8th Edition Tau

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**Verviedi**

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/05/15/warhammer-40000-faction-focus-tau-empire/

The T’au* are known currently for their deadly firepower and mobility. They utilise advanced Battlesuits to level blistering volleys of smart missiles and energy weapons into the enemies of the Greater Good. Riptides particularly–often seen in the Riptide Wing formation–are a common site. The combination of resilience and firepower is a potent cocktail that has left many a pair of smoking boots where once a foe stood. Those that do survive the fusillade to cross the battlefield must withstand the T’au’s other shooting phase, otherwise known as Supporting Fire with overwatch. However, those intrepid warriors that make it through all of that often strike the physically weaker T’au down, as melee is certainly not their forte….apart from the stomps dished out by the Stormsurge. That guy certainly never skipped leg day in the gym!

How do T’au play in new Warhammer 40,000? Will they still be the kings of ranged warfare?

Well, let’s start with the biggest and baddest suit in their arsenal, the Stormsurge. This beast of a suit currently terrorises the tables and will continue to do so in the new Warhammer 40,000, albeit in different ways. The Stormsurge has amazing firepower with its 10 weapons…and yes, I said 10 weapons, each of which can fire on a different target. The Anchors currently allow the Stormsurge to shoot twice, but in the new edition, this has been changed to a more reasonable (but still powerful!) +1 to hit in the Shooting phase, which works great when paired with one Markerlight hit on a target, allowing any T’au unit to reroll 1’s when firing on that unit. BS 3+ and re-rolling 1’s with 10 ranged weapons is enough to render most units to smoking ash. The Stormsurge also has the Walking Battleship special rule which allows him to Fall Back from combat and still shoot, while also ignoring the penalty for moving and shooting heavy weapons. Stormsurges will remain a solid choice in the new edition.

The XV8 Crisis Battlesuits are next up on the docket. I consider these suits to be the iconic T’au unit, and the firepower from these guys will be very impressive. Very impressive indeed. They each can take 3 weapons (which again, you can fire all of them!). May I recommend a flamer plus two other weapons of your choice? My preference is dual missile pods for that lovely AP-1 and D3 damage per shot! The flamers give you nasty Overwatch defence, as they auto-hit incoming units that charge within their range. They can also be used offensively to clear objectives.

A unit of three Crisis Suits paired up with Markerlights will bring down even large vehicles relatively quickly. Multiple Crisis Suit units also work well together since supporting fire is still around, now called “For the Greater Good.” All those flamer hits from multiple XV8s into a charging unit is extremely powerful and will stop some of the strongest assault units dead in their tracks. Oh, and did I forget to mention they have the Fly keyword? This allows them to Fall Back from combat and still shoot at full effect. Brutal! I am loving how these guys play, and they will be scattered all across the tables in T’au armies.

Lastly, I want to talk about Sniper Drones. When paired with the T’au HQ’s such as the Cadre Fireblade they will bring down those pesky support characters with deadly efficiency even if they are hiding behind their infantry. The 48″ range on their Sniper weapons, plus their fast movement, means they will be filling those characters with lead (or plasma?) a lot faster than snipers from other factions. They will be a truly deadly force in your army that will strike fear in opposing characters. Have a look at their datasheet, here:

Overall, the T’au will play relatively similarly to how they do now. They will have a lot more tricks up their sleeves and you’ll see a wider variety of units on the board than you currently do. They’ll catch a lot of people off guard with some of their cool special rules and tactical flexibility. Stop resisting and join the Greater Good, today.

Come back on Wednesday for some insights on the insidious Drukhari.

*A few of you might have noticed that the galaxy’s newest empire have gained an apostrophe in their title “T’au” – think of it as a punctuation drone. We still pronounce it the same way though.

Hooray for Crisis Suit changes, I'll use even more of them now. Also, that "Walking Battleship" rule is just MEAN.

**Luciferian**

Ugh, first they're revealing a new faction of marines that are what marines always should have been, and now they're buffing Tau and adding an apostrophe to their name. Today was not a good day in the world of 8th edition reveals.

**TheLumberJack**

Sounds good! But I'm sad there is no mention of auxilary army choices. I want to see a buff to kroot or some hint that they are getting more models and rules. But still very interesting and I am excited

**Verviedi**

Luciferian wrote:
Ugh, first they're revealing a new faction of marines that are what marines always should have been, and now they're buffing Tau and adding an apostrophe to their name. Today was not a good day in the world of 8th edition reveals.

How do you know that they're buffing Tau as a whole?

**Roknar**

Tbh they sound broken as hell oO. Remains to be seen what how they really do, but they sound like their shooting tripled at least and they can't be locked in melee after an even stronger overwatch than before AND they can freely murder characters if buffmanders are still a thing.
On a sidenote, they have a "Sept" keyword. That's a really really good sign...I hope.

**Luciferian**

Verviedi wrote:
Luciferian wrote:
Ugh, first they're revealing a new faction of marines that are what marines always should have been, and now they're buffing Tau and adding an apostrophe to their name. Today was not a good day in the world of 8th edition reveals.

How do you know that they're buffing Tau as a whole?

Battlesuits being able to split fire all of their weapons each phase and fall back from CC with no penalties are pretty brutal buffs.

**Verviedi**

That is, if they survive CC at all. We don't know enough to start complaining yet. Why would GW address nerfs in their PR docs?

**John Prins**

The Sniper drones lose their spotter?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Luciferian wrote:
Battlesuits being able to split fire all of their weapons each phase and fall back from CC with no penalties are pretty brutal buffs.

It looks like JSJ is gone, though, so Battlesuits will be eating more firepower from the enemy rather than jumping behind cover.

**Robin5t**

The Stormsurge also has the Walking Battleship special rule which allows him to Fall Back from combat and still shoot, while also ignoring the penalty for moving and shooting heavy weapons.

Can they just, you know, not?

Because that would be great. Thanks.

**mfranks985**

As someone who has not played his Tau army in at least 6 months, I'm NOT happy about this. Tau did not need a buff.

I know we are seeing things in a "rules vacuum", but I just cannot see how buffing Tau is a good thing. On a good note, maybe I will finally be able to sell them....

**3orangewhips**

I hate to be negative, but not enough to not do it.

Once again, the mighty T'''''au get to ignore rules at a whim. The "huge" penalty for falling back? Forgotten.

While I think they will be more manageable than before, and we haven't seen their points, which is a critical component, I just feel... uneasy about them in general.

The whole point of a shooting army is that they are vulnerable to getting charged. Not the T'''''au it seems.

**Tautastic**

Triple MP suits O_O or triple fusion suits!!! Probably will be 100 pts a pop LOL
Though one "nerf" is it seems 1 ML will only reroll 1's...Maybe 2 ML reroll 1s and 2s? HAHA probably not.

**Talamare**

8" movement on Drones...

Woah

**Da-Rock**

Talamare wrote:
8" movement on Drones...

Woah

but 5+ to hit without a spotter is rough.

**Giantwalkingchair**

Ughhhhh, looks like I'll be boycotting games against this stupid army again.

**Da-Rock**

Giantwalkingchair wrote:
Ughhhhh, looks like I'll be boycotting games against this stupid army again.

If that is your answer....most likely people don't enjoy playing in your group.

Gotta love when people collapse instantly at anything other than, "Tau were removed from 40k". I've played since 1985's Rogue Trader. Every edition and codex release that adds or changes "standard" game concepts, people throw their hands up.

**MagicJuggler**

Giantwalkingchair wrote:
Ughhhhh, looks like I'll be boycotting games against this stupid army again.

People thought nerfing summons would bring balance to 40k.

It's just how people thought nerfing Orks was a sign GW was going to make 7th a more balanced game, before they introduced Scatpacks and mass D-weapons for Eldar.

GW doesn't do balance. GW does favoritism.

**Talamare**

Da-Rock wrote:
Talamare wrote:
8" movement on Drones...

Woah

but 5+ to hit without a spotter is rough.

Aka... no changes?

**Peregrim**

Talamare wrote:
Da-Rock wrote:

but 5+ to hit without a spotter is rough.

Aka... no changes?

The change is there's no spotter.

**Jbz`**

Peregrim wrote:
Talamare wrote:
Da-Rock wrote:

but 5+ to hit without a spotter is rough.

Aka... no changes?

The change is there's no spotter.

He'll still be around.
He'll just be a "separate" unit that makes the sniper drone team(s) better

**Traditio**

Sounds like another edition of me refusing to play against Tau armies.

**Da-Rock**

Traditio wrote:
Sounds like another edition of me refusing to play against Tau armies.

This really is starting to make me feel better about not playing at gaming stores and tournaments.......The Millennial crying would drive me insane! Sounds like a lot of people will be doing other players a real service by not playing them.

**G00fySmiley**

I hope tau become more fun to play against, currently even a win is... ell i made it to the gunline time to krump it. if i had played objectives I would have been tabled so i had to charge... hope they make the mobile troops part of tau more pronounced. I would love to see more breachers and fire warriors in devilfish screamin around hitting objectives and not just 2 min units for points or now with better snipers probably just kroot

**Sgt. Cortez**

Well, it simply means I won't leave my power weapons at home when playing against Tau this edition, as I have to kill them in one go and can't hide in CC now.

**G00fySmiley**

Da-Rock wrote:
Traditio wrote:
Sounds like another edition of me refusing to play against Tau armies.

This really is starting to make me feel better about not playing at gaming stores and tournaments.......The Millennial crying would drive me insane! Sounds like a lot of people will be doing other players a real service by not playing them.

meh is it bad to not play a fun game? if you bring a list without a riptide wing and a stormsurge i would gladly play it, but have no desire to face that to wipe out my orks again and again. i have seen tau done fun but they were not particularly strong firblade, fire warriors, c0ot and a few crisis and stealth suits plus a hammer head (good match for orks though, it was a blast ended in a tie)

*add**

i should add the riptide wing/ stormsurge thing I once got tabled top of turn 1 by tau as orks... ie there was literally nothing i could have done. ignored all cover, blew my battlewagons (3) opened up trukks, and decimated everything inside. what was left ran... is it being a whiny millennial to say ... no thanks no desire to repeat. (person sore winner to like saying how bad my army did like I somehow had any answer to what he brought, nothing in my codex could have changed a thing)

**Roknar**

Anybody remember that scene from The big Bang Theory where they argue about how to pronounce warlords of ka'a? So do we now have [T] [ow] instead of the one word it used to be?

**Kanluwen**

Jbz` wrote:
Peregrim wrote:
Talamare wrote:
Da-Rock wrote:

but 5+ to hit without a spotter is rough.

Aka... no changes?

The change is there's no spotter.

He'll still be around.
He'll just be a "separate" unit that makes the sniper drone team(s) better

That's an assumption based off a comment that the GW Facebook made.

For all you know, it's that Drone Controllers now make it so that there is a bubble where the Drones within it can use the Controllers' BS provided they don't shoot.

In general, I think it's way too early to declare the sky falling one way or the other.
Crisis Suits being able to retreat from a combat with no penalty might be tied to more than just the "Fly" keyword(notice they didn't say that Sniper Drones could do that, despite having the same "Fly" keyword), but rather a new version of Darkstrider's ability that lets his unit fire Overwatch and then retreat.

**Mud Turkey 13**

Roknar wrote:
Anybody remember that scene from The big Bang Theory where they argue about how to pronounce warlords of ka'a? So do we now have [T] [ow] instead of the one word it used to be?

The end of the article says that it is still pronounced the same way.

**Gamgee**

People thought I was crazy for not getting a game as Tau at my local store. feth all the gak holes here man. Who will be banned from playing games next? I know lots of whiners follow up Tau with Eldar. Are Nu-Marines next?

**Roknar**

Eh, GW says a lot ^^