Goatboy’s 40K: Initial Tau Thoughts
Goatboy here on another lovely Monday morning and we have had a plethora of Tau rules pop up lately. Time to talk:
This is an actual release as we have seen a lot of new models, redone sculpts, and maybe some new thoughts on creating 40k army lists. I am not a fan of all the rules as I get the sneaky suspicion the new Tau book will not be nearly as new as we want it to be. A lot of the new shiny things feel a little bit lackluster and I do worry some of the older good stuff might end up suffering based on a new baseline idea for the Tau army. But will see – as we just see the basic rules/stats/points for units without any of the extra upgrade information in the signature systems and other “options”.
Stormsurge
I’ve already talked about the Stormsurge and with the ITC voting to allowing more then one in a unit I can see that model being useful as a cheap stomping option to help keep some deathstars timid. Plus if one of the systems is interceptor this thing will be a terror on Gladius and other “deployment” cheating armies that abuse deep strike. My biggest annoyance with it is that it is an expensive model to purchase, build, and paint up. Still with some of the extra upgrades coming it might actually be good.
Ghostkeel
The next thing is the Ghostkeel MC. I love they are pushing some things into the MC territory as I feel that is a unit type that could be more useful to other armies. I do wonder if will ever see a thunder stomp type of rule that has MC’s do some more attacks at the end of combat a they flail around all mad. Still as a unit type it starts off decent. It’s stats and point costs are well within the normal range for an MC. I don’t like its BS of 3 but that seems to be the default Tau BS for the army so there isn’t much we can do with it. Again if Marker lights end up being cheap to get it might be worth it – but the already previewed Tau other Troop choice shows that a single Marker light is a pretty “expensive” option.
Its cute extra rule of making someone snapfire if they target them is interesting but when you start to see armies take more then 2 deadly shooting units it becomes less exciting. Also the Gladius rerolls to hit a lot of the time and any way to knock down that cover save will just hurt them. I think some other buddies have made the joke that look for the Decurion for the Tau book have this unit as the “tax” to take it so you have to buy one. The listed “combo” purchase from GW might be a formation too but it will just depend on if the extra rules it gets is actually good.
Offensively it is ok but BS 3 hurts it so you will be looking at the Melta blast most of the time. It is also not fearless and with Tau’s ability to get wrecked by psychics out there I expect a lot of Psychic shrieks hurting this unit. Again this unit might go up in value if the sig systems are cheap enough and good enough to warrant massed purchase. I don’t expect much changes and really only point costs tweaks. Maybe the book will surprise me when it comes out and I will finally want to make a “anime” army.
Breachers
The next thing we have seen is the Breacher unit that can replace the Tau Fire Warriors. First of all I think the models look awesome. That white paint scheme is so nice when you compare it to the old Orange scheme. It looks great battle damaged and the video of who to paint the Ghost Keel from GW makes the scheme look fairly easy to accomplish. But a lot of you don’t care about that – you just want to know the rules.
First of all – man it is expensive to get a Marker light in that unit. The Minimum cost is 70 points and that is only for 5 guys. That is pretty rough and I am hoping the other Marker light options are not nearly as expensive. Will see when the book comes out but it leaves me worried. From there the other weapon options are ok just very “close” ranged which is somewhat worrying as they have a BS of 3 so getting close, missing half the time and then getting punched in their fish faces sounds like a guarantee. I do like the missile turret they could set up and that might be a cheap option as you set it up near a wall, hide guys behind and just throw out smart missiles all day. That could be very frustrating for a player to go against as you can’t attack it directly. Overall this is an odd unit as its short range means it might bite off more then it chew when dealing with some of the other “assault heavy” armies.
Commander/Coldstar
The final bit of rules we have is the new Tau Commander leak. This is a really interesting bit of rules shoved into one character. It does things differently and while that is neat I don’t know if that is necessarily good. First of all – the initial Tau commander has all the same things it had last time. Its in a basic crisis suit, has the same type of stats as you expected before, and has the option for 4 Support Systems/Ranged weapons and items from the Signature systems. I do wonder if the Signature systems will have a blurb that makes them like Artifacts/relics from other armies. Will see – the way the book is shaping up right now I would just think everyone can get all the goodies from their research and development team. The other change is getting the suit upgrade that makes you a flying MC but without a lot of the MC rules that might make this really good. I wish they kept Smash but hey the ability to just fly is pretty neat. It says you only get 2 Support systems so you might lost the Signature systems that might keep it from dying when it gets knocked down from out of the sky. Oh yeah – the armor doesn’t increase your toughness by 1 so if you fall out of the sky you face plant and give up a kill point/warlord/maelstrom point. If they get an extra toughness I could see this being a good option to just bother your opponent with its extra shooting and ability to hit just about anything whether it is flying high or down on the ground. The 2 Drones thing is pretty neat too as they go away if you are flying around and come back if you land on the ground. It is exciting to see a new kit that isn’t a pimp leaning fine cast relic. I really wish GW just released a simple Signature syste/Support system list so we can really judge these models.
That is it for leaked models right now – I can expect the new Crisis suits will have a new command squad choice as an elite option and maybe some other “named” unit that will be more anti tank. It is shame the new Ethereal, which looks awesome, seems to only be part of that the new battle force boxed sets. I do like how they are adding in “special” single characters but it hurts when you can’t buy it separately unless you go trolling through Ebay. So far the only thing the new Tau stuff is doing for me is looking interesting to paint. I am not getting the Eldar vibe off of the book even though they got a ton of new stuff. The release of a new GC does make me think will see a book full of them if we get an updated Nid book. I also expect to see more MC’s in other books too as they add a new wrinkle for armies to use and abuse.
Next week should see a ton of Tau write ups as the book should either get leaked or enough information should come out. After that we might see another 40k release or we will finally get better pics of the Horus Heresy boxed set leaks. I am kinda excited about the Horus Heresy plastics but I am worried it will be a really expensive box set. I know value wise when you compare it to other FW releases means it actually is worth a heck of a lot more but as a newish daddy – money doesn’t flow out like it used too.
~How do you think the new Tau are shaping up so far?
