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We all know the Tau were inspired by mecha anime. I personally used to hear a theme from Robotech in my head every time I saw one of their models. But what if those models had a darker side, as the latest Tau codex suggests? What if, for instance, the dangerous and unstable "dark matter"-fueled Nova Reactor on the XV104 Riptide were actually powered by something daemonic?

In that case, what you'd end up with would be less like Gundam Wing and more like another 90's "mecha" anime. Specifically, Neon Genesis Evangelion.


Nova Reactor -- Alternate Rules

You must declare if the pilot is going to attempt to use the reactor at the start of each of your Movement phases. If you choose to do so, roll a D6. On the roll of a 2, something has gone wrong -- the Riptide Shas'vre suffers a single Wound with no saves of any kind allowed and the attempt fails.

On a roll of 1, something goes disastrously wrong. Immediately roll on the Perils of the Warp table, with the following modifications:

If you roll "Mental Purge," randomly select one of the Nova Charge abilities to be disabled.

If you roll "Power Drain," deplete both players' Warp Charge points even though it is not the Psychic phase.

If you roll "Dragged into the Warp" and fail your Leadership test, your opponent may immediately summon one Lord of Change, Bloodthirster, or other Daemon worth at least as many points as you spent on the Riptide, to replace it on the table. If they choose to do so, all units within 6" of the warp vortex that summons it take d6 Strength 6 AP1 hits. Otherwise, only the remaining models in the Riptide's unit do.

End rules block


This is obviously highly experimental, especially since I do not own any Chaos Daemon models or rulebooks. I think something like it might make for an interesting game, though, if both you and the other player are okay with it! For best results, do not use an Earth Caste Piloting Array with your Daemontide.

To make things even more interesting, you could jury-rig some kind of Warp Charge rules and say that activating the Nova Reactor counts as manifesting a psychic power. Then your opponent could try to Deny the Witch, as well as score victory points for killing an enemy "psyker." Conversely, successfully activating the Nova Reactor might count as manifesting a psychic power for that objective. This idea favours the Tau, since it's a lot easier to roll a 3-6 than it is to bring down a Riptide, so you might want to tweak it a little. Or a lot.

What do you all think?

First of all, I really like it. Perhaps it could be a different kind of nova reactor altogether?


Or, if we do the alternate rules for Nova Reactor, give it another option to choose:


Berserk Mode
This model gains the Daemon, Rage, It Will Not Die, and Rampage special rules. During the assault phase, When it uses a Smash attack, if it hits with at least 2 of its attacks, it rips apart whatever it was attacking. Count the Strength of the hits as D.

 Quintinus wrote:
First of all, I really like it. Perhaps it could be a different kind of nova reactor altogether?


Or, if we do the alternate rules for Nova Reactor, give it another option to choose:


Berserk Mode
This model gains the Daemon, Rage, It Will Not Die, and Rampage special rules. During the assault phase, When it uses a Smash attack, if it hits with at least 2 of its attacks, it rips apart whatever it was attacking. Count the Strength of the hits as D.

Maybe that could be the result of rolling a 6 on the Perils of the Warp table. ^^ I was imagining it being an Evangelion-style berserk mode anyway. Plus the emphasis on melee would discourage Farsight players from taking the ECPA with their Daemontides.

maybe making it an upgrade option.

Say its like 35 points, and makes it primary weapon nova charge, also grant the riptide +1 BS. The ripple fire option lets the riptide fire his secondary weapon 4 times with gets hot, his shield option gives him +1 FnP (if no FnP save, its a 6+), But he must re-roll succesful saving throws of 6, and the 4D6 jetpack is actually a 24" move in the assault phase with a re-reroll succesfull Dangerous terrain checks that are failed on a 1 or 2.

the riptide will still have the option to use the other ones if the player wants.

would be fun.

happy wargaming,

-Mikey

 Jewelfox wrote:

 Quintinus wrote:
First of all, I really like it. Perhaps it could be a different kind of nova reactor altogether?


Or, if we do the alternate rules for Nova Reactor, give it another option to choose:


Berserk Mode
This model gains the Daemon, Rage, It Will Not Die, and Rampage special rules. During the assault phase, When it uses a Smash attack, if it hits with at least 2 of its attacks, it rips apart whatever it was attacking. Count the Strength of the hits as D.

Maybe that could be the result of rolling a 6 on the Perils of the Warp table. ^^ I was imagining it being an Evangelion-style berserk mode anyway. Plus the emphasis on melee would discourage Farsight players from taking the ECPA with their Daemontides.

Oh snap, that's a cool idea. What if instead if you rolled a 4-6 on Perils of the Warp table, you become permanently Berserk Mode.

It is a nice idea all together.


But to fit it into the fluff of the Tau will be hard. When Tau jump across space, they do not enter deep enough into the Warp to experience the presence of Chaos. Meaning that conventional Tau septs would not come across idea to utilize that kind of mental/astral power (like Eldar did).
The only who could fluff that kind of Nova Reactor in would be the Farsight Enclaves. They are mysterious as it is, they are on their own and they may be more prone to Influences of Chaos.


And, if your Nova Reactor manifests as use of Psychic ability, that you should move all of its traits, rules and steps to psychic phase. - referring to 'pilot must decide at the start of the movement phase'.

Nice idea, might lead into a chaos-style Tau army... I see posts on Dakka all the time asking about the likelihood of a chaos taint within the Tau.

The fluff might not fit with it, but the fluff also states that the Tau take in all kinds of useful auxiliary aliens. Perhaps one of those could manifest a chaos taint and the infection could spread from there. A friend of mine fields chaos cultists as Gu'vesa and his Tau has plenty of spikes.

Personally I like the tau because of their good guy persona.they don't dabble in the warp, they don't have corruption. They fight for 'The Greater Good'. Adding Daemonic powers into the Riptides would ruin that.