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 Kingsley wrote:
Tau don't need twenty new units.

Some people would just like new models, even if they are not 'needed.' They are nice to paint and display.

 Kingsley wrote:

Also, all the Tau units are good. The same cannot be said for Tyranids or Necrons. I'd rather have a Codex with a smaller selection of really solid units than one with a large variety of units, most of which are never used by any serious player.

This would be a first from GW. Not all of the units used to be good. The Space pope and Vespids were particularly bad. I would have to take a closer look at the codex to verify your claim, but I am suspicious at best.

@OP: I got some Tau preorders on Saturday. Whatever my FLGS ordered they only apparently got 2 of most things. Me and one of the employees were the only people to get our Riptides. The store employee was offered $100 to sell it at opening time. They were also told they'd not be able to get a restock on Tau items for 3 weeks.

 spaceelf wrote:

 Kingsley wrote:
Tau don't need twenty new units.

Some people would just like new models, even if they are not 'needed.' They are nice to paint and display.

 Kingsley wrote:

Also, all the Tau units are good. The same cannot be said for Tyranids or Necrons. I'd rather have a Codex with a smaller selection of really solid units than one with a large variety of units, most of which are never used by any serious player.

This would be a first from GW. Not all of the units used to be good. The Space pope and Vespids were particularly bad. I would have to take a closer look at the codex to verify your claim, but I am suspicious at best.

Some choices are better than others, yes, but there is no pyrovore or mandrake in the Tau book. The closest is maybe Aun'Shi, who is in my opinion, rather meh.
Aun'Va, space pope, is quite useful now, and Vespids got a decent amount of buffs- extra point of armor, extra 6" on guns, move through cover, stealth ruins, hit and run.

MajorWesJanson wrote:

 spaceelf wrote:

 Kingsley wrote:
Tau don't need twenty new units.

Some people would just like new models, even if they are not 'needed.' They are nice to paint and display.

 Kingsley wrote:

Also, all the Tau units are good. The same cannot be said for Tyranids or Necrons. I'd rather have a Codex with a smaller selection of really solid units than one with a large variety of units, most of which are never used by any serious player.

This would be a first from GW. Not all of the units used to be good. The Space pope and Vespids were particularly bad. I would have to take a closer look at the codex to verify your claim, but I am suspicious at best.

Some choices are better than others, yes, but there is no pyrovore or mandrake in the Tau book. The closest is maybe Aun'Shi, who is in my opinion, rather meh.
Aun'Va, space pope, is quite useful now, and Vespids got a decent amount of buffs- extra point of armor, extra 6" on guns, move through cover, stealth ruins, hit and run.

I would agree with this; Aun'Va looks like a good force-multiplier. I don't think the Vespids will end up being taken often, just because Pathfinders and Flyers will probably take up the FA slots due to markerlights. Vespids don't read as cover-your-eyes-awful; just too situational to be worth it over the other options in the FOC.

All codexes have slots where one or two of the available units are clearly better and get chosen a lot more for competitive games.

 spaceelf wrote:

The new update is also lackluster in comparison to recent xenos releases. With the new codex we got two new units; the riptide and the flyer; and plastic versions of pathfinders and broadsides. There was also finecast Shadowsun and Darkstrider. That is five new types of units total. The nids got Mawloc/Trygon, Tervigon/Tyranofex, Harpy, Pyrovore, Venomethrope, Hive Guard, Parasite of Mortrex, and Doom. That is ten new units. The Necrons got a flyer, Ghost ark/ doomsday ark, Command barge/annihilation barge, Triarch Stalker, Lychguard/Praetorians, Immortals/Deathmarks, Tomb blades, finecast flayed ones, plastic wraiths, plastic spyder, and 8 new special characters. That is twenty new units. I will not even mention the Dark Eldar. GW is upping its release schedule by not releasing as much stuff. The Tau release is like a half release. It sucks, as now Tau players are stuck with the same old stuff for a couple of years.

Necron and Deldar were arguably more in need of new models and major update than Tau. Most of the Tau models are newer than DE/Necron models were, some are much newer, and still up to the standards of modern day, whilst DE needed their entire range done. It was a huge design effort.

Plus, I think GW is somewhat deliberate sometimes with Army updates. They don't want necessarily put all the possible goodies right out of the gates. Lots of people have been expressed disappointment that Tau ally races were undeveloped in the new book, but this is obviously potential big selling point for the 7th edition Codex....

That is true. Both armies were older and more tired than Tau. Both armies finally got a jolly good revision.

Aun'Va, space pope, is quite useful now,

You know he's not an independent character...

I havent looked at the new tau releases until now and its disappointing. They got a bomber and a big suit and one new hero. Thats IT!?. AND the new suit is just a big version of same old tired xv8 design. Really gakky work gw

Several new or revised heroes, three new or revised suits, revised Pathfinders, a bunch of new drones, and a fighter/bomber kit.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Several new or revised heroes, three new or revised suits, revised Pathfinders, a bunch of new drones, and a fighter/bomber kit.

As is evident from ChocolateGork's reply, lots of vets are not particularly interested in the revised releases, as they already have the old models. Thus, the release looks like nothing more than a book and a couple of models. Even including the other models, it pales in comparison to Nids, Necrons, and Dark Eldar.

GW's choice of models to update was questionable. Although the old Pathfinders were metal, you did not need a whole lot of them. If metal was really a problem for you, then you could make some out of fire warriors. Aun Va, on the other hand has a terrible sculpt (take a look at his bodyguards) and could use a revision.

I wonder if some of the shortage in stock is due to the fact that so few different items were released. Thus, anyone who was interested in new stuff had to get the same thing as everyone else.

It also goes to show that a codex update, however lame, gets people buying models. This stuff is nothing more than was released for flyers, or their white dwarf tank supplement. However, I think that it has sold better.

When the first pics leaked, 50% of the comments were: "No new Crisis Suits? This is good news, so I don't have to buy 15 new ones!"

GW lost many thousand sales by this? This is good news, so GW could concentrate on the shortage of the other Tau kits

 Kroothawk wrote:
When the first pics leaked, 50% of the comments were: "No new Crisis Suits? This is good news, so I don't have to buy 15 new ones!"

GW lost many thousand sales by this? This is good news, so GW could concentrate on the shortage of the other Tau kits

Would you really need to buy 15 more though? Unless they changed the base size, i wouldnt see why.

 ChocolateGork wrote:
Would you really need to buy 15 more though? Unless they changed the base size, i wouldnt see why.

Update from Wayland on Facebook - supply issues continue but situation is slowly improving:

Hi everyone, We have some Tau. This represents about 60% of our requirements for most items and about 10% for others. We have more arriving tomorrow and hopefully every day after. Orders are being processed now, please bear with us. The items still in short supply should be here in much larger numbers tomorrow and so should improve things again. Thank you everyone for your patience and understanding.

Here's the situation from Spikey Bits:

Spikey Bits
14 hours ago

Okay so here's the skinny. We have "some" Tau now in stock that's ready to ship.

However we are completely out of Broadsides, Pathfinders, and Fireblade Cadres, BUT we have tons of everything else ready to ship right now!
Liked · 14 hours ago

Okay so here's the skinny. We have "some" Tau now in stock that's ready to ship.

However we are completely out of Broadsides, Pathfinders, and Fireblade Cadres, BUT we have tons of everything else ready to ship right now! http://www.spikeybits.com/servlet/the-Warhammer-40k-cln-Tau/Categories

Seems the new official line is that all new Tau Finecast items are mail order only from now on, after less than a week, because the allotment for stores sold out that fast and they don't intend to stock it up (except orders made in the first week). Not sure if this is a North America only thing currently. Here a chart found on faeit212:

That is actually what has been happening for a while on all new releases, and I expect will continue with each new army release.

(This reflects GW NA, i have no knowledge of the rest of the world).

New models are released for an army:
-All finecast models are a 'splash' release. Meaning we can order them as long as trade sales has them, and then they go direct.
-Trade Sales seems to only have them for a week.

In addition, each month, some of the current blisters become direct only. My 40k blister section is about 1/8th of what it used to be. I expect that within another year I will have no blisters on my shelves at all.

There have been a few all plastic blisters released, like the Nurgle demon Herald. But a dozen blisters don't replace several hundred.

 mikhaila wrote:
New models are released for an army:
-All finecast models are a 'splash' release. Meaning we can order them as long as trade sales has them, and then they go direct.
-Trade Sales seems to only have them for a week.

This is good news, as it frees FLGS of precious shelf space and reduces wear of cashiers. GW: always supporting brick and mortar stores

It looks like the Tau HQ are all going to be direct only. I could understand this being the case before the rerelease of the codex, but now it just makes me wonder. To play their game you need an HQ. If all of the HQs are direct, it takes business away from FLGS. If I were a FLGS I would aggressively push other companies stuff until the GW stuff died of neglect.

Great thing about all of the new Tau HQ..they are easy to convert from plastic kits.

Fits the general theme of artificially reducing potential sales. GW as a publicly owned company must really hate revenue

 spaceelf wrote:
It looks like the Tau HQ are all going to be direct only. I could understand this being the case before the rerelease of the codex, but now it just makes me wonder. To play their game you need an HQ. If all of the HQs are direct, it takes business away from FLGS. If I were a FLGS I would aggressively push other companies stuff until the GW stuff died of neglect.

Command suits are typically made from normal suits. The Cadre Fireblade is also a plastic kit. I believe GW is attempting to phase out Finecast and move to plastic, but isn't quite there yet.

 Kroothawk wrote:
Fits the general theme of artificially reducing potential sales. GW as a publicly owned company must really hate revenue

Well have we not been stating that it looks like the bottom line is to pad the financial reports? Looks incredibly good to the share holders.

The financial report I think is going to look fantastic. They will show a large amount of gross profit since you have to consider the increase amount of product release they are doing.

Not to mention the what was it, 9 licenses for games they've recently handed out. - Though I still suspect that was done mostly because it was to cover up the hobbit failure.

this is like when wii came out, put out less people beg for MOAR and cant wait to get a chance to get it.

 zippo151 wrote:
this is like when wii came out, put out less people beg for MOAR and cant wait to get a chance to get it.

The Wii came out when at a time when the games and accessories were cheap. Now all game consoles are the decline. Reasons I am getting from my contacts are. Video game costs. Increase change in usuage of platform, such as smart phones.

Adapt or die. Just like everything else.

spaceelf wrote:As is evident from ChocolateGork's reply, lots of vets are not particularly interested in the revised releases, as they already have the old models. Thus, the release looks like nothing more than a book and a couple of models. Even including the other models, it pales in comparison to Nids, Necrons, and Dark Eldar.

I'd just like to point out that prior to their most recent Codex, the Necrons entire army was as follows:

HQ
Necron Lord
Nightbringer
Deceiver

TROOPS
Warriors

ELITES
Pariahs
Immortals
Flayed Ones

FAST ATTACK
Wraiths
Destroyers
Scarabs

HEAVY SUPPORT
Heavy Destroyers
Tomb Spyder
Monolith

Also of note is the fact that other than a maximum of 100pts of expensive wargear on the Lord, there was zero wargear or customization with these units. So yes, the Necrons got a lot more new stuff in their codex than the Tau did. However, the Tau also had an entire army already, whereas the Necrons had about half the toys everyone else did.

 azazel the cat wrote:

spaceelf wrote:As is evident from ChocolateGork's reply, lots of vets are not particularly interested in the revised releases, as they already have the old models. Thus, the release looks like nothing more than a book and a couple of models. Even including the other models, it pales in comparison to Nids, Necrons, and Dark Eldar.

I'd just like to point out that prior to their most recent Codex, the Necrons entire army was as follows:

HQ
Necron Lord
Nightbringer
Deceiver

TROOPS
Warriors

ELITES
Pariahs
Immortals
Flayed Ones

FAST ATTACK
Wraiths
Destroyers
Scarabs

HEAVY SUPPORT
Heavy Destroyers
Tomb Spyder
Monolith

Also of note is the fact that other than a maximum of 100pts of expensive wargear on the Lord, there was zero wargear or customization with these units. So yes, the Necrons got a lot more new stuff in their codex than the Tau did. However, the Tau also had an entire army already, whereas the Necrons had about half the toys everyone else did.

The Tau had one more Troop, one more non-SC HQ, and one less Elite . If the Necron was half an army, the Tau were 3/5ths.

Keep in mind that as Codices have crept forward, more and more has been piled on to add to what has already existed; armies before the end of 4th featured considerably less options than what started to come out at that time.