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Me and my friend who played tau a lot in 5th, just picked up the codex and started playing them a bit. One of my friends is adament that the only reason we are doing well is because its an overpowered codex. Personally after studying the dex my impression is that they aren,t as powerful as IG or necrons but i might just be trying to defend my precious Tau. What do you guys think? Will eventually link my friend to this Thread.

Thanks in advance!

The codex isn't overpowered, it's just new, so people don't yet know how to deal with it.

Depands on what you call overpowered . A normal army , very good when an ally is taken .

^ This.

Of course players will lose when they only have a faint idea of what's coming at them. No way to prepare. It's plain suicide to battle an army you know nothing about. If someone asks: "What are drop pods?", there is a pretty good chance that this someone will get their buttocks handed to them on a plate.

Give it two more weeks.

I haven't had the pleasure of taking on a Tau player since their codex update but from what I've seen and heard I'm truthfully unafraid.

 CommunistGekko wrote:
Me and my friend who played tau a lot in 5th, just picked up the codex and started playing them a bit. One of my friends is adament that the only reason we are doing well is because its an overpowered codex. Personally after studying the dex my impression is that they aren,t as powerful as IG or necrons but i might just be trying to defend my precious Tau. What do you guys think? Will eventually link my friend to this Thread.

Thanks in advance!

you're doing well because compared to its previous incarnation, it is certainly more powerful. then again, its previous incarnarnation was severely underpowered as a whole.

basically, youre on level par now, whereas previously everything was an uphill battle.

your friend just seems to have a case of sour grapes, as from his perspective, he cant count on an easy win any more. that doesnt make yours an overpowered codex however.

I'm quite happy with it, if only I could find a use for aun'shi as I love the idea of a combat ethereal

 CommunistGekko wrote:
Me and my friend who played tau a lot in 5th, just picked up the codex and started playing them a bit. One of my friends is adament that the only reason we are doing well is because its an overpowered codex. Personally after studying the dex my impression is that they aren,t as powerful as IG or necrons but i might just be trying to defend my precious Tau. What do you guys think? Will eventually link my friend to this Thread.

Thanks in advance!

Hmmm, lets see. Losing in 5th, new Codex drops, now winning in 6th. Must be over powered! But really I would say more balanced. However, its an extremely shooty army and that is very 6th friendly.

Yeah, like others have said, I don't feel that it's OP. I think it's just very different from the other 6ed books that have come out so far. Tau have a lot of units/rules that exist with the express purpose of negating other rules that a lot of armies live by. I think it will just take a little while for some to figure out how to work around that. I would agree that it is very 6ed friendly as well. Probably the first book to come out this edition that really feels like it was meant for this edition.

They are overpowered as hell and will remain that way until Eldar come out this June, then the Eldar will be OP as hell... until Space Marines come out then of course those stupid bastards will be OP AS HELL, until of course...... (I think you get the point)

People were saying it was underpowered a few weeks ago :/

I think it's a good book, a lot of variety and customization and to me it seems pretty well balanced.

Tau is a strong book with good internal balance. Nothing in the codex is overpowered, we have no helldrake or vendetta or any choice that stands out and says "take only me and win!" But almost everything in the codex is very playable. As a result we have a lot more options that most codices and we can easily tailor our lists to fit the meta. We are also one of the best shooting armies in the game and unless you are playing IG you are probably not going to win that shooting game against us. I believe this is the reason we seem so powerful. We are at one extreme of a spectrum and are fighting against jack of all trade armies who are trying to do a little of everything and therefor can't do shooting as good as us.

If you were to ask me where Tau ranks up against the other armies I would say we are below IG, necrons and Helldrake spamming CSMs but probably better than everything else.

From what I've seen in the games I've played against them and watching them, assault armies are going to have the most problems w/ Tau as their overwatch combined fire can be brutal. If your only going to try to assault them w/ one unit a turn a player who know's how to position his army is going to chew you up and spit you out. They so far seem to me to be balanced pretty well, 6th made shooty armies more viable and that's a good thing. They are a shooty army and played correctly they'll be a solid codex.

We are also one of the best shooting armies in the game and unless you are playing IG you are probably not going to win that shooting game against us. I believe this is the reason we seem so powerful. We are at one extreme of a spectrum and are fighting against jack of all trade armies who are trying to do a little of everything and therefor can't do shooting as good as us.

I think that hits the nail right on the head. The Tau are a very shooty army in an edition that is definitely biased towards shooting. The book was clearly written with the new edition in mind (where others like CSM could have been released in 4th and you would not know the difference) and it hits a sort of sweet spot. I still don't think it's OP though. Just unique.

No, not overpowered, just very well fit for the current edition. This is more or less the perfect edition for the big three shooty armies (Tau, Imperial Guard, Necrons) as their weaknesses in assault are quite difficult to press upon them and the downgrade of vehicles does nothing to change the fact that their vehicles are still better than pretty much anyone else's. Addittionally, having such a wide variety of air superiority and air denial options is a very good thing to have in sixth edition where battles can be decided on who can use their fliers better as the Tau are so far unmatched in their ability to determine who gets to fly in the first place.

I think they are pretty good, but not OP.

They were always a tougher match up for my DE, and they got even harder. I played a small battle against them over the weekend, and they made very short work of my Baron + Beast pack.

I managed a tough win, but I would have been in big trouble if I went second.

The new tau codex is nothing like what was happening when GK was released. So no, it's not overpowered.

I think your friend is being a dip, and having been used to seeing the much weaker 4th ed codex, now that suddenly the old strategies and counter units don't work like they used too, of course the explanation is 'over powered.'

It's probably what I call the "necron-syndrome" from what I have read in the codex.

People don't really know how to counter it (in your case because it is new) and therefore claim it's overpowered.

And if you play a lot against the same people, they tend to tailor their lists to you.
When suddenly your entire army changes, they are left with an ineffective army and that causes them to lose.

The codex is not overpowered, it just have enough flexibility to be a "meta-breaker"

You see, as they have a possible answer to pretty much every thing you can throw at them, but cant afford to get them all at once, the Tau will dominate every army that they can predict, and as the current meta is so easy to predict its not funny (spam fliers and termies), the Tau brakes the "meta" armies like crackers.

Fliers? velocity trackers, missilesides, sunsharkes, and such will clear the skies.
Cover huggers? SMS and markerlight spam will take care of it
Deathwing/GK termie spam? plasma spam will kill you quickly.
Drop-pods? interceptor spam will brake your alpha strike.
AV wall? fusions all around, infiltrating, deep striking and outflanking.

However, bring it something it did not see coming, and they are in as much trouble as anyone, because none of the options is a "Always superior" like the helldrake, wraiths and other OP units scattered around, sure some things like the riptide are freaking scary, but they have an appropriate price tag.
Also, while every "extreme" unit is quick and easy for them to get rid of, units that are "midpoint" (like many tau ARE), will actually leave Tau puzzled and without a hard counter.
large numbers of save 4+/3+ units will saturate the relevant guns, units that use both cover and armor (scouts for example) will require both markerlights to remove cover and high-power guns to kill quickly, etc, as long you can do multiple things and not over-specialized you can't be pushed into fighting against your element.

You want to beat tau, you take them by surprise. as long you keep on to the obvious units, you will just get countered.
Be different, be versatile and don't have glaring weaknesses.

Its not overpowered, its healthy for the meta, and the more the meta brakes down (such as by new releases making more armies viable), the lesser the impact of tau counter abilities will be.

DE are a bit screwed though, that much I can say. tau is just a bad match-up for them in general. maybe the'll get patched up soon though. the release speed is quick enough.

 BoomWolf wrote:
The codex is not overpowered, it just have enough flexibility to be a "meta-breaker"

You see, as they have a possible answer to pretty much every thing you can throw at them, but cant afford to get them all at once, the Tau will dominate every army that they can predict, and as the current meta is so easy to predict its not funny (spam fliers and termies), the Tau brakes the "meta" armies like crackers.

Fliers? velocity trackers, missilesides, sunsharkes, and such will clear the skies.
Cover huggers? SMS and markerlight spam will take care of it
Deathwing/GK termie spam? plasma spam will kill you quickly.
Drop-pods? interceptor spam will brake your alpha strike.
AV wall? fusions all around, infiltrating, deep striking and outflanking.

Sure this seems reasonable.

However, bring it something it did not see coming, and they are in as much trouble as anyone, because none of the options is a "Always superior" like the helldrake, wraiths and other OP units scattered around, sure some things like the riptide are freaking scary, but they have an appropriate price tag.
Also, while every "extreme" unit is quick and easy for them to get rid of, units that are "midpoint" (like many tau ARE), will actually leave Tau puzzled and without a hard counter.
large numbers of save 4+/3+ units will saturate the relevant guns, units that use both cover and armor (scouts for example) will require both markerlights to remove cover and high-power guns to kill quickly, etc, as long you can do multiple things and not over-specialized you can't be pushed into fighting against your element.

Eh in my experience the Tau have no problems with Helldrakes and wraiths. Heck flying those turkeys near a tau list is a great way to waste a lot of points when they pump it full of missiles.

You want to beat tau, you take them by surprise. as long you keep on to the obvious units, you will just get countered.
Be different, be versatile and don't have glaring weaknesses.

Its not overpowered, its healthy for the meta, and the more the meta brakes down (such as by new releases making more armies viable), the lesser the impact of tau counter abilities will be.

Isn't that the point of TAC over Tailor?

Well overall this post seems quite reasona-

DE are a bit screwed though, that much I can say. tau is just a bad match-up for them in general. maybe the'll get patched up soon though. the release speed is quick enough.

I must have read that wrong.

DE are a bit screwed though, that much I can say.. maybe the'll get patched up soon though. the release speed is quick enough

Oh.

DE patched up soon

Oh no.

DE soon

Oh hell no.

A new DE codex after just three years? When the Orks, BTs, SoBs, Tyranids, and Craftworld Eldar are still trudging along with their ancient books?

As an old Tau player, it seems our definition of "soon" if very different.

in a year and a half/two years is within my scale of "soon" and with current rate in two years they will go over pretty much every codex.

 BoomWolf wrote:
As an old Tau player, it seems our definition of "soon" if very different.

in a year and a half/two years is within my scale of "soon" and with current rate in two years they will go over pretty much every codex.

The big three xeno armies (Eldar, Orks, Tyranids) generally wait about five years to get their new codices. The lesser/newer xeno armies (DEldar, Tau, Necrons) seem to have much longer waits. That being said there is so little wrong with the current Dark Eldar book that updating them anytime during this edition seems unnecessary, especially when there are armies in much greater need of an update.

I've only had one or two brief encounters with the book so far, but as far as I can see it's actually pretty well balanced. I think the reason quite a few are struggling against it is simply because it is new and as usual takes some time to adjust your tactics to suit.

The only thing I will say however is that this book seems to me to be far more powerful as an ally to another force than it does by itself

Tau may seem OP if your list relies too heavily on assault. In my own testing assault armies seem to have a very difficult time with Tau. Tons of shots from Tau and OW shenanigans make life tough.

Thats why balanced armies are the way to go. Feast or famine armies are not as awesome.

LValx wrote:
Tau may seem OP if your list relies too heavily on assault. In my own testing assault armies seem to have a very difficult time with Tau. Tons of shots from Tau and OW shenanigans make life tough.

Non-Flying Circus Daemons laugh at the new Tau.

No psychic defenses beyond the basic 6+ DtW makes Tzeentch & anyone throwing out debuffs happy campers, and S6 shooting from basic Troops is rude. (god forbid you land Enfeeble - bye-bye Crisis Suits!)
And with a book full of primarily Beast/Cavalry/Jump-pack Cavalry/Jetbikes/Jump Infantry type units, Daemons have no problems assaulting on turn 2 with multiple units.
Tau without allies can't put out nearly enough S8+ shooting to stop even half of what a Daemon army can throw at them.

Not a walk in the park for Daemons by any means, but Tau are not nearly as bad a match-up as say Derp Knights or Runes of Warding or SW Rune Priest spam.

I have yet to play new Tau, but I don't think they are OP. I think their army has just gotten better. Personally I enjoy a challenge and look forward to playing them.

They may have some new tricks, but they now also have some new weaknesses. Weaknesses I plan to fully exploit. For example, not being able to have a ton of Str 10 Ap 1 shots everywhere leaves some holes in their heavy vehicle defense.

Its interesting to see how overwhelming the answer is to your question: no its not OP. I think Tau players will be basking in the sun of a decent codex for a few years to come

Yeah heav vehicles are a little mroe of an issue. AV 14 with no Lascannons to pierce them and such. STR 8 glances even though AP 1. So yeah. But the upside is...EMP Grenades nd 18" meltas. Hey...It's better than a kick to the face.