Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: New T’au Codex – What You Need to Know
Goatboy here with some quick thoughts on the new T’au Empire Codex. Here’s what you need to know before you face them on the tabletop.
Hot off the heels of a Custodes/GSC release we have the new T’au codex – right after a Chapter Approved of all things. Overall it is a pretty interesting book that shifts some of the old rules and really seems to embrace a new “action” centric design sense. Is this going to be for the best? I am not entirely sure. Let’s go over the top things from the book.
Loss of For the Greater Good
This is a huge one as the army was defined by shooting you and then shooting you again as you charged in. This is now gone as it is probably one of the biggest feel bads you can deal with. This army shoots very well now. So there isn’t a need to have another stacked shooting phase on top of that as you stare across the tabletop. This also means that terrain is going to be rough for them. Because if you have units that can hide and jump over walls/thru walls easily it will be an issue as you get into their lines.
Ding Dong, the Drones Are Dead!
The blob of drones was a very frustrating thing to deal with. But now drones only have a Stratagem that lets you throw a failed save to them. The hit automatically removes the drone and the damage becomes 0. It is pretty simple and while the book has like a 2 page set of Drone rules, it does make things easier. On top of this the Drones no longer break off of vehicles. So again it makes it easier for a player to pick up. They are just “added” to the vehicle’s weapon profiles which is a good thing. I don’t know if you want to glue your Drones on your vehicles yet but it is something to think about.
Markerlights Are Totally Different – Again
Marker lights also took a big change as they no longer start to stack like they used to. Now it is just replaced with an Action that units can do in the movement phase. If infantry don’t move they roll a 3+ at the end of the phase. If they pass they put a marker light token on the unit they are lighting up that is within 36″ and eligible to be targeted. Vehicles can move and do it so it can be powerful for them. Each time a unit shoots at a unit with Marker light tokens – they can burn one of them to give that unit a flat +1 to hit. At the end of the shooting phase remove all the marker lights. This is much easier. While markerlights lose some powerful abilities they used to have – this is just going to be a much easier thing to resolve mid-game.
Actions, Actions, Actions!
They really are pushing the whole Action thing with this book. It is loaded with abilities that allow units to do Actions and still shoot. As you can see in the updated rules – being able to do damage and still completing something for points will be very important. This is especially true for this army. As they can move a ton and do a lot of stuff besides just shooting. There are a lot of fun things in the book that emphasize being able to do Actions and it is a neat thing to give to Tau.
Mont’ka and Kauyon
The kind of complicated thing is that a lot of the army’s interactions are based on the Tactical Philosophy you pick before you start the game. I wonder if games are going to be pushed into the Mont’ka side of things. Because they are set up for the first 3 turns. It sometimes seems if they can push forwards, score big earlier, and just get in the way the rest of the game might be for the best. There is some fun with the Kauyon. It can just explode with damage on the last few turns with exploding 4+’s to hit that it might be neat. I am sure I will be wrecked by Kauyon going ham with superheated plasma/fusion nonsense. Alas, my poor Space Goats will bleat in sadness as they end up melted into slag.
Secondaries & Relics
The Secondaries are weird and again two of them depend on the Philosophy you decide to take. They both feel like they just benefit you for doing what you already need to do – kill stuff and holding objectives. They are both locked in at 12 points so it doesn’t always feel like the best choice for the army. But if it ends up being super easy to score it could be some nice options.
Thankfully the Relics are not just Prototype systems as this gives you a lot of play to unique up your Commanders and other units. There is a +1 to cast your T’au Chaplain powers too so that might be a good setup to help give your guys some staying power.
Updated Units
Thank goodness the Ethereals are basically Tau Chaplain. I like this as again it is simple and gives something for the Tau to do. It is pretty fluffy that none of them will ever work on Farsight units. That gives me a chuckle. They again stack up on some abilities to do Actions and still shoot as well as more modifiers as needed. They also get the always fun 5+ FNP option for a Core unit which might see some play if we have some big fat suit squads.
The Storm Surge is a beast. It will shoot you dead. Dead as heck but as T’au hate big stuff it might not show up if the Tau Codex becomes more popular. Still, that gun is gonna hurt.
Fish of Fury is back as the Devilfish looks to be a real pain in the butt. Having abilities that cascade off of the type of fight you want is very interesting. Again the fast movement of the Mont’ka ability might be really powerful to push forward and get ahead on points. But the ability to jump back into reserves is also pretty spicy. Thankfully there isn’t some way to make both ways of battle happen at once.
The Verdict
This book probably has one of the more interesting “custom” builds you can have with a specific system of interaction based on your Sept’s starting point. I like this as it is a pretty unique way to let you build a custom sept. It allows for a lot of unique builds beyond just the normal ones. We’ll see if something pops out that is too good to be true but it is unique and very interesting.
The army feels like a mobile army – which is awesome as it wasn’t very mobile before. It feels like you are going to be shooting all over the place, throwing out bullet hell, and just murdering your enemy. We always wanted the army to be truly a Fish of Fury death list and looks like we got it.
There is a ton of stuff in this book as it is pretty friggin big. There are a ton of units, stratagems, and other fun unique things that will be dug into by much better Tau players then I could ever be. Still it is a cool book and a nice departure for the Tau which makes it a neat book to hit the tabletop. We’ll just have to wait and see if the book can shift some the Thicc City nonsense or Crusher Stampede with its super hyper focused bullets of doom.
OMG almost forgot, even Vespids aren’t trash! For the Greater Good Indeed.
