Uhm…wow.
Everyone’s beloved by many and hated by also many, the monstrous titanic lord of war with no arms, the model where you wonder if people even painted the T’au inside the damn thing, the Stormsurge got some hefty updates coming up in the new T’au codex.
Very interesting considering this is probably one of the worst models in the entire T’au codex as of right now, but sitting at 300 odd points with these weapons this guy is looking like an absolute monster now. Couple this with all the fun new tools T’au has access to now, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this Lord of War actually make it to the tabletop with some decent success at the least.
First let’s go over the new stats.
From what the GW article says, we’re looking at an improved Toughness, Wounds and Save. Checking out the stats that the Stormsurge has right now:
Are we now looking at a T8 Stormsurge that’s turning into a 2+ with more wounds? We could be seeing maybe some form of an invulnerable save instead because sitting at T8 with a 2+, that sounds a lot like a Barbed Hierodule’s statline and those are already pretty meaty targets to begin with.
Off of this statline alone, I can only imagine this model is going to be getting a small points hike but to be honest the Barbed Hierodule is already 275pts. and something like a Telemon Dreadnought that has a similar statline (albeit with less wounds and duty eternal) for around 280pts. the Stormsurge might not see a points hike at all.
Okay, now let’s talk about the big elephant in the room. The gun.
*sweats nervously*
In the words of my great grandfather in world war 2, “AAAAHHHH.”
2 shots of a 12 damage gun is nuts. With S16 you’re wounding anything on 2’s unless they have a -1 to wound strat or some form of Transhuman, but besides that we’re looking at a pretty hefty looking gun here. Let’s compare this to what the Stormsurge’s Pulse Blastcannon looks like now:
Not only does the Stormsurge have more range for both profiles, he’s also lost the S10 0AP 2D weapon profile which isn’t that big of a deal. 6 Shots at S12 2AP 4D is more than enough to make up for it. Admittedly, although these are some high damage weapons, they’re also pretty low on their number of shots.
Referencing back to the statline of the Stormesurge now, with a BS of 4+ (3+ with markerlights more than likely) it’s not like this is the most reliable gun out there. But when it wounds and the damage goes through it’s going to chunk hard. Scary, menacing, worrying even.
Stabilising Anchors got a rework and this sounds pretty spicy, but before we go any further let’s take a look at what Stabilising Anchors does now:
So we’re removing this ability with the new one, where the old Stabilising Anchors gave you a straight up BS of 3+ thanks to the +1 to hit. However you just weren’t able to do anything like charge which honestly wasn’t that big of a deal to begin with.
Now since this action starts during your movement phase, it activates at the start of your shooting phase giving you full re-rolls which is actually pretty nice. Considering that the previewed weapon profile really doesn’t have that many shots, this is a nice upgrade for the Stormsurge. More valuable weapons on a more reliable platform.
But to get into the real nitty gritty of everything, let’s just look at what exactly this new 12D weapon can do against units that are pretty apparent in the current meta along with Mortarion because it’s always fun to see if something can kill Mortarion or not (statistics provided by 40kghostlord):
Looking at the table above, it’s really not that impressive. Anything with an Invulnerable Save is more than likely going to survive, and anything without an Invulnerable Save is more than likely going to die. I find it funny that GW’s tagline for the Stormsurge was, “Do you want to ONE SHOT a Knight” but it can’t even one shot a Knight with this profile anyways.
This is pretty cool…but also not? Per the wording on this Stratagem, it activates when an attack is allocated to a Counterfire Defense System model and then modifies that attack to become a damage characteristic of 1. It doesn’t say “Each time” so unless this was a mistake on GW’s part, you can only modify 1 singular attack.
Still, as a T8 model now with more wounds, this makes the Stormsurge even more tanky. It’s especially hilarious into a mirror match-up. Oh you have a Blastcannon that does 12 damage? Ha, nice joke – more like 1 damage. Proceeds to dab while his Stormsurge only takes 1 damage while standing on their custom Shadowsun Waifu Neoprene Objective Marker.
I would love to also know what else the Counterfire Defense System adds onto T’au Models unless they went the way of the Teleporter change for Grey Knights where you pay points just to have the ability to use certain powers and stratagems.
As of right now, the Stormsurge looks like an overcosted Hammerhead at this point. You get way more value on a cheaper platform with the Hammerhead than you do with the Stormsurge so there’s really no point in bringing the big titanic model unless you’re looking to have a couple of laughs with your friends.
All in all though, this looks like a pretty fun way to play T’au and does what matters the most – makes the model fun to play. Even if it’s not good competitively, having the option to even bring a Stormsurge without feeling like it’s just going to die and do nothing is a huge leap in player enjoyment. I highly doubt we’ll ever see a triple Stormsurge list make it to first place at a GT or Major, but one can dream.