Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I would say they need to rework how Drones function

I would say
-All Drones are now called Drones, Gun/Shield/Marker has been removed
-All Drones now cost 5 per Drone
-Drones now have a full armory
-Drones can only equip 1 Weapon and 1 Support system from their Armory

Drone Stat Line - 2ws/2bs/2s/3t/1w/4i/na ld/4+
Drones are AI, Fearless

Drone Weapons
-Twin Linked Drone Pulse Rifle - 30" 4str 5ap Heavy 1
-Twin Linked Pulse Carbine - 18" 5str 5ap Pinning Assault 1
-Twin Linked Plasma Pistol - 12" 6str 4ap Assault 1
-Flamer - Template 4str 5ap Assault 1
-Ion Pistol - 12" 3str 6ap Assault 3, Rolls to wound of 6 counts as AP3
-Rail Rifle - 36" 6str 3ap Pinning Heavy 1 (Sniper Drone Squad only)
-Shield Generator - Grants the drone +4 Invuln
-MarkerLight

Drone Support System
-Black Sun Filter - Grants Acute Senses/Night Fight
-Displacement Generator - Grants Stealth universal rule
-Jetpacks (Drone Squad or unit with jump pack only)
-Cool Name - Grants Tank Hunter universal rule
-Targetting Array - +1 BS
-Target Lock - May fire at a separate target than rest of squad
-Vector Thrusters - Grants Hit and Run (Drone Squad only, if 1 Drone takes all must take it)

1. crisis suits BS4 and weapons cost lowered I.E. PR 15/25 MP 10 BC 5 everyone else has had point reductions so now its our turn.
2. Twin linked EVERYTHING on vehicles with damn near everyone who makes their own tech gets this so why not us.
3 firewarriors are fine done touch them 10 points is fair givin the 5/5 30'' range gun the have.
4. pathfinders as troop no compulsery devilfish, option to make them a sniper squad 5 points a pop for a rail rifle
5. devil fish cheaper its good but not amazing for what it can do
6. hammer head cost reduced , Ion gun 8/2 template small 5/3
7. stealth drones, suits give 4+ cover, 3+ in cover and 6'' range reduction when shooting at them only at further than 12"
8. cheaper stealth suits with better options railrifles, or better burst cannon range for them
9. disrpution pod also giving 6'' range reduction
10.sky ray cheaper unlimited missles IF they still have marker hit linked to them, also a 36'' support system on it or even 24'' to make it pack more of a punch
11.stingwing (love them) give them a rounded down cost str 4 for melee 4+ armor save assault 2 12'' will make them worth taking or furious charge 12'' something to make them do more than drop 4 marine on a good day then die in melee next turn i dont expect them to kill more but lasting long would help.
12. Hero units that are better than shas'o
12A. Farsight - grants suits power weapons, he should have furious charge, 2+/4+ saves ( like EVERY DAMN HQ practicly in the game) IF the 0-1 stays then up the BS WS of the army by 1 and give bayonetts or close combat weapons for infantry - an no other aliens cause hes a dick like the dread pirate roberts
12B. shadowsun - 24'' melta 24'' stealth bubble 12'' shield bubble - would coinside with her gakky toughness and command control node feature.
12C. Ethearals they are garbage right now. keep the honor guard firewarriors five them and 5/3 PR give them prefered enemy (shooting verson) while they are on the feild, fearless or everything in 24'' LD10 (if they die prefered enemy everything, furious charge ) - Battle orders like IMPs
13. broad sides cost reduction more secondary options
14. drones CHEAPER we have to have them so cut us a break
15. drones with more features beacons or scramblers
16. turrets on the field (cause marines get mines
17. teleportation war gear
18. homing beacons and more gear to control reserves and deep striking
19. kroot 6+ armor standard, token system IF they win combat IE eat their bodys, give them the knarlocs for cavlry kroot field craft for every cover type
20. piranhas gun options not extra points, maker drones instead of gun drones
21. tetras would be nice
22. new heros that are more attack focused
23. suits that can be taken as troops with trimmed down optioins like one or two wargear options
24. grenades all standard with troops and kroot
25. demiurg - either weapons team or maybe slow heavy in small number mech suit or light suits something encoperating big guns and machines
26. suit wargear for squad hit and run, better ini for suits
27. carbines being assault 2 pinning
28. krootox gun 7/3 36''

Tau need a complete overhaul to become competitive, and pretty much every unit is overpriced for what they do. So, here's my ideas:

Basic unit improvements:

Sniper Drone team:
-Make Troops
-All Drones BS4; remove Drone Controller & his markerlight

Fire Warrior Squad
-8 points each
Pathfinder Squad
-10 points each
-Remove cumpolsory Devilfish

Deep Strike Turrets:
-20 points
-BS4
-Don't take up any slots
-Deep strike on to board at the beginning of the game, use the Drop Pod rules when deep striking
-Armour 12 all round
-Armed with either: TL Plasma Rifles-15 points, SMS-15 points, TL Missile Pods-10 points, TL Fusion Blaster-10 points, TL Burst Cannon-10 points, Small Railgun-25 points, Ion Cannon-25 points

Wargear:

-Micro-targetter: Fire Warriors and pathfinders may re-role any 1s to hit when shooting.
-Pulse rifle:
R....S.AP..Type
30".5..5..Assault 1
-Pulse carbine:
R....S.AP..Type
18".5.5..Assault 2
Markerlight: All markerlights work like networked markerlights. Tokens are not "used", but remain until the end of the players' shooting phase.

Kroot squad:
-6+ Armour Save default.
-Initiative 4 defualt.
-Stealth & Move Through Cover default
-Shaper is ld8 and Stubborn, for 30 points. He can add any number of the following upgrades to the squad for: Quick Wrists-adds +1 Initiative, 2 points per model, Hard Carapace-gives 5+ Armour Save, free, Shredder Claws-all attacks ignore armour, +5 points per model. Gives the option of making cheap horde kroot, or a dedicated CC unit but only through doubling the squads' points cost.
New Unit(!):
Kroot Shaman: 50 point upgrade to Kroot squad. Statline of a shaper plus a force weapon, and 6++ save which it confers to the squad it's attached to.
Psychic powers:
I'm not quite sure what to put here, but I'll have a go:
The Sneaking Predator: The unit gains a +1 bonus to their cover saves-added to Stealth this can make them nearly invincible.
Ensnaring the Prey: The target enemy unit must take a Pinning test, using the lowest leadership of any model in that unit. This is not effected by Stubborn, and Fearless will only work if the model with the lowest leadership in the unit has this listed under their special rules- if it does, it is taken on the leadership of the model with the lowest leadership that does not have Fearless. If all the models in the unit have Fearless, this ability has no effect.
Blast of the Hunt: A psychic shooting attack with the following profile:
R....S.AP..Type
12".5..-...Assault 3D6, Rending
This attack can only be used before attempting to charge the target unit.

Battlesuit improvements:

Crisis suits :
-BS4, BS5 E'l and BS6 'O.
-Reduce to 20 points base, 25 points 'Vre, 40 points 'El and 50 points 'O.

Updated Broadsides:
-Reduce to 50 points base
-Give them SAP default

Useful Stealthsuits:
-Reduce to 20 points base
-Allow them to take multiple Fusion Blasters,


All old suits:
-Reduce wargear cost by 20%
-Shield generators: Reduce to 10 points-about the same as reduced shield drones
-AFP: Make S5, AP4.
-CIB:
R....S.AP..Type
24".4.4..Assault 5, Rending
-New Flamer:
Make it work similair to the Hellhound cannon-you may place the template up to 6" away from the barrel, then place it so the large end is no closer to the barrel than the short end. Make S5, AP4.
Burst Cannon: Make Assault 4.
Iridium armour: Remove movement penalty, reduce to 10 points-just so Crisis suits can stand up to ML spam
Remove ejection system, failsafe detonator and stimulant injector-these are pretty much useless.

Add XV9 Battlesuits as they are.

Vehicles:

Devilfish:
-Reduce to 65 points.
-Ethereals aboard Devilfish do not count as taking up any transport slots; they have dedicated pulpits.

Hammerhead:
-Reduce Railgun cost to 40 points.
-Make Ion Cannon Heavy 4, Rending-20 points. Screw mech!
-Replace Targetting Array with an SMS-is now BS4 default, though it may be replaced by a TA for free.
-May take pintle-mounted TL Pulse Carbine/Rifle.

Skyray:
-Give Seeker Missiles large blast- Tau need more templates. After all, a much more heavily armoured Russ gets the similair weaponry for a similair price.

Pirahna:
-Reduce to 50 points
-Give them the TX-42 rules (and model, preferably)

All vehicles:
-Give BS4
-Gun drones (now removed from Pirahna) are free. They may be replaced with Burst Cannons (10 points), a SMS (20 points) or Repair Drones (repairs an Immobilised or Weapon Destroyed result on a 5+, add 1 for every other Repair Drone on the vehicle) for +10 points. Drones are destroyed when the vehicle is and don't give away any killpoints.

Vespids:
16 points each, 20 points for a Strain Leader
New statline
WS.BS.S.T.W..A.I.Ld.Sv
..5..3..4..4.1..3.5..7..5+
-Strain Leader is Ld8, Stubborn and benefits from an Ethereal's rules
-Diamond Claws: Vespids are Rending in close combat
-Neutron Blaster is Assault 2

Ethereals:
-40 points
-All Tau or Vespids with Strain Leaders (not Kroot) with line of site to them may use their leadership for moral and pinning tests. Any unit they join may choose to pass or fail moral or pinning tests; note that in Close Combat if you choose to stay they must take a No Retreat! test.
-If they die, all Tau units on the table must take a moral test. Units that fall back automatically regroup next turn, as they realise their duty to avenge their leader. Afterwards, all Tau units on the table gain the Relentless special rule.

Few things I can see

Free Sgts.
Price Reductions across the board.
New Skimmer.
Skyray revamp to make it similar to bloodstrike missiles.
Farsight will unlock suits as troops.
Increase in BS to several units via wargear.
Vespid revamp to mirror assault marines.

atlas_garon wrote:firewarriors are fine done touch them 10 points is fair givin the 5/5 30'' range gun the have.

It's not, given they're as fragile as Guardsmen with less CC ability, no Commissar to stop them running away, no special weapons to take down anything with decent armour, their only transport option being stupidly expensive and all for twice their points. They are easily one of the worst troops in the game.

TrollPie wrote:

atlas_garon wrote:firewarriors are fine done touch them 10 points is fair givin the 5/5 30'' range gun the have.

It's not, given they're as fragile as Guardsmen

4+ save?

AlmightyWalrus wrote:

TrollPie wrote:

atlas_garon wrote:firewarriors are fine done touch them 10 points is fair givin the 5/5 30'' range gun the have.

It's not, given they're as fragile as Guardsmen

4+ save?

Guardsmen standing in cover ( which they always should ) get the same.

KingDeath wrote:
Guardsmen standing in cover ( which they always should ) get the same.

If you're mechanized, as Tau tend to be, you're probably not getting that cover save. You're either in a Devilfish or jumping out of it and rapid firing. Rumors of 6th ed cutting most cover down to a 5+ save also say otherwise.

I honestly do not want to see turrets on Tau

Tau are meant to be mobile and long ranged, I rather they focus on those points

What hasn't been mentioned too much here is the introduction of more forgeworld-esque XV9 battlesuits! (I think they're the ones ) because they're really cool, and the weapons seem pretty balanced to me! I think plastic versions ofthem incorporated into the codex would be great, along with an 'unlocking' system similar to that of DA where taking Belial allows termies as troops and taking sammael allows ravenwing squads as troops; so sort of a battlesuit commander allows battlesuits as troops (without his minimum of one thingy) and a fire-caste-person-leader-similar-to-a-captain-guy-or-possibly-an-ethereal would allow fire warriors as troops and a Kroot shaper allows Kroot as troops, so no troops at all until you've chosen an HQ! That might be a bit drastic though, maybe only needing to unlock battlesuits that way?

I agree with those who say fire warriors should stay at BS3, but a couple of heavier weapon options wouldn't hurt, although may stretch the fluff!

Stealth suits definitely need more ranged weapons as basic IMO.

Pathfinders also need to ditch the compulsory devilfish and move into the troops section.

Finally seeker missiles and markerlights are a HUGE issue that need to be addressed desperately, not just when used in conjunction with one another!

I see they made a bio-titan for the Nids, but the question I have is, do the Tau have titans?

No.


Giant hover-ships yes.



Titans no.


... I don't think!

Avatar 720 wrote:

Brother SRM wrote:That's what marker lights are for.

Having to buy a second unit just so you can allow your first unit to do its job shouldn't be how it works.

Murphy's Laws of Combat state "Items that must be together to work (like radios and batteries) usually cannot be shipped together."

This is as true on the real-life battlefield as it is on the tabletop...

Though, yes, baseline BS3 with a squad wargear option to get BS4 would make more sense.

Like I said in a previous post


Markerlight
-Networked Markerlights now only affects the own troop, but affects every member of the squad
-Normal Markerlights still affect any uses that chooses to use it

-Fire Warrior
-Shas'Ui Commander can now get a Networked Markerlight
-Shas'Ui Commander now has 4 BS

Pathfinders
-Shas'Ui commander can now get a Networked Markerlight
-Shas'Ui commander now has 4 BS




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ah

Also Seeker Missiles need a buff too

Either
1- No longer 1 Shot
2- Now have a Blast Radius
3- Increase to 10STR +1AP

It should at least be as strong as Railguns or have a Blast