Tau Codex in the Spotlight
December 7, 2011 by darrell
Video Sponsors: Wayland Games - Infinity
Darrell and Andy take a scathing look through the Tau Codex and discuss what they need to improve... for the greater good!
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Thanks guys for having Codex Tau in spotlight.
I’ve got a bunch of these guys sitting in the loft waiting for a decent ‘dex, and I really hope they get it as I think they look cool.
I really hope they don’t get any decent close combat units at all, as that to me doesn’t really fit with their style. I hope markerlights become more effective, much cheaper points all round (especially battlesuits), and methods of slowing the enemy and disrupting deep strikes etc..
Good vid guys thanks for some tau coverage. They do need some help, you really have to build especially for each enemy to have any chance of being competitive. Marker lights can make a big difference. Just one marker hit can give a whole unit the bonus. My biggest challenge with them is to get the shooting order right. If it all goes well you can really peel away the nearest threats and keep the enemy at arms length. The new books, blood angels onwards, make life difficult with so much fast/deep strike. A tau player can use the kroot… Read more »
the army is suposed to be made of sharp-shooters, because fluff-wise that’s what they do best. Vespids could very well be a fast paced assault group to tie an enemy squad in combat while the rest of the army deploy very nice on the battlefield. Kroot are currently very weak and useless ( i got 12 of them blown to bits in ONE large blast attack by an IG army). They could suite the role of a support shooters and support melee team if it’s required. The codex is so weak now that the only way to get more mobile… Read more »
Vote 1 Darrell for codex writer
More Shots! More Twin-Linked! Longer Range! Less AP!
For a Tau we can all live with.
I think you want the Tau to be Grey Knights? I agree that its an old codex and needs a rewrite to deal with the gaps, but these guys should stay shooty. (This is in response to the changes you wanted to see to the fast attack flyers & the melee Kroot – power halberds & death cult assassins?) Covered in grease as a defense against close combat weapons? Have you tried this yourself? 😉 Given that the new design concept for both 40k and fantasy placed a greater emphasis on special characters, I see huge changes for the Tau… Read more »
i’ve been a tau player for a couple years, weathering who knows how many crushing defeats before i started winning games. In terms of overall feel, they hit some points right on both others they missed hard on. One of the aspects I didn’t feel got enough attention was cost. A crisis suit is 62 pts with a plasma rifle, missile pod, and multi-tracker, which makes the best use of its abilities. The devilfish is 85 pts and has the firepower of 3 carbine-wielding marines as its only weapon. All over the codex you see stuff like that. Both crisis… Read more »
While the bs3 can leave much to be desired at range, often the most important units have a way around it. Broadsides are bs3, but are twin-linked. Hammerheads are bs4 for free. Gun drones are twin-linked. Crisis suits can either be twin-linked or shoot multiple weapons. The other big positive to tau is that close combat is not as crucial if you follow the golden rule: don’t get multi-assaulted. Tau are weak in CC, and can be counted on to die on your opponents turn. This means that on your turn, the offending unit can be targetted by the entire… Read more »
as far as stuff i would love to see changed, for me the list isn’t as long as that of someone used to MEQ playstyle. And some of what i’d like to see is a step backward. In the 3rd edition codex, in adition to getting the 6+ save, the extra point spent per kroot carnivore upped their squad leadership by 1, which was phenomenal as they awful leadership. Additionally, wounds had to be first put on drones, then could they could be put on suits. And i dont remember if they counted for combat resolution or not. i’d like… Read more »
I would counter the statement:
“The biggest positive being the amount of firepower that Tau can generate without damage in return for multiple rounds.”
Every recent codex will be on you turn 2 at the latest.
As usualy, only little adjustment is actualy neaded but it will be completely remastered and cause a lot of new problems.
Cool, to bad Tau are pretty terrible now.
Oh, you know a gun drone with BS2 and twin-linked weapons is more accurate than BS3 pathfinders/fire warriors.
its kinda sad how the tau are probably the most hated race i may play blood angels but i think the tau are the only good guys becuse the tau give a chance to surrender
i want to see just very cheap marker lites. and that once a unit is lit they stay litt for the whole army not just for one unit. kongo line of kroots behind that kongo line fire woriors behind that kongoline fire woriors or somthing. put the markerlites in the sides and then the unit of kroots your fw troop have to fire throu dont provide cover to the enemy and is a chaep meat block.
and in the second the enemy got to you he hase to knife down each rteam one by one.
that would be nice i think
Ah, all the stuff I like about the Tau is the stuff that sucks. Kroot mostly – the krootox and the hounds are great figures and apparently almost useless in game terms. I tell myself I’ll buy some for tabletop atmosphere when I eventually get around to really playing Rogue Trader…
BS3 almost across the board for a shooting army really is bizarre though. It would be like having a character select in a video game where the big slow guy had a weak weapon, it’s against the natural order of things.
The krootoxs really do hamstring a unit now by removing its infiltration, in fact they, the hounds and the master shaper(the shaper has his stats now, but the shaper in a carnivore squad was pretty much just the same as the rest with options) used to be separate units altogether from the carnivores, which allowed you to field an all kroot army since the master shaper was HQ. BS3 does hurt them a bit in 5th, it comes from the fact that when the codex was written there were fewer charge across the whole board on turn one armies, so… Read more »
Ah, that makes much more sense, I hadn’t considered that they were a fancy-guns kind of shooting army and not a crack shot sort of deal. I pretty much missed third and fourth editions entirely and I find every now and then some of their finer points got streamlined a little too much in fifth…
Thanks for the vid guys. With the new book, I’d like to see how heavily they theme it. If they follow up with something similar to Necrons, who went Egyptian, I could see Tau going Japanese. With that in mind you could add a “ninja” or samurai units for close combat. Maybe something in between a battlesuit and a warrior. Something that could jump around, not be overly expensive but have a decent kick to it. Give it a twin linked assault weapon and a shield to improve saves with options to change it to something heavier. Like Tinracer, I… Read more »
I have been playing Tau for years and own a pretty massive army. I can say, without hesitation, that it is currently impossible to win with them when you opponent knows they are playing you in advance. Land Speeder Storms, Thunder-fire Cannons, Heroic Intervention, Stormravens, Myloc/Trygon, outflanking genestealers, mycetic spore/drop pod storms, bike armies, jet bike armies, Raider/Venom armies, orbital strikes, Marbo, and Leaman Russ spam just to start naming the armies that will limit you to one shooting phase. Your only hope is to layer your Kroot and detached gun drones then pray to the dice gods for epic… Read more »
I agree with Stebloke and the other guys… the army doesn’t need more close combat. they have ways to deal with that already. Small drone squads, markerlight & pinning weapon combos, kroot meat shieds. What needs to be addressed are some of the issues which make make the book less competitive. I think you addressed some of them. Adjustment of some of the rules like heavy markerlights and lack of good AP weapons to start. Seems they’ve intentionally made low AP hard to access by overpricing them and limiting them in options. The markerlights are great rules wise for their… Read more »
I don’t think there’s a problem with the standard Tau soldier being BS3. Just so long as their weapons have a little higher range and the points cost is reflected. Kroot seem fine, they’re meant to be cannon fodder, they have a good stat line, they just need a better transport vehicle, or the ability to deep strike them (in some sort of drop pod perhaps). The Tau should remain a shooting army. But they could do with some sort of infantry on a 40mm base that is more combat-apt, part of their merc legions or what not. That would… Read more »
I think to fit in with the castes have psychic ability’s that relate to the elements used by the ethereals. Such as a water blast that pushes the enemy unit back back 2D6″ and does D6 strength 4 AP 5 hits. Fire wave that creates volcanic eruptions in a large blast making the terrain dangerous for D3 turns. Earth Tremor that uses a similar mechanic to Worldscape in the new cron book. Ice blast that slows the enemy’s advance by halfing there movement and also there assault range. These could be used to keep the enemy at bay so the… Read more »
you guys forgot marker lights, they are very useful.
One of the people I play against a lot has only lost twice total and he plays Tau. We don’t know how he does so well with a codex people say sucks. We have tried all sorts of Darrel’s cheesy tactics and still lose.
The thing about the Fire Warriors that makes them nasty is the S5 guns. That causes too many wounds on Eldar for them to get across the field to engage in close combat. The Vehicles are wrecked by Rail guns to my guys always have to foot slog it.
2:59: yes the 50pt commander is bs4 and the 75 pt version is bs5. However, you can get a hardwired targetting array on the 50pt commander to boost him to bs5 for only 10 points. So, you get the higher ballistic skill for 15 points less. Since tau suck at cc the extra ws doesn’t matter
5:52: crisis suits, stealth suits, and gun drones all have jetpacks. they can all move 6″ in the movement phase and then another 6″ in the assault phase. The thrusters he’s referring to are vectored thrusters, which give the hit and run special rule to the model. however, you can only get them on an ic or monat. you can’t get them for a group.
6:59 he’s right on about plasma. but he skips the missle pod. r36″, s7ap4 assault 2 goodness for 12/18 pts depending on twin-linking. better against vehicles than the plasma rifle, and with the 5pt multi-tracker can be fired alongside the plasma rifle!
do kroot suck at shooting? yes. should you pay that extra point for a 6+ save? no. every tau player will tell you that kroot and piranhas are cheap for a reason: cannon fodder! kroot can infiltrate, and piranhas are fast skimmers. If they get close enough to be a problem, they will tie up 1-2 turns of your opponents game, giving your h support and crisis suits more time to do their thing.
A look at the tau options from the Imperial Armor Apocalypse Second Edition book would be nice. especially the one meant not for apocalypse but for standard 40k games!
I suspect that initially the Pulse carbine “pinning” rule was meant to provide the slowing effect against horde armies that would storm across the board. The problem is that these days with rewrites most horde armies are fearless, negating the effect of such weapons. Having to paying an additional 21 points just to gain access to an armour save for the Kroot and then paying an additional point for that said armour is poor. In general against shooting the armour will be negated and have no value, in hand to hand it provides an outside chance of tying up a… Read more »
Demiurg!!! 😀