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I have a friend who's playing Tau (like me!). Currently I use a Farsight army, and he liked the idea of having a Brightsword character (you know, Farsight's acolyte responsible for the Koloth Gorge Massacre).

Here's what we came up with for the stats & rules;

Commander Brightsowrd - O'Sharn

WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
5 4 5 4 4 4 4 9 3+

Is a special character, can't select any more equipment from the armory, so on and so forth.

Equipment; Modified XV8 Battlesuit with in-built Twin Fire-Fist Flamethrowers and Multitracker, Bonding Knife.

Special Skills; O'Sharn abd his bodyguard all wear modified XV8 battlesuits. Except where noted, they all use the normal rules for such suits. They may all purchase up to two flamers (which can be twin-linked).

Bodyguard; O'Sharn may be accompanied by a bodyguard (as normal), except that the size is increased to 1-4.

Modified XV8 Battlesuit; During the Nimbosa Campaign O'SHarn had Earth Caste Engineers modify his battlesuit. The modifications allow O'Sharn to move and fight as jump infantry.If O'Sharn is accompanied by a bodyguard, they also move and fight as jump infantry.

Twin Fire Fist Flamethrowers; O'Sharn practises a method of close-quarters fighting that is frowned upon by common Tau philosophy. He has mounted a Flamer to each of his arms, and uses them to fight his ememies face-to-face. When his battlesuit was modified the improvements were also made to his weapons; now their flames are far more potent and he can adjust the range of his weapons at will.

At range the Fire Fists have the following Profile;
Range Strength AP Type Special Rules
Template 5 5 Assault 2 Twin Linked

In close combat they function as two power weapons

Remorseless; In combat O'Sharn is a deadly opponent, offering no quarter. His opponents must either surrender at the start of the war, or not surrender at all. When performing a sweeping advance, O'Sharn rolls 2D6 and picks the highest.

Censured; O'Sharns methods of fighting have met with disapproval with the Ethereal Caste, as well as Fire Caste High Command. O'Sharn may never be a part of a force that includes Commander Shadowsun or Aun'va. His army may never include Ethereals.

Agressive Raider; O'Sharn is a master of the art of striking swift and hard; When any of O'Sharn's army uses the outlank rule, they may re-roll the dice to determine which table-edge they arrive on.

What do you think. I'm not sure of a points value at the moment; maybe 140-150?
His battlesuit doesn't have a different number to normal XV8 battlesuits because it's not an 'official' b-suit. He's made changes to it, heisn't trying out some new hardware.

missed the points cost out

but i like it, all of my battlesuits have flamers, gotta love fire
i thin he will work well.

no i didn't; i'm just not sure about it.
Check the bottom of the post.

i would list him around the same cost s farsigh (dont have my dex handy)

had a couple of battles with my friend with him using brighsword (150 points); 1st one He DSed with Brightsword and charged Farsight (lol). I managed to win cos of the 4+ invun save farsight gets. Second time he DS near my fire base of firewarriors/snipers; flamed half of them then charged them; very nasty.
Very good against mass troops, OK against average commanders (Farsight won in the duel because of he has higher initiative; he had one wound left (and was then killed by a sniper! lol)
He would be good against IG; average HQs in combat, lots of troops that will be killed on re-rollable 2+!
However, against MEQs i think he would be only mediocre and unlikely to get his points back, particularily against powerfist or LCs.
Thinking 150 is a good amount.

Are there any suggestions for how to improve him/make him more fluffy/more balanced?

i think 150 seems about right, and his rules justify that.
if i played your friend i would have no objetions to letting him use brightsword.
i just wouldnt use my nids lol.

if you did use nids you could just use a carnifex. lol

fireball900 wrote:Modified XV8 Battlesuit; During the Nimbosa Campaign O'SHarn had Earth Caste Engineers modify his battlesuit. The modifications allow O'Sharn to move and fight as jump infantry.If O'Sharn is accompanied by a bodyguard, they also move and fight as jump infantry. When O'Sharn (and his bodyguard) deepstrikes, they may assault on the turn they arrive.

The rest of it looks reasonable, but this is a bit over the top. I don't see a problem with deep striking, but when you add in being able to assault on the same turn, it gets out of hand. That and jump infantry just seems out of place in the tau army. They don't really have anything like that now (other than vespids) and I don't see a good reason to give it to them.

So, in short. Get rid of the jump infantry. Give them deep strike as a standard ability. Remove the ability to charge after deep striking.

I dunno, i like the jump infantry part; it makes him individual. I guess the assaulting afterwards is OTT tho. I'll edit it out.