Tau Rumours

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**Rainyday**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
I really Hope there is a flower that can deliver Battlesuits into well, battle.

I see somebody may have been watching Gundam lately.
http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/La_Vie_en_Rose

JOHIRA wrote:
Then if I were them, the last weapon I would deploy to fight great hordes of gribbly chitinous death would be a slow, lumbering, difficult-to-transport ground-based super-heavy that can be easily overwhelmed by massed infantry.

There is nothing a giant robot can do that other vehicles can't do better. Aside from looking like a humanoid, which is something that can be a concern to Imperials, Chaos, Orcs, and Eldar but really should not be part of the Tau design. Small mobile infantry suits- makes perfect sense. Giant robots that serve no purpose other than looking cool?

True, but I can see the Tau going for a Mobile Armor-style approach: large, yet taking advantage of the large size to deck the thing out with powerful thrusters, shields, and weapons. It doesn't have to be slow and lumbering, skimmer or even flyer battlesuits would easily be possible with Tau technology.

**Kilkrazy**

I don't see why Tau wouldn't have something like a Dreadknight or War Walker. Larger than a Battlesuit and just as manoeuvrable.

**Bolognesus**

NecronLord3 wrote:
Bolognesus wrote:
NecronLord3 wrote:
Bolognesus wrote:

Poppycock.
warriors and immortals not only lost *some* stuff but they got a helluvalot cheaper, too. per point they're way more effective now: no, that resorb tax works out at less than 3 pts per model on a 20 model unit and that lord has more uses than just that res orb!), have you even *tried* using ghost arks (I don't, myself but I've seen it combined with large blob units to great effect) with your warriors? obviously not, from your statements.
I don't think I said pariahs=lychguard; I just said that's what they'd Counts-As for. If you'd have cared to read even halfway closely you'll see I mentioned them as a disappointment, with destroyers the only nerf.
Monoliths not good? I see you haven't played either with or against them, obviously. they work *just* fine. Differently, yes. Which is good, last codex they were just annoying. Not even that good, just a *(&*()^ to take out.
if you can't make scarabs work you suck at the psychological warfare aspect of the game; they present a disproportionate threat for the points they cost, and dealing with them takes time. No, if your opponent manages to get his flamer troops right up to them before they inflict some harm either he expended significant resources not doing anything more useful, or you're just incompetent
Wraiths might not resurrect but they're even better for the points than they were so again, tiny, tiny violin

Basically, the old codex **sucked** as for fun-to-play either with OR against.
...so yeah, playstyles changed. For the better, mostly, but yeah you have to adapt. once you do that though, **all** those units, except for destroyers and to a lesser degree your old pariahs, make for useful, effective and potentially tier 1 competitive choices. *maybe* not scarabs, but everything else? Hell yeah.

And about those warriors: I like tough troops better, as well so I play immortals too but I can see loads of uses for those warriors and as soon as my first 2K pts list is done, those 40 warriors I still have lying around which I painted as an, I believe, 12 or 13 year old kid when they first came out will hit the brake fluid right quick - I've seen them used to great effect; it just takes a *little* more tactical thinking than just "advance all, and fire at anything that looks squishy" which was all the previous codex *could* do.
wow. I guess I don't know what I'm talking about only after successfully playing Necrons for the last 12+ years. Or I do and mostly what you've said is crap. Scarabs a psychological threat against what the non existent plethora of vehicles or the flyers they can't hit? Are warriors useful? Yes to be cheap and sit on an objective. 20 blob squad warriors with an ark. The ark just gets blown up then opponents kill the warriors. God forbid an opponent gets close to warriors and they are swept faster than anything else in the game. The cost of 1 res orb Per warrior in a 20 man squad is 7.75 with no other options because you at least have to purchase an overlord for th RC then attach the lord with orb to the squad. That cost vastly increases as you arm both models with useful equipment and you can slightly of set the cost do the Overlord as you spread it across more lords in more squads but in the end it cost about as much as they did in 3rd edition and you get a weaker Armour save.

So since the new codex got released all your overlords do is unlock royal courts, you do not utilize terrain to any effect and finally, you refuse to acknowledge the existence of vehicles with other types than "flyer"?
I now understand why you have a hard time winning - sheesh...
No I have no trouble winning. I have a great record and one of the more feared non-cron air Necron lists out there. I do it witout relying on the obsolete nerfed units from the 3rd edition codex. Your assessment of the effectiveness of Necron units is just very off.

ergo: you saw them, didn't like them, and discarded them. Right?
'Cause I've seen those so-called "nerfed" units used to great effect -- by plenty of folks. Just not the numbskulls who pretend they're still in 3rd...

**megatrons2nd**

No, he uses them, just not as much as he use to. They fall to my Tau, rather quickly even. The newer units will handily beat my Tau. They are not better, and are likely worse for the cost than their previous incarnation. Newer units are better, but not so much better that old units are completely unplayable, just not optimal.

**NecronLord3**

Bolognesus wrote:
NecronLord3 wrote:
Bolognesus wrote:
NecronLord3 wrote:
Bolognesus wrote:

Poppycock.
warriors and immortals not only lost *some* stuff but they got a helluvalot cheaper, too. per point they're way more effective now: no, that resorb tax works out at less than 3 pts per model on a 20 model unit and that lord has more uses than just that res orb!), have you even *tried* using ghost arks (I don't, myself but I've seen it combined with large blob units to great effect) with your warriors? obviously not, from your statements.
I don't think I said pariahs=lychguard; I just said that's what they'd Counts-As for. If you'd have cared to read even halfway closely you'll see I mentioned them as a disappointment, with destroyers the only nerf.
Monoliths not good? I see you haven't played either with or against them, obviously. they work *just* fine. Differently, yes. Which is good, last codex they were just annoying. Not even that good, just a *(&*()^ to take out.
if you can't make scarabs work you suck at the psychological warfare aspect of the game; they present a disproportionate threat for the points they cost, and dealing with them takes time. No, if your opponent manages to get his flamer troops right up to them before they inflict some harm either he expended significant resources not doing anything more useful, or you're just incompetent
Wraiths might not resurrect but they're even better for the points than they were so again, tiny, tiny violin

Basically, the old codex **sucked** as for fun-to-play either with OR against.
...so yeah, playstyles changed. For the better, mostly, but yeah you have to adapt. once you do that though, **all** those units, except for destroyers and to a lesser degree your old pariahs, make for useful, effective and potentially tier 1 competitive choices. *maybe* not scarabs, but everything else? Hell yeah.

And about those warriors: I like tough troops better, as well so I play immortals too but I can see loads of uses for those warriors and as soon as my first 2K pts list is done, those 40 warriors I still have lying around which I painted as an, I believe, 12 or 13 year old kid when they first came out will hit the brake fluid right quick - I've seen them used to great effect; it just takes a *little* more tactical thinking than just "advance all, and fire at anything that looks squishy" which was all the previous codex *could* do.
wow. I guess I don't know what I'm talking about only after successfully playing Necrons for the last 12+ years. Or I do and mostly what you've said is crap. Scarabs a psychological threat against what the non existent plethora of vehicles or the flyers they can't hit? Are warriors useful? Yes to be cheap and sit on an objective. 20 blob squad warriors with an ark. The ark just gets blown up then opponents kill the warriors. God forbid an opponent gets close to warriors and they are swept faster than anything else in the game. The cost of 1 res orb Per warrior in a 20 man squad is 7.75 with no other options because you at least have to purchase an overlord for th RC then attach the lord with orb to the squad. That cost vastly increases as you arm both models with useful equipment and you can slightly of set the cost do the Overlord as you spread it across more lords in more squads but in the end it cost about as much as they did in 3rd edition and you get a weaker Armour save.

So since the new codex got released all your overlords do is unlock royal courts, you do not utilize terrain to any effect and finally, you refuse to acknowledge the existence of vehicles with other types than "flyer"?
I now understand why you have a hard time winning - sheesh...
No I have no trouble winning. I have a great record and one of the more feared non-cron air Necron lists out there. I do it witout relying on the obsolete nerfed units from the 3rd edition codex. Your assessment of the effectiveness of Necron units is just very off.

ergo: you saw them, didn't like them, and discarded them. Right?
'Cause I've seen those so-called "nerfed" units used to great effect -- by plenty of folks. Just not the numbskulls who pretend they're still in 3rd...

You got me. I don't have 3+ bags full of 4 Monoliths, 3 C'tan, 9 destroyers, 40 scarabs, 70+ warriors, 20 flayed ones, and 10 Pariahs. Because I dumped my beautifully painted army of 12+ years. Or check my signature and do the math then guess if that is right or not.

**Just Dave**

Oh wow, cool. A quote chain about Necrons, in a thread about Tau? Brilliant.

**NecronLord3**

Just Dave wrote:
Oh wow, cool. A quote chain about Necrons, in a thread about Tau? Brilliant.

They're much harder to delete from my iPad.

**Just Dave**

NecronLord3 wrote:
Just Dave wrote:
Oh wow, cool. A quote chain about Necrons, in a thread about Tau? Brilliant.
They're much harder to delete from my iPad.

You could just stay on topic instead?

**ShatteredBlade**

Wow, the more rumors I hear about the Tau, the less I want to play them. I just hope they don't get the CSM treatment and get their 4th ed codex with 6th ed tacked on.

**wyomingfox**

NecronLord3 wrote:
Just Dave wrote:
Oh wow, cool. A quote chain about Necrons, in a thread about Tau? Brilliant.
They're much harder to delete from my iPad.

That is what the "Ignore" function is for.

**NecronLord3**

ShatteredBlade wrote:
Wow, the more rumors I hear about the Tau, the less I want to play them. I just hope they don't get the CSM treatment and get their 4th ed codex with 6th ed tacked on.

Yes I agree. While a fairer approach, the Chaos codex doesn't help to compensate for the over the top elements from, GK, Blood Angels, Necrons, etc...

**stubacca**

LOUD NOISES!

So does anyone actually have any rumours about the Tau, apart from the usual "there MIGHT be a codex released early next year?" and "they have this really cool new feature, there's a lion one, and a dinosaur one, and three other animal ones and they combine to make some giant robot thing, a "megazord" if you will"

**Bolognesus**

NecronLord3 wrote:
You got me. I don't have 3+ bags full of 4 Monoliths, 3 C'tan, 9 destroyers, 40 scarabs, 70+ warriors, 20 flayed ones, and 10 Pariahs. Because I dumped my beautifully painted army of 12+ years. Or check my signature and do the math then guess if that is right or not.

As I said, there's always a few numbskulls who don't know how to use a new (and different) dex

(deleting stuff on iPad is easy by the way, I just did it. you know you can use the blue balls in a selection and drag them to change what you selected and what not? it's easy

only the scrolling in a posting box sucks).

ShatteredBlade wrote:
Wow, the more rumors I hear about the Tau, the less I want to play them. I just hope they don't get the CSM treatment and get their 4th ed codex with 6th ed tacked on.

well, I remember when the DA rumours just started out it all sounded rather underwhelming; people were basically posting stuff to that effect as well. Rumours are getting better now, though. I'd say there's a fair chance we're just not hearing the juicy bits and the Tau 'dex will be a tonne of fun. God knows even the CSM dex was a huge improvement over it's predecessor even if many of us might not like the direction many things are taking (but then again, many of us just want 3.5 back

).

**Micky**

Kanluwen wrote:

Nothing about the Tau way of warfare precludes something like this being "evolved" to deal with enemies which cannot be dealt with in straight up tactical maneuvers.

Say something like a certain race which has been pestering the Tau, and are known to come at you in great hordes of gribbly chitinous death?

Something like that calls for explosive flame weapons and rapid firing ion weapons, not more railguns.

**agnosto**

Yeah, it's hard to beat a railgun....unless it's two or more railguns or rapid fire railguns....double tap at 36".... joy.

**Ledabot**

I can see them screwing with railguns so bad. We have a rail gun and a rail rifle, why not a rail cannon and a rail pistol!

Tau do need a little better high rate of fire options. I dam hope they fix the ion blaster and I wouldn't mind the burst cannon being a little more than just 3 carbines glued together.

**Kanluwen**

Micky wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:

Nothing about the Tau way of warfare precludes something like this being "evolved" to deal with enemies which cannot be dealt with in straight up tactical maneuvers.

Say something like a certain race which has been pestering the Tau, and are known to come at you in great hordes of gribbly chitinous death?

Something like that calls for explosive flame weapons and rapid firing ion weapons, not more railguns.

The railgun submunitions would beg to differ.

**spectreoneone**

Micky wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:

Nothing about the Tau way of warfare precludes something like this being "evolved" to deal with enemies which cannot be dealt with in straight up tactical maneuvers.

Say something like a certain race which has been pestering the Tau, and are known to come at you in great hordes of gribbly chitinous death?

Something like that calls for explosive flame weapons and rapid firing ion weapons, not more railguns.

Perhaps making the airbursting fragmentation projector no longer special issue, but available for all Crisis suits, as well as giving us the XV9 and the pulse submunitions rifle along with it. Tau could also use a heavy flamer variant, as well as a torrent weapon (and if recent codices are an indication, torrent weapons are definitely an "it" thing...I'm looking at you Heldrake). Horde armies are something that Tau do have trouble with, as their blast weaponry is rather limited and/or short ranged. Granted, our best blast weapon has a nice and long range, but you can only field up to 3 in a standard game, and it typically fights with the XV88s for slots. What I'd really like to see is some sort of torrent weapon option on the Devilfish or Piranha, or perhaps some sort of flame drone.

Ledabot wrote:I can see them screwing with railguns so bad. We have a rail gun and a rail rifle, why not a rail cannon and a rail pistol!

Tau do need a little better high rate of fire options. I dam hope they fix the ion blaster and I wouldn't mind the burst cannon being a little more than just 3 carbines glued together.

If one of the rumors is true, rail weapons would be much nastier (and, IMHO, much more realistic). What I'm referring to is the ability for a rail weapon to penetrate multiple vehicles/units down its trajectory with reduced strength after each hit. I'm sure we'll see a proliferation of rail weapons within the Tau army, as its pretty much the Tau's specialty. Is this necessarily a bad thing? I don't think so. High penetration/powered long-range weaponry is not something I'll complain about. I'd love to be able to take rail rifles with my standard FW squads, even if its only one or two per squad, or even something like a rail carbine with an 18-24" range at S6 AP3.

On a side note, can we please keep the Necron (or any other irrelevant topics) discussions outside of this thread? Take it to PM or start a thread in the appropriate forum. It's really annoying to have to read through half a page of discussing Necron in a Tau rumor thread.

**DakkaHammer**

I can see most (if not all) of the special issue wargear being made available to everyone. Or at least, you can take it on as many HQ options as you like, or on all squad leaders.

**davethepak**

Tragically not a lot of new rumors here (as a necron player, that thread was hysterical) except for something about maybe a big suit? Regardless of some people thinking once could work with current tau fluff - fluff is always changed and augmented, so if GW wants to sell one, they will (for better or for worse).

A few of my thoughts regarding tau stuff...
* Beam - I think we will get this for rail weapons. It screams railgun. This is just my speculation. They may tweak it a bit, but I would be surprised if the railgun was NOT beam.
* FW units - I think we will get a few. Not as many as I hope, but a couple (I don't care about the rules, I just want to use the models) - the trygon and piranha made it before, I suspect we may get something.
* New units - they always need new units - they want to sell models (what are they going to do for 6th ed for the full codexes? Or 7th? Gw has painted themselves into a corner here....). I am guessing new suits or infantry - either an ally or a special short ranged unit (which is ironic, as I feel many are short ranged already).
* Flyer - of course tau will get at least one. I just pray the stats are better than the existing terrible FW ones. Love the models, the stats are rubbish.

GW needs to sell models - thats their revenue stream. I acknowledge and respect that. (so lets not rant on the pros and cons of it).

I am just wondering how much they will release new models, how much may just be add on stuff (new HH weapons, or fish upgrades vs. a brand new tank).

**JOHIRA**

davethepak wrote:
GW needs to sell models - thats their revenue stream. I acknowledge and respect that. (so lets not rant on the pros and cons of it).

I haven't seen a single person here proposing that GW should not sell models or in general being opposed to the notion that GW sells models. What I'm opposing is GW chucking their own design work under a bus just to sell new shiny that doesn't fit with good design. And yes, I know that GW frequently does this (I even acknowledged this in my first post)- but that doesn't mean that they should continue to do this.

**Gifblaur**

ooo! How about the Skyray fires it's payload ala Manticore. They look damn similar, why not just get it over with already. And maybe move it to a different slot. I'm tired of not playing with the skyray because I have to bring XV88s to win.

I will start playing Tau again once this new book comes out. In fact I've already started pulling them out of storage to be stripped and repainted(First army, paint jobs were miserable.) I'm tired of rumours and just want my damn book. T.T

**Rainyday**

Gifblaur wrote:
ooo! How about the Skyray fires it's payload ala Manticore. They look damn similar, why not just get it over with already. And maybe move it to a different slot. I'm tired of not playing with the skyray because I have to bring XV88s to win.

I'm personally hoping it becomes a transport, perhaps for pathfinders. While a hammerhead probably trades off transport capacity for generator capacity, a skyray's just has a missile rack on the roof, here's no reason it couldn't fit 6-8 guys inside.

**Kanluwen**

Rainyday wrote:
Gifblaur wrote:
ooo! How about the Skyray fires it's payload ala Manticore. They look damn similar, why not just get it over with already. And maybe move it to a different slot. I'm tired of not playing with the skyray because I have to bring XV88s to win.

I'm personally hoping it becomes a transport, perhaps for pathfinders. While a hammerhead probably trades off transport capacity for generator capacity, a skyray's just has a missile rack on the roof, here's no reason it couldn't fit 6-8 guys inside.

That's actually not true.

The Skyray trades its transport capacity for generators within as well powering an advanced sensor suite which takes up the majority of the interior.
Remember that the Skyray when originally introduced was a primarily anti-aircraft vehicle.

**Rainyday**

Kanluwen wrote:
That's actually not true.

The Skyray trades its transport capacity for generators within as well powering an advanced sensor suite which takes up the majority of the interior.
Remember that the Skyray when originally introduced was a primarily anti-aircraft vehicle.

Ok, I concede defeat on that point. Unfortunately, GW has already passed up one chance to give it good anti-air, so we still have tau lugging imperial quad-autocannons around for their flyer-shooting needs.

I haven't seen any news regarding the Skyray so far. While we obviously don't have very many details right now, I still think there's a possibility it could remain anti-air in name only. Of course if the new air-to-air flyer has markerlights this would change everything.

**Kanluwen**

Rainyday wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
That's actually not true.

The Skyray trades its transport capacity for generators within as well powering an advanced sensor suite which takes up the majority of the interior.
Remember that the Skyray when originally introduced was a primarily anti-aircraft vehicle.

Ok, I concede defeat on that point. Unfortunately, GW has already passed up one chance to give it good anti-air, so we still have tau lugging imperial quad-autocannons around for their flyer-shooting needs.

I haven't seen any news regarding the Skyray so far. While we obviously don't have very many details right now, I still think there's a possibility it could remain anti-air in name only. Of course if the new air-to-air flyer has markerlights this would change everything.

When the Skyray was introduced, flyers were an Imperial Armour thing and the AA upgrade was 30 points.

With flyers becoming an actual Codex option, it's very likely we'll see the AA upgrade rolled into the Skyray.

**Gifblaur**

We better dang well see SOMETHING for them. I like the model despite what others say about them. Actually there isn't anything about Tau I really dislike except for vespids.....Oh Gak..GW needs to sell more of em I'm sure(because really, who actually owns the things?) so they might be the new uber unit! JK

**Jefffar**

Yeah, I imagine a fair bit of Tau Ragequit if the Skyray doesn't get effective AA capabilities.

More so if effective AA capabilities don't otherwise appear in our codex.

Even more so if there is the sudden appearance of several dedicated Assault units (as opposed to Counter-Assault units)

Considerably more so if the Tau suddenly go full Grimdark.

So yeah, I'm not worried about if th Tau will get a big mecha or not (and I can see the good and bad of that). There are a lot more key aspects of our army's effectiveness and flavour that hae to go right.

**spectreoneone**

Gifblaur wrote:
ooo! How about the Skyray fires it's payload ala Manticore. They look damn similar, why not just get it over with already. And maybe move it to a different slot. I'm tired of not playing with the skyray because I have to bring XV88s to win.

I will start playing Tau again once this new book comes out. In fact I've already started pulling them out of storage to be stripped and repainted(First army, paint jobs were miserable.) I'm tired of rumours and just want my damn book. T.T

You do realize that the Skyray already does indeed fire like the Manticore, in terms of limited ammunition, right? You get six shots with its seeker missiles, and that's it. I also ask, what slot would you put it in? There's a reason it's in the heavy slot (it's not fast, it's not an elite unit, definitely not a troop or HQ, either), and there's a reason that people don't use it. The Skyray has almost no utility in a normal game. Seeker missiles are only S8, single shot, no blast weapons. Add the fact that you have to hit with and expend a markerlight, then roll to hit with the seeker missile itself (I know it's BS5, but it's still an extra chance to fail)just to hit a target...no thank you. To me, it's a no brainer to use the XV88 or Railhead in a match to get more bang for my buck, unless they give the Skyray some sort of AA capability or different variants of seeker missiles. As of right now, the Skyray is merely a way to get the whole Hammerhead/Devilfish sprue, as well as the extra bits from the Skyray sprue at the same value as the Hammerhead (until GW wisens up and charges more for the Skyray kit).

Honestly, I don't see a lot of "Tau ragequit" if they don't give the Skyray AA capability, either. As of right now, it's not exceptionally difficult for the Tau to bring down a flyer with focused pulse rifle fire. That S5 30" range can glance most flyers to death; I know it's not perfect, or as effective as taking something like a quad gun, but it works in a pinch. In the end though, I have faith that GW will give us at the very least a flyer and some sort of AA option for our vehicles or suits. Also, it's the Skyray...most Tau players have already written it off...frankly, I think many folks wouldn't care if nothing happened to it, or if it disappeared altogether.

**FoWPlayerDeathOfUS.TDs**

I know we are supposed to stick to rumors, but wouldn't it be awesome if the turrets were operated as standard tau suits but-
Mobility is made up for in armor, stealth field, and ability to"hunker down"-being almost invulnerable if not firing
You could also do a "hidden deployment" rule, which you right down board coordinates and you can choose to place them there when ever you decide to. (Only soft terrain-its kind of hard to dig in in intact concrete)