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So, been playing some 40K with my son, and as I've been running Tau and getting my Space Marine force back into shape, I've been thinking a bit about some of the units. And while I haven't gotten to play yet with my new Centurions, I find myself disappointed in the loadout I'm seeing in the new book. They strike me as terminator-lite units, but at the same time the exosuit their wearing seems like it should offer a lot more options than the what they're given.

I've written up some 'enhancements' for space marine Centurions, a couple options for Missile Launchers, a few options for Tau Fire Warriors to deal with vehicles, the Tau XV6 Intercessor battlesuit (an option for Fire Warrior Shas'ui) and a specialized Tau drone transport.

I was initially going to paste my changes in here, but it looks it would take too much manual formatting to get everything to look right, so I'm just going to include the 2 ½ pages as a PDF attachment. If someone wants to fiddle with repasting it properly into a post, go for it.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome!

Solid changes, but there are some weird ones:
- Siege drills are much better than PFs or CFs. There is very little reason why someone would take them (unless you want to ID Ogryns or other Centurions). Same with the PoLC. The PoLC maybe can stay as a free upgrade.
- The seismic knives suffer from the same problem. I have a strange idea that you think that the siege drill is Unwieldy, but it isn't. Maybe you can replace this option with twin seismic hammers (and thus solving the PF/CF problem too) for +20 points.
- The Skyscream missile is completely useless. Yeah, it has Interceptor but in return you should feel lucky if you can hurt a Flyer with it. If you really want a flakk++ missile option then give missile launchers skyspear missiles (the Hunter's AA weapon) - now we are talking!
- There is already a deathwind missile. Poisoned stuff is usually named hellfire.
- Dreadnoughts should have a pseudo-FnP instead of invulnerable saves. 5+ for normal and ironclad dreads and 4+ for venerable dreads.
- Fire Warriors don't have special weapons because of their fighting doctrine. It is an integral part of their theme and role. An they are pretty strong anyway, the last thing they need is more firepower...
- The XV6 is an odd thing. Its fluff doesn't make much sense (you are either a suit pilot in a suit team or not, no "intermediate level") but I like the concept.

Some good ideas but again, like AtoMaki said.

- There's no reason why you'd take give up the Siege Drills on the Centurions for these weapons. Why would I swap S9 Ap2 Drills for S8 Ap2 Power Fists, even though they're free.
- 20 Points for a Thunder Cannon is a bit much, considering the Limited Ammo rule.
- IMO Devestators don't need Power Fists. This makes them even more expensive and makes the Assault Centurions obsolete.
- Skyscream Missiles are pretty poor against Flyers, and are more expensive than Flakk, which while still pretty bad, are better anyway.
- Shredder and Hellbringer need to be increased in points.
- Not sure why Dreadnoughts need, or have, an Invulnerable save.
- XV6 Battlesuit is a bit odd and unnecessary.
- Why is the Pulse Cannon S8 when all other Pulse Weapons S5, seems like a massive leap in power. Special Weapons aren't part of the Tau's style of warfare.

Thanks for the feedback so far. I'll take what's been said to revise the rules appropriately.

I had not realized the siege drills were so good, but they look so stupid in my opinion that I was never planning to run them with that configuration. I'll go back and modify the H-t-H options for the assault centurions. As for giving devastator power fists, I don't think it will make the assault "worthless"; at first glance, the same sort of option seems available to terminators (storm bolter + power fist vs., say, lightning claw terminators). I do think it would be appropriate to give devestator centurions only ONE power fist instead of two, however.

And I do understand the fire warrior options are pretty much contrary to the fluff - it does seem the Tau have a samurai/ashigaru relationship, where the fire warriors are meant to deal with enemy infantry and the crisis suits deal with the enemy elite/vehicle units.

However, I've noticed in our small games that fire warriors have NO weaponry to deal with vehicles at all (unless I've missed something, possibly under the markerlight rules), and I wanted to put some in - but not try to flat out mimic space marines and their heavy weapons man. I think the XV6 really fits that idea the best and the man-portable weapons less so, but hey - options!

The idea behind the pulse cannon, honestly, was to devise an anti-vehicle weapon statwise first, and then work backward to expain it. However, the fluff idea behind the gun is that it is synchronizing the four shots in rapid succession at a focused point, rather than your typical cyclic fire of a weapon like the burst cannon.

And the statement, "Special Weapons aren't the Tau's style" somewhat confuses me - don't pathfinders have special weapons available to them with the rail rifle and ion rifle options? Why deny such options to Fire Warriors?

As to dreadnoughts, its just struck me as odd that a marine in Terminator armor has the potential to take, say, a Battlecannon hit and have a better chance than a dreadnought to walk away unscathed due to the Invulnerable save. It was a grasp at staws. Other than FNP, do you think it would be appropriate to change them to Monsterous Creatures with an armor & invul save, or is that too wierd/good?

Well if you find your Tau forces have nothing to take out vehicles then there's something wrong in your list rather than something wrong with the rules.

If Devestator Cents could take Power Fists, what possible reason could you have to take Assault Cents, when you can have a Missile Launcher, TL Lascannon and Power Fist, compared to Hurricane Bolter and Siege Drills?

Stormonu wrote:

However, I've noticed in our small games that fire warriors have NO weaponry to deal with vehicles at all (unless I've missed something, possibly under the markerlight rules), and I wanted to put some in - but not try to flat out mimic space marines and their heavy weapons man. I think the XV6 really fits that idea the best and the man-portable weapons less so, but hey - options!

The solution is simple: allow them to take missile drones. Also, FWs can take EMP grenades that fry any vehicle that ventures within 8". Yes, even Land Raiders.

Stormonu wrote:
And the statement, "Special Weapons aren't the Tau's style" somewhat confuses me - don't pathfinders have special weapons available to them with the rail rifle and ion rifle options? Why deny such options to Fire Warriors?

The Pathfinders are actually field-testing those experimental weapons. They are like the tech specialists of the Tau army who get all the shiny toys to have fun. The Fire Warriors are rather "tech-dumb" as they are effectively fresh rookies and by the time they could gain the experience, they either find themselves in a Pathfinder team or in a battlesuit.

The 'Low Ammo' roll on the Thunder Cannon is ridiculous, and it is under the assumption that Space Marines (the silly guys) don't have enough ammo for their engagement? Also, the Hellbringer is incredibly OP. For 5pts, it is now AP3! I'd rather take the missile launchers of plasma cannons thanks.. Much better range. Also, what weapons do the XV6s have? Because from their entry, they don't have any. And, I agree with Valkyrie, the Tau simply don't *need* any more anti-vehicle firepower, with Broadsides, Railheads and Crisis Plasmasuits, Riptides and their new flyers.. You get the message xD

 BrotherOfBone wrote:
The 'Low Ammo' roll on the Thunder Cannon is ridiculous, and it is under the assumption that Space Marines (the silly guys) don't have enough ammo for their engagement? Also, the Hellbringer is incredibly OP. For 5pts, it is now AP3! I'd rather take the missile launchers of plasma cannons thanks.. Much better range. Also, what weapons do the XV6s have? Because from their entry, they don't have any. And, I agree with Valkyrie, the Tau simply don't *need* any more anti-vehicle firepower, with Broadsides, Railheads and Crisis Plasmasuits, Riptides and their new flyers.. You get the message xD

Well the Tau did just get another Battlesuit, the XV107 R'varna, so maybe they do need more downrange firepower.

Mmmmmm... Tau upgrades... Tasty...

Here are many toys to play with, use them, don't use them, I'm not really fussed, fire warriors were never meant to have special weapons and I don't think they will ever get them, but there is space for more interesting loadouts. You can create some interesting pathfinder teams and I would recommend playing around with some of the suggested configurations.

But I still need to stress, your suits are perfectly awesome at vehicle killing and if you have some seekers you can use pathfinders for missile strikes that have unerring accuracy. Take a look at your list.

I'll begin with fire warriors

Fire caste doctrine does not allow for the natural addition of heavy weapons to a squad.
That being said, special equipment has never been disallowed. Time to justify 10pts for a Shas'ui.

Try these much more fluff friendly mods (note only modified options are mentioned, all rules in the codex entry are still in effect);




Pathfinders are in fact the specialist operators of the tau. A common misconception is that they are merely scouts, with the new codex they have been given options to become lethal specialists. In the fluff, pathfinders have a short life expectancy and draw from volunteers.




Now for your intercession suit. It's a nice idea and direction, but it needs to be done more fluffily
I have no idea how well you know Tau suit fluff, but they are classified thusly; the first digit denotes size and class (0-10 have been seen), while the second denotes variants with large modifications for a specific role (1-9 have been seen) and any smaller variations will follow a - .
6 is too large to put with fire warriors, 0 is the perfect size to integrate into infantry squads as is more armour than mech, 2 as a second number denotes that the system is still experimental and -05 is at the end of the crisis enforcer's classification, therefore a small experimental suit for leading a squad could possibly be XV02-05 (well it's more likely than XV6)



And now for all the toys


And now Cadre fireblades because they're cool and I'm on a roll


Suggested configurations


Please question anything you don't see the reasoning behind or disagree with