Tau Empire Fan Codex, 6th Edition Update, now with Skyfire Drones!

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**chrisrawr**

Yeah, there's a whole big chunk where the silver skulls go after a small group of kroot b-level psykers because they're so powerful, and end up having to exterminnatus. Kroot are mostly illusion users, so thaatts what I went with.

**Celtic Strike**

blood lance wrote:Ah forgot they have the anatomy that would make Charles Darwin eat his beard. xD

Mmmmmm, delicious beard.

I used to play Tau a lot until it just became untenable to continue playing them in the tournament scene. Then, in the last year or two my painting really started to get decent and my tau weren't painted to a caliber I thought was good enough. So the long stripping process began. Then I found my Sisters and all were happy.

That being said, I haven't seen a gunline tau played in a very long time. Not since the end of 4th. Granted, there's only 3 Tau players in my group and most of us have moved on, so I don't know what kind of base of experience I have to say that.

Just having read a lot of Tau fluff, they don't tend to have hoards. Boom!

I think the key to good building in simplicity, not having rules that are too wordy or anything. As mythbusters said; 'The more complicated a design, the worse the designer.' I'm looking at you - Tesla!

I like the idea of Hammerhead squadrons though, I like them alot. In the fan dex I was messing with I had that same concept as well.

I notice there's no special characters, is that a choice? If you'd like I could kick in my SC from my codex for you to review

**Ovion**

I am slowly working on a Tau Gunline list - 84 Fire Warriors ftw!

And I should give the ability to squadron vehicles in my extended tau 'dex...
That said, I should actually work on my extended tau 'dex, rather than just keep messing with my DE.

And if you want some Tau SC contriutions, bringing back Aun'Shi is always good, and I can contribute Morning Sorrow (Who has playtested remarkably well so far, and is really balanced.)

**chrisrawr**

I've got so far for characters:

Farsight, still alive after all these years, bringing up a more 'traditionalist' Tau FOC adjustment, as well as a focus on hand to hand.

A new Shadowsun, bringing in an IC-hunting feel her predecessor lacked.

Shas'O Kais (From the DoW/Fire Warrior games) leading groups of the new Fire Warrior Mobile Assault Cadres on their Trial by Fire, preserved by Khorne in order to further blood-shed.

Anghkor Prok, the Master Shaper, overseeing the Kroot's genetic diversity as they taste the ever-expanding galaxy, and its inhabitants.

Vizz Kliik't, Vespid Colonial Champion, seeking to test his might against all who would oppose the Greater Good

Shas'Ui Kor M'yen, the Ally Unsought, bringing in a special squadron of Piranhas from the flanks.

And finally Shas'O Kak-Shi, he who grinds his enemies to dust.

I'd be happy to incorporate any balanced special characters you've got for me / would like to see included

AS to the fluffiness of Tau FW gunlines - the third sphere expansion fluff comes almost entirely from tournament battle reports. It's a tactic highly favoured by a lot of players, as it simply feels really awesome to pull off - and I think that this is something that has to be represented in the fluff; Not a static gunline, mind you, simply dozens of fire warriors. An advantage of 24 to a max group is that it lets me space special wargear out over 6 and 8 so that the most efficient purchases come at multiples of 6 and 8... and finally, at 24, meaning you're not unnecessarily punished for it.

**Ovion**

During the War of Dark Revelations, hundreds of Tau were given over to the Dark Eldar Haemonculus Urien Rakarth as payment for aid against the Tyranid threat, these poor souls were tortured and warped into lumbering Grotesques by the fleshmelders.
Among the first wave of these creatures sent back through the webway to Vigos were the initial experiments, cannon fodder not expected to survive, and it was thought all of their creations from this first wave had been lost.

In truth in the opening moments of that battle one of them had been struck hard, then trapped under the corpse of a massive tyranid beast. After the smoke cleared, the tyranids pushed back and the covens had vanished once again into the shadows, there was movement among the piles of dead. A lone Grotesque rose, somehow his own man again, no longer a puppet of the haemonculi. Slowly he made his way back to the Tau lines, calling in a loud, guttural voice for his kin.

Already shocked and horrified at the realisation of what these creatures were, seeing one that knew he was Tau saddened them further. The creature that was once like them had no recollection of his name, or his caste, his body while strong was full of pain, yet his will was resolute. He wished to stand as a memorial to his fallen brothers and deliver justice upon the Dark Eldar. The builders and engineers of the Earth Caste took pity on him, and from the remnants of destroyed equipment built him weapons and armour to help him achieve his goal.

The nameless warrior took the title R'ashmya, or Mourning Sorrow and with his modified Plasma Rifle the Hammer of Dawn vowed to protect the empire from the dark kin. While many expected him to fall swiftly, he prevailed in conflict after conflict, always on the front line, eventually making it to the rank of Commander, and finally being given the option to retire. He refused, instead asking to commission a special strike force, and his wish was granted.

He now leads the Defenders of Twilight, a rapid response force that specialises in defending the empire against the Dark Eldar. They operate out of a customised manta, the majority of its internal space taken up by a jump drive, the ship, while with greatly reduced capacity can deliver the Sorrows force to anywhere within the empires borders swiftly, to deliver retribution against those who wronged them.

O'R'ashmya - Commander Mourning Sorrow

Spoiler:

**chrisrawr**

Madre de Dios, es magnifico! Out of curiosity, why skilled rider?

Oh, also, Shas'o Rmyr is coming back largely unchanged.

**AtoMaki**

chrisrawr wrote:
I'd be happy to incorporate any balanced special characters you've got for me / would like to see included

I always wanted a "Shadowsight" and a "Farsun" character. One who looks a lot like Farsight but he acts like Shadowsun, and one who looks like Shadowsun, but acts like Farsight. It could introduce a lots of fluffy Shadowsun/Farsight dynamic, not to mention that you can include a special rule that allows you to field the whole family in a single army

.

Also, on Shadowsun, it would be neat to include some sort of "generation war" in her background: the rise of the all-new generation of Tau commanders (like "Shadowsight and "Farsun"), who has better tech, knows better tactics and still has the "fire". And Shadowsun is stuck between the youngsters and the prospect of some sort of retirement. And she can't forget the "call" of the only Tau commander who successfully broke out from this "generation war": Commander Farsight.

**Ovion**

chrisrawr wrote:Madre de Dios, es magnifico! Out of curiosity, why skilled rider?

Oh, also, Shas'o Rmyr is coming back largely unchanged.

Forgot that was a slightly older version of my layout (from my Tau Extended thread

) - I've changed it all in my files for clarity xD
Skilled Rider is conferred by being an IC - maybe this will help:

O'R'ashmya - Commander Mourning Sorrow

Spoiler:

**chrisrawr**

AtoMaki wrote:
chrisrawr wrote:
I'd be happy to incorporate any balanced special characters you've got for me / would like to see included

I always wanted a "Shadowsight" and a "Farsun" character. One who looks a lot like Farsight but he acts like Shadowsun, and one who looks like Shadowsun, but acts like Farsight. It could introduce a lots of fluffy Shadowsun/Farsight dynamic, not to mention that you can include a special rule that allows you to field the whole family in a single army .

Also, on Shadowsun, it would be neat to include some sort of "generation war" in her background: the rise of the all-new generation of Tau commanders (like "Shadowsight and "Farsun"), who has better tech, knows better tactics and still has the "fire". And Shadowsun is stuck between the youngsters and the prospect of some sort of retirement. And she can't forget the "call" of the only Tau commander who successfully broke out from this "generation war": Commander Farsight.

The original Shadowsun is dead; Farsight is alive only because he's already 300+ years old, 400+ isn't going to bother him. Kais is alive because Khorne. Rmyr is alive because she was on the edge of the new century already. The new Shadowsun is simply the pupil of the old one. There's no family dynamic to be had, and if there were, I doubt simple familial bonds would keep the troops from becoming demoralized at the thought of being led by a commander of their former enemies.

**Celtic Strike**

So, these are the characters for my Tau codex, they're going to have different Toughness values than yours, so adjust appropriately.

Speaking of the Tau Harbinger, maybe making it spawn drones into an already existing drone squad, Ala Canoptek spiders.

Spoiler:

**chrisrawr**

This is where farsight is sitting at right now. He's been all over the place - from a hugely foc altering machine, to a more solitaire role, to some in between bits. /tg/ sat me down and we went through a bunch of iterations shaving his fluff down via some rationalist extrapolation.

We figure the following:

First off, The Dawn Blade is probably a necron dynasty artefact of some kind - perhaps even an experimental technology to be used in returning necrons to mortal bodies. Its influence, extended to an already-mortal body, has prolonged his life and altered his physiology into something recognizably... more. Those who train exhaustively under him are also altered by its influence, though less extensively.

Secondly, his small following and lack of resources save what his rebellious worlds can produce diminish what he can field tremendously. Many of the advances of the rest of the Empire are not open to his enclaves, and likewise some of his technology is divergent. Due to the increased importance of close combat, plasma blades are mandatory and prevalent, but many things such as non-standard seeker missiles, vehicles, and auxiliaries are both unavailable and disdained.

Finally, armies under him are elite, with most of his warriors being shas'ui deserters, or blooded shas'la. I wanted this to be reflected.

With this in mind, fielding Farsight requires some extensive armylist changes. I present him as he's been used lately:

Shas'Oshava (Battlesuit Commander Farsight) - 250

WS5 BS4 S5(7) T4(5) W4 I5 A4 Ld10 Sv3+

Special Rules
Acute Senses, Battlesuit, Experienced Commander, Deepstrike, Hit and Run, Independent Character, Unconventional Tactician

Wargear: Shield Generator, Stimulant Injector, Drone Controller (2 Shield Drones), Command Helm

Dawn Blade: The Dawn Blade is a Twin-Linked Plasma Blade that increases Farisght's Strength by 2 (included in profile) and rolls an additional D6 for armour penetration against vehicles.

Unity of Purpose: The Unity of Purpose counts as both a Twin-Linked Plasma Gun and a Twin-Linked Plasma Blade.

The Separate Journey: A Tau Empire Army containing Farsight may contain only the following units: Shas'El, Bodyguards, Crisis Suits, Hunters, Devilfish, Pathfinders, Piranhas, and Gunfish with the Transport or Rail Cannon upgrades.

Non-vehicle Models other than Farsight gain +1WS, +1I, and the Preferred Enemy special rule.

Crisis Suits must purchase a Shas'Vre with a Plasma Blade. Units of Hunters must contain at least 1 Shas'Ui with a Command Helm.

Any unit of Hunters may purchase Plasma Knives for the unit at 2 points per model. Any unit of Hunters may exchange its Photon Grenades for EMP grenades for 1 point per model.

No unit may purchase Weapons of the "Heavy" variety.

**SDFarsight**

As for Commander Farsight and his forces, you may want to take a look at the Exiled Cadres Codex for some inspiration

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24554539/Codex-Exiled-Cadre

**chrisrawr**

It feels very... outdated. Points costs as-is and allies are unusable, a lot of the special options are either already included base or unworkable as a single character's special abilities.

The core ideas for Farsight are fairly similar, however; limited tech, high skill, few 'outsiders'.

**Ledabot**

Please make farsight get a +3 from the blades if he's not getting power weapon.

**chrisrawr**

A 3+ What? He satisfies the conditions for 2 Twin-Linked Plasma Blades, which gives him the following benefits, assuming he uses the Dawn Blade to attack: 2 Close Combat Weapons, Power Weapon, +2S, +D6 Armour Pen, and re-roll failed to-hit and to-wound rolls.

He's pretty beastly, but he comes with some majour army-wide drawbacks, and no Eternal Warrior

**Ledabot**

I ment +3S. That would give him instant death when fighting MEQ.

**chrisrawr**

Oh... I dunno, the intent was to be necron-y. He already 3-wounds most 4+ invuln meq, which lets him duel most MEQ IC's fairly well. He's still going to be mainly used in a big group of blade bodyguards, which get the biggest boost out of his army-wide.

**Ledabot**

Well I serpose its ok as it is.

**Celtic Strike**

I don't like the idea of him reducing the available forces. No other SC does that. None, it would make him too much of a handicap in my opinion.

**chrisrawr**

Well, considering the 4th edition one is even more limiting, I figured it'd be fine... do you have any ideas on a direction I can take the breakaway faction rule?

**Ledabot**

Prefered enemy tau, Or maybe prefered enemy tau if they have an ethereal in the force.

**Celtic Strike**

I'm not sure the break away faction rule is still worth including. Like how they got rid of Chaotic animosity in the new Chaos dexes.

I just said that he couldn't be played with any other special characters. I figured that was good for fluff.

**chrisrawr**

Ledabot wrote:Prefered enemy tau, Or maybe prefered enemy tau if they have an ethereal in the force.

He already grants preferred enemy everything, up from preferred enemy orks (which I felt was really unfair since, tabletop-wise tau need very little in order to play a fun game against orks, all things considered). This is mostly to represent the fact that they've been exposed to far more pain over the past hundred years than they had in the previous two millennia. They're still not great fighters, but they make up for it in zeal.

Celtic Strike wrote:I'm not sure the break away faction rule is still worth including. Like how they got rid of Chaotic animosity in the new Chaos dexes.

I just said that he couldn't be played with any other special characters. I figured that was good for fluff.

I don't think that represents enough of a drawback to justify 250 points. Maybe 275, or even 300 points, but that's pushing all expense. The unit restrictions are fairly lenient and fluffy, simply tending away from auxiliaries and newer empire tech. This is more akin to chaos space marines not getting newer land raider variants or drop pods, I feel. Also, Just Dave's chaos dex includes warbands and in-fighting, and is also pretty much the best chaos dex I've ever seen - so it's more of a design paradigm than because it doesn't work or isn't fun, I feel.

**Runna**

Take a look at the page with the Battlesuit: Bodyguards, page 5 I think. You'll see what I mean, unless you already fixed it.

Also I like the codex so far, for the record.

**chrisrawr**

luckily, I fixed that. I'm just hoping to get the IC's in before I slap up the next iteration.

**SDFarsight**

Why are Hammerheads now in x3 Squadrons? Though overall it's a very nice looking codex.

**chrisrawr**

A few reasons, mostly from a gameplay and balance perspective, a bit from an ease of army perspective, and partly just because the skyray and hammerhead kits come together, and one of the skyray abilities makes use of multiple skyrays.

From G&B perspective expanded: They have to compete with Broadsides, plain and simple. There needs to be a reason you are taking something in that slot that isn't a bunch of broadsides that can split-fire - points-wise, broadsides are still going to be the most 'competitive' bang-for-buck in most scenarios - but there's a lot of versatility and firepower coming from these heavy support gunship teams now that wasn't there before.

Thanks a lot

**Ovion**

To be honest, as-is with the standard Tau 'dex by the points and the math, 2-3 Broadsides + 2 Hammerheads is the best path to take.

That's 4-5 Railguns, 2 Twin-Linked and 2 of which can drop Str6 Large Blasts. Sure, you could take more Broadsides, for a max of 9 shots, but that's only 4-5 more, and once the tanks are gone the efficency of the broadsides drops sharply.

If you want I can find the math I did before

When you've sorted this 'dex fully I'll read through again and give a review.

**chrisrawr**

Something I'm using to replace the current SMS on vehicles, as my HBC is already similar to what you've described:

Micro Burst-Rockets: A ranged weapon with the following profile:
Range:48” S:5* AP:4* Special: Heavy 3

*Each hit increases the Strength of this weapon by 1 (to a maximum of 8) and improves the AP by 1 (to a maximum of 1) until the end of the turn. Roll each Micro Burst-Rocket in a unit separately.

I don't know if I'm going to be giving them as options to piranhas or limit them to the medium/heavy tanks. I might allow Broadsides to swap out their Railguns for them.

Should I limit the S/AP to lower? I just realized that I'm encoraching on SoB territory with this sometimes...

Swapped to "S5 AP5 Heavy 4 Barrage Blast"

**chrisrawr**

For simplicity's sake, I'm thinking of moving the markerlight back into more of a special rule thing than a shooting thing; Apply a markerlight token to a unit in los and 48", roll nightfighting et. al. for spot distance, can't fire other weapons without special rule etc - boost to ~20 points for the auto 'hit' factor (small nerf to effectiveness over current outside of pathfinders, which would remain at their current cost - but games would be much less random, with both players better able to predict the effects and better able to create proper counterstrategies.)? Would cut down on a lot of rolls and save time; Players would just designate marker-lit units each turn and be done with it.

Throwing up current version; couple page numbers are out, couple edits yet to be made, but much farther along than before.
Current version up!