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First a necessary disclaimer: Rumours about an upcoming Codex Tau Empire come up every now and then, the last summary on the Heresy Online forum predicting an August release this year. Harry thinks that Tau are still farer away than most people think. Ghost21 has a reputation of providing loads of rumours, with most dealing with the far future, one being spot on (Dreadfleet) and one being far off (Augst release of Sororitas models, with detailed description of the released models). So I present a summary of ghost21's Tau rumours (he is the only source) as provided by Warseer's Tastyfish, but I can't guarantee the reliability and personally remain sceptical until at least some more of his rumours turn out to be true. And I will edit ghost21's spelling and grammar as always

I will try to keep this first post updated. Again thanks to Tasytfish for providing the original summary which I just reorganised a bit (and will probably expand in the future).

Edit: Added some stuff including rumours by other posters. Harry also estimates a tau release just before 6th edition. Frgt/10 thinks all miniatures are done.

General Codex rumours

Not the next book, but probably after Black Templars
Seems in proofreading stage.
Author may be Phil Kelly
Seems to be ast 5th edition Codex

Tau Units

Army has 4 basic HQs and 3 basic troop choices excluding changes made by any Special Characters if there are any

Return of 4 old SC, plus 2-4 new ones
New SC "Iceheart"
No Court of the Archon/henchmen type mixed units

Ethereals may get increased BS and preferred enemy.

Stealth suit mechanics may change, markerlights won't change much.

New sniper suit (seems to be the snipersuit mentioned below)

Shas'O get a stealth armour option, may be an experimental suit like Shadowsuns, or the experimental suit might be a third option

4 new 'Tau' units: Note these will not all probably be in the first release - there's 2-3 plastic kits here and we already know 3 for the 4 that are coming out.
Dropship (carries up to 15 models or 2 battlesuits and 10 models, or 5 battlesuits)
Fighter (flyer)
Snipersuits
"Ubersuit"

The Ubersuit is a Battletech/Mechwarrior sort of thing (probably Dreadknight sized), with a special 'ridiculous' ability that lets it rain down shooting if it stands still.
Looks a bit like one of the Battletech Mechs that is named after an ancient weapon


New Tau models
4 box sets, and 4 blisters in wave 1
Demiurg plastic box
Battlesuit plastic box (maybe including sniper and broadside)
Vespid plastic box (redesign that looks much cooler)
Assault transport(?)

Demiurg ancient blister
New Tau SC blister

Crisis suits have been completely redesigned (not just recut sprues and ankle tweaks), less boxy and including a 'morphic weapon'
Hammerhead and Skyray stay the same.

Allies and Auxiliaries

Vespids get two slots. They get a heavy version (in addition to the assault unit) with some sort of heavy weapons.
Just for reference, here an old Vespid concept sketch:

ghost21 wrote:One of those is close to the vespid heavy.

Kroot get an additional unit
No Knarloc riders,though perhaps something big (new WFB monster-szied) for the Kroot
Kroot fieldcraft rule - presumably switched to Stealth and Infiltrate USR
Maybe minor psychic powers for Shapers or Shaper like character this is something Ghost has heard from other people and not stated directly

Demiurg have 1 HQ, 1 troop and maybe 1 else. Presumably the Elite choice mentioned elsewhere
Demiurg ancients are a thing Probably HQ, but could also be the elite unit
Possible Demiurg elite choice

Demiurg Ancients: Think of them as cranky old wise men who saw the Imperium in its infancy. They have seen the Eldar come and go, and thought it was just another decadent empire, though they normally take hundreds of years to make a decision. The tau have something special the demiurg like.
Demiurg are "equal to banshees without the scream" so presumably anti-armour close combat, or at least have that as an option. This might also be elite unit rather than the troop one, or be a unit that does both - like a kit that would let you make Boyz and Ard Boyz (or Dwarfs and Longbeards). An elite unit, but being an upgrade to a troop slot to keep out the way of the battlesuits.

Demiurg are apparently a lot less Dwarfish than the initial concepts, instead being more like little stone golems (Ozruk from WoW was mentioned)
As a tongue in cheek nod to the fate of the squats, there is a named Demiurg (who may or may not make it as a SC) who survived fighting Tyranids and personally killed a large monster by drilling his way out after being "Swallowed up by the 'Nids"
This Demiurg is aware that the Ethereals have some kind of power over the Tau (maybe other races too) but not the Demiurg, who have presumably signed up for political reasons and of their own free will

Demiurg and one other new race join the army, the latter being something bizarre or at least something we've not seen before.

urm yes close....

No Gue'vesa (human auxiliary troop) unit or models

No Nicassar.

No Zoats.

"All I know about the other race is: they MAY have 6 limbs."
"They have plans for this guy from an old concept sketch":


Rumours not by ghost21:

The Man They Call Jayne from Second Shere forum http://secondsphere.org/index.php/topic,129654.0.html :

I have heard a few rumours for the GW high up through a mate. His source is GWs own Phil Kelly, who has just started work on the Tau Codex.
1.) 6th ed boxset is set to be Eldar Vs CSMs, as they will be the among the first 6th ed codexes.
2) Eldar will be first, then Tau or CSMs
(...)
A new "Insectoid" Tau Aux race. Thats all I know on that bit though. Not niccasar it would seem.
Forgeworld stuff is moving across too. TX-42 and Hazard. Maybe even the Remora.

Frgt/10 wrote:All the new Tau models are done; Dave Thomas worked on them for roughly 18 months and he's finished them all now.
They're just waiting for a releases slot, I don't now when that is but my guess it is has since been locked in since I found out this info.

Harry wrote:Dave has been working on something pretty big. (Helpful as always. )

Also Frgt/10 is correct in that Dave Thomas has been exclusiely on Tau for 18 months but he is not 100% correct. Whilst MOST of the models are done. My understanding is Dave Thomas still had some bits and bobs to do. (i am guessing finishing characters?)

But even so that means they could be in the next six months.

(But I am not expecting them quite this soon).

Frgt/10 wrote:also Harry I heard down here that he was 100% done with them, hence why he was in oz for GD. Or have you heard otherwise in the last month or so?

Harry wrote:I don't know when they are released.
I just said six months could be possible.
I have them for the early summer in my, constantly updated, release schedule as the release right before 6th Edition
(...)
What I heard was ... 'The Empire is expanding to include More races' (Plural)

From 10-21-11:

Liberium Online's Jared Van Kell wrote:The Tau codex belongs to Cruddace, lets get that fact straight. That is all I am going to say on that issue.
Black Templars on the other hand was always going to be Phil Kelly's pet project. The only way Ward or Cruddace would ever get the Black Templars codex off him would be to prise the rough drafts out from his cold...dead...hands.

Unless of course they offered him the Dwarf Army Book...............(whistles innocently).

From 11-18-11:

Jared Von Kell wrote:Some of these rumours [In regards to rumor sumamry posted up on BOLS] are spot on others not so spot on. 4 generic HQs are the Tau Commander, Tau Ethereal, Kroot Master Shaper and Demiurg Ancient. Blisters are, as far as I am aware, a new Tau Ethereal, Demiurg Ancient and 2 special character blisters.

From 11-19-11:

Liberium Online's Jared Von Kell wrote:I've also heard that the Skyray will be getting a better choice of missiles in addition to the Seeker missile which is believed to be S6 AP4 Blast, however you have to choose the missile type at the beginning of the game so you cannot mix and match. Despite the payload ts main role will still be target marking.

From 11-25-11:

Jared Von Kell of Liberium Online wrote:The Demiurg Special character is apparently the one called Iceheart.

The Battletech Mech in question is the Warhammer IIC mech (no joke about the name.) one of the unseen mechs in the battletech universe. The suit itself is quite big, not quite dreadknight sized but it can "brace".....yes Matt Ward does play Spacemarine. The trouble is that it will be competing against Broadsides, Skyrays and Hammerheads, all of which have improved, a lot.

From 11-26-11:

Jared Von Kell of Liberium Online wrote:Well from what I can understand from the mechanic is this. A particular troop type is associated with a particular HQ but in doing so confers a special ability on those troop types.

Tau Ethereal - Unlocks Tau Firewarrior teams.
Tau Fire Commander - Unlocks Tau XV8 Crisis Battlesuit teams.
Kroot Shaper - Unlocks Kroot Carnivore squads.
Demiurg Ancient - Unlocks Demiurg Warrior squads.

I can understand the thought process behind the mechanic from what I know of the basic fluff regarding the Tau.
However I would have thought that Firewarriors would have always remained as basic troops and an Ethereal would have unlocked Honour Guard but it seems from the snippets of info I've been able to peice together that an Ethereal confers Preferred Enemy (Everything) and BS4 on those Firewarrior squads he leads making Honour Guard redundant.

Sorry I misread your question. You referring to the models and I was referring to the rules in my answer as I was in a bit of a hurry when I replied.

As far as I an aware none of the existing plastic kits are going to be changing so the firewarrior and tank models will stay as they are now.

This means you can get your brother started now.

Again sorry for the confusion.

From 11-29-11:

Jared Von Kell of Liberium Online wrote:All that I can say is known about the Demiurg is that they are the Tau's main anti-MEQ unit. How effective they are I cannot say.

From 12-1-11:

Jared Van Kell of Liberium Online wrote:Actually you might be surprised. My sources and the several other rumour mongers have started indicating that Templars might actually be next followed by Tau, this is normally a sign for me that what I am hearing is correct but with recent developments such things are by no means certain.
I have however recently discovered that the Tau are in the proofreading stage of development which means that the codex is written but it has not yet quite gone to the printers. Now this means that all GW have to do is give the nod and the codex can be printed in numbers pretty quickly. All they then have to do is ramp up the advertisement, distribution and product support and we have them ready to go for our very much enjoyment.

From 12-29-11 by BoLS

40K RUMORS: Tau Upgrades
Posted by Bigred at Thursday, December 29, 2011

So, here's the latest word on the rumored upcoming Codex: Tau Empire

They say the Tau are ever expanding their empire with not only new member races, but steadily updating and improving their equipment. Lets get to it:

-Demiurg Units ~plural
-New Vespid unit and a new weapon for the wasp-men.
-New FireWarrior heavy weapons - expect new anti-tank / anti- infantry heavy weapon choices on a 1 special per X ratio (probably 1 per 5 or 10 fire Warriors)
-Plastic Barricuda (or other renamed fighter)
-Possible Human allies (Rogue IG militia that joined the Tau Empire) ~said to be the iffy-est of these rumors.
-New Kroot HQ choice (with the ability to "unlock a Kroot themed army) ~sounds like an homage to the old Kroot Mercs list.
-Kroot Carnivores upgraded to either a 5+ or a 6+ save by default.

From 1-2-12 by BoLS:

40K RUMORS Tau Upgrades - Part 2
Posted by Bigred at Monday, January 02, 2012

-Battlesuit Commander: shifts ONE battlesuit unit to a Troops FOC slot.
-New Close Combat Battlesuit
-New Ethereal named character
-Ethereals will get upgraded to be the "leader" role in the Tau Empire army. (so not the best BS, or WS, but other interesting army-support tricks)
-New deepstriking Dropship (an Orca-ish platform on par with the IG valkyrie)
-Up-gunned Drone variants (specific anti-tank and anti-heavy infantry options) which can be attached to almost every TAU unit in the codex


~Hmm. Off to start expanding my Tau Empire army now before the bum rush in a few months...

Old rumours by stickmonkey September last year:

New Heavy support platform. Basically immobile deep striked! heavy weapon and crew. Rail and Ion Cannon, and missile launcher are all obvious options here, but nothing solid with the rumor.

Assault Skimmer. Something between size of piranha and hammerhead, fast skimmer open topped, assault on disembark.
Update: Yes, its assault after a flat out move, and has the "drop troops along path" option similar to the storm raven. its supposedly a dedicated transport option for one new unit. (I don't place faith in this last bit, its very rare in current GW systems to see a vehicle kit limited to one unit/role...if GW is trying to sell them they will be available to more than one unit, or be a separate entry unto itself.)

New Drop ship. Not the FW one, but something new. Holds a boatload of fire warriors, or a few battle suits.

New battle suits. Not sure if these are the "next gen" suits or just heavy suits redone with out metal bits.

notpop wrote:During a mooch around one of the better known Independent Games shops in the UK I was told that GW are no longer accepting orders for Tau stock indicating that a release is proably imminent. So guessing the traditional WFB/40K pattern following Necrons there will be some WFB goodies followed by Tau in the new year.

The bloke who told me was a blowhard so season as appropriate, but the owner corroborated it so I thought that I would put it out there.

Here some old pics from 2008 of sculpted models, unsure if they are released though:

Kroot Shaper


Ejected Battlesuit pilot:


Test sculpts by then trainee Matt Holland shown the same year.

Kroothawk, thank you for reorganizing this.

A transport capable of carrying 5 battlesuits hints that we may see bigger suit squads. Also, seein gas most of our battle suits don't need a transport to get around the field quickly, perhaps this is for the new type of suit.

It being able to carry 15 models may either indicate bigger FW squads or the recognition that our FW squads often have drones and sometimes and IC attached. Then again, carrying 10 models and 2 battlesuits might indicate it carries multiple units.

I'll be disappointed if the Stealth Suit mechanics change. I find the way they currently work (roll to see if you can even see the suit) to be pretty good. About the only thing I could take as an acceptable substitute is them working a lot like the Disruption Pod though perhaps the suit doing better than a 4+ due to it's smaller size and purposefully stealthy construction. Maybe reduce the armour save to 4+ to represnet their somewhat lighter construction.

A while ago, I hypothesized on another board that the Rail Rifle is a logical weapon for the Stealth Teams. While I'm not taking credit for the idea (it seems to obvious to me to claim it as an original thought), perhaps the fusion of rail rifle and stealth suit is giving us this sniper suit being talked about.

The fieldcraft replacement should also include Move Through Cover or ignore Dangerous terrain to keep the Kroot's mobility. The latter also negates the need for an assault grenade.

I don't think (and I rather hope not) that the 'howling banshee' Demiurg are going to be the troop choice. The Kroot already give us an assault troop (though they can't crack vehicles) and the Tau with EMP grenades can crack vehicles (but aren't an assault troop). So to me there is enough overlap for it not to make sense. I suspect our Demi-urg troop will be something that can dig in on top of an objective and not get pushed off.

Of course that's assuming that the Demi-urg are the troop choice. There are a few units (Pathfinders, Sniper Drone Teams) I could see being re-rolled in a future codex.

Somewhat disappointing about the Gue'vesa. They are both highly anticipated in the Tau community and could add a nice disposable troop choice. I figure that the relative populations and the human penchant for high mortality in the 40K universe makes that a natural role in the Empire.



Seeing as the Pathfinders are metal and need a resculpt or be redone as Finecast (Did anybody hear a scream?) those three by Holland may have been prototypes for the new Pathfinders.

As long as I can play my 148 kroot mercs army in the new codex I will be happy. That is without buying any "tau" models. A new kroot heavy would be cool.

Excellent! Now with a page one summary, things will be more streamlined.

Alls I can hope from this book is bringing the tide of swearing by krap wrap to a slower pace.

Clay Williams wrote:As long as I can play my 148 kroot mercs army in the new codex I will be happy. That is without buying any "tau" models. A new kroot heavy would be cool.

Doubt it, unless you are willing to forgo a few soots. It sounds like there will be a Kroot HQ, Kroot Troops and 1 other Kroot unit (I'm guessing heavy support since it's described as big). Unless the Master Shaper lets you modify your units like the Kroot Mercs Apocalypse Data Sheet (which would rock by the way) the units just won't be flexible enough for a full army. Even if they are, without some FOC hi-jinks from the Master Shaper you're going to find yourself limited to 11 slots out of a potential 17 in the FOC meaning your enemy can bring more units than you can in any higher priced game.

Maybe we'll see White Dwarf for the Kroot (yeah, I know, sorry about that) and a new version of Chapter Approved later on including Kroot, Sisters and whatever else they found worthy.

I would be happy if it is possible for us to play a full Auxiliary army (Not because I dislike Tau, I just love the variety).

It's starting to shape up that way by the rumours.

HQ
Demi-urg? and Kroot

Elites
Demi-urg?

Troops
Demi-urg? and Kroot

Fast Attack
Vespid

Heavy Support
Kroot?

Unknown Slots
Vespid and Mystery Alien.

Ignoring special characters that will be 9 auxiliary units spread across the 5 FOC slots, so we may get some Alien action there.

I appreciate your rumor-editing as always KH!

A more racially diverse Tau book is good news. I hope that doesn't mean more mono-pose Finecast models, however. Yes, the Archon Court sculpts were awesome. I'd just like to see non-Tau in squads a la Vespids ... er, except with true multipose or rather simply pose-ability. And hopefully the dex will not be mono-racial in terms of viable builds so that these other xenos get some play.

The Demiurg ... a lot of hopes/fears will be pinned on them if the Warpath threads are any indication. I can't say I think of ghost21's rumors as much more than wishlisting (even if it is studio wishlisting, maybe) so I'm trying to keep myself from being excited. Tau were the first 40k models I ever purchased (unlike some mods and posters here I have not been into this since time immemorial) and I have always really loved them as a faction even if they're current builds don't totally interest me.

Just started my Tau with a 2nd hand score (11 tanks, 50 fire warriors, 10 suits, 2 piranhas $100), looking forward to getting some new models to add to it. Plastic Vespid sounds great, not a fan of metal.

Might have to try and offload the suits though if they're getting a new kit.

Kroothawk wrote:
Seems in proofreading stage.

Must be a new idea they trying.

Thanks, Kroot.

Not being up on the reslease schedules, its BT next then Tau? Or is there something coming before those too?

The Demiurg angle sounds very interesting.

ironhandstraken wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:
Seems in proofreading stage.

Must be a new idea they trying.

Don't worry, they are just counting skulls

Ratius wrote:Not being up on the reslease schedules, its BT next then Tau? Or is there something coming before those too?

Harry and ghost21 seem to think that, so yes.

Will they be pre or post 6th ed release?

Hopefully it will have a Suit-Heavy Build (Maybe suits as troops ala-Paladins or Wolfgaurd?). I am hoping that Stealth Suits will suck less, Fire Warriors will have more options, basically I want DE level of overhaul (Wont happen, but I can hope).

Picked up 2 old Tau battleforces for dirt cheap, so will just hold off until we see the new book.

Thanks Kroothawk!

Always good to have a summary!

Subbed!

These rumors are false.

Exhibit A:

Kroothawk wrote:Seems in proofreading stage.

I like the look of the rifles, they look good.

Ohh Tau, my favorite non owned army


Lets just hope it stays away from the new style naming, we don't need Pulse-claws, Pulse-jets, Pulse-rockets or Black-pulse-Xv666-gamebrerakers Mk3


Infact, Pulse-rockets sound cool, let's put them in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsed_rocket_motor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion

Thanks for the great update (or repository)!

Good summary. Thanks for the updates!

The Ubersuit is a Battletech/Mechwarrior sort of thing (probably Dreadknight sized), with a special 'ridiculous' ability that lets it rain down shooting if it stands still.
Looks a bit like one of the Battletech Mechs that is named after an ancient weapon

Interesting. I'd want to guess Catapult or Longbow based on the whole "raining down fire" part.

I just hope that this stays a Tau army. I.E. - The only HQ options should be Tau. I'm fine with your troops, etc. all being non-Tau, but HQ... it should be Tau. It's Codex: Tau Empire, not Codex: "Mostly Tau but you can play it all as something else if you really want to".

chaos0xomega wrote:I just hope that this stays a Tau army. I.E. - The only HQ options should be Tau. I'm fine with your troops, etc. all being non-Tau, but HQ... it should be Tau. It's Codex: Tau Empire, not Codex: "Mostly Tau but you can play it all as something else if you really want to".

Eh, i'm fine with either/or.

Hell, you can play a non-grey knights list with the grey knights codex.

chaos0xomega wrote:I just hope that this stays a Tau army. I.E. - The only HQ options should be Tau. I'm fine with your troops, etc. all being non-Tau, but HQ... it should be Tau. It's Codex: Tau Empire, not Codex: "Mostly Tau but you can play it all as something else if you really want to".

Codex: Tau Empire
not
Codex: Tau

I certainly don't see a problem with the Tau coming first, but there I do not see why other elements of the Empire should not be allowed to function without Tau supervision.

Granted, all of them working together should in theory produce the best results, as each different faction should plug a different element of the battlefield responsibilities.

CpatTom, I again direct you to the fact that it is Codex: TAU empire. Also, every piece of material from GW and FW have indicated that even the Tau's predominantly non-Tau military formations, such as Auxiliary cadre's etc. are led by Tau officers.

Thanks for making the summary!

I think it'll be funny watching all my tau suits taking orders from Kroot and other races. I wonder how they would feel about that?

Personally I'm fine if this provides a backdoor method of getting an updated Kroot army out there.

Yay Tau....

chaos0xomega wrote:CpatTom, I again direct you to the fact that it is Codex: TAU empire. Also, every piece of material from GW and FW have indicated that even the Tau's predominantly non-Tau military formations, such as Auxiliary cadre's etc. are led by Tau officers.

Well... I'd point out while that may be true, every piece of Necron fluff indicated they were all mindless automatons, enslaved to star-eating godlike beings until a couple weeks ago.

But with Codex: Necrons it's kind of impossible to not build a Necron army. People are trying to argue that it should be possible to build a Tau army with no actual Tau in it, and that doesn't really make sense or even seem reasonable.