Tau Rumors - Updated to include Stickmonkey rumors on 8/1/2012

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**pretre**

SickSix wrote:Well whatever wretched Ward would write, wouldn't work without wrecking wonderfully written wonders.

Sick six simply sees strange simplification since sick six still says silly slightly-supported suppositions sans serious sentiment.

**SickSix**

pretre wrote:
SickSix wrote:Well whatever wretched Ward would write, wouldn't work without wrecking wonderfully written wonders.

Sick six simply sees strange simplification since sick six still says silly slightly-supported suppositions sans serious sentiment.

Winner! Your prize is one internets!

Seriously, these Tau rumors are distasteful and highly suspicious, for all the reasons already cited.

**focusedfire**

This Logan comes across as a Kroot fanboi trying to create buzz for some type of a stand alone Codex in which the Kroot are prominently featured.

The way he put quotes around the word mercenary in the, (not necessarily other "mercenary" forces) portion of the suppossed email is what leads me to beleive that this is some kinda of campaign for a mercenary codex.

The rest of the wording in his posts use the first person in a self-glorifying manner that is almost disconcerting.

Imo, if gw were to do such a thing, the Tau player base would feel disenfranchised/marginalized to the point that there would be a noticable backlash(Backlash=Loss of sales to the point of the relase being a flop).

The only way that such Tau codex could make money would be if they made assault batttlesuits and battlesuits as troops to draw in all of the Space Marine Fanbois.
(Sarcasm)
I can see it now, Tau: Grey Knights 2.0 *shudder*
Instead of the unimaginative nightmare of Tau being Xenos Guard, "The Fluff-Killer" brings us the unimaginative nightmare concept of Xenos Space Marines.

I could see GW taking this route as opposed to actually working to create a balanced xenos force with a fairly unique playstyle.
This would of course be combined with the insult of the Tau becoming a protectorate of the Ultra Marines.
While this in turn makes them the first official xenos chater of the Astartes, they can no longer make use of Kroot or Vespid allies due to the Imperiums anti-xenos policies.(/Sarcasm)

I have very a hard time believing that GW would ever do such a thing.

pretre wrote:
Cottonjaw wrote:
Yeaaah.. I have 60 fully painted kroot carnivores. If Kroot aren't in the 'dex, I'm going to be more than a little pissed.

hehe. It wouldn't be the first time that a big unit like that disappeared from a codex. Sisters lost Redemptionists when we moved to C:WH.

Pretre, you come across as almost trolling here. Whatsupwitdat? Is it due to some dislike for the Tau,... that if it happened to your army then it should happen to another ....or just another case of the interwebs not conveying the real intent?

Edited to replace "r's" eaten by the quotation deamons

Automatically Appended Next Post:

pretre wrote:
SickSix wrote:Well whatever wretched Ward would write, wouldn't work without wrecking wonderfully written wonders.

Sick six simply sees strange simplification since sick six still says silly slightly-supported suppositions sans serious sentiment.

Corrupt corporate chrony continuously creates callous calamitous compositions. Citing creative causatation completely confounds customers. Cash chasing customer cheating corrupts credibility.

Continue?

**pretre**

How did you delete the are from my name and the quote? No, I was just giving historical context.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
R not are.

**RiTides**

Yeah, the posting of the email makes this guy... not at all plausible, imo.

Unfortunate that his rumors are prominent in Chaos thread, too (he's the top quote on the page atm). Hogwash...

**pretre**

Yeah, I'm trying to remain neutral. His day will come when the codec pops and he's either right or wrong.

**H.B.M.C.**

I just doubt someone who play-tests would come on here and post E-mails between play-tester and project leads. I sure as hell never did that for any of the FFG books I've play-tested.

And if they did do that, well then they wouldn't be a play-tester for very much longer.

**Mauler**

Sounds like rubbish for two reasons:

Finecast Kroot?! Makes absolutely no sense to put resources into retooling moulds for resin models when those models are phased out in X months.

Also, at the Design Studio Open Day I was lucky enough to speak to Jervis Johnson & Simon Grant who stated first-hand that almost all the VIth edition codicies (whether WD or books) are pretty much ready to be released now and will have an accelerated release pattern of every 1-2 months. I can't imagine that 'books that are ready to go are still in the proccess of having units added or removed which would totally mess with the balance of that race.

**IPS**

another tau rumor that seems very fake...
e mail quote?
no kroot in tau codex?
close combat battle suits?
Lamprey?? ><

no... just no.
move on, nothing to see here : (

**noneoftheabove0**

" Now Logan, I have received your emails regarding your next project. You asked why there has been a lack of a certain unit(Kroot) all I can tell
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ^ NEEDS PUNCTUATION OR CONJUNCTION
is that right now it is being heatedly discussed wether to keep them in our upcoming release. We want this book to refelct the primary army, not
..........................................................................................^ WHETHER .................................................................................................^ REFLECT
necessarily other "mercanary" forces. When we sort it out we promise to let you have a peak.
....................................... ^ MERCENARY ........................................................................................ ^ PEEK
Thank you for your concerns and comments regarding this matter."

C-

NOT YOUR BEST EFFORT. SEE ME AFTER CLASS.

**MightyGodzilla**

Tau are far too cowardly to don assault suits and get into hand to hand. Crapping your pants in CC is not for the greater good.

***ducks, runs for cover***

**nolzur**

MightyGodzilla wrote:Tau are far too cowardly to don assault suits and get into hand to hand. Crapping your pants in CC is not for the greater good.

I like the way you think.

**lazarian**

I do like the idea of assistants who help suits and FW in close combat. Something like drones or more hit and run ability. Something that allows you to auto shoot overwatch with full BS as well. Anything to deter the enemy charging you and also be able to extricate yourself as soon as it hits.

**newbis**

I also find these rumors to be suspect.

At this point I won't believe anything about the Tau until I have it in print in my hands.

**spectreoneone**

lazarian wrote:I do like the idea of assistants who help suits and FW in close combat. Something like drones or more hit and run ability. Something that allows you to auto shoot overwatch with full BS as well. Anything to deter the enemy charging you and also be able to extricate yourself as soon as it hits.

Something similar to this makes sense. The Tau, with all of their technological advancement, could conceivably create some sort of wargear that allows a battlesuit to fire overwatch shots at full BS, but about the closest I see the Tau getting to CC battlesuits is the XV9. It's a little tougher and a little heavier than the XV8, and it designated a close support suit that has VRTs and defensive grenades built in. It is an awesome interdiction unit, and it can carry some heavy firepower compared to the XV8, but I'm not sure that the weapons that FW equipped them with would make it to the new Tau codex. The only other option I could see the Tau utilizing is, as has previously been mentioned, some sort of CC drone unit.

**Desubot**

Flechette dispensing fail safe detonator drones
... if only

Also aren’t remoras a type of lamprey?

**spectreoneone**

Desubot wrote:Also aren’t remoras a type of lamprey?

Naw. Lampreys are jawless parasitic fish. A remora is a fish that uses a sucker on its forehead to hold on to a shark. It is neither jawless nor parasitic, as it doesn't harm the sharks they hang out with...more like scavengers who pick up the scraps.

That being said, it's most likely that GW will not copy the FW kit. That's why we probably also won't see the XV9, at least not in the same capacity as FW has created it.

**Kroothawk**

Posted today by Natfka onFaeit 212:

Behind the Scenes: A New Take On Allies

There are often many things going on behind the scenes of this site, and most conversations do not ever see the light of day for many reasons.This is the second conversation piece that I have been giving permission to post up on the site.

A few days back a reader on this site, Logan (who is rumored to be a play tester), brought up the fact that he had not seen any Kroot in the Tau Play tests he had been apart of. He concluded that in the upcoming Tau codex we would not be seeing any Kroot. This conversation is not with him, but with someone I must keep anonymous.

Once again, just to be clear, this conversation piece was not with Logan, and is from a completely different unrelated source (not a play tester).

Please understand, If any parts of this seem missing or feel like things were removed or moved around, its because they were. This is the part of the conversation that I was given permission to share here on the site.

Conversation Behind the Scenes: (The not me part, and must remain anonymous source)

There is a strong desire to add new and interesting ways to use allies, beyond just mixing and matching existing armies.

In a recent iteration of the Tau playtest material Kroot were removed as one developer felt that tables looked "clutterd" and tau armies looked "rag-tag" when using Allies, at the same time as Kroot and Vespid.

This was seconded by it being suggested that Space Marines for instance, may have a willingness to work with Tau, but might react poorly to the barbaric Xenos that are Kroot.

This expanded into the idea of making mini-dexes that are not designed to stand on their own. Army lists with 1-2 HQ options, 1 troop option, and only 1 of each other slot, or even some slots completely ignored.

These lists would be released in White Dwarf along with all the models necessary if they currently didn't exist. These "splats" would be easy to physically design and produce, so the idea has taken some root.

While it would be possible to play an entire army using one of these lists, it would not be balanced and would be missing lots of tools and have huge gaps. Normally this is a design issue, but could be easily overlooked in this instance.

The first idea for a list such as this is Kroot, who could therefore have a different allegiance level with Tau and Space Marines and still end up on the same table in games of 2k+.

This would add to the cinematic worth where Tau are not commanding Kroot, but instead a Shaper would have his own warband since as Allies it would require an HQ.

This would also start bringing into question interesting relationships between the levels of allegiance in terms of where these chunks of the army could be on the battlefield. Tau being battle brothers with both, but Space Marines being Desperate with Kroot.

Potentially this could allow all sorts of sub-races, or existing ideas which cannot be fully fleshed out into entire armies to find their way into this edition. Who knows, if something takes hold it could later be expanded upon in the same way.

This is SO early though, so it's all very much so subject to change.

On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Natfka

It almost seems like GW is two to three steps ahead of us now. It used to feel like the community was ahead of the curve, but I think they may have turned it on us, and all we can do is play catch up. I'm amazed at what the plans are for this edition.

**Flashman**

Incredibly dumb move if true.

**skarsol**

Sounds pretty neat to me.

**Flashman**

skarsol wrote:Sounds pretty neat to me.

Add on Mini lists are fine. Excluding Kroot from the main codex would be the dumb part, although this is not explicitly stated in the rumour above.

**Dantalian**

Basically this would simply remove one of the founding ideas that made Tau unique. I honestly hope if this is true that Tau and Kroot still get some higher level of working cooperation than the current allies chart.

Either that or the Tau codex is being written in such a way there is no need for kroot melee screens (Assault Crisis Suits). This also seems to put a hamper on getting new allies if true unless GW is going to release mini-dexes of Terallians and Demiurg for EVERYONE to use. Which again, this further diminishes the uniqueness of Tau getting a lot of allies only they have access to. But I could be surprised, Allies chart goes against all reason and logic so maybe GW will make them Tau ally only and defy our expectations.

**RiTides**

I think mini-lists would be awesome, personally! Pretty genius move if they follow through on it, imo.

**spectreoneone**

I'm rather skeptical. If GW were to take this route, it would probably mean that the Tau are in for a major retcon, and it's going to destroy the uniqueness of the army. I'm plenty happy with Tau not being a top-tier army, because I don't want to see a bunch of bandwagoners hop on the Tau train because it's the new killer army. We don't really need very many new units, we just really need a few new pieces of wargear and a slight aesthetic overhaul of our battlesuits, and we're golden!

**AgeOfEgos**

Yesterday....all those lists seemed so far away....

Now people lugging magazines to games is here to stay...oh I believe...in yesterday...

/Probably a bit hyperbolic

**warboss**

Im not a fan of this idea personally. Combined with the increase in price with the rumored switch to hardcover codex format plus the price of a White Dwarf or two (who knows if vespid would get their own, then demiurg, etc on top of the kroot one), this would more than double the price of a "codex" just to use the figs you already own. Call me simple but I liked the fact that tau were the only race with other races built in as "allies" due to their unique ethos.

**kenshin620**

Honestly, I'm surprised GW just doesnt make leaflets for all the slots!

Want heavy support? That'll be another $10!

It would be weird though for kroot to completely separate

**adamsouza**

RiTides wrote:I think mini-lists would be awesome, personally! Pretty genius move if they follow through on it, imo.

1.) It increases White Dwarf sales. Mini Dexes would make you want to buy white dwarf.
2.) It paves the way for partial armies like Kroot, Vespid, Demiurg, etc...

**Dantalian**

RiTides wrote:I think mini-lists would be awesome, personally! Pretty genius move if they follow through on it, imo.

Pretty awesome idea for boosting sales at the cost of Fluff, which seems to be GW's new thing over the last year.

**Benamint**

I don't put much stock in rumors, but I do drop into those that have to do with my armies. Which is why I am here

I have to say when some one say assault having to do with any other army I think CC. When someone says assault with Tau I think of close range high RoF weaponry like twin linked burst cannons etc. I will be happy and keep this as my idea instead of thinking about Tau suddenly wanting to mix it up in CC. Only place that a CC assault suit would make sense would be an unlock for Farsight. Which I would be fine with