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Hi dakkanauts!! I have traversed the universe unknown and have briefly gone through the tau codex (despite it being a pre release) so for those of you who haven't I just wanted to sum up some of the changes from the old to the new! 
Note to to admin: I WILL NOT be posting up full rules but describing them. If there's anything you may deem wrong do PM and edit the topic? Cool? Thanks!
-Pulse weapons: rifle and carbine are still S5 AP5! Rifle is now 24' though and carbine is 18' and assault 2! With a new equipment called pulse accelerator however that increases the range by 6' people might find some good combos! Although I've scowled the entire book and army list section an it seems like there is no unit nor character who has access to it! (expect it to be FAQed)

Vespid!: the Vespid (and all units) are one point cheaper than originally and their gun ranges are increased by 6'. Armor of 4+.

Farsight: same without the 0-1 limit. 

Shadow sun: still gakky but with extra goodies.

Dark strider: Mediocre HQ that decreases toughness by one and basically Hits and wounds marines on 2+ but they still have their save.

New ethereal HQ: Aun'shi (he's on the GW page) he has an honor blade and 2 modes like the GK champion, one is rending and the other is reroll failed saves.

Aun'va: new paradox of duality, makes the AP of your enemies weapons become your saving throw. So if an AP 1 wound is inflicted, your saving throw will then be 1+. THAT GREAT THAT AWESOME BUT WHY THE HELL WOULD THE INCOMPETENT ENEMY FIRE A LASCANNON AT THIS GUY?! Oh yeah no more improved stats as far as I saw.

Ethereals: all ethereals have some ability to improve the abilities of the people around them. Like counter attack or getting an additional shot at half range. Can't quite remember but these guys kinda of fill up the role left by the lack of librarians. Can actually see them being useful ._. Especially aun'shi.
Ok I kind of remembered the powers the ethereals get: they can bestow FNP, additional shot at half weapon range, stubborn and monster hunter. Each of these are individual and can only be used one at a time so you've gotta choose. Except aun'va he can use 2.

Broadsides: they carry rail rifles that is S8AP1.

Riptide: pretty cool with option for T6 drone. Has a 5++ and 2+ with a possible 3++ if you use the nova generator thing. And gets a wound on 1 or 2. If you're planning on playing safe then skip this baby.

Any more questions? I'll update from time to time and if there is anything that will get dakka in trouble do let me know.



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Kroot are also now useless with only 1 attack (even the rifle doesn't give them an additional attack) BUT for additional 1 point you can give em sniper rounds 8D so you can basically get 20 snipers at 7 points each, infiltrate them and shoot the gak out of high toughness critters, tyranids beware!
NO KROOT HQ.

Vehicle upgrades: disruptive field now increases cover save by 1+ but decoy launchers gives a constant 4++

pulse rifles 24''? let the nerd rage commence!!!

I would assume that makes fire warriors cheaper.

don't the pathfinders have a pulse accelerator drone? 24'' assault 2 sounds nice.

What are the troop options? Any way to shift around the FOC? I'm hoping for stealth suits as troops somehow

Sorry dude no way I could see to shift any of the FOC. The only troop options were kroot and fire warriors. And this time GW really made tau focus on shooting. There is close to NO CQC options in te codex even the kroot needed to have hounds to be any good in CQC. Fire blade is also mediocre with 60 point to get a fire warrior with BS5 with a 24" pulse rifle and allows his squad to get an additional shot provided they stand still.

60 points eh?.. with a marker light,bs 5,split fire and everyone getting +1 shot. might be worthwhile. will need to see the codex as a whole though

Are the Flyers any good?

Apparently the bomber can reproduce bombs on a roll of 4+ (or something like that sorry I didn't look too carefully at the flyers)
The commander battle suit no longer has shas'el or 'O it's just commander now. And he takes the stats of the 'O but cost 10 points more than originally. The "unique systems" (the tide turning unique equipment like the axe of blind fury for chaos) are REALLY cheap in comparison to DA or CSM between 3-25 points

With the Riptide's Nova reactor, do you pick an effect at 3+ or is it a random table?

daredeviltan wrote:

Kroot are also now useless with only 1 attack (even the rifle doesn't give them an additional attack) BUT for additional 1 point you can give em sniper rounds 8D so you can basically get 20 snipers at 7 points each, infiltrate them and shoot the gak out of high toughness critters, tyranids beware!

Now I really hope an Allies supplement will be released. Kroot even worse in combat? Ugh, guess I'm still using mine as counts-as Dark Eldar and waiting for a new Ork codex. That's extremely disappointing. Although if you can take six units of 20-man sniper squads for 7 points per model, that would be a bit crazy.

Any new Kroot units at all? What about that rumored HQ choice?

the dude at warseer says the bombs regen on a 2+.

this makes more sense as a 50% chance to run out of your main gun after one shot is a bit rubbish.

thanks for the info.

daredeviltan wrote:


Aun'va: new paradox of duality, makes the AP of your enemies weapons become your saving throw. So if an AP 1 wound is inflicted, your saving throw will then be 1+. THAT GREAT THAT AWESOME BUT WHY THE HELL WOULD THE INCOMPETENT ENEMY FIRE A LASCANNON AT THIS GUY?! Oh yeah no more improved stats as far as I saw.

I can sense lasguns in the future... Thanks for the thread though. I have only one question, as a Nids player. Have they changed markerlights at all, and can we take cover saves against their hits yet?


EDIT: fixed double post

probably not im afraid... cover saves are for wounds only.

this could change but I doubt it.

Any new Xenos units? Krootox and Hounds still part of Kroot unit? Kroot HQ?

No kroot HQ and hounds and krootox are still there. Marker lights can no longer strip cover (or maybe I missed that entry I'm sorry) but no cover saves can be taken against seekers. I predict seekers are goin to be value able in the near future.
Aun'va actually already has a 5+ armor so the best weapon to kill him with is ironically a burst cannon or pulse carbine or high strength AP5 weapon so aun'va is actually terrible against nids (except in CQC, all your MC ap1 hits won't help you now)
And sorry if I get the flyer info wrong I barely looked at the flyer stats or weapons but briefly glanced at the sun shark and the other thing (that's how little I recall).




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No other species were called to the cause of the greater good sadly... BUT NEXT EDITION. LET US HAVE OUR FLOATING PANDA PSYCHERS

With the nerf to pulse rifles, have firewarriors changed in cost?

9 points. As boy wonder stated that pathfinders have access to pulse accelerator drones (increase by 6") the fire warrior squads may get access to such a drone as well I wasn't thorough enough so my bad.

What's the situation with Vespid and Stealth Squads, please? Also, do Battlesuits come with multi-trackers standard and optional BS4-upgrade?

Thanks for the info.

is this guy on the rumour tracker yet? credentials etc etc etc.. ?

Targeting arrays no longer increase BS. And no multitrack we has to be purchased still. (unless I'm mistaken then once again sorry I only had a look at the book for an hour or so)


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Vespids are also mildly usable but their guns are still assault 1. 18" now. Still AP3. Sorry I didn't go through the stealth suits at all so I can't say...
Fire warriors can go through the bonding knife ritual which is 1 point. It gives them the heroic morale rule which is basically a partial TSKNF. Expect a lot of drones to be used. Oh god and the sniper team uses drones that use longer pulse rifles but is much worse than the original rail rifles.


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Sorry no I'm not on any rumor tracker but I've actually held the codex and did a brief read through so all you've got is my word...

24 inch pulse rifles...that sounds very bad :S.

Best weapon to kill Aun'va; Leman Russ Punisher.

Oh god. Daredeviltan, I hope you're trolling.

Please, let this be a joke.

So they reduce the price of FW (9 points last time I heard), but make us purchase an upgrade to give them their old weapon stats back?

I DON'T WANT TO BELIEVE!!!


(Damnit, why does it seem that the Tau codex the only codex that cares about balance...? As much as I didn't wan't a Ward codex, at least I would have been comfortable knowing that my codex would have rocked.)

I am planning a Tau army, but from this info it sounds like nerfs! for a book which did not need them :S

Materia_Master wrote:
Oh god. Daredeviltan, I hope you're trolling.

Please, let this be a joke.

So they reduce the price of FW (9 points last time I heard), but make us purchase an upgrade to give them their old weapon stats back?

I DON'T WANT TO BELIEVE!!!


(Damnit, why does it seem that the Tau codex the only codex that cares about balance...? As much as I didn't wan't a Ward codex, at least I would have been comfortable knowing that my codex would have rocked.)

All the 6th edition dexes have been in line with each other, it looks like Tau will be the same.

Thanks for the info so far, but I'm going to take all this with a pinch of salt. On paper some of the DA stuff looks awful but when used with something else, like Black Knights and a DarkShroud, they're pretty sweet!

Are weapons on battlesuits still twin-linked, or are two plasma rifles... two plasma rifles?

 stubacca wrote:
Thanks for the info so far, but I'm going to take all this with a pinch of salt. On paper some of the DA stuff looks awful but when used with something else, like Black Knights and a DarkShroud, they're pretty sweet!

Thank you for judging my words and deeming it worthy of salt (I'm not hating I'm actually thankful you're taking me seriously) because I'm goin off pure memory over a dex I did not have time to mule over. T

On another note: don't worry about the nerfs as far as I can see there are HUGE punts of new stuff (did I tell you about exchanging all your attacks for one S10AP1 melee attack? It's an equipment) so far I've just been addressing major issues do dot you dare worry f the dex is nerfed because it isn't an the tau will come back stronger than ever even with adversity as all tau have always done. I'll be taking a second look at the dex tmr (it's actually past midnight in Singapore so goodnight dakkanauts)

I am skeptical of this TBH, seems like the opposite of wishlisting to me.

If there had been an option to make a Crisis Suit army ala Deathwing I would have done it, but it seems the dream is dead.

Do the firewarriors get free grenades like every other army since except them since 4th edition? If so, do they get both grenades like marines or just basic frag equivalents like IG?

Does farsight's bodyguard (assuming that command squad type unit still exists) get any special options compared to other commanders like a close combat upgrade?