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 Agamemnon2 wrote:
gak, just give every army other than the basic Imperial Guard some rough riders, why not. Genestealers and AdMech already have them, after all.

Well, while some IG rough riders would be cool, Guard has more than twice as many separate units (many building multiple kits) in the webstore than AdMech and GSC taken together, not to mention far more datasheets and variety in the Codex than both those other books taken together.

And that's not even counting the insanely deep pool of units/models IG can draw on from FW, which exceeds the units/models available for all Xenos 10+ times over.

Unlike the bloat of Marines, this is shrinking and expanding factions in a healthy fashion IMO.

So when do the leaks for this PA books usually start?

Looks like the book is going up for preorder this weekend, so probably one today and two more before Friday.

Soonish, probably tomorrow or wednesday.

That's actually one of the best value SC sets I've seen. No new GSC player would be remiss in buying 3.

Leave the standard bearer as a standard bearer in one.

Convert the standard bearer to a Primus in another.

Convert the standard bearer to a Kelermorph in the third.

Heck, maybe get four. that is exactly the box GSC need as a building block to their army. The iconward is awesome for this, because he can be easily subsumed into the acolyte box if needed and you can use one of the other bodies to convert more HQs.

Any confirmation yet if this SC set is £60 like the other recent ones?

Sunny Side Up wrote:

 Agamemnon2 wrote:
gak, just give every army other than the basic Imperial Guard some rough riders, why not. Genestealers and AdMech already have them, after all.

Well, while some IG rough riders would be cool, Guard has more than twice as many separate units (many building multiple kits) in the webstore than AdMech and GSC taken together, not to mention far more datasheets and variety in the Codex than both those other books taken together.

And that's not even counting the insanely deep pool of units/models IG can draw on from FW, which exceeds the units/models available for all Xenos 10+ times over.

Unlike the bloat of Marines, this is shrinking and expanding factions in a healthy fashion IMO.

That deep pool of FW has gotten a lot shallower in recent years, and I expect it will eventually drain entirely. At the time of writing there's still 51 FW products available for them, including books, bundles and the like. The range has certainly much diminished from its glory days. On the plastics front, the presence of so many multikits does warp the numbers a bit, since there's IIRC 10 different builds from the Baneblade box and all of them have separate webstore entries.

But no, I don't actually begrudge AM and GC getting new units that much. I just find it amusing that new Rough Riders have been something that's been talked about by IG players on and off since 1998 or so, and now they've officially been squatted while similar units pop up for two unrelated factions. For GSC's mobile insurgency schtick they were at least a plausible design path to go down.

 xttz wrote:
Any confirmation yet if this SC set is £60 like the other recent ones?

We'll usually see the prices on Mondays or Tuesdays. We haven't seen them yet.

Previews-wise? We'll see a Psychic Awakening short story today, the first preview of The Greater Good today and then we'll see them through the week.
I'm expecting to see four previews--Guard, Tempestus, Genestealer Cult, Tau and not necessarily in that order.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 xttz wrote:
Any confirmation yet if this SC set is £60 like the other recent ones?

We'll usually see the prices on Mondays or Tuesdays. We haven't seen them yet.

Previews-wise? We'll see a Psychic Awakening short story today, the first preview of The Greater Good today and then we'll see them through the week.
I'm expecting to see four previews--Guard, Tempestus, Genestealer Cult, Tau and not necessarily in that order.

We've seen the prices for the new AT stuff, so retailers have the details now. I was asking in case someone had the 40k ones and didn't post them because they were unremarkable.

Short story is up:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/02/03/psychic-awakening-in-harmony-restored/

That story was awesome. God, how much I've missed reading a story without a seemingly omniscient, invulnerable protagonist.

It would be really cool to see Gue'vesa rules, but I feel like the "rules" part of this PA book will most likely conveniently take place after the purging.

still, this made me wish I still had my Vostroyans so I could make a custom mission to play out this battle.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/02/03/the-greater-good-shadowsun-strikesgw-homepage-post-1/
Shadowsun’s rules article

Stuffing her in stasis so she can 'keep alive' the teachings of another commander is really bizarre.

If that's their main concern... maybe she should teach at the Tau stealth academy? Or some such thing? That's generally how you pass on command and leadership strategies. Putting the only person who knows them on ice seems counter productive. [And she's the only one who knows them..?]

Not really impressed with the dispersed fusion blasters, but I do like the longer range on the high output variant.

I thought it might be a bit much to hope for that she'd get the generic <SEPT> keyword but as I'm likely to run her ina Sa'cea detachment she wouldn't lose too much anyway.

Voss wrote:
Stuffing her in stasis so she can 'keep alive' the teachings of another commander is really bizarre.

If that's they're main concern... maybe she should teach at the Tau stealth academy? Or some such thing? That's generally how you pass on command and leadership strategies. Putting the only person who knows them on ice seems counter productive. [And she's the only one who knows them..?]

She's not remotely the only member of the Fire Caste to train under Puretide. O'Kais, O'Shova and O'Shaserra were just the best three.

Voss wrote:
Stuffing her in stasis so she can 'keep alive' the teachings of another commander is really bizarre.

If that's they're main concern... maybe she should teach at the Tau stealth academy? Or some such thing? That's generally how you pass on command and leadership strategies. Putting the only person who knows them on ice seems counter productive. [And she's the only one who knows them..?]

Puretide had multiple students, Farsight and Shadowsun being only the most prominent two. They also downloaded the contents of his brain before death and used it with an AI and a hologram to carry on teaching.

the_scotsman wrote:
That story was awesome. God, how much I've missed reading a story without a seemingly omniscient, invulnerable protagonist.

I like the short story, really good.
But a couple of questions to people with Tau knowledge.

Ok, fine. But the article literally says that she is put in stasis to keep his teachings alive.

Upon the death of Commander Puretide, O’Shaserra was placed into stasis so that his teachings could live on for future generations.

So, the question is still 'why do that?'

Danny76 wrote:

the_scotsman wrote:
That story was awesome. God, how much I've missed reading a story without a seemingly omniscient, invulnerable protagonist.

I like the short story, really good.
But a couple of questions to people with Tau knowledge.

Spoiler:

Do they have a habit of doing that to their allies? I don’t really remember much of this, ore that they take anyone in.

Was it just because of what he said, the slip of the tongue?
I mean they killed all the Kroot too, so it can’t have just been an imperial ‘superstition’ that the Tau mentions..

Could be fear of genestealer infestation (though they wouldn't be fighting the cultists if that were true)
But they definitely just had the protagonist turn the greater good into a superstitious religion. He just subbed in the new words and didn't change his thinking at all. [He was doing the mental equivalent of 'science curse you' at several points]
Unclear why they'd
It ties into the previous story, but doesn't give any whys or wherefors.

Voss wrote:
Stuffing her in stasis so she can 'keep alive' the teachings of another commander is really bizarre.

If that's their main concern... maybe she should teach at the Tau stealth academy? Or some such thing? That's generally how you pass on command and leadership strategies. Putting the only person who knows them on ice seems counter productive. [And she's the only one who knows them..?]

Well, they wanna keep the character around despite having moved the timeline forward a couple hundred years since 7th Ed. now with the big rift-thing, primaris being introduced and going out into the universe, etc.., etc..

And Shadowsun doesn't have Farsight's magic/daemon sword to simply give her longevity.

Voss wrote:

So, the question is still 'why do that?'

For the same reason the Imperium uses rejuve treatments on important people. To keep them around.

Voss wrote:
Ok, fine. But the article literally says that she is put in stasis to keep his teachings alive.

Upon the death of Commander Puretide, O’Shaserra was placed into stasis so that his teachings could live on for future generations.

So, the question is still 'why do that?'

The article paraphrases badly. It's to keep the best students of the undisputed best tactician the empire has ever had available for when needed, like when an Ork Waagh invades.

Sterling191 wrote:

Voss wrote:

So, the question is still 'why do that?'

For the same reason the Imperium uses rejuve treatments on important people. To keep them around.

Except rejuve actually keeps them around, not puts them in a box where they can't teach or do war.

Sunny Side Up has what's probably the actual explanation- keeping a special character in game (and not retire them), but fluffwise its rather gibberish.

Voss wrote:
Ok, fine. But the article literally says that she is put in stasis to keep his teachings alive.

Upon the death of Commander Puretide, O’Shaserra was placed into stasis so that his teachings could live on for future generations.

So, the question is still 'why do that?'

Danny76 wrote:

the_scotsman wrote:
That story was awesome. God, how much I've missed reading a story without a seemingly omniscient, invulnerable protagonist.

I like the short story, really good.
But a couple of questions to people with Tau knowledge.

Spoiler:

Do they have a habit of doing that to their allies? I don’t really remember much of this, ore that they take anyone in.

Was it just because of what he said, the slip of the tongue?
I mean they killed all the Kroot too, so it can’t have just been an imperial ‘superstition’ that the Tau mentions..

Could be fear of genestealer infestation (though they wouldn't be fighting the cultists if that were true)
But they definitely just had the protagonist turn the greater good into a superstitious religion. He just subbed in the new words and didn't change his thinking at all. [He was doing the mental equivalent of 'science curse you' at several points]
Unclear why they'd

Spoiler:

kill the kroot.

It ties into the previous story, but doesn't give any whys or wherefors.

The tau have almost no presence in the warp but the same cannot be said of their allies, i’m betting those guys were fourth sphere survivors who saw the warp and the entity of the greater good created among others by the gue’vesa.

Voss wrote:

Except rejuve actually keeps them around, not puts them in a box where they can't teach or do war.

Neither does Tau stasis. When they need someone, they wake them up. When they're not needed, they're back on ice.

It's not that complicated.

Voss wrote:
Ok, fine. But the article literally says that she is put in stasis to keep his teachings alive.

Unclear why they'd

Spoiler:

kill the kroot.

It ties into the previous story, but doesn't give any whys or wherefors.

Did they though? I didn't read the previous story but to me it read like . Could go either way, I guess?

Danny76 wrote:

the_scotsman wrote:
That story was awesome. God, how much I've missed reading a story without a seemingly omniscient, invulnerable protagonist.

I like the short story, really good.
But a couple of questions to people with Tau knowledge.

Spoiler:

Do they have a habit of doing that to their allies? I don’t really remember much of this, ore that they take anyone in.

Was it just because of what he said, the slip of the tongue?
I mean they killed all the Kroot too, so it can’t have just been an imperial ‘superstition’ that the Tau mentions..

Danny76 wrote:

the_scotsman wrote:
That story was awesome. God, how much I've missed reading a story without a seemingly omniscient, invulnerable protagonist.

I like the short story, really good.
But a couple of questions to people with Tau knowledge.

Spoiler:

Do they have a habit of doing that to their allies? I don’t really remember much of this, ore that they take anyone in.

Was it just because of what he said, the slip of the tongue?
I mean they killed all the Kroot too, so it can’t have just been an imperial ‘superstition’ that the Tau mentions..

This is a new plot development for the Tau survivors of the 4th Sphere Expansion attempt. Long story short, basically they opened a giant warp tear that sucked in their fleet and they were trapped for some time in the warp, where the psychic auxiliaries of their fleet (ie., pretty much all of them, including humans) drew daemons from the warp and I presume there was lot of possession and f'ed up warp shenanigans going on before the surviving Tau were spat out by what is implied to the nascent warp entity of the collective psychic gestalt of the Greater Good created by Tau auxiliaries like humans. So this understandably traumatized the remnants of the 4th Sphere Expansion, who now basically keep all auxiliaries at arm's length and only trust fellow T'au. They are more or less the first crack in the Tau's naivete regarding to their all inclusive approach to the Greater Good.

The Fire Warriors that killed the auxiliaries were almost definitely 4th sphere survivors. Events similar to what happened in this short story are actually called out in the codex as something that the leadership in the Tau empire is concerned about and they basically are court marshaling any fire warrior caught doing this to their allies on the battlefield.

 Esmer wrote:

Spoiler:

Yet no, as he staggered and stared around he could see more T’au firing upon shocked Gue’vesa as they emerged from cover. Nearby, he heard the crack of Kroot rifles and the alien mercenaries’ harsh shrieks as their former allies butchered them.

This is rather weirdly phrased, as it can mean either the Tau butchering the Kroot or the Kroot butchering the Gue'vesa.

Yeah, its not clear. I think the Tau are killing the kroot and the kroot are returning fire, but it could be that the kroot are also Order 66ing the Gue'Vesa and shrieking out war cries.
Still, good to see that the Tau are no longer goody two shoes and do consider their "allies" to be expendable if the Greater Good commands it.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

 Esmer wrote:

Spoiler:

Yet no, as he staggered and stared around he could see more T’au firing upon shocked Gue’vesa as they emerged from cover. Nearby, he heard the crack of Kroot rifles and the alien mercenaries’ harsh shrieks as their former allies butchered them.

This is rather weirdly phrased, as it can mean either the Tau butchering the Kroot or the Kroot butchering the Gue'vesa.

Yeah, its not clear. I think the Tau are killing the kroot and the kroot are returning fire, but it could be that the kroot are also Order 66ing the Gue'Vesa and shrieking out war cries.
Still, good to see that the Tau are no longer goody two shoes and do consider their "allies" to be expendable if the Greater Good commands it.

Yeah, it's the kind of plot progression that best fits 40k tbh, the larger Tau Empire as a whole doesn't follow that mentality so it's not like there's a drastic change in their original approach, but it's showing that as the Tau expand further into the galaxy, their creed is being tested and challenged, thus evolving as result.