New Tau Codex - April 6'th [Pics, Video and Prices in OP]

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**tetrisphreak**

I see necron allies in my tau tournament future for a couple cheap flyers and haywire crypteks.

**gr1m_dan**

Don't forget Nova charged Heavy Burst Cannon ;-) surely 12 shots will end up with some 6s for rending?

To be honest I am looking forward to the challenge of dealing with AV14 (not that I face hardly any) by not spamming XV88. In fact I have only ever used a max of two suits in a game and always done fine.

The Riptide is frighteningly fast for how big it is and what it can do. I think my first few games will consist of rampaging across the table and using him as a massive distraction unit whilst hopefully dealing some hurt.

(I did read that it is assault cannon right?)

**tetrisphreak**

gr1m_dan wrote:
Don't forget Nova charged Heavy Burst Cannon ;-) surely 12 shots will end up with some 6s for rending?

To be honest I am looking forward to the challenge of dealing with AV14 (not that I face hardly any) by not spamming XV88. In fact I have only ever used a max of two suits in a game and always done fine.

The Riptide is frighteningly fast for how big it is and what it can do. I think my first few games will consist of rampaging across the table and using him as a massive distraction unit whilst hopefully dealing some hurt.

(I did read that it is assault cannon right?)

Monstrous creatures are relentless.

**gr1m_dan**

So will be able to fire regardless of weapon...nice!

**boy wonder**

The fireblade has split fire.. so he can shoot his ML at something else hitting on a 2..then your pathfinders use that ML to fire their ML's at BS 4

then whichever unit has a ton of dakka uses all those ML hits to be BS lots and remove cover.

fun times ahead...

**lordofthegophers**

SonicPara wrote:
lordofthegophers wrote:
Sorry, what was the problem?

$255 for 3 suits, 6 drones.

Sure the Riptide is great; it has to be to get people to spend that absurd amount of coin.

I actually got a decent deal from Wayland Games, they were £35 ($53) each with their pre-order deal. Sadly they have no stock so I have to wait

Therion wrote:
Now take three Riptides.

If I built a Tau army right now there's no question I'd take three Riptides. Not only are the models fantastic (and heavily convertable/modifieable) but seem absurdly hard to kill. Tons of T6 wounds with a 2+ save, cover and invulnerable saves and FNP on top of it all. Drones too if you insist on gathering as many eggs in the same basket as you can. I think the most reasonable way of dealing with Riptides is somehow assaulting them since they are garbage in close combat and can't leave it like vehicles can, but it'll be easier said than done considering their mobility and that other Tau stuff will get on the way.

You know, they're not terrible in combat. Monstrous Creatures always strike at AP2, so the Riptide can actually pose a threat to terminators and the like. Three attacks hitting on 4+ isn't great, but hey, you're wounding most stuff on 2+ and negating armour saves. On the downside he's WS2, so anything WS5 or better the Riptide is hitting on 5+. Better than a kick in the balls though right?

**boy wonder**

its good against tanks that cant fight back

**gr1m_dan**

The way some folks are reacting to the new Codex I think they'd prefer a kick in the balls.

Saturday can't come quick enough.

**tetrisphreak**

It's probably better to nova charge the thrusters when enemies start closing in, if you sense a charge coming. The riptide is wasted locked in cc, whether he is being killed or not he isn't shooting.

**MechaBeast**

boy wonder wrote:
The fireblade has split fire.. so he can shoot his ML at something else hitting on a 2..then your pathfinders use that ML to fire their ML's at BS 4

then whichever unit has a ton of dakka uses all those ML hits to be BS lots and remove cover.

fun times ahead...

Im pretty sure markerlights cannot benefit from markerlights

**Backfire**

gr1m_dan wrote:
The way some folks are reacting to the new Codex I think they'd prefer a kick in the balls.

New codex IS kick in the balls (well not all of it, but some aspects are).

I'll be buying the book, but unless it contains something meaningful which hasn't been revealed yet, it's mostly for the fluff. I only play friendly games anyway, might be I'll be sticking with the old book for them.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

MechaBeast wrote:

Im pretty sure markerlights cannot benefit from markerlights

Actually it's not explicitly forbidden either in the new entry(though it's probably just an oversight).

**lordofthegophers**

tetrisphreak wrote:
It's probably better to nova charge the thrusters when enemies start closing in, if you sense a charge coming. The riptide is wasted locked in cc, whether he is being killed or not he isn't shooting.

I agree! I'm not saying you should go charging your Riptide into combat

just if he does end up there for whatever reason there's a good chance he'll put up a decent fight.

Using the fusion blaster to pop a heavily armored transport, then using the 4D6 thrust move to get away seems like it will be a common tactic.

**Therion**

You know, they're not terrible in combat. Monstrous Creatures always strike at AP2, so the Riptide can actually pose a threat to terminators and the like. Three attacks hitting on 4+ isn't great, but hey, you're wounding most stuff on 2+ and negating armour saves. On the downside he's WS2, so anything WS5 or better the Riptide is hitting on 5+. Better than a kick in the balls though right?

Well that's better than nothing, but my point was that any assault specialist unit (like Wraiths) will kill the Riptide without any trouble, so it'll be a question if the assault troops can reach their targets or not. Shooting it isn't a points efficient solution considering the T, wounds and saves. How does the Riptide move? 6" in the movement phase and 2D6/4D6 in the assault phase with the thrusters after shooting?

**Lukez**

Does anyone know what happened to the new battleforce? Did that turn out to be false or can we expect it in a later wave?

**Salacious Greed**

Hulksmash wrote:
boy wonder wrote:
do we know for a fact that drone controller covers ALL drones in a squad?

Pictures above include the drone controller rule:

"All Gun Drones, Marker Drones, and Sniper Drones in the same unit as a model with a drone conroller use the bearers Ballistic skill instead of their own. If a unit contains several Drone Controllers, use the highest ballistic skill amongst the bearers."

This is assuming the missile drones are considered a sub-type of gun drone. If not then the markerlight thing will still be awesome.

Oh, and the sniper team is silly with all the snipers being BS5 thanks to the marksman and his controller.

So, if the missile drone falls under 'gun drones', would this be true:

Drones fire at the BS of the Drone Controller. If Drone Controller has Skyfire, he fires at full BS at flyers, so now drones would fire at full BS at flyers in that unit?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

tetrisphreak wrote:
I see necron allies in my tau tournament future for a couple cheap flyers and haywire crypteks.

I would also add a Destroyer Lord with 6 Wraiths for the assault Deathstar, and put some fear in your opponents....

**McNinja**

So... if the Bomber only generates bombs on a D6 roll of 2-6... that basically means that on a roll of 1 you wasted that many points on a flyer that is almost entirely useless for a turn. Man, I can feel the cinematic already.

**warboss**

MechaBeast wrote:
boy wonder wrote:
The fireblade has split fire.. so he can shoot his ML at something else hitting on a 2..then your pathfinders use that ML to fire their ML's at BS 4

then whichever unit has a ton of dakka uses all those ML hits to be BS lots and remove cover.

fun times ahead...

Im pretty sure markerlights cannot benefit from markerlights

Are the tau borrowing from the thing about not crossing the streams from Ghostbusters?

**airmang**

McNinja wrote:
So... if the Bomber only generates bombs on a D6 roll of 2-6... that basically means that on a roll of 1 you wasted that many points on a flyer that is almost entirely useless for a turn. Man, I can feel the cinematic already.

The bomber does have 3 other weapons (if the drones are still attached), possibly 5 counting seeker missiles.

**Beast**

McNinja wrote:
So... if the Bomber only generates bombs on a D6 roll of 2-6... that basically means that on a roll of 1 you wasted that many points on a flyer that is almost entirely useless for a turn. Man, I can feel the cinematic already.

Yeah man... Forge that narrative! :-)

**McNinja**

airmang wrote:
McNinja wrote:
So... if the Bomber only generates bombs on a D6 roll of 2-6... that basically means that on a roll of 1 you wasted that many points on a flyer that is almost entirely useless for a turn. Man, I can feel the cinematic already.

The bomber does have 3 other weapons (if the drones are still attached), possibly 5 counting seeker missiles.

While you are entirely right, the point of my post was that a bomber has a chance to not drop bombs. This may be a balancing mechanic to compensate for the fact the bombs it drops are not One Use Only, but that is easily fixed by adding "the Bomber can only drop four bombs per game" or something akin to that. Instead, we get to forge the dickens out of the narrative with grand cinematic dice rolls that are entirely pointless.

**Lucarikx**

From what we've seen... I'm definitely gonna use X3 6(?) man squads of Deathrains suits!

Lucarikx

**spears**

It looks like whilst you can use markerlights on overwatch this will only be of use to networked markerlights.
"markerlight counters last until the end of the current phase or until they are used"

**Savageconvoy**

So here is a quick question. Might of skipped over some things. What is stopping me from taking a gun drone squad, swapping out for markerlights and shield drones and attaching it to an HQ suit with a drone controller?

Also what's the weapon on the Sniper drone teams? I don't remember seeing it listed.

**Trasvi**

Is the Riptide immune from having its missile drones sniped away and then running off the table from 25% casualties? Riptide is going to be 220+ points all told.

Lots of things look a bit cheaper at face value, but most upgrades look a bunch more expensive to take.

Neuroweb system jammer looks... interesting. But its a unit within 12", which significantly increases the danger you're in. I guess that's why it's 5 points only.

A big squad of marker drones seems like it could be very interesting. If you set it up right with supporting fire, you could have a full squad of firewarriors firing 4 shots each of BS5 overwatch.... Do we have the actual supporting fire rule text yet?

**Rented Tritium**

Independant marker drones are going to be too hard to hit with. Much better will be marker drones with a higher BS dude carrying a drone controller.

**Maelstrom808**

spears wrote:
It looks like whilst you can use markerlights on overwatch this will only be of use to networked markerlights.
"markerlight counters last until the end of the current phase or until they are used"

Unless you are getting to overwatch with multiple units. One drops marker lights, the other squads increase their BS with them.

**spears**

Yup that works too.

The sniper drone weapon is the x 5 one.

**davou**

jazzpaintball wrote:
Anbutou wrote:
I honestly have no real answer for what I'm going to do about the loss of my XV-88's in their real role. I used them as exactly what they are there for, in a vehicle heavy MEQ area, I needed that s10/1 reliable shooting, without it, it doesn't matter how many fusillades of missiles I can send down at them, it won't help.

Running helios suits just puts you in danger when the other player now knows you have to come to him to handle him. The hammerhead is literally the worst anti-tank tank in the game. You bring it when you need to lay down templates, not when you're actually going to use that solid shot. Hell, I use them as bait. Guys that don't quite understand what's going on tend to focus on that hideously large gun knowing that pushing tanks into my lines kills them, so I just run it up and get them going for it.

The missilespam XV-88's are going to be fun, but I would still take the (10/1)railguns on at least 2/3 in the squad, simply because they're versatile killing machines. They're either the death of equipment, or they're still solid shots at dangerous targets. Reliable in pretty much any role that's not blob army types (in which cases I would field hammerheads).

The biggest problem here is that the tau lack a real av14 killer now. Sure, you could bring hammerheads, and you could bring three, and then on average you could score hits that MIGHT equal 1.5 hull points per turn, if you're lucky. AV14 isn't usually concerned too greatly about 1.5 per turn, especially if they have multiple of them. Overcharging a suit to get s9 shots is a terrible idea, that's why we had the 10/1 railguns, because we had no s9/2 or 8/2, it was mid range MEQ and long range Anti-AV. Giving us the option to skyfire at a -2 strength would have been more than enough, they didn't need to "buff" the hammerhead by pulling the teeth out of our XV-88's.

I am glad I am not the only one seeing this problem...

Melta guns, Power gauntlet, EMP grenades, Railguns, deep striking, Mega suit..... Some people just like to pretend their butts hurt even when they dont

**Prodigalson**

I believe that MC's are fearless, so it won't run.

Also, is there any possibility in the book that the tau vehicles come with multitrackers as well? I read the skyray, and it corrued to me, that if it moves (and get's the skimmer save), it can only fire one markerlight, and the other is snap fire. That isn't so good. The same way with the hammerhead. If I move it at all, I can just fire the railgun, and can't use the smart missile system except on snap fire.

Looks like I will be getting a defense line to stick them behind for the 3+ cover save and not moving. I would just prefer to be a movement force, and not allowing the vehicles to at least move 6 and fire their guns is sad.

**Savageconvoy**

Also noticed the Hammerhead has Twinlinked burst cannons now vice two. That's kinda disappointing. At least it helps with the moving and shooting part of it.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
So what about the Neuroweb jammer on stealth suits? It seems logical that you put them in close and in terrain, forcing the enemy to either move away, fire weapons with gets hots, or try and take down the stealth suits. Just for fun throw the gauntlet on one of the stealth suits as well. I can see that being a hassle for back field units like devastators and such.