What would I like to see from Tau in the new codex? Click to read on, or check out the Tactics Corner for more reviews and strategies.
The Tau book has been a long time in coming, especially for a faction that has been pretty abjectly terrible during the run of 9th Edition. So before the book in full gets released, I thought it would be a good chance to look at the sort of things that we can hope for with the new book. I’m going to try and avoid this being too wishlist-y; I’d like to keep it not just realistic, but focused on the mechanics of what needs to change for the faction to be competitive, rather than thinking of ways to make it more powerful.
Better Weapon Profiles
We’ve already seen some of this, and I think the signs are good so far- weapon profiles are getting upgraded across the board in 9E books and the Railgun and Pulse Rifle have both seen some notable updates. I am hoping that these alterations are made to the other Tau weapons as well, such as Missile Pods, Fusion Blasters, etc. Superior weaponry has always been Tau’s primary schtick, both in the lore and mechanically, but this hasn’t always been well-supported overall. There is a lot of hope here, though, and I am excited for an edition where people legitimately fear the statlines on Tau weaponry even despite their wielders being a bit crappy.
I’m a little sad the Pulse Rifle doesn’t get to D2, but honestly that was probably too much to ask for and rather defeats the purpose of giving all Marines an extra wound, so it’s very understandable. I would like to see their other short-range weaponry get some boosts to give the faction a chance in a close-in brawl, though, and the improved Flamer with d6+2 shots is another good signal here. Which leads me into the next point…
Better Close-In Tools
9E is a game about getting into midfield and brawling. Unlike previous iterations of the game, it is not feasible to sit back for 2-3 turns causing attrition the way Tau have traditionally played. So Tau need a new paradigm, one that allows them to push forward more aggressively. The Mont’ka and Kauyon abilities for the codex both seem to support such aggressive strategies, as does the ability of all battlesuits to shoot while in close combat. I’m hoping that Tau see other, similar abilities for controlling midfield engagements at their own pace- ways to stifle charges, for example, or mitigate close combat damage, or withdraw from combat, or punish attackers.
I think beyond the weapon profiles already mentioned, stratagems will be key here. Tau have a lot of opportunity for cool stratagems under the auspice of various experimental technologies that can let the designers do some very cool and wacky stuff. Stasis bombs, dimensional shifting, forcefields, booby traps, neural dampers, and more are all on the table and can lead to some interesting effects that I would love to see the opportunity to play with.
Better Troops
Traditionally, one of the biggest weaknesses of the Tau army (other than the obvious lack of melee) has been its extremely poor troop choices. And in both this edition and the last one, a defining feature of the best books of the edition was their strong troop options. However, I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion that Tau troops have to be bad- much like Wyches, the issue has always been one of costing and statlines, and both of those things are up in the air to be changed this edition.
Fire Warriors sit at an interesting crux point in the statline, not unlike where AdMech troops (RIP) were at previous to this. They have powerful equipment, including an armor save that is notably above base, but are not as burdened by the weight of being generalists as the MEQ troops are, so it is very possible to cost them aggressively while still leaving the unit with significant weaknesses. Similarly, improvements to Kroot (especially their price) could easily see them become a very, very useful unit to hide behind some terrain, deploy onto a distant objective, use as a screening force, or keep in reserve for secondary objectives.
Making Tau troops better and more attractive as a choice would also steer the faction away from its monodimensional role as “we shoot good and nothing else,” since by their nature troop units tend to be less efficient in terms of raw firepower than choices from other slots. Giving Tau a way to play strongly on the objective game would make them into a more dynamic and interesting army both for Tau players and their opponents.
More Interesting Subfactions
Although this problem was in no way unique to Tau, the last book suffered pretty heavily from the majority of the subfactions being quite bad. Earlier on Tau Sept dominated everything, inevitably with a small allied detachment of Sa’cea, and later on Farsight took the lead when it got its supplement- but almost never did you see much variation in Tau army alignments; it was obvious what the “best” choice was and players rarely deviated from that.
This time around, I have high hopes for the design team giving Tau much better options to work with in terms of representing the personality of the individual septs and translating that into rules that incline players to try out different sorts of playstyles. They have done a pretty excellent job of that so far, even in the “weaker” books, so I think this one is all but a lock for at least some degree of success.
Return of Unit Upgrades
In the past, one of the most interesting features of Tau vehicles and battlesuits was the wide variety of upgrades they could take- giving improved ballistic skill, a limited invulnerable save, bonuses when shooting specific types of targets, etc. While some degree of this has been kept for battlesuits, most of the Support Systems were just… not useful, and have been completely obviated by more modern rules. I am very hopeful that not only will the existing systems get a gloss-up to make them more functional, but also that we will get to return to the days when vehicles could also select from upgrades… especially since most of them still have bits on the model sprues to represent them, something that GW is a stickler for these days. More customization plays into the parts of the faction that I like, namely being able to optimize unit loadouts for specific roles, and this sort of customization is very fitting for the way that Tau fight in the lore.
Simplified Drone Rules
We have seen a small hint of this already so it looks like there will be some kind of change here, but I think that pretty much every player with even the most passing knowledge of Tau will be able to agree that the current rules for Drones protecting battlesuits are bullshit. They aren’t fun. They don’t make sense. They aren’t even really good, they’re just a weird, abusive mess that is frustrating to play against and incredibly limiting to build an army around.
This, sadly, has been a problem for a long time, in form or another. Drones have always been a key part of the Tau fluff and yet their rules have always been somewhere between awkward and actively detrimental, which is not a good luck for something that is supposed to be central to your faction’s battle strategy. I am really hoping that they can resolve the tension between making all battlesuits completely invulnerable, overcosting the models, and having morale make the drones unusable, and not just because I have several hundred drones I want to be able to put on the field.
Final Thoughts
The release of the Tau book is getting close upon us now, and although we’re not likely to see any big, splashy kit releases, I can’t be too mad given the relative modernity of the Tau line as a whole. This mostly just leaves the mechanics side of things to get some love- and perhaps, if we are lucky, some good narrative stuff as well, like more about Fourth Sphere Expansion or more lore on the Ethereals.
As always, remember you can get great discounts on your wargaming supplies every day at the Frontline Gaming store, whether you’re looking to start a new army or expand an existing one.
