40K: T’au Preview – Into The Breach
Games Workshop is teasing the T’au – suit up and dive in!
This week Games Workshop is putting the focus on everyone’s favorite blue fishmen. No, not THOSE. The T’au! With their new codex coming to pre-order this weekend, it’s the perfect time to take a few looks at their upcoming rules.
To demonstrate properly just how much bigger the T’au Empire has become, six Sept Tenets allow you to dedicate your Detachments to one of the most populous and influential of the T’au settlements. You can also pick a sept from the background – or even make one up yourself – and pick the Sept Tenet you think best reflects your strategy and fighting style.
The first Sept Tenet we’ll be previewing is that of the T’au Sept – first and most prestigious among the T’au Empire’s holdings.
That’s right – the T’au are getting more “chapter tactics” to go along with their new book. There are six different Sept Tenets, the first is the “T’au Sept” which is not confusingly named at all.
The T’au Sept is perhaps the most drilled in the ways of the Gunline. This is reflected in their sept ability:
Well now, as if charging T’au wasn’t already a scary prospect, it just got worse for the attacker. Scoring a hit in Overwatch on a 5 or 6 is pretty good and will certainly help thin the ranks of those pesky melee combatants.
They are also getting a unique stratagem to play with as well:
Ouch. Find the weak spot and drive it home with Focused Fire! The T’au Sept is going to be a vicious gunline army for sure. Especially when you start to expand into other improved options…
The Longstrike
Hammerhead Gunships are among the most improved units in the new T’au Empire codex, thanks to having the ever-useful For The Greater Good rule added to their profile, allowing them to unleash combined Overwatch attacks with the rest of the army. Use yours with the T’au Sept, and anyone wishing to charge your gunline will have to reckon with potentially being hit by a railgun at point blank range or a deadly deluge of ion cannon fire. They’ve even received a point reduction!
Did you catch that? Hammerhead Gunships now have the Greater Good rule so they can help out with Overwatch, too. If they are members of the T’au Sept, they all the previous bonuses apply. Oh and they got even cheaper! It might be the return of the Hammerhead.
And if you really want to go all in with them, why not take good ol’Longstrike who’s new boost makes markerlights even more useful:
To be fair, Marklights ain’t what they used to be…for now.
Breach! Breach! BREACH!!!
Close(r)-combat focused T’au? What heresy is this?! T’au Breacher Teams weren’t exactly a popular option as the idea of getting closer to the enemy to shoot them seemed somewhat counter to how the T’au tend to operate. But now, you might want to get your Breacher teams up close to get the benefit of all those shots…plus some extra love with a stratagem:
If your target is getting cover, you get to re-roll failed wound rolls against them! That’s pretty mean no matter how you slice it – suddenly cover is a liability now instead of a benefit. Note: It doesn’t deny your cover save bonus so at least your targets can take that small consolidation.
Well that’s all for this preview – are you ready to submit to the Greater Good?
