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As a tau player, i was reading about tau Regicide on 1d4chan and came across this:

Regicide is a strategy that arrose with the introduction of the tau FAQ. Simply put, buy a cheap Etheral and place everything else in transports, then execute the little SOB. Your soldiers will automaticaly pass the test and will be pissed as feth for having their head honcho spread evenly over their entire deployment zone. And things were never the same.

The tau FAQ says:

Q: If an ethereal (including Aunʼva) is killed do models
embarked in vehicles have to take a morale check? (p33)
A: No.

Now this has left me wondering:

1.Would this tatica actually work on the table and what do YOU think it would look like
2. Why havent we seen this tried before on the boards?
3. Is this finally a use for our Etherals to come into play again?

Im thinking, Furious charge and Prefered Enemy would be nice. Sure, its an expensive execution unit but if you actually knew what you were doing it could swing the battle in your favor. However, it seems like a 1 trick pony. Just curious what people thought about it and if they think it could work.

It is 50 points and you give your opponent a Kill point. Don't forget all suits on the board have to check, so it only works if you are running no suits, or they are in reserve. A smart opponent will ignore the ethereal until the suits arrive and promptly kill him.

Also, you only gain furious charge and preferred enemy...too bad tau suck in close combat. Even an extra S and I put fire warriors about as good as GEQ, and suits can instagib GEQ, but still not against dedicated assault units.

If you can find a way to kill him without tricking your opponent into doing it, then it'll work in 6th if the rumors are true and PE applies to shooting.

Otherwise, probably not a good idea.

The rule states that any unit which takes the Ld test gains PE (and FC for Aun'Va). So, there would be no benefit to the embarked squads.

It's actually impossible to put everything else in your army in a transport. The suit commander is mandatory. Attempting to minimize the number of suits in your army and keep your pathfinders buttoned up is crippling yourself to give preferred enemy to fire warriors. For the price of doing this with Aun'va you could buy and equip a second battlesuit HQ.

I'm also inclined to rule that it doesn't work at all.

I don't play Tau, but I play against them often enough to have an opinion.

I play IG and I'd love to have you come to me to assault me. Tau aren't exactly melee fighters.

One thought though; I'm sure you can't buy them vehicles, but would this also affect Kroot?

daedalus wrote:I don't play Tau, but I play against them often enough to have an opinion.

I play IG and I'd love to have you come to me to assault me. Tau aren't exactly melee fighters.

One thought though; I'm sure you can't buy them vehicles, but would this also affect Kroot?

Nope, if the Etheral dies, the kroot and vespid (if you play them) are not affected.

MrEconomics wrote:The rule states that any unit which takes the Ld test gains PE (and FC for Aun'Va). So, there would be no benefit to the embarked squads.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Winner!

Sorry but only Tau that take the test gain the benefit. On the plus side there is nothing saying that your army doesn't rally, so if everyone is well forward when this happens the odds of you losing more than an unlucky unit or two are pretty low.

What happens when you play apocalypse and have two ethereals?

The rules apply as normal.

The first one dies, the other one can help units with their Morale tests.

The Second one dies, you rely on unit leadership and bonding knives to stay on the table.

Not a great tactic. Preferred enemy means feth all to Tau. It's like making Flesh Hounds BS10. It's cool and all, and while some units would love it, It's not for them.

The only role an Ethereal has on the Field of Battle is that of an Objective Marker.

It's a stupid tactic outside of apoc games were you can have another ethereal around to make sure you get the re-roll.

Furthermore the way it's listed doesn't work. I can't believe you are listening to anyone on anything 4chan related for tactics and advice.

I've seen it done where you use an ethereal + shadowsuns command drone to give everyone LD10, deploy everything within 18?" of shadowsun, leave the ethereal in the open / charge the enemy with it - gain special rules.

Though yes, generally there's not really much benefit from it.