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So. I'm a fairly veteran Tau player (I started just a few days after they came out) and I feel like this time... this time the Tau might really be next. Below is my wishlist for Codex: Tau Empires 2.0. Feel free to wishlist on your own, but keep it realistic and drama free.

No Tau hate or Tau fluff discussions please. This is for Tau codex rules wishlisting only. Thank you.

1. Crisis Suits - BS4. BS5 with Targeting Array. Shas'El should be BS5 to begin with. Shas'O should be capable of becoming BS6 (gains re-rolls). Suits should either be cheaper, or T5. Weapon prices should come down considerably. Shas'Ui should be LD9, Shas'El and O should be LD10.

2. Fire Warriors - Take a quick peek at an IG veteran. Now take a quick peek at a Tau Fire Warrior. Now look at their point costs. Yup. It's a travesty. The Tau Fire Warrior should stay at it's current point costs, to keep the dex from becoming too "horde" like. As such, however, it needs it's statline adjusted. I'd love to see something like... WS2 BS4 S3 T3 I3 A1 W1 LD8. Shas'Ui should be free, and able to take a Rail Rifle for 10 points, he should also be LD9.

3. Sky Ray - Missile Loadout options, similar to recent flyers. No markerlight = LOS required for missile shot. Markerlight hit = Ignores intervening terrain and LOS

4. Kroot - If you keep their statline as-is, they need to be 5 or 6 points. I'd love to see more options, and mounted Kroot in the Fast Attack Slot

5. HQ options... IE.. Kroot Master Shaper's as HQ's that unlock additional Kroot units as troops (making a semi-return of the Chapter Approved "Kroot Mercenaries" list). Fix the Ethereal please. Thank you.

1.Reduce the cost of the devil fish, to fit with in current prices,

2.Up the cost on the Disruption pod ( if we update the rest this HAS to be more expensive)

3. option tp purchase pathfinders without the devilfish.

4. TL the Rail gun on the hammer head.

5. T5 for suits,

6. Fix vespid, give them rending assault 2 guns etc in essance make them playable

7. Etheral larger boost to army, and not a " If you kill me you very may win" button.

8. Stealth suits cheaper, as such they are un playable.

9. Rule that allows them to shoot in the assault phase, instead of making thier attacks, possibly shooting into assaults as killing there own is "for the greater good".

The whole fluff of the Tau is that they're basically the physical equivalent of Guardsmen with marginally better equipment. The Tau are in between the Imperial Guard and the Space Marines with regards to technology.

1. Crisis Suits have BS3. Deep down, they're just highly trained Tau that in no way come near the training and accuracy of a Space Marine or Eldar Aspect Warrior. Giving the Shas'El equal BS to an Eldar Exarch or Space Marine Captain Lysander doesn't make sense.

2. Fire Warriors have the same training as Guardsmen. At best, they are equivalent to Cadian Guard. BS4 wouldn't make sense. A dinky Fire Warrior with a gun shouldn't have the same BS as a highly-trained Space Marine.

this doesn't belong here. at all.

This would fit better in 40k general, so off we go !

OK - here we go

1. Ditto T5 suits. They die too easily to missiles.
2. Ditto BS 4 suits, BS5 with targeting arrays.
3. Pathfinder marker lights being assault weapons.
4. New fast skimmer that would transport 6 pathfinders - with scout USR to replace compulsory devilfish.
5. way to manipulate reserves that actually works.
6. make stealth suits relevant. Maybe give them long range guns (rail rifles?) so their stealth field actually works. Maybe let them come in from any table edge via outflank? Cheaper marker light options?
7. Ditto cheaper devilfish.
8. Sniper drones able to pick out models from units.




8.

I have to agree w/you Cottonjaw for the most part, but I would like to see the kroot w/some better stats. Tau was my first and favorite army when I started (3rd ed.) and both codexes fluff said how good they are in hand to hand combat and I'm sorry thats not true. As an experiment a friend and I had kroot out numbering fire warriors in HtH and in many tries the fire warriors would come out on top over the kroot (like almost 70%) and lets face it in an assalt fire warriors are a speed bump at best.

Absolutionis wrote:The whole fluff of the Tau is that they're basically the physical equivalent of Guardsmen with marginally better equipment. The Tau are in between the Imperial Guard and the Space Marines with regards to technology.

1. Crisis Suits have BS3. Deep down, they're just highly trained Tau that in no way come near the training and accuracy of a Space Marine or Eldar Aspect Warrior. Giving the Shas'El equal BS to an Eldar Exarch or Space Marine Captain Lysander doesn't make sense.

2. Fire Warriors have the same training as Guardsmen. At best, they are equivalent to Cadian Guard. BS4 wouldn't make sense. A dinky Fire Warrior with a gun shouldn't have the same BS as a highly-trained Space Marine.

So thats why Guard vets have BS4? Tau should have BS 4 if you look at what they are. Guardsmen dont even have iron sights on their lasguns while Firewarriors have a scope and a helmet that most likely gives a HUD. Battlesuits are vets in high tech suits.

Are you a spesh marhene fanboy that think all other armies should be nerfed?

But hold on a second - the whole point of Tau is that they make up for physical frailty with technology. So they might not have the training of a space marine, or the genetics, but they have the technology to compensate. Also, I always thought Tau were ahead of the imperium in the technology stakes. Closer to eldar.

My wish list:

Don't let matt ward touch the new codex.

It doesn't really matter. This isn't the Fluff forum it is General Discussion.

It's completely reasonable to look at the Tau Codex from a gameplay perspective. If you want the game to reflect the fluff, and the game demands Tau to have BS4 to be balanced, you write fluff that gives them super targetting computers in their helmets.

IMO, though, Markerlights are the way that Tau should achieve more shootiness. Therefore, rather than giving Fire Warriors BS4, the Markerlights should be cheaper and easier to use.

1- BS4 suits, days veterans you see , maybe T5, definetly cheaper special weapons; as in reasonably priced.

2-New marker light type for use on firewarriors, costs three markerlight markers and adds an extra shot to pulse rifles and another three means they get two extra shots.

3-Slight drop in points for fire warriors

4- BS4 pathfinders, days special forces.

5-XV88 battlesuits or some other type of heavy battlesuit

6-Gue Vesa squads, I like the idea and it adds to the multi race empire feel

7-Kroot gain basic stealth (their skin changes colour), can infiltrate anywhere and move through cover USR. Also, frag grenades.

8-Seeker missiles aren't put on vehicles but are 'deployed' off table with no limit to number of missiles that can be fired; just one for every markerlight shot. There are then two types of markerlight available to pathfinders and squad leaders (the latter able to split fire); one does the infantry support whilst the other calls in seeker missile support. The latter would be purchased as an upgrade by pathfinder squads to their standard infantry markerlights.

9-Skyray becomes an anti-air vehicle

10-Ion cannon becomes heavy 5 or 6.

11-Shadowsun gets a different suit or at least two plasma rifles instead of the fusion blasters; maybe a pair of experimental weapons with different fire modes.

I would like to see another alien auxilary. Something that is like ogryns (but useful), big fat things that block for everything else, and act as linebreakers. T5 FNP multi wound guys with a special rule that allows friendly units to gain a cover save from them, but the enemy can't gain a cover save when being fired through them (that way they are a literal meat shield). That way firewarriors can have a walking cover save.

Other than that:
1. Suits have BS4, firewarriors don't
2. markerlights are cheaper, and pathfinders don't need a devilfish
3. devilfish are cheaper
4. Ethereals need to stop sucking. Seriously
5. Vespids need to be usable, like someone said Assault 2 rending 18"
5. Suits can be taken in units of 5
6. Skyrays in squadrons. That way it is like an artillery battery, with the ability to possibly gain back missiles (D6 it)

The Tau could benefit from a lot of changes:

1.) Markerlights become assault weapons, and are also better integrated into the army as a whole. Good mechanic to build an army wide special rule off of if implemented correctly.

2.) Devilfish become cheaper. Should cost no more than a Chimera unless it receives a serious buff in other areas.

3.) Flamers/Fusion Blasters are available to either Firewarriors or another basic troop choice. These weapons are not powerful enough to justify being only found only on Crisis Suits and vehicles.

4.) Crisis Suits become BS4. Crisis weaponry reflects the heavy weaponry of other races, essentially trading range for mobility, similar to the missile pod, the only weapon that was really done right. Flamers on suits should be heavy flamers, fusion blasters become multimelta equivalents or at least get an 18" range. Add in some unique Tau weapons, again on par with other races heavy weapons.

5.) Allow troops to take on anti-vehicle and anti-MEQ or anti-TEQ roles, so that units in other force org slots can take on anti-infantry roles.

6.) Eliminate mandatory pathfinder devilfish.

7.) Move pathfinders/gun drones to troops.

8.) Increase Ion Cannon Strength to at least str 8 ap 3, could go as high as str 9 ap 2 given the currently power creep.

9.) Sky Ray needs unlimited missiles. Rate of fire can be reduced from 6 to 4 if balance issues are a concern.

10.) Piranha weapons should be comparable to those found on a land speeder. I.e. Fusion Blaster becomes a multimelta equivalent, burst cannon becomes comparable to an assault cannon.

11.) Kroot fieldcraft replaced with stealth and move through cover to make Kroot less map dependent. Possibly give Kroot grenades.

12.) Krootox either taken separately from Kroot, or do not rob Kroot of the infiltrate USR.

13.) Vespids buffed. Longer ranges, greater ROF, reduced cost, or something else. Too expensive and too overspecialized as is.

14.) Sniper drone squads moved out of heavy support, possible to troops. They will never be taken while located in that force org slot.

15.) Seeker missiles either made cheaper or can fire one shot per round.

16.) Tau flyer, similar to the flyers release with virtually every new dex. Should be able to put out at least 2 str 9 shots.

17.) Eliminate Price of Failure on Ethereals. They will never be taken otherwise.

18.) Hammerhead railgun solid shot either needs to be more accurate, or receive a ROF of 2.

19.) Tau need a source of str 8+ abundant enough to with units that require many instant death hits to reliably kill, such as FNP Nobz.

20.) Special characters that don't suck

21.) Need a way to deal with a handful of units that just wreck the army. These include Boss Snikrot and friends, and Pysker Battle Squads

22.) Fix Photon Grenades so they don't make getting assaulted even worse. Currently, overkill is desired to prevent enemy assaulter getting stuck in assault and immune to retaliatory fire, meaning the benefit of photon grenades is actually undesired.

23.) Give the Tau an option to do something about an enemy unit the does get stuck in assault, so a single enemy assaulter cannot wreck the army by repeatedly finishing the assault and the end of the Tau player's turn.

24.) Pulse Carbines need to become assault 2. Pinning can be removed, it is mostly irrelevant anyway.

25.) Enable Tau vehicles to use there secondary weapons at cruising speed.

26.) Buff Burst Cannons on vehicles and crisis suits

This is a bit more fluffy than ruley, but a Codex is as good a place as any to put it.

I want to know more about the Tau themselves. Diet, habits, culture, physiology, gender roles and gender politics, gender differences and distinctions, all that sort of stuff.

Just wondering, but what is that "Price of Failure" thing you are talking about?

I'd rather the Tau Codex have fewer Tau units and be more of a coalition to represent the 3rd Sphere and 4th Sphere expansions. Still keep the traditional units but remove things like . . .

Sniper Drones, Ethereals(No way is it staying), Gun Drones, Stealth Suits.

I think the Stealth Suits COULD stay, but the rest HAVE to go.

They need to add the other coalition forces(add Kroot Cavalry, Make Vespids better FO SHO!) Also add the other currently 'unused' Tau Allies.

Absolutionis wrote:The whole fluff of the Tau is that they're basically the physical equivalent of Guardsmen with marginally better equipment. The Tau are in between the Imperial Guard and the Space Marines with regards to technology.

1. Crisis Suits have BS3. Deep down, they're just highly trained Tau that in no way come near the training and accuracy of a Space Marine or Eldar Aspect Warrior. Giving the Shas'El equal BS to an Eldar Exarch or Space Marine Captain Lysander doesn't make sense.

2. Fire Warriors have the same training as Guardsmen. At best, they are equivalent to Cadian Guard. BS4 wouldn't make sense. A dinky Fire Warrior with a gun shouldn't have the same BS as a highly-trained Space Marine.

This is exactly what the disclaimer in the beginning was attempting to avoid. Please don't do this, moving forward.

A couple more think-ups over dinner:

1. XV9's in the codex
2. Suit variants (like the Forgeworld variety)
3. Barracuda or similar flyer, in the codex.

Price of Failure is a rule that states when an ethereal dies, every Tau unit within LOS must pass a leadership check or immediately start fleeing. Given the Tau's lackluster leadership, the death of an ethereal could easily cause a significant portion of your army to run off the table, probably costing you the game. It does grant the Tau that do pass the Ld check preferred enemy, but they are still going to lose CC, preferred enemy or no, so its just a huge liability.

This also illustrates and major problem in the Tau book. The Tau codex has a number of units that are not simply bad, they have rules that actively cripple the rest of your army. Said units include ethereals, Aun-va, Farsight and Krootox. Its a terrible design philosophy, and results in the aforementioned units never seeing the tabletop.

forruner_mercy wrote:Just wondering, but what is that "Price of Failure" thing you are talking about?

Price of failure is a special rule that basically breaks the usefulness of an Ethereal. It takes them from fairly useful, to totally useless. I can't go posting the rules for it here, as that's rulebreakery I'm sure, but if you look into it, I'm sure you can find out more info.

The long and short of it is, it makes Etherals almost always a bad choice.