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Hmmm...what about the drones that attach to the fliers?

Remoras are vehicles. You cannot add Coldstar to them.

Sun Shark's drones, on the other hand, are Jet Pack Infantry. However, they can only move 6" in the Movement Phase. It'll be hard for them to keep up.

Ah, oh well. Yeah, coldstar's limited feasibility makes him a lackluster HQ choice at best then. I honestly don't know what the writers were thinking to make such a low T model a flier without even the possibility of ablative wounds to mitigate the fragility. Huh.

So I just visited the US site to check the prices of the new Tau models... what the FRICK.

Three frickin crisis suits with some drones is $150? Since when?

Ghostkeel 150, Stormsurge 295... holy balls.

You sure you were on the US site?

That's either the AUS or NZ site.

 MajorWesJanson wrote:
That's either the AUS or NZ site.

New Zealand. The Crisis Suits are only (only?) $125 in Australia.

This is the 2nd time you've done that in the past 2 weeks McNinja .

Wait, why am I laughing about absurd prices?

True. My browser had somehow switched to NZ...

Still absurd. A ghostkeel should just the cost more than $50 unless it comes with LEDs building and is fully posable.

Isn't it only like a 10 dollar price increase from before? I think the Crisis suit box is the one box that is fine price-wise. Especially with how much more detailed and pose-able it is.

 McNinja wrote:
True. My browser had somehow switched to NZ...

Still absurd. A ghostkeel should just the cost more than $50 unless it comes with LEDs building and is fully posable.

It's usually because the NZ pre-order pages comes up first. People link to them and your browser remembers it the next time you go back.

 agnosto wrote:
Ah, oh well. Yeah, coldstar's limited feasibility makes him a lackluster HQ choice at best then. I honestly don't know what the writers were thinking to make such a low T model a flier without even the possibility of ablative wounds to mitigate the fragility. Huh.

Aha! You made the assumption that the people at GW know the rules! When you forge the narrative rules like grounding checks are secondary.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious what the GW design team's intent was behind the coldstar; you're supposed to pick it up and swoop it around the table while making flying noises, and all of your opponents models that get knocked over during its "flight" are removed as casualties.

Narrative.

Honestly though, I'm surprised more people aren't foaming at the mouth about it and calling it broken as gak just because it's in the Tau codex. "Leave it to Tau to break all the rules again, giving themselves FMCs that aren't even real MCs! It'll murder my poor Guardsmen with its 6 twin-linked S5 shots and has a tank-busting missile pod for my chimeras, TOO?! NEW ELDAR!"

Yeay for buying the new Tau at 30-35% off I am very eager to start building Tau again. I still have the first few WD from they were originally released, oh the memories.

 Eldarain wrote:

 McNinja wrote:
True. My browser had somehow switched to NZ...

Still absurd. A ghostkeel should just the cost more than $50 unless it comes with LEDs building and is fully posable.

It's usually because the NZ pre-order pages comes up first. People link to them and your browser remembers it the next time you go back.

That's the second time I've seen him confuse AU/NZ prices for US prices in this thread alone, so my bet is he's forgotten already.

Can't wait for my codex to ship out Too bad there's hardly anywhere to play while I'm in SK :(

 Deathklaat wrote:
Yeay for buying the new Tau at 30-35% off I am very eager to start building Tau again. I still have the first few WD from they were originally released, oh the memories.

where are you getting that kind of discount?

 mazik765 wrote:

 Eldarain wrote:

 McNinja wrote:
True. My browser had somehow switched to NZ...

Still absurd. A ghostkeel should just the cost more than $50 unless it comes with LEDs building and is fully posable.

It's usually because the NZ pre-order pages comes up first. People link to them and your browser remembers it the next time you go back.

That's the second time I've seen him confuse AU/NZ prices for US prices in this thread alone, so my bet is he's forgotten already.

Can't wait for my codex to ship out Too bad there's hardly anywhere to play while I'm in SK :(

Oopsie doopsies.

Crisis suits are $75, Ghostkeels are $75, Riptides are $85, Stormsurges are $150.

Despite being less than AUS/NZ prices, they're still ridiculous, especially considering I could get 6 small gundam converge models for $30 on amazon. In fact, I could replace every battlesuit model with a gundam model for %50 of the cost of a GW army. Hell, I could buy a gold-plated gundam for $299 and use it as a Ta'unar and have saved money compared to the real Taunar model.

Those Gundam models, especially the Master and Perfect Grades, are an absolute delight to assemble and work with. They make Games Workshop plastic models look like dinosaurs in comparison.

Multiple colors on one sprue. No glue required. Fully pose-able. Obviously, the same techniques wouldn't work with 28mm scale infantry, but the vehicles and larger models could be amazing.

Half of my "Crisis Suits" are converted Gundam Converge models. One of my Riptides is a Master Grade unit... the one with the giant rotary cannon. If you throw on a few Tau bits and paint to match the rest of your army, most people won't say a word.

 Sidstyler wrote:
Yeah, it's pretty obvious what the GW design team's intent was behind the coldstar; you're supposed to pick it up and swoop it around the table while making flying noises, and all of your opponents models that get knocked over during its "flight" are removed as casualties.

Narrative.

Honestly though, I'm surprised more people aren't foaming at the mouth about it and calling it broken as gak just because it's in the Tau codex. "Leave it to Tau to break all the rules again, giving themselves FMCs that aren't even real MCs! It'll murder my poor Guardsmen with its 6 twin-linked S5 shots and has a tank-busting missile pod for my chimeras, TOO?! NEW ELDAR!"

Still don't have my book but if he is listed as an actual FMC then he can join units of riptides and ghost keels now right? Maybe that was why they limited some of his wargear. Can he pick up any sig systems?

 Fishboy wrote:

 Sidstyler wrote:
Yeah, it's pretty obvious what the GW design team's intent was behind the coldstar; you're supposed to pick it up and swoop it around the table while making flying noises, and all of your opponents models that get knocked over during its "flight" are removed as casualties.

Narrative.

Honestly though, I'm surprised more people aren't foaming at the mouth about it and calling it broken as gak just because it's in the Tau codex. "Leave it to Tau to break all the rules again, giving themselves FMCs that aren't even real MCs! It'll murder my poor Guardsmen with its 6 twin-linked S5 shots and has a tank-busting missile pod for my chimeras, TOO?! NEW ELDAR!"

Still don't have my book but if he is listed as an actual FMC then he can join units of riptides and ghost keels now right? Maybe that was why they limited some of his wargear. Can he pick up any sig systems?

ICs of any variety can't join units that have any MCs in them. So, no. He can't join units of Riptides of Ghostkeels. No IC can.

 Fishboy wrote:

 Sidstyler wrote:
Yeah, it's pretty obvious what the GW design team's intent was behind the coldstar; you're supposed to pick it up and swoop it around the table while making flying noises, and all of your opponents models that get knocked over during its "flight" are removed as casualties.

Narrative.

Honestly though, I'm surprised more people aren't foaming at the mouth about it and calling it broken as gak just because it's in the Tau codex. "Leave it to Tau to break all the rules again, giving themselves FMCs that aren't even real MCs! It'll murder my poor Guardsmen with its 6 twin-linked S5 shots and has a tank-busting missile pod for my chimeras, TOO?! NEW ELDAR!"

Still don't have my book but if he is listed as an actual FMC then he can join units of riptides and ghost keels now right? Maybe that was why they limited some of his wargear. Can he pick up any sig systems?

As far I know, he cannot join any MC units. He also does not have any access to sign systems, which means no Iridium, which means a stray bolster or Las gun hit and he has a good chance of dying instantly.

 Orock wrote:

 Deathklaat wrote:
Yeay for buying the new Tau at 30-35% off I am very eager to start building Tau again. I still have the first few WD from they were originally released, oh the memories.

where are you getting that kind of discount?

thecardogre over @ Bartertown

http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=267053&p=486544#p486544

subscribe to his newsletter and you can get emails of his current sales.

Excuse me, but what is Coldstar?

Crisis variant, built for space warfare. In game it's a commander upgrade, that makes it a FMC (without the rules like alpha strike, smash, ect.) but locks it's weapons to a 6 shot burst cannon and a missile pod.

 Stormonu wrote:
Excuse me, but what is Coldstar?

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Tau-Empire-Commander-2015


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit variant is covered in fins which streamline it, allowing super-fast movement across the theatre of battle, annihilating enemies with sharp shocks from its burst cannon. The on-board holophoton countermeasures and telemetry suites feed the Coldstar and its Commander pilot a massive variety of information that would overwhelm the untrained mind - instead, in this case, it allows the Coldstar Battlesuit to soar over its foes with a grace that enemy targeting systems simply cannot hope to catch.

 krazynadechukr wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:
Excuse me, but what is Coldstar?

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Tau-Empire-Commander-2015


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit variant is covered in fins which streamline it, allowing super-fast movement across the theatre of battle, annihilating enemies with sharp shocks from its burst cannon. The on-board holophoton countermeasures and telemetry suites feed the Coldstar and its Commander pilot a massive variety of information that would overwhelm the untrained mind - instead, in this case, it allows the Coldstar Battlesuit to soar over its foes with a grace that enemy targeting systems simply cannot hope to catch.

Well, until he's against Broadsides with railguns and velocity trackers

I know this isn't news but thought it might interest a few people while we wait for the weekend's release/pre-orders to appear.

A very cool series of Ghostkeel conversions by a user over on Advanced Tau Tactica

http://advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?p=299647#p299647


I particularly like what this guy has done with the shoulder mounted weapons. I think it would work particularly well for the fusion collider. The more regular Battlesuit looking heads work really well too.

Okay, so I got the new crisis suits today, and the kit is not as amazing as I was lead to believe. GW's idea of "unprecedented posability" is apparently the same style of ball joints that the old suits had on the shoulders and hips. Again, "unprecedented"...

The ball joints have the same style of tabs on them that the larger suits have, so they're meant to be assembled in certain "stock" poses, but you can cut the tab to rotate the joint freely...but the knees still aren't posable. The leg is basically one long piece with the thigh armor designed to fit over it, and then the ankle glues into the foot. There are at least three different sets of poses though, so you can still get a great deal more variety with them than you could with the old kit, and it may still be possible to cut and convert them into even more poses like some already were doing with the old kit, but I was expecting riptide-level of posability so I'm a little let down by that. The arms are the same way, too; they're in fixed positions, but you get different sets that you can mix and match to get more variety. The torso does indeed seem made to pivot, though; there's essentially a large ball joint there and I imagine you can get a pretty wide range of movement with that, so that's a pretty big deal and probably makes up for the rest. Also, the jet packs seem "posable" too, as there's a hole in the torso and a straight peg on the jet pack that plugs into that, so it seems likely that you can turn them one way or another if you wanted, though I obviously haven't assembled one to try this for myself yet.

It comes with the weapons it's advertised with; 4 plasma rifles, 4 fusion blasters, 3 missile pods, etc. The missile pods are kinda neat, they have a lot more detail than the old ones did, including a new bit that looks like some kind of targeting lens, but it looks as if they're meant to be mounted on their sides now, instead of sitting flat on the shoulder/arm like before. The burst cannons are apparently meant to fit on one arm or the other, there seems to be two "lefts" and two "rights" in the kit but I'm not sure how exactly they fit. It doesn't look like they can be underslung and it seems as if they only go on one way, which is kinda lame since I liked how it looked if you used the side tabs to mount it to the arm. I thought that was just how the 'Eavy Metal team chose to glue theirs on, but that's apparently the only way they go on, and in my opinion it doesn't look so good because the gun is quite large and sticks out quite a bit like that. Other than that I love the detail in the new kit; all the different heads, the subtle variations in the torsos, and there's a ton of new detail added to lots of parts that were very plain and boring before (one of those rare cases where a kit actually needed all the detail that GW is obsessed with nowadays, and only serves to make the kit more interesting as opposed to cluttering it up); even the jet packs vary, with the large, gold gyros sitting in different positions on them as if to indicate they're spinning or something. The bottom of the feet even have grooves in them as opposed to being perfectly flat, sort of like a Space Marine's boot. I love the design of the new legs, probably my favorite part of the new kit (despite not being posable at the knees as I was hoping). They actually have a rounded surface that sorta matches the new fire warrior leg armor now. I was always disappointed with this before on the old kit, since the 'Eavy Metal models made it look like the old legs were rounded from certain angles but the actual kit was straight, flat, and kinda boring.

Overall I'm still pretty happy with the kit. I have some issues with it, but it's a huge improvement over the old kit regardless, and I feel it's definitely worth the extra $10 (though it can be argued the models were overpriced to begin with, like all GW kits). In any case I imagine they'll make you more friends than riptides and ghostkeels will, so...

EDIT: Oh yeah, the painting guide sucks. I guess that's why it was only $20...it literally only has two schemes in it; the standard ochre T'au scheme and the (in my opinion crappy) version of the Vior'la scheme that they've been showing you how to paint in the White Dwarf, which is nowhere near as good as the 'Eavy Metal team's way of painting Vior'la. The color plates aren't great either, they kinda show you some different team markings/designations but it's nowhere near as detailed as what I wanted. And there's an advertisement in the back for the new decal sheets, with no real explanation as to what any of the vehicle warning/hazard signs or any of the other symbols or markings on the sheet actually mean.

GW released another super expensive WEB order only formation:

So the iBook codex just became available, had a quick skim through it, seems pretty much as described, effectively Tau 6.5 plus formations. So, nothing to write home about, but not a problem either.

Except for one thing, the artwork accompanying the Stormsurge is absolutely laughable. It's that same MS paint style that they've been using for the colour scheme diagrams (which are at least a little better executed in this one than the SM codex), but used for a "dynamic" battle scene. What a way to try to sell your great new LoW GW! It's frankly embarrassing and I can't believe any company would want to put that in a professional publication.