Warhammer 40K: So, Will The New T’au Codex Be Any Good?

Let’s take a look at some thoughts on the new T’au Codex.

The T’au Empire (once the new boys on the block but now a venerable army) are getting a new Codex in the near future. Everyone would agree they need one, and I’m excited to see what they get. However as an army that needs a lot of help there is some serious worries about if it will do enough. Sure we’ve seen some banger books come out in 9th, a few of which are just too good, but we’ve also seen some duds. Let’s take a look at what could happen with this book.

T’au Need A Lot of Help

The T’au as an army have been broken for a while. Since 8th Edition at least they’ve not been in good shape. While they’ve occasionally put out good lists, its never been a fun one or one with any variety. In 9th the army has been in real bad shape, ending up at the bottom of the meta. Fixing T’au however is not an easy task. They come with a list of issues, like an outdated armory and an inability to act in many phases. In the past we’ve talked about some things we’d like to see in a new army.
 But I’m not sure if we will get any of these. Let’s take a look at what we do know is coming and see if it gives us any clues.

Better Guns?

In a preview the other week GW touted how improved T’au troops would be by showing off new gun stats. The effective changes is that both the pulse rifle and carbine get an extra 6 inches of range. In addition the rifle gains AP -1.  Look, I’m going to be honest here. I’m pretty dang underwhelmed by these changes and they worry me a bit. 

The issue with T’au has never been range. They’ve always had great range. So while these changes do technically make the units better, I don’t think it has much meaningful impact. This is especially true in 9th where smaller tables and denser terrain have made long ranges much less relevant. This just isn’t a change they needed or that does much. If anything it doubles down on promoting a more static gunline army. Which is one of the things we pointed out would be a big mistake for T’au to do. Is this is the kind of “buffs” T’au are getting? Is this is how they refresh their armory? If so, I fear the army could have issues. AP -1 on Rifles is an actual nice buff, but it alone won’t make them great.

The New Kid On The Block

GW also showed off an update T’au named character, Darkstrider.  This super Pathfinder comes with a new special gun and a updated rule. However they come off as a mixed bag.

First off we’ve got Shade, the super awesome relic pulse carbine used by Darkstrider. And like, its fine I guess? I dunno its just super underwhelming to be honest. Its about on par with something I’d expect a regular Space Marine character to carry. That doesn’t make it bad, it just makes it kind of less then I thought we’d get. We are talking about a revamped codex for what should be the most shooty faction in the game.

Next we do have the Structural Analyser rule and this IS seemingly a really solid rule. This gives a T’au Sept Core unit +1 to wound vs one target in a phase. That’s pretty great overall, and +1 to wound is wonderful for a shooty army. But this one has some major caveats as well. First off we don’t know what is going to be Core in the T’au army. So it use is already limited. Next off, its locked to T’au Sept and only seems to come on a special character. All of this greatly limits the rules usefulness in the overall Codex. This is just a slightly reworded version of his existing rule, and he’s not a character that really get used much as it is.

New T’au Codex Thoughts

Right now I’m a little worried about the Codex. We haven’t seen very much, and obviously there is a lot we are missing. However the couple of things we have seen leave me worried. The boosts to the core units so far, which have been touted to make troops a lot better, don’t really seem great to me, and alone won’t do too much.

The updated character is “better”, but his gun isn’t anything to write home about, and a cool rule locked behind a special character and a ton of keywords isn’t great for the army. Mostly we are seeing very minor changes to an army that needs a real rework from top to bottom. More disturbing, all of whats been shown seems to be pushing T’au toward static gunline play. This would be neither interesting nor in keeping with the theme of the army. I’m really hoping we get a great codex and these early fears are unfounded. But right now what I’m seeing has me vexed. Come on GW, prove me wrong, very wrong.

Let us know how you feel about the new codex, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.