Perhaps the most iconic of the T’au Empire septs outside of the T’au Sept itself, and original home of Fire caste legend Commander Farsight, Vior’la Sept is well known for the impetuousness of its Fire Warriors and the aggressive tactics employed by its armies.
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Like all Sept Tenets, Vior’la Detachments are armed with a powerful set of rules that’ll allow you to build a variety of unusual and thematic T’au Empire armies. Vior’la are focused, in particular, on speed and flexibility as illustrated by the Strike Fast Sept Tenet.
With this Sept Tenet, your battlesuits and infantry will be able to move quickly across the battlefield while maintaining a steady rate of fire – ideal whether you’re looking to claim objectives or just keep your units well away from enemy assault troops!
The XV86 has a strong claim to being the single most improved unit in the new Codex: T’au Empire, and is particularly powerful in a Vior’la Detachment. Previously, this aerial attack battlesuit had a fixed weapon set of a missile pod and a high-output burst cannon, but all that is changing. Now, you’ll be able to arm all four hardpoints on your Commander as you please, allowing for an array of powerful builds. What’s more, as all of these weapons have the Assault or Rapid Fire type, with the Vior’la Sept Tenet, you’ll be able to effectively move 40″ every turn and fire without penalty! We’d recommend equipping your Vior’la Commander with four fusion blasters for the ultimate tank hunter. Even if you end up overextending, the Neuroweb System Jammer Stratagem should help to keep you safe – or disrupt a key unit that’s threatening the rest of your army.
Being able to fire on the move with impunity is of great use to these stealthy battlesuits, making them an interesting counterpoint to the more static tactics employed by the Dal’yth Sept. Where they really come into their own in a Vior’la Detachment is with the Hot-blooded Stratagem:
While this ability has plenty of use with other T’au Empire units, such as Pathfinders or Strike Teams, with the XV25 Stealth Battlesuits, you’ll be able to make the most of their burst cannons. Indeed, with Vior’la, you won’t have to worry about declaring Mont’ka, and can instead declare Kauyon using your XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit Commander to make the most of this deluge of firepower.
By choosing the Vior’la Sept, you’ll be able to transform your T’au Empire army into a flexible and dynamic fighting force, capable of taking ground swiftly and offering devastating counter-attacks to any foe that gets close.
You won’t have long to wait until you can get your hands on the new rules for the T’au, with the next codex on pre-order tomorrow. If you can’t wait to get started, you can grab Start Collecting! T’au Empire right now.
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What if the closest unit when using “hot-blooded” can’t be shot (in combat, not visible, etc)
You can’t target ineligible units in the shooting phase, so it would be the closest enemy unit in range, LoS and not in combat.
Isn’t that contradictory to the way the character rule works?
the new character rules are so wonky…
Can you clarify, buddy? Feels like we might be talking about different things.
Think he’s talking about how even units in combat or out of line of sight prevent characters from being targeted.
If a Malanthrope (character) is 8″ away from you, and a unit of hive guard is 6″ away, but behind terrain and out of LOS, you still can’t shoot the Malanthrope. The only important thing is what is closer.
That’s what I took him to mean.
Yeah, this exactly. The closest unit is still the closest unit, even if you aren’t allowed to shoot at it. This seems like it would apply equally to both the character rule and the Vior’la one.
Ah, got you. Yeah, that may need clarification. Perhaps they mean it literally.
Coldstar with max fusion, ion or missiles is bananas awesome.
Coldstar is indeed really good!
Man, I’m actually gonna break my Coldstar out of storage. Time to fly, lil’ buddy!
I will see your “Coldstar,” and raise you a “Hexrifle with Arcane Payload.”
Another design choice that strikes me as odd. Coldstars were pretty good even with their fixed loadout, which was a smart way to balance them.
Now I don’t see why Quad Fusion Commanders aren’t all about to become Coldstar Quad Fusion Commanders. Moving 40″ with 4 meltas? That honestly sounds broken and like something GW will have to fix later on.
It was my impression that GW limited the use of Commanders, but buffed what you could take to compensate for that limitation.
I doubt they will fix it, but maybe they will if it proves to be too good.
Coldstars are really good, but as you noted, the limitation means they can be awesome as they aren’t spamable.
Yes, but I think that literally everyone except GW understands why the HQ limit is a bad idea, and what should have been done to fix that issue, so I won’t go into it.
We still don’t have the complete picture but if you can have coldstars with 4x fusion jumping around, I think that will be a broken unit simply because a QFC can eliminate one take/MC per turn with good roles, and if it can reach any corner of the board…
I’m just saying that Tau have (justifiably) received enough flak for riptides and QFC’s in the past, this codex ain’t gonna help either.
Damn, that neuroweb stratagem is going to be painful for me and my DC bomb…
Oh nvm I just misread it, I initially thought that the debuff lasted until the end of the turn.
So if a piece of wargear is gone from a codex but there is now a stratagem with the same name can a unit still use the wargear per the index FAQ?
Unless GW specifically adds something to the FAQ to stop it, yes, you can still put Stimulant Injectors on battlesuits. And then you can use the Stimulant Injectors on those same battlesuits, to stim while you stim.
These guys seem like they’d have some interesting builds with battlesuits. Don’t know if support systems have changed tho. Hard to say without knowing all the details but I can see a Vior’la list with XV-9 with double barreled burst cannons and advanced targeting system (fusion cascades may be good too), xv-25s and flamer xv-8s. Able to get in close and do damage and when flying away can really get some distance.
A Bork’an detachment with an Y’vhara would be super mobile and have better ranged attacks than normal to be the spearhead. 14″ phased plasma-flamer and experimental weaponry anyone? Always get to use it against any chargers.
With the stratagems shown so far can really do some good damage with these suits. Don’t know the prices for riptide yet so can’t make a call on them.