Goatboy’s 40K: The Tau are now Greater and Good
Goatboy here and if you are a Tau player and like to throw down with an aggressive Red colored army – you will NEED this book. Here’s why.
Goatboy here and just like last time will see 3 quick little articles that talk about some of the new interesting things in Psychic Awakening. I think overall it is a decent book but nothing to insane Marine like. I do think we have some distinct winners in the book and a lot of nice, additional rules to armies. The big thing in all of this is that if you own any of these 3 armies you probably want to grab the book. Especially if you are a Tau player and like to throw down with an aggressive Red colored army.
Let’s start with Tau as I think they probably got the winning set of rules. A pile of decent strats, 2 army upgrades (Regular Tau and Farsight Tau). Heck this is something to say about this book – it is probably the most “rules” heavy we have seen. I guess you’d say Faith and Fury as it has a plethora of Legion stuff but this book gives 2 “armies” to both the Tau and AM parts of the book. We’ll talk about AM later but let’s begin with the Tau.
ShadowSun & Septs
Shadowsun got a nice model update. She got new rules but the same points so that is pretty neat. Overall she seems alright with a few odd things to make her not fit as well as you want. As the whole Mont’ka and Kauyon are depending on being part of the same Sept it makes her abilities not nearly as good if she doesn’t match. If you are playing her Sept then I expect to see this model on the table top. Her drones seem neat and you now don’t get an option to not have them which again makes me feel like you still need to keep her within her own “gang” of Tau buddies. Neat model, decent rules, and if you are playing her you will want to grab one of these new sweet kits.
Besides that we get a plethora of “Build your own” Sept traits. I think they come across ok with some interesting rules to make suits better and other fun options. This is more of the “add” more frosting to your Tau cake unlike some of the other updated rules. I could see some people having fun with being able to move and shoot with some options. The extra AP options for missiles is pretty scary with the other benefits Broadsides got in this book. I like all the push towards making Crisis suit good as the updated model looks cool and the idea of a “Crisis” suit heavy army makes me happy for Tau players.
Prototype Weapons & Strats
After that we get access to a new set of “relics” called Prototype Weapons Systems. These guys are set up where you can forgo giving a Relic to a Character and instead upgrade a model with one of these systems. The flat Heavy 6 Amplified Ion Accelerator seems good as it lets your Riptide be effective and push for a 3+ inv save due to not needing to overcharge their gun. Again there is some interesting stuff for Crisis Suits units as you can give an entire unit a flat Reroll 1’s to hit and Wound with another special set of Jets you can give them. Overall I like these things as it lets you build unique units that are not just Characters. This is an example of more rules for the greater good of your army that I like when they introduce.
Next up we got some Stratagems that all look pretty good. They are cheap, have their uses, and will be a pain to remember. I would write up a cheat sheet as having all those cards can be a pain in the butt. Tau get another added an additional Warlord trait option which is cool. You get a Vespid Strat as well and even some Kroot stuff. The double stack of two Etheral Powers seems really good too as I see those goes in a lot of armies. Its a single CP and giving your more options is a wonderful thing when playing with these robotic suit ninjas. The pick an enemy unit and one of your Crisis suit units and the enemy unit has “5 marker” lights on them seems really good. Gives you so many crazy options to just pour on the damage especially when mixed with some of the other Strats. We already saw the “maximum” random shot strat that has all the Tau FW players drooling.
Farsight Enclaves
Next up we get some Farsight love with the addition of the Eight’s rules for 8th edition. This is a cool thing and so far they look like the old rules – just updated. It is still a 1000+ point detachment of red armored bros ready for a fight. This is cool as it’s nice to have the rules again in publication. Beyond the Eight there are the Farsight Sept rules. I think this is where a lot of power will show up in events as it shifts how you play Tau. The big “new” rule is removing the matched play rules of limiting the amount of Tau Commanders in a Detachment. Oh man that means you can find a way to fit in 6 commanders if you would like between the Coldstar Creamery suits and the regular Commander suits. I really like the new Aggressive footing ability that grants units the benefit of a Marker light if they are targeting something within 12″ of them. This army is super aggressive, will move a ton, and most likely be a blast to play with. Farsight got 6 new Strats as well plus the other Tau ones. Again the push towards Crisis suits is big here as you can make a unit have a 3+ BS with a 4+ WS if you would like. Heck there is even a 5+ FNP you can throw on a unit for 2CP during a Fight Phase or your opponents Shooting phase. Overall this is the coolest bit of rules I have seen and has me thinking that building a suit based army might actually work for 40k right now.
Farsight also got some Relics which we have seen with the Seismic Node being odd due to its wording and how any kind of movement might trigger and avalanche of d6 rolls for mortal wounds to models. The army also finally has access to a Deny the Witch ability which is pretty dang neat too. There are 3 kind of meh Warlord traits too with one of them letting you Commander declare Mont’ka within 12″ instead of all units within 6″. Neat but I am sure you will look at the regular Tau book for traits you might like better.
Overall the Tau section of this book is very good. The rules are important for Tau players to have so this is not a “skip” release for your favorite fish based friends. Next up will go into the AM side of things and finally end up in GSC land where I am thankful I am not painting more of these jerks for a client.
For the Greater Good!
