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Im a relatively new player of 40k, but ive played quite a few games with my Tau now. I could probably hit 2000pts if I pushed it, but I still only have a single HQ, my Shas'El.

Im looking at getting a second, but im in a dilema. I cant decide whether to get another Crisis commander, or to get an Ethereal.

Now I know ethereals are pretty useless in general, but adding them to a FW team makes them honour guard, boosting their BS. And as they still count as troops (but dont count towards your troop choices in the FOC) I assume they are still scoring? Can anyone confirm this?
The other bonus is that if I leave the Ethereal in front and get him killed asap, them my whole army get Preferred Enemy. Thats pretty sweet.

Or instead of getting a second Crisis commander I could get 2 suits and make a bodyguard for my current commander to buff him up. Is this worthwhile?

If I got my second commander I would probably make him a Fireknife and add him to my current Fireknife team to buff them up.


Any suggestions on the best course would be appreciated. I will probably do all 3 eventually, but I only have the money for on atm.

I don't play Tau, but I have played against several tau players who've used the firewarrior bodyguard for the ethereal and I have to say, I don't fear it.

Because ethereals are so useless, you're essentially paying whatever the points cost of the ethereal is to have +1 to the BS of a unit of firewarriors. Not very points efficient.

Also, with preferred enemy, the combat benefits are pretty useless because you never want to be in combat with Tau. So, you have to decide, is the points cost of the ethereal worth it for the shooting benefits only of preferred enemy?

As an opponent, I'd view the extra suits as a much more serious threat.

Hmm thats a good point I suppose. With preferred enemy, do you get to re-roll the 1's to hit AND to wound? Because thats still fairly decent. Plus 50pts isnt much. Then again, its 50pts for a unit I want to die haha!

Actually, +2 points for a BS 4 makes FW ever so slightly better.

Plus, an Ethereal makes his unit Fearless and allows re-rolls on morale for anyone in LOS. Sounds neat for 50 points.

And as a cherry on top, adding an Ethereal is easy. YOu don't need to build an army around him, just shave some points and slap him in there. Easy peasy.

NOTE: I have yet to use an ethereal in battle, but will try him out once I get a larger army.

Good point too. I forgot about the moral benefits. A lot of my firewarrior squads would be in LOS of the Ethereal too as I tend to create a localised firebase with them unless they are in Dfish of to claim objectives.

 HerbaciousT wrote:

Any suggestions on the best course would be appreciated. I will probably do all 3 eventually, but I only have the money for on atm.

If you can pass Morale test like a pro and like to bring some allies:
- Take the Etheral
- Take some CSM allies, like a Khorne uberlord with Spawns and a CSM squad in Rhino (the Rhino is important!)
- Deployment: place the Etheral in front of the Rhino.
- First Turn: Tank Shock him with the Rhino. Declare Death or Glory what he will automatically fail.
- Pass your Morale Tests and enjoy your Preferred Enemy!

Hmm interesting. the thing is, I dont really want to use allies. Its all well and good, but I started Tau knowing they had sod all CC. And because I liked the style of the army. Playing with allies, I might as well have picked a more balanced style army. I appreciate the suggestions though!

 HerbaciousT wrote:
Now I know ethereals are pretty useless in general, but adding them to a FW team makes them honour guard, boosting their BS. And as they still count as troops (but dont count towards your troop choices in the FOC) I assume they are still scoring? Can anyone confirm this?

They do not. They are a non-scoring HQ unit.


Also, Ethereals are garbage. The leadership bonus is too expensive compared to just buying another unit, giving fearless to a unit is even less efficient than the army-wide boost, and the whole "suicide the Ethereal" plan is just stupid. You spend points on the Ethereal, spend more points on a way to suicide it on turn 1, and then everything has to take a morale check and risk running off the table. This is not even close to efficient compared to just spending all those points on more guns. The only reason to ever do it is to horrify fluff players and hope they ragequit.

Are you sure about the Troop/HQ thing Peregrine? It says in the codex that it counts as a troop choice, but does not count towards the 6 troop slots in the FOC. Surely that means that it is a troop choice, with an attached HQ, so still a scoring unit?

 HerbaciousT wrote:
Are you sure about the Troop/HQ thing Peregrine? It says in the codex that it counts as a troop choice, but does not count towards the 6 troop slots in the FOC. Surely that means that it is a troop choice, with an attached HQ, so still a scoring unit?

Go read the rule again. It says nothing about counting as a troops choice.

If you want an extra damage dealer, go battlesuit.

If you would rather have the ability to re-roll moral and make a unit fearless, take a single ethereal. Best way is to attach to a unit of broadsides that are high up, and keep your army in line. Of course since the broadsides will have shield drones, they are a pain to get rid off.

Going on well over a year with my ethereal that's never died by being used in this way. Helps keep the pathfinders and stuff from running, low leadership hurts.

Don't bother buying the upgraded fire warrior squad, your ethereal is stuck with them, and you don't want your ethereal close to the action.

 AtoMaki wrote:

 HerbaciousT wrote:

Any suggestions on the best course would be appreciated. I will probably do all 3 eventually, but I only have the money for on atm.

If you can pass Morale test like a pro and like to bring some allies:
- Take the Etheral
- Take some CSM allies, like a Khorne uberlord with Spawns and a CSM squad in Rhino (the Rhino is important!)
- Deployment: place the Etheral in front of the Rhino.
- First Turn: Tank Shock him with the Rhino. Declare Death or Glory what he will automatically fail.
- Pass your Morale Tests and enjoy your Preferred Enemy!

As well as giving First Blood to the enemy. If you are going to do this tactic I think there are two things to make sure of; First Blood is already awarded, and have Space Wolf allies. With Wolves as your allies you can have two Divy Priests and put them in two important Tau units to give them Ld10 for the Morale check as well as ATSKNF if they still fail.

 Godless-Mimicry wrote:
With Wolves as your allies you can have two Divy Priests and put them in two important Tau units to give them Ld10 for the Morale check as well as ATSKNF if they still fail.

You can't because Tau and SW are not battle brothers.

Well reading the rules on the honor guard states that they are "normal" fire warrior teams (it does not count as the compulsory choice) but does not take up an additional force org.

No where does it say it counts as troop but I believe it is implied (though whether or not to play it that way should be discussed first or just faqed (which I haven’t checked))

If you look at the honour guard under ethereal you don't just add him to any fw squad to get better stats. You have to buy them to be the ethereal's entourage which makes them all part of the HQ foc choice that is the ethereal. You also have to pay more for these units than you do for normal fw units so you are paying for the boosted bs stat. The body guards for the commander work the same way as far as the foc is concerned. For the body guard you are paying the more expensive cost for 'vre suits and the only benefit is +1 to ws which you don't want to have to use and the ability to pick wargear for any of them. I think you'll find that most people will tell you only to use body guards if you have filled all your elite slots and still want more suits (or for fluff).

You can also make your ethereal jump off of a tall ruin, causing him to fail an impact test, no need to buy a rhino, though I do like the idea of "accidentally" running him over. It's like playing battlefield 3 ha

 Peregrine wrote:

 Godless-Mimicry wrote:
With Wolves as your allies you can have two Divy Priests and put them in two important Tau units to give them Ld10 for the Morale check as well as ATSKNF if they still fail.

You can't because Tau and SW are not battle brothers.

Really? Thought all Marine armies bar GK were BBs with them. Oh well, wasn't a great idea to begin with anyway.

PotionsN'Balms wrote:
You can also make your ethereal jump off of a tall ruin, causing him to fail an impact test, no need to buy a rhino, though I do like the idea of "accidentally" running him over. It's like playing battlefield 3 ha

Except Ethereals have two wounds, so you'll need to jump at least twice to kill it, and probably more since getting an auto-fail on the impact test requires a ruin that's taller than most terrain. So now you have all of the drawbacks of the suicide Ethereal plan (and those drawbacks already make it a stupid idea), but with the added bonus failure that you have to wait until turn 2-3 (or later) to finally get your bonus.

In other words, don't waste points on bad gimmicks. Buy more guns.

 Godless-Mimicry wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 Godless-Mimicry wrote:
With Wolves as your allies you can have two Divy Priests and put them in two important Tau units to give them Ld10 for the Morale check as well as ATSKNF if they still fail.

You can't because Tau and SW are not battle brothers.

Really? Thought all Marine armies bar GK were BBs with them. Oh well, wasn't a great idea to begin with anyway.

Just Codex: Ultramarines and Eldar? are BBs with Tau.

I thought Chaos Marines where Come the Apocalypse! With Tau.

 Peregrine wrote:

 HerbaciousT wrote:
Are you sure about the Troop/HQ thing Peregrine? It says in the codex that it counts as a troop choice, but does not count towards the 6 troop slots in the FOC. Surely that means that it is a troop choice, with an attached HQ, so still a scoring unit?

Go read the rule again. It says nothing about counting as a troops choice.

It says they are chosen as a normal Fire warrior team with +1bs and+2points. A normal Fire warrior team is a troops choice and scoring. So if the veteran are as a normal team why wouldn’t they be scouring? It reads to me as they are troops but do not count towards the 6 troop slots in the FOC.
EDIT: Saying that I never play them as scoring.

Pottsey wrote:
It says they are chosen as a normal Fire warrior team with +1bs and+2points. A normal Fire warrior team is a troops choice and scoring.

A normal fire warrior team is just a unit. Whether or not it is a scoring unit depends on which FOC slot it is chosen from, and/or what special rules modify what counts as a scoring unit, The honor guard unit is chosen from the HQ slot and therefore isn't a scoring unit unless you have a mission special rule/warlord trait/etc that makes an HQ unit scoring.

I like the ethereal with a nice block of kroot with hounds. Makes them fearless, improves Morale via reroll which for tau is a big deal, and is cheap. The Morale boost alone makes him worth it if it prevents even one break check close to the board.

isn't preferred enemy shooting now too? I thought that GW like just FAQ'd that. also as a counter to your ethereal dying you have a second ethereal to reroll failed morale tests, or you have all of your fire warriors in vehicles so that they don't have to take the test

Barrywise wrote:
also as a counter to your ethereal dying you have a second ethereal to reroll failed morale tests

Only works at 2000+ points because you still have to take the mandatory crisis suit HQ, leaving only one slot free per FOC to take an ethereal.

or you have all of your fire warriors in vehicles so that they don't have to take the test

And then you throw away the bonus, since any unit that doesn't take the test doesn't get the bonus.

DevianID wrote:
I like the ethereal with a nice block of kroot with hounds. Makes them fearless, improves Morale via reroll which for tau is a big deal, and is cheap. The Morale boost alone makes him worth it if it prevents even one break check close to the board.

Only it does not actually work. Inspiring Presence specifically excludes kroots.