Monday 25 February 2013

Tau in 6th (Part 1 Inital Thoughts)

Ok for those of you who have listened to the latest episode of the podcast will know I have become bored of the Fallenwing project. Painting that much black was not fun and the combination of that mixed with the very 1 dimensional play style of terminators quickly lost my interest.

But with the death of that project was the birth of another.

This new project needed to have focus tick a few boxes for me...

1.) Be an underdog, giving me a challenge and also room to grow with the list. I decided on this rule having been inspired by reading Steve’s 1st Sisters post.
2.) Must allow me to paint it (to good gaming standard) at speed so that I can try out allot of different elements in the list.
3.) MUST BE AN ARMY I WANT TO USE!!!

 

So after a bit of deliberation The "Greater Good" won out and I selected the Tau.


So it ticks all my boxes, now I need to start working on a list and a theme. To start this process I will be looking at the things that have improved in the transition from 5th to 6th.

Fire Warriors- These guys have improved allot in the transition, pulse rifles being able to move and fire a single shot 30" is great, but the big thing is being able to rapid fire at 15" that 3" can make a big difference in the chance of being charged the following turn taking them from a 6" roll to a 9" roll is big, but also relies on accurate measuring.

Kroot- Still a good unit but may be used slightly differently, great for line breaker and for 10 only costing you 70 points you tend not to miss them when they are used to outflank.

Devilfish- Survivability of most tanks has gone down in 6th however the change to disruption pods now giving shrouded is fantastic a 3+ cover save when moving and not being shot from 12" is great and you can turbo boost for a 2+ in the open. This adds speed and endurance to the fire warriors i just mentioned. On a side note it appears to me that the gun drones on a fire warrior devilfish can claim objectives as they are troops and not a vehicle (would love to hear people thoughts on this).

Hammerheads- These have always been good, and have gained in the same way as the dvilfish. On top of this the s6 large blast is now really nice and combined with pathfinders to nullify cover can be devastating, especially to blob units. Also the ion cannon may see some use with the amount of infantry now seen, 3 s7 shots added to the 6 burst cannon shots is solid and a cheap option.

Broadsides- 2+ saves have got better, and their potential to get first blood is massive, s10 ap1 with reroll to hits. Shield drone get a 2+ save with these guys making them a pain to shift. You  also now have the ability to move a full 6" with the stabilisation system adding mobility to this very static unit.

These are just my initial thoughts and I have missed out 2 of the biggest changes which are Forgeworld and Allies as they probably warrant their own posts when I have done more research into them.

On the painting side I managed to fulfil my brief and Airbrushed about 1000pts to gaming standard in 1 weekend, I will put pics of this up in my next post.

As always all comments welcome, until next time...

Rich


3 comments:

  1. It would be good to see a competitive Tau list that doesn't include Eldrad?

    Can't wait to see the photo's

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  2. I am aiming to not include him, he is petty good with tau.
    I should have pics up by end of the week.

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  3. Hi-always good to come across another tau player! I've been running Tau/Orks in 6th-I've found if you use forgeworld you don't need eldrad so much, you can get all the twin linking you need from sensor towers, and Tetras are awesome markerlight delivery systems (plus take a look at the hammerhead plasma turrets if your tempted by the ion cannon)The orks give you better bubblewrap, tougher scoring units, and an actual combat THREAT.

    oh-and the gun drones thing. They count as a gun drone squadron when they are detached, so they're fast attack. So they are only scoring in the scouring (still worth it I think though)

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