Simple Suggestions 1 & 2

Last time, I spoke about what my hopes for a new Tau codex looked like. That range would continue to prevail over assault as the Tau's preferred style of combat. That our mobility would be retained and enhanced. That we'd continue to expand our exploitation of technological gadgetry. And that we'd continue to see a collection of auxiliaries that complimented the Tau without diluting what makes them so great. SpectralTime commented about his fears that the next codex will be cast far from it's roots, and it's a fear that he's not alone in. More importantly, he touched on a subject that I've only seen brought up a handful of times; the Tau don't need to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch, all they need is a fresh coat of paint, and a little love.

It's something I feel gets overlooked a lot. No one is saying the Tau are competitive, but I think what a lot of people don't want to admit, is that they're very close to being so. Our army is built around one of the greatest, most widely available anti-armor weapons in the game, the Railgun. Our standard troop carries the best line gun in the galaxy. Not to mention the array of niche and flexible units we can field. But there's a lot of dead weight, units like the Ethereal, and Skyray which do more harm than good. Point for point our models are often more expensive, and less affective than other codexes, forcing us to rely heavily on a few efficient units – and that is a sign of an aging codex. Despite this, I think what we see as the chasm separating the Tau codex from competitive codexes is much smaller than people realize, and has been exasperated by frequent misuse of the army. Tau strategy is rife with pitfalls for the new and experienced commander alike, and it's easy to blame an aging codex instead of taking a look at your own tactics.

But this isn't an article, or even a blog dedicated to the current Tau codex. I think it's important to understand where we are as a faction, so that we might better understand where we're going, and to that end, I wanted to share with you today, the first in a series of articles that will make a pair of simple suggestions. Bite sized morsels for your consideration that take a current unit or mechanic you're familiar with and then tweak it. Of course, I fully expect the changes in the new codex to be much grander of scope than these basic ones, but to expect every unit to see a radical new design is silly, and it's ideas like these that could make up the bulk of the new material presented to us in the upcoming codex. Lastly, as one final caveat, the suggestions in this article, and every “Simple Suggestions” article that follows, are made without any foreknowledge of the new codex, and should not under any circumstances be taken as rumors or the like.

Simple Suggestion #1: Stand and Shoot

What I propose here is taken straight from Warhammer Fantasy. In Fantasy, when an assault occurs, the recipient can take one of three actions;

• Do nothing and accept the assault, which largely resembles the 40k state of affairs.
• Break and run, also an option, but not what we're discussing today.
• Stand and shoot, in which the unit receives the charge, but also gets a free shooting phase before hand. This is what we're discussing.

There are some other aspects of the Fantasy rule, involving minimum ranges etc., but nothing that really needs to be discussed or even included in the Tau's version. The advantages are pretty clear, and could serve to level the playing field against assault specialists in an enemy's army, without incorporating additional close combat units into the Tau. Furthermore, since it happens only when the Tau receive the charge, it doesn't go so far as to unbalance the assault phase at large, or the advantage assault armies have in it.

It might not look like balance...

In a perfect world, on a game board that was set up with fair terrain, where generals are of equal skill, and use units of similar value, when an assault unit finally reaches the ranged unit it's been hunting, it should be whittled down to the point where the two mutually annihilate each other. It's a pretty ludicrous thought, since that scenario will never happen, but it's the theoretical balance that should be strived for, and a rule like this could be a step in the direction of that balance. It's also worth noting that this shouldn't be a rule that we see applied to every single Tau unit, for instance I don't see what business it would have on a Stealth Team that's equipped for improved mobility. Pathfinders, and Fire Warriors stand to benefit the most from this, but we could even extend it to Broadsides - anything that's not terribly mobile.


Simple Suggestion #2: Markerlights

Markerlights are a key element within Tau forces, and as such this simple suggestion is two fold. As a predominantly ranged army, we sit at a humble BS3. Outside of Targeting Arrays, the only way for us to increase this mediocre Ballistic Skill is through Markerlights. However, Markerlights suffer from two major failings, being Heavy, and not conveying their advantage to the unit firing them.

Lets address the issue of being heavy, as this is bound to be a bit controversial. The Heavy status makes Markerlights nearly unusable, absolutely crippling Pathfinder teams, the quintessential Markerlight unit. If we are going to improve mobility, they need to become assault. Remember, all this is doing is letting our Markerlight units move and shoot, shooting a weapon that on it's own can't even hurt something. Beyond the scope of Pathfinders, it would empower the Shas'Ui of Fire Warrior teams, and Marker Drones wherever they're not attached to Relentless units. This is a prime example of updating an aging codex.

Lastly, I don't expressly need to touch on this subject, since this is arguably a rules discussion, but someone once made the argument that it would be impossible to train a laser on a target while moving, to which I have to reply “Wha...?”. If we have image stabilization on the simplest of cameras today, that let any amateur photographer keep their subject centered, then a space fairing civilization can equip trained soldiers with the technology to make this work. Period.

Modern Day Laser Painting Equipment

The solution to this next problem already exists within our codex now. Networked Markerlights allow the unit the Markerlight is part of, to take advantage of their own Markerlight hits. They're considered larger and more awkward than the traditional Markerlight, but that's nothing a couple decades of technological advancement couldn't fix. This is another streamlining tactic that would result in minimal work, while resulting in a significant if not subtle boon to the Tau's capabilities. The Shas'Ui of Fire Warrior teams (in conjunction with the above Assault based Markerlights) could direct the fire of his squad, increasing their Ballistic Skill in the process, and Rail Rifle toting Pathfinders could take advantage of their teams spotting ability. The fact the distinction between Networked Markerlights and their smaller kin exists at all implies it's a consideration already made by GW, one they may return to as they work on the next codex. One problem, however, is that it removes an element of interdependency the Tau have on one another, albeit slightly. So slightly, I think, as to be inconsequential, but one must always be careful of this kind of thing, as too much of it will turn a cohesive army with a unified strategy into multiple small units existing completely independent of one another.

In closing, I'll say that no single suggestion I make could ever bring the Tau to the competitive level. They're meant to be tiny, conceptual changes that could help support a larger codex re-write. Some of you might disagree with these, and to be honest, I encourage it. Additionally, these suggestions may run counterpoint to some of the rumors floating around, I'm not trying to debunk these rumors, but I'm also deliberately not taking them into consideration – they are after all, just rumors. So if you liked these suggestions, or if you see glaring balance issues I hadn't taken into consideration, or if you have some of your own, let me know, this stuff is like brain-food for me, it gets me thinking.