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This will be a bit stream-of-consciousness here, so bear with me.

For instance, the Ethereal needs to have a bit more oomph, due to their rareness. Something like:

Greater than Good Every Ethereal is a Warlord. This means that each Etherial gains a Warlord Trait but if any of them are killed, it counts as Slay the Warlord. (You may only get a bonus from Slay the Warlord once per game.) If an Etherial is chosen as your Warlord, he may take TWO Warlord Traits.

A small rework of Markerlights.

1 - Rerolls ones of to-hit this unit.
2 - Ignore the -1 modifier for moving and firing with an assault weapon or a heavy weapon at this unit.
3 - Ignore cover modifiers for this unit.
4 - Ignore all to-be-hit penalties that this unit generates.
5+ - +1 to-hit against this unit.

Seeker Missiles then are changed to "Seeker missiles always hit on a 6+, ignoring all negative to-hit modifiers. In addition, they gain a bonus to-hit equal to the number of Markerlights on the targeted unit. (A roll of 1 always fails, regardless of bonuses.)

Pulse Pistols
Str 4, Pistol 2, no other changes.

Breacher teams all get a Pulse Pistol.
When Fire Warriors exchange Pulse Rifles for Pulse Carbines, they also get a Pulse Pistol.

((This gives the Tau some very teensy boost in melee combat while still fitting into their "Shoot first!" mentality.))



Angelfish (Dedicated Transport)
Stats as per Devilfish, minus 5 points.
Transport of 7 models. (This is why the cost goes down)
Come with Burst Cannon and two Gun Drones. The Gun Drones may be replaced by Pulse Cannons or Seeker Missile Platforms.
An additional Pulse Cannon may be mounted at the tank commander's position.

(This provides the Tau with a middleweight elite transport, akin to the Razorback or Falcon, large enough for, say, a Cadre Fireblade and a small group, but has the option of upgrading firepower. Still not as strong as a Hammerhead of course.)

Lastly ... Pulse Cannons. They need some help.

Compared to the standard Gun Drone, they have the same range, RoF, Str, AP, and Damage, but cost more. They also cannot break off and be a new unit, survive the unit's destruction, etc. Gun Drones are clearly better, so why would you ever take a Pulse Cannon?

So it needs a boost.

What I DON'T know is what the ideal boost would be. Thoughts include:

1- Reducing the cost by 2, 4, 5, or even 6 (!)
2 - Increasing the Range by 12"
3 - Increasing the RoF by 2.
4 - Increasing Strength by 1
5 - Increasing AP by 1.
6 - Increasing Damage by 1.

My current thought is a combination, with +1 Strength and 2 damage, giving it a role in denting tanks but not dominating them, as well as punishing infantryIt's shine as a bike or medium-infantry hunter, but, I dunno.

Just, you know ... brainstorming.

Thoughts?

Devilfish are already pretty overcosted from what I've heard, reducing the points by 5 while cutting 33% of the transport cap isn't going to help.

Not sure what you mean by Pulse Cannons, guessing you mean Burst Cannons. The main advantage Burst Cannons have over Drones is the fact that they can be taken on more useful platforms, and aren't forced to fire at the closest unit. Maybe give them a -1Ap but you can already get that from an ATS so pretty unnecessary.

The only thing I'd want for burst cannons, is an increase in range to 24", probably.

For Ethereals, I'd like to replace their "re-roll 1s to hit" buff with "re-roll 1s to wound" instead. That's really nice when stacked with the other buffs Tau can get, so I'd be willing to pay a bit more to get that.

I'd like it on burst cannons, if you roll a 6, you make an additional attack. The additional attacks cannot generate more attacks. To me, that gives a really "vulcan" feel to the weapon dumping out shots.

And can someone do something to fix kroot? They suck.

Great suggestions, as we are not going to see a codex this year I have done some comparisons to other armies and here were some of my suggestions....

All Suits need a point reduction... literally all of them are overpriced and underwhelming. Why would you point cost a Riptide to the point of not being able to use it... guns are horrible too. BS 3+ as well... these are elite suits.. they should be able to shoot like it!

Drones need some sort of equipment to make them fearless, the concept of them taking wounds is awesome.. but killing one and then losing 2 to a roll of 5 or 6... does not work.

Pathfinders need sniper rifles... as well as negative to hit... which they use to have I believe.

Firewarriors need to be 6 points... and be able to take some different guns?

Hope Fusion blades come back for Farsight! Commanders are decent in combat, not great but a decent weapon would be nice. Least for Farsight Enclaves.

Jump Shoot Jump Strategem... 1 unit 1 command point!

Strategems should be buffed as well for "network combat" kinda like guard where on a 5 plus you can get them back.

Stealth upgrades on .... anything else....

Decent Flyers... again points decrease.

Decent Transport guns... Even a freaking Waveserpents can get a decent gun!

Sorry, getting off my soap box, Tau are a hit and run army, they need to hit strong and then back up, bait you in....

Markerlights need to be fixed as well. 3 hits should give you a +1 bonus.... but can only be done once.. not stackable.

Drop troops? Or some better allies? Kroot need some real help!