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So, in the line of another recent thread, lets get our speculation spectacles on and get guessing!

Most of the Tau line is pretty good, to be honest. Most problems with the range comes from older kits, who aren't bad per say, but still need a fix-upper... And let's face it, a new kit for the boys in blue isn't exactly what we need the most! It could be the Riptide all over again Anyway, here's my pick:

New Fire Warrior/"Veteran Squad" kit: In the same way the Tempestus Scions make both Scions or a Command squad, I'd like this for Fire Warriors. A re-imagination of the old minis with more tech and less shapes (It's my motto now, ain't it), alongside better heads (preferably a male and female head) and some bitz for personalitzation. Why would they need a Veteran Squad alternate design? I've always liked the idea of making an infantry-heavy Tau force, and I can imagine the recent Tyranid attacks and the Damocles Crusade would have produced some more... Colourful troops. Something in kin with AM Veterans for Elite, allowing for many more special (Ion Rifle, Rail Rifle, maybe something new) weapons and some neat abilities. Maybe a Command Squad?... This is not a rumour or anything, it's me wishlisting.

New Crisis Suits: Same as above, no difference: More tech, less shapes. Same options I guess. More ways to pose them. Bitz.

New Vespids(?): In line with the recent updates, Vespids could use some freaking official non-metal models. Then again, nobody likes Vespids. Not impossible, but not plausible either.

Ethereal Clampack: Just because we got one of these with every Codex, and they kinda need one. I really hope Ethereals get more of a "Sanguinary Priest/Wolf Guard/Tyranid Warrior" vibe in this Codex... :/

I'd like a new Shadowsun or Aun'va, but that's not very likely.

Anyway, that's my Greater Ideas. What do you think we'll ses?

Vespids are not metal and have not been for a long time. They are finecast (And thats even worse..) And I like the Fire Warrior models..

Yeah, I like the fire warrior models, too. That's one kit I kinda don't want GW to tamper with because I have absolutely zero faith in them anymore to do it justice if they did. And regardless they would drastically reduce the number of models while they were at it, maybe making them 5 to a box just like the Scions so that you need a minimum of three to make a single full-strength squad.

And I probably brought this up in a previous thread, but what do you mean "more tech"? I think you listed Marines as an example of a unit with sufficient "tech" but I personally don't see what makes Marine models more "tech" and less "shapes" in comparison to fire warriors. Fire warriors aren't wearing power armor, so you won't have things like exposed cabling or big energy packs or anything (if I'm not mistaken the fire warrior backpack is already like a charging station for pulse rifle battery packs, and then you have their helmets). Other than that they appear to be pretty comparable, and I don't know how you could possibly represent them in a way you find acceptable without completely changing the whole idea of what fire warriors are supposed to be...which according to your post is exactly the idea it seems, lol. You want to make Tau into Marines by giving them veterans and command squads and the ability to mix heavy and special weapons in squads like Marines often do. Not sure that's something I agree with.

Crisis suits should honestly just be modeled after the FW XV9 hazard suits, maybe not as a straight-up port over from FW but they should have a lot of similarities in design at least. The XV9 suits already closely resemble some of the old concept artwork for new Tau crisis suits anyway, they just took that design and made a completely new unit out of them instead. Integrated weaponry, more poseability, less blocky design...I'd spend a lot of money on those kits replacing all of my battlesuits with them. At $50 a pop though from FW I'll gladly keep using the ones I have, just too cost prohibitive to use as crisis suit replacements like I would want to.

As for "most problems with the range coming from older kits", I wouldn't necessarily agree. The riptide and the flyer are both brand new and to be frank, god-awful kits. I used to think Tau had one of the best-looking miniature ranges, and they still do, but those two kits are now forever tainting my view of them and it makes me sad. That FW seems to be going down the path of making countless conversion kits for the riptide and rumors of a literal Tau titan kit in the works just makes things even worse. Tau need more super heavy tanks and better-looking flyers, not more giant battlesuits that break fluff.

How do you know what gender the bare Tau heads are? Last I checked they weren't quite as sexually dimorphic as humans.

Female Tau have a Y-shaped slit on their foreheads.

 Psienesis wrote:
Female Tau have a Y-shaped slit on their foreheads.

Can we really generalise that though? The only example we have to go from is Shadowsun in that regard and for all we know it might be more akin to human eye colour being controlled by gene combinations when it comes to what determines the shape of the forehead slit.

I actually like the idea of Tau getting a veteran fire warriors squad. I wouldn't go changing the fire warrior kit as it stands but a new boxed squad with fancier armour and weapons with BS4, free bonding knife and perhaps the option to take a couple of heavy weapons (rail rifles and ion guns) would be interesting for sure. Something also needs to be done to the kroot to turn them into a real assault unit, make the guns assault rather than rapid fire for a start and give them a new more lively posed kit.

The problem is, According to fluff, When Fire Warriors become veterans, They become Crisis Suit pilots..

And the ones that don't become fireblades now. But hey, GW has never been the type to give a gak about their own fluff, so if someone from on high thinks Tau need a $50 "veterans" kit, by god they'll get one and the fluff will change to suit them.

Merellin wrote:
The problem is, According to fluff, When Fire Warriors become veterans, They become Crisis Suits pilots..

Or Cadre Fireblades - which is a heck of a jump.

In the 4th edition codex there were Honour Guards of veteran Firewarriors available, same stats but BS 4. They were a bodyguard for Ethereals.

From a tweaking existing units point of view, I would love to see the fire warriors get the ability to take 2-3 Rail and Ion rifles, it isn't perfectly in line with fluff, but it seems to be a logical extension of progress in portable infantry weapons. It wouldnt break my heart for the kit to be dual purposed for an Honour Guard style unit.

I agree an improved Crisis Suit kit would be a good thing, styled to fit better with the current battle suits.

I'd also love to see a new stealthsuit pack with a wider variety if weapons options and the ability for all to select a weapon instead of just a couple. It could be dual-rolled to represent a light infantry battlesuit with no stealth system or jetpack, giving Tau a heavier troop option.

Vespid kit is no longer metal, but still is the same old sculpt, a new sculpt that is posable and has some weapons options would be pretty sweet.

I'd love more weapons options for the Broadsides too, Forgeworld had these great heavy weapons options for the Hammerhead using dual super Burst Cannons or heavy Fusion Blasters or Plasma Cannons that I think would be about the right scale and power to make broadside weapons.

Across all kits, a larger variety of drones would be good. I know we are notgoing back to networked mmarker lights on markerdrones, butmstill some cool unit buffing drones would be fun.

Merellin wrote:
The problem is, According to fluff, When Fire Warriors become veterans, They become Crisis Suit pilots..

Not unless the lore changed, when a Shas'la becomes a 'veteran' he has found his niche. If that's as a Shas'la then that's where he stays. Many become a Shas'ui and from there a Shas'vre, but there is nothing saying all Shas'uis or 'vres are Crisis pilots. There is nothing wrong with a veteran squad of 8+ year Shas'las and their Shas'vre (instead of the usual Shas'ui). War veterans that have no talent for Leadership. Would be VERY interesting to see the 'vre get an Ld buff while the others have a point or two reduction.

They need more battlesuits, there's only five...

Just to clear up, I'm not saying the Fire Warriors look bad, I just think they could use some more details and personality is all. Especially the back leg on the crouching legs are a mess to me - Can't see what the hecks is happening there

It's the difference between...



And...



(Not directly this, just the amount of detail)

Yeah, it would be cool if they had a little more detail, but as I said I don't really trust GW to get it right. GW has a tendency to go way overboard, and all just for the sake of being able to say "Look how much detail there is! They're absolutely resplendent!"...which lets them justify charging 2-3x what a kit should probably retail for.

 Sidstyler wrote:
Yeah, it would be cool if they had a little more detail, but as I said I don't really trust GW to get it right. GW has a tendency to go way overboard, and all just for the sake of being able to say "Look how much detail there is! They're absolutely resplendent!"...which lets them justify charging 2-3x what a kit should probably retail for.

Well, if I wanted expensive models without much detail I'd go Warmahordes. I pay my dues for a reason :/


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, they can make detailed Troop models in tens without problem, as seen with the Blood Angel Tac Squad... It tends to be Elite or similar that get the five-man boxes.

they need a psyker and some CC units that don't get stomped out easily

Crimson Heretic wrote:
they need a psyker and some CC units that don't get stomped out easily

Now, we were more into actual plastic kits here and not unit entries, but now that you bring it up... Couldn't both be achieved via Kroot? Some larger Kroots (Groots, ha!), and a Shaman as a Psyker HQ?

Crimson Heretic wrote:
they need a psyker and some CC units that don't get stomped out easily

Psychic defence yes a psyker hell to the no, I don't want GW re writing fluff to make the Tau have some sort of genetic mutation to become Psykers, I don't think adding in the Nicassar is a good idea either without adding the other auxiliary races in the codex as well. There are a lot of people screaming out for Demiurg.

Tau have the best shooting in the game and they forfeit CC for that. If Tau got credible CC units I would expect to see Supporting Fire removed.

What tau need are new Crisis suits, Vespids and Kroot everything else seems bang up to date. I would personally like the Riptide to have posable legs, that crouch doesn't do it for me.

The Riptide legs are posable, you just need to clip off the little alignment pegs. Now admittedly it's then a real pain to get the thing posed and self supporting, but it can be done.

I'd actually really like a plastic version of the new commander suit for the XV8s, I think it's a really nice evolution of the basic design. Such a shame it's in Finecast (mine has bent into a limbo pose under its own weight.)

The only kits that really need to be reworked are probably the Crisis suits. I hate the models. The hip joints have always been a pain for me to get to bond right, the ankles and feet have always been a hassle, and the jet packs are often deformed just enough that I need to do a bit or work cutting and getting them to fit.

Psyker auxillary alien COULD be possible, but honestly I don't like the idea.

The "actual" tau range is fine as far as I'm concerend. just give XV8s the FW poseable legs and its done

What they truly need, is the "expanded empire", starting with proper vespid models (and rules while on it), proper gue'vesa, and all the other little alien unit that accompany tau forces from their allies and vassals.
If you make a faction's thing in being "the coalition leader", you gotta have the coalition!

I agree some Tau kits need updates, but please for the love of God don't make anything new.
Ever since the riptide it's been a constant bitch fit. (ugly and over-powered; the latter is GW trying to force the sale).

Updates:
Crisis suits - the current ones look aweful.
Firewarriors - need new versions that are pretty similar, the current ones are a bit 'meh' now (loss of detail).
Plastic versions of finecrud stuff.

Suggested changes to the codex is another thing not really suitable to this thread.

 Sidstyler wrote:
Yeah, I like the fire warrior models, too. That's one kit I kinda don't want GW to tamper with because I have absolutely zero faith in them anymore to do it justice if they did. And regardless they would drastically reduce the number of models while they were at it, maybe making them 5 to a box just like the Scions so that you need a minimum of three to make a single full-strength squad.

Has the FW kit been redone recently? It's been a few years since I did anything with my Tau, but back then the FW kit was just awful. The detail was really soft, almost like the models had all melted a bit. Armor plate corners weren't sharp, edges between materials weren't clearly defined, etc. I don't think GW should make any major changes, but they need to clean up the sculpts and bring them up to modern quality levels.

And I wouldn't be too concerned about GW's ability to do it. The new pathfinder models look great, so clearly someone has the skill to do Tau infantry.

I don't know if I have any newer fire warriors, most of mine are from a long time ago. I might have one or two sealed boxes I got real cheap on eBay, bundled with FE shoulder pads and some cool custom markers for FE warlord traits but that's the most "modern" kit I have.

And after cracking one open real fast I can tell you that nothing has changed, the detail is still kinda soft.

Anyway, yeah, I do love the new pathfinder kit. Details are sharp and the models look just like they should. Lots of extra gear, too, which I really like (even a pistol) since it can be spread around to the fire warriors to give those guys a little something more. I'm pretty sure the pathfinders were an older concept though, as well as Farsight, since I remember seeing those models pop up at Games Days many years ago, rumored to be test sculpts by Matt Holland when applying for the job. I don't doubt that they have someone there with the skill to do it, but is that what "modern" GW wants, is the question.

The plastic Pathfinders are actually a different concept from what Matt Holland had done for his tests. I wish I still had the photos lurking around but that was two computers ago...

From what I recall? The Pathfinders that Holland did had leggings/pants like the Fire Warriors unlike the kind of baggier pants that the Pathfinders ended up with, and the test Pathfinders had a bit bulkier armor plating on the shoulders/chest.

In regards to what kits I would love to see for Tau?
NEW XV-8 SUITS AND NEW FIRE WARRIORS.

That's all. I just want to see the XV-8 get beefed up and put more in line with what they could do today. Put those suckers on 50mm bases rather than 40mm and give us something like the XV89 from Forge World.

Boniface wrote:
I agree some Tau kits need updates, but please for the love of God don't make anything new.
Ever since the riptide it's been a constant bitch fit. (ugly and over-powered; the latter is GW trying to force the sale).

Updates:
Crisis suits - the current ones look aweful.
Firewarriors - need new versions that are pretty similar, the current ones are a bit 'meh' now (loss of detail).
Plastic versions of finecrud stuff.

Suggested changes to the codex is another thing not really suitable to this thread.

Well feth them, the riptide looks awesome, so does the crisis suits (crude works focusing purely on the mechanical side, with no artistic attempts of the engineers, a pure weapon.)
And saying that the riptide is OP to force sells is absurd, given that half the new kits that come out are OP or at least OTT and the other half unplayable. had they been forcing sells EVERY new kit would have been overpowered.

We need more alien auxillaries. (and gue'vesa cant be freaking cultists equivilant!)
I won't use any of them as I'm a purist, but they need to exist as an option.

The one plastic kit I want so badly for tau is the equivalent to a landspeeder storm, built on a piranha chassis.
Fast skimmer, open top. transport capacity 6 (for min squad of fire warriors or pathfinders). Burst cannon standard with the option to upgrade to a marker light array.

Xenos suffer with typically only having one or 2 expensive transports. A cheaper option to move infantry would be welcome.

The problem with auxiliaries is that the only thing that balances out Fire Warriors is that they're Tau, lol.

Can you imagine human auxiliaries with 4+, Pulse Rifles and Carbines, but sporting WS3 and I3 so they weren't instamulched in close combat? Nobody would use Tau ever again if the human auxiliaries existed in the Troops slot.

I'm guessing that's why we've never seen anything other than Kroot and Vespids which fill their own niches.

Well, what you could do is give them a special rule that grants preferred enemy to any Imperial squad that assaults the Gue'vesa unit.

I make all kinds of Aux Tau infantry from various sources..and just run them as firewarriors..or human aux...for me its just the rule of cool..but a few alternate troop choices would be fun..maybe even some lower tech vehicles (wheeled etc) for the aux..