[polymphus]

Some of you will have undoubtedly come across this ability by now, but for those not in the know I'll elaborate. Jaws of the World Wolf is a new Space Wolf psychic power that works by measuring a straight (and v. thin, think WFB cannon) line from the caster, 24" in any direction. It doesn't require LoS, and anything touched by it must take an initiative test or be removed from play. It doesn't affect vehicles, and the jury is still out whether it can affect battlesuits (although it can definitely kill broadsides; battlesuits are immune because they're jump infantry.)

The wording for the Space Wolf psyker entry is rather ambiguous, but RaW states that a SWolf player (using the standard FoC) can take four rune priests with this power. Tau tend towards having expensive models with low initiative, so this power (especially four of them) could hit our troops units hard. So how do we deal with this? I don't think it's quite the doom and gloom that the rest of the net (Warseer, Dakka, B&C) seem to be making of it, but it's certainly worth taking a look at. So yeah. Discussion on Jaws of the World Wolf, and how Tau should deal with it. Go!

Poly
Out

[Gorin]

This could be where Vespids could come in really handy. put them in a threatening position not in line with other tau units. It could provide a distraction and force the priest's squad to choose the target. If the Priest decide's to use the power against other units, the vespid could possibly get extra shots off.

[Unusualsuspect]

The immediate thought is "Go Mech or Go Home", since it doesn't affect vehicles or jump infantry.

That's kind of annoying for those of us who are hybrid or mostly static players, though, and not very helpful. :-\

[gil galed]

1/ It definitely doesn't affect battle suits / Drones (excluding broadsides), the power gives a definitive list and Jump Infantry is not one of them.

2/The Jury is out on whether you can take 4 Rp's with it, some debate as to whether you can't take the same power or combination of powers

3/ Like any shooting attack it requires LoS to something i believe, not necessarily everything

4/ Spread any foot troops out and hope for the best, remember that if he's within 24" you're within range to pulse rifle his hairy behind, basically kill rune priests with extreme vengeance. I however am worried about them podding in as there is little we can do.

5/ As others said, mech up? I'm most worried as i said about podding, particularly broadsides as dropping in you can probably hit two, which both will probably fail their tests and you've lost 160 pts of models which is, what? 40pts more than the RP cost to begin with. What Hoare was thinking when he wrote these rules i'll have no idea. We all know this will be spammed to insanity.

[polymphus]

3/ Like any shooting attack it requires LoS to something i believe, not necessarily everything

The thing here is that while it's a shooting attack, it has no target. It simply says to draw a line from the rune priest (point a) to a point 24" away (point b). RaW players argue from that that there's no LoS restriction, as you can fire blind at any point within 24".

[juraigamer]

Best strategy I can come up with: fire all the space marine loving people from games workshop and hire people that enjoy all armies equally, at least on average. Then have these new people make an errata that fixes this nonsense.

[Unusualsuspect]

Originally Posted by juraigamer

Best strategy I can come up with: fire all the space marine loving people from games workshop and hire people that enjoy all armies equally, at least on average. Then have these new people make an errata that fixes this nonsense.

That, or build a Space Wolves army.
:

[khanaris]

Stay in the tanks and be glad you weren't trying to play a Nidzilla or Nob Biker list. Nothing else you can do. The power isn't Heavy like Mind Worm, so expect to see it blasted out of transports, outflanked, infiltrated, and Drop-podded. If the Rune Priest is on foot, you can try to put one of his units in the way. But honestly, he will just move them out of the way in his own turn and have a clear shot. Assaults might be your only viable blocker.

[Charistoph]

Originally Posted by Khanaris

Stay in the tanks and be glad you weren't trying to play a Nidzilla or Nob Biker list. Nothing else you can do. The power isn't Heavy like Mind Worm, so expect to see it blasted out of transports, outflanked, infiltrated, and Drop-podded. If the Rune Priest is on foot, you can try to put one of his units in the way. But honestly, he will just move them out of the way in his own turn and have a clear shot. Assaults might be your only viable blocker.

That's even arguable, is it descrbed as a shooting attack? If not...

[knightperson]

Just for clarity, that line that is removing things from play is removing models, not units, right? Even then...

I'll reserve my true rant for when I've seen the fine print on how this works, but my first thought is "what a complete crock of shit!" If the Wolves can drop pod, which apparently they can, then this will completely destroy shooty armies like Tau, Necrons, and Guard. In a Pitched Battle deployment or a Dawn of War where the other guy forced you back, you have to deploy more or less in a line since your deployment zone is 6 feet wide and 1 foot or less deep. A drop pod can show up near the side of that line or in a gap in between units, draw that line, and start removing models. Shooty armies tend to have poor initiative, so removing models on a characteristic test that is easy to fail is completely broken. Other than hiding in vehicles, which will completely negate the advantage of pathfinders' devilfishes being available to other units, all we can do is play Ninja and keep everything in reserve. Hiding everything in vehicles is also no good against Space Wolf drop pods, because they can carry melta and blow up the vehicles, killing 1/3 of the guys inside. Oh, and that of course forces a morale check, which we fail about 40% of the time. Apparently, GW is forcing us to make an entire army of crisis suits, except for the fact that we have to have troops who can be insta-killed by a long list of things including heavy flamers, melta-exploding vehicles, a single space marine who gets into melee, and now a completely broken psychic power!

As effective as Ninja Tau is, I do not like being forced to play half the game with only half my army. If I have a 2000-point-per-side battle, I should be able to play with 2000 points, not be penalized for doing so and encouraged to only play half of it. Had I wanted to play 1000 points, I would play a 1000-point battle.