Anghkor Prok, Master Shaper: Background and Tactica

If you attended Gamesday 2001 in the United Kingdom, you would have received this guy just for attending.  At the time he was nothing more than just a cool looking Shaper model.  Going through the rumor mill, I see a whole lot of wishlisting for a Kroot character.  Though the tournament legality of Anghkor Prok can be debated, he is one of the greatest additions that you can include in a Kroot friendly Tau army.  You can find rules for Anghkor Prok here.




Background & Fluff
There has only  been one release of this guy's rules found in Chapter Approved around a decade ago.  As far as fluff goes he has one of the coolest back stories of any of the playable characters.  Getting his name by stubbornly standing up to a bigger Kroot in a society that is riddled with "Might is Right", he let countless attacks against the Orks and eventually swore the allegiance of the Kroot to the Tau.

Tactica
Cheap Boost
At 75 points, The Master Shaper is the second cheapest Independent Character available to the Tau Empire.  He has Ld 10 boosting the leadership value of any unit he joins.

Inspiring But Not Fighting
With the new rules allowing champions to declare challenges the Master Shaper has taken a significant hit.  There is no shame in denying a challenge with this guy as he just gets moved to the back.  Anghkor's strength doesn't lie in his stat line but the fact that he allows all kroot units within 6 inches of him to re-roll failed to-hits in close combat.  Although he has a half-decent stat line, losing him costs a lot more than just losing a Nob or a Shas'ui.  By losing the Master Shaper you drop the fighting capability of the unit and all surrounding Kroot units.

Friendly Games
Remember this unit is Kroot so if your opponent is friendly enough you may even be able to use him in Kroot Mercenaries lists.

At 19:23 in Texas on Aug 24, 2007, my first child entered the world.  Happy 5th Birthday to Daddy's little Knarloc.

The Orginal Tau Ally: A look at the Kroot.

Sidenote
Today marks the third day of my favorite month August 19th to September 19th (which would technically make it 32 days). August 19th is my anniversary to my lovely and supportive wife, August 24th is my son's birthday, somewhere between my son's birthday and Septmeber 5th (my birthday) is the Nova Open which takes place just a few miles from my house every year, and it all ends with my daugther's birthday on Septemeber 19th.  Which would make both my kids Virgos like their daddy.  I figured that to stay in the spirit of my favorite time of year i'll write about my all time favorite unit, the Kroot.





The kroot stole my heart and sealed my loyalty as a Tau player during my introduction to the game (against Space Marines) around a decade ago.   Without me knowing, my opponent took an extra 500 points (apparently, me never playing the game before wasn't enough of an advantage).  The game was a victory for my army.  To put this in perspective, other than my Commander I had no battle suits, that means, no extra crises suits, no broadsides, and no stealth suits. Although my Fire Warriors destroyed a Land Raider with their EMP Grenades.  My Kroot blew up a rhino with the Kroot Gun, picked apart a taxtical squad with rapid fire, then wiped out the remnants of an assault squad.  So I hope you understand why i'm not jumping right onto the "Forget Kroot" band wagon.

Background
Kroot Carnivores made their debut 3 years before the original Tau codex.  This appearance was nothing more than a footnote on a page titled "Other Dangerous Aliens" in the 1998 release of the Third edition Rulebook.

Notice how this crude sketch vaguely resembles the modern Kroot Carnivore.  Fortunately, 3 years following the release of this picture, the Kroot would be one of two aliens pictured here to receive a stat line (The necron warrior which was ironically labeled as "unknown" was the only alien here not making it's first appearance, it had recieved stats in White Dwarf publications towards the end of second edition, but would not be featured in a codex until 2002).  Following the release of Codex: Tau, White Dwarf released an all Kroot codex and a system that would foreshadow allies, that allowed Kroot to be fielded alongside other armies.  With the release of Imperial Armour III in 2005, the Kroot saw added variety in both rules and sculpts with four separate units.  These units all featured varying sizes of Knarlocs.  With the release of the 4th edition codex: Tau Empire, the Kroot saw a change from occupying Troops, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support Slots, to strictly Troops choices.  We also saw the disappearance of 2 rules specific to the Kroot ("Eaters of the Dead", and "Release the Hounds").  For the stat line changes the Krootox was changed from 50 to 35 points but lost it's 3(5) tougness and kroot hounds went from initiative 4 to initiative 5.  Within Fluff Kroot hold Change as an ideal higher than the convenience of "The Greater Good".  The Kroot also show an adaptability to their surroundings that is second only to the Tyranids. As a whole the Kroot fight as Mercenaries hoping to expose themselves to a wider variety of species in the hopes of assimilating a greater deal of advantageous traits into their gene pool.

Tactica
Better Than the Alternative
With the introduction of Allies i've heard it argued that  kroot have lost their role as screens for other Tau units with the availability of Imperial Guardsmen and Orks.  Just take into consideration that if you take meat-shield armies you lose the option of taking a Battle Brother.  With a better ballistic skill than the Ork the Kroot has a better chance at hitting at range and provides strength 4 in place of the lasgun's strength 3.  Not to mention when you fully kit out the Kroot you can have a squad that is 35 models deep. 

Outside the Gun Line
Unlike the Troops from most other armies, the Kroot can infiltrate or outflank (without krootox), this can allow the kroot to contest objectives early on in the game, or even set up inside of a forest.  If you need to disrupt a firing line the kroot can also outflank.  With the inclusion of the new rules independent Characters will inherit these rules if you declare that you are going to start the game attached to the kroot. 

Can't get paid if the boss is dead
One of the main functions of the Kroot is to counter-attack troops that are tying up your FireWarriors, suits, broadsides, etc.  Being  armed with two close comabt weapons at WS 4 and S4 means that you will be tearing down all but the most elite of close combat units.  Don't forget that if you add at least one kroot hound you have the option of making a sweeping advance at initiative 5 as long as you have at least one kroot hound. 

It's like a Missle Pod
With the changed rules to rapid fire, the krootox can now move and shoot 1 S7 shot at 48 inches  ot two shots at 24 inches.  This makes the kroot capaple of threatening light to medium vehicles if you want.   And have 3 S6 attacks each the krootox are capable of threatening tyranid MC's in close combat. 

Power weapons are pointless
Use your lack of armor as an advantage.  Charge units with power fists and power weapons, they really don't get much of an advantage against your kroot, as opposed to a unit of battlesuits. 
Things to avoid
Fried Chicken
Having a toughness of 3 a max armor save of 6+ and relying on cover make the kroot especially vulnerable to the flamer, which we are bound to see plenty more of with 6th edition changers to flamers.

Out in the open in the middle of the day
Hug Cover, with rapid fire weapons receiving a boost, if you leave your kroot out in the open they are as good as dead.  At the end of combat consolidate towards cover and spread out to avoid blasts. 

Thought for the Day
Ethereal Outflanks with Kroot and Issues a challenge in close combat.

On August 19th not too many years ago, she had no idea she was marrying Warhammer too.  She's been amazing!!!  Two kids, two degrees, and three jobs later she is still just  as amazing. 

The Ethereal Bomb

With the changes to preferred enemy, there has been buzz for almost 2 months about voluntarily killing an Ethereal, otherwise known as  "Ethereal Bombing".  But do the perks of PE really outweigh both the 50 points and the chance that our units will run off the board?  With a friend pointing out that as much as I love Math Hammer I rarely ever post anything on my blog that looks anything like my notebook, so I figured I would let you into the madness known as my view of Math Hammer.



Background
I'd just like to start out by stating that Ethereal Bombing is not supported by fluff.  The Tau hold the worth of a single Ethereal to be worth countless other members of the Empire.  This is supported by the storyline surrounding the PS2 game Fire Warrior, and fluff in the new Dark Eldar Codex that show that the Tau didn;t really think twice about sacrificing 777 members of the four mainstream castes, but when asked to surrender 77 Ethereals they were ready to go to war.  But who honestly likes the Ethereal caste as a Tau player. Watch how they prance around in Dawn of War like they are channeling some kind of psychic power, despite the fact that they have no registry in the warp.  Read how they refuse to wear any kind of practical armor in the codex.  Read how they keep secrets from the other castes and how they instruct Earth Caste members to sterilize and build mind controlling devices to deal with other races.  Not to mention Farsight reached awesome status when he said bye-bye to Ethereal rule.  I personally play my Tau to have attitudes towards Ethereals like catachan have towards commisars.  They don't openly hate them, but you rarely see them on the table because they always seem to come across unfortunate accidents.  What better way to represent this on the table than a lone Ethereal running by himself several inches in front of the enemy.  "The Price of Failure", is not a new mechanic to the Tau who have always had to perform a break test if an Ethereal died.   To put it simply, every Tau unit (this doesn't include Kroot, vehicles, drones, Vespid, or any allies) that is on the table must take a break test before the Tau movement phase.  All units that take this test receive PE.  PE used to mean that your unit would automatically hit on a 3+ in close combat back in 4th edition.  This changed to" re-roll all failed to hits in close combat" during 5th edition.  Now in 6th edition this has changed so that if at least one model in a unit has PE the whole unit re-rolls any rolls of 1 for any to hits and any to wounds against the specified enemy.   But what does this really mean for us Tau?

Mathhammer
One thing to understand is that this game has a number of variables that make it all but impossible to explain every scenario within a blog post of reasonable length, so for the sake of sanity i'll be going over some of the most common scenarios.  Preferred enemy affects only to hits and to wounds so i'll be showing how those two stats have changed.
A quick guide to Math Hammer
If you already know how Math Hammer works please skip to the next section
The effectiveness of a Kroot firing back  and forth at a Space Marine at 24 inches in open terrain verses cover.
-The Space Marine(15 pts) firing at the Kroot(7 pts)
needs 3+ to hit, 3+ to wound, allows no save, with 15 points invested into firing at a 7 point target, this translates to:
(2/3) * (2/3) * (1/1) * (7/15)  = 28/135 = .2074074074...

The Kroot (7pts)  firing at the Space Marine(15pts)
needs 4+ to hit, 4+ to wounds, needs a 2- for the save, and invests 7 points against the Space Marines 15, this translates to:
(1/2) * (1/2) * (1/3) * (15/7) = 5/28 = .17857142857142...

Notice how the Kroot are marginally weaker than the Space Marine when they are firing at each other in the open
 Now let's use the same scenario but place both of them in the average 5+ cover
The space Marine goes first 
needs  a 3+ to hit, 3+ to wound, 4- to avoid the cover save, and targets a 7 point model with 15 points invested:
(2/3) * (2/3) * (2/3) * (7/15) = 56/405 = .1382716...

and the kroot, note how nothing changes from the Kroots last example as the Space Marines 3+ Armor trumps the 5+ cover save:
4+ to hit, 4+ to wound, 2- to avoid the save, targeting a 15 point model with 7 points invested.
(1/2) * (1/2) * (1/3) * (15/7) = 5/28 = .17857142857142...

This shows that the Space marines have a return of about 14% per point invested while firing at a Kroot in 5+ cover while the kroot have a return of roughly 18% per point invested when firing at a squad of Space Marines, this is assuming that averages will eventually balance out.  

Against targets with Toughness 4
The reason I show Toughness 4 is that it's the most common toughness seen on the table followed by toughnesses 3 and 5, then followed by toughness 6, then 8.

For our examples i'll use an unbuffed fire warrior both shooting and in the assault.  For shooting i'll show how Preferred Enemy and Markerlights will not effect the overall change in effectiveness between a Fire Warrior with PE and without.

While shooting at T4 the Fire Warrior without PE needs 4+ to hit, and 3+ to wound, this translates to
(1/2) * (2/3) = 1/3 = .3333...

The Fire Warrior with PE needs 4+ to hit, re-rolling 1's, and 3+ to wound rerolling 1's, this translates to
{(1/2) + [(1/6)*(1/2)]} * {(2/3) + [(1/6)*(2/3)]} = (7/12) * (7/9) = 49/108 = .45307307...

to figure the % increase in effectiveness we subtract the unbuffed Tau effectiveness from the firewarrior with PE, then we take the result and divide it by the effectiveness of unbuffed fire warrior

[(49/108) - (1/3)]/(1/3) = (13/108)/(1/3) = .361111... = 36.11%

What does this mean?  Tau Fire Warriors with PE will be killing at least 4 space marines for every 3 that Fire Warriors without PE kill.

If you compare markerlight hits with these fire warriors you'll see a PE FW with a markerlight to boost his BS by one when compared to an unbuffed Fire Warrior with +1 BS is still 36.11% effective, the same goes for fighting with 2 markerlights, against toughness 3,5, and 6, and against the same toughness values in an assault.  It seems Fire Warriors with PE have and increased killing effectiveness of 36.11% when firing at anything toughness 8 or below, and assaulting anything with toughness 6 or less in an assault.  So how much more effective are they when firing at vehicles?

Knowing that Fire Warriors don't have a chance to roll to wounds against vehicles all we get to compare is the to hit.
4+ to hit  = 1/2 = 50%
4+ re-rolling 1's  = 7/12 = 58.333%
(1/12)/(1/2) = 1/6 = 16.67% increase in effectiveness when firing at vehicles

The same can be said for Assaulting armor with EMP grenades. 

 Now that we know we know the increased effectiveness of fire warriors what about suits with twin-linked weapons?
Using out logic we know that a twin-linked weapon will always take precedence to hit as, all failed to hits are re-rolled not just 1's.  This means we Just compare the to wound rolls lets just assume we wound on a 2+
5/6 without PE
35/36 with PE

(5/36)/(5/6) = 1/6 = 16.67%

As we know toughness does not affect the effectiveness of our PE so this will be the increase of effectiveness of a twin-linked weapon, assuming we are firing at something we can wound.  We also see that PE has no effect on twin-linked weapons when firing at vehicles.

meaning that if we supposedly had an all fire warrior list (I know it's impossible), at 750 points.  We trade 5 fire warriors for an Ethereal dropping the overall killing potential of the army by 6.67%.  We must also consider the chance that our fire warriors run away instead of being able to use PE.  The Fire Warriors have a 27.77% chance of running away at leadership 8.  Armies that use firing lines in the deployment zone will have a pretty good chance that they run off the board.  these means that at a drop of 6.67% and adding it to the chance of running away 37.77%. We get an overall drop of effectiveness of 34.44% vs. the increase of effectiveness vs. infantry at 36.11% and 16.66% versus vehicles.  Though this is an extreme example you also need to take into consideration this How close to the table edge do you keep your broadsides and remember the broadsides will receive a 0% boost against armor, a 16.67% increase against anything with a toughness value, but have a 27.77% chance of running away.  So if you use twin-linked weapons you'll receive a 16.67% boost when firing at something with a toughness value (unless you use Twin-linked, flamers in which case you get a 0% boost) or Assaulting a vehicle, no bonuses when firing at a vehicle, and a 36.11% boost in an assault. Take into consideration anything with Ld 10 only has a 1/12 chance of fleeing.
Bomb one hide the other
One strategy I took into consideration while thinking about suicidal Ethereals is killing one and having another Ethereal on the table allowing all units that have to take a test the chance to re-roll failed leadership tests, meaning after the Ethereal dies, your units go from having a 27.77% chance of running to having less than an 8% chance of running.  Meaning that if you are running a 2000 point army with nothing but suit without twinlinked, blast or template weapons, and fire warriors, you are maximizing your your effectiveness boost granted by PE.

Breaking "Price of Failure"
When we think about this rule we really need to ask the question, what is a Tau unit.  Is it simply a squad that is normally Tau?  Do Sniper Drone Spotters test?  If not then Commanders with drone controllers don't have to test.  Does an Eldar Pathfinder squad with a Tau character attached to it count as a Tau unit?  If not then the character doesn't have to roll a leadership test when the Ethereal dies?  How about vice-versa?  If a Firewarrior squad is joined by a non Tau character I.E. Anghkor Prok, or a Farseer still count as a Tau unit.  If so take a close look at the rules for independent characters.  If an effect takes place while an independent character is part of a unit the effect carries over when the independent character leaves meaning that character still has PE after it leaves the unit and the unit still has PE as well.  PE is also transferable meaning that if a character with PE joins a unit that unit also gains PE.  The Farseer leaves the Fire Warriors and joins a kroot squad granting the kroot PE.
So before you start a battle with the Ethereal Bomb Tactic ask these questions to keep from fighting with your opponent later
1.  What is a Tau Unit
2.  Do Tau Characters make other units count as Tau units when joined
3.  Do Tau still count as Tau if joined by a character of another race?

Since I have figured out the benefits of PE while using Price of Failure, I really don't want to give up my twin-linked flamers, broadsides, allies, reserves, vehicles, or non Tau units in the codex, but I wouldn't mind  a battle here or there where I just confuse my enemy with a Suicidal charging Ethereal while I transfer PE from unit to unit with my Farseer.

What do you think?
Let me know, personally I find the  advantages to be almost nil for what you have to give up.

Our Eldar Allies: Background and Tactics

What's more exciting than taking a codex that is over six years old and humiliating a new army with it?  Humiliating that same army with two codices that are six years old.  This was probably one of the most exciting surprises to happen to Tau players.  Though my knowledge of Tau Eldar relations is pretty hazy, I am familiar with some of the rumors circulating around about how the Eldar secretly protect the Tau.

Background Rumor Fluff
Rumor 1
The Eldar created the Ethereal Caste:  For those of you that keep up with the fluff,  you know that Ethereals secrete pheromones from the gaping hole in their forehead.  This is said to be the way they are able to control the other castes.  This would also explain Commander Farsight getting over his obedience, as he has had enough time to figure out that he will no longer be controlled by the pheromone secreting hole.  It's rumored that the Eldar got the idea (and DNA) from an arachnoid race whose queens controlled their subjects using pheromones.  Unfortunately these spiders were purged around the same time the Ethereals supposedly entered the fray.

Rumor 2
The Eldar created the Tau:  Being natural enemies to the warpbased entities and having a vast knowledge of the warp, the Eldar created the Tau to have little or no signature in the warp to be a natural deterrent against Chaos.  With the Farseers seeing their inevitable doom in the last battle with Chaos they needed a new race to optimistically rule the galaxy after they dissapear.

Rumor 3 
Freak Warp Storm, or Violent Mother protecting her baby?:  Those of you that read the Fluff section of their codices realize that the imperium originally ear marked the home world of Tau for cleansing when the Tau were still no more than plains dwelling nomads.  This was suddenly halted by the random sudden appearance of freakishly ciolent Warp Storms cutting off the Imperium from having any access to Tau.  The rumor states that the Eldar foresaw the potential good coming from the Tau Empire and used an immense level of psychic energy to protect the four fingered gray humanoids with hooves.

No matter how you look at it you can always rationalize the two armies banding together.  My personal idea comes from the two armies banding together after years of hopeless losses (5th edition) and the old guy has now come to mentor the young whipper snapper.

Tactica
I have often heard people refer to 6th edition as the edition of psykers.  Unfortunately us Tau have absolutely no psychic powers available to us in our codex.  The eldar provide us with the option of not only having potent psykers, but a greater array of units that can JSJ just like our Crisis Battle Suits.  

Farseer
This might simply be the most awesome addition to a Tau Army.  This psyker can throw out up to Two psychic powers each turn, that add a great deal of support to our Tau. This has the potentail of adding a 4+ deny the which roll to any unit of Tau he joins and can further serve to deny enemy psychic powers by forcing them to take psychic tests with 3D6.

Like an Ethereal but better:  Whereas the Ethereals try to give off the impression of having some sort of mystical powers, the Farseers actually have mystical powers, like the Ethereal who can grant a unit of fire warriors a Ld value of 10 by joining them, the Farseer trades being able to re-roll leadership tests with not having the Tau run away when he dies. 

DOOM!!!:  The Eldar have the option of allowing you to purchase specific psychic powers from a list of extraordinary spells.  Unfortunately the Tau don't benefit from "Fortune" or "Guide", but there is a wonderful spell called Doom.  I have heard this debated over and over that Doom should last forever since it states "lasts until next Eldar turn" and you are playing Tau.  This is not only corrupt, but easily countered, you have Eldar in your army so the Tau turn is also the Eldar turn that is unless you want to never be able to allow the Eldar units to do anything.  Also, if you are playing against Eldar, technically when your opponent starts his or her turn the spell ends thus having no effect.  Play it the way the rule was intended and just let it end at the beginning of your turn.  Doom is a curse that targets a single unit allowing ALL units that target it to re-reroll failed rolls to wound.  This means pule rifles will wound over half the time when firing at a Doomed Tyranid Monstrous creature.  And when you hit almost anything that is doomed with a rail gun,  your opponent isn't hoping for a 1, he is hoping for a double 1.  

Eldritch Storm.  Strength 3 Large Blast with no AP value, that turn tanks in random direction.  The points here can be invested somewhere else.  

Mind War:  Its like an awesome precision shot that ignores "Look out Sir" and armor saves.  It forces your oppenent to roll off against you adding the model's leadership value to his roll against your roll +10.  The model automatically suffers a number of wounds equal to the amount he lost by. 

Divination psychic powers are awesome, although you can also choose to go telepathy, the sheer amount of beneficial spells that only take up 1 warp charge can't be beat.

Prescience:  This is a spell  that you can always take (you don't have to roll for it).  This allows the Farseer to grant one of your units the oppurtunity to re-roll all failed "To Hit" rolls until your next turn.  This means that if you markerlight a target and fire at it with a unit with Prescience you have the potential to fire at BS 10 and ignore cover saves.  Not to mention the unit can re-roll all failed to hits in both you and your opponent's  assault phase while counting as counting re-rolling all snap shots until your next turn. 

Roll a 1, Foreboding:  Your Farseer allows the unit he is in to fire at full BS while overwatching and countercharge.  Not bad but you might as well take prescience.

Roll a 2,  Forewarning gives a single unit a 4+ invulnerable save until your next turn.  Pretty Good if you expect a unit to come under heavy weapons fire while out in the open.

Roll a 3,  Misfortune:  Causes a unit to re-roll successful saving throws until your next turn.  Cover Saves, Invulnerable Saves,  and armor saves.  Simply put this is awesome.  Couple this with Doom and you have one really dead unit.

Roll a 4, Perfect Timing:  The psyker and his unit have "Ignores Cover".  Pretty much the same as using two marker light shots.  You should probably go with prescience

Roll a 5,  Precognition:  The Psyker re-rolls all failed to hits, to wounds, and his failed saves.  If you are in close combat this makes the Psyker pretty beastly, unfortunately you are still in close combat with a Tau army.

Roll a 6, Scrier's gaze:  Searching the internet this is probably the most under appreciated psychic power available to the Tau.  The power only lasts until your next turn.  It allows you to roll 3 dice and choose 1 for all your reserves, Outflank, and Mysterious Terrain.   I like to refer to this Psychic power as the Kroot Carnivores best friend.  This power not only grants the Kroot who are outflanking the ability to arrive on the table edge you want over 96% of the time, but gives the mysterious forest a better chance at benefiting the kroot.  
If your best roll is a 1: you still get a 4+ save
You only have a 3.7% chance of rolling only 2's and 3's:  Your Kroot will almost never be hurt by mysterious jungle's
If your best roll is a 4: Your kroot now have a cover save of 2+ while in Jungle
If your best roll is a 5:  Your Kroot are now all but impervious to grenades while in jungle
If your best roll is a 6:  Walk don't run.  Your Kroot don't roll dangerous terrain tests, meaning they are unaffected by the razorwing Nest,  but if an opponent charges the Kroot while they are bunkered down in the forest, if any of the dice while he is charging are 4+ the unit automatically suffers D6 strength 3 hits with rending.  
Scrier's gaze also allows you to almost choose whether or not your reserves arrive.  So if you want them to arrive you go from having a 67% chance of your desired result to a 96% chance.  If you want them to stay in reserves you go from having a 33% chance of your desired result to over 70%.  Combine this with a tetra and you have a Deep Strike that is both timely and precise.  

Pathfinders
Although the Tau already have pathfinder's of their own, they don't have Pathfinders, that can infiltrate, hold an objective, use Precision Shots, add 1 or 2 to cover saves and both wound and Rend on a 6+ or 5+.  

Jetbikes
They can JSJ a shruiken cannon or their twinliked catapults, and are mobile so if you want to contest or hold an objective they can turbo-boost 36 inches, unless you're using shining spears.  If you're using shining spears you can assault or counter charge an enemy with strength 5 power weapons.

Guardians
Sorry I just had to mention them.

Dire Avengers
We already have really shooty units.

Warp Spiders
They can JSJ but have a 1/6 chance of losing a model.  Strength 6 makes for sub-par transport hunting,  Even though they wound almost all infantry on 2+, I would still prefer putting out more fire warriors.

All Eldar Vehicles
One thing I noticed about the Eldar is their ability to make Armor 14 look pathetic and that they utilize lots of  Skimmers for vehicles.  This of course doesn't do much to affect my game play.

War-Walkers
They are really shooty which appeals to me as a Tau player.  They are aslo extremely flexible, going from anti-horde, to anti-elite, to anti-tank.  Personally putting a pair of Scatter Lasers to deal with Horde Armies Fliers, and  Light to medium Transports is a plus.  Not to mention using them to hit rear/side armor while outflanking is always a surprise your opponent won't see coming.  But be careful they are extremely sensitive despite having the option to take spirit stones. 

Vypers
Fast Skimmers that can pump out 6 Strength 6 shots is pretty decent. 

Falcon or Fire Prism
Your Basically taking another Hammerhead that isnt as good. 

The Avatar
It's nice to give the Tau a Monstrous Creature that says "F.U." to melta guns and the inevitable increase of flamers we are bound to see with the wall of flame special rule.  This beast calls out heroes in close combat and wrecks takes like a beast.  Unfortunately if you want to rules the close combat phase you are playing the wrong army, and you need to say goodbye to the Farseer if you do.

Autarch
If you are planning on playing someone who doesn't really use a lot of psykers You can always opt to go with the Autarch.  the Autarch allows you to call in the reserves on a roll of 2+.  Not to mention he can be outfitted to add Close combat survivability to crisis suits (warp jump generator), or vespid (Wings). He can also add some armor killing power to infiltratiting Kroot in addition to boosting the kroot Ld value. 

The Wraithlord
Toughness 8 makes him all but impervious to small arms fire, and S10 ignoring armor saves is something we as Tau can regularly expect from a Heavy Support Slot.  Being equipped with a Wraith Sword is a pretty good way to spend 10 points not to mention he gets the option of selecting another ranged weapon that can be outfitted to blend better with your army.  

 It's kind of like the Prom's after party
The Eldar are new to me and I feel like i'm just chipping away at an iceberg.  If you see any nasty combinations that i'm missing please feel free to let me know.  Unfortunately I don't have much as far as conversions, so if you find anything on conversions or Tau related fluff I would love to hear from you.  

Thought for the Day
Howling Banshees have been nerfed.

Sniper Drone: Background and Tactica

Sniper Drone team by Jim Sowter at Games Workshop

The day before 6th edition came out I had a discussion with a Tyranid player who had formerly played Tau as his starting army.  Being relatively new to the game (a year at the most), it was obvious that he had a lot of frustrations with playing Tau.  After losing multiple games to his friend's Tyranids, he decided he would give the ever evolving Dinosaur shaped Bugs a chance.  Of all the units he voiced his frustration with, he managed to single out the Tau Sniper Drone team.  He talked about how worthless they were.  Though we can all point out the fact that he shouldn't be  using sniper drones against hordes, i'll leave my bantering at him out of this post.  The main thing that frustrates most Tau Empire players is that these guys could never use their stealth suits as an advantage and that they took up  a vital Heavy Support slot that could be used for the beloved Broadsides or even a Hammerhead (leaving all the Forge World alternatives out of the equation).  But with 6th edition we saw a lot of changes to thiese guys rules, causing many many Tau players to dust them off and say "maybe".

Background
With the introduction of the Tau army in 3rd edition, 40k players were introduced to the stealth suit.  Players quickly noticed that their stealth suits could be even better if they had ranged weapons with a range greater than 18 inches, as the enemy would more than likely never be able to hit them (the old stealth suit models forced all units to roll for distance 2d6x3 inches if you wanted to try to shoot at them, this distance was halved during night fight).  Then in a random article featured in White Dwarf 285 back in October 2003 we saw Pathfinders, with options.  This was the first mention of the Tau Rail Rifle (back then it used to "Get Hot" and have a target lock).  Believe it or not, the Tau Sniper Drone was a wishlisting that was being granted.  At only $15 for a team, I remember my local hobby shop being sold out for months.  But then, Tau players had the chance to try them out. Apparently the lack of 1 to 3 rail guns is extremely noticable.  The team did have the advantage of a BS 4 networked markerlight which was awesome on paper. The stealth suit had the same rules as before with the loss of the extra advantage during night fight.  Unlike it's stealth suit cousins, the team was about  as mobile as a heavy rock.  For 10 points less than 3 stealth suits, 3 sniper drones really didn't seem like a good trade off.  The Drones had +2 Initiative over the stealth suits, but was at -1 strength and -1 attack.  Unfortunate for the Sniper Drones, as quickly as they came off the store shelves, they just as quickly went back onto the storage shelves.  With the introduction of 5th edition Sniper Drones went from bad to worse.  Run made it impossible to fully utilize the strength of the stealth suit and going to ground was just a slap in the face, or sensor lens/node as they are machines.  But with 6th edition we've seen some welcome changes.

Tactica
No Longer a Stone
Thanks to the introduction of Snap-Fire we can know move and fire Sniper Drones.  Pinning has also been changed making it so that each time a squad inflicts a successful wound with a pinning weapon the pinning resolves before another squad is elected to fire. With the 6th edition FAQ stealth suits have been removed and replaced shrouded and stealth meaning that the team can take a 4+ cover save with it no matter where it goes.

Benefits To Sitting Still On Your Rear.
"Big guns never tire" has given Heavy Support selections the ability to capture objectives.  Though these selections have been allowed to capture, they have the added burden of giving up an additional kill point if destroyed.  Luckily, the Sniper Drone adds +3 to whatever cover they are in, making the cover save while sitting in cover a 3+ at worst and a 2+ the majority of the time.  If you need to add extra survivability to your Sniper Drones your character will gain the benefits of an additional +3 to cover, as the benefits are transitive.  

To Snipe a Sniper
Unfortunately the spotter in the squad is equipped with a Drone Controller, meaning that if he goes the sniper drones in the team are removed as a casualty.  This makes the squad vulnerable to precision shots.  

See Spot(ter) run (the table)
With the changes of night fight you can now reduce the cover save granted by night fighting with a single marker light hit.  The Snipers have also been given the extra advantage of being able to overwatch.  Being a networked markerlight the benefit can be transferred over to the Sniper Drones.

Some Ideas for Conversions
With the Metal Sniper Drones models being made of metal (and now resin) they were all made to be in only one specific pose.  Though this is okay as they are machines, I was still compelled to make these models my.  Firstly, hovering around while trying to remain invisible in one place seems like their profile would be given away, and with as bulky as the spotters targetting array is, I find that it would be unreasonable to make sense that he could even snap fire.  So here are a couple pictures that can inspire you as they did me.  Although its just as xv25 I always used xv15 models so when i purchased a rapid insertion force I had 3 stealth suits left over to combine with the spotters array.

Gue'Vesa, Imperial Guard as Allies: Background and Tactica

Although some of you might be wondering why I started with the IG instead of one of the two battle brothers, i'm still working out some strategies with Eldar (Battle Brothers allows for a greater range of possibilities).  As far as Space Marines go, I refuse to encourage the purchasing of anymore 3+ armor saves that drive around in boxes (we saw enough of that in 5th edition).  I also chose the Imperial Guard because I was wishlisting this army the most for Tau when the allies rules entered the rumor mill.  Although we can use them, I am heartbroken (to say the least) that Space Marines took priority over the IG.  So let's give a hearty hello to the army we can now field as Gue'Vesa or desperate Gue'la.
I also found that with the numerous conversion ideas out there, the Imperial Guard would be the easiest army to visually blend with the Tau.

Background
The use of Imperial Guardsman within the Tau ranks can be seen fluffing around in codices and books found within the black library.  There were also two releases of rules to use humans within the ranks of the Tau.  These can be found in Imperial Armour 3: The Taros Campaign and White Dwarf (For a short while the White Dwarf Gue'Vesa rules could be downloaded from the Games Workshop website.  If you still want to see them they can be found here).  Though I never saw the Gue'Vesa appear in anyone else's army list, I was personally guilty of modeling a few of my brother's guardsmen and playing them in a narrative game against his Elysians.  Though the Gue'Vesa didn't see too much table time, I was always up for having a multiple species army.  In 5th edition I had created an entire auxiliary army to count as Imperial Guard.  But with the release of the allies rules, it looks like we will be able to allow the Gue'Vesa to fight for the Third sphere expansion.

Tactica
Though there are many things I will miss in this section, as the Imperial Guard have so many different advantages and disadvantages.  I hope to mostly help you decide on what to take with your Tau, and hopefully show you some really cool tactics that have been introduced to the Imperial Guard with 6th edition.
When you field your Imperial Guard you need to ask yourself  "How do I hope use the IG with my army?". 
Do you want the IG to fill the role as meat shields for your more expensive Tau units?
Do you want the IG to be shooty just like the Tau?
Do you want to take advantage of the IG armor?
No matter how you take them the IG can fill a tactical niche.  The Imperial Guard are flexible even with the Force Organization Chart being smaller for your ally.  They can take multiple squads that take up only 1 troop slot allowing you to contest or take multiple objectives, they also allow you to take the space Marine killing Leman Russ Battle Tank.

PsykersThe Psyker Battle Squad has two abilities. A shooting attack that uses the Large Blast has a strength equal to the number of Sanctioned Psykers in the squad and an AP value equal to D6.  Then the Psyker Battle squad has another ability called weaken resolve, that can be used with much Greater effect.  Weaken Resolve, targets any enemy unit temporarily reducing the leadership of that unit by the number of sanctioned psykers in the squad.  This can be used in combination with the pinning weapons of the Tau army.  Pinning with the new rules does not resolve at the end  of the shooting phase but rather each time a squad inflicts at least one successful wound on another unit.  This means you can almost always autopin a unit that isn't fearless.  This can also be used with a Primaris Psyker with the Psychic power Psychic shriek.  Psychic Shriek causes the casting player to select a unit roll 3d6 and then subtract the units leadership value, the result is the number of wounds inflicted on the targeted unit (no armor saves are allowed against this kind of attack).

Snipers
The IG have Snipers, something the  Tau don't have.  These squads come in the form of Ratlings and veteran squads with Sniper Rifles.  This allows the Tau player to infiltrate snipers in the hopes of getting precision (and if your extremely lucky, rending) shots.  Ratlings and Veterans also can add +1 to their cover save adding to survivability.

Cavalry
You are free to take this in one of two ways.  The most obvious that doesn't need support is flyers.  The second option is The Rough Riders.  If you find yourself facing medium armor troops attacking your gunline, this is a cheap option to countercharge as these guys count as having power weapons when they first charge. 

ARMOR
The IG arguably have the best Tank options in the game.  With the option of taking 3 Artillery pieces in one choice or 3 Battle Tanks, the option of just blasting away your enemies has become much more viable with the Tau.

Conversion Ideas
When I first took a look at the rules for Imperial Guard, a few things hit me.  Firstly, units that are considered abhuman were rare within the Imperium.  This would make those same units considerably more so if at all existent withing the ranks of the Tau.  So how would I remedy this situation while staying consistent with the Tau theme?  Easy, the Tau have a number of races that have been subsumed into the Tau Empire.  Unfortunately for you Tau Players, with the introduction to fatherhood a few years ago, The Tau took low priority in my life, and many of my conversions were lost to the warp.  So I will simply dig up and show you the inspiration for many of my conversions.

Ratlings

The first idea that came to mind when thinking about ratlings was in the name.  What models to represent rats better than the Skaven found within the Fantasy range.












Rough Riders
My original Idea for Rough Riders was to create a centaur like species that was reptilian, but with the inclusion of numerous Kroot and Kroot Hounds I had enough reptile like bird people.  Then I thought about using some of my Bretonians, but the idea of using horses didn't feel alien enough to me.  Then I found an new High Elf Player that had purchased a lot of chariots but, didn't want to use the Lion  models, that combined with another conversion online using beastmen gave me a spark.  After visiting the Smithsonian Museums in Washington D.C. I was inspired to apply an Afro/Nordic Plains dwellers that ride on the backs of lions (literally).  Here are the pictures similar to the ones that inspired my conversion hopefully they can inspire you too.

Ogryns
When I was first thinking of Ogryn Stand ins, I was pushed towards using Lizardmen (because that's my fantasy army) and was inspired by some of the Tarellian Dog Soldier pictures from the third edition Rule Book.  Unfortunately the conversions I made didn't seem bulky enough.  Then I was watching an episode of South Park featuring Crab People, and Google yielded another Tau auxiliary conversion.

To make the model a little bigger than the one shown I opted to use a Tyranid Warrior head as the torso, the thighs from the Warrior with some green stuff to make pincers and the legs from spiders in the orcs & goblins range from fantasy to make legs.

Psyker  Battle Squad
Just because I think the sanctioned psyker models look anything but intimidating, I had to redo my own.  My idea came from a Black Library book where they described an Umbra.  Because I didn't want to model a plain black ball hovering around I decided to model a threatened Umbra.  After looking through some ranges I figured the Umbra were without shape when frightened, extending shadowy limbs that ended in teeth, claws and blades and figured that to represent random limbs seemingly coming out of nowhere I would use Dryad's from the Wood Elves ranges green stuffed with left over tyranid bits.  Replacing the head with a sphere of green stuff,I inked a white basecoat with purple, followed by watered down black and highlighted with codex grey/chaos black.  It looked chaotic, but that was the point.

Gue'Vesa
I have an idea to model a Death Strike Missile Launcher into a Warp Based One shot Cannon using the Fantasy Empire Celestial Hurricanum as a base model and more Skaven as the Crew.  And After watching Star Wars a little too many times I have a mental outline of how I want my Primaris Psyker (and Farseers) to be modeled.  The rest was just a lot of things combining Imperial Guard and Tau Empire Range.  For example Sentinels, that were modeled over a Tau Battle Suit, using Necron Warrior Shoulders as shin Guards, Grey Knight Terminator hands as extensions to the arms, The dreadnought power plant in place of the Jetpack.  For a Leman Russ I used the Devilfish with two sets of tracks from the Death Korps of Kriegs miniature tank and a normal Leman Russ Turret.  The rest pretty much went like this

Thought  for the Day
There was a fake 6th edition rulebook that was circulating the web, it was wrong. It was several hundred pages long. Someone had put a lot of effort into making a whole bunch of people going bonkers.

Tau Commander and Variants: Background and Tactica

Crisis Suit by Squirrel

The other day I was at a Games Workshop and I saw a player who was getting ready to get started with the hobby by showing interest in the Tau.  He had only one unit, his HQ.  The sprite young lad had purchased an XV-8 Crisit Suit and decided to make it his commader.  Because I had shown up with no models (I went to the mall with my wife to get her a new phone and didn't plan on staying as long as I did) I appeared to him to be just another guy.  With pride, he named off all of the upgrades and weapon systems that his commander was ready to bring to the field in the name of the Greater Good.  Though it was poorly painted and stood in a non-dynamic upright pose with it's arms pointing straight forward, it was an ode to nostalgia that many of us veteran Tau players can relate to.  The commander more than often, if not always, is the General of our army.  The General is our Avatar into the Universe of Warhammer 40K.  It seems fitting that this model be the first unit of any Tau Army.




Background/History
The Crisis Suit Commander made it's debut along with the original "Codex: Tau" back in late 2001.  Like the model I described earlier, the XV-8 Crisis  Suit model served as the Elites selection and two HQ selections.  But we as Tau players had one of the few HQ selections that wasn't made completely out of metal.  We also had one of the most visually customizable and dynamically poseable HQ choices available from Games Workshop.  The commander didn't utilize a record breaking statline, but had the advantage of a High BS and Tau Jetpack along with a huge arsenal of weapon systems that could be used to deadly effect.  I don't know about anyone else that has been playing Tau for around a decade, but I remember everyone trying to make their Crisis Suit Commander unique by using Commander Farsight's aerials.  With the introduction of the Imperial Armour 3: The Taros Campaign in 2005 the Commander was given the option of taking 3 different Crisis Suit Variants, this also prompted Forge World to Release 3 more Resin models to be used as a commander.  It was during this time that we saw a shift from Farsight look alike commanders, to R'myr look alike commanders (when I created my new commander I used R'myr as a base and Farsight's aerials as a salute to Tau player creativity in the past).  Then in 2006 we saw the shift from "Codex: Tau" to "Codex: Tau Empire" which allowed our Commanders the option of taking Special Issue Wargear.  Games Workshop also released a  box set that was specifically for assembling a Tau commander.  Then finally in 2012 we saw the commander's final tweaking with Forge World's "Tau Update" which updated the variants presented in IA3.

Crisis Suit Commanders of Note
Now I can't do a review on Crisis Suit Commander variants without naming the Two Commanders who brought variance to the table.  The First would be commander O'Shovah also known as Farsight.  This guy counts as a Monstrous Creature and can take an entire entourage of Crisis Suits as a body guard retinue.  Farsight has made two appearances outside of the Black Library being the only Crisis Suit Character in Both codices.  The second would be Commander Shas'O R'myr.  For a lot of Tau players R'Myr was an introduction to purchasing with Forge World and working with Resin before Citadel Finecast.  R'Myr displays the only 3+ Invulnerable save available to a Crisis suits in close combat, the only Assault 2 Plasma Rifle, and the only Crisis suit to use a flechette discharger.  R'myr also has the option of allowing his bodyguard to use battle suit variants.  I find these two guys eerily similar in that they present the Tau army with a semi-able close combat suit with a unique rule for bodyguards.  I also find it interesting that both commanders seem to represent one of the two military ideals presented in the Tau Fluff.  Farsight being the Killing blow by brining his Beast like Close combat skills and overwhelming his opponents with S5 attacks from his numerous bodyguard.  And the patient hunter R'Myr who punishes his opponents in close combat by bunkering them down with Body guards who have the option of taking 2+  armor saves , having a 3+ invulnerable save himself, and forcing each opponent to take an automatic wound on a roll of 4+ before blows are struck. 

The Variants
Now we come to the Crisis Suit Variants.  By that I don't mean the almost limitless load out combinations that can be taken (i.e. fireknife, hellrain, soulforge, etc.).  i'm talking about the variants presented in the Forge World Tau Update.

XV-81
This Suit allows the wearer to take a smart missle system as one of it's hardpoints.  Some of you might be asking "Why does this matter?".  With the introduction of 6th edition, Crisis suits have been redefined as "relentless" meaning that we can now JSJ with Heavy Weapons.  This also means that the Tau commander can use this weapon to draw line of site to any unit within 24 inches, and with the high volume of shots will occasionally get a precision shot.  Remember the only cover saves that can be taken from smart missles are those granted by area terrain, so by taking this with an Air-Bursting Fragmentation Projector, your commander can become an unseen terror to light infantry.

XV-84
This suit basically gives a markerlight to your commander.  This appears to be the only way you will see a BS 5 or BS 6 (Shas'O w/ Targeting Array) Markerlight.  With Relentless any jetpack can now JSJ while firing a markerlight.  The Markerlight doesn't take up any hard points, leaving  you open to select other weapon systems (Though with a multi-tracker suits are only allowed to fire two weapons).  An interesting combination ive seen is this commander being taken in a stelth suit squad with two marker drones.

XV-89
Imagine Iridium Armour for a few more points and you have this suit.  One thing you might notice though is that, unlike Iridium Armor, this is not special Issue Wargear meaning that if you take two commanders they can both select this option granting both a 2+ Armor save, leaving Iridium Armor open to another model in the army.  Oddly enough, with the change to Jetpack assault moves in 6th edition, this guy was completely unaffected in his movement.  I've seen this guy taken with an Iridium armor donning body guard both suits with a pair of Shield Drones.  There is also the option of a shield generator(4+ invulnerable save) and Stimulant Injectors (Feel no Pain).  Making this guy one of the most difficult units in the Tau army to kill. 

Afterthought
It's nice to see that the XV-8 commander continues to be one of the most customizable units in the Warhammer Universe, and i'm glad that even after a decade people can still take pride in their commander as an individual champion as opposed to an upgrade for an army.  Please continue the great conversions guys.

Thought for the day
O'Shovah went from okay in close combat to one of the best close combat fighters in the game.  Counts as having a power weapon < Counts as a Monstrous Creature.  With Eldar specific psychic powers and consideration for O'Shovah's effectiveness in close combat being written over  half a decade ago, you need to question how long Games Workshop really holds on to certain ideas.

Ultimate Fire Warriors use Vesa

From warhammer40k.wikia.com

With the nerfing of power weapons and the greater inclusion of night fight we are bound to see plenty more terminators.   This has prompted me to ask two things:

A.  What advantages has the rulebook given to us?
B.  What can we do to counter this threat?

     To address the first question, we have 2+ saves of our own in the form of broadsides, Iridium armor donning crisis suits, and the added option of including Shield Drones with either the Broadside or the Iridium armor (For those of you that noticed the XV-89 option in the Forge World Tau Update, good on you).  Though we can go on and on about how the rulebook changed our codex,  I would like to talk about the second question.  Though this is not the only way to deal with terminators, I found it can be one of the most surprising for your enemies.  I often think back to fourth edition to my brother playing his Imperial Guard.  He often stated "I found the best way to deal with your Broadsides is to never try to out shoot them with heavy weapons.  In fact elite infantry seem to do less with their power weapons.  The best way to deal with your broadsides is to overwhelm them with infantry in close combat".  It hit me, use our basic infantry, fire warriors.  Overwhelm them with small arms fire.  But my two squads of Fire Warriors aren't your normal fire warriors.  They have Ld 10, in addition to BS 5, twin-linked pulse rifles, nightvison, re-roll failed wounds on the Terminators, and force the terminators to re-roll all successful saves.  If you read your codex: Tau Empire as religiously as I do, next to your 6th edition faq/errata update, your going to say "Hey I didn't see that".  Well don't bother, because all your going to find is how to give them night vision (black sun filter)  BS 5 (markerlights), and Ld 10 (if you want to bunker down your very mobile commander taking away one of his greatest strengths or take the gambit of having your Tau running away with the Ethereal).  Some of you that read my last post will think, "Oh great, another Forge World rant", but that's not what i'm talking about.  In fact you won't find what i'm talking about in the rulebook either... sort of.

     The place you will find these rules is in Codex: Eldar and in the allies section of the rule book.  Oh yes my friends, i'm talking about our Vesa (helpers).  If you wanted to figure out my riddle, 2000 points, two detachments, 2 farseers and spirit stones, the rest is pretty self explanatory.  The concept of using other races in conjunction with our Tau is supported by fluff (kroot, vespid, demirug, niccasar, tarellian, Gue'Vesa (guardsmen).  The fact that we can now use other common armies as small detachments is really a piece that I have been looking forward to and wishlisting since I saw the Kroot do it for other armies back in White Dwarf 2002 (where most people are shocked by the new allies rules, the Kroot have been doing it for over a decade).  But for the most part i'm ecstatic.  Before I used to play friendly games where we would use 2 seperate detachments of 1000 points as allies.  But I found that the thing that I was thrown me off by how the units visually clash. Whereas the kroot used to do this, they also were normally only used with Tau, so they were just for us and looking dirty was the flavor.  The vespids wore armor that could be painted with the army colors.  When I played these games I noticed that the units I used didn't really feel right.  When I started writing this I didn't really understand just how much there was for each ally when you consider rules combinations, so I made up my mind to write separately for each army, which you will see soon if you choose to follow my blog.

The Double Edged Sword
Unfortunately since 6th edition came out, the only ally I seem to see is Tau.  But who can blame them, 2+ armor save on the best tank killing weapon in the game is an addition everyone should be fighting for.  Luckily Games Workshop made the intelligent move of foreseeing this and limited the broadsides, making it so they can only rain death on one vehicle/squadron a turn by removing the Target Lock.  Though that hurts us a little, we still have the option of taking two more squads.  Take comfort though friends, no one knows the Tau Empire's weaknesses better than a Tau player.


I Didn't Realize I Was Cheating, I Misinterpreted The Rules

Before you guys go crazy with rules, there was one thing that I realized, for  lots of other codices I only know the basic idea of the rules.  I never noticed that the codex: Eldar has spells that are Eldar specific.  This means we can enhance Fire Warriors effectiveness by hitting an enemy with "Doom", but on the other hand "Fortune" can only be used on Eldar Units, not Tau.  This also means that if I hadn't looked this up I wouldn't have known, so some Dark Eldar player could have re-rolled his 2+ invulnerable save from his battle brother ally and I would have had no idea because I only understand the general idea behind the spell "Fortune".  So if you want to continue to be competitive you need to pull some Football Coaching and get a hold of the other players rulebooks and watch his videos.  Fortunately for us this isn't Football, we won't be chastised because it isn't cheating in this game.  So if you want to really understand the weaknesses and strengths of a specific army you have 4 options.  
1.  Get a hold of the codex, nothings better than getting to the nuts and bolts.
2.  Find a blog or another website dedicated to that army, you'd be surprised how often someone posts "Need help fighting against Tau".  Under this section you will find tactics that you can build a strategy to counter.  You will even find people giving advice on what to avoid when it comes to Tau (i.e. what you need to exploit)
3.  Watch youtube battle reports. If you type in something like "Eldar Battle Reports, by date"  you'll get the most recent Eldar battles, which will give you a feel for how they play and compete with other armies
4.  Follow my blog, i'll do the above 3 for you and you can exploit my labor for free

I'd like to leave you with some inspirational conversions i've been looking up for the last couple years.  Hopefully this will inspire you to blend your new allies more with the Tau look

Imperial Gue'Vesa

I don't remember where I found this but not mine

Tau Necron blend

from advancedtautactica.com

Tau Sniper Bike, a few adjustments and you have a counts as Eldar Jetbike

from double-eagle

Thought of the Day
Eldar Unit casts fortune on itself.  My Psyker successfully casts misfortune on the same unit.  I say we play the way the rulebook tells us. I wound you, you throw the dice look at all the dice that could have been, then you pick them all up and roll them again.

The Tetra: Background and Tactica

Tetra by Dal'Yth Dude at dakkdakka.com

Apparently, the Fire Warriors that bolster the ranks of the Pathfinders have worked out a deal that they will never ever have to walk to a battlefield, ever.  The only way to currently field our markerlight wielding foot soldier is to either
A: Buy a squad with a transport attached to it.
B: Buy a tetra that has two pathfinder pilots that will never ever get out.

For  those of you that have never seen this gem, i'm not surprised, it's not featured in the Tau Empire rulebook.  If you're one of those players that refuses to play with or against Forge World models, or you know people that are,  I would like to give you a little tid bit, play the game the way you want and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  But the skyray and piranha both started out on Forge World, which is just another part of Games Workshop.  So by refusing to play you are not only denying finely detailed sculpts onto the battlefield, you are also denying yourself (as the General  or the Adversary) a new gaming experience that is encouraged by GW.  For a Forge World Kit the model comes at a reasonable price for a pack of 2.  If you don't have the funds, scratch build your own, it's an awesome addition.

For those of you that didn't know, you can find the most recent official rules for the Tetra in Forge World's Tau update found here.

For those of you that didn't know Forge World released another update to use their miniatures in 6th edition, the update for the Tetra can be found in "Vehicles Update - 20/07/2012" located on the Forge World download page which can be found here.

Background
If you haven't read my last post then you don't know that I like to give a brief history lesson on Tau Empire's Units and rules.  The Tetra made it's first appearance back in Imperial Amour 3: The Taros Campaign.  Back then, for the same amount of points you would spend today you would get a scouting unit that had a single twinlinked pulse rifle and a single markerlight.  Which made for a really cool looking waste of points on the table (probably to help us get ready for every unit in 5th edition).  Other than this, the Tetra didn't really receive any love from GW like it's other Forgeworld counterparts until the last couple of months before the release of 6th edition. This was found on a footnote in a basement next to a bathroom in some random small government building in a town whose name no one can pronounce because no cares to visit.  Well it probably wasn't that hard, but still the release was pretty subtle and went mostly unnoticed. 

Tactica/Review
Now for the nuts and bolts behind this beauty.  The Tetra has received an amazing upgrade for absolutely no points cost.  For those of you that think this is unfair I have a few very choice and perhaps offensive words,

Kabalite, Guardsmen, Blood Angel, Psycannon, Flamer of Tzeentch, Winged Hive Tyrant, Boyz, Dire Avenger and  Plague Marine.

Now that we have that out of the way, the Tetra takes up a Fast Attack choice which you would probably use for other pathfinders, Vespid, or Gun Drones (XV-9, Remora Drone Fighters, and Gnarloc Riders if you want to consider other Forge World Options).
The most obvious buff we saw with this guy was the "High Intensity Markerlight". This meant that each tetra can fire four markerlight shots in the form of Heavy 4 .  Unlike Pathfinders on foot who have to choose whether to stay put and fire under a limited field of vision or move a measly 6 inches and fire snapshots, the Tetra is a Fast Skimmer.  This means that it can zoom around enemy positions, and that if you go 2nd, you can keep it out of sight during deployment.  Assuming the enemy firing is over 12 inches away, The Tetra also picks up it's cover save and moves it around with it, this is because the Disruption Pod is included in the price of the vehicle.  Just to make things better you can up the BS of the Tetra up to BS 4 for only 5 points with the targeting array, this means you now have markerlights that hit on a 3+.
The next Upgrade we saw was the Marker Beacon, this means that any Tau Units deploying onto a spot visible to the Tetra may re-roll the scatter dice.  Those of you with bad luck when it comes to deep striking can rest a little easier knowing that you hit the mark over half of the time and almost never need to roll on the mishap table.
Now that the great stuff is out of the way, let's not forget the little things, the twin linked pulse rifle.  Being a Fast Vehicle you will more than likely be able to use this as well with 1 or 2 shots at S5.  Being twin linked this little guy can pester your enemy knocking off the occasional Muhreen.  Too often have I seen people forget to use this weapon because they got overly excited with all their markerlight hits. 
As much as I would like to say that we can now drop markerlights onto multiple units when you have more that one tetra in a squadron, this is impossible.  The latest 6th edition FAQ has killed the Target Lock rendering it useless on anything in the Tau Empire (If you want to see the FAQ for yourself the link can be found here).
Sensor Spines seem to be a little more viable on terrain heavy maps, but seem to be a little overpriced for such a cheap model, the same could be said for Decoy Launchers as giving extra survivability to vehicles during this edition has become less beneficial than in 5th edition.

When you deploy your deep strikers you can use your extra maneuverability during your first turn to draw a line of sight behind your enemies lines.  When your units arrive you can drop them behind your enemy (when you deploy your deep strikers start with the points you want to land farthest away from the Tetra, so that when your units arrive they don't block the line of sight of your other deep striking units).  After your units land you can drop your markerlight hits onto enemies in the back while your Elites and Fast attackers that just arrived can have an enhanced Jump Shoot Jump (you can use the 2D6 jetpack move the turn you arrive via deep strike, as long as it doesn't take you into an assault).

Ideas from the web
If you need some inspiration for conversions i've seen some pretty awesome ideas using the piranha as a base, go ahead and google it.  Remember this game is meant to be fun, play it any way you want. But there are other players, so if you're not at a tourney try not to be a WYSIWYG wizard.

Random Thought For The Day
If you assault my Pathfinders and think that i'm just overwatching my markerlights as an act of useless spite, remember this, markerlights dissapear at the end of my shooting phase.  This isn't the shooting phase and it's not even my turn.  Have fun during my next shooting phase with a gift from my dead Pathfinders.

Tau Helpers welcomes you to 6th edition

Since their humble beginnings in 3rd edition, the Tau have both dazzled and annoyed players with Jetpacks, Splitfire, and the much sought after Rail Gun.

In 3rd edition, the Tau would jump over obstacles unleash a volley of fire, then do something that was just madness, move in the assault phase without assaulting.  This was in addition to placing 72 inches worth of Strength 10 Tank killer on infantry with the armor save and toughness of a space marine terminator at double the wounds.  Oh yeah these guys have the option of being able to shoot multiple targets.  If that madness wasn't enough our basic troops wield a rifle that laughs at the imperial's silly boltgun.  By the way, our other troop type is pretty decent in close combat and can infiltrate, but their upgrades take up fast attack and heavy support slots, good thing no one will ever use the heavy support slot for anything but broadsides and Hammerheads.  This was an army you could find being played almost every time you walked into a Games Workshop.  The army was so popular that it paved the way for a First person shooter on Playstation 2 and an all  new army list featuring nothing but kroot that could be used in smaller detachments with other armies (Believe it or not, the allies system isn't new).

In 4th edition we took a temporary small hit, our pulse rifles can no longer fire at 15 inches, but  we can move and shoot twice at 12 inches, unfortunately, so could everyone else.  The Tau were so popular at this point that they were the featured army of Forgeworld's first narrative Imperial Armour.  But after a little while they were getting a new rulebook *hiss* (when an army that isn't spehz mareens is on top, the pessimist in me cries "A new rulebook?  Mega Nerf INCOMING!!!").  Although they got rid of one of my favorite rules ("Release the Hounds" caused an automatic strength 4 hit for each kroot hound in the unit on an enemy  unit that retreated in close combat and was not destroyed by sweeping advance), Kroot  hounds and Krootox had to pay for a 6+ save if they wanted it, bumped up the cost of the plasma rifle, and the stealth suits were just as visible at night as they were during the day, we saw a lot of welcomed change.  Welcome to the Glorious 3rd expansion:
Kroot hounds and krootox  no longer taking up additional force organization slots, cheaper crisis suits, experimental wargear, targetting arrays, the piranha and the skyray moved from the pages of Imperial Armour into the codex, flamers could now be twinlinked (no one really cared at the time), the vast empire had finally seen an ally other than the kroot (and the fanboy's often jeered at gue'vesa) in the form of the vespid, the ethereals could now take fire warriors on steroids, and new special characters (minus the close combat ethereal), and the Tau took on a new persona in the fluff.  Tau were no longer the good guys we saw in the 3rd edition codex.  I remember some fluff in 3rd edition that went something like this

Tau A: Look at the imperial barbarians, they still lumber across the ground, LOL
Tau B: Although we are super advanced and probably type everything if not tell a drone to type it for us, ill compare our Rail Guns hitting tanks to punching through paper (probably because paper is all we can punch through).
Tau A: The imperials don't realize our pathfinders have already moved away, they are shooting at nothing
Tau B: Wait, don't you mean stealth suits?
Tau A: No this battle is most likely happening before all our rules sets have been written in stone
Tau B: The humans would blow themselves up, how barbaric
Tau A: Gross! The kroot are eating them, I hope we can discourage that.

For those of you  that didn't know, kroot used to have to roll a check "Eaters of the Dead" which meant that if they failed they couldn't perform a sweeping advance, unless they included a shaper.  In older books the Imperial Guardsman could use suicide bombers, but now they can't.  Oh yeah, you can have a crisis suit blow itself up, in the name of the greater good.  Not to mention rumors of sterilizing humans, brainwashing other races, and assassinating O'Shova over and over again. The Tau were then referred to as "The Tau Empire".  Players were seen all over the place, which begged the question "Why do the least common soldiers of the imperium and one of the smallest armies in the 40k universe see the most table time?".

And then came 5th edition...  Needless to say the 3rd sphere saw a shift from glorious expansion to grinding up hill battle.  Tau players lost interest, and that really is no surprise.  The damage table for tanks was turned upside down onto our weapons in addition to giving anything with an armor value the ability to take a 4+ cover save.  We saw the rule  "run" take away the advantage of our pulse rifles.  Oh yeah it's no longer about killing its about putting troops on objectives.  Then came the new army books...  It's sad when the shootiest army gets beat on shooting then pummeled like a red headed step child.  If a narrative was written about the 3rd sphere, it would probably go something like this:
"The Tau were happily expanding then the Imperial Guard started churning out a greater quantity of tanks and infantryman refusing to give up any space.  The tyranids started invading in greater number eating all the Tau that stood in the way.  The Blood Angels seemed to go out of their way to beat the snot out of the Tau. The Necron were like "Forget the C'Tan we don't need Pariahs. Immortals seem to be more common, oh and we have transports". The Dark Eldar decided that the decade worth of soul searching was over and came back into the fray while injecting all the Tau with Poison before taking most as slaves.  The Daemonhunters said "you have made us angry for some reason, prepare to see less stormtroopers and a rediculous amount of Firepower.  By the way,our name is Grey Knights now"".
If that wasn't a hard enough kick in the shins, Kroot Mercenaries were reduced from an army to a footnote in apocalypse.  Tau players were strung along with the introduction of the XV-9. Those of you that were paying attention saw the forgeworld update towards the end of 5th and scurried around to get money for a pair of Tetras.


But those 4 long and painful years are now over, what seems to have been held under a greater amount of secrecy than most 1st world countries top secrets, was revealed.  6th edition has become a welcome change for most gamers of  the Tau Empire.  When the Tau first stepped onto the field back at the turn of the century, Games Workshop was hosting tournaments, independent retailers were hosting tournaments, and the game had just left the field of friendly narrative play to power gaming math hammer (which we seemed to do real well).  But for the most part we saw that power gamers among the Tau Empire all but evaporated as the Tau were not very tournament worthy when it came to the actual competition in 5th.  But for some reason Games Workshop took a really big hammer and smashed in all the skulls of all the people that wanted to host tournaments and screamed "NARRATIVE PLAYING!!!".  Which as a player that comforted himself with the idea of having a beautiful army and a cool back story I was like "I picked up DnD to help me keep playing this game, but now I can actually role the dice and win in more than just my head".  With price hikes, internet stores being discouraged, and private retailers being discouraged, I am buying the beautiful lie that GW wishes to return to its roots, but i'm still suspicious.  Another thing us Tau players will be able to experience that we never did before is overwatch. I know some of you that have been playing since 2nd edition are saying "Old News" but  this is something that us Tau players never got to use.  It was like all the heads of all the other warhammer armies got together and the Ultramarines were like "We saw these guys out on the eastern fringe and they are REALLY good at shooting.  But they all don't know that if someone gets charged they can still shoot back instead of crying like a little panzy because they hate close combat".  And then the Chaos Gods shouted "We have a really good idea.  Instead of showing them how to do this, we'll just agree to not shoot each other when someone else is charging"  To which the Tyranids, Orks, Imperial Guardsman, Eldar, and Dark Eldar all cheered "Agreed!"  And then Marneus Calgar was like "Oh yeah! Tell the necron when they wake up not to do it either".  And for over a decade everyone was laughing on the inside.  But then they got overconfident as they were cleaning Tau bodies off of their tank hulls.  Despite all the advantages we received, we lost one of out favorite niches, being able to split fire. Sadly the target lock on a battlesuit is like neon lights under a car, it looks cool but it serves no actual function in addition to being a waste of resources.

To those of you that are new, returning to, or have always been playing the Tau, Tau Helpers welcomes you to 6th edition.  May this edition be better than the last.  I hope you enjoy your stay here at Tau Helpers.