Rumor: HQ's Unlocking Troops

As a preface to this article, and all articles in which I discuss rumors, I'd like to mention that I'm not aiming to discuss the rumors effect on the game as it is now. With every codex rewrite comes a whole host of editing that will make the end result impossible to predict. It's not to say I won't talk about what it's battlefield impact could be, it's just not the focus. Rather, I'm trying to take the rumor, break it down, and then see if it's completely bonkers, a good fit for the Tau, or if it's logically serviceable. I hope you enjoy.

This has been a pretty hot topic lately, and with so much to address, I figured, why not start at the top of the pile, and talk about one of the rumored changes to our HQ units.

As a quick synopsis, the rumor is said to be derived by stinger989's (an avid Warseer poster) discussion with someone at the most recent Adepticon. It layers on top of an existing rumor, that the same individual reported on previously, one that claims Demiurg, a new Dwarf-like auxiliary race, will be in the upcoming codex. We'll touch on them in a later article, but just in case you found yourself wondering who the Demiurg I mention are - now you know. You can find the original post and discussion here.

What the rumor says, is fairly simple - each HQ choice unlocks an associated Troop. The rumor further stipulates that there are no standard troop choices available to all Tau builds - this is mentioned later in the same thread by posters corroborating the rumor. The HQ's, and their associated Troop choice are as follows...

• Ethereals allow the selection of Fire Warrior Teams as Troops.
• Crisis Commanders allow the selection of Crisis Teams as Troops.
• Kroot Shapers allow the selection of Kroot Carnivore Squads as Troops.
• and, Demiurg Commanders allow the selection of Demiurg units as Troops.

There has been a growing presence in codexes, of HQ's (often Characters) changing the nature of the army in question. Nearly every codex has one, if not a handful of models that play host to this mechanic. And while it might be staggering to think of a codex that employs this kind of relationship between Troop and HQ to the exclusion of all else, it's not entirely unprecedented. The Tau are often considered to be on the outside looking in when it comes to tradition in 40k, so who better than we to test such a radical concept?

However, this rumor is not without it's flaws. Possibly the most glaring is in the simple game of numbers. Ordinarily an army only gets two HQ choices (Space Wolf players, talk amongst yourselves), which means of the four potential Troop choices, we will only ever have access to two at any given time. Why is that a flaw you ask? Well most Tau players already have three of the four possible options (Crisis Suits, Fire Warriors, and Kroot), leaving the fourth, the Demiurg, GW's (potential) new addition to our codex, out in the cold. An interesting way to launch a new codex, by implementing rules that discourage the purchase of new products.

Perhaps GW's stance on the Demiurg is that as a new unit, they will generate demand through shear presence alone, enticing long time Tau players to shelf existing units for them. Or perhaps, and in my opinion far more likely, we don't have all the requisite information.

Consider for a moment the humble Fire Warrior, the backbone of the Tau Empire. According to the rumor at hand, without an Ethereal, these guys, who currently enjoy +1 status, can't even be fielded. And come to think of it, shouldn't we be seeing some sort of correlation between the HQ and Troop they unlock? Why would an Ethereal, an individual that the Tau are genetically predispostioneid to dread the death of, be required to take to the field, just so that the most basic element of the Tau military can be allowed to fight? Now, consider for a moment that within the current Tau codex, Ethereals can be accompanied by a retinue of veteran Fire Warriors.

If I were to draw my own conclusion from this, what I would say is that it's much more likely that Fire Warriors will be a standard troop selection, regardless of HQ choice, but with the presence of an Ethereal, can/are upgraded to something akin to a veteran Fire Warrior.

Crisis Suits present even less of an issue, in that they're currently able to taken as an Elite choice. This might change, but we don't currently have any reason to believe that it will. Meaning if neither an Ethereal or Crisis Commander is taken, all four units discussed in this rumor could be fielded simultaneously, including the new Demiurg. For that matter, it's entirely possible that the Demiurg might natively occupy another part of the Force Organization Chart, like say the Elite or Heavy Support portions, optionally being fielded as something other than a Troop selection, just like the Crisis Teams. By extension the same could be said of Kroot.

The point I'm trying to drive home is that with some very minor tweaks, this rumor goes from perplexing to understandable. Suddenly, we see a codex that presents us with strategic options. Do we take a Crisis Commander and field a small elite army? Do we take an Ethereal and form a Tau purist army, or a gun-line army? Do we take a Kroot Shaper for the Kroot's many tactical uses? Or do we take the Demiurg... for er... whatever Demiurg do? Not to mention the potential interactions between the lot.

I'm going to touch base on just one last point, and I think this will dovetail nicely into some future articles. If any of this is true, and remember, these are just rumors. What does it mean for our Special Characters? Sure, the majority of them fall into easy to define roles, Farsight is clearly a Crisis Suit Commander, and Aun'va is obviously an Ethereal - but what about Shadowsun? Will all our characters, new and old, be shoe horned into one of the four potential HQ choices?

Feel free to let me know what you think, about this, and any part of the article, I'm new to all this, and would love to hear some feedback. I'd also like to extend my thanks to the Advanced Tau Tactica community, to whom much credit to this and all future articles will be undoubtably owed to.

Thanks for reading!