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.

So over the years ive seen so many arguments over the Tau commander situation and im gonna start spitballing some solutions.

First lets get to the suits themselves.

Coldstar - The high speed killy commander. Doesnt need much change honestly. Keep it with 4 weapon hardpoints and 1 subsystem. It's meant to be the scalpel smash-captain for the tau.

Basic - This guy is supposed to be the backfield buffmander. should be a bit cheaper than the coldstar and more buff focus'd. I suggest changing him to 2 weapon hardpoints and 3 sub-systems.

Irridium Heavy- This guy is supposed to be the midfield durable suit. Pressing up the middle with his troops valiently. Should have 3 weapon hardpoints and 1 sub-system with a built-in invun. 2+ armor.



Next we'll focus on commander subsystems. Of course commanders can still use the normal subsystems but theres We wont touch weapons cause all suits can take the same weapons.

Drone controller should stay in command subsystems. Gives commanders BS to all drones within 9" of the commander.
Targetting Relay- Give all Crisis suit units within 6" +1 to hit. Somthing that has been needed for a while.
Submunition flares- makes all units within 3" of the commander unable to be targeted by weapons that ignore line of sight. Fun buff that no other faction currently has.
Repulsor Field- If charged reduces the range of the charge by 3".
Extra plating- increase the wounds of your suit by 1.
Energy Purger- During your command phase you can pick one enemy unit within 12" of the commander and their invunerable saves are reduced by 1.
Flare burst pod- Once per game all models within 6" receive -3 to hit in the assault phase.



I think with these changes you could go back to normal rule of 3 for commanders or at least 1 of each type per detachment.

I believe the rules are currently 1 commander per detachment, except Farsight Enclaves, I’m told.

Yes which is why im suggesting to change that for the new tau dex to the above.

1 of each suit per detachment and make the 3 suits more distinct in their purpose

I'm not opposed to returning tau commanders to the normal rule of 3, but I'm not sure your changes really move the needle on that opinion. Nerfed or not, you'll only have so many HQ slots in a given detachment this edition. So spamming a ton of commanders is going to end up costing quite a few CP regardless of whether or not you stripped a couple of guns off some of the datasheets.

Some other thoughts:
* Targeting Relay. There's a strat (I think it's in The Greater Good) that grants +1 BS to a single unit. So a piece of wargear that does this for every crisis unit you've castled up around the commander every shooting phase all game would have to be pretty expensive. I think the strat is 2CP, but let's assume it's only 1. 1CP per unit impacting, let's say, 3 units of crisis suits for 5 rounds. How many points should a piece of wargear emulating 15CP worth of stratagems cost?

* Repulsor Field. Would this stack with other drones and effects that reduce charge range? Could end up being pretty brutal against melee armies.

* Energy Purger. This is purely a fluff thing, but the name makes me think that this is meant to represent some sort of... forcefield drainer. Which makes it a little weird that it also diminishes invuls attributed to superhuman dodging and the supernatural physics that govern daemons. Probably not broken though.

* Submunition Flares. Also a fluff thing, but would flares really stop a mortar round from firing on a location? Or a night/doom spinner's monofilament wire net? But I like the mechanic, and it's probably not broke.

* Flare burst pod. -3 seems, uh, pretty extreme. Probably not broken given that to-hit penalties cap out at -1 in 9th edition. I imagine you'll get a lot of anti-tau eyerolls when you tell your opponent that he needs a +4 to hit to counter your super special tau trick though. XD

Targeting Rely does seem strong compared to the strat, but i think since it only effects Crisis suits and they have to be near the commander it could be fine. Obviously needs to be tested but people have been crying to use their Crisis suits for a while.

Repulsor would stack with the drone thing, but i dont think ive ever seen anyone actually take the thing.

Flare burst is at -3 just to make sure any army is getting -1 no matter what buffs they have. It also affects the tau units themselves so should be fine. I could see changing it so that all models affected only hit on 5+ but that would be pretty strong.

 Eihnlazer wrote:
So over the years ive seen so many arguments over the Tau commander situation and im gonna start spitballing some solutions.

First lets get to the suits themselves.

Coldstar - The high speed killy commander. Doesnt need much change honestly. Keep it with 4 weapon hardpoints and 1 subsystem. It's meant to be the scalpel smash-captain for the tau.

Basic - This guy is supposed to be the backfield buffmander. should be a bit cheaper than the coldstar and more buff focus'd. I suggest changing him to 2 weapon hardpoints and 3 sub-systems.

Irridium Heavy- This guy is supposed to be the midfield durable suit. Pressing up the middle with his troops valiently. Should have 3 weapon hardpoints and 1 sub-system with a built-in invun. 2+ armor.



Next we'll focus on commander subsystems. Of course commanders can still use the normal subsystems but theres We wont touch weapons cause all suits can take the same weapons.

Drone controller should stay in command subsystems. Gives commanders BS to all drones within 9" of the commander.
Targetting Relay- Give all Crisis suit units within 6" +1 to hit. Somthing that has been needed for a while.
Submunition flares- makes all units within 3" of the commander unable to be targeted by weapons that ignore line of sight. Fun buff that no other faction currently has.
Repulsor Field- If charged reduces the range of the charge by 3".
Extra plating- increase the wounds of your suit by 1.
Energy Purger- During your command phase you can pick one enemy unit within 12" of the commander and their invunerable saves are reduced by 1.
Flare burst pod- Once per game all models within 6" receive -3 to hit in the assault phase.



I think with these changes you could go back to normal rule of 3 for commanders or at least 1 of each type per detachment.

I agree that Commanders are a pretty key and iconic Tau unit, but some options here are pretty OP to be honest. Here's my take on it.

Coldstar - I would personally keep it at 2 weapons and 2 hardpoints, maybe 3-1 but definitely not 4 weapons.

Basic - I like the loadout you propose, but I'd also add in the FW Commander ability, in which if he hits an enemy unit, he places a single Markerlight counter (one per shooting phase), just as a bit of extra incentive to take him over the others.

Iridium - Looks good, perhaps even give him the option of taking a Heavy Rail Rifle at the expense of his Jump Pack ability?


Drone controller should stay in command subsystems. Gives commanders BS to all drones within 9" of the commander.
No, giving all Marker Drones 2+BS would make all other sources of Markerlights obsolete.
Targetting Relay- Give all Crisis suit units within 6" +1 to hit. Somthing that has been needed for a while.
Can't really see an issue with this.
Submunition flares- makes all units within 3" of the commander unable to be targeted by weapons that ignore line of sight. Fun buff that no other faction currently has.
This is rather weird, how would this interact with weapons which ignore LoS, but aren't actually ignoring LoS for that particular attack?
Repulsor Field- If charged reduces the range of the charge by 3".
Nice idea, but reducing charges by 3" is a but much particularly when combined with Grav-Inhibitor Drones.
Extra plating- increase the wounds of your suit by 1.
Sounds fine
Energy Purger- During your command phase you can pick one enemy unit within 12" of the commander and their invunerable saves are reduced by 1.
Bit situational as it's done in the Command Phase, I suspect this'll be OP when combined with 4x CIBs.
Flare burst pod- Once per game all models within 6" receive -3 to hit in the assault phase.
Doesn't work due to the limit on modifiers.

In my opinion, they should really just go back to having a high commander (Shas'O) and a basic commander (Shas'El) similar Bo back in about 5th edition.

Shas'O has current stats as is for commander.

Shas'El has 1 lower BS/ WS/ and -1-2W and a lesser ability to commander for himself and 1 nearby unit. Shas'el may not take coldstar upgrade but may take iridium upgrade.

Have it so the limit for overall commanders is 3 and the Shas'O is a 1 per army upgrade that still counts towards rule of 3.

Drones are a whole other issue with T'au that I've covered elsewhere.

 Valkyrie wrote:

Spoiler:

 Eihnlazer wrote:
So over the years ive seen so many arguments over the Tau commander situation and im gonna start spitballing some solutions.

First lets get to the suits themselves.

Coldstar - The high speed killy commander. Doesnt need much change honestly. Keep it with 4 weapon hardpoints and 1 subsystem. It's meant to be the scalpel smash-captain for the tau.

Basic - This guy is supposed to be the backfield buffmander. should be a bit cheaper than the coldstar and more buff focus'd. I suggest changing him to 2 weapon hardpoints and 3 sub-systems.

Irridium Heavy- This guy is supposed to be the midfield durable suit. Pressing up the middle with his troops valiently. Should have 3 weapon hardpoints and 1 sub-system with a built-in invun. 2+ armor.



Next we'll focus on commander subsystems. Of course commanders can still use the normal subsystems but theres We wont touch weapons cause all suits can take the same weapons.

Drone controller should stay in command subsystems. Gives commanders BS to all drones within 9" of the commander.
Targetting Relay- Give all Crisis suit units within 6" +1 to hit. Somthing that has been needed for a while.
Submunition flares- makes all units within 3" of the commander unable to be targeted by weapons that ignore line of sight. Fun buff that no other faction currently has.
Repulsor Field- If charged reduces the range of the charge by 3".
Extra plating- increase the wounds of your suit by 1.
Energy Purger- During your command phase you can pick one enemy unit within 12" of the commander and their invunerable saves are reduced by 1.
Flare burst pod- Once per game all models within 6" receive -3 to hit in the assault phase.



I think with these changes you could go back to normal rule of 3 for commanders or at least 1 of each type per detachment.

I agree that Commanders are a pretty key and iconic Tau unit, but some options here are pretty OP to be honest. Here's my take on it.

Coldstar - I would personally keep it at 2 weapons and 2 hardpoints, maybe 3-1 but definitely not 4 weapons.
I get what your saying, but this is the smash captain for tau so he should be able to threaten basically anything and then die the following turn.

Basic - I like the loadout you propose, but I'd also add in the FW Commander ability, in which if he hits an enemy unit, he places a single Markerlight counter (one per shooting phase), just as a bit of extra incentive to take him over the others.
This sounds good[/color]

Iridium - Looks good, perhaps even give him the option of taking a Heavy Rail Rifle at the expense of his Jump Pack ability?
Yeah i'd almost wanna make this mandatory actually.


Drone controller should stay in command subsystems. Gives commanders BS to all drones within 9" of the commander.
No, giving all Marker Drones 2+BS would make all other sources of Markerlights obsolete.
Ok so make it a 6" aura that they have to be fully within, and it only applies to units the commander can see himself?

Targetting Relay- Give all Crisis suit units within 6" +1 to hit. Somthing that has been needed for a while.
Can't really see an issue with this.

Submunition flares- makes all units within 3" of the commander unable to be targeted by weapons that ignore line of sight. Fun buff that no other faction currently has.
This is rather weird, how would this interact with weapons which ignore LoS, but aren't actually ignoring LoS for that particular attack?
Since weapons that ignore LOS are all things dropping from above, the Submunitions would still stop them whether they could see them or not.

Repulsor Field- If charged reduces the range of the charge by 3".
Nice idea, but reducing charges by 3" is a but much particularly when combined with Grav-Inhibitor Drones.
Its definately strong, which would give tau a reason to actually take those things. Cant really be spammed without some major concessions though

Extra plating- increase the wounds of your suit by 1.
Sounds fine

Energy Purger- During your command phase you can pick one enemy unit within 12" of the commander and their invunerable saves are reduced by 1.
Bit situational as it's done in the Command Phase, I suspect this'll be OP when combined with 4x CIBs.
would be too strong on a coldstar if it was after the move phase which is why i suggested command phase.

Flare burst pod- Once per game all models within 6" receive -3 to hit in the assault phase.
Doesn't work due to the limit on modifiers.
it works to make sure even armies with + to hit are still at -1 to hit in the assault phase. Would you rather it be -d3 attacks per model in range to a minimum of 1?