Hey everyone, Reecius here from Frontline Gaming to discuss the rumored Tau release and some of the things I’d like to see happen.
Tau sound like they are coming soon, which is great! Tau bring a unique aesthetic to the game, and a cool play-style. It will be exciting to see what we get with the new release. Tau came out of the gates swinging with their last book, bringing some crazy firepower and faction specific special rules to the game. Here’s a list of some of the changes I’d hope to see in a Tau book to make it more enjoyable to play with and against.
Supporting Fire alone allowed the Tau to Overwatch with more force than many armies could muster in their shooting phase! It’s a bit much, to be honest and I’d love to see this reduced to 1 unit may support one other unit. Getting blasted by multiple units of Broadsides, often at increased BS, before charging is just the pits for many armies. Now, I know what some folks are saying, what about Deathstars? Well, a true Deathstar is so durable with rerolling saves, FnP, Invisibility, etc. that it doesn’t matter. Really what we’re left with is a rule that smushes anything but the most durable units but has little impact on them. It’s a bit too lopsided to be a good rule.
A way to deal with Deathstars. To be fair to Tau, they really do need a way to punch through ultra-durable deathstar units. Many of them came about as a direct reaction to how hard it was to actually get across the table and engage Tau back in early 6th ed. So, if you follow my logic that Supporting Fire should be toned down, you also need to provide a way for Tau to fight back vs. these ultra durable units to make games fun and fair for them. Ranged D is somewhat of a solution if you are good at rolling 6’s or have a lot of it, a la Eldar, but do we really want more of that in the game? I don’t.
Melee D and Stomps are much more reliable due to the increased volume of dice involved, but we know that goes against the Tau design philosophy. So instead of trying to solve the issue with pure firepower which math tells us won’t resolve the issue vs. reroll saves+FnP+Buffs, etc., and only serves to further obliterate those armies that don’t have reroll saves. It’d be cool to see an ability for Tau to negate some of what makes Deathstars so hard to kill without exponentially hurting those armies without these abilities. An easy solution would be something like X number of Marker Light hits can be used to negate a reroll on a save. This DRAMATICALLY reduces a unit’s durability allowing Tau to shoot down Deathstars if they need to, without also making “normal” units simply evaporate. Win!
Marker Lights are such a cool possible game mechanic! I think the current iteration is cool, but the 2 Marker Lights to ignore cover is a but too much. Many armies absolutely live and die by their cover saves, such as Orks and Tyranids. Stripping that away so easily means these armies just get blasted to bits with little to nothing they can do about it. I think going back to the old system of 1 Marker Light hit = -1 to the target’s cover save is much more fair. It means that yes, Tau can strip that save away, but it takes more resources to do it and losing Marker Light support will allow this advantage to be offset, giving cover save dependent armies a viable means to fight back.
Better Marker Light platforms for the Tau to go along with slightly reduced efficacy. Give those Pathfinders a move and shoot Marker Light so they can be more effective. We don’t only want to see jacked up BS Marker Lights attached to a Suit Commanders, let’s get some more viable ways to put Marker Lights on target for Tau. Reduced price Marker Lights in other units such as Fire Warriors, etc. would go a long way to helping.
Swap the strength and toughness characteristics on Stealth Suits for obvious reasons. Seriously. T3 is not the business on a 30pt, single wound model.
Buff their flyers so that we actually see them on the table.
Increase the cost of Interceptor or reduce the number of units that can take it. I am totally fine with Tau having access to more Interceptor than other armies, it provides a cool and characterful strength for their army. However, 5pts and being available to take it on so many units in the army is too much. Armies that use reserve tactics as a core part of their list strategy are fun and add variety to the game. Introducing armies into the meta which can effectively negate these tactics can make taking these types of armies a liability which means you see less of them. Less variety is not fun for anyone. I advocate for simply toning down the level to which Tau can Intercept so that it is still good, but not overwhelmingly so.
So that’s my list for now! What about all of you? What would you like to see in the new Tau book?
why the hell nerf one of the most vital components to counteract crap like skyhammer and other DS shenanigan BS? … if anything spread it even further ,,, you still hitting them on 4s regardless with interceptor
Well, to be fair, interceptor doesn’t help that much with Skyhammer specifically as they will often just land out of range of Tau weapons and then pin them. And I don’t think Deep Striking in general is BS, it is a really cool and fun mechanic of the game. YMMV, of course, but I feel it adds a lot of fun options to how we play. When 1 army can obliterate things as they come out of reserves without them getting to do anything, it pushes more players towards lists that can actually survive that kind of disruption: deathstars. That is what happened in early 6th, people started putting units on the table that could actually make it into Tau through all the firepower such as Screamerstars and Seer Councils. I’d rather see Drop Pods than either of those type of lists any day of the week.
I would almost agree with intercept being too much if NULL deployment weren’t a thing. Loosing a turn is not fun. Deep striking may be a cool mechanic but having it where your opponent can’t even hit you is not enjoyable. So I have no hard feeling to tau being able to counter Space marines Null Deploy.
I see where you are coming from but in our many test games the Drop Pod army would often get obliterated without getting to do anything. That is even less fun. SO yeah, let Tau intercept really well, IMO, but not so overwhelmingly so that the other player just gets butchered. Strike a balance with it between being powerful but not too powerful which is certainly easier said than done.
>as they will often just land out of range of Tau weapons
Broadsides are 30″/36″ and Riptides are 36″/60″. Skyhammer, with its 24″ Melta and Grav, does not outrange them.
I would like to see stealth suits become viable. I.E. via a formation or lower points. Making them a troop choice would be the dream.
Tau has great synergy, it would be great to see this continued. One example I think would be great is if the Ghostkeel had a stealth shrouded bubble, 12″ maybe. That would offset the 3+ save of units like the Stormsurge and create some awesome synergies with units supporting each other.
I personally think supporting fire is fine. Tau hey mulched by anything in combat, that off sets it nicely. supporting fire does have draw backs. Having to be within 6″ makes tau forces susceptible to multi assaults where its very possible for multiple units to be destroyed or rundown in a single phase. Its also very easy to get around by charging with multiple units but a good hindrance to armies (such as deathstars) who reply on charging with 1 OP unit which i think is a good thing in terms of balance.
even as a tau player i actually agree that markers should be 1 marker = -1 cover. But i would like to see other options for marker lights including boosting BS, stripping cover, possibility pinning checks, stopping re rolls to cover saves, targeting weak spots on armor (I.E 3 markerlights drops the AV of an armor facing by 1). The last suggestion would really help with our lack luster tank busting skills and sub par D weapons. Its also great there has been a precedent for such a rule in the special character Darkstrider in the current codex with his Structural Analyzer. I think this would be a novel, inventive and very tau way to get around some of the problems while staying within the fluff of a rapidly advancing race.
Other than that i would like to see the usual. Decurion style detachments, markerlights on better platforms (and cheaper if less efficient), tank squadrons, riptide squadrons (dont hate me), more weapons for crisis suits like Air Bursting Fragmentation guns, Rail rifles, Ion rifles and CIB’s (this would actually make me buy more crisis even though i already have more than enough).
I would also like for the Tau Aux to be increased or even its own codex and BB with Tau. that way we could hopefully get some psychic defense and some melee.
I’m sure there other things i would like but that’s the main stuff.
I totally agree on the synergy point, that makes a list so fun when units have overlapping abilities.
The supporting fire rule probably feels fair as a Tau player, I can see that 100%, but having seen armies just melt to it without getting a single body into combat is so brutal. I’d be down to strike some sort of balance to help Tau avoid combat’s where they often get owned (although, Riptides do surprisingly well in melee) while still giving assault armies a chance without resorting to deathstar builds which Tau tend to get steamrolled by.
I agree on Decurion detachments, formations and all that fun stuff, too.
My 0.02 worth
Supporting Fire only works for fire warriors and pathfinders, if a charge is declared against one of those units all the nearby Tau fire overwatch.
For battlesuit assault deterrence give all of them access to Failsafe Detonator and make it something that will worry deathstars – resolve like a single stomp immediately before removing the battle suit model.
As for markerlights:
-1 to cover saves for each token used
-1 to invulnerable saves for 2 tokens used
I expect a lot of disagreement with the second suggestion but if you can boost an invulnerable save with a 1 point psychic power I do not really see that it is that out of line. It gives Tau some chance against those fast moving invulnerable units – although getting that many markerlight hits if it is invisible will be a major challenge as it should be.
Allow Kroot to actually use all those daggers and pistols that come on the sprue. Then make the rifle Str +1 Ap dash two-handed to give them some option to do can-opening work on transports.
Limit the interceptor on EWO to a single weapon per turn – the balance issue here is on the heavily armed suits like Broadsides and Riptides that get a lot more value out of it. Otherwise do not mess too much, drop pods are not exactly rare in my experience so I am not seeing an issue with EWO making those sorts of armies shelfware.
Fix Vespids. Seriously its about time.
Stealth suits just need to be a bit cheaper and be able to take a decent number of drones for soaking up damage.
Drones sacrifice themselves for their pals; instead of rolling to be swept the Tau player can choose for the drones to die for the greater good and the Tau get away.
Interesting idea on the -1 invul save. I think that is a good idea and helps a lot to crack Deathstars which Tau really need.
And yeah, fix Vespid, I should have added that, too.
Love the Drone rule, as others have brought up. Hazard Suits do this now, and it is a very cool rule.
Start with making a Tau book that’s desirable as a primary, and not just providing the units for Firebase Support Cadres across the galaxy. The Tau are running some sort of PMC at this point.
This seems fun so I’ll add my wishlist.
-Get rid of supporting fire and replace with army wide +1 initiative and hit and run USR. I feel like this fits more to the fluff seeing as the Tau base their entire war strategy around hit and run tactics. With I3 that would give them a 50/50 shot at getting bogged down in a close combat they know they will eventually lose plus not be game breaking.
-Anything could be done to make stealth suits better. Cheaper, tougher, better BS (seeing as they are elite commando types), moved out of the elites slot. Personally i would like to see a perma-invisibility vs. shooting only, seeing as they are almost supposed to perfectly blend in with their surroundings.
-Dynamic fire warriors. These guys are so cool but so dam boring. I’d like to see them get those cool rail/Ion rifles that the pathfinders have. Or how about drones that are worth taking for fire warriors. Give them missile drones, or even fusion/flamer/plasma drones! An all fire warrior army that could pack a punch would be pretty cool. Give me the option to do it!
-Better rail weapons. I’m not talking D strength guns but maybe give them the ordinance or armorbane special rule. Or make them beam weapons, which would fit the fluff.
-Rework the markerlight system. Instead of having to make shooting attacks with markerlights, a unit that is equiped with markelights simply designates an enemy unit as “marked” and another unit can get a special ability when shooting at them. Maybe like a reroll to hit/wound, weakening cover saves, etc. This way pathfinders can be mobile and actually use the god dam pulse carbines they also come with that no other non tau players even knew they had!
-Make kroot close combat oriented again. Make them faster, more attacks, and make their guns assault weapons instead of rapid fire. How is, what is essentially a musket, capable of rapid fire?
-Cheaper devilfish and their vehicles should get the option for the upgrade to make their vehicles count as fast for the purposes of shooting. I want to fire all the missiles off my skyray at full BS when I move it 6″
I like these ideas a lot!
Giving Fire Warriors an option to access a heavy/special weapon would go a long ways towards making them useful. One of their biggest problems right now is that all they do is bring more S5 to the army- which the rest of the Tau codex has in spades.
It sounds like everyone wants tau to receive updates to rules that make them less likely to win all these 7th ed rock/paper/scissors match ups and make them generally more balanced which would leave them in my opinion, not good a countering anything specific and leaving them out of range of winning a GT for another 2 years.
nerf cover save removal mechanics, nerf interceptor, nerf supporting fire.. okay fine but what are you replacing these with besides everyone’s opinion that merely making rail rifles a couple STR better makes any difference in Tau beating the top 5ish army lists.
I’d rather have tau where they are now, being able to specifically beat a few lists, and lose to some in rock/paper/scissors 7th ed then having tau being mediocre at everything and from what everyone is saying they’d just be a great friendly game army.
I don’t think being “balanced” means you can’t win a GT, but, that’s me. They aren’t winning GTs now, so I don’t know if your argument is bullet proof. As is, they tend to get beaten by Deathstars as they simply lack the means to hurt them. But, they still rock the socks off of some lists. That is too much variability in their strengths in match-ups, for me. I think moving towards the middle a bit in terms of strengths and weaknesses and USRs, but with a general boost in power would be awesome.
RAWR tau pew pew mecha quad laser. The laser is enormous there is no escape; jumping is useless.
Tau are not known as mass shooting army, they are known more for being a highly specialized shooting army; with each unit lost the army loses mass amounts of firepower. Losing units such as broad sides and crisis teams hurts a ton. Fast armies and deathstars just destroy tau if they can drop a key unit or too early. So the idea is to make them more survivable in multi charge situations but how could we do that… drones.
– First off all units who move as jump infantry should have hit and run (running away on a .3333% is not huge).
-Drones: I would like to see drones sacrifice themselves to enable a auto pass on hit and run or on fall back rolls. It would also sweet if drones could perform a look out sir roll on for models with drone controllers even if they are not a character.
As for other nice changes
-Improve the flyer somehow
-Marker lights should affect the whole army. If you have 2 marker hits on a unit then the entire army should reap the benefits (unless you are using seeker missiles). I do agree that it should be -1 cover per marker light hit, that is fair.
-Multiple versions of seeker missiles. A melta missile S8 AP1 melta +5 points, Plasma missile S6 AP2 small blast +5 points, Fragmentation missile S5 AP5 large blast. Because who does not like options?
-Changes to HQ commanders. I understand this goes against the fluff but I would like to see a firewarrior HQ stat base, then you can equip crisis, stealth, riptide armor to him as options. If the commander is your warlord; based on his armor you could take the following as troops (crisis, stealth). Plus I think a commander in riptide armor would be cool. once again options = awesome.
-stealth suits need love. Moving them to troops may be enough but crisis suits are sooo much better. Or make their burst cannons unique by adding range to them because currently 18″ range feels like a death sentence to such a delicate unit. Changing them to T4 would be helpful but still not good enough to get them out of the shadow of their crisis suit big brother.
-Pathfinders need something, with their scout movement low armor and horrible leadership the unit begs to be the target of all small arms fire till the unit is destroyed. stealth plus Move and shoot marker lights would be nice; but they are still going to evaperate into paste when anything looks at them funny.
-firewarriors need a small change like -1 point per model. Also Pulse carbines are a joke. I think firewarriors with pulse carbines should come with EMP grenades. If they are going to take an inferior gun they may as well get free EMP grenades with it to potentially counter drop pods or dreads.
Still even with all these changes the deathstars are going to roll over on Tau because unblockable psychic buffs. Fluff wise tau don’t have a way to stop this unless you are commander farsight with access to the any warp talisman. Could a prototype warp discharge cannon be a solution (gun that strips all psychic buffs from a unit hit by the weapon). Although how could such a weapon be successfully implemented into 40K.
The space fish are still a good army. If I could make every bad unit in every codex better I would, just to push more viable choices. More viable options would make any codex better. More options equals more fun. So jump on the fun train, Tau are coming!
I like these ideas a lot, they add a lot of character and even out the highs and lows of Tau.
Could you imagine a tau unit with drones gets charged. Fails their LD check and can’t get wiped out because the drone/drones sacrifices itself/themselves while the unit runs away. It would be very cool but you would see drones in almost every unit. It would really save the day if a large unit of suits lose combat by one and run away. Drones are suppose to sacrifice themselves for the tau and this would be the best representation of that in 40k terms.
I would also really like to see firewarriors with pulse carbines get free EMP grenades. Vehicle assaulting tau units would be so cool.
Hazard Suits have this rule and it is very cool! I like it.
What I’d like to see:
1. Wargear costs. It shouldn’t be the same for regular infantry as it is for MC’s/GMC’s. They did a decent job for the FNP upgrade, but a 4++ Shield Generator shouldn’t be the same price on the Supremacy suit as it is on a normal suit. Neither should Early Warning Override on a unit with a bazillion guns who can fire them twice compared to a normal guy.
2. Markerlight ignoring cover as suggested above (-1 per markerlight).
3. Price increase on the riptide. He is currently undercosted.
4. The return of the S10 railguns, especially with the proliferation of knights in armies. At least that makes dealing with TWC, centurions and knights a little easier. Oh yeah, and those big, heavy marine tanks with those assault units inside….uh, what are they called again?….
5. Nerf some of those Signature Systems. You know it’s going to happen. Any wargear that is too good always gets nerfed. Mindshackle Scarabs, Runes of Warding, Kustom Force Fields, Disruption Pods, tervigons, annihilation barges….bam! Tau, welcome to the world of Nerfhammer….unless it is Eldar.
What I do not agree with:
Better markerlight platforms. Not necessary IMO. They already have multiple platforms other than pathfinders. Marker drones, tetras, skyrays, remoras, other infantry units. Basically, markerlights is the bread-&-butter of the Tau army (no, not Supporting Fire). Buffing the platforms increases the power level of the army exponentially due to the force-multiplier effects of markerlights. Keep it as is, nerf it even, but please do not make what will in all likelihood be a very strong codex into an even bigger monster of a codex.
I find it interesting you want to nerf a codex that is not the best codex out there already. When a Tau army is placed across from you; you would prefer a ravenwing dark angels list, or eldar, or KDK with hounds and mauler fiends? All those army lists beat tau on the regular so instead of trying to balance the codex to the best codex’s we as a community would much rather nerf to the level of the worst codexes.
I do agree with the rail gun buff. Why they moved it to S8 was a horrible decision. They probably just wanted people to buy the new broadsides.
Every codex that comes out I want them balanced to the best codex rather than nerfed to the worst codex. People will claim power creep but the goal should not be to overpower the best codex but a fair balance between them. We all know GW is never going to do this because they are GW but that is how balancing works.
The last time I saw 4 riptides was back in 6th ed and that is because 7th fixed the Ovesa star.
Don’t worry. With the latest trend, starting with Necrons, then Space Marines, then Eldar and now Dark Angels, the armies are getting stronger and stronger. I have no doubt the new Tau will be just as strong. I just don’t want to see the publishers over-do it like they did with Eldar and Ravenwing. IMO, those 2 codices are aberrations in terms of their power level. You can bet that the “improvements” in the new dex will far exceed just the few “balance checks” on my wishlist.
BTW, some of my “wishes” is just based on current GW trends. Things that are too good tends to get nerfed. With the exception of Eldar, which IMO GW did a terrible job at balancing, almost all the good units that came out get a price increase. Vendettas got more expensive. Tervigons got nerfed. Night scythes and annihilation barges got upped in price. Almost every unit that used to get spammed got sent to spammed heaven….with the exception of Eldar. That is problably the only codex where the rich actually got richer and is the exception to normal GW trend.
Likewise, most of the awesome wargear got nerfed. Mindshackles, Runes of Warding, railguns, disruption pods, tervigon gant-farming, etc. It is just a trend that my wishlist is based off of and that might translate directly into the Tau army as well….unless they get the royal treatment of Eldar. And they might, you never know.
I don’t want Tau to get the Eldar treatment. I want them to be buffed to the point to compete with eldar.
If GW only operates based on sales they will review all the most purchased models. Then they will nerf those models and buff the weaker ones so they can inflate sales of their worst selling models. Of course that is if you believe the hype.
I am excited to see the changes.
You play Tau don’t you?
Yes, I would rather face any of the armies you suggested over Tau
1:Move the Stealth Suits and pathfinders too troops
2: Make the Fighter ap2
3: Str 10 on the Damnable Broadsides
4: Cheaper Transport
5: The Characters(Other then Farsight) being good.
These are all good suggestions, IMO. I think Stealth Suits need to be cheaper and/or T4, too.
Shadowsun is awesome. Arguably better than farsight in certain builds. Other characters like darkest rider have serious potential if their Base concepts are developed.
Supporting fire could be replaced by darkest riders other special rule. When a tau unit is assaulted, after overwatch they came move 1d6 in any direction. Also the structural analyser idea I mentioned above would solve a lot of our problems against knight’s, wraithknights and deathstars.
If Pathfinders become troops, wouldn’t that make Firewarriors a small bit redundant as the cheaper min-size troop to sit on points?
Pathfinders and stealthsuits should not be troops — may as well delete firewarriors if you do that. What they should and more likely will get are formations so you can take them along with other elites and FA.
Broadsides rail should be S9. At S10 it makes the hammerhead near useless and raises issue with stormsurge as well. At S8 they are pointless.
Agree with the rest though.
I agree, Broadsides should be STr9 or 10, the HH should have something else, like the rumored rule where its cannon was a Beam, or something.
I haven’t played 40k in a couple of months
Are there any particular Deathstars that Tau have problems with removing from the board in the shooting phase that aren’t Decurion Orikan-lychstar?
Apparently, Invisible deathstars like thunderwolf Cavalry, seer council and Grimoired daemonstars.
Seer Council, too. Eh, nm, you mentioned that!
I think a 2shot ignores cover ap2 large blast will help versus deathstars. Especially with the invisibility nerf
The trick is to give them a way to deal with deathstars that doesn’t also screw normal armies, too.
The thing is Reece, that nearly everything that you say counteracts Deathstars counter-acts every army
D-weapon, Hi-str weapons, & stomps
Not necessarily. These weapons counter-act deathstars for sure. However, it’s not nearly as effective vs MSU. Stomping a deathstar can potentially do a lot more damage than stomping a unit of 10 termagants or 10 guardsmen or 5 combat-squadded tactical marines. Assaulting with a D-weapon can potentially kill a titan or just a single guardsmen. The more powerful weapons certainly are more effective against the more elitist units (deathstars, MC’s, tanks) than they are vs cheap infantry.
Reece, I’m behind you on the Interceptor and Ignore Cover shenanigans.
Orks, Nids, Dark Eldar and some Guard lists can get butchered when an integral part of the rules is ignored. The Interceptor should still be available, but the point cost should be far, far greater. I’ve seen a few Interceptor pie plates remove 500 points of models in one particular game, before those models even fired a gun – that is definitely wrong.
As for dealing with Death Stars… Tau now have access to stomp and ranged D close up on a unit that can move 12″…
The thing is, the argument against Interceptor works both ways- you can make a very good case that reserve-only armies are ignoring a fundamental part of the rules as well because it is impossible (bar Interceptor) for them to fail to get the first shot on the enemy, regardless of deployment, die rolls, etc.
Interceptor is a necessary part of things, I think. It shouldn’t be 5pts, but it _should_ be available more easily to armies as a whole. Drop Pod armies act as a counter to lots of things out there, I see no reason why they shouldn’t have a counter of their own.
Also, anyone who is losing 500pts of models to Riptide blasts (even if more than one) is doing an amazingly poor job of placing their models and/or spending points in their army.
TBH, that’s bad tactics by the player that lost 500pts. If they know they are playing Tau with interceptor, don’t reserve 500 points that can get blown off the table by interceptor. No-one is forcing them to reserve, there are other tactics,
Just to add, I know that getting a crutch taken away can feel rough, but sometimes it makes us into better players.
Also, other units might get rule changes that make Tau more dynamic and mobile so other tactics open up. Besides, it’s not like the SM demi company can deal with Death Stars but it still does well!
What’s the opinion on Rinyon Encirclements gimmick for the current codex? Should the positional relay stay as it is?
I think a massive problem with support fire is that so many people play it wrong….it says that that models can support fire while within 6 inches of a charged unit….not units
Except if a model can fire Overwatch, then all models can fire overwatchs
Tau bigger suits must be vehicles instead of monstrous creatures. It’s very odd hayware weaponry doesn’t affect them, but poison one do. It has no sense!
I for one would love to see a shift/evolution in the fluff. We could see with the Riptide and now with the Stormsurge that Tau, fast response, mobile and ranged tactics needs a boost. They don’t believe in the art melee, with some exceptions and the Kroot don’t fill the purpose of some D dmg delivery to take out that Wraith Knight or Death Star.
I for one would love to see some typ of melee/mid ranged specialist for Tau with fluff with that explaining how the Tau seeing the need for a stronger changed bla bla created a specialisation cadre. Give some type of maybe big (dreadnought like) melee units that are created to clean up what ranged and kroot can’t handle. Or some type of short ranged HARD hitting unit that are maybe on a bit of a suicide mission, I can see some kind of more bulky stealth suits filling that role.
I love the Tau fluff almost as much as the Space Marines but I feel that there would be an evolution of how to handle warfare after running into so much terror. When it comes to the rules or what not I have no clue, I leave that to the more educated fellows.
But yeah, give me a “riptide-melee-specialist” or a “suicide-stealth-suits” squad and write that up as desperation from the Tau trying to handle all the pressure the empire is under and I would be happy. But that’s just my opinion.