GW brings us the latest and greatest on the T’au update from the latest Psychic Awakening!
This article was originally published on the Warhammer-community site.
Get ready to battle for hearts and minds in the next chapter of the Psychic Awakening saga. Since the book is called The Greater Good, we’re kicking off our series of faction focuses with a look at the rules for the T’au Empire.
Sept Tenets
Codex: T’au Empire gave your T’au Empire army extra rules if all of the units in a Detachment were from the same sept. But what if you didn’t want to use one of the five main septs or the Farsight Enclaves? What if you prefer one of the lesser-known septs or you wanted to make your own?
Well, good news! The Greater Good allows you to choose your own sept and select two rules to create a new Sept Tenet. Fans of the XV104 Riptide and XV88 Broadside Battlesuits will definitely want to pick Stabilisation Systems so that they can move and still fire at full effectiveness.
If you enjoy gunning down enemies with massed fields of fire as they charge you, then Soldiers in Arms is for you. People will definitely think twice before charging your gunline now.
Whatever tactics your sept prefers, you’ll be able to create tenets that reflect the way you like to bring enlightenment to the galaxy’s more ignorant races.
Prototype Weapons Systems
The T’au never rest on their laurels and the Earth caste have been busy developing weapons and equipment for the Warlords of the Empire. Keep enemy reinforcements away from your lines (where you can shoot them more easily) with the Advanced EM Scrambler for the XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit.
This is just a taste of the new gadgets that the T’au Empire are getting in The Greater Good.
Stratagems
The T’au Empire hasn’t just been working on tools of war, the finest minds of the Fire caste have also been developing tactics and so the book contains a host of additional Stratagems. Coordinated Engagement will ensure that your XV8 Crisis Battlesuits totally obliterate an enemy unit by taking advantage of 5(!) markerlight counters.
The range of Stratagems in The Greater Good will help you stay one step ahead of the galaxy’s older races.
Farsight Enclaves
It’s not just the main T’au Empire that are getting new rules in The Greater Good though – the rebellious Commander Farsight and his followers have also developed some different ways to obliterate their enemies.
Those who fight for Farsight are well known for their preference to battle up close and personal. Take advantage of this with your Breacher and Strike Teams by using the Danger Close Stratagem.
A new Farsight Enclaves Warlord Trait will help your warriors get to grips with the enemy quicker. Aggressive Tactician means that even more units will be affected when you declare Mont’ka.*
While away from the T’au Empire, Farsight has spent a long time learning the tactics of his enemies. A Relic for the Enclaves allows him to pass on his knowledge to one of his warriors.
Whether you’re joining the Farsight Enclaves or creating your own T’au Sept, the next Psychic Awakening book in the series is full of ways for you to spread the Greater Good throughout the galaxy.
Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good is available to pre-order from Saturday, along with the dynamic Commander Shadowsun model. In the meantime, make sure that you pick up the Black Library anthology The Tau Empire to get some insights into how the T’au Empire makes war so that you’re ready to fight with (or against) them.
* Mont’ka translates as “the killing blow” and, when declared, allows units to Advance and shoot as if they hadn’t moved.
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Color me underwhelmed so far. I hope crisis suits get more support than “Yo dawg I heard you like crisis bomb, so we made it even easier”. The free target lock on riptides and broadsides will be interesting, but probably not enough to draw people away from T’au sept unless “overwatch on 5s” is also one of the mix-n-match options.
Yeah Tau sept is incredibly good still and giving up both your primary defense against melee (especially in an age where multiple factions have “you can’t fall back from combat” abilities) as well as Focused Fire is a pretty tall order.
Really, for a Tau vs. GSC book, I see nothing but Tau wiping any and all GSC armies (especially slightly more fluffy ones built from a single sub-faction or so without half a dozend of mixed keywords and vigilus stuff just to get access to basic functionality strats for key units) without even trying.
No deepstrike in 12″, Y’vahras vaping 400 point Aberrant units with 18 auto hits, even more cheap re-rolls to wound and hit for Tau for being close.
And GSC thus far? Pay more CP just to get a basic Marine Lieutenant re-roll on a single unit, just to make sure you cannot afford the 3 CP strat for an extra D6 to charge Strat that most Marines get for far cheaper, lol.
Yeah, GSC need a big boost from this book. Mine haven’t seen the table since the new Marine meta, they simply die far too easily in the game and don’t have the hitting power they once had.