3 Changes I Like In The New Tau Empire Codex

Finally, I had the time to page through the new Tau Empires Codex a bit. Slow delivery and all means I’ll probably have to wait until next week-end to give the Codex a quality reading. Still, in my initial page-flipping, there are a few things that struck me as nice changes or additions for the Tau.

Here’s my first list of thumbs-up!

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#1 – Ethereals

I like the direction they’ve taken with the Ethereals.

Ethereals clearly got bad cards in the old Tau Codex. Ethereals are a quintessential part of the Tau background, but the old rules burdened Tau armies led by an Ethereal with lots of draw-backs and very few (useful) advantages. This, unsurprisingly, made Ethereals a great rarity on the table.

The advantages Ethereals granted in the old Codex were:

• A single unit of BS4 Firewarriors
• Fearless to a unit joined by and Ethereal
• The potential for “preferred enemy) for all Tau once your Ethereal bites the dust (which, frankly, was a cute joke at the best of times).

The downside of the old Ethereal was having much of your army rout when he dies.

The new “6th Edition” Ethereals fold similar benefits into their new 12″ area-buff “Invocation of the Elements” rule (e.g. better shooting, stubborn, etc..), as well as adding a few new things.

In stark contrast to the randomness of the Chaos Daemons Codex, Ethereals (like most things in the Tau Codex) can pick and choose.

The risk to a Tau army of fielding an Ethereal is still there with a lost VP. That alone will ensure that Crisis Suit commanders will remain the most popular HQ-choice. However, a dead Ethereal no longer shifts the game-play as much… though he might tip the final score against you.

Only time will tell whether the changes are enough to bring Ethereals to the Warhammer 40K tables. Their 12″ buff opens up some interesting list-tinkering abilities.

Perhaps the greatest challenge to reviving the Ethereals popularity in Tau lists is the new addition of the Cadre Fireblade. The Fireblade also adds more oompf to the Tau line-infantry for similar points costs, but without the risk of loosing an extra VP if things go south.

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#2 – Tau Infantry

On the very first glance, admittedly, I was disappointed with the 6th Edition Firewarriors.

They nominally got a point cheaper, but their bonding knife more expensive. In the old Codex (from 2006), 12 Firewarriors with a Shas’ui and a Bonding Knife would’ve cost 135 points (130 in a Farsight-list). In 6th Edition, the same unit costs 130 points (with or without Farsight).

A far cry from the massive point-reductions for other troop-choices in 6th (and 5th) Edition.

At their old (and new) points costs, Firewarriors never were very popular options, even though it was arguably the Firewarrior miniature, above all, the got my Tau-fever started way back when.

Unlike their 4th Edition counterparts, Firewarriors in 6th Edition benefit from:

• Supporting Fire
• More unit upgrades/buffs (incl. Cadre Fireblade and Ethereals for a FW-focused list)
• Defensive Grenades
• Also, 6th Edition boosted infantry with rapid fire weapons in general

There’s clearly an interesting design-thought behind it, putting Firewarriors into a supporting and mobile defensive role.

I would’ve loved to have Supporting Fire at 12″ (at least for Firewarriors or with an upgrade) and not the measly 6″ (how many people actively “use” Lychguards’ deflector shields?). As with some elements of the Dark Angel Codex, Jeremy Vetock seems to err (a bit too much) on the side of caution, as he creates new mechanics.

Still, I love the emphasis on positioning units and overlapping support.

I hope it’s worth it on the table.

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#3 – Special Characters

It’s a pet peeve of mine, but I really like how they treated the Tau special characters in this one.

First, Tau Empires gives us the first entirely new Special Characters for 6th Edition (not counting the LE Dark Vengeance Chaplain I guess): Darkstrider and Longstrike. Even better, Longstrike is a “named” Tank-upgrade.

I really loved when Warhammer 40K started adding these “upgrade-characters” in early 5th Edition. Telion. Chronus. Lemartes (re-purposed). I thought these were a brilliant way to add characters and story to an army outside the HQ-section.

Lately, the idea seems to have fallen into disuse. It’s good to see it back in action!

They also brought Aun’shi back from retirement (literally).

Much to my surprise, however, the writers seem to really have made it a point to flesh out and re-tune the “old” Tau Empire special characters.

Some of the changes are small. Aun’Va’s Paradox of Duality, for example, is now an item that truly deserves its name.

Some of the changes are more thorough, most notably the three-way “family-drama” they brought to the fore in the background of Farsight, Shadowsun and Aun’Va.

Good stuff.

Much better than the (IMO) somewhat uninspired 6th-edition-translation for the Chaos Space Marines Special Characters and the a little better than the hit (Sammael) and miss (Ezekiel) re-tuning of the Dark Angels Special Characters.

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So much for my initial Tau Empire ramblings.

I am definitely looking forward to dig a bit deeper into the book in the coming days.

What are your first thoughts on the new Tau Empire Codex? What caught your eye reading the book?

Leave a comment!

Z.