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Forgeworld has now released its experimental rules, so what do you guys think of them?
I personally think that I will field one instead of my Riptide (as I'm not a nooby spammer), will you guys be including them?

I think my friend would field one or two, AP3 or AP2 Flamer, so it completely ignores Tau's average BS, as well as moving like a Swooping Monstrous Creature once for two phases.

On paper looks like it could be an elite infantry killer, as well as giving Tau much more mobility

On the surface, the rules look like they are crazy good and it is a highly mobile model. My one problem and what would give me hesitancy about using it is that it has a really short range compared to the long range of the rest of Tau.

As someone who plays against Tau, it would be something to fear but not impossible to deal with. I still think it could be more expensive. AP2 Torrent Flamer with the only downside being It Gets Hot on a 2+ model.

It's pretty cool. Not really an autotake, but it has its uses.

A lot depends on how the Thrust Array works. Can it assault? Be assaulted? Is it Hard to Hit? Can it run? If yes, how far? Can it use its assault move afterwards? And, of course, its rules say it cannot be used in two consecutive turns. The rules specify turn always refers to player turn, unless specified as game turn. So, it can't thrust in the opponent's turn. Great. Some times I wish I could play games against the FW designers. I'd RAW them into the ground with their own incompetence.

Also, the Vector Evasion Nova power reads like the FW guys aren't aware of the Jink changes in 7th. Quality stuff.

It looks amazing - the rules... will have to field test them to see how they play out. The big issue I'm seeing is that all its weapons require you to be about ~12" away from your opponents, which can leave you very vulnerable to counterassault, and while it can hit and run (with I2) or Nova Reactor out of CC on the tau player's turn, that means you have the enemy turn for it to get knocked around.

You're forced to play it close to the enemy, to get it's weapons into range. They do seem quite powerful - my MEQ army weeps at S6 AP2 torrents, even with the reduced range.

It seems like taking a Drone is almost mandatory, to bump it's Hit & Run initiative up to 4. The Y’vahra itself is only I2, and so cannot reliably pass an initiative test. You can also use one of it's nova powers to escape combat, but it puts you in ongoing reserve (so the model is not contributing to the game for a turn), and you have to risk a wound from the nova charge.

It has one fewer wound, so nova charging is more risky. The 3++ close combat shield seems sort of so-so (the Riptide shield is strictly better). The Overcharge seems pretty good, lets you kill a vehicle dead. Escape Thrust seems like a useful last-ditch way of escaping a close combat you really don't want to be caught in. Vector Evasion seems... not very good? It has a 5++ invulnerable anyhow, so why risk the wound?

The Ionic Discharge Cannon seems like it would be very powerful against flyers if you take Velocity Tracker. The Haywire Burst is an additional hit on top of the S8 shot, so it is effectively like firing 3 S8 shots, and 3 Haywire shots. And while it's only 12" range, you can switch into Swoop Mode and move up to 24" (and so you can just chase down flyers).

The Flechette pod seems sort of meh, just a few extra free bolter shots. Shred makes them a little better.

Seems pretty cool, there's a nice Risk/Reward dynamic. The weapons and jump capability remind me a lot of the Dreadknight. The price seems okay.

Definitely a big fan and not overpowered in the slightest, so I highly doubt it'll be hit with the nerf bat like the R'varna was. for everything great about it there seems to be a decent drawback, 230pts base is not cheap and it only has four woundswhich is less than any of the others.

The "Thrust Array" is literally a special move where you can move up to 24 inches (compares it to a swooping monstrous creature) that you can only do every other turn. sort of like a Dreadknight with a personal teleporter that can be used every other turn.

I think that is a good assessment. Is it good? Yeah, definitely something to consider taking. Is it overpowered? Not in the slightest. It has a limited torrent (Honestly, Dreadknight still has the best torrent weapon in game right now, imo. You get the full 12" away from the model plus S6 AP4. Pretty awesome for a torrent weapon) and a gun that only fires 12". It can be stopped easily by the right units and still has to fear things like grav weaponry. One good volley from Grav Centurions and this thing is toast.

Also, the Shunt that Dreadknights have access to is one 30" jump per game.

I know said why it only was similar to the shunt move

 gmaleron wrote:
I know said why it only was similar to the shunt move

Ah, I misread the sentence the first time when I posted. After re-reading, I see what I did wrong.

Sounds like it is designed to get out of CC quick, and you need AP2 weapons to wound it(but it has a storm shield so it still has a 50% chance of saving any wounds). I'm having a hard time seeing it as not being too cheap frankly.

I really like this MC. Absolutely fantastic model and interesting dynamic rules that truly peg the role this thing is supposed to have.

This thing is priced about right due to the fact that the most dangerous place to be in terms of getting shot to death is within 12" that is the range of; grav guns, plasma double tap, shuriken catapults, psychic shriek, melta, GK force weapon charges, axe of fury chaos lords, etc. The 3++ nova charged CC protection sounds good until you realized that 1) it is a nova charge and so 1/3 the time it fails to go off and wounds you for the trouble (not to mention the riptide gets this in both CC and shooting) and 2) this precludes the supped up ionic discharge that can kill many vehicles dead.

Frankly there is a very high probability that this variant will only ever see a single turn where it gets to do anything and it will then get blasted off the board. The best thing about this variant is it finally gives the Tau something to play the positional dominance game and a truly dynamic mobile scorer.

The Y'vahra is a battlesuit that will really favour a more aggressive approach in it's employment. Tau by their nature are a fairly passive force that reacts to enemy moves by the simple expedient of applying overwhelming firepower. This battlesuit on the other hand is a much more in your face variant that will clear out any infantry in short order, has a realistic chance of killing any vehicle short of a LOW in a single shooting phase, and can even threaten MC's and flyers. The downside is the pathetic (compared to most tau shooting) range, as well as the loss of a wound over a standard riptide. But the suit has I sane maneuverability allowing it to move to where it can do the most damage.

I really like both the model and the rules. The rules may be tweaked slightly but I don't see them as overpowered in the slightest. The biggest weakness I see with the suit is a real lack of synergy with current Tau builds, so it's not something that can just be swapped out for a standard riptide, you will have to give real thought to how to support it to make the most out of it.

I actually really like it but I have liked the Riptide and all the variants thus far. I want to see how the Y'vahra performs on the battlefield and how a Tau player would deal with such limited range when they aren't used to it. A GK player like myself is used to having to take that risk of getting up in someone's face and dealing some big damage to them but a Tau player might be as well versed in these tactics. At most, it could provide a highly mobile target that your opponent would worry about leaving your gun line to destroy your opponent as they try to get a handle on this mobile unit. The downside is that grav weapons and force weapons will make short work of it.

It will work nicely for my play style. I run 1 tide as fire support, but 2 groups of short ranges crisis, that I usually end up charging into CC with anyways. It seems to put people on the back foot (never expecting Tau to assault.).

Running one of these alongside my TLBC/flamer suits would just put a bigger dent in whatever I'm charging.

 dpal666 wrote:
It will work nicely for my play style. I run 1 tide as fire support, but 2 groups of short ranges crisis, that I usually end up charging into CC with anyways. It seems to put people on the back foot (never expecting Tau to assault.).

Running one of these alongside my TLBC/flamer suits would just put a bigger dent in whatever I'm charging.

Oh, that sounds interesting, I would love to see a Batrep of Tau using these tactics.

Honestly, I want to see how this fella would work alongside an aggressive Farsight build!

It's pretty good, but it is surprisingly balanced for experimental rules. I do think is should be I3, considering it is a close-quarters fighter.

I gotta say, I really don't understand the pure vitriol for this thing on BoLS. it's strong, but by no means an invincible one-unit deathstar like they're making it into in their heads. I don't know if it's because it's Forge World or if it's because it's a useful non-Imperial unit, but it's freaking mind-boggling to me.

The last thing I want to see in this universe is another Tau MC...

That being said it's a hell of a lot more balanced than the R'Varna was / still is.

 Kepora wrote:
I gotta say, I really don't understand the pure vitriol for this thing on BoLS. it's strong, but by no means an invincible one-unit deathstar like they're making it into in their heads. I don't know if it's because it's Forge World or if it's because it's a useful non-Imperial unit, but it's freaking mind-boggling to me.

It's really bizarre how some people are reasons to be upset about this model - are they complaining that the thruster array means you can only snapshoot at it? (ignoring that it counts as a swooping MC in that movement phase only, so you always use regular BS to shoot it); that it's literally impossible to lock in CC (ignoring that H&R is at I2, and that the reactor boost means you're risking a wound, not using any other abilities, takes the model off the board a turn, and IIRC, can only be done in the Tau player's turn); or that on top of its all around invincibility, it will kill everything in front of it without fear of retaliation? (12" guns - that's a risky range for Tau to be at)

Being a Fast Attack choice, run 3 of these and 3 regular Riptides for maximum cheese

Honestly, they are not really cheesy. Strong, yes, but not to cheese levels.

Am I just one of the few that think this models is bad? I believe its limited range is just to bad to forgive. Anything you can shoot at can also charge you. Also the two weapons are good, BUT they shouldn't be on the same model. You want to fire them at two totally different targets. And the one less wounds hurts. Instead of stopping the NOVA charges around turn 3-4 now you have to stop around 1-2.

Or am I just crazy?

The weapons give it the ability to take on troops and vehicles, just as suits were designed to do. It's best to compair this to a hazard, shorter ranged and faster.

Its fire out put is staggering to say the least.
But just by the capped range it makes up for that alone.

Its a nice spin on a suit though and something that would make a nice line breaker for any tau army.


As a nid player, i think my 1st game against one will be a love/hate relationship.
Not enough firepower to down a MC every turn (Tau low BS) but enough to wipe out a unit of my warriors without blinking.

And atleast then its close enough to assault.


I think it really will be sat around for hunting air and armour plus whatever elite units break away from the rest.


Edit: Not sold on the model though.
Needs to be more streamline and less clunky, so maybe the head lowered into the top of the body slightly?

Either way, not a fan of the model, but the rules are pretty solid for FW experimentals.

Riptide Elites
R'Varna Heavy Support
Y'Vahra Fast Attack
HQ VARIANT WHEN
TROOP VARIANT WHEN

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Honestly, they are not really cheesy. Strong, yes, but not to cheese levels.

Oh I dont mean the unit itself is cheesy, just running 3 riptides and three Y'Vahra would be

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Honestly, they are not really cheesy. Strong, yes, but not to cheese levels.

Oh I dont mean the unit itself is cheesy, just running 3 riptides and three Y'Vahra would be

Oh. Well I agree on that .

 Gitsmasher wrote:
Riptide Elites
R'Varna Heavy Support
Y'Vahra Fast Attack
HQ VARIANT WHEN
TROOP VARIANT WHEN

We do have an HQ Riptide: O'Vesa, in the Farsight Enclaves

Also, as for the model: I plan on getting it, but moving the head further down - it's situated a little too high for my liking.