Tau Empire: Part 7, Fast Attack

The army really flops here. Think about the CSM codex, you have a few units that can be taken. Obviously everyone wants to take the Heldrake because it's ridiculously powerful but Bikers are fine (Nurgle bikers), Raptors and Warp Talons are pretty good too. Spawn, in my opinion, are bad and supposed to be so that you aren't happy when you roll them on the Boon Table. But look at the slot as a whole: good units, each of them changes the way the army plays and most importantly can be taken individually and not diminish the rest of the army. What I mean by that is, if you take Nurgle Bikers, your unit of Havocs is not worse off for it. If you take 3 units of Warp Talons, your cultist blobs do no lose effectiveness. If you have Heldrakes galore, your basic troops are not now weaker than if you had taken another unit.

Now look at the Tau Fast Attack slot. They need Pathfinders. The rest of the army relies on shooting and Pathfinders are an army-wide buff to that. If you don't take them you are severely diminishing every unit. But Tau are one of the armies that can't do blobs or semi-mech (tanks are wickedly expensive in this codex and they suck. What.) so they need flyers to support them. How are you supposed to do that with just one?

Another thing you'll notice is Piranhas and Vespids. Vespid Stingwings are nowhere near as good as Chaos Raptors but cost a point more each. They have no options other than a near mandatory upgrade and they have weirdly specific stealth too. To get both Kroot and Vespid stealth you'll have to fight in Machu Picchu apparently. Regardless aren't Vespids insects that live on a gas giant? What the hell in that cultural upbringing gave them Stealth (Ruins)? The fluff in this book is almost completely moot in the army rules it seems. Regardless Vespids are bad and expensive which segues perfectly into Piranhas  40 points to start off? A Rhino has 1 more BS 1 more side AV and 1 more HP and it's 35 points. Does fast and skimmer really count for that much? Is the burst cannon that much better than the combi-bolter? What about gun drones? Are they what tip this unit over the charts on points? Clearly not as those drones are just wound sinks that aren't able to perform that job for the vehicle. What can this unit do outside 18''? Nothing. Unless you want to dump more points into it but then you'll need Pathfinders for the smart missiles you just bought. Oh woe is thee.

Well, I should do a proper analysis of these units anyways but suffice it to say: you need two pathfinder units and you'll want a Sun Shark Bomber even though you'll need 2-3 of those too. Too bad you can't split units like MEQ or, you know, take support systems like some units. Like, I donno, Target Lock? Velocity Tracker? Drone Controller? But ah, whatever, Pathphinders are so good anyways it's not like they set up your whole army right? Let's take a look at Tau Fast Attack.

Tau Empire: Part 4, HQ's (They're actually good now!)

Seeing the new Tau HQ's

The new Tau HQ's are awesome. They have awesome 12'' auras, cool gunline properties, extra equipment that can buff a large unit, they're good. Which is totally different from before where you wanted to limit your point exposure to the HQ's and you're no longer forced to take a battlesuit in each army (no more 1+ rules!).  Now you might even be interested to know that battlesuits can be more than just a few gun placements with a bodyguard: they can buff things (Helloooo Puretide Engram Neurochip)! Now, to be fair, they aren't necessarily amazing choices like you'd get in other armies (GK and Space Wolves come to mind) but they are definitely great to have and you wouldn't be a total doofus taking two Ethereals. So let's take a look at the changes.

Tau Empire: Part 2, Ranged Weapons (aka too much dakka)

The Tau love guns. It's a fact. They may even love guns too much.

Example of Tau pornography

But they use that love as a catalyst for their expansion. The Greater Good is actually just a ploy to spread across the galaxy to find new Dakka to fire. It's an addiction, and one they battle with constantly. I'm going to go over their repertoire of weaponry and show you which weapons you might want to take.

Since a good chunk of these weapons are only available on one or two units and their specific BS's may differ I'll do the math for both to show which is more useful or more worth the points. Let's begin.

Tau Empire: Part 1, Melee Weapons

I'm seriously doing this.

There are 3(!) melee weapons in the codex that can be taken by a total of 2(!!!) units. For some reason you have to spend points to take two of them even though neither of them are power weapons or good. Honestly why would you spend points on them?

Tau Codex Review: Part 0, Army Rules

Time to grab another beer and read-up the new Tau codex. I've been gone for a few days so I apologize for not updating the blog. We now get to the newest in a line of $50 codexes. GW has apparently decided to release a codex every 15 seconds for 6th edition without proofreading or playtesting to see what the author has done so it's up to us players to run the gamut, question the decision making and generally tear apart every new 'Dex. Here goes!

Quickie: Is that Psyker gonna work?

Just wanted to throw out some quick maths on the failure rate of Psykers.

1/6 deny the witch and 3/36 fail to cast with Ld 10. With Ld 9 it's an additional 1/6.

So in total those powers cast on enemies have a 25% failure rate with Ld 10 and a 33% rate with Ld 9.

Now how about that gun you've got? Storm bolter? BS 4 means you have 33% chance of hitting. Against MEQ with your 2 shots you cause .11 wound per shot or .22 wounds total. Meaning you have a very low (less than 60%) chance of killing someone.

I include the storm bolter comparison to validate Psychic powers. It was much easier to get one off last edition but in this edition they're the best shooting attacks outside of BS 5 and still pretty good besides. In a 5 turn game you have a 65% chance of passing every power. That's good odds. If it's against other units you have a 23% chance in a 5 turn game of hurting someone every time. Still pretty good odds for a unit wide shooting attack.

Honestly, enemy specific psychic powers get a bad rap with Deny the Witch but the odds are as in your favor as they can get in this game.

Bloodthirster will eat your face.

Your whole face in fact.

I'm enthralled with the Bloodthirster but I was at a loss on how to deck him out. I keep looking back at the previous codex with a forlorn look and a hopeless attitude. No S8 titan slapping plebs in face anymore. But then I got thinking, you're getting Deathstrike, you're getting Greater rewards and potentially awesome Exalted rewards. I'm also looking at Lesser Rewards with a small smile and it makes me think that there's hope for the Bloodthirster still.

But how to equip him? That's what I'll be looking into today.

GK HQ's: What do they give you?

Now Grey Knights have a very unique codex as far as HQ's go. Several of their HQ's unlock certain units as troops choices and thus completely alter the composition of the army. While some of those HQ's are pretty bad units themselves (Crowe comes to mind) the units each of them unlock can drastically change the composition of your army for the better even if the HQ itself is lackluster.

The HQ's who give access to new units are: Draigo, Crowe and Coteaz. They each unlock an Elite slot unit for selection as Troops. They are (in order): Paladins, Purifiers and Inquisitorial Henchmen. Each HQ is a very different unit so I'll review them each to show how they function and postulate as to how you can use them in the game.

You came to the wrong neighborhood

MAGIC! (CSM Sorcerers)

Today I wanna talk about the sleeker, sexier, sorcerer(ier) HQ in the CSM codex: The Sorcerer. A very good, cheap HQ that really requires no upgrades to still be effective. 60 points for a mandatory HQ in a Space Marine equivalent codex is really good. You can spend the extra points on your troops and vehicles and such. Honestly a Captain costs 40 points more, meaning you can take a Rhino and a Sorcerer for the cost of a basic MEQ HQ. And have 5 points left over (get something nice for your mother).  Let's analyze each mark first and how they benefit the sorcerer and then mathhammer the powers.

Oh 'Lord'y!

Time to talk CSM. The next most recent codex...or whatever. The penultimate Codex. Chaos Space Marines. So far, their codex is doing awesome, what with cheap meat in the form of Cultists and excellent flyers, the Heldrake, as well as the ability to field cheap sorcerers, monster HQs and tons of heavy weapons in the form of Havocs they have become a force to reckon with. The army is excellent as primary or allied but today, I'm here to talk about Lords. Oh yes.

Pretty much every Chaos Lord's dream outfit

Specific Questions:
How do I make the most Killy Lord?
What CC weapons does he get? (Hint: He always gets CC weapons. Always)
Should he take a mount?
What about Marks?

Chaos Daemons: Part 8, Troops

With a brief review a the troops you can see that some are improved. There are more options (random options) for your characters, everyone has pretty reduced stat-lines and are cheaper. But as in last edition, they blow. They honestly suck against MEQ and FX but at least they're cheaper. Which does make them somewhat good. The problem is that in order to make Plaguebearers and Pink Horrors cheaper they decided to nerf them pretty hard. Why? It's not like we were slaughtering units left and right with absurdly priced troops before. Now they're fairly priced but they get nerfs? That's like going to a dealership and the guy says, "Listen, I'll drop the price on the car by half, but I'll take out the engine and the back wheels." just because it's cheaper doesn't make it a deal. Anywho let's see how they stack up to previous incarnations.

Chaos Daemons: Part 6, Heralds

Winner takes all. It's the thrill of one more kill...

Cheap, deadly, unit-buffing HQs. Sergeants on steriods is a better term for the Heralds. You now get to take 4 of them for each HQ slot so Daemons get buffed as Allies and as Primary. They each get access to Daemonic Loci (some are better than others, admittedly) which have a unit buff effect making them and their entourage even better. Honestly, if I could choose my rewards I'd almost say these guys are overpowered. But I can't so I won't. Let's begin.

Chaos Daemons: Part 3, Marks

Marks

Not this kind

The marks will be pretty easy math-wise. Let's get to it.

Chaos Daemons: Part 2, Ranged Weapons

Daemons are SOL for shooting

Going to divide this section up into the Ranged Weapons list and the Psychic Powers/Rewards. There are very few ranged weapons that can be taken on anyone but Soul Grinders. How few? None on troops. None. Unless you randomly roll for one on rewards or take a psychic power. Meaning your troops who want to shoot will have to watch as your opponents get Deny The Witch rolls every time.

Chaos Daemons: Part 1, Melee Weapons

This post is going to be analysis of weapons. Standalone, the weapons are meaningless: you must have something to compare to. Therefore I'll use two comparisons; Marine Equivalent, MEQ, which is the stat-line of an individual space marine and Filthy Xeno. Filthy Xeno is a made up unit that is supposed to be representative of Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, Orks and Imperial Guard. Therefore the Filthy Xeno or FX stat-line is:

WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	5+

Now obviously this stat-line is different from all of the above races but it's meant to be the average of the above. A way of letting us factor how our weapons will work against each army's troops without having to do 5 separate calculations. Remember: FX & MEQ, save some time. I might also add Termie which is just marine stat-line except the saves are 2+/5++ but then I'd have to add in Storm Shield termies who have a 3++ save and things get complicated. For now FX & MEQ are the standard by which we judge these weapons. Let's start.

One of my favorite 40k pics