[Deadnight]

I dunno. Even with the new tau codex, i get the feeling its all muddled up and very dodgy. there are just so many things that are really half-arsed with it, from rotton wargear, even more rotton special characters, and very dodgy fluff. the third sphere expansion is the most fanboyish Klkn i've read in a long time. As fro shadowsun and aun'va, the less said, the better. So, whilw walking the dog 5 miles every day, i let my mind wander, and i figure this is how i'd do the tau codex. Its a fan based work in progress, but i like my changes. ;D have a read through if you want. i think they're fairly balanced.

So, how it works:
army list.
special characters.
wargear stuff.
new fluff. and short stories.

Army list. to save time and because i'm lazy, i wont post stats where they are the same as the tau codex. I'll just say as per codex. if there are one or two changes, it'll read as per codex, but toughness increased to 4, for example. points costs are my own, and will follow the same rules.

HQ:

Tau commanders.
Stats - as per codex.
Price cost.
Shas'el. 70.
Shas'o. 90.

Equipment - XV8c battlesuit. all other options are identical. Must select 3 battlesuit weapons, or support systems.
Independent character.
XV8c battlesuit. its a command version of the regular XV8. It has increased comm relays, as well as other safety features for the greatest tau warriors. as such, it counts as having an integrated command node, and ejection system. XV8c suits can be further modifed with equipment from the commander specific wargear, and hardwired wargear.

Etherial.As per codex, except the LOS restriction on inspiring presence is removed.

Honour Guards.
Honour guards are the chosen warriors sworn to protect the tau leaders. THey may be long time friends, or bonded to them through the ta'lissera rights. they do not take up a slot on the FOC.

*Fire Warrior Honour Guard for Etherials. As per codex.

*Crisis Suit Honour Guard for Shas'el/o. As per XV8 bodyguard team, except Bs is increased to 4, and points cost is increased to 45 each. All other options are identical.

Elites

XV8 crisis battlesuit team. As per codex. shas'vre and team leaders may take items from the hard wired wargear section

XV15/25 stealth team. As per codex, except they have the behind enemy lines special rule. (its either that or points reduction to 25pts. they're too bloody overpriced) oh, and XV15 models make a return.

Troops:

Fire Warrior team. As per codex.

Devilfish transport: options change. Allow it to upgrade gun drone to twin burst cannons for +10pts. (universal secondary weapons systems) or a pair of networked markerlights at +30pts.

Kroot. As per codex.

Fast Attack:

Gun Drones. As per codex.

Pathfinders.
Stats: As per codex.
Cost. 18pts each. squad size 4-8. Shas'ui upgrade +12pts.
Equipment: Pulse carbines with integrated markerlights, photon grenades, emp grenades.
Mandatory devilfish is removed.

Special rules.
masters of battlefield positioning. count as having the stealth special rule.
Co-ordinate deployment. Pathfinders are the eyes and ears of a cadre, pulling it forward to battle. they're in the field for days at a time, scoping out enemy positions, firing lanes, movements etc and relaying this information back to better help the cadre. To represent this, for every full pathfinder team in a tau army, one unit may be held back from normal deployment. It is then deployed after all fast attack choices have been places, but before infiltrators. usual restictions apply (ie in escalation, you cant put on a unit that would not be allowed onto the field in the first place, like a hammerhead)
Co-ordinate movement. units deepstriking to a point visible to the pathfinders may re-roll the scatter dice.

Pirahna. As per codex, except points cost reduced to 50.

Vespids.
Points cost 20pts.
(points go up for the upgunned neutron blaster (assault 2, 12")
Otherwise, as per codex.

Heavy Support:

Hammerhead. As per codex.

Broadside. As per codex.

Skyray. As per codex, except seeker missiles increased to 8.

No more sniper drones. they're stupid.


__________________________________________________ _________________________________

Special Characters:

The Outcast. Commander Farsight.
As per codex, but he counts as the necessary commander for a farsight enclaves list.


***


The Warrior. Commander Fury.
his story in a nutshell. the nids eat Falshia. he stops them. against all the odds. and becomes a hero. he's the blood and guts commander, and exists to soak the tau up to their necks in their own blood (pure old school 40k.)

Points WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
200 3 5 5 4(5) 4 3 3 10 2+

Counts as the obligatory tau fire warrior commander
Equipment: XV8c crisis battlesuit with integrated ejection system and command node, plasma rifle, fusion blaster, r'myr shield generator, enhanced exoskeleton, iridium armour.

Special Rules:
Grim and unyielding. Such is Fury's legendary stand against the tyranids, those near him are inspired to be as fearless (and reckless) as him. Models within his command node range are fearless.
You Shall Not Pass. Fury counts as having preferred enemy: tyranids.


***


The Legend. Aun'shi
his story. cool etherial. everyone loves him. made his name at fio'vash. Now he's on his way to the Perdus rify to investigate the farsight enclaves. put in fluff as to some things he's seen, done, discovered.

Points WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
105 5 0 3(5) 3 2 4 4 10 -

Equipment: the honour of fio'vash. given to him as an honourary symbol of his heroic defence of fio'vash, this weapon counts as an honour blade with the rending special rule, and contains an integral r'myr generator.

Special Rules:
Independant character. unless he joins a unit, he counts as being an independant character.

Parry. Aun'shi may sacrafice 1 of his attacks, to reduce the attacks of one opponent in b2b contact with him, by 1. he may do not reduce his, or their attacks below 1.

Fearless. Aun'shi, and any unit he leads, counts as being fearless.

Honour Guard. A very special honour guard travels with aun'shi. they are the survivors of fio'vash, and have sworn to serve him until their dying day. He may select this honour guard as his personal retinue, and they count as a single unit.

honour guard stats:
Points. WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
15 2 4 3 3 1 3 2 10 4+

Team: the team consists of 5-10 fire warriors.
Equipment: pulse rifles, photon grenades. emp grenades.
As long as Aun'shi is alove, the squad doesnt count as below half strength, for the purpose of victory points, and scoring oblectives.
All other options- as per codex.
Essentially, they're a FW honour guard, that has, added to their profile, the old shas'aun'shi special rules (+1i, +1A, never count as below half strength)


***


The Maverick. The Medusa V famous commander. Was it Brightsword? Or Darksword? Or something...
Brightsword is the embodiment of the tau, with a focus on the tau'va and the new-ness of tau technology. he is the successor to shadowsun who tragically died at the hands of a cockroach ;D and exists to fulfill the "new" and "future-y" niche of the tau.

Points WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
175 4 5 4 3 3 4 4 10 3+

COunts as the 1+ tau commander.
Equipment: XV221 battlesuit with integrated command node, shield generator, 2 plasma rifles, HW advanced multi tracker, HW advanced target lock, advanced jetpack
Unit type: Brightsword counts as a jetbike for movement purposes (12"/6") though he may not turboboost.

Put in fluff about the xv221. its the successor to the xv22. those who used the xv22 found it extremely lacking, and the 221 takes all that was learned, and tries to fix it, and represents the next evolutionary leap forward for the tau technology.

__________________________________________________ _______________________________

Wargear stuff:

Battlesuit weapons: as per codex, except plasma rifles are 18pts. (60pt fireknives is a nice number!)

Battlesuit support systems: as per codex, with the following changes. Positional relay costs 35pts and adds +1 to reserve rolls (ie turn two, reserves arrive on a 3+)

Hardwired wargear:HW BSF, HW drone controller, HW multi tracker, HW target lock as per codex.

Commander wargear.
Integrated command node. All units with a model within 12" of the commander may use his Ld for leadership, pinning, and morale checks (its the one thing from shadowsun i want to keep, and is somewhere between rites of battle, and the IG officer ld bubble)
Integrated ejection system. as per codex.
Iridium armour: 25pts. 2+ save. 6" move in assault phase.
enhanced exoskeleton.. 25pts. adds +1T to the commander, but the original toughness counts for instant kill weapons.
Advanced Multi tracker. 25pts. allows a commander to select two of the same weapons (eg two plasma rifles) and fire them simultaneously (2 missile pods would allow 4 shots a turn)
Advanced Target Lock. 15pts. allows a commander to fire his own weapons at different targets.

Special things - not in the armoury, but given to aun'shi and Fury.
R'myr generator. a more powerful version of the standard shield generator, made famous by its use from Shas'o r'myr. Its expensive to make in terms of materials, labour, and constant maintenance is necessary. As such its only entrusted to the most revered and famous tau figures (ie not your local tau shas'el or shas'o!) Hell, Brightsword doesnt even have one. ;D It generates a 4+ inv. save to ranged weapons, and a 3+ inv. save in close combat.

__________________________________________________ _______________________________

On fluff:
the fluff was the most disappointing thing in the new codex. it was either regurgiated, or the cool stuff reduced to a mere few lines (damocles) and fanboy tripe (aun'va, shadowsun, third sphere expansion) taking over, so i propose some changes. Some things i know how to write, and some things, help would be cool.

keep the stuff up to page 10. thats fine. the tau and humanity section needs to be explored in more depth, with more emphasis on damocles as a huge war. tau art of war is fine. the victories of the tau need to be explored in greater depth, especially damocles, and the thir sphere wars. as they are, they are really dodgy, and add nothing. the stuff on the aliens is OK. More on sept worlds and language. tau military organisation is pretty OK.
what i want is a short story (i have it planned) exploring life in the battle academy. i have a plan for a story with a young shas'saal coming in from active training to a lecture. just shed some light on how they're taught, who teaches them, the things they do, and learn etc, because its a big, black hole in the fire caste fluff that we know nothing about.
And of course. Fury's story. What i have is merely a cross between macragge and iyanden, and needs to be done up properly. it does have a cool Fury moment.

Last thing. And most importantly. A note on the future, with a short story. I want Fury's legacy to not be himself, or his legend, or the great heroes who stumbled out of the wreckage of a nice world. It will be the aftermath. He almost goes down the road of Farsight. He says things like "those races who pose a threat to us should be destroyed without qualms. we already lay waste to the ores'la and the y'he. The gue'la and others are too much of a risk to us. they too should perish." Show a dark side to the tau, and show the ruthless, bloodthirsty and highly aggressive nature of some fire warrior commanders.
And have the scope for hope with a short story along the following lines.
2 etherials having an honour duel at the high etherial chambers. One says things like
"we live in a grim, cruel and ruthless galaxy. We are assaulted on all sides by enemies. Our future is not certain. THe tau'va is a great ideal, that we should strive to live by, but we can't reconsile it with the cold hard realities of this galaxy. We must be more ruthless to survive".
And his opponent says "Aun'O wha'tev'er is right when he says we live in a grim, cruel, and ruthless galaxy. But he is wrong to suggest we should turn from the light and embrace the dark! It is precisely because the galaxy is so grim, cruel, and ruthless that the tau'va is even more important. We shine the light to all the other races. Within our realms there is peace, prosperity, and progress. That shows the righteousness of the tau'va, and it is our duty to bright that light to the dark beyond our borders" And then they fight, and the story ends... ;D

[Wargamer]

Shock! Horror! Knocking the Sniper Drones is blasphemy! I love those guys!

And who is this Fury guy anyway?

[Deadnight]

Originally Posted by Wargamer

Shock! Horror! Knocking the Sniper Drones is blasphemy! I love those guys!

And who is this Fury guy anyway?

they're another attempted unit that got horribly mixed up, and really doesnt do anything right. its too expensive, non scoring, and just doesnt feel right with the constantly shifting BS. And the models are horrible. i just dont like how the bs is constantly shifting up and down, and how they have to awkwardly roll twoce each shooting phase - one for the light, and then for everything else. Id rather one damned roll, with one damned bs.

Fury is my own guy. I just wanted a dark non-farsighty tau commander. As mentioned, he exists to soak the tau up to their necks in blood in their own macragge. tau commanders up to now have been to clean, and too nice. lets face it. shadowsun beating a nid hivefleet without losses was 10metres this side of ridiculous. fury does it right, in the only way 40k knows how. Back to the wall, against the odds, and with a hell of a lot of blood and guts. ;D

To be honest, i'm proudest of my special characters. i think they've got a whole heap of style, and Fury adds a lot to the tau, with them being on the knife edge. they can stuggle to reconsile the tau'va with the realities of thr 40k galaxy, or they can go down the road of Farsight, and want to stick it out on their own, with no one's help. you can play the clean nice shas'el who is bringing the light to the darkness, or the ruthless nasty shas'el who wants to annihalate all threats to the empire.

the pathfinders. i think the two co-ordinate rules really reflect their actual battlefield role better than anything GW has come up with to date.

And new wargear. i wanted commander rocksolid. with t 4(5), and a 2+ save. you pay for it through your nose though...

[ForbiddenKnowledge]

unit that got horribly mixed up, and really doesnt do anything right. ~ with the constantly shifting BS.

I like this up to the losing sniper drones... wtf? They are fantastic disruption units, can slow up to 9 units a turn with marker support, and can trash marine units like hot knife + butter. Great at anti-heavy infantry. As for the BS, you might as well junk markerlights altogether then. Its what we do.

I like the titles on the special characters, the maverick, the legend et al, really cool IMO.

Not sure I like Fury, who the hell is he? Is he your own invention?

I think bringing Commander Longknife, or O'kais from DoW would be nice as well, they would also fit the warrior IMO.

his story in a nutshell. the nids eat Falshia. he stops them. against all the odds. and becomes a hero. he's the blood and guts commander, and exists to soak the tau up to their necks in their own blood (pure old school 40k.)

Really just seems like Shadowsuns bit regurgitated with less fanboy in it, when she stopped the nids, and you said you hated that thing.

As for the death of shadowsun, I like, but can't we do to her what should be done to the last 5 mins of Star Wars 3? You know, the bit where Vader screams "NO" and pretend it never happened...... thats right, she never existed

[Deadnight]

Originally Posted by Rafe

I like this up to the losing sniper drones... wtf? They are fantastic disruption units, can slow up to 9 units a turn with marker support, and can trash marine units like hot knife + butter. Great at anti-heavy infantry. As for the BS, you might as well junk markerlights altogether then. Its what we do.

well, it is just my opinion. i never liked them. too easy to counter. ;D

Originally Posted by Rafe

I like the titles on the special characters, the maverick, the legend et al, really cool IMO.

thank you. I got inspired by MGS3.

Originally Posted by Rafe

Not sure I like Fury, who the hell is he? Is he your own invention?

yup. see above post.

Originally Posted by Rafe

Really just seems like Shadowsuns bit regurgitated with less fanboy in it, when she stopped the nids, and you said you hated that thing.

precisely. its the tau having a proper damned 40k moment and winning against all the odds. i hated shadowsun effortlessly wiping her D'yi and killing a hivefleet while she did it. I hate her for being an attempt to create a tau primarch.
the whole beating the nids is cool. it rocks. hell, the ultramarines had a kick D'yi story out of it. it just needs to be done right, and IMO Fury does that.

plus he's got a cool name. ;D

And hell yes to eating fal'shia. we dont need a planet of poets. i had enough of heaney and w.b. yeats in school!

[AngelofReason777]

Woah. This is almost as good at that Conversion I saw for a (mostly) all drone Army. Darn, And here I just sold my Tau!!

Very Patton on Commander Fury. An Excellent testament to the Bloody ways of the 40k Universe.

I would Probably reintroduce the Snipers. Perhaps make them something different, or tweak the rules a bit. Maybe Fury Introduced Some sort of New Program to slave more than three drones?

[Deadnight]

if anything was to be done with snipers, I'd do maybe one of the following:

* points reduction. what they are is too bloody much. reduce it to 75pts.

* change their position on the FOC. As is, they compete with too many necessary tau units (ie hammerheads, broadsides) I'm sorry, but i wont sacrafice one of these for what i regard to be a really dodgy unit. I'd move them to Elites.

* And for the love of bob, make the damned thing scoring units. :

[Tralfagar]

They aren't scoring units??? ???

[Deadnight]

Originally Posted by Tralfagar

They aren't scoring units??? ???

Indeed. page 40, in the "team" segment of Sniper Drone Teams.

Like i said, they're a dodgy unit.

[Tralfagar]

...that makes no sense at all. Not moving them, but the unit isn't scoring, while gun drones are.

Anyways, onto the codex.

I like what you've done. The most prominent features(IMO) are the Vespid, Pathfinders, and Devilfish.

I love the fact that the devilfish is unnecessary, and I don't have to waste points on a 120 pt piece of tank(if you get it, you need to upgrade it).

I may use Vespid now because of this. And it even makes up for dropping Sniper Drones. Strain leader went up as well right?

And finally the Devilfish. Some may claim this will go towards making the Skyray obsolete, and I agree. Which is good. I've never seen a use for that unit and would rather its abilities be spread out over units as it's more fitting towards Tau philosophy(combined arms).