Warhammer 40K: It’s About Damned Time People Feared the T’au
Everyone is up in arms about the new T’au Railgun rules. Here’s why you should get used to it.
By now you’ve all seen the new T’au Railgun rules that GW revealed recently. Go check them out. But long story short, here’s the basic stats folks are flipping out about.
I swear, you can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth of the 40K masses through your phone over this first small tease of an upcoming Codex T’au Empire. The complaints are many, and ranging from outrage to mere eye-rolling. A great many ‘fluff’ and ‘meta concerns’ arguments are doing the rounds. 40K meme makers (an under-appreciated cottage industry), has been cranking stuff out in overdrive. You can already hear the sound of thousands of Hammerheads being pulled out of cold storage and dusted off across the globe.
But as has been the case since 1988, 99% of these arguments come down to the same old saw:
“My hard earned meta-chasing list is SUPPOSED to be able to beat your lame-ass models. It’s BS that your scrub units might be dangerous to me.” Sound familiar?
Let’s Travel Back to 2001
So let me take you all on a magic time machine to a time when the game was younger, in the time of the thunder-lizards – 2001, in 3rd Edition. Back then a new shiny codex with an all-new 40K army was released – Codex Tau.
It had been a while since a big all new army was added to the Grimdark, and the Tau were something entirely different. They had a modern anime-inspired aesthetic. The new army had an entirely new range that was completely different than anything 40K had seen before. Most importantly – they had TERRIFYING weapons. How terrifying?
Look at these statlines for the original Tau armory from 2001:
That Pulse Rifle, had a 30″ range, and was S:5! And EVERY Fire Warrior plastic dudesman in the entire army had one. These guys could wound Marines on 3s. ON THREES! Then you got into the Railgun and let me tell you you did not want to be on the receiving end of that. It was S:10. TEN! Back then almost nothing in the game was S:10. Sure you had Carnifexes, but they had to get into assault. You had Vindicators, but they had to get within 24″. These guys could lay down the pain from 72″ away. They could one-shot Land Raiders with impunity!
Fear the Tau
In short, the Tau were scary. It’s hard to explain to a modern 40K audience how scary these stats were in 2001. Were the Tau unbeatable? Hardly. Kroot and Vespids have always been yardtrash, and the entire army crumples like a paper cup in assault. But you had to pay attention. You had to have a plan. In short you couldn’t just phone it in against Tau. It didn’t matter how badass your army was. It didn’t matter how badass your fluff was. If you gave a 3rd Edition Tau army one turn to catch you out in the open with your pants down – you were going to suffer something fierce.
Look at those teensy XV-15 Stealth Suits!
But the years were not kind to the Tau. For several editions now, GW has let the times catch up with them. Other armies first matched, then overcame their weapons superiority. Markerlights have been flawed since their inception and GW has tried several approaches over the editions, never quite making them useful. In short anyone recent to 40K within the last ten years has a certain view of the Tau. To them is seems completely normal that the Tau should be a bland mediocre army with a cool aesthetic, but serious serious issues on the tabletop. A meh army that make you think a little, but certainly never break a sweat.
But the oldtimers remember that this is just a recent occurrence. For there was once a time that the Tau were feared and respected. There was a time players FREAKED OUT and wailed about the overt superiority of their weapons. A time when games against the Tau were a white knuckled affair of cat-and-mouse of maneuvering with no margin for error on either side.
But the 40K times are a changing. 2021 took the denigrated, and ignored Drukhari and made them a tabletop scourge. After 21 years, 2022 may just see the community remember what it is to FEAR THE TAU.
~It’s about damned time!
