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So, with the update to the Tau Codex, I went ahead and decided to buy some FW models I have been eyeballing for awhile now along with IA: Index Xenos. XV-9 Hazard Battlesuits with Phased-Ion guns, XV-107 R’arna Battlesuit, Shas’o R’alai, and Remora Stealth Drones.

However, as I was reading Shas’o R’alai’s rules, I noticed his Sept Keyword was <Ke’lshan>. Now to understand why I was irked; I had been planning on running my army as <Bork’an>, and set out to make a 3000 point Brigade list designed to maximize my gunline’s potential. 6 strike teams, 2 cadre fireblades, 3 pathfinder teams with all the drones they can bring to the field, all to give me a sweet 42”, 3 separate XV-9 to fill out my elite slots, 2 XV-88 railgun broadsides, and the crown jewels of a XV-107 and Shas’o R’alai.

But I know, from reading tacticas and forums, people will be ‘that guy’ or a rule’s lawyer and say ‘but Panzer, your warlord Shas’o R’alai isn’t <Bork’an>, so you can’t have it battleforged, can’t use Bork’an’s warlord trait, blah, blah, blah’, even though the most recent Tau Codex states any sept not mentioned may use one of the listed septs’ traits, warlord skill, and unique strategam.
So, this got me thinking; what if I made unique rules that were fluffy and useful for <Ke’lshan>? So that is what I decided to do after I did a bit of lore reading to figure out what made them tick. So, let’s begin with the Sept’s traits, then Warlord Trait, and finally their stratagem.

Ke’lshan Tenant-Experimental Weapon Systems: Treats D3 rolls of 1 and 2 as 3 instead. In addition, all weapons have their AP values increased by 1 (IE: AP-1 becomes AP-2, etc) to a Max of AP-4 (Unless they by default have AP-5, in which case they don’t get a benefit).

The reason: Ke’lshan was responsible for making many of the Tau super-heavy units (things like the XV-107, XV-109, and KX139 battlesuits), for the express purpose of dealing as much damage as possible, against the threats like Imperial Knights and Tyranid Bio-Titans. The other reason was to promote the use of other weapon on the various battlesuits besides Burst cannons (or double barrel burst cannons on the XV-9). Also, the amount of weapons that have D3 rolls in Tau is a lot, but not enough to justify only having that be a benefit the sept gives their army.

Ke’lshan Warlord Trait-Executioner of Threats: The Warlord may ignore intervening models when targeting characters, and in addition, nearby units within 6” can re-roll failed to hit rolls of 1 if they are targeting the same unit as the Warlord.

The Reason: Shas’o R’alai has his ‘assassin’ USR, which allows him to re-roll all failed to-hit rolls on enemy characters but doesn’t allow him to ignore the restrictions of targeting special characters. This way he can act like the long-range character hunter he is, while also giving nearby units the ability to improve their shooting without giving an army wide bonus.

Ke’lshan Stratagem- Overlord Energy Cell (1 CP): When a battlesuit is firing a weapon with a XD3 shots, you can change the profile of the weapon to XD6 shots, but the model takes a mortal wound and can’t fire any overwatch (so 3D3 becomes 3D6). The weapon still benefits from the Tenant.

The reason: Again, trying to make weapons like the Phased-Ion Gun and submunition cannon have a bit more use that the bog standard DBBC. It’s can also act as a final stand for XV-9, XV-107, and XV-109s, as they all use D3 for most of their weapons. XV-9s would take 2 mortals wounds, but they can pump out, at minimum due to the tenant still being in play, fire a minimum of 4 shots. The XV-107 can fire 12 shots at minimum while only losing 2 wounds. It’s about risk vs reward, and how badly you want to take down whatever it is that you are shooting at.

So, I want your guys’ feedback. I want to know if it’s OP, under-powered, unbalanced, or if it’s alright. I don’t intend to take this army to tournaments, mostly its just to have fun and as a collection army.

That tactic is broken as hell.

The Stratagem actually doesn't work-I mean, it makes you do d6 instead of d3, but the tactic doesn't affect d6 rolls at all.

Panzer4life wrote:

But I know, from reading tacticas and forums, people will be ‘that guy’ or a rule’s lawyer and say ‘but Panzer, your warlord Shas’o R’alai isn’t <Bork’an>, so you can’t have it battleforged, can’t use Bork’an’s warlord trait, blah, blah, blah’, even though the most recent Tau Codex states any sept not mentioned may use one of the listed septs’ traits, warlord skill, and unique strategam.

This is incorrect. If you have a sept not listed you can choose a sept trait. You do not gain their warlord skill or unique stratagem or relic. You ONLY gain the trait.

Every FW force is missing their stuff atm. I cannot imagine a world where FW does not eventually publish books with new <keyword> bonuses, warlord traits, stratagems, and relics for all the FW armies though.

Ke'lshan should have one of each eventually. As will Red Scorpions, Minotaurs, Anphelion Hive Fleet, Maynarkh Dynasty etc etc etc...

It's too big of a bonus to GW to keep releasing books with additional <Keyword> subfactions and the strats, relics, WL traits, and "chapter tactics" to flesh them out. With the rapid fire release of all the codexes, I think the next 16 months are going to be full of expansions of the armies in this kind of way.

This is coming from someone who doesn't play tau, so take any comments with a grain of salt. That said...

Experimental Weapon Systems: How does this compare to the necron equivalent? I feel like -1 AP on one of the shootiest armies in the game is significantly more potent than on a mid-ranged army like necrons. I'm not sure if the automatic 3's thing is too good or not. Are the weapons that this buffs normally considered subpar/mediocre? If not, this may possibly be slightly too good. If the idea is to make this sept especially good at titan/knight hunting, then maybe just let them increase the Damage of any strength 6 or higher weapons by 1 when firing at units with the Vehicle or Monster keyword?

Executioner of Threats seems too good to me. For comparison, there's an eldar warlord trait that ONLY lets you target characters at a range, and the only unit that has a decent long-ranged weapon is an autarch with a reaper launcher (maximum 3 damage). On something like a commander, this gets much more terrifying. On top of that, this is sort of like a better version of of Kau Yon (or is it Mont'ka?) provided you have your warlord hang out with friends that are equipped to tackle similar targets.

Rerolling against characters with a rule called "The Assassin" makes me think the idea is that you have to sneak close to your target and then deal a deathblow extra effectively. This gives less of an assassination vibe and more of a target priority vibe.

Overlord (Overload?) Energy Cell: The "tenant" is the Experimental Weapon Systems rule, right? If that's the case, the tenant actively prevents you from benefitting from this stratagem as you automatically generate 3 shots anyway. So you'd be spending a command point to hurt yourself, prevent overwatch, and then receive no benefit.

I know the codex is toned a little lower than we'd like in terms of tenants, but what you listed sounds way above what it should be while being very specific to your list as it doesn't affect huge swaths of the empires stuff.

I could see rolls of 1 becoming 2 for weapons with variable number of hits, but not auto 3. This still ignores all non ion weapons though while the codex generally tries to get some use for more than a third of the options. like how vior'la is only bad for heavy, and bork'an is only bad for assault. Maybe pair it with a hedge ability like how Sa'cea has bonus leadership. Not sure what exactly would be small enough.

Alright, after reading your comments, I realize that my inital rules were a bit too OP. I've decided to thus rework it, based on your points, and to tone it down.

Ke’lshan Tenant-Experimental Weapon Systems: Add 1 to the damage inflicted on target vehicles and monster by Weapons of S6 or greater. This does not apply to mortal wounds or weapons that auto-wound on a 2+ (Like Carcass shells that Krieg get).

Ke’lshan Warlord Trait-Executioner of Threats: The Warlord may ignore intervening models when targeting characters if the target character is within 15”. In addition, units within 6” of the warlord may reroll failed morale only during the shooting phase.

Ke’lshan Stratagem- Overload Energy Cell (2 CP): When a battlesuit is firing a weapon with a XD3 shots, you can change the profile of the weapon to XD6 shots, but the model takes a mortal wound and can’t move in the next turn (so 3D3 becomes 3D6).

The big changes is changing it from 'OP army' to 'army that with the right units bring down titans and monstrous creatures'. The tenant allows for things like broadsides and hammerheads to do more damage with each wounding hit, the warlord trait is toned down so the warlord either has to be aggressive to make use of the 'ignore intervening models' or passive if he is going to prevent his army from falling back due to a round of horrific shooting. Finally I increased the cost of the strategem, and got rid of the wonky wording I had about it tying with the tenant. Now it's simplified, easy to understand, and shouldn't be too hindering.

So tell me if this is alot better or if it needs some tweaking still.

The warlord trait doesn't work right. But overall, much better.

This looks much better, though as JNA points out, the warlord trait doesn't make sense in 8th edition as morale only occurs in the morale phase (after the fight phase).

Ah, I'm used to 7th where you had to take morale test during the psychic, shooting, and morale phase. I don't have the main rule book for 8th yet, as I've been buying from FW of late, and getting the indexes I need. Perhaps I should just make it a simple re-roll for morale for all units of 6", but would that be OP in combination with the first part of the warlord trait?

Panzer4life wrote:
Ah, I'm used to 7th where you had to take morale test during the psychic, shooting, and morale phase. I don't have the main rule book for 8th yet, as I've been buying from FW of late, and getting the indexes I need. Perhaps I should just make it a simple re-roll for morale for all units of 6", but would that be OP in combination with the first part of the warlord trait?

As I mentioned before, there's an eldar trait that only lets you do the sniper part, so I'm not sure you really need a second part.

I will say that a Coldstar (or even just a regular Commander even) with Quad Weapons will abuse all hell out of the Warlord Trait.

The trait works for Eldar because their HQs don't really get one high-powered weapon, let alone 4. A Coldstar flying 40" and shooting 4 Fusion Blasters at Characters with impunity is far too much.

So your proposing rules for an edition you dont have the main rule book for and have not played?

Panzer4life wrote:
Ke’lshan Tenant-Experimental Weapon Systems: Add 1 to the damage inflicted on target vehicles and monster by Weapons of S6 or greater. This does not apply to mortal wounds or weapons that auto-wound on a 2+ (Like Carcass shells that Krieg get).

Ke’lshan Warlord Trait-Executioner of Threats: The Warlord may ignore intervening models when targeting characters if the target character is within 15”. In addition, units within 6” of the warlord may reroll failed morale only during the shooting phase.

Ke’lshan Stratagem- Overload Energy Cell (2 CP): When a battlesuit is firing a weapon with a XD3 shots, you can change the profile of the weapon to XD6 shots, but the model takes a mortal wound and can’t move in the next turn (so 3D3 becomes 3D6).

Definitely not a fan of targetting characters with T'au commanders as a Warlord Trait, as well as other bonuses. It's acceptable on some armies because they don't have the same focus on shooting as the T'au do. Giving Guard characters the ability to do that is almost laughable, and wouldn't be broken at all, because their longest ranged weapon IIRC is a bolter, and the strongest is a plasma pistol. Compared to T'au Commanders who have more firepower than some tanks, and the maneuverability to boot, and being Characters too? That's a recipe for OPness.

The Tenet is okay, definitely puts Ke'lshan in a certain pigeonhole, but that's acceptable with Tenets and their equivalents. Essentially just makes their anti-Vehicle and -Monster weaponry doubly better.

The Warlord Trait needs to either ditch the character targeting rules, or shorten it to something like 6" (so you can't just Deep Strike next to the enemy characters and nuke them". The Morale doesn't work in 8th, and either should be a Warlord Trait on it's own, or not at all - it shouldn't be paired with the character targetting perk.
My alternative is "All friendly <Ke'lshan> units within 6" of the Warlord may reroll Hits of 1."

Overload Energy Cell - does this affect ALL weapon a model has, or just the one? Does it affect a whole unit? If it only does one weapon and one model, this is probably overcosted on Crisis Suits, but factoring in Broadsides and Riptide equivalents, it's more fairly priced. If it does every weapon, and whole units, then I'd consider upping up to 3 CP.

As for the whole Keyword situation:
You could easily have your army as <Ke'shan> for the current moment and use the <Bor'kan> Tenet Superior Craftsmanship. You are not, however, allowed to use the Sept specific stuff unless you are that Sept. FW will probably get round to giving <Ke'lshan> it's own Tenet, Warlord Trait and Stratagem, but that may take some time.
However, for your current army, you could still run them as <Bor'kan>, but wouldn't be able to have R'alai. Really, you either take R'alai and don't get the full <Bor'kan> experience, or you don't, and get all of the Bor'kan stuff.

First onto a post by Lance845. Yes, I haven't played 8th edition yet, nor do I have the core rulebook. However, I have watched a fair bit of 8th edition games, but I kind of glanced over when they were doing morale checks, as it was miniwargaming and they tend to forget that kind of thing, cause its after all the things that need your active attention.

But after reading your guys' comments about the character targeting and the 4 fusion blaster Coldstar battlesuit, I decided to make the following adjustments.

Ke’lshan Tenant-Experimental Weapon Systems: Add 1 to the damage inflicted on target vehicles and monster by Weapons of S6 or greater. This does not apply to mortal wounds or weapons that auto-wound on a 2+ (Like Carcass shells that Krieg get).

Ke’lshan Warlord Trait-Executioner of Threats: In addition, units within 6” of the warlord may reroll failed to hit rolls against monstrous creatures and vehicles. In addition, whenever the warlord kills a monstrous creature or vehicle, gain a CP, if it has 6 or more base wounds.

Ke’lshan Stratagem- Overload Energy Cell (3CP): When a battlesuit is firing a weapon with a XD3 shots, you can change the profile of the weapon to XD6 shots, but the model takes a mortal wound and can’t fire any overwatch (so 3D3 becomes 3D6). This applies to all weapons a battlesuit is firing but only applies to a single battlesuit.

Big difference is the warlord trait buffs nearby units against big threats, while also allowing to generate CP by using your warlord to kill vehicles and monstrous creatures. My only concern are light vehicles being easy to kill and thus giving free CP to the tau player. Plus I explained the strategem better, increased its CP cost, and made it apply to one battlesuit at a time.

Panzer4life wrote:
Ke’lshan Tenant-Experimental Weapon Systems: Add 1 to the damage inflicted on target vehicles and monster by Weapons of S6 or greater. This does not apply to mortal wounds or weapons that auto-wound on a 2+ (Like Carcass shells that Krieg get).

All fine here.

Ke’lshan Warlord Trait-Executioner of Threats: In addition, units within 6” of the warlord may reroll failed to hit rolls against monstrous creatures and vehicles. In addition, whenever the warlord kills a monstrous creature or vehicle, gain a CP, if it has 6 or more base wounds.

I don't understand the first "in addition"? In addition to what?
Getting CP for killing Monsters and Vehicles is a tad broken, considering the amount of buffs you get towards it. From what I see, no other trait gives CP.

The rerolling against Monsters and Vehicles is "okay", but I feel that you have that many things which target Monsters and Vehicles (your Tenet, your Warlord Trait, and your Stratagem all buff your ability to harm them directly) that your faction will feel very one-note. A shooting buff is fine, but I think a more general one is better (like all friendly Sept units within 6" may reroll 1s to Hit)

Ke’lshan Stratagem- Overload Energy Cell (3CP): When a battlesuit is firing a weapon with a XD3 shots, you can change the profile of the weapon to XD6 shots, but the model takes a mortal wound and can’t fire any overwatch (so 3D3 becomes 3D6). This applies to all weapons a battlesuit is firing but only applies to a single battlesuit.

3CP is fine for affecting every weapon, but this thing will be nasty on larger Battlesuits, so I fully expect them to be the recipients. In terms of rules, it needs clearing up to be something like:

Use this stratagem at the start of the Shooting phase. Select a friendly <Ke'lshan> <Battlesuit> unit. One model in the selected unit may enhance any D3s used to determine number of shots for any of their weapons into D6s. The selected model suffers 1 Mortal Wound and may not perform Overwatch.
Something like that?

Perhaps on Overload Energy Cells (2 CP): When a unit of T’au battlesuits is firing a weapon with XD3 shots, change the profile to XD3+X shots. You may instead change a single T’au batttlesuit’s XD3 weapon profiles to XD6, but the model suffers a mortal wound.

Alright, based on further feedback, here is I hope the final revision to the sept rules;
Ke’lshan Tenant-Experimental Weapon Systems: Add 1 to the damage inflicted on target vehicles and monster by Weapons of S6 or greater. This does not apply to mortal wounds or weapons that auto-wound on a 2+ (Like Carcass shells that Krieg get).

Ke’lshan Warlord Trait-Executioner of Threats: The Warlord and units within 6” of the warlord may reroll failed to hit rolls of 1.

Ke’lshan Stratagem- Overload Energy Cell (3CP):Select a friendly <Ke'lshan> <Battlesuit> unit. One model in the selected unit may enhance any D3s used to determine number of shots for any of their weapons into D6s. The selected model suffers 1 Mortal Wound and may not perform Overwatch.

I didn't change the tenant as it was received well, but I got rid of gaining CPs and made the reroll apply to all targets for the warlord trait, and hopefully made the stratagem make more sense as Sgt_Smudge posted. Why I didn't do Stormonu's suggestion is mainly because I want to make the stratagem high-risk high reward; you could roll very well and for instance with 2D3 -> 2D6 get 12 shots, but you could also flop and get a measly 2 shots. But averaging everything, you are looking at 7-8 shots with a mortal wound taken and no over-watch as opposed to with Stormonu's suggestion of 2D3+2 of 6 shots with no mortal wound.and still firing over-watch. I wanted to keep the rules simple and not have a choice within a stratagem as using it is already a choice.

Definitely more balanced now. I’d say you could even pull the stratagem down to 2CP. One thing you may want to do is clarify how long a unit that uses the stratagem can’t fire overwatch. I’m assuming that your intent is that it can’t fire overwatch until after the next Tau turn but some people might read that as can’t ever perform overwatch ever after using the stratagem. They could also interpret it to mean only during your turn when overwatch doesn’t happen anyways.