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So yeah. Gue'Vesa make decent suicide bombs. They're like Spore Mines, but actually useful. No scatter reduction + small unit size, t3, 5+ save, and fairly expensive makes up for the firepower they can put out for... a turn, maybe 2. It's nice for them to reward crafty plays, without requiring it to be worth their points.

Having recently re-played Fire Warrior, I might suggest the following, instead of Monteh.

Shas'O Kais is a brooding, silent character - He prefers to work alone, as the burden of protecting those he calls brethren grows heavy on his shoulders. Having only recently recovered from a complete withdrawal after Kronus, he is none-the-less eager to do battle once more. For him, pride in himself, and in his caste, are enough to weather all storms.

Though reaching nearly six decades in age, his body is still powerful, though ridden with scars, and his stature remains proud and confident despite his decades of mobile suit dependence.

A veteran of countless battles against the Imperium, Chaos, Orks, and a sampling of the other galactic denizens, he only feels truly alive when the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against him. His experience has only hardened his resolve, and strengthened his faith in the greater good. His actions allow billions to know a future they would otherwise be denied, and he carries their hopes with him into battle.


Unit: Fire Warrior Commander
Model: Shas'O Kais, Mobile Assault
Points: 200
Models: 1
Unit Type: Jump Infantry (Jet Pack, Character)

Shas'O Kais: WS:4 BS:5 S:3 T:3 W:4 I:4 A:3 Ld:10 Sv:4+

Shas'O Kais is an HQ choice for a Tau Empire Army. No Ethereal may be present in an Army List including Shas'O Kais.

Wargear: Bolt Gun, Katana, Pulse Carbine

Bolt Gun: Shas'O Kais can make the Imperial Bolt Gun do things that even Space Marines might envy - From annihilating Power Armour, to destroying the hardiest of vehicles, this weapon finds its worth in his hands. It fires with the following profile:
Range: 24" S: 5 AP: 4 Special: Rapidfire, Rending

Katana: Kais is one of the few Tau known to engage in close-quarters combat... and survive! With his Masterwork Katana, he quickly dispatches his foes. Kais' To Hit rolls of 5+ in close combat automatically wound - saves are taken as normal, and no additional roll to wound is required.

Pulse Carbine: One of the few remaining Pulse Carbines - the model was discontinued when targeting and tuning systems were adjusted on its Rifle cousin. Kais may fire the Pulse Carbine with either of the following profiles:
Range: 18" S:5 AP:5 Assault 3, Pinning
Range: 12" S:6 AP:4 Assault 1, Blast

Special Rules: Eternal Warrior, Favoured, Fearless, Relentless, Stubborn

Favoured: A higher power has other plans for Shas'O Kais. At the beginning of each phase, he regains 1 Wound, up to his maximum. He also has a 5+ Invulnerable Save.

Army Options: An Army List including Shas'O Kais may only purchase Fire Warrior Hunters and Fire Warrior Mobile Assault Cadres. Either entry may be purchased for any slot in the FoC - remember, only slots purchased as Troops are scoring!

Roight, so 1.1 is up. Changes include the now-mostly-complete vehicle armoury, overhauled seeker missiles, wording fixes on a few things, and some pointscosts value changes.

Dynamic Entry was reinstated, granting Pinning to any shots fired by models that have arrived by deepstrike on the current turn.

MACs were reinstated under the Fast Attack section.


Table of contents not even really buggered with yet because I'm lazy and forgot. Working on Fluff from a bunch of these battle reports I've got lying around, and Auxiliaries once that's out of the way.

Speaking of Auxiliaries, does anyone have any awesome ideas for the Demiurg? I really can't think of anything for them, their current fluff is just too flimsy. At least with Vespids I can construct a vague hive structure and do some interesting things - with the Demiurg, it's not even clear on whether they're even capable of leaving their spaceships anymore - it's not even clear if all of their ships carry demiurg, anymore! All I've got is that the few remaining have, individually, enough technological might to be worthy of something spectacular on the battlefield.

If they have one sepcial weapon those guevesa wont have any output. It isnt the tau way to have suicide units.

They each have 1 special weapon. 5 in a squad. Average cost of 85 points, for 5 bs3 special weapons that has a fairly hefty chance of dying before it gets to fire, due to some special weapons being heavy.

Every Tau firewarrior is a suicide unit. Their job is to finish the job, no matter what. Their lives are for the Greater Good.

Tau do not use suicide units, no tactic they would really use involves meatgrinding. They don't even treat mindless drones in that manner.

They treat drones that way in CQC :V "You can just have these exploding things, we'll be on our way."

Is there some crucial piece of fluff I'm missing where they disregard suicide units :V? Even in the hunt, sometimes a sacrifice must be presented, to lure the prey off guard, and ensure the kill for the rest.


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Also, Crisis Suits may be TOO cheap at the moment. I might have to raise them to 30 points.


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General increase across the board for Crisis Suits. BS on regular crisis suits decreased to 3, I dunno why it was 4. Shas'vre BS decreased to 4. Plasma Blade included in Weapons Systems - 10 Point power weapon, 20 points for 2 and +1A, if you twinlink all your Plasma Blades you get to reroll hits. COULD BE FUN. COULD BE OP AND SILLY. TIME WILL TELL.

Considering that a Terminator is only 40 points, I think the Crisis suits are fine at BS4 and T5 if you up them to 30-35 points base. I mean, you're going to at least double that in wargear.

I'd just bump the Shas'el base cost to 55-60 and call it a day.

Reading over the codex as a whole, it doesn't seem like you lower the cost enough to allow a whole lot more units to be taken, but rather they just perform better. I like it for the most part.

I didn't want to lower costs too much; the Tau aren't a spammy army, just lots of shooting

I did end up popping the Shas'el up to 55, and suits up to 30. Markerlights are 5 points, and can be fired in addition to - and before - your weapons systems, so I feel BS3 is justified.

I also tried to make, as you say, doubling their cost in wargear at LEAST as useful as buying them as cheaply as possible. Playtesting makes me feel I've done this properly. but I've only had a couple other people try it out with me, so I can't be anything near definitive.

chrisrawr wrote:They treat drones that way in CQC :V "You can just have these exploding things, we'll be on our way."

Is there some crucial piece of fluff I'm missing where they disregard suicide units :V? Even in the hunt, sometimes a sacrifice must be presented, to lure the prey off guard, and ensure the kill for the rest.

If you check again, the lure / bait isn't sacrificial.
The point is to draw the enemy out, then it's the strike forces task to take them down before the 'bait' gets hurt (or at least badly hurt) and/or the 'bait' is meant to turn round and open fire catching the target in a crossfire.

The tau see all life as valuable in the greater good and while it may be an honour to lay down your life for the gg, they don't view much of anything as expendable.


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I'm also running mines bs as la/ui/vre/el/o being 3/4/5/6/7, removing the bs5 limit on targeting arrays and markerlights.

I mean if you want to spend 5-6 tokens to make something bs9 that's your problem :p
I mean a Shas'o having the best bionics and equipment out the wazoo makes sense.

chrisrawr wrote:I didn't want to lower costs too much; the Tau aren't a spammy army, just lots of shooting

I did end up popping the Shas'el up to 55, and suits up to 30. Markerlights are 5 points, and can be fired in addition to - and before - your weapons systems, so I feel BS3 is justified.

I also tried to make, as you say, doubling their cost in wargear at LEAST as useful as buying them as cheaply as possible. Playtesting makes me feel I've done this properly. but I've only had a couple other people try it out with me, so I can't be anything near definitive.

I'll playtest it for my next game and let you know how it works. I usually play against Orkz, Mech IG, Dark Angels, and Dark Eldar, so there's a good balance of stuff to try it against.

@Ovion, I really wish you'd get Vassal40K so we could fightan dexan, so sexy. Nothing's concrete with the Gue'Vesa yet. I might just make them IC veterans with some neat shenanigans, who knows.

I never really understood why large BS values were important - everything after 5 can just be represented better by giving a twinlinked weapon.

I wonder if twin-linked might work after the BS re-roll

But anyway - it represents things being completely badass at shooting and is basically twin-linking because you're that awesome.

I see that things like the archon get WS7 / BS7 for being that good, so the Shas'o which'll cost more base can be BS7 through tech, or if an entire armies intel focuses on a single unit for targetting information, it can too.

I'm not sure if your version has something different from the pdf in the OP, but just in list building I've noticed the huge points sink that comes from twin-linking. Deathrains go from being effective and cheap in the original codex to being slightly more effective but way overcosted in yours. I'd suggest a different way to go about twin-linking. I saw that this was brought up before.

For my list, I'm going ahead and making twin-linking add another 5 points onto any weapon system instead of doubling the cost. 20 points for a twin-linked missile pod seems right.

My codex runs along a similar vein to the current.
Twin-Linking takes up a second hard point and costs 50% of a standard weapon.

It's also going to allow 2 of each hard point option I think and XV8s are likely going to have 4 hardpoints, with stealths having 2 (probably only 1 opton each..).
So you could have 2 Twinlinked Missile pods on an XV8 (though nothing else)

That's certainly something you can do; I had Twinlinking weapons double their cost because it was fast and easy to rule in, and you can have 2 identical weapons; twinlinking for 5 points seems alright in retrospect. I just figured that now that people could take Missilerains or Plasmarepeaters, the old metasuits wouldn't be missed

Another thing is that Devilfish are still overcosted at 60 + weapon (at least 10) + Dis. Pod (Which is practically necessary). In the end, you end up with a transport that you can't shoot out of that is the same cost as it is in the original codex...and it's overcosted there too!

You only get one reroll per parse; you can't reroll a to hit because of high BS AND twinlinked. Which is why one makes the other redundant, especially at BS5/10


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Crap, that's what I forgot. Tau Vehicles are supposed to have their Pulse Rifles as Defensive Weapons. I also intended the devilfish to have its forward weapon be a burst cannon for free, with the option to upgrade at -10 points, but I just copy pasted it from the old one, so that might not have happened.

chrisrawr wrote:That's certainly something you can do; I had Twinlinking weapons double their cost because it was fast and easy to rule in, and you can have 2 identical weapons; twinlinking for 5 points seems alright in retrospect. I just figured that now that people could take Missilerains or Plasmarepeaters, the old metasuits wouldn't be missed

I suppose that's a good way to think about it in regards to new suit combos. At this point though, I'm trying to rebuild the list I play now from the original codex with yours instead to see what kind of shortcomings yours has in comparison. Hope you don't mind the critique. I don't wanna come across as douchey or anything, but these are my observations just based on the list remake.

I'll be making a straight-up new list based off of your codex to playtest though, and so I'll likely use new suit combos in that and see how they fare.

chrisrawr wrote:You only get one reroll per parse; you can't reroll a to hit because of high BS AND twinlinked. Which is why one makes the other redundant, especially at BS5/10

Eh, any gun it takes, not having to be twin-linked.

Also - Pulse Rifles hitting on 2's with re-rolls on 2's

Yeah; At 5 with Twinlinked, you're just as good as at 6-10 with twinlinked, is what I was saying. And at 10, you're just as good as any of that.

I was thinking of making 3 Markerlight Tokens a Twin-Link, but it made Broadsides and Suits ridiculous - A suit with 2 Burst Cannons and a Markerlight is only 45 Points at the moment, and you can have 6 of them, firing their markerlights before they shoot, shooting at at least BS5. That's 36 rounds, 30 of which hit, 20 of which wound against meq and 7 of which are failed saves. For 270 points. Not to mention the subsequent pinning test at -xLd. Or, with rail rifles, 390 points, 10 hits, 8 Wounds, no saves, and 8 ld tests. Even with the ~2 wounds against TEQ, it's not bad, forcing 2 ld tests at a possible negative. Despite being almost double the cost, 2 pinning tests at 7-8 from 36" is nothing to scoff at.

At 85 points for 2 TLplasma guns+ML, this is where the 5 point twinlink becomes powerful, and why I hesitate to include it (note that I'll probably just list 2 points costs and notify that the larger one is the TL version, I didn't do this in the first place because I'd intended only Crisis Suits to be able to twinlink their weapons, but now not as many models can buy weapons so it doesn't matter :&gt. You've now got 24 shots at 24". If you expend 1ML to allow them to hit on 3+, you've got a 95% chance to hit. 23 hits, 19 wounds, -2 to cover so they're stuck at 6+/5+ if they go to ground, you have just whiped out almost anything for 510 points. Toss on 8 shield drones and you're good to go.

Yeah, the 5 point TL was just for the Missile Pods since they're the only weapon I TL in the list I'm rebuilding.

That's why a simple 50% of cost is simple and a nice sliding scale for twin-linking that's appropriate to the weapon.

I winged it closer to 1/3 of the cost, simply because that's how I roll.


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96 points for a 2+/4++/FNP WS2 S5 T5 2W 4 attack on the charge power weapon rerolling to hit. So jokes Farsight armies.

You gonna re-do Farsight too?!

He's an integral part of the controversy of the Ethereal leadership and guidance. A renegade firewarrior over 300 years old? Or a string of successors, carefully hiding the deaths of their leaders - a mutant strain with a mutant greater good, pushing the boundaries of their caste and what it really means to be Tau.

I mean points and ability-wise...

He'll probably stay about where he is. An elite-eating monster who fields only loyalist tau fire-caste and runs around solving the problems of the empire in ways that make the ethereals mad.

Proposal for Markerlights: Instead of pinning on a bunch of weapons, Markerlights can grant pinning. Multiple markerlight tokens used to grant pinning tests for multiple potential unsaved wounds. Unsaved wounds that would cause pinning against fearless units would instead force no retreat saves.

Current Shas'O Kais iteration

Unit: Mobile Assault Command
Model: Shas'O Kais, Shas'El
Points: 200
Models: 6
Unit Type: Jump Infantry (Jet Pack, Character)

Shas'O Kais: WS:4 BS:5 S:3 T:3 W:3 I:4 A:4 Ld:10 Sv:4+

Shas'El: WS:3 BS:5 S:3 T:3 W:2 I:3 A:3 Ld:10 Sv:4+

The Mobile Assault Command is an HQ choice for a Tau Empire Army.

Wargear: Combat Blade, Pulse Carbine, Shield Generator

Combat Blade: A models' To-Hit rolls of 5+ in close combat automatically wound - saves are taken as normal, and no additional roll to wound is required.

Pulse Carbine: Range: 18” S: 5 AP: 5 Special: Rapidfire, Pinning*
*Each unsaved wound inflicted by a Pulse Carbine causes a pinning test.

Special Rules: Deepstrike, Dynamic Entry, Eternal Warrior (Shas'O Kais Only), Relentless, Stubborn

Army Options: An Army List including the Mobile Assault Command may purchase Fire Warrior Hunters and Mobile Assault Cadres for any slot in the FoC - remember, only slots purchased as Troops are scoring!

Unit: Kroot Commander
Model: Kroot Master Shaper
Points: 80
Models: 1
Unit Type: Infantry (Character)

Kroot Master Shaper: WS: 5 BS: 3 S: 4 T: 3 W: 3 I: 4 A: 3 Ld: 10 Sv: 5+

Kroot Master Shaper on Krootox: WS: 5 BS: 3 S: 5 T: 4 W: 5 I: 4 A: 4 Ld: 10 Sv: 5+

A Kroot Commander is an Auxiliary HQ Choice for a Tau Empire Army.

Wargear: Command Helm, Kroot Gun

Kroot gun: Range: A Kroot Gun counts as 2 Close Combat Weapons, and is fired with the following profile: Range: 18" S: 4 AP: 6 Special: Assault 2

Special Rules: Ambush, Independent Character, Infiltrate, Kroot Genevolution, Stubborn

Ambush: Models with Ambush suffer ignore difficult terrain from natural area terrain (terrain that is not ruins or rubble, wrecks. Examples include forests, jungles, rivers, brush, grass, and rocky terrain). While in natural terrain, they gain the Stealth USR, and when they launch an assault against a unit in natural terrain, they make their extra attack gained from charging at initiative 6 instead of their normal initiative.

Kroot Genevolution: If the Kroot Master Shaper is deployed attached to a Kroot Karnivore Squad, the entire unit including the Kroot Master Shaper may choose one of the following upgrades at 1 point per model:
+1 Weapons Skill
+1 Strength
+1 Toughness
+1 Initiative
+1 Attacks
+1 Armour Save
You may only ever buy 1 bonus for any single Kroot Carnivore Squad from Kroot Genevolution.

Unit Options: The Kroot Master Shaper may ride a Krootox for +20 Points.

Krootox: A model riding a Krootox changes its unit type to Beast, gains +1 Strength and Toughness, +2 Wounds, +1 Attacks, the Relentless Special Rule, and a Twin-Linked Kroot Rifle. The Twin-Linked Kroot Rifle fires with the following profile:
Range: 48" S: 7 AP: 5 Special: Assault 2



Unit: Kroot Carnivore Squad
Model: Kroot Carnivore, Kroot Hound
Points: 60
Models: 10
Unit Type: Beast, Infantry

Kroot Carnivore: WS: 4 BS: 3 S: 4 T: 3 W: 1 I: 3 A: 1 Ld: 7 Sv: -

Kroot Hound (Beast): WS: 4 BS: 0 S: 4 T: 3 W: 1 I: 5 A: 2 Ld: 5 Sv: -

Kroot Shaper: WS: 4 BS: 3 S: 4 T: 3 W: 1 I: 3 A: 1 Ld: 8 Sv: 6+

Kroot Carnivore on Krootox(Beast): WS: 4 BS: 3 S: 5 T: 4 W: 3 A: 2

A Kroot Carnivore Squad is an Auxiliary Troops Choice for a Tau Empire Army. Up to 10 additional Kroot Carnivores may be added to a Kroot Carnivore Squad at 6 Points per Model. A Kroot Shaper may be added to the unit for 15 points. Up to 10 Kroot Hounds may be added to the unit for 6 points each.

Wargear: Kroot Gun (Kroot Carnivore Only), Teeth and Claws (Kroot Hound Only)

Teeth and Claws: A Close Combat Weapon. Enemy models wounded by a Kroot Hound have their Initiative lowered by 1 to a minimum of 1 for the remainder of the assault. This ability is cumulative.

Special Rules: Ambush, Infiltrate, Kroot Genevolution (Kroot Shaper Only)

Unit Options: For every 5 Kroot Carnivores in the unit, one may ride a Krootox for 15 points. The Kroot Carnivore Squad may improve its armour save by 1 for 1 point per model (this stacks with the increase from Kroot Genevolution, if they have it.)


Unit: Kroot Carnivore Hunters
Model: Kroot Carnivore Hunter
Points: 100
Models: 5
Unit Type: Infantry

Kroot Carnivore Hunter: WS: 4 BS: 3 S: 4 T: 3 W: 1 I: 4 A: 2 Ld: 9 Sv: -

Kroot Carnivore Hunters are an Auxiliary Elites Choice for a Tau Empire Army. Up to 5 additional Kroot Carnivore Hunters may be added to the unit at 20 points per model.

Wargear: Kroot Gas Grenades, Poisoned Kroot Gun

Kroot Gas Grenades: Assault Grenades. If a Kroot Carnivore Hunter assaults a unit that has taken an unsaved wound from a Poisoned Kroot Gun, its attacks are Poisoned (3+)

Poisoned Kroot Gun: A Poisoned Kroot Gun counts as 2 Close Combat Attacks, and grants the equipped models' attacks in close combat Poisoned (4+). It fires with the following profile:
Range: 18" S: 4 AP: 6 Special: Assault 2, Poisoned (4+)

Special Rules: Ambush, Furious Charge, Fleet, Inflitrate, Scouts


Unit: Kroot Carnivor Herders
Model: Kroot Carnivore Herder, Kroot Hound
Points: 150
Models: 5 Kroot Carnivore Herders Riding Krootox
Unit Type: Beasts, Infantry

Kroot Carnivore Herder: WS: 4 BS: 2 S: 4 T: 3 W: 1 I: 3 A: 1 Ld: 8 Sv: -

Kroot Carnivore Herder Riding Krootox (Beast): WS: 4 BS: 2 S: 5 T: 4 W: 3 I: 3 A: 2 Ld: 8 Sv: -

Kroot Hound (Beast): WS: 4 BS: 0 S: 4 T: 3 W: 1 I: 5 A: 2 Ld: 5 Sv: -

Kroot Carnivor Herders are an Auxiliary Fast Attack Choice for a Tau Empire Army. Up to 5 Kroot Carnivore Herders may be added to the unit at 10 points each. Up to 20 Kroot Hounds may be added to the unit at 6 points each.

Wargear: Kroot Gun (Kroot Carnivore Herder only), Kroot Rifle (Riding Krootox only), Teeth and Claws (Kroot Hound only)

Special Rules: Ambush, Scouts

Unit Options: Kroot Carnivore Herders may ride a Krootox for 20 points each.


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Tau Empire Auxiliary Choices: In addition to the normal FOC, Tau may purchase up to 1 HQs, 1 Elites, 2 Troops, 1 Fast attack, and 1 Heavy Support Auxiliary Choices. These choices may be purchased as normal choices, as well as Auxiliary choices.