40K TACTICS: Tau HQs the Normal Dudes
Hey guys, I am Learn2Eel I’m here to talk in detail about our new Codex: Tau Empire. Lets hit it!
HQs – The Normal Dudes (Non-Special Characters)
Ethereal – As a spiritual leader amongst the Tau, you would expect an Ethereal to be based around buffing friendly forces and providing a serious drawback if they perish; suffice it to say, this is exactly the case with the Ethereal. As a standard character, the Ethereal is cheap and relatively ill-equipped; their basic profile bequeaths a decent Weapon and Ballistic Skill, with a low Strength, Toughness, Initiative and Wound value of three. Considering they lack any kind of save and have no way to purchase one, Ethereals are relatively easy to kill if wounds are allocated to them; given that they concede a victory point if they are slain regardless of whether they are your Warlord – and their high leadership means there is a good chance they will be your Warlord – and that they are merely Infantry, protecting them tends to involve attaching them to a meaty squad in cover and hoping the enemy doesn’t focus too much attention on them. Given their fragility, they don’t hit particularly hard either; they can take a pair of AP four melee weapons for a low price that makes them decent contenders against squad leaders that are light infantry, or the usually more popular and cheaper honour blade that boosts their Strength value to five, making them a somewhat decent proposition in melee. Still, unlike Aun’shi, you really should keep them out of combat wherever possible; they aren’t designed for it at all, and neither should the unit they join be (not taking Allies into consideration). So what exactly do Ethereals do to justify their cost of half of a hundred tacos? Firstly, they provide the Stubborn special rule to any unit they join, meaning they should stay in the fight; also, any friendly Tau unit within twelve inches of an Ethereal must use his Leadership of ten for any Morale, Pinning, Fear or Regroup tests they make. On top of this, each Ethereal can provide one of four benefits to friendly Tau models within twelve inches, chosen at the start of their movement phase; these provide minor benefits to your forces, but they are useful to have nonetheless. Each ability is tied to a particular Caste of the Tau people, providing a benefit that makes sense from a fluff perspective and benefits certain units more than others. The first grants any units within range the Stubborn special rule which, given that any friendly Tau unit within twelve inches of the Ethereal uses their Leadership of ten, means that your forces whom are very much prone to running away are far more likely to stick around and hold up enemies in combat that much longer. This is an invaluable tool that really helps to solve one of the Tau armies’ more significant weaknesses; that of a lack of high Leadership, Fearless or And They Shall Know No Fear. The second provides all Pulse Weapons with an extra shot if they fire at half range, meaning that a squad of Fire Warriors would fire three shots each at fifteen inches if they are all in range. This is a pretty strong buff, particularly if you have multiple Fire Warrior, Pathfinder or Kroot units in the vicinity; those extra shots add up, especially given the high Strength of Pulse weapons.
The other two abilities are perhaps of more situational use, though they are certainly not bad options at all depending on the unit that receives them. The third provides Feel No Pain (+6) to any Tau model within twelve inches, but given that the specification is not “unit” but “model” and that Tau are almost universally Toughness three, trying to exploit this fully will likely leave your forces quite vulnerable to blast weapons and high Strength shooting. Don’t misunderstand the value this adds though; even if it is only a minimal save, it can still save a unit from total annihilation; any casualties you can save are very much worthwhile, though I feel in such a dire situation many will prefer Stubborn or the extra shots from their Pulse weapons. The last ability allows any of the affected models to Snap Fire after Running, which is useful if you need to get a given unit into a good position on a particular turn but want to fire some extra shots off; it isn’t a great ability, but a few extra shots – particularly with Markerlights – can still be very handy. As to the actual options an Ethereal has aside from melee weapons, they can take a handy Blacksun Filter or Homing Beacon for a minimal cost; either is helpful in almost any situation, with the bonus of providing night vision to a unit or having a beacon for deep-strike scatter reduction well worth the investment, though the latter is obviously dependent on whether it is actually necessary for your army list. The Ethereal can also purchase two drones which are quite handy in any situation; shield drones will probably prove to be the popular choice to actually afford the Ethereal a “save” in a sense, though gun drones and marker drones all have their uses too. The former provides a little bit of extra firepower at a good cost, whereas the latter grants a cheap Markerlight shot that comes in handy for your other forces if it actually hits. All in all, the Ethereal is best kept cheap and situated in a chunky unit, preferably one in the backfield; Fire Warriors are perfect bodyguards for an Ethereal, though Pathfinders and even Broadside Battlesuits make fine options for the Ethereal to partner with. Remember to use his support abilities to their fullest each turn, as they are the true reason you will take one; they are a fine unit, one that is most helpful to keep your Tau in the fight.
Cadre Fireblade – Continuing the theme of a cheap commander that is primarily used to benefit a unit(s) rather than be a powerful presence themselves, Cadre Fireblades are inexpensive units that work best in tandem with a handful of units in particular. As Infantry with three wounds at Toughness three and a +4 armour save, they are decently durable for how few points they eat up, but it nonetheless must be said that keeping them out of combat – or any line of fire, for that matter – is a good idea, as a single Assault Cannon or Autocannon shot is all that is needed to kill them instantly. That, and massed Bolter fire will reave them if you don’t place them within a unit; they are there to join up with Fire Warriors or Kroot, and should be used solely for such purposes. As to what they actually do, they are decent at keeping your basic soldiers in combat and not being swept, given their Initiative of three and Leadership nine; bucking the trend of other Tau Infantry, they have a Weapon Skill of four and handy Ballistic Skill of five. Armed with a pulse rifle, they provide a few bonus, precise shots to a Tau unit, and they sport an always useful Markerlight that can be Split Fired at a separate target to the rest of their unit to support your other forces. These abilities are definitely useful and make the Fireblade a versatile choice outside of merely adding some presence to a squad, though the Fireblade’s true value comes from their Volley Fire special rule; provided the Fireblade and their unit didn’t move in the prior movement phase, they each fire an additional shot with their Pulse Rifles and Pulse Carbines.
Given the boosted range of either weapon in terms of shots and Strength compared to most other armies, this provides even your basic Fire Warriors with a pretty serious boost to their firepower; a unit of twelve Fire Warriors with a Fireblade fires a staggering thirty-nine shots at fifteen inches or twenty-six at thirty inches, as opposed to twenty-four and twelve without. As a veteran of Chaos Daemons, Tyranids and Dark Eldar, I can personally say that a cheap unit that costs much less than two hundred points firing twenty-six Strength five AP five shots at my units from thirty inches away whilst capturing an objective is amazingly nasty; getting close to them is even worse, leaving my poor lightly armoured units easy prey, particularly when said Fire Warrior unit is boosted by Markerlight support! All those high Strength shots that can potentially Ignore Cover and hits on a two and up at thirty inches is simply anathema to any light Infantry unit in the game; even monstrous creatures that don’t sport wings or a jump pack will be reasonably frightened by such a torrent of fire. This is the Fireblades’s best attribute; he seriously improves the damage potential of your basic units, with Pathfinders or Fire Warriors being viable units for him to join. On top of this, the Fireblade makes for a cheap and effective Warlord option; essentially the perfect commander for a small, allied force of Tau, though they are also very handy in any Tau army featuring Fire Warriors or Pathfinders in any kind of serious capacity. Though I would recommend keeping him cheap, he does have access to two drones; gun, shield or marker drones are useful additions in the context of the unit he joins, though they aren’t strictly necessary. The best utilisation of a Cadre Fireblade is undoubtedly manning a Quad Gun behind an Aegis Defence Line with a chunky unit of Fire Warriors – he uses Split Fire to target enemy flyers with high efficiency, whilst his Fire Warrior unit benefits from the extra shots and pounds some ground forces into submission. At his cost, this is an exceptional way to add some cheap anti-air firepower into any army list – it works perfectly as an Allied detachment!
Commander – The staple Warlord choice for Tau armies since their inception, the Commander – or Shas’O – is a cheap, tough and incredibly versatile leader for your force that can be kitted out for precision strikes with powerful ranged weaponry, or provide strong benefits to other Battlesuit pilots. With access to far more wargear options than any other HQ choice, the Commander has a very low base cost that allows you to really go all out and equip him to fit the role you envision; between Toughness four, four wounds, a +3 armour save and the awesome Jetpack assault move, he is quite tough even without wargear additions, though as a HQ, be wary of opponents gunning for him with high Strength weaponry. As Jetpack Infantry, he works best in a unit of Battlesuits; unless you don’t have the models or the points, I would not recommend using him in a squad of Fire Warriors or the like, unless you have a specific plan in mind; he is intended to harass enemies, much like Crisis Teams, or at least help them to harass enemies. He also packs a decent Weapon Skill of four and an Initiative of three, though his Ballistic Skill of five is likely his most alluring attribute – at least, aside from the sheer number of wounds he has. Unlike a regular Crisis Suit, he can take up to four weapon or support systems and, much like a Crisis Shas’vre, he has access to the Signature Systems as well. A note that though you can fill up all four system slots, just because you have the option of doing so doesn’t mean that you should, as a Commander can become a massive points sink if you aren’t careful – take what you need in relation to who he will be running with. If you want to make use of the Commander’s great Ballistic Skill, I would recommend taking two ranged weapons, or one twin-linked one; I feel his Ballistic Skill of five means that you don’t need to worry about twin-linking his weapons, though it is certainly a good idea given the minimal increase in cost. Plasma rifles and fusion blasters, weapons that have fewer shots than the others available to Crisis Suits, make for the perfect weaponry on the highly accurate Commander, and when paired with Precision Shots backed by an Advanced Targeting System, this can allow your Commander to be a deadly and efficient character or special weapon sniper, a truly invaluable tool. The choice of weaponry is very diverse, meaning you can really kit out the Commander however you want; flamers and burst cannons are perfect against horde or light infantry based armies, whereas the two previously mentioned are ideal for close range firefights to deal with elite infantry, vehicles and monstrous creatures. I don’t feel there is a “right” way to give weaponry to a Commander; just be aware that his weapon selections should reflect on the unit he joins, so in that sense, you can look at him more like a unit upgrade than anything else.
For support systems, I feel that this will strictly be dependent on what you require the unit to do, and whether or not the Commander is your Warlord. If the latter is true, then I would always take a Shield Generator on the Commander; the amount of AP two and AP three weaponry that will likely come his way will likely vindicate the purchase swiftly. Aside from that, these are all useful, but situational and, much like the weapon systems, should be based highly on what you want the Commander and his team to target; if you want a versatile unit that gets into the thick of things, the early warning override (Interceptor), velocity tracker (Skyfire), target lock (a better version of split fire) and stimulant injector (Feel No Pain) all make for good additions, though the last one should probably be reserved only for your Commander. Purchase them based on what weapons you take as well – fusion blasters and plasma rifles lend themselves well as Skyfire weapons, where a mix of burst cannons and flamers alongside those prior weapons lend themselves well to target locks. They are all cheap and useful additions to your Commander and his unit, and the sky really is the limit with how you want to equip them; as always though, be mindful that the Commander and his Crisis Bodyguards or Crisis Team don’t go over two hundred points per unit. A note here that though I do speak mostly about the Commander joining Crisis Battlesuits, Stealth Suits and Broadsides are also good options to join; the former for the cover bonuses and sheer weight of anti-infantry firepower, and the latter to provide them bonuses such as tank hunters and ignores cover through one of the rare choices. On that note, the Commander has access to the ‘relic wargear’ section of this codex, a range of one-per-army items; most are surprisingly inexpensive for what they can potentially do. For a Commander in particular, the most popular option will likely prove to be Iridium Armour; boosting his Toughness to five and increasing his armour save to a +2 for a measly points cost is absurdly strong on a model that has four wounds. In fact, when combined with a Shield Generator and Stimulant Injector, you get a Commander with four wounds, Toughness five, +2 armour, +4 invulnerable save, and Feel No Pain (+5), and this configuration will run you exactly one hundred and fifty tacos before any other upgrades. Whilst expensive, against anything that isn’t Strength ten or a force weapon, this makes your Commander unreasonably hard to kill; given your Jetpack move, you can stay away from enemies you don’t want to face with some measure of reliability, and laugh off almost all incoming firepower. As good as it is, the cost is significant enough that I would only ever reserve this configuration for your Warlord; the fact that it is much harder to kill than a Daemon Prince outside of combat is laughable in of itself, though. That, and it still leaves room for two more weapon systems, meaning you can take a fusion blaster and plasma rifle and have a Commander that is almost impossible to remove and deals a lot of ranged damage for less than two hundred runs!
The rest of the signature systems are very much dependent on whether you want your Commander to make use of his high Ballistic Skill, or if you are happy to relegate him to a supporting role; though the latter is feasible, it must be noted that a more effective unit for this role is a team leader or one of his bodyguards. The Onager Gauntlet is a hilariously cheap melee weapon that allows the wielder to exchange all of their attacks for a single strike – at their base Initiative, I might add, which is very useful against slow enemies – resolved at Strength ten, AP one; this is there mostly to allow your Commander to have a great chance of destroying a vehicle up close, or risking an instant death strike against an enemy character. For how cheap it is, it could never be considered a bad purchase. Similarly, a Neuroweb System Jammer, with its ability to make a single enemy units’ weapons have gets hot within twelve inches, is less than a handful of chips to purchase; its uses are pretty significant, especially when your unit is likely about to be faced with a torrent of fire from, for example, a squad of Tactical Marines. Making your opponent think twice about anything is more than worth the few points. The Failsafe Detonator might be useful against lots of low save enemies, though if your Commander has been charged by such enemies, the Failsafe Detonator is likely a waste anyway. The more interesting options are reserved for higher points levels; the Puretide Engram Chip provides a range of special rules to select from, with the limitation of one per turn. The only two really useful ones here are Monster Hunter and Tank Hunter, as the rest seem to be geared more to boosting a terrible melee units’ assault capabilities; it is useful, but decently expensive. Remember how I mentioned the potential for a support commander that doesn’t fire his weapons? The Command and Control Node and Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite are where it is at; though they aren’t cheap, they provide both re-rolls to hit and Ignores Cover to the ranged weapons of the wielder’s unit provided the wielder doesn’t shoot themselves. This likely is better served on a Crisis Shas’vre, but it does shine if you plan on running the Commander with Broadsides; Strength eight AP one weapons with a sixty inch range that ignore cover saves and re-roll failed armour penetration rolls? Sign me up!
Overall, it is very hard to go wrong with any kind of load out for a Commander, but I would always cap your spending at two hundred, even if he is your Warlord; if he isn’t, I would try to keep him below one hundred and fifty, as that is the cost of a decently equipped team of three Crisis Battlesuits. As far as actually using him goes, it also depends on what unit he joins, as his role is essentially tied to that chosen unit and their role – for more in depth tactics on such units, check out the rest of the Tactica as it is probably too much detail to cover here. In general though, Crisis Teams should typically be used either to deep strike down as a “suicide” squad to devastate enemies in a nasty alpha strike backed by a cheap Commander – one that isn’t your Warlord – or as mobile advancing forces that gradually fall back whilst harassing enemies up close, where a Warlord Commander really makes his presence known in soaking up nasty Strength eight weapons – provided of course you equipped him with Iridium Armour. Here, typically he works best with plasma rifles and fusion blasters given his high Ballistic Skill, though missile pods and the like are never bad options. With Stealth Suits, I would take advantage of the rarity of fusion blasters in their unit and equip him with them, though burst cannons or flamers certainly make for interesting options. Repulsor Impact Fields and other Overwatch boosting wargear also help to keep the unit alive. With Broadsides, I would recommend leaving him ‘bare’ and taking those aforementioned support systems that boost their damage potential immensely – a cheap Commander also works fantastically well with a unit of Drones, particularly Marker Drones. I really feel the Commander is the bread and butter choice for Tau, with by far the most adaptable array of wargear and tactic options; I would definitely recommend writing up several builds for yourself and testing them out – discuss with your opponents if counts as is ok whilst you do so, and all shall be swell! Don’t forget Drones either; they can be very handy on a Commander to add some extra punch or ablative wounds; Shield Drones are particularly useful for a Commander expected to get into the thick of things, and everybody loves Marker Drones! The Commander is a really great unit that is highly cost effective and rarely disappoints.
Crisis Bodyguards – Given that this article is already too long and that this unit is functionally nearly identical to a regular Crisis Team, I will preface this by saying that much of my discussions on this unit will actually be reflected in the article concerning Crisis Teams. In any case, as far as comparison to regular Crisis Teams go, Crisis Bodyguards are exactly as costly – and share the exact same wargear options and basic profile – as Crisis Team Leaders, otherwise referred to as Shas’vres, in short. They pay a premium for boosts that are unnecessary given they can only be taken – and thus only be attached to – a Commander, namely the Leadership buff. Whilst they aren’t really over-costed in that sense, a standard Crisis Team not only has cheaper standard members and doesn’t need to worry about paying the price for a Shas’vre, but has the option of taking a third suit member as well; just be aware that they have reduced access to signature systems, though this can be remedied by taking the Shas’vre upgrade. Much like Crisis Teams, Crisis Bodyguards are decently tough against anything that doesn’t have either a Strength of eight or an AP of three, though concentrated small arms fire will surely kill them quite quickly; like any other Jetpack unit, you need to make full use of their assault move and keep them out of the line of fire whilst causing as much damage as possible in return. The fabled tactic of ‘Jump Shoot Jump’ or jumping out of terrain, firing at enemies, and then jumping back into terrain to hide from view and effectively deal damage without reprisal is the absolute best way to use Crisis Bodyguards short of using them as an expensive deep-striking suicide squad. Their load-out should reflect what the Commander has, and for the most part, signature systems are best reserved for the Commander to buff his durability; however, support systems such as the Command and Control Node or Multi-Spectrum Sensor Node work wonders on one Bodyguard that doesn’t take any weapons, severely increasing the effectiveness of almost any weaponry the other team member and Commander carry. This is best used with plasma rifles, missile pods and fusion blasters, though burst cannons do benefit a lot from the re-rolls to hit. I would typically advise keeping the cost of the Bodyguard team below about one hundred and thirty points; any more, and you are probably spending way too much on the unit to give them unnecessary boosts. They are a good unit that whilst probably outweighed by regular Crisis Teams, has a place because they do not take up a Force Organisation chart, the attached Commander or other character (such as Farsight or Shadowsun) automatically passes Look Out Sir rolls, and each of them can be an effective character sniper when given the very cheap Advanced Targeting System. They work supremely well with Shadowsun owing to the amazing special rules she provides to her unit, and in regards to the large unit Farsight can take, I would reserve any Crisis Bodyguard team above five pilots to 2000 point games and over; that many points in one unit is simply asking for trouble in smaller games. These live up to their name as Bodyguards and a very useful option for our Battlesuit-equipped Commanders to join; a note that Farsight, Shadowsun and the Commander are the only units that unlock them for purchase.
Example Builds – Given that most of our HQs tend not to have a lot of wargear options outside of Drones, I feel the best way to talk about examples is to provide those specifically concerning the Commander and his Bodyguards;
Commander w/ iridium armour, shield generator, stimulant injector, fusion blaster, plasma rifle, onager gauntlet – 185
Commander w/ iridium armour, two shield drones, two missile pods, velocity tracker, early warning override – 189
Commander w/ iridium armour, puretide engram chip, command and control node, multi-spectrum sensor node – 160
Bodyguards (2) w/ plasma rifle and twin-linked fusion blaster – 134
Bodyguards (2) w/ burst cannon and plasma rifle, two shield drones – 138
I hope you found my appraisal of the special rules helpful and considerate. You can read way more about Codex Tau Empire here, and we are open to any and all responses! So what’s your favorite named character and how do you run him/her?
