Tau Pre-play Analysis: Early Warning Override! (that's a Tau thing you xenophobic cretons!)

I've been enjoying this recent foray into blogging.  Because of this, I’m going to write a mutli-part analysis of the Tau Army list to be published over the next few days/weeks.

I am JUST NOW at a point where I’ve played a Tau army longer than I played the game before the Tau ever existed, but most people who know me associate me with Tau without much thought.  But there was a time of darkness where Space Wolves were my main army.

Here is the introduction and General thoughts regarding the Tau army at this current time.

Enjoy.

My Tau are themed around my personal background for a secret Tau Para military organization called Task Force: Legacy.  Those familiar with Mass Effect might think of this as similar to the Salarian Special Tasks Group (and IS a lot of the inspiration for it). Those with a Start Trek knowledge might think of this as the Cardisian Obsidian Order or the Romulan Taal'Shiar.  Task Force Legacy has one major advantage over these inferior secret societies. This Band of Tau are safe-guarding a deep secret that would create schisms all throughout the Tau Empire.  they are aware of a newly evolved caste of Tau that encompass properties from ALL Tau Caste and have even stronger ramifications.  The Ethereal circle would destroy this organization if they were aware of it's existence. but this discovery of this secret is nearly impossible to unearth. You see, this organization has develloped one of the most advanced technologies in the known(and unkown) galaxy. they have developped the Fetter Drive, a gravatic distortion envelope generator that creates a Time-AntiTime effect on matter. Once Matter is disrupted by the Fetter Drive Effect, it is no longer bound by time and space and must purposefully re-tether itself back to time-space. Or as you might have hear me more commonly say, Did you know MY TAU CAN TRAVEL THROUGH TIME?

this organization has a deeper concept of the Greater Good, and studies the effect of timestreams and historical manipulation of time-thread to create desired effects in the future. This Tau Strike force attempt to perform small surgical strikes in key time Data points to secure the Greater Good.  these surgical strikes typically consit of small stealthy mobile strike forces arriving from out of no where and then disspearing before a full counter-attack can be mounted. when a Tau of the Proh ja'Hinn (Progeny) caste "die", their connect to Time-space is lost and they blink out of Physical existance. Death is an affect of Time however, and without time, Death is just a temporary state of being.  Defeat on the field of battle is not bad in that units are destroyed, but rather, they will have to re-attempt the mission so that victories that must be achieved WILL be achieved.    

the motives of these missions can oft be difficult to determine as military victory might not be the goal so much ans some smaller ancillary situation, such as the proverbial "Killing Hitler while he was still a child" type of Timeline influence.

this background all falls in line with my Tau army approach of mobile Tau units using stealth technologies and surgical Close Air Support to achieve objectives.

Introduction: Why Tau

Since I first heard of Tau Rumors before the first Tau codex, I was already in love with this new race in the 40k universe.  I was first drawn to their tech, their look and their fire power.  I was then drawn in by their naiveté about the Grim Darkness.  I was finally drawn in by their potential to show the transitional arc they will get to display, reminding us how the races of man and Eldar manage to start with noble goals and then reach their dark corners of morality.

I have played nearly every army ever produced for the 40k universe, but it is the Tau I am bonded to, like my own personal Ta’lissera (bonding knife ritual for you xenophobic cretons!)

I want to make an early assessment of the Tau in 8^th edition.  The new edition is too new to make infallible analysis, but analysis is a good exercise in study.  I’m pretty sure I like the rules and that they seem reasonably balanced that I can determine without playing the game more.

As an Army, Tau are a firepower based army, though never as accurate as elite shooting armies without the aids of cross unit markerlight support.  They are faster than their imperial counter parts, but only slightly in the overall sense and never as fast as FAST armies.  Lastly they hate melee. This all seems to hold true to how they work in 8^th edition.

General Overview

As a whole, I think the Tau seem as balanced as any other army I’m able to judge so far(without any Tau games under my belt and using my style of play compared to a pure power gamer mindset).

1 .      I think in the era of a new “to wound” chart and the loss of the Vehicle armor system, the Pulse weapons have a breath of new life and may make fire warrior’s limited loadout options a less uncomfortable concept for me.(not unlike how I see the shuriken Catapult now).  I’m still upset about the disappearance of EMP grenades(not commonly used by the Tau community as a whole, but a mainstay in my Fire warrior units). It think the loss of these grenades is a cosmetic loss over actual game play (as the pulse rifle fulfills the role of modest anti-vehicle functionality similarly to the EMP grenades of old).

2   1.       I think Markerlight are better than ever (though I think this is the opposite of the Tau community common thought.

                 

      It take more markerlights to achieve the same results for an individual shooting, but Markerlights stay on an enemy unit for the entire shooting phase and affects ALL shooting directed at the target unit. Even a single markerlight has value, but 5 on a single target will virtually ensure it’s demise.

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     2.      Jump-shoot-jump is now gone, but has been replace by Shoot-fallback-shoot.  Not as great, but not bad at all. This means if you manage to survive the assault, you’ll still get to jump out of melee and continue your blasting the enemy with your considerable firepower.


                             

     
     3.   Drone SAVIOR PROTOCOL.

       
       Drone 185 from the movie Oblivion.  I know have cool third party drone models that blend tau tactical drones with this neat design!

       I consider this both an amazing and terrifying rule (good and bad) for the Tau depending on the mission. Any Drone unit within 3” of another infantry or battle suit unit can take a wound suffered by the nearby unit, meaning drones finally act  as the attrition units I thought they always should be.they are considered a separate unit from the squad that buys them as an upgrade which is potentially a HUGE downside. For missions where points are scored for units destroyed, these tiny 2 man units each counts as a victory point AND ensure the Tau will never be the UNDERDOG in a game. Those things are very scary, but the attribtion ability is AWESOME!  Also for this reason, we might never see drones leave their devilfish mounts (not too huge a deal).  It’s very cool, but a mixed bag.

 
     4.  Their special rules (for the greater good and bonding knife ritual) seem enough like their previous edition rules.  their support fire rule  (now For the Greater Good) stilll allows nearby units that are being assaulted by adding to their overwatch,  if they do this, they surrender their abilty to overwatch any more in that Charge phase.  Now that a unit can overwatch any number of times in a Charge phase. 

     speaking of the charge phase/assault phase, The Tau's leadership is comparable to imperial guard (base leadership 6), with the elite battlesuits being base 7 or 8.  The bonding knife ritual rule makes a Morale test of 6 always succeed, which means there's now always a lucky chance that they survive the morale test unscathed no matter how great the odds are.  it's not as generally good as And They Shall Know No Fear or  insanely high leadership stats like Chaos with Mark of Vengeance Icons, but it gives them a shot.

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     5.   Photon Grenades are potential great at close range against opposing units.   They essentially get d6 opportunities to force a -1 to hits a single target unit within 12”

7   6.       Seeker missiles are weirdly interesting now, they hit on a 6+ unless guides by a markerlight, and then they only hit as well as the unit it is shot from).  They inflict a MORTAL wound.  This is great in some cases, but will not be all that useful against models with lots of wounds. This is not a complaint at all, and I expect to be loading out devilfish with these weapons about as much as I typically do. They seem to be more surgical strike  than vehicle killer. With TH/SS terminators being the BANE of my Tau existence, these are welcome changes to the army, even if they seems a little odd.
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    7. Tau can expect to be slaughter in melee now more than ever for the most part. even if they only lose a few models to the melee itself, this essentially doubles with a poor More morale phase roll. I do think the Battlesuits have a greater ability to endure melee damage with their better statline and wounds, but as it has been in the past, this is offset by significant Point Level cost for all battlesuit units.


t    Tune in to the next transmission intercept for an analysis of Tau HQ and Troop Choices!