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I'm kinda going off of Your Friend Doctor Robert's thread http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/398055.page and I'm coming up with a Tau CCW unit that I think should be in the new Tau Codex (whenever that gets made).

Shadowhunters are Tau Fire Warriors that have given up the skill with a gun to instead embrace the skill with a blade. These units are highly coordinated often dancing around their opponents in a flurry of steel that cuts all but the most skilled opponents to shreds. The Shadowhunters are solitary soldiers often avoiding the main Tau force until the battle and they are feared by the other Fire Warriors who see their skill as something unnatural for their race. On the battlefield though, Shadowhunters will often go out of their way to save their fellow Tau and a select few will even go on to be Shadowhunter Elites. The Shadowhunter Elites are rare and those that do make it to that status are often revered and see themselves as the honor guard for an Etherial or especially honored Tau Commander.

Shadowhunters
WS 4 BS 3 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 4 A 2 Ld 8 Sv 4+

Shadowhunters Chief
WS 5 BS 3 S 3 T 3 W 1 I 4 A 2 Ld 9 Sv 4+

Equipment: Pulse Carbine, Close combat blade, Fire Warrior Armor (I don't have the Tau Codex on me, I forget what the Fire Warrior armor is called)

Special rules: Scout, Infiltrate, Stealth, Fleet, Dance of Death

Unit: 1 Shadowhunter Chief and 4 Shadowhunters 90pts

Add up to 5 additional Shadowhunters for +16pts a model.

The Shadowhunter Chief may be given a Powerblade (counts as a power weapon that adds +1 str) for +15pts.
1 Shadowhunter unit may be upgraded to Shadowhunter Elites at +4 points a model. Shadowhunter Elites treat their saves as invulnerable and gain the Feel No Pain USR.

Dance of Death: The Shadowhunters are so skilled at moving adeptly through the forests, foliage, and ruins of places that they ignore difficult terrain and in addition a shadowhunter charge is devestating as they dance around their opponents in a combat form that is like art, on the charge all Shadowhunter attacks are rending and +1 str.

Shadowhunters and Shadowhunter Elites may take a Devilfish as a dedicated transport, in addition so graceful and skilled are the Shadowhunters that they may charge out of a Devilfish as if it were an assault vehicle.

The unit as a whole goes against the whole story of tau regarding close combat as brutish and i fell a cc unit isn't represented in the current codex for that reason.

These would have to be under O'Shovas control to be fluffy. But the S and T needs changing for CC units.

Seeing as a Firewarrior dedicated to ranged combat starts at WS 2 and BS 3 I figure a Firewarrior dedicated to melee combat should start at WS 3 and BS 2.

Rending on a charge, even the dedicated Tau assault units (Kroot) don't get that. So I think that's a tad much.

Likewise the business with Invulnerable Saves and Feel No Pain. That;s not even really explained let alone very Tau-ish.


Overall my biggest issue with this is that it attacks the issue of melee combat in a very uncharacteristic fashion for the Tau. Marines and Guard up specialized training for specialized functions. The Tau just invent new gear.

To me a Tau close combat unit isn't a bunch of highly trained fighters, it's a bunch of well equipped troops who are able to survive and break contact if charged.

Who Needs Shadowhunters Anyway when you has Kroot

Unfluffy, over the top, bad for their point cost. Overall, not impressed.

Tau don't need an offensive close-combat unit. It's not part of their design space, and it's not part of their fluff.

Everytime somebody mentions a Tau CC unit another Ethereal cries......

Tau are the worst CC army in the 40k game, and thats ok, its part of the reason I play them, I hate CC , and think its silly in a universe where people use guns predominatly.

And too that the Tau are the only race to not try and beat up people with sharp pokey things and shoot clean holes in them in a more civilized fashion.

The day when the Tau become yet another CC alternative army will be the day i buy my last Tau mini.

Leave CC to tau Aux units, and just give us better shooty stuff, and i will be a happy blue camper.

(end of soapbox rant )

Seems like these Tau wish to be Dark Eldar...

To be constructive here's some advice; Tau aren't meant to be fast and dexterous and as already said don't really do cc themselves. Going down this path was bound to get you heckled. If you have to do an idea for CC Tau then go for something more like TH/SS battlesuit equivalent instead. They maybe slow and unskilled but if they are super-resistant and pack a punch then it could still work.

Basically aeverything already said.

Pulwse carbines are guns? You know that right? This=Fire Warriors that are faster and less accurate. The standard setup for CC units is a pistol and CCW. That would be a start. Pulse pistols.

Deadshot wrote:Basically aeverything already said.

Pulwse carbines are guns? You know that right? This=Fire Warriors that are faster and less accurate. The standard setup for CC units is a pistol and CCW. That would be a start. Pulse pistols.

I agree with this.. why do they have a pinning shooting weapon instead of a 2 CCW bonus?

The Eldar Codex is that-a-way.

On a more serious note, has anyone noticed yet that this . . . thing has infiltrate, scout and fleet? Yay for first turn charges and tieing up the opponent so they can't close into melee range with the rest of your army.

I don't think there's any fluffy way to represent firewarriors taking up intense martial arts skills. O'shava's faction I could (maybe) see having a firewarior squad modeled with spears that negate opponents charge boni (Ork hunters?), or some sort of battlesuit with a CC focus. But other than that.

Agreeing with everyone else. Tau don't need CC. Period. I'm of the extreme viewpoint that Tau don't even need allies to fill in that role. Tau should just simply be made better at they should do; Shooting and Mobility.

Sanguinis wrote:

Special rules: Scout, Infiltrate, Stealth, Fleet, Dance of Death <----------------------

whay do these guys have the Harlequin special rule?

Masonicon resurrected a dead thread. Just go back to ignoring it.

You have a dedicated CC unit...they're called Kroot. You know, the bird looking things in the Troops Section?

CthuluIsSpy wrote:You have a dedicated CC unit...they're called Kroot. You know, the bird looking things in the Troops Section?

and they are all that Tau player needs when it comes to CC units

Tau CC units.....
NO.
tau units go squish in CC.
Thats how it is.
if anything you need +1 BS.

This is the best idea since the space marine hunters from Rise of Tau

Logically since the people of the Tau species hate cc...it would make more sense if this were AI Battle suits...

It would make more sense if it did not exist.

Exactly.

Giving Tau CC is like making Eldar Tough, SM cheasp, Daemons immune to GK, Orks high BS, etc. Its balanced and works. leave it alone. Don't fix it if it isn't broken.

First off: There's already a Dance of Death rule for harlequins. It bestows Furious Charge and Hit and Run.




This is excessive and meh all at once.

Though that said, there is actually a precedent for CC Tau: The Ethereals and their honour guard.

So if you're serious about wanting to make a.. shall we say decent and fluffish Tau CC unit I'd suggest start by looking at both regular Fire Warriors and the Honour Guard of Aun'Va:
Fire Warrior

Aun'Va Guard


So working from that you can make a simple base for a CC Tau that's the predessor to an Ethereal Honour Guard, possibly a Troop + Can be used as the Ethereals honour guard instead of Firewarriors, gaining +1 WS instead of +1 BS for 2 points per model.


While it's still a Tau CC unit, it's at least closer to being fluffy and reasonable and full of over the top rules and USRs.

Tau are shooty samurai not slashy samurai.

Also if you look at guard everything is i3 because it represents the limits of the unassisted (SOB have power armour) human body. Without a battlesuit a tau could never have i4, they just aren't built for it. Hypothetically you can have guard armies that are feral who rely on CC, but, thats a fluffy build where you would take massive casualties. The Tau aren't going to be making their army charge the enemy with katanas screaming BANZAI!!! They'd lose too many people. Alien allies can fill the role better, although to be honest I think the codex even states that they don't pick xenos that are profiicient at CC but allies that are complimentary to their doctrine. So vespid with crisis suits.

Don't get me wrong. Necron dex showed things could change and the Tau are already very animae/Edo era in inspriation but that should be represented with shooty gundamns not slashy ones; farsights people excepted. But Tau CC infantry is a bit too far.

If you're making house rules and your friends are okay with it I'd advise you using eldar mercenaries instead from either the eldar or Dark eldar codex (we all know how that turned out in the end!)

I'm going to offer more constructive criticism this time, instead of being an ass.

You could run with the Farsight idea and make CC wielding Gundams, no, wait, CC wielding Crisis suits.

It certainly would go along the lines of, Hey we're GW. You know how awesome that thing was in the last codex. Its not anymore, buy these now. (Hyperbole)

I can't say I wouldnt enjoy having the option to get up close and personal with some Suits, as it would be fun to have the choice, but I wouldn't want them functioning like Th/SS termies. If we go Tau CC suits it would have to fill a wrinkle not taken by other armies.

More Mobile that Termies, less survivable than BA FNP, I dunno, someone else would have to sort all of that out.

But the more I think about it the more fun it would be to have "as an option" (this of course would mean I dont need it to be viable in a hyper competitive environment, although I wouldn't complain if it was as long as point 2). Point 2: As well as it not detracting from the Tau bing able to do what they are supposed to be able to do.