Rumor Break-Down Part: 2

And we're back, with the second half of our coverage on Tastyfish's recent Warseer Rumor Round Up, that has just recently been updated to v3.0, to take in to account some rumor monger discussion. Just as before, you can skip down to “The Bottom Line” to bypass the autopsy and get straight to the post-mortem opinion.

Lets get to the heart of the matter.

Picking up from where we left off, we come to Ghost21's multiple inputs. I had a hell of a time tracking down the source material for this one, until I realized that Tastyfish had actually cobbled together all of Ghost's separate one or two sentence posts, into the coherent round-up thread he's made on Warseer. As a result, if you want to track the original source material, you'll have to search through Ghost's posts, all of which can be found through this link, but be warned, it's a tedious job, and after a couple of hours of piecing it all together, I can tell you for certain, Tastyfish has done all the work for us on that front.

Phil Kelly

The first thing Ghost mentions is that the Tau are going to be after the next book, which is likely to be Black Templars. This has been the opinion of the collective rumor community for a while now, along with the fact that the Tau have been more or less complete for some time, and have just been jockeying for position with the other codex releases. He thinks the author is Phil Kelly, which I think few people will be disappointed to hear (though this sits opposite a rumor we'll get to momentarily). Wave one, Ghost says, will include plastic Demiurg, Battlesuit, Vespid, and Assault Transport kits, along with a Demiurg Blister, an unspecified “Tau” Blister, and two entirely unnamed Blisters. A Dropship, Fighter Craft, “Ubersuit”, and Sniper Suit will likely come in a second wave. All of which sounds like the quality launches we've seen recent armies get.
                                                                                                                                
His information on codex composition mentions that we'll have four basic HQ's, and three basic Troop Choices, excluding any changes made by Special Characters. Speaking of which, we'll have four returning Special Characters according to Ghost, and since our current codex only has three, that would mean Aun'Shi, from 3^rd Edition's Codex: Tau would be making a come back. We'll also be getting an additional two to four Special Characters on top of that, all of which is perfectly believable, given just how many SC's have appeared in recent codices. One of these is reportedly named Iceheart, and while Ghost doesn't elaborate further, other contributors have stated that he'll be a Demiurg character. Beyond this, he states that there's been some shuffling of units in the Force Organization Chart which is to be expected.

A less boxy Crisis Suit as
imagined by Roberto Cirillo.

Our Commander's will apparently have access to Stealth technology (which itself is reportedly changing as well, no word on how yet), and I have to assume that this will mean Commanders have access to either XV85's, an experimental piece of Wargear, or a new kind of suit entirely (Shadowsun's prototype XV22 includes a Stealth Field Generator as it is now, so if it were just that, it wouldn't be new). The Crisis Suit's “Morphic Weapon” is also brought up again. It's something you might remember from earlier posts, about Crisis Suit's behaving something like Chaos Obliterators – only this time it's a bit more specific, stating that the Morphic Weapon will fire different kinds of munitions – what kind of affect this will translate to on the table-top however isn't explored. Not only are Crisis Suits getting a less boxy sculpt, it seems Ghost thinks we'll be getting a new suit capable of filling a sniper's role, but he doesn't specify a mass class. Meaning it could be anywhere from a small XV2 category, up to and maybe beyond the XV8 and 9 categories, though my money is on it being smaller.

Building on the anime-inspired roots
of the Tau Battlesuit - the Missile
Barrage is one possible interpretation
of the Ubersuit's armament.

The now famous Ubersuit is first mentioned here. Reportedly capable of raining firepower down on it's enemies if it remains stationary, it's supposed to be about the size of the Grey Knight's Dreadknight. Ghost has been tight-lipped on this one, but left a clue stating that it looks like a mech from a series that recently celebrated an anniversary (Battletech), and was named after an ancient weapon (fittingly, a Warhammer), this was all later confirmed by our next rumor monger Jared van Kell - but we'll get to him  and what he has to say about the Ubersuit in just a minute.

"Break yourself upon my body."

Ghost is also on the record for loving the Demiurg, and as such has quite a bit to say about them. They'll be getting one HQ, one Troop, and one other potential unit who's FOC position goes unspecified but which we presume to be an Elite choice. One of these, either the HQ or mystery unit is likely to be titled the Demiurg ancient. He goes onto say (without specifying which unit) that the Demiurg are similar to (Howling) Banshee's without the scream. Tastyfish elaborates on this, concluding that it must mean they are capable of anti-armor close combat. The Demiurg are much less Dwarfish than initial concept art led people to believe, and Ghost describes them as looking more like Ozruk from World of Warcraft.

"One of those looks like the new Vespid"

- Ghost21

In terms of other Auxiliaries, Ghost mentions that Kroot or Kroot Shapers might be getting minor psychic powers – something collated by recent novels. The Kroot's Fieldcraft USR is going to change, presumably, Tastyfish thinks, to Stealth and Infiltrate. Ghost says their may be a large Kroot unit inbound, but doesn't have any details beyond it being about the size of a WFB monster (think: Greater Knarloc). Vespids have gotten an overhaul, and have gotten a new unit, routinely referred to as a “Heavy” by the community, which will occupy a different position from the standard Vespid, and I'm thinking this is going to be one the larger female Vespid the current codex makes mention of. Perhaps one of the juiciest bits here is that there is an as-of-yet unmentioned auxiliary race, that likely won't be there for launch, the only detail we have on this new race is that it has 6 limbs.

Who thinks 40k needs more cavalry?

Ghost also shuts down several potential rumors, saying their won't be any Court of the Archon/Henchmen type mixed units, no Nicassar (psychicly gifted allies of the Tau), no Human Auxiliaries, and that their will be no Kroot Knarloc Riders (something I would have loved to see, sadly).

Stepping away from Ghost21's numerous posts, we come Jared van Kell's offering, from Librarium Online. Jared van Kell gives us an interesting mix of complimentary and contradictory information to Ghost, all of which comes from similar piece-meal posting, but is luckily contained in these two threads.

Robin Cruddace

The first thing JVK wants us to know is that it'll be Robin Cruddace writing the codex, and that's a point he seems quite certain of. While Cruddace might be my second choice, I know there'll be a lot of people out there happy to see his name attached to the project, but remember, this rumor contradicts Ghost21's suggestion that it'll be Phil Kelly who writes our next codex.

He expands on the HQ situation, stating that our four generic HQ's will be the Tau Commander, Ethereal, Kroot Master Shaper, and Demiurg Ancient, and finishes by saying that two of the release's Blisters will be the Demiurg Ancient, and an Ethereal. It makes sense when you consider that a Tau Commander is indistinguishable for the most part, from other Tau Battlesuits, and that a Kroot Master Shaper could easily be included with, or made from, existing Kroot. It's also interesting to remember that Finecast has already released an Ethereal Blister - though the Tau line has traditionally always had a couple different Ethereals to choose from.

Another piece by Lord Dirk, his take on how
the Demiurg might look. and further evidence
that community members either inspire, predict,
or run parallel to things that might come.

JVK also takes a moment to clarify, as best he can, how the HQ's will affect troops. He describes a relationship between HQ and Troop that can vary from increasing the stats of an existing troop choice (as in the case of the Ethereal increasing the Fire Warriors BS from 3 to 4), allowing units that weren't previously available as Troops to be taken as Troops (as with the Crisis Commander allowing for XV8s to be taken as a Troop Choice), or for a unit to be able to be taken at all (as in the case of the Kroot and Demiurg simply not being available without their respective HQ). One thing that is clear though, is that no one has an eloquent way of explaining this one yet - and it's likely we won't know exactly how it works until we have the book in hand. So far though, this staggered approach to the HQ's, where they each have a different effect on the army, and don't each simply unlock a troop choice, has been my favorite iteration.

JVK's rumors go on to mention the Skyray, and it's increased selection of payloads. He puts forward that Skyray's will have to choose a single flavor of Seeker Missile, and specialize only in that, one of which would be a Strength 6, AP 4, Blast. He stipulates further, however, that it's main role will still be target marking - implying that it will still very much be a support unit for Fire Warrior Teams. JVK doesn't mention whether or not Seeker Missiles will be a finite resource.

The Warhammer IIC. A potential basis
for  what the Ubersuit might look like?

Playing off of Ghost21's rumors, JVK chimes in with what he knows of the Ubersuit - definitively stating that it resembles the Warhammer IIC of Battletech renown. He mentions that it's not quite Dreadknight sized, and will have the ability to "Brace", presumably allowing it to fire multiple salvo's at the price of remaining still. The term "Brace" received special note from JVK, as it was the term used recently in the video game Space Marine, to describe the game play mechanic of Space Marine Devastators undergoing a similar trade off, being able to fire more accurately, but in doing so, becoming stationary. Interestingly, he can be quoted as writing "'brace'... yes Matt Ward does play Spacemarine.", which is odd given that there was no context for mentioning Matt Ward. Whether or not he's alluding to Matt Ward's involvement on some level, or to something else entirely unrelated that sailed over my head, I don't know, but it struck me as peculiar.

The Bottom Line

Ghost21 and JVK are both respected rumor mongers in the community, and both have been active in Tau news for quite a while. The two have no clear relation to one another, and really only interact through expanding on the other's information, and when mutually compiled into rumor threads by people like Tastyfish. I feel this is important because they very often have information that relates to one another, like they've each been given half the pieces of the same puzzle. Just like triangulating a signal, the more independent sources confirming the same information, the more likely a chance it is to be correct, and I think that's what we're seeing here.

That's why I feel confident that HQ's unlocking, empowering, or otherwise interacting with Troops is going to happen. It's why I feel talk of this Ubersuit, and even it's bracing mechanic can be banked on. A lot of what's been discussed however, changes to the Skyray for instance, are changes the community has wanted for a long time. So when we hear about rumors like this, they naturally sound like echoes of existing hear-say, or wishlists, when frankly, from GW's perspective, it would be common sense to act on. Sometimes the community has asked for something for so long that it just seems as though they're telling us what we want to hear, when really it's just that the rumor is too simple for it's own good. And while information trafficking of this sort will always be a clumsy art, my personal recommendation is that if you want to be on the bleeding edge of reliable rumors, watch these two.

As always folks, thanks for reading!