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I played Tau when they first came out. Predominantly Suits was a solid build back then. Kroot were a lot more fun, too.

Ice_can wrote:
Back in my day, Tau broadsides actually had proper railguns twinlinked.
And scared the snot out of armour non of you youngsters and your super suits back then.

I still got to enjoy fighting the old Broadies in 5th Edition, just ask my poor Land Raider Redeemer how that was .

@Topic: I started playing Tau about 1 1/2 months into 8th, when my plans to slow-grow a Tau force for 8th Edition (after a 5 years hiatus during the trainwreck that was 6th and 7th Edition) were turbo-charged by all the hordes of 7th Edition Tau players abandoning their armies and selling them on ebay for pennies (Excellently painted Hammerhead with Longstrike for €24? 10 Fire Warriors for ~ 8 bucks per squad? How could I resist ).

I had always been interested in them and always loved them as the modern, mechanized, combined arms military with all sorts of funky alien auxiliaries to spice things up, and I am really happy with Fire Warriors, Stealthsuits, Vespids and to a lesser degree Broadsides and Longstrike/(Ion) Hammerheads being such great picks.

Mediocre Crisis teams and certain questionable weapon choices (Plasma rifles and any Railgun not used by Longstrike) aside, the internal balance of the Codex is great, there are VERY few units which are non-viable and have no place in even somewhat competitive lists (Kroot Shapers and Shadowsun being the only standouts in that regard), a massive step up from the awful internal balance in the index. Broadsides are now good (though I consider Sa'cea a must for the HRR one), same for Riptides which are finally in the spot they should have since their release, Ld10 bubble Sa'Cea Ethereals are finally the great Fire Warrior gunline buffers that they were meant to be, Aun'Shi is now a solid pick and Skyrays are now pretty solid for the points as well, particularly if Longstrike isn't around. Longstrike was and is great (and became even better) and the cheaper Ion Cannon Hammerheads with the new Seeker missiles are SERIOUS AT firepower for the price. 5pt Kroot are finally at the sweet spot for bubble wrapping cannon fodder between Kroot Hounds and Fire Warriors that make them worth taking. And that's just to name the worst units from the Index that were suffering in a hole of misery.

In addition several mediocre units got serious buffs that made them very good choices (such as Darkstrider, Ghostkeels or Breachers in Devilfish), while other, already good units became even better thanks to further point decreases (Fire Warriors which are the biggest winners, as well as Stealthsuits and Vespids).

Crisis teams deserved some minor buffs such as a 5-10 point price cut, but are still a good pick as cheap triple flamer horde munchers, while being decent with CiBs+ATS.
Overall a great upper-mid-tier Codex, which is the place I like them to be (no hordes of WAAC-players ruining the reputation of the entire faction, no sighs from people in pick-up matches when they hear what you are playing, fun combinations and a huge selection of good units). Also the big Q&A as well as eventually the next Chapter Approved will be coming out, so I doubt things will become worse rather than better for the few sore spots (except plasma rifles, seems like the rules writers have no idea what to do with them).

And power gamers can still spam Coldstars and Y'vahras, which were both buffed to hilarious levels, particularly the latter (a massive hit with the nerf hammer for Bork'an Y'vahras can't come soon enough), if they gotta be oh so hyper competitive .

xmbk wrote:
I played Tau when they first came out. Predominantly Suits was a solid build back then. Kroot were a lot more fun, too.

I played a small game recently and used kroot hounds. still very fun IMO, the AP killed a couple marines and they were even able to survive a round of combat from a dread and a chaos HQ(not totally sure which one). considering how cheap they were, they easily were the stars and made up for my seeker missile experiment.

JSJ should have been a Tau strategm (costing 1 CP, maybe 2 for a Riptide?) in 8th.

 Stormonu wrote:
JSJ should have been a Tau strategm (costing 1 CP, maybe 2 for a Riptide?) in 8th.

No. Taking away unit abilities to justify the existence of the stratagem mechanic is terrible design. Stratagems should never have existed, and they certainly never should have been used to replace unit abilities (vs. being army-wide effects). And JSJ never should have been removed from Tau units.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:
JSJ should have been a Tau strategm (costing 1 CP, maybe 2 for a Riptide?) in 8th.

No. Taking away unit abilities to justify the existence of the stratagem mechanic is terrible design. Stratagems should never have existed, and they certainly never should have been used to replace unit abilities (vs. being army-wide effects). And JSJ never should have been removed from Tau units.

Would almost make Crisis Suits worth their current points if their M was reduced to 6” and they got the same rule from the Vectored Thrusters signature item as a unit-specific rule.

The only gripe that I have is the Hammerhead railgun. It needed more shots, or more damage to make it worthwhile.