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So the (4th ed.) Tau codex says that battlesuits are jump infantry (relentless, according to the 5th ed. rulebook). However, the codex says that XV8 battlesuits (the standard battlesuit) only count as stationary for firing rapid fire weapons, not heavy weapons, in essence, they have only partial relentless USR. Which is right? Are battlesuits fully relentless, always counting as stationary, or does it only apply to rapid fire weapons, as dictated in the codex? The rule book says that we should always go with what is written in the codex over what is in the rulebook, but that was for a previous edition, right?

The codex is correct, as it is more specific.

It doesn't matter, because Crisis Suits can't carry any heavy weapons. For what it's worth, the codex is correct.
Codex Rules > Basic Rule Book Rules

Does this even matter?

IIRC, Tau XV8s have no options for heavy weaponry in the armory.

Whoops, forgot about the markerlights. What I said stands though. Codex > BRB
Edit: Nevermind, no markerlights for them either.

No, specific rules > more general rules.

The ONLY time you are told that the codex rule always takes precedence is when it has the same name as the BRB rule, such as Smoke Launchers. This is often incorrectly removed from context and used to imply that the codex always wins out. Which is incorrect, as soon as you look as Sweeping Advance.

Ok then, Specific Rules > General Rules. I can't remember things today. Listen to the other people.

oh yeah, they can't take heavy weapons anyway...

Then why even include that rule in the codex?

Because back when the codex was written, relentless wasn't part of what jet-packs gave?

But in 4th ed, they were... Maybe it was written near the end of 3rd ed, & maybe jet packs were not relentless then?

micahaphone wrote:
Then why even include that rule in the codex?

Some people wonder why I tend to have a sad face when reading through my tau codex, now you know one of the reasons why.

In 4th ed jet packs were NOT relentless, however in order to fire plasma (etc) as if standing still they needed this rule. They added redundancy by saying it did not work for heavy weapons, but that isnt unusual in GW terms.

Actually... in 4th edition there were no such things as Jet packs(from a unit type perspective); they only applied to tau because only tau could be jet pack troopers.

As far as I recall the rulebook has a specific description saying that Tau battlesuits can fire rapid fire weapons counting-as being stationary even if they moved. This is a special rule that takes precedence over the standard rulebook. However they are also Jump Infantry (jet pack) and can take advantage of the new Rulebook stats for such infantry giving them Relentless. I don't see that there is anything that is contradictory in these statements. 5th edition jsut gives them a bit of a redundant rule.

The only thing that this really affects though are Markerlights on Stealthsuits and some of the Forgeworld Crisis variants.

Flinty: the Crisis suit rules(page 27 of Codex: tau empire) does contradict the Jet pack rules. Heavy weapons cannot be fired from Crisis suits even though they have relentless; be cause the Crisis suit rules specifically says"This ability does not extend to heavy weapons, however, and the user must be stationary to fire them."

Stealth suits are flat-out Jet pack units and therefore have Relentless(funny how the smaller suits can fire heavier weapons on the move isn't it?).

Markerlight Drones are the same type as the model that buys them(so jetpack with Crisis and Stealth suits, therefore relentless).

Sniper Drones, however are infantry, and therefore must remain stationary to fire.