Interesting. Carapace Armour?

Perhaps they'll function similarly to the Heralds from the Daemon codex. As long as Tau are the primary you can take multiples of them.

Or Sanguinary Priests, perhaps?

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Interesting. Carapace Armour?

4+ save (but that's the imperial version)

4+ save its the save all Firewarriors actually have, its just standard XV1 armour... And so goes my hope that Shas`ui`s can take the XV15 armor (without jetpack or stealth) to battle T_T i really wanted to use my XV15 models more often.

I use my XV15 as veteran steathsuit teams..or so I call them ( seems to motivate them to roll better )

I guess we finally dont have to take a crisis suit commander anymore huh?

I use my XV-15s quite frequently as forward deployed shocktroops. Their smaller size makes them perfect for jumping through terrain and harrassing out of place infantry.

So, anyone want to trade some dusty old Tau for some DV Chaos?

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
I use my XV15 as veteran steathsuit teams..or so I call them ( seems to motivate them to roll better )

I use mine as the opposite. I have 6 xv-15s as my standard stealthsuits and the newer ones as fusion blaster wielding versions. Looks like they're wearing a huge power pack and blastshield anyways.

Riptide is bad imo, so is the new flyer. The former looks good at first sight but then you realise where the head is and the latter is incoherent and not sleek enough for Tau. To add insult to the injury the 3+ suit (that's kids age not save) stays and so do grey aliens in pants.

Worst thing about the release though is that Tau are not being discontinued. Don't get me wrong, I dig Evangelion and all but Tau don't fit 40k at all. It's not straight hate (that is reserved for Kroot) as I am even considering making an allied detachment with this as a riptide http://www.flickr.com/photos/fernando/360401980/in/photostream/ (got it for birthday few years back), few FW suits around it (those are great) and grimdarked firewarriors but the universe would be better without them. At least they should do something about the pants and finaly reveal that Tau are worse than Stalin and Mao combined.

How long has the Hammerhead not been available?

Edited by Manchu

hi guys,
have you seen these:
http://orctown.tistory.com/
http://www.outsydergaming.com/2013/03/tau-xv104-riptide-battlesuit.html

from orctown:
2) Tau Empire Codex: 6 만원

3) XV184 Riptide Battlesuit: 10 만원

4) Sunshark Bomber / Razorshark Fighter: 8 만원

5) Pathfinders: 4 만원

6) XV88 Broadside Battlesuit: 6 만원

7) XV8 Crisis Battlesuit: 9 만원

looks like the xv184 will be rather expensive. normally things in korea are about 30% more expensive than in the states meaning the 100 000 korean won on the xv184 would result in something like 70$
also interessting that the xv8 box costs 90 000 KRW which would suggest that its either horribly over priced or 3 in a box

kuzao wrote:
hi guys,
have you seen these:
http://orctown.tistory.com/
http://www.outsydergaming.com/2013/03/tau-xv104-riptide-battlesuit.html

from orctown:
2) Tau Empire Codex: 6 만원

3) XV184 Riptide Battlesuit: 10 만원

4) Sunshark Bomber / Razorshark Fighter: 8 만원

5) Pathfinders: 4 만원

6) XV88 Broadside Battlesuit: 6 만원

7) XV8 Crisis Battlesuit: 9 만원

looks like the xv184 will be rather expensive. normally things in korea are about 30% more expensive than in the states meaning the 100 000 korean won on the xv184 would result in something like 70$
also interessting that the xv8 box costs 90 000 KRW which would suggest that its either horribly over priced or 3 in a box

it is 3 in a box. also its all in korean hard to read =P (im ashamed i should know how to read it)

I feel that the flyers with some converting could possibly look nice (toying with some ideas in my head), and I feel a few tweaks on the riptide will have it looking swell (I think it looks pretty neat as is). The broadside I think came out to be decent (Though I gotta admit I was partial to the shoulder mounted rail guns). However, I would have liked to have seen a tweaked Crisis suit, but oh well...

Plumbumbarum wrote:
...but Tau don't fit 40k at all.

Yeah, because the galaxy is too small a setting to have that kind of variety.

Y'know what doesnt fit in 40k? Orks, They are just to silly to be a serious threat.

 KaiserEddie wrote:

The hakama is the big clown pants of traditional japanese clothes, AFAIK, and see, it looks more like the lower piece of a... Gabardina, sorry i dont know the name in english, the Neo`s Coat, i cant explain myself since i dont know how its called, but im possitive its not a hakama what were looking at. But anyway, that Shas`ui looks outstanding. The Pathfinders are the win-win model release of these wave imo.

Clown pants? Have you ever seen a hakama? They are like completely the opposite of one another, hakama tight at the waist and loose at the feet while the clown pants are super loose at the waste and tight at the feet.

Clown pants:
http://www.halloweenplayground.com/images/rubies/snazzy-clown-costume.jpg

Hakama
http://aikithoughts.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/davehakama.jpg

So, did I read that Riptides are Elites correctly? Because that very much looks like a HS slot choice. If it is, and if you can throw a railgun on the riptides, railgun spam will be something to be scared of.

Looks like elites might get crowded.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Y'know what doesnt fit in 40k? Orks, They are just to silly to be a serious threat.

Agreed 100% Goofy, dopey, and of minor intelligence. Orks belong in a fantasy setting, not sci-fi. They would never even begin to keep up with the technology curve. Guns would frighten them away... But even on that note I'll concede that they have been given a prominent place in the 40k galaxy. As they are written, so let them be.

So, anyone thinking about the XV184's ability to use HoW?

Why would you charge with it?

It might allow you to kill an enemy character in a short assault or at worst you're locked in there in their turn too and it's a massive LOS blocking mess.

It was my view that the XV104 was a really bad thing to throw away in combat. I would prefer the jump to be used to escape instead of attack.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Looks like elites might get crowded.

Yeah. The riptide looks like it can pack in alot of extra dakka or railguns, but crisis suits will always be a Tau centerpiece. the fact those two alone have to fight it out for elite slots will be interesting to see.

 Ledabot wrote:
It was my view that the XV104 was a really bad thing to throw away in combat. I would prefer the jump to be used to escape instead of attack.

IDK man, it'll be a monstrous creature, so probably Str6 or Str7, likely to have two attacks at AP2. If there is a lone guy hanging out and my guns don't kill it, it isn't crazy to assume you'd be able to off him one round of assault.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Why would you charge with it?

To punch that F*&%ing transport that managed to survive the shooting phase.

To slow that FMC for a turn.

To screw over that 30-man IG blob

To keep it safe from shooting for a turn.


Just to name a few

The Riptide's stated purpose is to fill gaps in the tau battleline, and give cover for other units..that being said its sort of a "fire brigade unit", (in the manner of the XV-9 but hopefully with a bit longer ranges) with jump jets and alot of longrange fire power (hopefully), I will likely use it to go where its needed, deal with what it can, and relocate if possible, CC is the last place I will want to tie it up in, but who knows in a worse case senario it may preform well, but likely it will serve best as a mobile tough, LOS blocking support unit.

Cant wait to start digesting the rules and posibilities for these new units.

And is posable, so drop that sucker low to get aegis cover saves.

Just bring bastions like I do. Cover all day.

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
The Riptide's stated purpose is to fill gaps in the tau battleline, and give cover for other units..that being said its sort of a "fire brigade unit", (in the manner of the XV-9 but hopefully with a bit longer ranges) with jump jets and alot of longrange fire power (hopefully), I will likely use it to go where its needed, deal with what it can, and relocate if possible, CC is the last place I will want to tie it up in, but who knows in a worse case senario it may preform well, but likely it will serve best as a mobile tough, LOS blocking support unit.

Cant wait to start digesting the rules and posibilities for these new units.

I cant wait to just read the new fluff TBH, what i hate about old codexes is the tiny blips you get about units.

 Ravenous D wrote:
And is posable, so drop that sucker low to get aegis cover saves.

This reminds me of something that I've been meaning to bring up.

I don't think most here are getting just how large the XV104 is. By the leaked photos, a Crisis suit doesn't even reach its knee. I could be wrong but the thing looks to be 12+ inches tall. Maybe 15 inches. Again, I could be wrong, but at that height there won't be many cover saves available.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

If only we had 4th edition's size/cover rules. As a 'size 3' the XV104 could hide behind any building.
I'm betting the thing is around 8-9 inches tall.

 Swiftblade wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Looks like elites might get crowded.

Yeah. The riptide looks like it can pack in alot of extra dakka or railguns, but crisis suits will always be a Tau centerpiece. the fact those two alone have to fight it out for elite slots will be interesting to see.

Maybe Shas'vre bodyguards will actually be worth taking now.

 focusedfire wrote:

 Ravenous D wrote:
And is posable, so drop that sucker low to get aegis cover saves.

This reminds me of something that I've been meaning to bring up.

I don't think most here are getting just how large the XV104 is. By the leaked photos, a Crisis suit doesn't even reach its knee. I could be wrong but the thing looks to be 12+ inches tall. Maybe 15 inches. Again, I could be wrong, but at that height there won't be many cover saves available.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Based on the group pic its roughly 2.5 crisis suits high at its tallest point, not even close to 12 -15 inches tall, thats titan size, my guess is its at best 6" tall, and thats streching it a bit, plus if you really want to, model it kneeling, like in one of the pics


And cover saves depend on the terrain and table, the ones I play on with buddies has terrain easily capable of concealing even superheavies.

Just did a quick check and a crisis suit with base is about 2.2" tall, so the riptide at around 6" is my best guess on its height.

Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Based on the group pic its roughly 2.5 crisis suits high at its tallest point, not even close to 12 -15 inches tall, thats titan size, my guess is its at best 6" tall, and thats streching it a bit, plus if you really want to, model it kneeling, like in one of the pics

Group pic I looked at, the XV104 was kneeling and the XV8's were barely waste high. Will try to find the page with the one standing next to a crisis suit that looked to be only knee high.(It may be one of the pics that was taken down)

BTW, Love your Oddball avatar.

We know that an XV8 is the same size as a dreadnought in height. We also know that a space marine is about half the height of a dread. If we take your figure of 2.5 XV8's to an XV104, then we get the big fella to about 40 feet or 12m, just shy of a warhound. I would put in at a more accurate figure of around 30 feet or 9m. That takes a marine to be about 7 feet tall and the riptide to be about 2.2 XV8s

Upon closer look at one of the remaining pics, the XV104 looks to be between 10-12 inches tall.

Again, could be wrong. Angle of photo could be playing perspective tricks.

The XV104 Riptide Battlesuit is roughly 7 to 8 inches tall, depending on how it is put together.

In the above pic the Riptide is a tiny bit behind a crisis suit, and is not kneeling, so with a rough finger measure..its about 2.4-5 of a crisis with base added, or so it appears to me, if memory serves the kneeling one they showed had its left leg up and its right knee down.

Sorry but its not even close to 12" unless you put it on a flying base.

^Notice that the Suit in that pic is squatting/striding low. The back leg is bent considerably. Look at the front leg and the Crisis suit just to the right of it.

That crisis suit is just breaking the knee high mark. Again, camera angle looks to be a factor but I stand by my last estimate of 10+ inches when standing fully erect until a better picture of scale can be found.

Hmmm, How tall are the average Flier stands?

The XV 104 looks to be as tall as the new Tau Flier and Stand combined.

I would be willing to bet big money on its height, but at any rate if GW was to give us a 12" tall model (which is warhound size) for uder a 100 bucks , it will be the most generous plastic donation to the 40k masses.

The kneeling one can be seen on the first page, aswell.

It's about the same height as the flying base stand. You'll know how big it is when it gets assaulted by a Tervigon in the WD batrep.

I'm willing to bet the model is under 10". A foot tall model is... silly, to say the least, and GW would gladly charge you out the bum for it.

It looks to be about the height of a flying stem give or take.

I'm going to guess 8 inches for the Riptide in the above pic.

~same as Dreadknight imo

like a dreadknight, but bulkier. I want to hold one to feel the weight.

I'm just excited to see the first 'opentopped' conversion, showing the little fire caste dude inside

Of the XV104? Where would you get in? Its too dam big for the front to fold out like an XV8. There must be some kind of hatch on the back or something.

 Ledabot wrote:
Of the XV104? Where would you get in? Its too dam big for the front to fold out like an XV8. There must be some kind of hatch on the back or something.

Which is why I can't wait to see someone do it, it will happen. It's bound to, especially now I have mentioned it.

 King Pariah wrote:

Plumbumbarum wrote:
...but Tau don't fit 40k at all.

Yeah, because the galaxy is too small a setting to have that kind of variety.

It is big enough to have the variety of the bar form Star Wars (where Kroot would fit greatly btw), why do it though.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Y'know what doesnt fit in 40k? Orks, They are just to silly to be a serious threat.

They're a ridiculous, OTT and brutal, they fit much more than Tau imo, I know what you mean but 40k is not hard sf but space fantasy. It is grimdark though and Tau as a contrast are not needed, they spoil it imo.

Besides nice greys dressed as samurai are just as silly as space orks.

Plumbumbarum wrote:

 King Pariah wrote:

Plumbumbarum wrote:
...but Tau don't fit 40k at all.

Yeah, because the galaxy is too small a setting to have that kind of variety.

It is big enough to have the variety of the bar form Star Wars (where Kroot would fit greatly btw), why do it though.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Y'know what doesnt fit in 40k? Orks, They are just to silly to be a serious threat.

They're a ridiculous, OTT and brutal, they fit much more than Tau imo, I know what you mean but 40k is not hard sf but space fantasy. It is grimdark though and Tau as a contrast are not needed, they spoil it imo.

Besides nice greys dressed as samurai are just as silly as space orks.

Who says Tau aren't Grimdark?

Well, before they released the new DA codex they published a black library book about the Ravenwing (the DA fast attack 2nd company) a few weeks before the codex came out. Now you see the new Tau novel "Shadowsun" I expect this is to get Tau players warmed up for the new codex.

My guess for pilot acess is the door/aperature/hatch, slightly below the "head" sensor array, since thats been show to be where the crisis pilot acess point is, pluse it looks pretty simular.

As to how a pilot would get in, maybe it crouches, or they wheel up a ladder, or he stands on the top of a drone, who knows


And to if Tau are grimdark or not, thats more of a discussion for the background forum, not so much the news and rumors.

I was going to say that the plate with the Tau symbol looks like it could fold out, but the black rectangle thing above it would have to be a handle then. Actually, it could be a handle to get in. I hope it locks when your inside or you could jack it while the poor fellow is still inside.

 Ledabot wrote:
I was going to say that the plate with the Tau symbol looks like it could fold out, but the black rectangle thing above it would have to be a handle then. Actually, it could be a handle to get in. I hope it locks when your inside or you could jack it while the poor fellow is still inside.

Looted Riptide anyone?

via The Dude over on Warseer
When the Fireblade was first described to me it was as being like a Wolfguard battle leader.
Low level HQ choice.

Might be a way of getting special weapons into squads of FW...

Eldercaveman wrote:

Plumbumbarum wrote:

 King Pariah wrote:

Plumbumbarum wrote:
...but Tau don't fit 40k at all.

Yeah, because the galaxy is too small a setting to have that kind of variety.

It is big enough to have the variety of the bar form Star Wars (where Kroot would fit greatly btw), why do it though.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Y'know what doesnt fit in 40k? Orks, They are just to silly to be a serious threat.

They're a ridiculous, OTT and brutal, they fit much more than Tau imo, I know what you mean but 40k is not hard sf but space fantasy. It is grimdark though and Tau as a contrast are not needed, they spoil it imo.

Besides nice greys dressed as samurai are just as silly as space orks.

Who says Tau aren't Grimdark?

Designer notes afair. They claimed they want Tau to be good naive race to bring contrast to all the evil grimdark dark and grim. They suggsted later than Tau might be mind controling and just as bad as everyone else but didn't go there enough imo. I prefer evil everywhere and everyone, good race just makes 40k your next varied and making sense universe (bleh), gravitating towards kind of gritty medival Mass Effect or sth.

Damn, I'm liking that Riptide more and more. I was just going to get the lad one for Christmas, along with the flyer, new Battle force, two Broadsides and the pathfinders.

Looking at it though, I'm tempted to get a second with the Codex just to put one together next month for his fledgling force he got last year at Christmas. (The old Battle force, two crisis suits and a Piranha).

 Gornall wrote:
How long has the Hammerhead not been available?

I just noticed this too. I was going to buy one in the run up to the new codex as I start to build up a smaller army to game with once the new rules hit. I hope it's not gone forever!

I'm curious what the FW team come up with to one up the riptide design. Will it be conversion bits or a whole new model? Like the way FW salvaged the stormturkey into the eagle and the crises suits themselves.

 Davylove21 wrote:

 Gornall wrote:
How long has the Hammerhead not been available?

I just noticed this too. I was going to buy one in the run up to the new codex as I start to build up a smaller army to game with once the new rules hit. I hope it's not gone forever!

It is. No point in separate Hammerhead kit when there's Skyray kit.

Is it possible that I am the only one why awaits new Tau Codex because of the fluff that will be written in it?

Plumbumbarum wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Y'know what doesnt fit in 40k? Orks, They are just to silly to be a serious threat.

They're a ridiculous, OTT and brutal, they fit much more than Tau imo, I know what you mean but 40k is not hard sf but space fantasy. It is grimdark though and Tau as a contrast are not needed, they spoil it imo.

Tau are grimdark. It's just that their designers put some thought to it (unlike with, say, Necrons) and they are presented in more subtle way. People who don't look closely don't get it.

Originally, 40k was silly rather than grimdark, hence things like Squats and Orks.

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Based on the group pic its roughly 2.5 crisis suits high at its tallest point, not even close to 12 -15 inches tall, thats titan size, my guess is its at best 6" tall, and thats streching it a bit, plus if you really want to, model it kneeling, like in one of the pics And cover saves depend on the terrain and table, the ones I play on with buddies has terrain easily capable of concealing even superheavies. Just did a quick check and a crisis suit with base is about 2.2" tall, so the riptide at around 6" is my best guess on its height.

It's on same base than Dreadknight, comparing it to the base it looks like it's slightly taller than DK. Personally I think they made it too big, suit of that size is somewhat difficult to justify fluff-wise since you already have tanks which can float. A suit maybe 2 times bigger than XV-8 would have made more sense.

I think there either is or was a plan for new updated crisis suits that should be larger at some point. Should make the transition to the riptide make more sense, as the crisis suits are undersized right now.

Backfire wrote:

Plumbumbarum wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Y'know what doesnt fit in 40k? Orks, They are just to silly to be a serious threat.

They're a ridiculous, OTT and brutal, they fit much more than Tau imo, I know what you mean but 40k is not hard sf but space fantasy. It is grimdark though and Tau as a contrast are not needed, they spoil it imo.

Tau are grimdark. It's just that their designers put some thought to it (unlike with, say, Necrons) and they are presented in more subtle way. People who don't look closely don't get it.

Desgners themselves stated they were created good and naive. They gained a little suspicion of grimdark but to nulify that early statement and be redeemed Tau would have to go full genocide, concentration camps and mind control.

Backfire wrote:
Originally, 40k was silly rather than grimdark, hence things like Squats and Orks.

It was silly and grimdark the same time, lot of art in Rogue Trader was mad, gigerish, dark and opressive. There were jaguar pants too ofc.

http://warpsignal.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/rogue-trader-emperor.jpg

Backfire wrote:

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Based on the group pic its roughly 2.5 crisis suits high at its tallest point, not even close to 12 -15 inches tall, thats titan size, my guess is its at best 6" tall, and thats streching it a bit, plus if you really want to, model it kneeling, like in one of the pics And cover saves depend on the terrain and table, the ones I play on with buddies has terrain easily capable of concealing even superheavies. Just did a quick check and a crisis suit with base is about 2.2" tall, so the riptide at around 6" is my best guess on its height.

It's on same base than Dreadknight, comparing it to the base it looks like it's slightly taller than DK. Personally I think they made it too big, suit of that size is somewhat difficult to justify fluff-wise since you already have tanks which can float. A suit maybe 2 times bigger than XV-8 would have made more sense.

To be perfectly honest, this is one of those cases where a model is so awesome, it doesn't even need a mega fluff justification. It just looks so darn good!

Also this is the same universe that has Titans. Hmm on saying that, would love to see those fellas in epic.. shame.

Plumbumbarum wrote:


It was silly and grimdark the same time, lot of art in Rogue Trader was mad, gigerish, dark and opressive. There were jaguar pants too ofc.

http://warpsignal.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/rogue-trader-emperor.jpg

Which could as well be said for the Tau (upon introduction) as well.

They were both a naive, "good" race to provide a counterpoint (if that's what you wanted to emphasise) and (!) they were an analogy on mind-control, a ginormous project in "civilization engineering" that makes the Emperor's Primarch/Space Marine project look like child's play and a 40K-tribute to Asimov's 1000-year-plan and his creation of a sci-fi cliche of a 2nd, inclusive Galactic Empire created to mitigate the future cataclysm resulting from the "big galactic empires" presaged/foretold/predicted/eventual collapse.

A lot of the fluff in the old Tau stuff lived up to that. Farsight could be played as heroic rebel, breaking from the stiff caste system or as a doomed, dark soul corrupted by a cursed sword.

It's ambiguity like that, and the implicit "make-it-your-own" in (particularly the old) 40K fluff that made it so great.

In some parts (e.g. New Necrons), they managed to recapture that "sand-box" approach recently. In others (e.g. Horus Heresy stuff by BL/FW), Games Workshop seems very busy killing their best and brightest legacy in the name of minting more cash.

Let's keep the "designers lied about Tau being grimdark" nonsense out of this news& rumour thread. Don't feed the troll who just wants to discuss his hate for Tau.

On topic, on the tank commander::

The Dude wrote:I was told (and put in the roundup a while ago) that he allows the tank to Overwatch, which may not be too handy for the tank itself, but adds more firepower to the 6" support Overwatch if true.

Plumbumbarum wrote:

Backfire wrote:

Tau are grimdark. It's just that their designers put some thought to it (unlike with, say, Necrons) and they are presented in more subtle way. People who don't look closely don't get it.

Desgners themselves stated they were created good and naive. They gained a little suspicion of grimdark but to nulify that early statement...

What "early statement"? Tau have been same from very first codex.

Basically, Tau are very clever role-reversal. They have nearly all human scifi clichees, but dressed in an alien form. This is why many people think they are annoying, they are designed that way, to throw naive representations of humanity from Star Trek, B5 etc back to readers face.

hm, odd Double post?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Backfire wrote:


What "early statement"? Tau have been same from very first codex.

Basically, Tau are very clever role-reversal. They have nearly all human scifi clichees, but dressed in an alien form. This is why many people think they are annoying, they are designed that way, to throw naive representations of humanity from Star Trek, B5 etc back to readers face.

But that is not all of it.

This interpretation is missing the crucial aspect of artifice that underpins the entire Tau Civilization.

They were raised (not by themselves) from primitive savages to space-faring Empire by "somebody", hidden behind a convenient Warp Storm and controlled by the mysterious appearance of the Ethereal.

Tau fit those clichees, true, but they are also "a creation" for an unknown purpose, adding a level of galaxy-scale intrigue and mystery.

I Assume the Crisis suits are about 10% Smaller than they should be to Scale with Fire Warriors? I always imagined the torso opening up with that hatch coming down and then the smaller hatch at the top tilting back raising the head section. The rest then opening out a bit like a split ribcage. At the current scale I thought firewarriors could fit in that space but it would probably be a tight squeeze.

 Kroothawk wrote:
Let's keep the "designers lied about Tau being grimdark" nonsense out of this news& rumour thread. Don't feed the troll who just wants to discuss his hate for Tau.

On topic, on the tank commander::

The Dude wrote:I was told (and put in the roundup a while ago) that he allows the tank to Overwatch, which may not be too handy for the tank itself, but adds more firepower to the 6" support Overwatch if true.

Oh wow - that didn't occur to me. AN IC charges a squad of lowly firewarriors just to be overwatched by not just the warriors but also by a rail Cannon toting Hammerhead - potentially nasty.

And also very nice "fluff-wise" for an army that is all about working together and backing each other up.

Backfire wrote:
representations of humanity from Star Trek

IMO, the tau are more Dominion than Federation.

 Medium of Death wrote:
I Assume the Crisis suits are about 10% Smaller than they should be to Scale with Fire Warriors? I always imagined the torso opening up with that hatch coming down and then the smaller hatch at the top tilting back raising the head section. The rest then opening out a bit like a split ribcage. At the current scale I thought firewarriors could fit in that space but it would probably be a tight squeeze.

Spoiler:

Scale? In 40k? Surely you jest!

In all seriousness, scale has often been out of whack between infantry and vehicles in 40k; there is no way you can fit 10 SM models into a Rhino model, for example. But, yes, the pilot loads in from the front with the suit opening up in a similar manner to that.

I imagine that the Riptide is going to be about 6-8 inches tall by the looks, which is really a really massive unit for standard games of 40k. Somebody also mentioned FW taking on the Riptide...IMHO, I don't see that happening. Just doesn't seem like something FW would do.

If the fireblades are cheap HQ guys, I'm going to model min with Gunbai!

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gunbai_fan

Fireblade sounds like a job for those promo models from a while back that looked like pathfinders with FW armor plates.

Neronoxx wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Ant news on Stealth suits?

Ant news?
Gnat yet!

Well played, sir.

Who says Tau aren't grimdark? They're based on 1980s "real robot" anime. You know what the common ending was for most robot shows in the 80s? Either "and then everybody died horribly" or "and then everybody except maybe a dozen people died horribly."

You're approaching grimdark from the edgy 12 year old "everybody is evil" perspective. Tau approach it from the "everybody is doomed" perspective.

 spectreoneone wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:
I Assume the Crisis suits are about 10% Smaller than they should be to Scale with Fire Warriors? I always imagined the torso opening up with that hatch coming down and then the smaller hatch at the top tilting back raising the head section. The rest then opening out a bit like a split ribcage. At the current scale I thought firewarriors could fit in that space but it would probably be a tight squeeze.

Spoiler:

Scale? In 40k? Surely you jest!

In all seriousness, scale has often been out of whack between infantry and vehicles in 40k; there is no way you can fit 10 SM models into a Rhino model, for example. But, yes, the pilot loads in from the front with the suit opening up in a similar manner to that.

I imagine that the Riptide is going to be about 6-8 inches tall by the looks, which is really a really massive unit for standard games of 40k. Somebody also mentioned FW taking on the Riptide...IMHO, I don't see that happening. Just doesn't seem like something FW would do.

I could have sworn I've seen a conversion once with space marines inside a rhino, actually fitting in there^^ (sadly I cannot find a picture anywhere.. :( )
But yea, the suits could be a little larger. Then again I don't really mind their current size, it just seems to fit somehow. (not from a logical stand, but purely visual)

What I'm missing on the riptide is some sense of it's scale.
Like parts that you can actually associate with hatches/vision slits/steps, stuff that puts the model into proportion. (like you have on the krisis suit)

RogueRegault wrote:
Who says Tau aren't grimdark? They're based on 1980s "real robot" anime. You know what the common ending was for most robot shows in the 80s? Either "and then everybody died horribly" or "and then everybody except maybe a dozen people died horribly."

You're approaching grimdark from the edgy 12 year old "everybody is evil" perspective. Tau approach it from the "everybody is doomed" perspective.

I wouldn't say 12 years old. I'd rather think of it as Noir. As in grim"dark"? So 1930s.

Everybody is doomed is more of a millenarist thing, also tied to environmentalism in the 1970s.

I think we need to stop this fluff thing though and get back to the N&R aspect of this thread.

Anyone bothered by the weird built of the huge gun arm that is essentially underslung from the elbow down? It seems like it will exert a lot more cantilever force than necessary, no?

I'm more concerned as to how difficult/easy it will be to magnetize the Riptide suit as well as the new flyer kits.

 tetrisphreak wrote:
I'm more concerned as to how difficult/easy it will be to magnetize the Riptide suit as well as the new flyer kits.

I was actually thinking about this last night too. That big gun arm may be hard to magnetize becuse it will be so heavy. A pin and magnet arrangement may need to be implemented.

I'm turning blue with excitement!

Any news on what that X3 missile pod dude in the 2-page pic is?

Lucarikx

Also, as an aside. For those who want to go full gundam on a budget... Hobby Link Japan has classic designs for around 6$US. I can't imagine shipping would be prohibitive to the point of making it a moot point.

Samurai_Eduh wrote:

 tetrisphreak wrote:
I'm more concerned as to how difficult/easy it will be to magnetize the Riptide suit as well as the new flyer kits.

I was actually thinking about this last night too. That big gun arm may be hard to magnetize becuse it will be so heavy. A pin and magnet arrangement may need to be implemented.

Just use a larger/stronger magnet. the 1/16 and 1/32 magnets with .1 and .3 pounds of pull force are fine for arms on infantry models, but a slightly larger magnet will work fine for the riptide. Good magnet selection means that even titans can be magnetized with force alone, no pins.

That also depends on how much needs to be done. If it is a whole arm you will need fairly large, but if it is just a weapon you might be able to get away with your usual magnets.

You can get very thin 1/4 inch wide disc magnets that are strong enough to stick a skimmer to a stand.

Which company was making 3rd party Tau bits (like variant crisis suit heads and such)? A buddy is hitting me up for helping him get his Tau force back in shape.

I know paulson games makes some weapon bits that fit crisis suits okay.

http://www.paulsongames.com/mecha_parts___54mm.html

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Also, as an aside. For those who want to go full gundam on a budget... Hobby Link Japan has classic designs for around 6$US. I can't imagine shipping would be prohibitive to the point of making it a moot point.

Yeah, but the budget ones are REALLY bad (soft details, no posability/articulation, horrible inaccurate designs). You've got to get at least High Grade to get any sort of quality. Also, HLJ shipping rates really are horrendous. However, if you live in the US or Canada Hobbywave has a nice flat shipping rate, and a decent selection, if rarely restocked.

Seriously off topic discussion aside, I really wish there was at least one pic of those flyers from below. They look aright from above, if you ignore the little SMS turret, so I'm hoping the bottom is somewhere between completely featureless, and ten-thousand-tacked-on-bits.

 Maelstrom808 wrote:
Which company was making 3rd party Tau bits (like variant crisis suit heads and such)?

Noone. But you may find these non-Tau parts useful (in addition to the Paulson parts):
Chapterhouse heads. http://chapterhousestudios.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=132
Zealot Miniatures (conversion parts useful to make female Fire Warriors) http://www.zealotminiatures.co.uk/#!__zealot-store

MajorWesJanson wrote:

Samurai_Eduh wrote:

 tetrisphreak wrote:
I'm more concerned as to how difficult/easy it will be to magnetize the Riptide suit as well as the new flyer kits.

I was actually thinking about this last night too. That big gun arm may be hard to magnetize becuse it will be so heavy. A pin and magnet arrangement may need to be implemented.

Just use a larger/stronger magnet. the 1/16 and 1/32 magnets with .1 and .3 pounds of pull force are fine for arms on infantry models, but a slightly larger magnet will work fine for the riptide. Good magnet selection means that even titans can be magnetized with force alone, no pins.

The only other thing I would do is possibly make dual magnet points to keep the weapon from spinning about on the arm. I magnetized my crisis suits and that's the only thing that can be annoying, though it isn't much of an issue it would look really weird on such a large model.

 Kroothawk wrote:

 Maelstrom808 wrote:
Which company was making 3rd party Tau bits (like variant crisis suit heads and such)?

Noone. But you may find these non-Tau parts useful (in addition to the Paulson parts):
Chapterhouse heads. http://chapterhousestudios.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=132
Zealot Miniatures (conversion parts useful to make female Fire Warriors) http://www.zealotminiatures.co.uk/#!__zealot-store

Ah....right...no one...my apologies.

Thank for the links to generic space cow/fish cyber suit bits which is what I really meant

Yes, I vouch for the Paulson quality for his space alien energy weapon designs. He casts really well and his... mechanized bipedal suit heads are good too.

Be on the lookout for his upcoming Mecha Front game as well!

Eldercaveman wrote:

 Ledabot wrote:
I hope it locks when your inside or you could jack it while the poor fellow is still inside.

Looted Riptide anyone?

More like faptau.

Cypher-xv wrote:
I'm curious what the FW team come up with to one up the riptide design. Will it be conversion bits or a whole new model?

That's a great point. It would be awesome to see a line of FW Tau Gundam ... or is it Gundams? Anyhow, people have been making Tau Gundams for years and it's interesting that GW is following the fans on this one.

 Brother Captain Alexander wrote:
Is it possible that I am the only one why awaits new Tau Codex because of the fluff that will be written in it?

No I posted the same thing many pages ago.

 NecronLord3 wrote:
I think there either is or was a plan for new updated crisis suits that should be larger at some point. Should make the transition to the riptide make more sense, as the crisis suits are undersized right now.

How do you figure that crisis suits are suddenly undersized?

Also, it'd be nice to eventually see the FW box redesigned with some female figs. Unless Tau females go straight to the top ranks or something.

 Manchu wrote:
Also, it'd be nice to eventually see the FW box redesigned with some female figs. Unless Tau females go straight to the top ranks or something.

Is it just me or would gender be quite indistinguishable under FW armour?
I know, it's a frequent debate but really once you get some armour (like that) and a helmet on there *shouldn't* be much of a difference. And aren't fire caste tau (male or female) generally bald?

 Manchu wrote:
No I posted the same thing many pages ago.

Really?
Didn't saw it, thank you. I thought I was the only one

Anyway, more news: Tau Hammerhead Gunship is no Longer Available at GW site.

It looks like its starting. The Tau Hammerhead Gunship is no longer available on the GW website. I did not know that this model was being replaced, but now it looks like it is at least getting a rebox.

Here is the link for those curious. I did a quick look around and did not see any other models that were no longer available (codex either), although I do not think they can be ordered now.

Thanks to Christopher for pointing this out.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1620020

 Bolognesus wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
Also, it'd be nice to eventually see the FW box redesigned with some female figs. Unless Tau females go straight to the top ranks or something.

Is it just me or would gender be quite indistinguishable under FW armour?
I know, it's a frequent debate but really once you get some armour (like that) and a helmet on there *shouldn't* be much of a difference. And aren't fire caste tau (male or female) generally bald?

Well, Shadowsun certainly seems to have hair, so I assume hair is possible. There's likely a decent number of indistinguishable helmeted tau females in every FW box, but almost every unhelmeted Tau has been male. If they put out a plastic character for this release, a female head option or two on the sprue would go a long way to fix this.

 Bolognesus wrote:
And aren't fire caste tau (male or female) generally bald?

I only know of one female and as regards her, no she isn't bald. As to males, at least some of them have hair in the style of a prince's lock from Ten Commandments. Just going by these examples, it seems there is a difference between how Tau males and females style their hair. There also seems to be another physiological difference: the female Y-shaped facial apperature as opposed to the vertical male one. So, in sum, not saying I want Fire Warrior boob armor. But there's the usual argument of different proprotions, which IMO makes such a release less likely. At the end of the day, some female heads would not go amiss. I know Zealot miniatures currently makes some very nice ones, although I have never seen them atop a Fire Warrior body.

Personally I can see the FW people doing a riptide weapons expansion or varient, maybe with rail cannons or some nasty missle systems ( if they dont already have those as options), or some new flyers since that is all the rage, although the ones they already have are pretty awesome.

The nice thing about tau models for FW is the race's fluff gives them alot of design leeway, since its just new tech developments.

And yes every Tau player should be/ is looking forward to new fluff/background or anything new to read about..thats a pretty much a no-brainer there.

FW has a great understanding of Tau design. Remember Citadel's Tau entries for BFG? FW did a much better job. Maybe they will do something similar with the Sunshark. For the Riptide, I'd like to see some structural conversion options that make it look less like a scaled-up XV8.

I'm guessing they are re-boxing the Hammerhead to turn it into a combi Hammerhead/Skyray kit.

 Rainyday wrote:

 Bolognesus wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
Also, it'd be nice to eventually see the FW box redesigned with some female figs. Unless Tau females go straight to the top ranks or something.

Is it just me or would gender be quite indistinguishable under FW armour?
I know, it's a frequent debate but really once you get some armour (like that) and a helmet on there *shouldn't* be much of a difference. And aren't fire caste tau (male or female) generally bald?

Well, Shadowsun certainly seems to have hair, so I assume hair is possible. There's likely a decent number of indistinguishable helmeted tau females in every FW box, but almost every unhelmeted Tau has been male. If they put out a plastic character for this release, a female head option or two on the sprue would go a long way to fix this.

Fair enough. Still, don't officers have a bit more leeway in the style of their haircut than enlisted folks do?
I've always been a bit wary of the, let's say... explicitly... female look models tend to have when sculptors do include both genders so it's probably my personal taste getting in the way here anyway

 Praxiss wrote:
I'm guessing they are re-boxing the Hammerhead to turn it into a combi Hammerhead/Skyray kit.

or nixing it altogether, as the Skyray box is already a skyray/hammerhead combi-kit.

 Praxiss wrote:
I'm guessing they are re-boxing the Hammerhead to turn it into a combi Hammerhead/Skyray kit.

Rather, they're just removing the hammerhead kit, seeing as the skyray kit had the hammerhead bits in it already. Just throw in the new bits for whatever new stuff is in the codex for them and you're done.

Eldercaveman wrote:


Who says Tau aren't Grimdark?

Which faction doesn't laught about the Tau? Well, except Sisters of Sandwiches. Tau got no saying in the greater things and they aren't a threat to anyone. They are the "special" faction. "Special" as in nod and smile.

every one is saying gundam. to me the tau design is more robotech then anything else. ummmmm a flying robotech riptide.

If it transformed into a Sunshark, I guess it'd be more like Robotech.

I'm pretty excited about the Fireblades. People have been complaining forever about letting Firewarriors take special weapons, but as any Tau fan knows, FWs using something besides the Pulse Carbine or Pulse Rifle is strictly against their combat doctrine. Which is fine with me, as well as anybody who uses FWs properly. They are not Tactical Marines nor should they be used as such. Pulse guns are perfect for their role.

But it looks like the Fireblade can be tossed in to give them a bit more spicy flavor.

 Archonate wrote:
I'm pretty excited about the Fireblades. People have been complaining forever about letting Firewarriors take special weapons, but as any Tau fan knows, FWs using something besides the Pulse Carbine or Pulse Rifle is strictly against their combat doctrine. Which is fine with me, as well as anybody who uses FWs properly. They are not Tactical Marines nor should they be used as such. Pulse guns are perfect for their role.

But it looks like the Fireblade can be tossed in to give them a bit more spicy flavor.

Perhaps the fluff has expanded to allow them to add Ion weaponry to their training. If so I will be using pathfinder bits on firewarrior bodies if the Ion weapons have a good profile.

I think also drones will become a bit more versitile, the drones show with the riptide are called "shielded missle drones", so hopefully it will not be a riptide only kinda upgrade, and be army wide.

Bring on the droney goodness

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
I think also drones will become a bit more versitile, the drones show with the riptide are called "shielded missle drones", so hopefully it will not be a riptide only kinda upgrade, and be army wide.

Bring on the droney goodness

I think the Broadside will have the shielded missle drones as well...check the box art...looks like it.

I do like the fact that drones are going to play a bigger role in the Tau army, rather than something that feels more like an afterthought.

Well, tau aren't a direct threat now, but it's like this: You're a stagnating business, making okay profits and shrinking by 2% per year. Tau are the new kid on the block, making very little money, but growing by 25% per year, consistently. Pretty soon, at that rate of growth, they'll have the resources to surpass you (warp travel, super death guns, controlled grey goo). So an intelligent mega-corporation would take them over before they lose their stranglehold monopoly on the market (galaxy).

Grimdark aside, tau are scary precisely because they ARE an unknown. Would you rather be in the imperium, which sucks, but at least you're protected somewhat from nids, orks, necrons, etc? Or would you rather be with the tau, who havent really proven their mettle at all versus a real threat, and you have no idea how they actually treat humans?

OT:
Not a fan of the new sculpts, from what the WD shows (though the top-down view of the flyer isn't too bad), and not really a fan of some of the rumored rules. Looks like we're going to be pidgeonholed into spamming crisis suits, the new flyers, and railheads, to remain competitive. My first reaction to most of the content posted in this thread was "ew"; we'll see if opinions change when they release better pictures and 360's.

No math wizards who can find out the sixe of the model in realation to the base?

 spectreoneone wrote:

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
I think also drones will become a bit more versitile, the drones show with the riptide are called "shielded missle drones", so hopefully it will not be a riptide only kinda upgrade, and be army wide.

Bring on the droney goodness

I think the Broadside will have the shielded missle drones as well...check the box art...looks like it.

I do like the fact that drones are going to play a bigger role in the Tau army, rather than something that feels more like an afterthought.

The Broadside drones are smaller, or at least lack the lower hemisphere attachment that the Riptide ones do. I'd be willing to bet that only the Riptide gets Shielded Missile Drones, while Broadsides can take Shield Drones *or* Special Weapon Drones *or* Gun Drones.

There was mention of Heavy Gun Drones being in the new 'dex, as well as "Interceptor Drones". I've also seen (think on the Warseer forums) talk of Ion weapons being able to be taken on Drones as well.

Might be that GW is giving the "special weapon carrier" role to drones for the most part, when it comes to non-battlesuits. Could be wrong though.

 tetrisphreak wrote:

 Archonate wrote:
I'm pretty excited about the Fireblades. People have been complaining forever about letting Firewarriors take special weapons, but as any Tau fan knows, FWs using something besides the Pulse Carbine or Pulse Rifle is strictly against their combat doctrine. Which is fine with me, as well as anybody who uses FWs properly. They are not Tactical Marines nor should they be used as such. Pulse guns are perfect for their role.

But it looks like the Fireblade can be tossed in to give them a bit more spicy flavor.

Perhaps the fluff has expanded to allow them to add Ion weaponry to their training. If so I will be using pathfinder bits on firewarrior bodies if the Ion weapons have a good profile.

Entirely possible. But I have a feeling that Pathfinders will remain the special weapons team.
I base that on the fact that, if FWs can take special weapons, then they'd be pretty much the same as PFs, minus the Infiltration. I'm betting (and hoping) that they'll keep the roles separate.

"The Tau are too silly/not serious enough for 40k, but the Orks ..totally legit."

uberjoras wrote:
not really a fan of some of the rumored rules. Looks like we're going to be pidgeonholed into spamming crisis suits, the new flyers, and railheads, to remain competitive.

What a strange assessment. I see quite the opposite. Ethereals, with their distribution of VERY worthwhile bonuses might now be worth taking, along with the aforementioned Caste Fireblades, which means a Crisis HQ might become a rarity.
And, depending on how good Stealth teams become, we might see more Stealth and Riptide than we do Crisis.

I don't see the flyer being very popular atm, based on reactions to the model, and the fact that it's competing with the tried and true Pathfinders, possibly juiced-up Vespids, and Piranhas.

I agree, what we've heard so far sounds very promising and fun to use.

 Zweischneid wrote:

Plumbumbarum wrote:


It was silly and grimdark the same time, lot of art in Rogue Trader was mad, gigerish, dark and opressive. There were jaguar pants too ofc.

http://warpsignal.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/rogue-trader-emperor.jpg

Which could as well be said for the Tau (upon introduction) as well.

They were both a naive, "good" race to provide a counterpoint (if that's what you wanted to emphasise) and (!) they were an analogy on mind-control, a ginormous project in "civilization engineering" that makes the Emperor's Primarch/Space Marine project look like child's play and a 40K-tribute to Asimov's 1000-year-plan and his creation of a sci-fi cliche of a 2nd, inclusive Galactic Empire created to mitigate the future cataclysm resulting from the "big galactic empires" presaged/foretold/predicted/eventual collapse.

A lot of the fluff in the old Tau stuff lived up to that. Farsight could be played as heroic rebel, breaking from the stiff caste system or as a doomed, dark soul corrupted by a cursed sword.

If this is true then it's indeed a good grimdark joke in how the supposedly best guys are the worst etc. It just lacks the OTT ridiculous aspect with the minimalistic theme and gives somehow a too bright in the dark universe impression. Yes I was about them being a counterpoint, I liked 40k without counterpoints it was part of its charm at some point.

 Kroothawk wrote:
Let's keep the "designers lied about Tau being grimdark" nonsense out of this news& rumour thread. Don't feed the troll who just wants to discuss his hate for Tau.

I don't hate Tau I only think they don't fit. I only hate Kroot because of the design, tried to like them but they only look off to me, anyway not discussing it, de gustibus and all. I admit that my initial post about discontinuing Tau can be interpreted as trolling, I don't know tbh I don't recognise the line beyond which you troll. I like provocative statements and the disscusion following but don't have malicious intentions just post what I think. Sorry for the wrong thread, reading it reminded me of my stance at Tau so posted it (though was close to post how I hate squats too so maybe there is indeed some troll within ).

See the guy above you made me think. I want my grimdark to be blunt and jump at me immediately from minis and art, I generaly don't believe in mood driven mainly by fluff but if there's some sleek yellow toys of evil aspect to Tau that I just don't see, maybe it's time to look again.

RogueRegault wrote:
You're approaching grimdark from the edgy 12 year old "everybody is evil" perspective. Tau approach it from the "everybody is doomed" perspective.

The grim and dark OTT grimdark is the aspect of 40k I particularly love, everybody is so evil that it absolutely makes no sense and there's also that Lovecraftian vibe underneath. It is so ridiculous yet awesome and the parody in itself, throwing the good vs evil cliches and dumb things like reason out and just clashing endless armies of evil running at each other from impossible hills.

Not sure if this is 12 years old perspective, I'd say the way I see it, it's just a great as a kick in the teeth for all the reasonable, politicaly correct and explainable sf that seem to be everywhere nowadays.

If so, plastic models are kind of 12 years old thing anyway so guesss it's ok.

Whether or now the Tau aesthetic or background fits well with the rest of 40k is a topic best left to its own thread in the 40k Background forum.

Yeah sorry.

 Archonate wrote:

uberjoras wrote:
not really a fan of some of the rumored rules. Looks like we're going to be pidgeonholed into spamming crisis suits, the new flyers, and railheads, to remain competitive.

What a strange assessment. I see quite the opposite. Ethereals, with their distribution of VERY worthwhile bonuses might now be worth taking, along with the aforementioned Caste Fireblades, which means a Crisis HQ might become a rarity.
And, depending on how good Stealth teams become, we might see more Stealth and Riptide than we do Crisis.

I don't see the flyer being very popular atm, based on reactions to the model, and the fact that it's competing with the tried and true Pathfinders, possibly juiced-up Vespids, and Piranhas.

S5 en-masse still isn't going to do much. In my local meta, people have come to the conclusion that Ailaros reached when 6ed dropped - mech is still king in 6th. And s5 just won't cut it versus a half dozen vehicles, especially ones with invuln saves like in DA. Fire Warriors will still be vulnerable and squishy. Stealth suits are still just expensive short ranged t4 1w 3+ models. Tau vehicles are still not fast, nor do they allow us to project firepower from inside.

The standout winners are going to be the rumored "broken" flyers, who will at least be decent in a game with few good flyer takedown methods, railheads with a points decrease and removal of competing units of broadsides, and crisis suits who still outgun the riptide, for the same cost if not cheaper whilst being more survivable if LOS blocking terrain is available.

What remains to be seen are: kroot, vespids, ethereals, and pathfinders (potentially the flyers, but again, metagame wise they seem to be a good choice besides anything else). Even then; pathfinders are better using their markerlights to light up suit targets than FW targets in most cases, and special weapons are only a bonus, not a reason to take them - see tactical marines. Kroot could go either way - cheaper/better would be awesome, to compete with an ork boy, sideways/same would keep them as a "meh" choice that you take in case of forests, a nerf would of course make them pretty terrible. Vespids rumored as being better has my attention, and there are many ways to do so, but I don't know how vetock will go about doing it - it would be easy to make them OP if they keep their ap3 weapons. Ethereals could become better, but at that point you've got a lot of piddly HQ's around, who serve the purpose of clustering you up and keeping you still for a lovely artillery barrage, or an encirclement by assaulters, who will be moving forward to capture objectives.

The Riptide seems to be overpriced and underarmed. Now, a Dreadknight is great, because it tears through things in CC, and it also has amazing shooting power to back it up, as well as its teleporter shunt to guarantee good hits against exposed enemies, and an amazing array of support in the form of the GK army. If the DK has trouble, you can throw some assaulty dudes into the mix to help him. Tau don't have that, so its shooting better be worth at least 1 fire warrior per 10 points for me to consider it's giant, ugly mug. New IC's are just more meat to be shot up in FW squads that are already going to bite it versus a long list of things, heavy bolters, autocannons, psycannons, assault cannons, a stiff breeze in CC, even bolters and lasguns tear FW apart pretty fast. Plus, for the same reasons as I mentioned for ethereals, AoE buffs are a great way to trick yourself into losing, or spending points on things you won't make full use of/get blapped on turn 1. I can think of a lot of cases where a clusterfeth of AoE buffs is more harmful to you than the benefits they provide.

Some of the stuff seems interesting, but tau are already a really tricky army. I hope vetock doesn't make them a "finesse" army like DE.

uberjoras wrote:

 Archonate wrote:

uberjoras wrote:
not really a fan of some of the rumored rules. Looks like we're going to be pidgeonholed into spamming crisis suits, the new flyers, and railheads, to remain competitive.

What a strange assessment. I see quite the opposite. Ethereals, with their distribution of VERY worthwhile bonuses might now be worth taking, along with the aforementioned Caste Fireblades, which means a Crisis HQ might become a rarity.
And, depending on how good Stealth teams become, we might see more Stealth and Riptide than we do Crisis.

I don't see the flyer being very popular atm, based on reactions to the model, and the fact that it's competing with the tried and true Pathfinders, possibly juiced-up Vespids, and Piranhas.

S5 en-masse still isn't going to do much. In my local meta, people have come to the conclusion that Ailaros reached when 6ed dropped - mech is still king in 6th. And s5 just won't cut it versus a half dozen vehicles, especially ones with invuln saves like in DA. Fire Warriors will still be vulnerable and squishy. Stealth suits are still just expensive short ranged t4 1w 3+ models. Tau vehicles are still not fast, nor do they allow us to project firepower from inside.

The standout winners are going to be the rumored "broken" flyers, who will at least be decent in a game with few good flyer takedown methods, railheads with a points decrease and removal of competing units of broadsides, and crisis suits who still outgun the riptide, for the same cost if not cheaper whilst being more survivable if LOS blocking terrain is available.

What remains to be seen are: kroot, vespids, ethereals, and pathfinders (potentially the flyers, but again, metagame wise they seem to be a good choice besides anything else). Even then; pathfinders are better using their markerlights to light up suit targets than FW targets in most cases, and special weapons are only a bonus, not a reason to take them - see tactical marines. Kroot could go either way - cheaper/better would be awesome, to compete with an ork boy, sideways/same would keep them as a "meh" choice that you take in case of forests, a nerf would of course make them pretty terrible. Vespids rumored as being better has my attention, and there are many ways to do so, but I don't know how vetock will go about doing it - it would be easy to make them OP if they keep their ap3 weapons. Ethereals could become better, but at that point you've got a lot of piddly HQ's around, who serve the purpose of clustering you up and keeping you still for a lovely artillery barrage, or an encirclement by assaulters, who will be moving forward to capture objectives.

The Riptide seems to be overpriced and underarmed. Now, a Dreadknight is great, because it tears through things in CC, and it also has amazing shooting power to back it up, as well as its teleporter shunt to guarantee good hits against exposed enemies, and an amazing array of support in the form of the GK army. If the DK has trouble, you can throw some assaulty dudes into the mix to help him. Tau don't have that, so its shooting better be worth at least 1 fire warrior per 10 points for me to consider it's giant, ugly mug. New IC's are just more meat to be shot up in FW squads that are already going to bite it versus a long list of things, heavy bolters, autocannons, psycannons, assault cannons, a stiff breeze in CC, even bolters and lasguns tear FW apart pretty fast. Plus, for the same reasons as I mentioned for ethereals, AoE buffs are a great way to trick yourself into losing, or spending points on things you won't make full use of/get blapped on turn 1. I can think of a lot of cases where a clusterfeth of AoE buffs is more harmful to you than the benefits they provide.

Some of the stuff seems interesting, but tau are already a really tricky army. I hope vetock doesn't make them a "finesse" army like DE.

This is assuming a lot about the options given to Crisis suits, broadsides, the Riptide as well as what the special characters add to the army. I feel like your making too many assumptions without enough information.

uberjoras wrote:
Some of the stuff seems interesting, but tau are already a really tricky army. I hope vetock doesn't make them a "finesse" army like DE.

I couldn't agree more! Part of me thinks that the skill requirement of xenos armies is part of marketing SM (and more recently IG). It'd be nice to have a low skill competitive build in this book and then maybe people would pick up more Tau.

Anyway, I am making the assumption that the studio has a handle on the universal meta -- and of course a further assumption that there really is a universal meta in the first place. Both are bad assumptions ...

 Manchu wrote:

uberjoras wrote:
Some of the stuff seems interesting, but tau are already a really tricky army. I hope vetock doesn't make them a "finesse" army like DE.

I couldn't agree more! Part of me thinks that the skill requirement of xenos armies is part of marketing SM (and more recently IG). It'd be nice to have a low skill competitive build in this book and then maybe people would pick up more Tau.

Anyway, I am making the assumption that the studio has a handle on the universal meta -- and of course a further assumption that there really is a universal meta in the first place. Both are bad assumptions ...

Personally, I like the fact that Tau are a tricky army to play. I really don't want a top tier, easy to win with army, as it makes it that much more sweet when I am victorious. I honestly hope, however, that they have made a well-balanced Codex that can be competitive, discourages spamming of units, and looks good to boot (which this new release, aside from lack of new Crisis suits, has already succeeded at IMHO). I don't want a bunch of new bandwagoners who think Tau are now awesome to suddenly pop up, and I don't want to be called cheese, either; I just want a challenging, yet competitive army sitting around mid-tier, with some awesome looking units.

Im kinda excited to take broadsides with skyfire, I need them in my SM army for taking out flyers.

Hell, I hope it's a finesse army. There is nothing better then taking an army that other people don't understand and then obliterating them with it. Dark Eldar were awesome in 5th edition, I loved playing that army more then any other for years. They really took a bad hit in the move to 6th edition, which is sad. But, I have a fully armed and operational tau army now (all options in the book, maxed out and painted and magnatized). I'll be more then happy if the army seems odd to play at first. Look at necrons, no one knew what to do with them for awhile, and that's a great army.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Im kinda excited to take broadsides with skyfire, I need them in my SM army for taking out flyers.

I'm kinda scared to see some armies with access to some of the goodies that Tau are getting. I mean, IG are already broke gak, how about with Farsight, a Riptide, a unit of broadsides and a flyer? I mean, assuming they keep the Farsight Deathbomb, all of a sudden any army can get damn near an entire FOC's worth of crisis suits, as well as a riptide and our supposedly broke ass flyer. Not to mention what is going to end up being some of the best non-flyer anti-flyer in the game right now.

If worst comes to worst, I might buy some for my Eldar army.

@Spectreoneone...

This is the issue with supposed band wagoners. Much of the time it's flavour of the month, but other want to start the army because they like the models.

I fall in the latter. Some of the models I disliked a lot - Broadsides, Kroot, Ethereal and Skyray just looked meh.

Now the new Broadsides look amazing and I'm a huge fan of the Riptide.

I couldn't care less about the rules on this army, I just want to have fun with the Tau and have the option to go competitive if I choose to.

Same happened for Daemons. I like the models a lot, but not so much their playstyle and I've wanted a Daemon army for longer than I can remember. Same for Tau tbh.

I don't see anything wrong with hopping on the bandwagon. If nothing else, it means a larger resale market for those who don't hop off.

People will find ways to beat Tau even if the codex comes out and they are top tier. I think having multiple competitive builds is really important. As a DA player, the only real competitive build is greenwing and that makes the DA less fun to play as a lot of the codex just isnt written well or is way overcosted for the rules they have (terminator models and the weak DA flyers for example).

I'm hoping for more of a Necron type codex where we have some serious options to keep us interested for years to come.

In regards to DA, I've only had issues with Crons, Eldar and Guard with my Deathwing. Nids can be tough but winnable. Not seen Greenwing do to well in my Meta.

OT...

I welcome a different army. Not so much finesse or easy army to play. I just want something different where I can use a tactic that isn't tanking with 2+ saves and two Raiders while a Belial Blob belts seven shades out of a unit on an assassination Deep Strike.

 Ministry wrote:
People will find ways to beat Tau even if the codex comes out and they are top tier. I think having multiple competitive builds is really important. As a DA player, the only real competitive build is greenwing and that makes the DA less fun to play as a lot of the codex just isnt written well or is way overcosted for the rules they have (terminator models and the weak DA flyers for example).

I'm hoping for more of a Necron type codex where we have some serious options to keep us interested for years to come.

I agree on this point. While many consider them OP, my necrons are great because I can field no fewer than 4 different list "archetypes" and be competitive with each. AV13/14 wall lists, Flyer Overload (aka Cron Air), Silver Tide, Canoptek Fever, Royal Court Disco Inferno, etc.

Using the current tau book there are 2 reasonably decent lists, but i find neither to be top-tier or competitive. You have fully mech'ed tau with disruption pods and SMS devilfish everywhere, and you have fully suited tau using 9 broadsides and 15 crisis suits. Sprinkle in fire warriors or kroot to taste... But the points and weaknesses to CC while not having good buffs to shooting to compensate kill it for me.

My hope is that the new Tau book will come to terms with the fact that our assault phase is largely nonexistant, other than the thrust move with jetpacks. Given this, they will hopefully buff the shooting for reasonable points costs to compensate -- any army who gets through the torrents of fire will be rewarded by a very simple assault phase of death. I would hate to have to look at someone a month from now and say, "Well, I really like to play an army that focuses solely on shooting attacks, so i play NECRONS .

Im just looking forward to it TBH. Im looking forward to learning how to play them. And fielding a fully painted Riptide and seeing my friends faces(I have a rule where nothing gets fielding unless it is painted)

 Ministry wrote:
People will find ways to beat Tau even if the codex comes out and they are top tier. I think having multiple competitive builds is really important. As a DA player, the only real competitive build is greenwing and that makes the DA less fun to play as a lot of the codex just isnt written well or is way overcosted for the rules they have (terminator models and the weak DA flyers for example).

I'm hoping for more of a Necron type codex where we have some serious options to keep us interested for years to come.

Actually DA have a lot of similar options to what we're rumored at in the tau codex, and have a lot of options for how you can play them. Tau are still roughly the same monobuild no matter what you do to them. Suits and FW. Everything else is just tacked on to hopefully prevent those from dying. Wheras most Marines have the option to build an effective basic infantry army, tau simply dont have the option for that; we need to include suits or loads of vehicles in every single army. I would like the new codex to be all about the bread and butter fire warriors, but I want everything else to have a very useful place still, so that if I were to take a "kitchen sink" list, I wouldn't have units that were "bad", but maybe at worst a sideways upgrade (like dev team vs vindicator). Like pulse carbines/rifles; right now, rifles on every unit, not even a question. After? Hopefully it's a tough choice that boils down to your playstyle. I love the Dark Eldar codex, it was amazing in 5th ed; tricky, sometimes you lost because of bad luck, but always an interesting and fun game, on both sides. Tau with that style of codex would be excellent.

Total vouch for Paulson Games. His Mech stuff is top of the line. I have several of his pieces in my army. I think one of his mech heads will fit nice perched upon the new Riptide unit. It's much larger than a standard crisis head and even better looking imo. The built in aerial is a nice touch as well.

The best army codex, are the ones that have no glaring best unit, one where each player can make a force that they enjoy both to build paint and play, and have reasonable chances of winning (barring stupidity or dice gods), but that being said even some of the best still devolve on the internet to web lists optomized for tourny play etc...can, and will happen, the IG spring to mind, one of the most extensive and versatile codex, and all you see toted is the valk spam.

Tau have always been a bit of Finess/combined arms playstyle army with a glaring weakness, and its what made them truly different in the 40k game, hopefully (and it looks that way from the rumors) it will stay that way, just with alot more options..hopefully tons more options.

And as to bandwagoneers..more the merrier, plenty of room in the manta for them

I for one am looking forward to models I wont feel such a need to convert...err well I will likely still convert them a bit, but doing a forest camo XV104 will be alot of fun

Only bandwagen i saw where chaos.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Only bandwagen i saw where chaos.

You must be new here.

But seriously, accusations of bandwagon'ing come up with every 'OMG OP!' release.

Regarding the withdrawal of the Hammerhead...

Possible extra turret variants like Forge World in the new box?

I would be fine with one or two "broken" units in the tau book (possibly the flyers and Riptide Suit), I won't lie. I want that power to wield as I see fit, and rend my enemies asunder with super efficient killing power that is nearly unstoppable without a specific countermeasure.

That being said In the long run I want an overall balanced book with at least 3 or 4 viable ways to build an army list, so i can fiddle with lists and not get bored of a monothematic army.

Skyray is still available on the gw site, likely its due to it will become a one stop purchase for hammerhead/skyray needs, as it has been for several years for most people...I know I have not bought a hammerhead kit when a skyray was offered.

Maybe new box art or something, but will hope for more options...c'mon GW I have a huge tax return comming dont you want my money..make cool stuff!

And I dont have any friends of significant others to spend money on. Get this released soon before i spend it on more Subs.

Woah wait... the Skyray kit has the Hammerhead sprue in it?

Puscifer wrote:
Woah wait... the Skyray kit has the Hammerhead sprue in it?

Yep. Has for years.

 Rented Tritium wrote:

Puscifer wrote:
Woah wait... the Skyray kit has the Hammerhead sprue in it?

Yep. Has for years.

Well that I didn't know. Had I known, I would have bought a kit ages ago.

Puscifer wrote:

 Rented Tritium wrote:

Puscifer wrote:
Woah wait... the Skyray kit has the Hammerhead sprue in it?

Yep. Has for years.

Well that I didn't know. Had I known, I would have bought a kit ages ago.

What's more, it has cost exactly the same as a hammerhead box as well.

Get 'em before GW catches on and changes the boxes.

Well if there's any left in my flgs on Saturday, I'll be getting one. I can't see that deal lasting.

Has been that way from the start. Maybe because they missed that some parts from the Hammerhead sprue (e.g. SMS) are also needed for the Skyray.

 Kroothawk wrote:
Has been that way from the start. Maybe because they missed that some parts from the Hammerhead sprue (e.g. SMS) are also needed for the Skyray.

That's exactly what it was. I didn't get a hammerhead for the longest time until I knew I could pickup a skyray box because you had all three of the tau vehicles in one kit and making them easily swappable was really easy.

 Rented Tritium wrote:

Puscifer wrote:
Woah wait... the Skyray kit has the Hammerhead sprue in it?

Yep. Has for years.

I actually made a '1 star' review of the Hammerhead kit on Amazon trying to inform people they were getting ripped off.

Does anyone know if the Kroot or Fire Warrior models are new? I haven't heard rumors either way, but I have a feeling the boxes and art will be new, but I am curious about the models themselves.

Rumors are that Kroot are unchanged. Haven't heard anything about FWs yet.

 SickSix wrote:

 Rented Tritium wrote:

Puscifer wrote:
Woah wait... the Skyray kit has the Hammerhead sprue in it?

Yep. Has for years.

I actually made a '1 star' review of the Hammerhead kit on Amazon trying to inform people they were getting ripped off.

Just like a Chaos vindicator/ rhino/ predator/ landraider is just a loyalist one... with added goodies... at the same price...

Veskrashen wrote:
Rumors are that Kroot are unchanged. Haven't heard anything about FWs yet.

Thanks for the fast reply

Anyone notice that the Burst cannon on the Riptide has 5 barrels and not 4? I wonder if it is more stronger.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Anyone notice that the Burst cannon on the Riptide has 5 barrels and not 4? I wonder if it is more stronger.

I think it's actually 6 barrels. Since they're lined up, it's hiding the rearmost ones perfectly, something that wouldn't be possible with an odd number of barrels.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Anyone notice that the Burst cannon on the Riptide has 5 barrels and not 4? I wonder if it is more stronger.

Probably twin linked

I'd like to hope for both stronger and twin-linked.

Im fine with just stronger.
Please have a good BS.

More stronger...... Sigh

 Rented Tritium wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Anyone notice that the Burst cannon on the Riptide has 5 barrels and not 4? I wonder if it is more stronger.

I think it's actually 6 barrels. Since they're lined up, it's hiding the rearmost ones perfectly, something that wouldn't be possible with an odd number of barrels.

It does indeed appear to be 6, which makes sense in terms of the weapon options, you have the MEQ / Light Vehicle busting Ion weapon, the Tankbusting Railcannon, so if you are mounting the burst cannon you probably want volume of fire more so than a strength boost compared to the normal burst cannon.

Personally what I'm curious about is, we have seen it mount at least 3 weapons (shoulder missiles, burst cannon, underslung plasma) I also think it's chest appears to mount more missiles but who knows what the story is there. I wonder if it will be limited to firing two weapons like other MCs or able to fire more than that.

Could be one of the modes you get by re-routing power, an extra weapon to shoot instead of the buff to movement or invul save.

 Drunkspleen wrote:

 Rented Tritium wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Anyone notice that the Burst cannon on the Riptide has 5 barrels and not 4? I wonder if it is more stronger.

I think it's actually 6 barrels. Since they're lined up, it's hiding the rearmost ones perfectly, something that wouldn't be possible with an odd number of barrels.

It does indeed appear to be 6, which makes sense in terms of the weapon options, you have the MEQ / Light Vehicle busting Ion weapon, the Tankbusting Railcannon, so if you are mounting the burst cannon you probably want volume of fire more so than a strength boost compared to the normal burst cannon.

Personally what I'm curious about is, we have seen it mount at least 3 weapons (shoulder missiles, burst cannon, underslung plasma) I also think it's chest appears to mount more missiles but who knows what the story is there. I wonder if it will be limited to firing two weapons like other MCs or able to fire more than that.

Has it been confirmed that it is going to be a MC? Or could be the same case as with the Maulerfiend/Forgefiend and turn out to be a Walker?


Also off topic, is that picture, a picture of you, or are you also just a fan of the show that I recognize that person from?

 Drunkspleen wrote:

 Rented Tritium wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Anyone notice that the Burst cannon on the Riptide has 5 barrels and not 4? I wonder if it is more stronger.

I think it's actually 6 barrels. Since they're lined up, it's hiding the rearmost ones perfectly, something that wouldn't be possible with an odd number of barrels.

It does indeed appear to be 6, which makes sense in terms of the weapon options, you have the MEQ / Light Vehicle busting Ion weapon, the Tankbusting Railcannon, so if you are mounting the burst cannon you probably want volume of fire more so than a strength boost compared to the normal burst cannon.

Personally what I'm curious about is, we have seen it mount at least 3 weapons (shoulder missiles, burst cannon, underslung plasma) I also think it's chest appears to mount more missiles but who knows what the story is there. I wonder if it will be limited to firing two weapons like other MCs or able to fire more than that.

Also in one of the pics the shield has some kind of fusion weapon muzzles mounted on each side of the shield edge leading edge, so the Riptide may have ALOT of options, in one of the pics where its giving a breakdown of the various parts it also mentions the riptide can use the various battlesuit systems as well ( likely multitrackers, targeting arrys etc.)

Again heres hoping for a gimmickers dream of options .

We are going to need ALOT more magnets.

Now heres a concept to wrap your brains around...what if you can leave the joints unglued..and pose the riptide..pre battle mega cheese !

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Now heres a concept to wrap your brains around...what if you can leave the joints unglued..and pose the riptide..pre battle mega cheese !

Posing for advantage?

Yup, the more I look at the model the more ball and socket joints I see, and the weapons seem to just slot onto the arms...could be one of GWs most posable models.

Eldercaveman wrote:
Also off topic, is that picture, a picture of you, or are you also just a fan of the show that I recognize that person from?

It's not me, I just love the look on the guy's face.

Love the Riptide, Hope there's an option to put two huge guns on his shoulder instead of rocket launchers

 Drunkspleen wrote:

Eldercaveman wrote:
Also off topic, is that picture, a picture of you, or are you also just a fan of the show that I recognize that person from?

It's not me, I just love the look on the guy's face.

The episode of road cops he is from is even funnier. Anyway derailing the thread, best stop

streetsamurai wrote:
Love the Riptide, Hope there's an option to put two huge guns on his shoulder instead of rocket launchers

Assuming the design mimics existing xv-8 mounting points I would imagine its possible. However if the arms connect the weapons like the forgeworld suits then no.

Wait, it is a Jump MC right? Does that mean it cant deepstrike?
May got have mercy on those who see that thing come out of the air.

Until it mishaps.

And I've heard it's a jet pack MC as well -- perhaps it can switch movement modes between the two somehow.

Well, lets hop pathfinders still exist then

In one of the pics the text says it has a huge jetpack (the riptide that is) so its a big ole crisis suit or more likely related to the xv-9.

wait. This thing can get mass produced, but xv9's cant?

I think the XV-104 may be a "experimental" unit, but will not truly know much until codex is released..if I get a ritide or two, I will likely pair them with my XV-9 suits, could make for a pretty good fire/manuver base.

 tetrisphreak wrote:
Until it mishaps.

And I've heard it's a jet pack MC as well -- perhaps it can switch movement modes between the two somehow.

The flavor text suggests that the pilot has to manually regulate the power generation from an experimental reactor which allows for the jetpack to function.

Still not seeing enough anti-av 13&14 in these rumours.

(Wish-list warning)
I am really hoping to see Fusion Blasters get range 18".
Such a range increase combined with EMP grenades probably getting the Haywire rule would be enough to compensate for the railgun "repurposing/nerf"


Gotta say that I can not believe that the Kroot made it through to this 'dex completely unchanged. Their special rules are in dire need a rewrite.
Hopefully they loose the forest/jungle specific cover bonus and just get stealth.

Also want to see how the Vespid rules are. Hoping they get poison attacks in both HtH and their guns. That change plus grenades options would make them pretty useful.

{End Wish-list)


Wonder if the old rumour about Tau getting an open-topped transport could hint at the Tau getting the ability to fire out the D-fish side hatches. Sorta like how the Chimera "used" to suffer a negative from guardsmen firing out of the top hatch.

 focusedfire wrote:
Still not seeing enough anti-av 13&14 in these rumours.

(Wish-list warning)
I am really hoping to see Fusion Blasters get range 18".
Such a range increase combined with EMP grenades probably getting the Haywire rule would be enough to compensate for the railgun "repurposing/nerf"


Gotta say that I can not believe that the Kroot made it through to this 'dex completely unchanged. Their special rules are in dire need a rewrite.
Hopefully they loose the forest/jungle specific cover bonus and just get stealth.

Also want to see how the Vespid rules are. Hoping they get poison attacks in both HtH and their guns. That change plus grenades options would make them pretty useful.

{End Wish-list)


Wonder if the old rumour about Tau getting an open-topped transport could hint at the Tau getting the ability to fire out the D-fish side hatches. Sorta like how the Chimera "used" to suffer a negative from guardsmen firing out of the top hatch.

In the book "Fire Caste" they use an open topped skimmer called a "Cuttlefish" to get across a lake in one chapter. However it is described more like a johnboat than a combat ready vehicle plus there isn't a kit for it, so I suspect we won't be seeing it this year. Giving the devilfish a fire point or two, on the other hand, is a rules change I could get used to.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
wait. This thing can get mass produced, but xv9's cant?

Once the Riptide is mass produced, we'll put an end to the Imperium in no time!

You mean, add the imperium to our own.....for the greater good.

Well you know how fast tech can advance. Like us with our smart phones. The Riptide might be experimental now but in a couple years every Fire Warrior will be piloting one. The inevitable future which vexes the gak out of Tau haters.

Now i want a looted one.

I can so see that thing good and orked up..

(not a rumor)Farsight allows crisis for troops and has no limits on troops types. now we go all broadsides and 3 riptides drones maxed on everything. lol that force could either be a lot of fun or just a ridiculous battlesuit massacre

But....could you run 3 riptides?? Or do we think its gonna end up as 0-1 in our codex?

Wolfnid420 wrote:
(not a rumor)Farsight allows crisis for troops and has no limits on troops types. now we go all broadsides and 3 riptides drones maxed on everything. lol that force could either be a lot of fun or just a ridiculous battlesuit massacre

But....could you run 3 riptides?? Or do we think its gonna end up as 0-1 in our codex?

0-1 limits have largely been removed from the game as have minimum requirements.

Eldercaveman wrote:

Wolfnid420 wrote:
(not a rumor)Farsight allows crisis for troops and has no limits on troops types. now we go all broadsides and 3 riptides drones maxed on everything. lol that force could either be a lot of fun or just a ridiculous battlesuit massacre

But....could you run 3 riptides?? Or do we think its gonna end up as 0-1 in our codex?

0-1 limits have largely been removed from the game as have minimum requirements.

Yes, 0-1 restrictions on units limit sales. Not the thing to do with a big new shiny.

3 Riptides! lol potentially really dangerous.....potentially screwing yourself completely. Maybe each kitted to suit a specific purpose? one to munch inf, one to much tanks and MC and one to much high profile units?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and i love how everything always comes down to sales!

Any word on devilfish cost adjustment?

davou wrote:
Any word on devilfish cost adjustment?

This is probably one of the biggest things I'm looking at. What do they cost now? What weapons can they carry now? what kind of upgrades can they get. This is probably one of the biggest issues we curretnly have. And if GW messes the devilfish up even more, we won't have a competitive codex for sure. Transports = mobility = winning objective missions = competitive.

Got to say I am super excited for this release.

Love the new models, need a better look at the broadsides though and cannot wait to get some new fluff. Please let there be new fluff!

Can anyone enlighten me as to when White Dwarf will drop in the UK?

 caminacambob wrote:
Got to say I am super excited for this release.

Love the new models, need a better look at the broadsides though and cannot wait to get some new fluff. Please let there be new fluff!

Can anyone enlighten me as to when White Dwarf will drop in the UK?

It's normally the last Saturday of the month I believe, but this month has 5 Saturdays and I can't remember if WD comes out a week or two weeks before a release (which we know to be the 6th)

I'm another one who eagerly wants to learn about the Devilfish now. All units within 6" getting to overwatch means you're going to want 2-3 units watching eachother's back, but footslogging tau are too easy to pick off. Bring it down to 50pts and I'll be happy enough. Can't see the weapon loadout changing though.

 Davylove21 wrote:
I'm another one who eagerly wants to learn about the Devilfish now. All units within 6" getting to overwatch means you're going to want 2-3 units watching eachother's back, but footslogging tau are too easy to pick off. Bring it down to 50pts and I'll be happy enough. Can't see the weapon loadout changing though.

I think it is the little details and tweaks, if any, that will make or break this codex. If everything is largely the same but with a nerfed broadside and an expensive large kit to compensate then the release will be pretty lackluster. However, all of the possible adjustments they could have made to established units could make this ruleset really great.

I still think that the change to the Broadsides is asinine and that the new models (with the exception of the Pathfinders) are all a heap of overpriced, uninspired gak but I still have hope that Vetock did something right with the small stuff that can really enhance the Tau both thematically and in gameplay.

 SonicPara wrote:

 Davylove21 wrote:
I'm another one who eagerly wants to learn about the Devilfish now. All units within 6" getting to overwatch means you're going to want 2-3 units watching eachother's back, but footslogging tau are too easy to pick off. Bring it down to 50pts and I'll be happy enough. Can't see the weapon loadout changing though.

I think it is the little details and tweaks, if any, that will make or break this codex. If everything is largely the same but with a nerfed broadside and an expensive large kit to compensate then the release will be pretty lackluster. However, all of the possible adjustments they could have made to established units could make this ruleset really great.

I still think that the change to the Broadsides is asinine and that the new models (with the exception of the Pathfinders) are all a heap of overpriced, uninspired gak but I still have hope that Vetock did something right with the small stuff that can really enhance the Tau both thematically and in gameplay.

Totally agree, I like all the new stuff (it's still terribly overpriced) but there are still only 3 new units there, the core of the Tau army still exists as it is. My worry is that the rules produce the same 'meh' response DA did for me. I'd rather totally hate a book than feel indifferent to it. If Ethereals find a place and we can get an extra squad of Tau w/ DFish into our lists at 1500 points I'll be happy.

It looks to me from the rumours that Tau have been taken the route of dissuading attackers from CC rather than competing in CC themselves, which fits perfectly in my eyes!

It looks to me from the rumours that Tau have been taken the route of dissuading attackers from CC rather than competing in CC themselves, which fits perfectly in my eyes!

Exactly, a great change to game mechanics without invalidating previous fluff or the theme of the army. I say well played.

Been quietly lurking in this thread for awhile... Kinda watching the back and forth over the possibilities upcoming for he greater good. Well, I couldn't keep quiet any longer and just had to post up something developed for a Dreadknight tau suit conversion I made a few years ago. The rules were developed by myself, some Dakkite input, and some help from some fellas over at Advanced Tau Tactica. The link goes to the actual main post, but if you just wanna check out the rules we developed and see how "similar" some of them are to what is rumored... Could've been a GW rules developer lurking around when I did this

http://advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17743


XV-12 SUPPRESSOR WARDRONE………………………………….175 Points
FOC: Heavy Support
WS2 BS3(4) S6 T6 W4 I2 A3 Ld10 Sv3+
Unit: 1x XV-12 Suppressor Wardrone
Unit Type: Monstrous Creature
Wargear: Targeting Array (BS bonus included above), Defensive Grenades
Special Rules: Acute Senses, Emergency Power

Emergency Power: since the Wardrones do not have a living pilot, they can use a somewhat dangerous Fusion Overload Generator to divert power to critical systems depending on the tactical situation. At the beginning of each Tau Player Turn, the controlling player may choose one of the following options, which will remain in effect until the beginning of the next Tau Player Turn:

* Emergency Power to Shields!: only available if the XV-12 has a Shield Generator; the model may not Run, Assault, or move in the Assault Phase, but improves its invulnerable save to 3+. If it fails any of these invulnerable saves, its Shield Generator ceases to function for the rest of the game.

* Activate Afterburners!: only available if the XV-12 has an XV Macro Jump-Pack; the model moves like a Jetbike instead of Jetpack Infantry, and must make a Turbo-boost move this turn (suffering from the normal consequences). It must make a Dangerous Terrain Test at the end of this move.

* Weapons Free!: the XV may not move, Run, assault, more move in the assault phase, but may fire all of its shooting weapons. All shooting weapons gain the Twinlinked and Gets Hot! qualities.

Options:
May take any of the following upgrades:
* Blacksun Filter (+3 pts)
* Multi-Tracker (+10 pts)
* Positional Relay (+15 pts)
* Shield Generator (+20 pts)
* Target Lock (+10 pts)
* Vectored Retro-thrusters (+25 pts)
* Iridium Armor (+10 pts)
* XV Macro jump-pack (+60 pts)

May take up to two of the following weapons (mounted on the arms):
* Short-barreled Railgun (+45 pts)
* Ion Cannon (+20 pts)
* Heavy Flamer (+15 pts)
* Twinlinked Burst Cannon (+5 pts)

May take up to two of the following (mounted on the shoulder):
* Smart Missile System (+15 pts)
* Heavy Missile Pods (+25 pts)
* Seeker Missile (+10 pts)

Wargear (any not mentioned follow the rules for Crisis Suit wargear in the Tau Codex):
- Iridium Armor: improves the XV-12's armor save to 2+, but also gives it the Slow and Purposeful USR
- Multi-Tracker: permits the XV-12 to fire one additional weapon in the shooting phase (for a total of 3)
- Shield Generator: grants the XV-12 a 5+ invulnerable save.
- Target Lock: allows the XV-12 to fire its shooting weapons at two target units; all shooting must be declared before any rolls to hit.
- XV-Macro Jump-pack: An XV-12 equipped with this moves in the same manner as Jetpack Infantry, although it retains all of the other properties of a Monstrous Creature, including the Move Through Cover USR. This model also gains the ability to Deepstrike.

Weapons:
- Short-Barreled Railgun: may be fired in one of the following modes:
--- Projectile: 60" S10 AP1 Heavy 1
--- Submunition: 60" S6 AP4 Heavy 1 Large Blast

- Heavy Missile Pod: 48" S7 AP4 Heavy 2 Twinlinked, Anti-Air

I don't really think this is the time or place to even try and go into this, kudos to you for the work, but there's very little point in even trying to hash this particular line of thought out, so it'd be best if we just left it at this and moved on.

Thanks.

At first glance, one of the better releases of the last 12 months. Riptide looks like fun to build and I love the new Broadside too. Also, "Yay" for plastic Pathfinders.

The Sun Shark (or whatever it's called) joins a long list of oddly designed fliers for which I have no use for anyway (currently ignoring the fliers rules).

Ravengardt from Faeit 212 inbox wrote:- Aliens are out. No Kroot, no nothing.
- There will be some kind of supplement with alien allies. With Kroot,
Vespids and a race described in "The Greater Good" novel. I don't know
when, I don't know if it's a codex or WD thing or anything.
- Broadside Railguns can choose each round if: Str 8 Ap1/ Str 6 AP3 blast
- Tank/ Riptide Railguns have Str 10 AP1, I don't know about the fire
modes.
- Tank commander gives skyfire to the tanks

No Aliens sounds odd. Riptide Railgun sounds odd as well.

Thumbs down for no Kroot.

 Kroothawk wrote:

Ravengardt from Faeit 212 inbox wrote:- Aliens are out. No Kroot, no nothing.
- There will be some kind of supplement with alien allies. With Kroot,
Vespids and a race described in "The Greater Good" novel. I don't know
when, I don't know if it's a codex or WD thing or anything.
- Broadside Railguns can choose each round if: Str 8 Ap1/ Str 6 AP3 blast
- Tank/ Riptide Railguns have Str 10 AP1, I don't know about the fire
modes.
- Tank commander gives skyfire to the tanks

No ALiens sounds odd.

I hope the kroot thing is false, i spent A LOT of money converting stuff for 1000 pts+ of my army to be kroot based and looted/hack kroot models.....very sad, very very sad if so.

 Kroothawk wrote:

No ALiens sounds odd.

Tau retconned to blue, noseless abhumans? NOOOOOOOOO!

i even named my army the Carnivores of Tash'var

Looks like i have Skyfire for my marines
:( looks like my 16 kroot go bye bye

I really have trouble believing that part about the Kroot, mostly because I don't want to. Removing two units, one of which people had many models, and putting them into an additional book? That's pretty messed up. Just giving us the standard troop and giving an expansion from that in a supplement, would be fine. That's what it's supposed to be. If it's the other way, it's just messed up. A lot of people have Kroot and were looking forward to fielding models they paid for.

I should get a score board for these rumors though. Every time someone says Riptide has a Railcannon, another says it doesn't. Every time someone says Kroot are in, another says Kroot are out.

I remember thinking it was insane they were going to do that with the Daemons codex and army books...

 Kroothawk wrote:

Ravengardt from Faeit 212 inbox wrote:- Aliens are out. No Kroot, no nothing.
- There will be some kind of supplement with alien allies. With Kroot,
Vespids and a race described in "The Greater Good" novel. I don't know
when, I don't know if it's a codex or WD thing or anything.
- Broadside Railguns can choose each round if: Str 8 Ap1/ Str 6 AP3 blast
- Tank/ Riptide Railguns have Str 10 AP1, I don't know about the fire
modes.
- Tank commander gives skyfire to the tanks

No Aliens sounds odd. Riptide Railgun sounds odd as well.

It does sound odd but they have done this before with the old undead and chaos book for warhammer, as well as the old kislev stuff in the old empire book as well if I remember correctly. Don't know if they have done it recently though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wait they did it with the Leman Russ in the Space Wolf book didn't they?

 Riker210 wrote:
i even named my army the Carnivores of Tash'var

If they do this nonsence, feel free to just use your kroot models counting as orks. You'll get better bang for your buck anyway.

Kroot fluff, Ork stats!

I hope that Riptide gets some kind of BASIC equipment for free otherwise it's going to be unusable at 175 pts base + a ton for actual upgrades.

I do hope that the kroot rumors listed above are untrue. I'm ok with leaving the kroot and vespid as is with the very limited options they currently have so that they get more expanded units (and models) in some future ally book supplement... but I don't think it's appropriate to limit them further or god forbid remove them entirely from the codex proper.

I agree, this is stupid.
Tau are unique because they have army that doesn't only consists of their own race. Take that away and you basically have just another vanilla alien faction - booooring....

On the other hand, maybe GW are aiming for players to have Tau army, Kroot army, Vespid army and Gue'vesha army separately one from another ( via that "alien codex" that will be introduced in Tau codex ).

I wonder if an allies supplement would also serve as a central location for harlequin updates.

I find it curious that we still don't have a picture of the codex art. It's obvious that the leaked pics have come from WD, why no codex cover?

 Kirasu wrote:
I hope that Riptide gets some kind of BASIC equipment for free otherwise it's going to be unusable at 175 pts base + a ton for actual upgrades.

Don't be tossed by the thing posted on the last page. That entire "Codex Entry" was complete and total Fan spank (and bad fan-spank at that). Why someone thought it was a good idea to post said fan-spank in THIS of all threads, I'll never know.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if the Riptide is like Dreadknight and starts out (relatively) cheap but ends up costing as much as a Land Raider to get the most out of it.

 Kroothawk wrote:

Ravengardt from Faeit 212 inbox wrote:- Aliens are out. No Kroot, no nothing.
- There will be some kind of supplement with alien allies. With Kroot,
Vespids and a race described in "The Greater Good" novel. I don't know
when, I don't know if it's a codex or WD thing or anything.
- Broadside Railguns can choose each round if: Str 8 Ap1/ Str 6 AP3 blast
- Tank/ Riptide Railguns have Str 10 AP1, I don't know about the fire
modes.
- Tank commander gives skyfire to the tanks

No Aliens sounds odd. Riptide Railgun sounds odd as well.

Agreed. I don't believe these rumors because they directly contradict the earlier claims re: Kroot and Vespid by neko, who proved himself to be reliable by discussing the new Pathfinder drone that slots into a Devilfish prior to the leak of the picture showing this. Further I think that if Riptides had a Railgun option we would already have seen it. That throws the veracity of the rest of this batch of rumors into question as well.

Yeah, I also don't see any point including Vespids in separate "allies" supplement. MAYBE Kroot, if some other races could take them as mercenaries, like old Kroot Mercs supplement. But Vespid are as integral part of the Tau Empire as any Tau sept, so what they would need a separate book for?

If they end up taking out kroot temporarily until an allies book comes out, you can always play with your kroot models as "counts as" ork allies. The result will be VERY similar on the table.

So, anyone think that Tau will get some sort of access to the psychic charts without taking allies?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, anyone know the release date of the WD in the US?

Unless they botch their lore. No they wont.
Lets hope they don't pull Necron and give the Psychic powers w/o the psychic.

Wolfnid420 wrote:
So, anyone think that Tau will get some sort of access to the psychic charts without taking allies?

I doubt it. There were earlier rumors of a new race in the Tau Empire that would have psychic abilities but I suspect it would have leaked with the other WD stuff by now if that were the case.

Hmm... no Kroot would be a shame, but if they're trying to redefine the feel of the Tau codex in the same manner as the Chaos Space Marines / Chaos Daemons split, then it would not be a total shock to me.

That allies book needs to follow sharpish though...

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Unless they botch their lore. No they wont.
Lets hope they don't pull Necron and give the Psychic powers w/o the psychic.

Why not, they gave em to us before. We just called them Markerlights.

Just want to check, are Broadsides changing base size? I seem to remember reading they were going up to a 60mm base.

Neko over on Warseer confirmed that Kroot and Vespid are in the codex.

Broadsides will be on 60mm bases.

They indeed are.
I also hope that ap3 blast for broadsides is true.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
They indeed are.
I also hope that ap3 blast for broadsides is true.

Think the blast rumor might be a garble / wishlist based on the Riptide Ion overload shot we've heard about. Especially since the rest of those rumors are crap, and we've heard that submunitions are upgrades on Hammerheads.

Cheers, people.

When I saw the price for the new suit I hurried over to the GW site...sure enough, if you want Broadsides, the Broadside upgrade sprues are still available, and the new suit makes their price look reasonable.

 Fezman wrote:
Cheers, people.

When I saw the price for the new suit I hurried over to the GW site...sure enough, if you want Broadsides, the Broadside upgrade sprues are still available, and the new suit makes their price look reasonable.

Does it? It's £24.5 for a Crisis Suit + Broadside upgrade pack.

Compared to that, it's not so bad paying £30 for a new suit that is something like 50% bulkier, actually looks like it deserves a 2+ save compared to the Crisis' 3+, comes with oodles of new upgrade parts and doesn't involve filling in air bubbles and trying to heat-bend two Failcast railguns into a straight line.

 Kingsley wrote:

 Kroothawk wrote:

Ravengardt from Faeit 212 inbox wrote:- Aliens are out. No Kroot, no nothing.
- There will be some kind of supplement with alien allies. With Kroot,
Vespids and a race described in "The Greater Good" novel. I don't know
when, I don't know if it's a codex or WD thing or anything.
- Broadside Railguns can choose each round if: Str 8 Ap1/ Str 6 AP3 blast
- Tank/ Riptide Railguns have Str 10 AP1, I don't know about the fire
modes.
- Tank commander gives skyfire to the tanks

No Aliens sounds odd. Riptide Railgun sounds odd as well.

Agreed. I don't believe these rumors because they directly contradict the earlier claims re: Kroot and Vespid by neko, who proved himself to be reliable by discussing the new Pathfinder drone that slots into a Devilfish prior to the leak of the picture showing this. Further I think that if Riptides had a Railgun option we would already have seen it. That throws the veracity of the rest of this batch of rumors into question as well.

I really hope rumors of a new Tau codex without Kroot allies is not true. If so, my 101 Kroots and 50 hounds weep. I really love my Kroots. There's nothing like infiltrating en masse. With the current Fire Warriors being really popular in 6th ed, I was hoping GW would somehow buff Kroots to boost sales.

If the Railgun s rumored to be Heavy 1 Str8 AP1 / Large Blast Str6 AP3, then it's speculative that a Rail Cannon will be Heavy 1 Str 10 AP1 / Large Blast Str8 AP2. If that's the case, Forge World will have to update Manta and Tiger Shark to be equally more more destructive.

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 Fezman wrote:
Cheers, people.

When I saw the price for the new suit I hurried over to the GW site...sure enough, if you want Broadsides, the Broadside upgrade sprues are still available, and the new suit makes their price look reasonable.

Does it? It's £24.5 for a Crisis Suit + Broadside upgrade pack.

Compared to that, it's not so bad paying £30 for a new suit that is something like 50% bulkier, actually looks like it deserves a 2+ save compared to the Crisis' 3+, comes with oodles of new upgrade parts and doesn't involve filling in air bubbles and trying to heat-bend two Failcast railguns into a straight line.

All fair points, I should point out that I was already collecting a Tau army (99% unassembled at the moment) and put it on hold when the new book started to look imminent, so I did already have the Battlesuits to use them on.

As for miscasts...that is certainly a gamble with direct only stuff.

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 Fezman wrote:
Cheers, people.

When I saw the price for the new suit I hurried over to the GW site...sure enough, if you want Broadsides, the Broadside upgrade sprues are still available, and the new suit makes their price look reasonable.

Does it? It's £24.5 for a Crisis Suit + Broadside upgrade pack.

Compared to that, it's not so bad paying £30 for a new suit that is something like 50% bulkier, actually looks like it deserves a 2+ save compared to the Crisis' 3+, comes with oodles of new upgrade parts and doesn't involve filling in air bubbles and trying to heat-bend two Failcast railguns into a straight line.

The cheapest broadsides right now is to buy a whole metal broadsides kit, then get a torso, head and legs from a bitz site and making 1 crisis and 1 broadsides out of the box. The price per suit is quite a bit lower that way.

 Rented Tritium wrote:

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 Fezman wrote:
Cheers, people.

When I saw the price for the new suit I hurried over to the GW site...sure enough, if you want Broadsides, the Broadside upgrade sprues are still available, and the new suit makes their price look reasonable.

Does it? It's £24.5 for a Crisis Suit + Broadside upgrade pack.

Compared to that, it's not so bad paying £30 for a new suit that is something like 50% bulkier, actually looks like it deserves a 2+ save compared to the Crisis' 3+, comes with oodles of new upgrade parts and doesn't involve filling in air bubbles and trying to heat-bend two Failcast railguns into a straight line.

The cheapest broadsides right now is to buy a whole metal broadsides kit, then get a torso, head and legs from a bitz site and making 1 crisis and 1 broadsides out of the box. The price per suit is quite a bit lower that way.

Also you could get the FW Broadsides. They are the same price as what is shown in the box art pictures for the new Broadsides. And they come with 60mm bases. Granted you don't get all the potentially cool extra bits.

Well, being the source of this No Alien on Tau Codex a e-mail on the Faeit account, im not going to believe, Naftka actually nailed some things, but the ones who were also confirmed on Warseer and ATT. I`ll pick no salt, since i dont believe anything this rumor says, Broadside are going to become Anti-Air unir ¿Why do they need a Blast? Simple, no way its gonna happen.

And even if it were to be true, i will gladly exchange that blast wich im not goin to use most games, to take Kroots and Vespids, specially if the last ones actually become a worthy unit to bring to the table.

Is there any idea if the Broadside unit size is changing? I find it odd that three model infantry unit is going to cost $150.

 Savageconvoy wrote:
Is there any idea if the Broadside unit size is changing? I find it odd that three model infantry unit is going to cost $150.

GW charges $100 for 4 Bloodknights (even smaller then Broadsides), so that isn't odd for them at all.

 Savageconvoy wrote:
Is there any idea if the Broadside unit size is changing? I find it odd that three model infantry unit is going to cost $150.

Slightly cheaper than a 3 man Carnifex squad, and it looks like they are going to a 60mm base so it would not be unheard of.

I love Tau models, always have, but does anyone else feel the giant gundam suit is pretty silly? I understand the manga aesthetic of the army, but the model looks like a ridiculous kitbash to me.

Thokt wrote:
I love Tau models, always have, but does anyone else feel the giant gundam suit is pretty silly? I understand the manga aesthetic of the army, but the model looks like a ridiculous kitbash to me.

Most kitbashes wouldn't have scrawny legs with the entire mech supported by it's tip toes.

I don't think it's silly though. There is plenty of sources with giant support mechs.

Thokt wrote:
I love Tau models, always have, but does anyone else feel the giant gundam suit is pretty silly? I understand the manga aesthetic of the army, but the model looks like a ridiculous kitbash to me.

The head looks completely disproportionate to the rest of the body. I wish its shoulder pauldrons was beefier. Other then that, the suit looks fine to me. Aesthetics can be subjective of course.

Well if you think about it, a bigger head isnt needed and may be a detriment. All you need is the sensor on the eye, a small head can performe it just well enough.

That's something I never understood about the suit. People complain that the head looks too small. Why would it be big? It's only fashioned as a head because that's how humanoids associate the orientation with vision. It's just a sensor array though, would it really need anything larger than a Crisis suit?

I agree. I honestly always thought the head on the Crisis Suit itself was somewhat too big, since the pilot's head is actually inside the torso of the suit-- I believe the horizontal line just above the armor seam on the suit's upper torso is supposed to be an emergency vision slit for the pilot.

Weak Ankle Syndrome will be the downfall of the Riptide.

GW literally gave it the same ankle/foot design as the regular Crisis suit.

I'm surprised the thing even stands upright on it's own at all.

So there rumor is that there is no non-Tau units in the new book. Does that worry anyone else that are unit selection (which was already really low compared to most armies) just go lower. I mean of the top of my head this is what I can see per slot.

HQ: Farsight, Shadowsun, Ethreal, Aun-shi, Fireblades

Elites: Crisis Suits, Riptide

Troops:Firewarriors, Stealthsuits, Devilfish

Fast: Sunshark, Razorshark, Pirahana, Pathfinders

Heavy: Broadsides, Hammerhead, Skyray, Snipers Team??

Did I miss anything? I hope I did because that is a really thin list. Chaos Space Marines have a list of elites almost as big as our codex so far. I'm just very concerned.

Unless there are more units that arent in there.

Coyote81 wrote:
So there rumor is that there is no non-Tau units in the new book. Does that worry anyone else that are unit selection (which was already really low compared to most armies) just go lower. I mean of the top of my head this is what I can see per slot.

Rumors are mixed, but I have faith in neko's claim that Kroot and Vespid will still be in the book.

Stealth as troops sounds excellent as long as they reduce their costs a little. My friend will finally be able to make the "all battlesuit" list he's always wanted.

Are there pics of the new broadsides or do I have to wade through 50 pages of thread for a second time?

More importantly, would it be out of the question for someone to possibly repost them as a reply if they're available rather then telling me "they're on the last 3 quarters of page 37 idiot, buy some glasses"? I'd very much appreciate that, but I'm not holding out much hope.

It would be really great if Kroothawk got to make this thread, he always keeps his roundups and OPs up-to-date. :p

 scarletsquig wrote:
Are there pics of the new broadsides or do I have to wade through 50 pages of thread for a second time?

More importantly, would it be out of the question for someone to possibly repost them as a reply if they're available rather then telling me "they're on the last 3 quarters of page 37 idiot, buy some glasses"? I'd very much appreciate that, but I'm not holding out much hope.

It would be really great if Kroothawk got to make this thread, he always keeps his roundups and OPs up-to-date. :p

Have you tried the first page? They usually update that with the latest and greatest updates.

Had to check myself. It is on the first page. We haven't gotten new pics outside the initial and second sets.

 Rented Tritium wrote:
If they end up taking out kroot temporarily until an allies book comes out, you can always play with your kroot models as "counts as" ork allies. The result will be VERY similar on the table.

Thats why I own almost 200 kroot minis

Pretty sure the Kroot and Vespids are still there, the entire argument that they are not is based on the fact that we haven't seen them pop up in any photos, but thats not really a strong argument, as they are trying to primarily showcase the new minis, not remind people of whats been available for a decade now.

Coyote81 wrote:
So there rumor is that there is no non-Tau units in the new book. Does that worry anyone else that are unit selection (which was already really low compared to most armies) just go lower. I mean of the top of my head this is what I can see per slot.

HQ: Farsight, Shadowsun, Ethreal, Aun-shi, Fireblades

Elites: Crisis Suits, Riptide

Troops:Firewarriors, Stealthsuits, Devilfish

Fast: Sunshark, Razorshark, Pirahana, Pathfinders

Heavy: Broadsides, Hammerhead, Skyray, Snipers Team??

Did I miss anything? I hope I did because that is a really thin list. Chaos Space Marines have a list of elites almost as big as our codex so far. I'm just very concerned.

Well I think Kroot and vespid will be in the book as well as gun drones. Also consider the inherent mutability of our crisis suits means that we can take 2 very different units depending on weapon load outs.

Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:
Stealth as troops sounds excellent as long as they reduce their costs a little. My friend will finally be able to make the "all battlesuit" list he's always wanted.

I don't think this is very likely, to be honest-- especially since the Tau Elites slot looks rather barren without Stealth Suits, with only Crisis Suits and the new Riptide. It's certainly possible for a book to only have two choices in a slot, but I would be surprised to see it. It seems likely to me that the Codex will look more like this:

HQ (4 generic options, 4-5 special characters):
Commander Shas'el, Commander Shas'O, Commander Farsight, Commander Shadowsun (I doubt these will remain 1+ choices)
Ethereal, Aun'Shi, Aun'Va
Cadre Fireblade, potentially the Pathfinder character (Nightstrider) if he isn't an upgrade character

Elites (3 generic options):
Crisis Battlesuit Team
Stealthsuit Team
Riptide Battlesuit

Troops (2 generic options)
Tau Fire Warrior Team
Kroot Carnivore Squad

Fast Attack (5-6 generic options, 0-1 special character)
Razorshark Fighter
Sunshark Bomber (if not Heavy Support)
Piranha
Pathfinders (with Nightstrider if he is an upgrade character)
Gun Drone Team (potentially with other new Drone options added)
Vespid Stingwing Strain

Heavy Support (4-5 generic options, 1 special character)
Sunshark Bomber (if not Fast Attack)
Broadside Battlesuit Team
Sniper Drone Team
Hammerhead Gunship (with special tank commander upgrade option)
Skyray Missile Defense Gunship (potentially with special tank commander upgrade option)

Under that model Fast Attack looks like a much more densely packed slot than Heavy Support, so I suspect the bomber will be a Heavy Support rather than Fast Attack unit. Also it may be possible to move Pathfinders to Troops with Nightstrider. I doubt that Stealthsuits will move to Troops because many armies have few Troops options (most Space Marine books only have two, albeit potentially with force organization swaps), but to the best of my knowledge no armies have only two Elites choices. Even Sisters, with their White Dwarf Codex, have three.

It's also possible that the Cadre Fireblade will be an Elites option similar to Ecclesiarchy Preachers in the Sisters book, but I doubt this will happen.

 Kingsley wrote:

Wolfnid420 wrote:
So, anyone think that Tau will get some sort of access to the psychic charts without taking allies?

I doubt it. There were earlier rumors of a new race in the Tau Empire that would have psychic abilities but I suspect it would have leaked with the other WD stuff by now if that were the case.

The main issue I could see is finding sculptors at GW willing to make what looks like a cross between a polar bear and a flounder and people willing to buy them.

Niccassar work for Battlefleet Gothic, don't work where people can see their goofy appearance.

Well based on the fact that all the battle boxes (Except for DA, unless you make the speeder into Sammel) come with two troop choices. And the new Tau battle box comes with Crisis suits, stealth suits, and fire warriors (not enough for two units from what I remember) and a piranha. One of those units has to become troops as well. I think it will be stealthsuits.

Coyote81 wrote:
Well based on the fact that all the battle boxes (Except for DA, unless you make the speeder into Sammel) come with two troop choices.

That isn't true, though. The Imperial Guard, Chaos Space Marines, and Dark Angels Battleforces all have only one Troops unit.

 Kingsley wrote:

Coyote81 wrote:
Well based on the fact that all the battle boxes (Except for DA, unless you make the speeder into Sammel) come with two troop choices.

That isn't true, though. The Imperial Guard, Chaos Space Marines, and Dark Angels Battleforces all have only one Troops unit.

For the Imperial Guard Battle Force though, one can just use the infantry squads as (ill equiped) Veteran squads. I think most likely GW expects players to split the Fire Warriors into two squads.

 Kroothawk wrote:

Ravengardt from Faeit 212 inbox wrote:- Aliens are out. No Kroot, no nothing.
- There will be some kind of supplement with alien allies. With Kroot,
Vespids and a race described in "The Greater Good" novel. I don't know
when, I don't know if it's a codex or WD thing or anything.
- Broadside Railguns can choose each round if: Str 8 Ap1/ Str 6 AP3 blast
- Tank/ Riptide Railguns have Str 10 AP1, I don't know about the fire
modes.
- Tank commander gives skyfire to the tanks

No Aliens sounds odd. Riptide Railgun sounds odd as well.

This is just silly -sounds like serious wishlist to me.
Goes against most everything we have heard.

Moving on are there any decent pics of.the broadside any where?
I.have been considering moddding my xv9 for them, also looking for more details on their weapon loadouts

Honestly though, it really seems like we're missing some Force Org manipulation here, I mean, unless that's a strictly SM thing.

I kinda like that, It fits with the tau having a rigid combat doctrine.
Now. I have to see if i cant remove the hatch from my devilfish for the new giant drone.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I kinda like that, It fits with the tau having a rigid combat doctrine.
Now. I have to see if i cant remove the hatch from my devilfish for the new giant drone.

I suppose. I've been wanting to field an all suit army forever though. And if Battlesuits become troops I have an excellent opportunity to do just that. I mean hell, Faright with his death bomb, a regular commander with a guard, 3 riptides, 6 max units of crisis suits, 9 broadsides, and 9 hazards for Apoc games? Yes please.

whoever said there isn't kroot, I think is kidding themselves. Just because we haven't heard about them does not mean they packed up and left. It means there is no interst about them from the rumor gathers and the GW people haven't done anything to them that warrants, in their opinion, a feature on them. They even have a kroot model in the BRB. Why would they then go and remove kroot from existence?

To put them in an allied codex, to sell to more people who aren't just Tau players...

I think Kroot will still be in the codex. But probably no new units.

Then, when the Mercenary Codex come out, I bet we see Kroot special characters and new units.

 SickSix wrote:
I think Kroot will still be in the codex. But probably no new units.

Then, when the Mercenary Codex come out, I bet we see Kroot special characters and new units.

And i will be happy for that, a seperate codex treatment means more cool stuff (hopefully) Gnarloc, krootox, cav, flyers all kinds of possibilities, I have a ton of kroot and I want krooty ways to use them

I would be fine with that, if that allies book came out right now. Even with an allies codex, it's very ill omen that our basic codex has about half as many units as every other 6th ed codex.

 Kingsley wrote:

Coyote81 wrote:
Well based on the fact that all the battle boxes (Except for DA, unless you make the speeder into Sammel) come with two troop choices.

That isn't true, though. The Imperial Guard, Chaos Space Marines, and Dark Angels Battleforces all have only one Troops unit.

Imperial guard can easily field those as CCS and vets. Chaos Space marines come with 10 CSMs so can field two units. DAs work if you field the LS as Sammel's saberclaw, you get two 3 man biker squads. I guess the Tau army can have 2 6 man firewarriors, but they tend to give you more troops, if they're cheap and weak. that why i think stealthsuits are going to troop. That and they still fail to compete with the other options in the elite slot. Still don't know why people choose stealthsuits of crisis suits in their lists.

well..we currently dont know what all is in the upcoming codex..and its not so much the number of unit entries as the quality and versatility of those units, I dont mind a few unit choices, when those uints have tons of options and upgrades.

But again we will have to wait and see, and try not to get a "sky is falling" vibe going.

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
well..we currently dont know what all is in the upcoming codex..and its not so much the number of unit entries as the quality and versatility of those units, I dont mind a few unit choices, when those uints have tons of options and upgrades.

But again we will have to wait and see, and try not to get a "sky is falling" vibe going.

Funny how the massive Railgun nerf didn't provoke a "sky is falling!" response but the removal of what, from I've seen and the battles I've fought, is an incredible useless species, is.