Very early Tau and Necron (and one SM kit) rumours

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**Kroothawk**

Hi,
another set of rumours about two releases that are still a year or more away. So don't expect any hard facts or confirmations but take them as fodder for speculative discussion. Only fact known is that Mat Ward writes the Necron Codex. Rumours are by Stickmonkey over at Warseer (orange content added 23rd Sept).

Well kids, I managed to get a few rumors from my sources that seem worthwhile to post. Same caveats as always.

Tau and Necrons are still a long way off, so no one go off the deep end in excitement. I have done what vetting I can on these, but it is way too early to not have loads of salt on hand.

Tau
New Heavy support platform. Basically immobile deep striked! heavy weapon and crew. Rail and Ion Cannon, and missile launcher are all obvious options here, but nothing solid with the rumor.

Assault Skimmer. Something between size of piranha and hammerhead, fast skimmer open topped, assault on disembark.
Update: Yes, its assault after a flat out move, and has the "drop troops along path" option similar to the storm raven. its supposedly a dedicated transport option for one new unit. (I dont place faith in this last bit, its very rare in current GW systems to see a vehicle kit limited to one unit/role...if GW is trying to sell them they will be available to more than one unit, or be a separate entry unto itself.)

New Drop ship. Not the FW one, but something new. Holds a boatload of fire warriors, or a few battle suits.

New battle suits. Not sure if these are the "next gen" suits or just heavy suits redone with out metal bits.

Necrons
All Immortal based models being redone. Because Destroyers, Lords, etc. were supposedly based on the immortal "chassis" and that has been redone "bigger", its a cascade effect. However, skimmer body base not expect to change.

Immortals possible move to Troops choice.

New Elite options

Pariahs no longer 0-1

Additional C'Tan

plastic Tomb Spyder box to make TS or variant.

New fast attack MC

Pylon may make codex as heavy option

Space Marines
Update: Another interesting rumor that I got back was a new SM kit has been started...similar to the sm captain plastic kit, a SM librarian/chaplain character box. This makes a lot of sense as the existing line of generic librarians/chaplains fail to encompass many of the wargear options in the marine codexes. I see this as a very real possibility, but its a very raw rumor, so it could be a long ways off yet. And instead of a 10 metal blister they can sell a 15-20 box of plastic.

There have been previous attempts at collecting early rumours on Tau ( http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/315985.page ) and Necrons ( http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274318 ). Here a quote by dante76 over at Warseer:

Through a new source, who with hindsight turned out to be pretty accurate with Blood Angels and Skaven....

Pencilled in release date of Aug 2011 (currently in playtesting)

7 Alien allies (don't know if this is new or in total), new figures for 2 of them
All metal sets to plastic (Pathfinder box, Kroot with hounds and Shaper , Vespids)
Box of Krootox and possible larger
Possible new tank
Changes to Hammerhead Railgun rules. Essentially draws a line across table hitting everything in line. Multiple pen through vehicles, only stopped by a glancing hit.
Changes to markerlights. Point system. 1 Markerlight point = + 1BS, 2 Markerlight points = reroll to wound/hit 3 = Difficult Terrain test (blinded by the lights?). Cannot be stacked. So cant have reroll to wound and reroll to hit at 4 points. ( I need him to explain this a bit more...)
Battle Suits. A plug and play system. Essentially streamlined. Pick two guns and a skill or two skills a gun. New models might have interchangeable arms similar to Killa Kans....
Pathfinders no longer have to take Devilfish (probably infiltration)
No human auxilary in list... (whatever Tau call captured guard who fight for them)
Firewarriors who do not take Devilfish can take 6 Kroot Hounds
Specialist Firewarrior squad who have forsaken gun training for close combat training. Probably -1BS +1WS +1I. Probably Elites.

But those have been discussed before, let's now focus on the new set of rumours.

**Gargskull**

Both armies I'm interested in collecting if I ever get bored of Orks, or y'know, when said armies get their updates. Some very cool sounding models for the Tau especially there.

**ssREV**

An assault vehicle? That's completely contrary to the tau ideologies. An immobile deep striking weapons platform also seems a bit out of place in the tau arsenal. Drop ship doesn't really appeal to me.

I think/hope these rumours are false.

**Melchiour**

The tau could use some sort of troop that can go into hand to hand combat. I do not want to see the army go that way, but they need something that won't get destroyed in one turn. That aside, I lov ethe idea of the improved railgun that draws a line across the table. Sounds brutal.

**kestral**

I hope the tau hand to hand guys appear in the form of poorly armored, relatively low tech auxiliaries - a variation on the kroot. I'd love to see tau auxiliary armies with cool aliens, but don't want to see firewarrors with pistol and cc weapon. That would ruin their unique feel.

**H.B.M.C.**

ssREV wrote:An assault vehicle? That's completely contrary to the tau ideologies.

The fluff is not sacred. GW will change, removed, ret-con, and add stuff if it allows them to sell a new model kit.

If they want to put an assault vehicle in, they'll simply say that Tau ideologies have changed in recent years, or that they always thought that way.

**Sarigar**

Well, here's hoping that the DE will begin some rewrites of codexes that aren't Imperial. It would be nice to see these two codexes out next year. Locally, the gaming really reminds me of early 3rd edition where nearly every opponent had some type of Marines. Out of my last 5 games, 4 have been against various Marine armies.

**Rinkydink**

The thought of additional C'tan is intriguing. I would like to see the Pylon make it into the next 'cron codex too.

As for the Tau, the rumours of 7 types of alien are interesting. (Vespid, Kroot, Krootox, Kroothound, Knarloc? Two others we haven't seen yet...?)

Anyway, too early for much speculation at the mo...

**Breotan**

Unless there's some major retcon I'm taking the idea of another C'tan with a huge bucket of salt. The way current codexes go, I'm more willing to believe Necron characters will replace the C'Tan.

I would also be suprised if they do much with the Destroyers.

**Kanluwen**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
ssREV wrote:An assault vehicle? That's completely contrary to the tau ideologies.

The fluff is not sacred. GW will change, removed, ret-con, and add stuff if it allows them to sell a new model kit.

If they want to put an assault vehicle in, they'll simply say that Tau ideologies have changed in recent years, or that they always thought that way.

As long as it's an assault vehicle filled with Fire Warriors with Pulse Carbines that allow them to count as having a pistol+CCW in combat...that's acceptable.

**H.B.M.C.**

Giving Assault 2 to Pulse Carbines would probably be better.

**JOHIRA**

It's not that I'm necessarily taking these Tau rumours with a grain of salt, it's just that they don't light any fires for me. What I want from my Tau is a combined forces army that looks really cool and techy. It will all come down to the models for me. The rules and additions at the moment just sound like incremental changes that don't really do much to the army as a whole.

And I want a rail-cannon that shoots sniper drones at the enemy. Sniper drones that are on fire.

**plastictrees**

If they can add at least two more xenos types to the Tau, and redesign the fly bug things, I'd be vaguely interested in them. But I'd have to buy all FW suits as the basic plastic model does nothing for me.

**SamplesoWoopass**

I'm confused, I kept hearing necrons for January 2011. Now August 2011? Seems to be a pretty big discrepancy. I'd very much appreciate it if this was cleared up for me.

**AlexHolker**

SamplesoWoopass wrote:I'm confused, I kept hearing necrons for January 2011. Now August 2011? Seems to be a pretty big discrepancy. I'd very much appreciate it if this was cleared up for me.

Grey Knights are rumoured to be January, not Necrons.

**SamplesoWoopass**

AlexHolker wrote:
SamplesoWoopass wrote:I'm confused, I kept hearing necrons for January 2011. Now August 2011? Seems to be a pretty big discrepancy. I'd very much appreciate it if this was cleared up for me.

Grey Knights are rumoured to be January, not Necrons.

Well, there were rumors floating around that there would be necrons in January before GK rumors really started to float around. To me, it seems more credible since I've actually seen rumors about changed to the necron codex and models but not much for GK aside from them coming out sometime in the near future. Although, I could have just not seen them.

**QuietOrkmi**

Wait, I thought Tau was August 2011...

Finally got a crushing victory against a marine player by creating multiple fronts and forcing a ZugZwang...

Anyway, an assault drop pod in Tau... seems strange. I can see deep striking vehicles similar to what the blood angels are doing... in addition to allowing us to hit side armor as we are flying in.

**darktau**

Im sure that GW will make an interesting explanation in the new codex about the assault vehicles and CC troops, like, because of farsights tactics and a spontaneous movement by his troops to take cadres for the Tau main force, the tau switched tactics.

**plastictrees**

Actually, long ranged, drop podding heavy weapons that could fire on arrival would be pretty interesting for Tau.

I don't see an assault boat thing meaning that Tau are suddenly an assault army, even if it's true.

**Starfarer**

For me the Tau are not really that interesting. However, the idea of them incorporating other races is really interesting. I'd like them to really expand to a larger alliance of various races. The idea of a conglomerate of races, with new races being introduced without themselves requiring a full army is really cool and adds some depth to the 40k universe, IMO. The lesser races have never really been explored and I think the Tau are are perfect faction to do just that.

**plastictrees**

Cadaver wrote: I'd like them to really expand to a larger alliance of various races. The idea of a conglomerate of races, with new races being introduced without themselves requiring a full army is really cool and adds some depth to the 40k universe, IMO. The lesser races have never really been explored and I think the Tau are are perfect faction to do just that.

This seems like such a no-brainer to me. I really don't understand why so far we've only managed Kroot and some less than inspired bug guys. (Although, honestly, I kind of like the bug guys design, just not the boring sculpts.)
I want to see weird ass lizard guys with sonic weapons, and some kind of sentient rock people, and...basically I want the Tau to be somewhere between Infinity's Combined Army and the Green Lantern Corps.

**Flachzange**

Huh, I was actually expecting the Necrons to hit early 2011 as well. Its definately an army Id be interested in, no matter how it turns out. I just dont want to be stuck with all sorts of old models now. God knows what they'll do. I dont really expect them to change either the Destroyers, or the warriors though.

I also dont see the whole "more C'Tan" thing happening. I could see them going with the earlier rumors though, different lord options/tiers and C'Tan in apoc.

**plastictrees**

God I hope they drop C'Tan or at least shuffle them aside and develop the core range more.
I don't think I personally could ever be interested in those models, but they could do so much more with them than "Necron Warrior with a Bigger Gun" and "Necron Warrior with a Sassy Hat".

**Ouze**

Pariahs no longer 0-1

Because that's the biggest problem with Pariahs - you can't take enough of them.

**H.B.M.C.**

0-1 means people only buy one unit. Take that away, more opportunity to make sales.

**Starfarer**

plastictrees wrote:
Cadaver wrote: I'd like them to really expand to a larger alliance of various races. The idea of a conglomerate of races, with new races being introduced without themselves requiring a full army is really cool and adds some depth to the 40k universe, IMO. The lesser races have never really been explored and I think the Tau are are perfect faction to do just that.

This seems like such a no-brainer to me. I really don't understand why so far we've only managed Kroot and some less than inspired bug guys. (Although, honestly, I kind of like the bug guys design, just not the boring sculpts.)
I want to see weird ass lizard guys with sonic weapons, and some kind of sentient rock people, and...basically I want the Tau to be somewhere between Infinity's Combined Army and the Green Lantern Corps.

Yeah, it's definitely something that I could see them doing. I think with the initial release it wasn't bad to establish Tau as a race without so much focus on minor races, but now that they are a major faction I don't see why they couldn't expand other races to add some depth to the army. I always thought it would be a good way to introduce Demiurg onto the tabletop. I was around for squats and have no desire to see them reappear as they were but Demuirg may be a way to reintroduce a Dwarf-like species while making it less 80's space dwarf and more techy and heavily armored small statured species. The possibilities are really endless and GW would really be missing out on a great opportunity to not explore smaller races with the Tau Empire.

**Kroothawk**

Concerning release dates: Grey Knights are January, Tau and Necrons at least 6 month away, although many expect Necrons to be 2011, some even Tau being 2011. But we have no better rumours to nail that down. And we had strong rumours of Necrons to be released last year, so caution is advised

I also have my doubts about a Tau assault skimmer (Tau Fire Warriors are very bad at assault and should so due to background) and a third playable C'tan (find the C'tan Avatar rumours more likely).

Anyway, I wanted to report this new set of rumours, as Stickmonkey is a regular rumour contributor.

**Jackmojo**

I kinda dig the idea of an air-droppable firebase, I wonder if it will act as a bunker for Firewarriors or anything as well.

Jack

**nosferatu1001**

In theory the release schedule alternates Imperial and Xenos. In theory that is, so that would make GK more likely

**Commander Endova**

Well hell, if it's Tau in August, I know what I want for my birthday.