Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Update #2:




Update:

New rumours from Stickmonkey regarding a Codex Tau Empire supplement:

Anonymous source on faeit212, probably Stickmonkey wrote:
Tau Mercs

another Tau Supplement is in the works, it lines up with a few other rumours I've heard about the Tau before it was released to the world. Vespid and Kroot HQ choices, and the ability to play a non "Tau" Lists.

Stickmonkey on Faeit 212 wrote:
I have a little more on the Tau mercs supplement.

First, I was told this wasnt planned be out til Q1.

Second, I was told that either this or one of the eldar supplements would be the first with a model wave to go along with it. I wasnt told which models or which eldar supplement.

warning: what follows is my speculation

My best guesses are a plastic pack kroot hq, which I saw in design before. This would be a slightly bigger kroot than the current troops. Had a tau rifle, not a kroot gun. A bit more armor than a standard kroot. Standing on a rock in a "crossing the Delaware" pose. Caveat that this was still in CAD, lots can change, and it was last fall.

Also a vespid plastic kit thats been ready for a while.

My eldar guess would be the first round of the plastic aspects with beil-tan.

When the tau dex was released I went back to my sources about the allied races not getting support after seeing so much studio work on them, and this was eventually what I was told.

There is also a rumour (confirmed?) that the printed version of Codex Farsight will be released in October.



Old post:
It has been mentioned briefly in other threads, but figured it deserved its own.

In the White Dwarf there is this little blurb:

Commander O'Shovah is a maverick, a greatly admired military leader who has broken ranks with the Tau Empire and carved out a highly militarised region on the edge of Tau space, known as the Farsight Enclave.

This expansion for Codex: Tau Empire, available for iPad, explores the breakaway Farsight Enclave in greater detail than ever. It contains new background, a timeline of events, rules for using your Tau Empire collection and a glorious gallery of Citadel miniatures painted in the colours of the Farsight Enclave by the 'Eavy Metal team and the Design Studio army painters. This is the perfect compaion for your Tau Empire codex on the iPad.

As a long time Tau player I gotta say I'm both very thrilled and deeply disappointed.

Will be so sweet to finally se long passages of fluff and artwork of one of the more intriguing facets of the Empire - and especially the rules. But iPad only? Hope this at least gets converted to either PC or Android as a lot of the other stuff has. But can't see why Iyanden got a hard back release, but Farsight is relegated to digital only... Hope sales will prompt them to make it in book format.

No word on release date in the WD. Can someone with an iPad check if it's already out?

EDIT:
This picture went up as a teaser:



Translated it says: "Independence from the empire. Join the rebellion."

Still no definite word on digital only vs. printed version.

It isn't up for preorder yet.

Well, if this had been 8ish years ago, I would have probably exploded- he was my favorite tau character.

Cool it's happening, lame that it's ipad and probably absurdly overpriced, either way.

I'm guessing it will be a similar release to the Iyanden supplement.

Limited edition hardback - £50
Hard back - £30
Ibook version (Ipad/Iphone) - £30
Ebook (epub file without the bells and whistles like ibook version) - £20

Can't see them differing in pricing and format too much from what they did there...

...touchwoodthecostdoesntincrease!

I was at a local tournament today (1750points) and out of 6 Tau players there were only 3 Crisis Suits in TOTAL! The Riptide is just sturdier and easier to use under time pressure environment.

At the previous tournament I tried making a list around Crisis Suits and ended up fighting to see who would get last place!

I am excited to see what they do with the rules in the supplement and I think that it can be a great opportunity for the company to sell more Crisis Suits (and to have mine get un-boxed and out on the field again)!

The funny part is, if Iyanden is anything to go by, that you'll still be able to use Shadowsun in a Farsight army.

As a long time tau player, I think this is cool ....

However, I will wait for the non apple version.

Also, I would really rather have had my kroot supplement....

I'll definitley be getting this.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
The funny part is, if Iyanden is anything to go by, that you'll still be able to use Shadowsun in a Farsight army.

And why shouldn't you be able to? As long as you're not forced to use Shadowsun, I don't see the issue.

Those that believe it is not fluffy won't use Shadowsun, whether they would be allowed to or not.

Those that do want to use them together, be it for "historical" games, or perhaps for a nice campaign that finds Shadowsun and Farsight re-united against a terrible new enemy, have the option to do so.

Disallowing units never helps anyone.

Can't say I'm surprised by this. It was incredibly obvious that there was going to be a Farsight "supplement" the moment the Eldar one was announced. But I'm still not going to reward GW for cutting material from the codex just so they can sell it separately later.

What kind of rules do people think we might see? No Ethereals?

 Peregrine wrote:
Can't say I'm surprised by this. It was incredibly obvious that there was going to be a Farsight "supplement" the moment the Eldar one was announced. But I'm still not going to reward GW for cutting material from the codex just so they can sell it separately later.

Pretty much, yes. What's worse: are people at tournaments now expected to not only know the codex' rules but also those from every single supplement? I can't see this happening anytime soon.

This was somewhat hinted at more than two years ago on a less than reputable site.

I wonder if we'll see Earth Caste engineers and Fire Warrior heavy weapon teams as was hinted at back then.

 Peregrine wrote:
Can't say I'm surprised by this. It was incredibly obvious that there was going to be a Farsight "supplement" the moment the Eldar one was announced. But I'm still not going to reward GW for cutting material from the codex just so they can sell it separately later.

What have they cut? You can play a Farsight army with the regular codex (just as you can play an Iyanden army with Codex Eldar.)

If it's build like the Iyanden Supplement, I would guess it will have half-a-dozen of missions that tells the break-away of the Farsight enclaves (and that might include a 1st mission that actually includes Shadowsun and/or Aun'Va and/or a bunch of Ethereals to represent the time when things were still jolly good between them, just like Iyanden has missions from before Yriel got his Spear, etc.. . ).

The optional rules, as with Iyanden, will likely work with the missions (as in, you get Shadow Council with the Iyanden book 'cause you need it in the"The Cleansing of Menimshemash"-mission, not because you "need" it to play Iyanden more generally).

GW releases two supplemental books that, while having their own share of flaws, manage to be introduce some cool units, show off some very interesting fluff, and shows a genuine sense of passion in their design. Better yet, these supplements manage to be unique, and manage to add some real diversity to the armies they support.

GW then backs away from the idea of supplemental codecies, because apparently, having to mix all of those books to form one army holds back the game.

10 years later, they start releasing supplemental add-ons that would fit right in with the rest of their original codex, and are probably nothing more than information removed from the original books in the first place.

 Fafnir wrote:
, and are probably nothing more than information removed from the original books in the first place.

Have you read the Iyanden Book?

I cannot remember a "full/regular" Codex in the last 10-15 years that had anything similar to the stuff in the Iyanden Codex. Planetstrike/Cities of Death Strategems, "historic" missions, the Altar of War (which, for non-Supplement Codexes isn't published in the book, but as additional eBook thus far), etc....-

Even the "person-focussed" fluff of the Iyanden book isn't what you see in "regular" Codexes these days. The closest thing, arguably, was the 4th Edition Space Marines Codex, which was in large parts a giant advertisement/fan-boy-plug by Graham McNeill for his Uriel Ventris character / novels.

Yeah, I loved Armageddon and Eye of Terror too.

I was talking about the Daemonhunters/Witchhunters codecies, but Armageddon/EoT count too, I guess.

Older codecies had special missions in them. There's no reason why the fluff and added content couldn't have been easily stuffed in with the main codex. And don't go trying to justify it with 'volume of content.' For a $60 codex, you should be getting a hell of a lot more than 104 pages.

 Fafnir wrote:


Older codecies had special missions in them. There's no reason why the fluff and added content couldn't have been easily stuffed in with the main codex. And don't go trying to justify it with 'volume of content.' For a $60 codex, you should be getting a hell of a lot more than 104 pages.

You have to go back veeeeeeeeeeery far to have Codexes with missions in them.

Yes, it could've been included in the Codex. I don't like the current Codex format either with all those bloated "text-book-style" 1-page entries for every single damn unit in the book. Older Codexes didn't need that either and if the "regular" Codexes, especially the 6th Edition Codexes, would take a lesson or two from the Iyanden book, they'd be much improved.

But that is besides the points.

It's two very different things saying (a) content was purposefully left out of the main Codex, just to make the Iyanden book, vs. (b) there's good stuff in the Iyanden book, that could've been included in the Eldar Codex even though (!) it would've necessitated writing the Eldar Codex in a very, very different format to ... say ... the Dark Angels or Tau Codex.

The Eldar Codex has everything all other 6th Edition Codexes have too.

Moreover, a lot of the stuff you have in the Iyanden Codex would downright suck in the Eldar Codex. A psyker primaris power or Warlord Traits that work only on Wraithguards would be a major pain in a "general" Eldar Codex, as they would gimp effectively every Eldar army that happens to not include Wraith-type units or even Wraithguard in particular.

I don't even want to imagine the nerd-rage we would've seen if those were included in the "main-Dex": "But I play a Saim-Hann-themed-Jetbike-army and now I roll Warlord-traits that only work for Wraith-stuff and my Warlocks default to a Primaris Power that gives Wraithblades Furious Charge and GW's obviously only writing rules to sell their new Wraith-stuff, yadda, yadda, yadda....."

 Peregrine wrote:
Can't say I'm surprised by this. It was incredibly obvious that there was going to be a Farsight "supplement" the moment the Eldar one was announced. But I'm still not going to reward GW for cutting material from the codex just so they can sell it separately later.

I don't understand how these supplements can be said to have been "cut" from the main codex. Compared to 4th edition Tau & Eldar codices, the 6th Edition Codices seem to contain just as much if not more fluff and options for building 'supplement armies' even without said supplements, so the new books are just gravy.

That said, I don't think everything is perfect in the new order: whilst I like the amount of fluff in current codices, it could be more efficient. Unit and vehicle descriptions have got just too damn long. Not every tank needs full page of text to explain what it does. That space could be used better, not to mention how tedious it gets reading hype about the units page after page. Also, GW is really shooting itself in the foot with their insistence of everything having to be "premiem" and priced accordingly. If you want to encourage people buy & build Iyanden armies (an admirable goal, in itself), don't price the books so damn expensive. Not everything has to be hardcover full-4-colour prints. Put some of the stuff on White Dwarf so that magazine gets something do.

 Fafnir wrote:
10 years later, they start releasing supplemental add-ons that would fit right in with the rest of their original codex, and are probably nothing more than information removed from the original books in the first place.

They do have a real "Day 1 DLC" feel to them, don't they?

Don't expect any new models. And looks like non-apple users will have to wait an indeterminate amount of time.

Oh and expect to be able to make a Riptide your warlord! LOL

 Sigvatr wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
Can't say I'm surprised by this. It was incredibly obvious that there was going to be a Farsight "supplement" the moment the Eldar one was announced. But I'm still not going to reward GW for cutting material from the codex just so they can sell it separately later.

Pretty much, yes. What's worse: are people at tournaments now expected to not only know the codex' rules but also those from every single supplement? I can't see this happening anytime soon.

I've never played in a tournament where I was required to know all the rules in every other Codex.

 SickSix wrote:
Don't expect any new models. And looks like non-apple users will have to wait an indeterminate amount of time.

Oh and expect to be able to make a Riptide your warlord! LOL

No. I very much doubt that you'll have the option to make Riptide a warlord. After all Farsight is supposed to have broken way from the rest of the empire before it came out.

I think people would have a better chance of seeing crisis suits as troops. even though in my opinion it would make more sense to be able to make pathfinders troops especially since they've made them special weapon teams as opposed to scouts and spotters.... heck marker drones are better at marker light spam as they can jump shoot jump...

I just hope they elaborate on the Dawn Blade and what it has done to Farsight.

Backfire wrote:
I don't understand how these supplements can be said to have been "cut" from the main codex. Compared to 4th edition Tau & Eldar codices, the 6th Edition Codices seem to contain just as much if not more fluff and options for building 'supplement armies' even without said supplements, so the new books are just gravy.

That's exactly the problem. There's no expansion of the (Farsight) fluff in the new Tau codex, just the same old fluff re-printed. Meanwhile Farsight himself has lost the "fluffy" rules and been simplified instead of adding things. It's an obvious missed opportunity to expand on a popular character, and to make a true alternate list (crisis suits as troops?) instead of just a different HQ. At the time it felt like lazy writing, that GW was just re-packaging the existing material to get the codex published as fast as possible. But as soon as the Eldar supplement was released it was pretty obvious that the new Farsight material wasn't there because it was going to be an extra book to buy.

Ralis wrote:
No. I very much doubt that you'll have the option to make Riptide a warlord. After all Farsight is supposed to have broken way from the rest of the empire before it came out.

I very much doubt that will stop GW from making it an option, lol. Trust me, there will be some bs fluff pulled out of their ass to try and explain why the Farsight Enclaves not only have many riptides, but use them way more extensively than the Empire itself.

If I dared I'd even put money down that Farsight gets the option to take a riptide suit himself, with an up-sized Dawn Blade crafted by his own engineers who did extensive research on it and somehow managed to duplicate it.

Riptide as warlord?
Im liking this idea. But if i was to guess, somehow stealth suits become troops

 Peregrine wrote:
There's no expansion of the (Farsight) fluff in the new Tau codex, just the same old fluff re-printed.

There is a slight expansion of fluff of the Farsight enclave.

At the moment I don't expect a full supplement like on Iyanden, but we will see.