Hello everyone Frankie here to talk a little bit about the new Tau! Be sure to check out the Tactics Corner for more great articles!
This last weekend I took the new Hunter Contingent to a very competitive Tournament and was able to go 3-0. Now let me start by saying I am in no way a Tau expert and have only played a few games with the new Tau so this is just my opinion. That said–DANG!–the new codex is super powerful! I played it weekend that Buffmander didn’t work on the whole army and I was very impressed with how well I did. The Stormsurges are amazing and really fix a lot of problem the old Tau had. Granted I did take a unit of two Stormsurges, which in my opinion is the magic number. The firepower and d3 stomps from both is just too much for most armies to handle. Here is the list I played:
| HQ | ||
| Commander | Drone Controller | 1 |
| Troops | ||
| Strike Team | _ | 5 |
| Strike Team | _ | 5 |
| Strike Team | _ | 5 |
| Elite | ||
| Riptide | Ion Accelerator, Early Warning Override, Stimulant Injector | 1 |
| Riptide | Early Warning Override, Stimulant Injector | 1 |
| Crisis Battlesuits | Missile pod | 1 |
| Fast Attack | ||
| Pathfinder Team | _ | 5 |
| Drones | Marker | 6 |
| Heavy Support | ||
| Broadsides | High-yield missile pods | 2 |
| Lord of War | ||
| Stormsurge | Burst Cannon, Pulse Driver Cannon, Early Warning Override, Shield Generator | 2 |
What makes the new codex so powerful? The Hunter Contingent allows you to use Coordinated Firepower which allows 3+ units to shoot at the same unit and gain +1 BS and can share Markerlight bonuses, too. This is super powerful because now you just need one really good Markerlight unit to buff most of your army. The +1 BS is huge for Tau as well because now they shoot as well as Marines but with a lot more firepower. Now that is the way I read the rule, their are plenty of other ways you can read it. I played the entire event like this and was so impressed with how much scarier the Tau were. The thing that really makes Tau top tier in my opinion though are the Stormsurges. They are ridiculous, especially at BS4, running up the table blasting things. The Stormsurges add a lot of firepower, add a close combat element to a list with there d3 stomps a piece, and allow you to run out and grab objectives without losing much firepower.
Now comes the main question, why do people think the new codex is bad? The reason people feel the new codex is bad is because it plays so much differently than it used to. Since im not an avid Tau player I caught on to the new way they play a lot faster than someone who has been playing the same way for years. They play a lot more aggressively. When I say aggressively, I mean your Riptides are running up the field grabbing objectives along with the Stormsurges. This allows you to keep up on the Maelstrom and throw a wrench in your opponent’s plans. The other big change is charging: I charged every game with the Stormsurges and Riptides. They do work in combat and will often hold up big scary Deathstars. I really enjoy the new way the Tau play and honestly think once everyone catches on, they will enjoy it as well.
What happened at the tournament? First round I played against a War Convocation and just about Tabled it on Turn 6. Round 2 I played against a Necron Decurion with a Lychstar. This game was tough but I was able to pull it out on turn 5. The Stormsurges charged into the Lychstar and stomped out everyone within 2 turns. Game three I played against 4 Imperial Knights. Those dang strength D missiles are powerful! I was able to kill a Knight every shooting phase and finished off the last one on Turn 5 with Broadsides. Overall the army was super powerful and I never felt out matched. I can’t even imagine what would have happened if I shared all the Buffmander rules like some people are reading it. For 140 points my whole army would have ignores cover, twin-linked, and tank hunter/monster hunter. That would have been way too much with the army I took. Two Stormsurges with Twin-linked and ignores cover vs. everything would be way too easy to smash the other player with. The armies I played against wouldn’t have stood a chance and my opponents for sure wouldn’t have had a good time. The +1BS and shared Markelights were enough for me to feel in control of each game and really fixed a lot of problems the army had.
Anyways hopefully you all are enjoying playing with the new Tau and let me know how you have been doing with them. Whats been working for you?