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So, I've had a lot of thoughts on the idea of this and I know some others have too so I wanted to see what everyone's thoughts were. To be clear, this is just a general idea of what kind of units there would be / what the army could do, rather than specific stats. I don't want things to get too overly complicated as we'd never get them balanced anyway. XD

As a general idea, I think they would have access to Astra Militarum units as Gue'Vesa in the same or a similar way that GSC have access to them. Maybe with an upgrade spue option to give them Tau weaponry / cosmetics as the Tau do share their tech with them.

HQ

Kroot Chieftan:
- Option to ride a Knarloc
- Weapon Options from various factions taken as trophies.
- Melee focused, possible buffs after killing units in melee and eating them. (Possible restrictions to non Tyranid / Tau / Necron for lore reasons).
- Aura Re-roll 1's to hit for Kroot as that seems the default leader thing.

Vespid Queen:
- Generally weak unit that provides aura buffs to other Vespid. (Could be selection to turn off and on of various "orders").
- Creates more Vespid, kind of like a Tervigon.
- Some kind of defensive ability, perhaps a sonic attack that makes her harder to be hit in melee?

Nicassar:
- Frail unit inside a healsphere (hovering unit).
- Strong psychic abilities focused around foresight, scouting, or kinetic attacks.

Troops

Kroot Carnivores:
- Bring back a permanent additional benefit to being in cover.
- Additional melee capability.

Hrenain Light Infantry:
- Nothing is known about these guys other than they exist, could do anything with them.
- Some kind of scout unit, similar to carnivores but more ranged focused.

Demiurg Infantry:
- Slow but durable infantry unit with decent ranged and CC capabilities.
- (The lore on these guys make them seem very much like Squats).

Morallian Deathsworn:
- Like the Hrenains, nothing is known other than that they exist. Given the name, perhaps some kind of unit that gains a buff when below half capacity or something?
- Short Range focused.

Elites:

Krootox:
- Stronger Melee attack.
- Possible additional ranged weapon options.

Kroot Shaper:
- Option to ride Knarloc
- Additional weapon options from trophies, but not as expansive as the Chieftain.

Kroot Psyker(s):
- Could be as a Psyker group or individual.
- Abilities focused on Stealth and Subterfuge.

Vespid Royal Guard:
- Small unit meant to stay with the Queen, similar design philosophy to Cryptothralls.

Jokaera Weaponsmith:
- This already exists and an Inqusition unit and would be pretty interesting in an army were it could affect a wider variety of units. Could probably stay as is.

Demiurg Shock Troops:
- Heavily armored unit designed for breaching fortifications at close range.

Galg:
- Hulking unit, small in quantity (3 ish per unit), little armour, high wounds / toughness. Melee focused.
- Ability to restrict falling out of close combat with them as they bind their prey with their tentacles. Perhaps to fall back, you must loose a model per Galg?

Fast Attack:

Kroot Hounds:
- Ability to receive basic orders from other Kroot, like trained animals would.

Knarloc Riders:
- Better melee weapon option for riders.

Winged Kroot:
- Would have to be sure to not get to push into the design space of the Vespid, but we know they do exist.

Vespid Stingwings:
- In general these are already pretty good, just need some tweaks.

Tarellian Dog Soilders:
- Would be hard not to overlap with the Kroot Hounds design space or not just feel like Kroot Hounds with guns.
- What kind of unique space could they have?

Heavy Support:

Greater Knarloc:
- This guy's pretty solid as is, just bring him back.

Thraxxian Guard:
- Large unit armoured with a Chitinous Exoskeleton. Has multiple limbs for holding weapons.
- Care to not make it seem like a Tyranid.

Demiurg Heavy Weapons Team:
- Anti-tank Infantry unit.

Demiurg Vehicles:
- Armour option for the army other than just Guard models, could really do whatever you want with these.

Hero Units:

Anghkor Prok: (Kroot Leader)

Dahyak Grek: (Kroot Mercenary)

Kalice Arkady: (Gue'Vesa Leader)

New Characters for some of the other races to flesh them out.


So yeah, that's what I've got. I think there is space for a bit more here. I felt like there should be at least one more Vespid unit, but wasn't sure what to do with that. What do you all think, does this have a proper Tau Auxiliary fell to it? What would you add/remove? What kind of faction bonuses (if any) do you think they should get? Do you think they should have subfaction bonuses for just fielding Kroot / Vespid / Demiurg / ect? What could they be? Let's flex our creative muscles.

I'd buy that, but I'd like to see Gue'Vesa as a troops choice. You can also round out Fast/Heavy/Flyers with Imperial Guard tanks upgraded with Tau tech (now that its been confirmed that thats what Gue'Vesa are armed with - Aeronautica Imperialis has rules for Tauified Thunderbolts, etc.)

The Deathsworn I could see as having a mechanic like the Knights Exemplar for Protectorate in Warmachine used to have. As each one dies the rest of the unit gains +1 cumulative strength and armour. So, if you only have the unit leader left they were on +5 and a tanky beast ready to go down swinging.

Another idea, also stolen from WMH is they could be like Exemplar Bastions, though they would need multiple wounds for this, where they can freely spread out wounds across the whole unit (yes, yes, I can see people getting triggered misremembering how "broken" this was in 5th when literally a handful of units could fully take advantage of it, but I digress...) instead of removing whole models. That would make them an excellent anchor/tarpit unit.

Finally, you could just have them as single minis and steal the concept of Lone Wolves from the 5th ed Space Wolves dex, where they are character killers that also give up VPs to your own army if they are alive at the end of the game, encouraging you to have them go down in a blaze of glory!

oh, i'm in a middle of building new army in new edition

for Necron


i played Tau army once in 7th edition , and i must say i was very satisfied


but, later the 8th edition has a bit destroyed my hopes for tau



like everybody i wait for new codices Aeldari , Tau , Astra militarum

World bearers


go Orcs





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well i dont think , weapon platforms are option for tau


i hope maybe Stealth suit Xv15 will come back


in jet bikes , subject i am sceptic


but anything is possible



i like the Stormsurge , also i think


the drone can access new network abilities

So here's the thing: The main thing I would want out of a tau auxiliary codex would be to see a lot of different species with a lot of quirky, unusual special abilities. But if the point of this book is to show off tons of different cool, minor species, I don't necessarily want to see that concept restricted to only species that happen to get along with the tau.

It would be cool, for instance, to see the sslyth (drukhari codex) expanded upon, but I don't want them to have to get retconned into being tau pals to justify their presence in this book.

So what I'm getting at is: Maybe it would be better to have a generic "Codex: Mercenaries" instead? Alternatively, if you really want the book to specifically be about aliens that help the tau, why not just include those datasheets in the normal Tau codex? Is there an overarching mechanic unique to the tau auxiliaries (but not the tau) that you want to see represented? If not, putting them in their own book (and presumably giving them their own faction keywords) just means you're buying two books when you could have bought one.

 Grimtuff wrote:
The Deathsworn I could see as having a mechanic like the Knights Exemplar for Protectorate in Warmachine used to have. As each one dies the rest of the unit gains +1 cumulative strength and armour. So, if you only have the unit leader left they were on +5 and a tanky beast ready to go down swinging.

Another idea, also stolen from WMH is they could be like Exemplar Bastions, though they would need multiple wounds for this, where they can freely spread out wounds across the whole unit (yes, yes, I can see people getting triggered misremembering how "broken" this was in 5th when literally a handful of units could fully take advantage of it, but I digress...) instead of removing whole models. That would make them an excellent anchor/tarpit unit.

Finally, you could just have them as single minis and steal the concept of Lone Wolves from the 5th ed Space Wolves dex, where they are character killers that also give up VPs to your own army if they are alive at the end of the game, encouraging you to have them go down in a blaze of glory!

The first is pretty interesting, but I think it would be hard to balance with number of models in the unit vs viability. It really gives your opponent a lot of power over how strong your unit is, though I do think it's quite flavorful.

Hmm, so it's (essentially) like a vehicle but it a blob of dudes instead. It suffers no losses until it's at say half and units start dying (much like a vehicle gets bracketed). This is interesting, but it would need to be unique enough to not feel like I just described.

I think the third is my favorite. You could flip them into the Elite slot and make that work really well. Really hones in on the grim fatalistic aspect, while giving them a unit unlike one they've had before.


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chaos0xomega wrote:
I'd buy that, but I'd like to see Gue'Vesa as a troops choice. You can also round out Fast/Heavy/Flyers with Imperial Guard tanks upgraded with Tau tech (now that its been confirmed that thats what Gue'Vesa are armed with - Aeronautica Imperialis has rules for Tauified Thunderbolts, etc.)

That's kind of why is listed them to be taken like SGC do. I didn't want to go about essentially just putting the Astra Militarum dex here with caveats.


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Wyldhunt wrote:
So here's the thing: The main thing I would want out of a tau auxiliary codex would be to see a lot of different species with a lot of quirky, unusual special abilities. But if the point of this book is to show off tons of different cool, minor species, I don't necessarily want to see that concept restricted to only species that happen to get along with the tau.

It would be cool, for instance, to see the sslyth (drukhari codex) expanded upon, but I don't want them to have to get retconned into being tau pals to justify their presence in this book.

So what I'm getting at is: Maybe it would be better to have a generic "Codex: Mercenaries" instead? Alternatively, if you really want the book to specifically be about aliens that help the tau, why not just include those datasheets in the normal Tau codex? Is there an overarching mechanic unique to the tau auxiliaries (but not the tau) that you want to see represented? If not, putting them in their own book (and presumably giving them their own faction keywords) just means you're buying two books when you could have bought one.

Hmm, that might actually be a much better idea. Have a single codex with all the smaller races, and then have rules within to play them as Tau allies. That wouldn't just solve the Auxiliary problem, but would get us rules for lots of random junk that doesn't fit anywhere else. We could get updated Ambulls, Ur-Ghouls, single unit or two rules for Hrud, Zoats, Rak'Gol ect... man, this is a great idea!