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So upon reading the 8th ed character thread just now it got me to thinking about my army (Tau) and how 8th won't really make much difference to the army. Although I don't like saying it, it might even buff Tau (a bit with some assumptions).

Tau doesn't care about combat so walking away and allowing other units to shoot is a blessing.
Markerlights have some cover related function. Given cover is possibly more necessary in 8th with armour modifiers (or less if only infantry effected) this might mean Tau get better shooting or can more easily ignore markerlights.
Characters might not be able to be easily targeted and provide area buffs (ethereals do this already and don't really want to be targeted).
Tau weapons (if still majority s5) will be able to wound more easily against big threats.
4+ armour might be more useful (might not make any difference).
Target locks no longer needed = saved points.
Likely to have one of the most powerful weapons in the game Railgun.
Broadsides might be able to move and shoot with minor inconvenience (-1 on TL isn't so bad).
Sniper drones are BS5 presently (if sniping characters is a thing).
Units are rarely huge therefore morale issues might be minimal.

So far overall I feel like 8th is definitely favouring Tau (from what I know). More of a sidestep than a massive boost or nerf.

But trying not to turn this into a Tau hate thread or anything (we can do that separately if you want) what impacts do you think it's going to have to your army and what armies are going to gain/lose most from it?

I have a feeling Space Marines are going to lose out the most overall. Their characters are much more squad focused and losing out on deepstrike (or it changing) might impact their alpha strike ability.

I think Tyranids will be big winners in this edition if tyrants (and other synapse) are characters, plus possibly better MCs.

I expect my Ravenwing to take a significant hit. The fact that it's easier to wound T5, along with only having a single save, will drastically reduce the survivability of my bikes.

I'm expecting a trend toward the middle; accordingly, Eldar, SM, Daemons, AdMech and DA will probably lose the most, while Orks, DE, Harlequins, Tyranids, Sisters and Guard probably stand to gain the most.

My gut feeling is that Tau won't get much weaker or stronger on balance but will be better balanced internally (not Codex: Riptide and Stormsurge). They'll probably retain their niche as a gimmick-buster force, which will probably tick a lot of people off.

I am anticipating Eldar to remain a top army, but hopefully not so clearly "the" top army.
We know that Eldar will continue to be fast and they have the widest variety of units of most other armies. Some units might get nerfed, but plenty of others will surely get boosts.
D might not exist, but Distort weapons will surely cause Mortal Wounds.
Eldar will still have the tools to build really good lists

My hope is that they will 1) be balanced enough to shut people up (unlikely) and 2) still be competitive enough to bring to tourneys.
But I am not holding my breath that they will get both (or that people will agree that they got both).

-

jade_angel wrote:
I'm expecting a trend toward the middle; accordingly, Eldar, SM, Daemons, AdMech and DA will probably lose the most, while Orks, DE, Harlequins, Tyranids, Sisters and Guard probably stand to gain the most.

My gut feeling is that Tau won't get much weaker or stronger on balance but will be better balanced internally (not Codex: Riptide and Stormsurge). They'll probably retain their niche as a gimmick-buster force, which will probably tick a lot of people off.

Absolutely, they're still not going to win friends.

Another thought was daemons, if they still have invuln saves they're going to be a bit of a stand out plus summoning more daemons is surely still a thing it only just got introduced.

 Galef wrote:
I am anticipating Eldar to remain a top army, but hopefully not so clearly "the" top army.
We know that Eldar will continue to be fast and they have the widest variety of units of most other armies. Some units might get nerfed, but plenty of others will surely get boosts.
D might not exist, but Distort weapons will surely cause Mortal Wounds.
Eldar will still have the tools to build really good lists

My hope is that they will 1) be balanced enough to shut people up (unlikely) and 2) still be competitive enough to bring to tourneys.
But I am not holding my breath that they will get both (or that people will agree that they got both).

-

Eldar deserve to be average for an edition. They've had it too good for far, far too long. I suspect this will not be the case, but that's what they deserve.

I really want Eldar, vanilla SM and Tau to all be good but not hyperpowered to the point of automatic dominance unless you nerf yourself. Solid, mid-tier to at most upper mid-tier, thereabouts.

I'd also like Dark Eldar to not be automatic defeat. Like, a lot. I like Dark Eldar, but I haven't played them in an aeon: at least my Sisters can still win from time to time.

Martel732 wrote:

 Galef wrote:

Spoiler:

I am anticipating Eldar to remain a top army, but hopefully not so clearly "the" top army.
We know that Eldar will continue to be fast and they have the widest variety of units of most other armies. Some units might get nerfed, but plenty of others will surely get boosts.
D might not exist, but Distort weapons will surely cause Mortal Wounds.
Eldar will still have the tools to build really good lists

My hope is that they will 1) be balanced enough to shut people up (unlikely) and 2) still be competitive enough to bring to tourneys.
But I am not holding my breath that they will get both (or that people will agree that they got both).

-

Eldar deserve to be average for an edition. They've had it too good for far, far too long. I suspect this will not be the case, but that's what they deserve.

I don't disagree. But as you said and as I was eluding to, it's probably not gonna happen. Eldar will still be good-to-great
And unlike you who truly seems to grasp that average would be ok, most anti-Eldar players will not be happy unless Eldar are worse than Dark Eldar currently are.

-

They aimed the game to be more balanced and tested it with tournament organizers / players so expect all top tier tournament builds and all armies using elements of them to suffer a lot and expect most of your shenanigans to no longer work. Lower tier armies will probably be buffed. Not sure how it will unfold for those who loved to use templates.

i am expecting to see some changes to the Rubric Marines.

Such great models and the consensus that they are overpriced, not efficient with flamers and too many models needed for an expensive heavy weapon will hopefully be addressed.

I also want Magnus to have synergy with his legion.

I heard they are going to preview Rubric Marines later in the week.

Fingers crossed.

 Boniface wrote:

jade_angel wrote:
I'm expecting a trend toward the middle; accordingly, Eldar, SM, Daemons, AdMech and DA will probably lose the most, while Orks, DE, Harlequins, Tyranids, Sisters and Guard probably stand to gain the most.

My gut feeling is that Tau won't get much weaker or stronger on balance but will be better balanced internally (not Codex: Riptide and Stormsurge). They'll probably retain their niche as a gimmick-buster force, which will probably tick a lot of people off.

Absolutely, they're still not going to win friends.

Another thought was daemons, if they still have invuln saves they're going to be a bit of a stand out plus summoning more daemons is surely still a thing it only just got introduced.

They mentioned summoning on their Facebook. I think you have to set points aside for units you're summoning

I heard that's how summoning works in AOS.

Is it basically like a deep strike now, I set aside points for Pinks and they deep strike at the appropriate time?

I understand why we would pay for summoning, as to not spam free units, just wondering how it is going to work.

I also hope my 1000 Sons can summon screamers pretty easily. They were all over the Wrath of Magnus animated video.

I'm worried about Nurgle Daemons. With the Cover changes, I do NOT want them to simply have 4+ armour across the board. That'd help (a tiny bit) against Rend 0 weapons, but be absolutely useless against anything with a Rend value.

jade_angel wrote:
I'm expecting a trend toward the middle; accordingly, Eldar, SM, Daemons, AdMech and DA will probably lose the most, while Orks, DE, Harlequins, Tyranids, Sisters and Guard probably stand to gain the most.

My gut feeling is that Tau won't get much weaker or stronger on balance but will be better balanced internally (not Codex: Riptide and Stormsurge). They'll probably retain their niche as a gimmick-buster force, which will probably tick a lot of people off.

As a harlequin player, most of the rules mentioned so far are significant nerfs for us. Fixed to-hit in melee, chargers always go first, invulnerables can be bypassed, overwatch still exists along with random charge distance, and your opponent can walk away from combat in their movement phase and hit you with a round of small arms fire from one of their other units while you stand in the open like a lemon, which, while possibly not so much of a problem for many assault armies, would be absolutely devastating to us as we are now - all of this is bad for us.

I'm assuming the special rules will mitigate all of this somehow, but the general rules given so far by geedubs do not look kind to my murderclowns.