, though I strongly question the point of giving a Melta Weapon the Lance special rule. Melta guns are already ridiculously good at killing tanks, they don't need even more of a boost. Melta and Lance don't belong in the same statline.

Burst Cannons don't really need to get 24" range, Assault 4 AND Rending. Quite a bit of a buff right there.

I also think your Decoy Launcher are a little good. You go from how OP they are now, to a different type of really, really good. Especially since you didn't bump the price up appropriately. Forcing your opponent to reroll all to penetrate rolls is worth like 30pts, not 10.


HQ

Looks pretty good. I like the overall boost to the Ethereal. However, I'd keep the BS bonus he give to BS4. I'd also drop the reroll D3 failed armor saves, as I mentioned at the beginning. I'm also not sure why the Ethereal has a witchblade, specifically, as Tau aren't psychic. I'd call it a poisoned weapon instead.

Elite
Photon AND emp grenades AND a Way of the Warrior ability for basically free? Offensive grenades, sure, everyone's getting them now. But defensive grenades, anti-tank grenades and a combat tactics-like special ability?

Troops
Combat Squads are a SM special rule. I'd let them keep it. And your disruptor beacon upgrade is way, way, way too cheap. Your opponent has to destroy each one to stop its effect, similar to the IG MotF, but unlike the IG, you can take more than 2 MotF, and you can take them in much harder to kill squads. On top of that, your upgrade costs half of what the MotF does. And your upgrade is better than the MotF.

And your Kroot Shaman upgrade is way too cheap, too (since when were kroot powerful psykers, anyways). Will of the Ancestors is worth far, far more to that squad than 25pts. Space Marine and Eldar players will wish their psykers had that power.

Stealth Field generators on vehicles is too good. And when you start stacking upgrades onto vehicles, they get more expensive, not cheaper. You added a pintle-mounted pulse repeater, a much, much better burst cannon, 2 seeker missiles and a tactical uplink, then DROPPED the cost of the Devilfish.

Fast Attack
Drones are good. I'm assuming the Leadership maxes at 10?
Other units look ok, too. The Kroot cavalry is kinda interesting, too.

Heavy Support
Why do Broadsides have grenades. Doesn't seem right. What's the point of having cover, if every single unit in the entire game has offensive grenades, even the ones who don't need them. Not to mention that if Terminators can't use grenades, why would Broadsides (or regular crisis suits for that matter).

Aside from that, the units look pretty good. Sentry Drone Turrets are kinda cool, too.

[Muad'dib_94]

First off, thanks for the comments and criticism!

"First off, you have a lot of rules like "reroll D3 armor saves". That sort of rule isn't exactly streamlined. With how many of these you have, you're going to be spending five minutes rolling and rerolling everything each turn. Looking over the list, none of the D3 rerolls are needed, and just complicate the gameplay. I'm not a fan of them."

I see your point. It would slow down the game, yet it provides a balance for the changes so they do not are overly increase the power level of the Tau. Maybe as an alternative, replace D3 with "up to three (ex. Ethereal's effect)", or give make those values constant (ex. AP of Ion Cannon).

"And Ion Cannons causing automatic Crew Stunned is way OP. Thunderhammers have to be in CC to do this, and they only cause Crew Shaken. A gun that can do this is way, way too powerful. Drop this rule."

My mistake, that will definitely be changed in the next version of the rules!

"For the Medical Drone, I'd go with FNP on the squad instead. GW's been getting rid of the old Apothecary rules in favor of more simple ones"

When I was writing the rules, I thought about this, and did not go with it simply because FNP is simply too powerful. I went with a more-watered down version, however you do have a point with GW attempting to get rid of it. Any ideas for an alternative effect?

"I also think your Decoy Launcher are a little good. You go from how OP they are now, to a different type of really, really good. Especially since you didn't bump the price up appropriately. Forcing your opponent to reroll all to penetrate rolls is worth like 30pts, not 10"

First off, I think you are confusing the Decoy Launchers for the Disruption Pod.
I see your point for the cost of the upgrade, here's what the amendment will look like:

Up to two armour penetration dice (including Rending and Melta bonuses) for shooting attacks against the vehicle must be re-rolled per turn if the shooting attack is a Penetrating Hit.

"Markerlights are powerful as it is. They don't need to be "fixed". They're already annoying enough for Tau opponents as it is, they don't need a boost. Making them a little readily available is good, but they don't need to be better than they already are. Keep the abilities the same as they currently are."

I feel as if markerlights are the Tau equivalent to IG orders, SW sagas, or Tyranid bio-morphs. It makes them unique. When I did some play-testing, most of the effects only were really used when I focused solely on one unit, which left the remainder of my army exposed. Only the original effects really got any mileage, yet I will keep the new ones to provide a little more variety.

--

In general, DarkLink, I agree with you, and your changes will be added to the Revisions. They will be updated once I get a little more feedback.

Cheers, Muad'dib_94

[DarkLink]

Hmm, maybe make Medical drones give a 5+ FNP?


Yeah, I mostly wrote the markerlight comment before reading the new markerlight rules. The existing abilities will get used more. This is also where most of your D3 things are, so it kinda falls under that, too. I think Markerlights are unique enough, though, and that there are plenty of other things that make them unique as well.

I'm not sure what exactly to do with the D3 thing. It'd have to be looked at on a case by case basis.




Anyways, when my friends and I talked about a Tau update, we had a similar thing to your Way of the Hunter system (though it was based on the battlesuit commander). The commander would select one of the multiple options, and which one was selected would effect certain aspects of the army. I think making this choice once per army would make it feel more cohesive (strategies are more effective when the whole army works in unison towards them).

Here's some alternative ideas for the Ways of the Hunter

Kauyon: The Way of the Patient Hunter: Seems to me that a useful ability for this would be to bring in reserves on top of the enemy with great precision, as a sudden strike to the exposed enemy force. Maybe allow rerolling reserves and deepstrike scatter dice.

Mont’da: The Fog Strike: This is kinda interesting. I like the concept. It seems like a sudden ambush from out of nowhere sorta thing. I think getting some free markerlight hits first turn (maybe turn one all your markerlights auto-hit), and letting some of your units infiltrate (to represent the ambush part).

Mont’ka: The Killing Blow: I like your idea of giving Firewarriors Bladestorm. You could even make it like a WAAAHG sort of thing, where you get one big bonus one turn to represent the actual killing blow.

Kunas’Ka: The Agile Blow: I'd say this should give the unit the ability to outflank and scout, to represent the Tau striking rapidly from multiple angles.





I also noticed you didn't have Sniper Drone units (unless I missed them). I used to take those, back when I played Tau in 4th ed. Nice little units. Very similar to the Turrets, now that I think about it.

[Muad'dib_94]

"Anyways, when my friends and I talked about a Tau update, we had a similar thing to your Way of the Hunter system (though it was based on the battlesuit commander). The commander would select one of the multiple options, and which one was selected would effect certain aspects of the army. I think making this choice once per army would make it feel more cohesive (strategies are more effective when the whole army works in unison towards them)."

I originally had a system quite similar to what you suggested, yet I realized it was too restrictive for the player. The composition of an army must be balanced in order for it to be effective.

--

"I also noticed you didn't have Sniper Drone units (unless I missed them). I used to take those, back when I played Tau in 4th ed. Nice little units. Very similar to the Turrets, now that I think about it."

I removed Sniper Drone units from the Codex, in how their role is now being fulfilled by the various turrets.

--

I plan on updating the rule set soon, I just need a little more feedback!

Cheers, Muad'dib_94

[Toophat]

I read through some of these rules and i found them to be a tad overpowered. Your Skyray is especially unrealistic and fires too many shots.

Good try, a bit of scaling back on the power level would make these rules a bit more realistic. I'm looking forward to seeing any revisions you might have come up with.

[whitestar333]

I actually think a lot of this sounds pretty good. I mean look at all the stuff that Blood Angels have and how everyone thought they were OP. Sure, fast vehicles everywhere is annoying, but not unkillable. I think the stuff you have for this is good and actually represents a competitive Tau codex.

Truthfully, Tau have it pretty bad right now in 5th edition, with only necrons and grey knights being worse in my mind. I like a lot of your ideas, and I don't even play Tau. I remember when Tau were a force to be reckoned with in 4th edition and I'd love to see them like that again!