Shield Generators give you a 4+ invulnerable save. You do pay 5pts for this, but you should still assume you’re stapling these to the support slot on most of your on-table Crisis models – that is an aggressive price. Vrekais: I’m Mont’ka all the way here, I was running Sophisticated Command Nets before and Hardened Warheads and this philosophie embodies both of those benefits, re-rolling 1s to wound and increasing AP but for my whole army rather than just vehicles. Yes the models need to move in such a way to get to the closest target but Mont’ka provides with it’s awesome movement buffs. All T'au Battlesuits are constructed of a lightweight yet strong nano-crystalline alloy called fio'tak in the T'au Lexicon, which is light, malleable, impact-resistant and corrosion-resistant, reducing the weight of the battlesuit whilst also providing excellent protection. Even the armour's shape helps deflect solid projectiles, while a reflective liquid metal coating can reflect medium-grade laser fire.

Coldstars, finally, are your fast Commanders, with a better basic move, once per game re-deploy and the ability to allow Crisis Teams to auto-Advance 8”. The latter is a bit meh – you already have an option to auto-Advance Crisis 6” via a stratagem, and that comes with ignoring hit penalties too. However, having access to extreme speed on the Commander themselves is extremely useful in a pinch. Yet the Earth Caste did not stop there. As the T'au Empire expanded across the stars, the Hunter Cadres encountered new and more deadly alien races, prompting the Earth Caste to develop new battlesuits to fulfill particular battlefield tactical roles or face certain foes.

Datasheets

Mont’ka is your option for going fast and breaking things, and offers you benefits to your mobility and damage output for the first three turns of the game. While Mont’ka is active, your units can make Normal Moves or Advance and still count as Remaining Stationary for the purposes of shooting, and when you shoot at the closest enemy unit within a set range (which decreases from 18” to 9” over the three turns) you improve your AP by 1 and get to re-roll wound rolls of 1. This is, obviously, extremely good stuff – Tau have lots of mid-ranged guns that look very spicy in this book, and using Mont’ka allows you to get these into touch fast, and substantially improves their output in the opening phases of the game. It’s particularly useful for heavily mechanised lists, as getting access to re-roll 1s is pretty unusual for non-CORE tanks, and Fire Warriors hopping out of Devilfish (something there’s strong support for – more on that later) are extremely nasty with this up. There’s basically nothing in this book that doesn’t appreciate the extra mobility too – whether it be Crisis Teams launching daring early strikes, or Broadsides sprinting ponderously into firing positions, being able to Advance and Shoot is just always great. That’s obviously bad news, but the good news is the price is pretty attractive (80pts for a Strike Team, 85pts for Breachers) and a combination of upgrades to their basic kit and the array of buffs you can apply makes them pretty dangerous. Strike Teams tote pulse rifles, one of the nastiest basic infantry guns in the game at RF1 36” S5 AP-1. As discussed in stratagems, you can easily push this as far as AP-3, can get two shots at full range, and can apply hit boosts or re-rolls in multiple ways, so these can hit with some reasonable force. Only the Hammerhead railgun gets to ignore invulns, but all flavours of rail weaponry hit hard and do automatic mortals as soon as they wound, helping push through defences.

What else has changed? There are a couple of interesting points to make on Drones. Veteran T’au players know that there are a dozen or so Drones available — most of which are quite obscure — but the ones with which we need concern ourselves are Gun, Marker, and Shield Drones. Just as impactful, if not more so, is a keyword change – Crisis and Broadside Battlesuits plus all Commanders are now INFANTRY. For Crisis and Commanders that means they can claim Light Cover, a big survivability boost (especially on Enforcer Commanders, who can get pretty eye-wateringly tough now), while for Broadsides it provides the key ability to lurk just behind a wall till it’s time to strike, then burst through and hopefully keep one foot on the terrain’s base to augment their already juicy 2+ save (or alternatively, stand on some battlements blasting away). One other key impact this has on broadsides is that they are no longer limited to the ground floor of ruins or other terrain pieces, now being able to climb to firing positions that befit their heavy support status. Broadsides are up next, and they also look pretty strong. The big draws out the gate here are that the rail rifle build is very cheap at 75pts before you start adding upgrades and side guns and as INFANTRY with a 2+ base save and a massive 8W they’re very tough to shift out of cover. They’re also the biggest CORE unit in the army, so a unit of three can be a great place to drop Shadowsun’s buff – if nothing else, 24 re-rolling SMS shots from out of sight is pretty scary, and now plasma rifles are good their alternative sidearm option of a twin plasma is actually worth consideration (particularly on solo models). They also get some unique suit systems – the ATS gives them auto-wounds on 6s to hit (again great if they’re planning to hide and use missiles till the enemy emerges) while the Enhanced Optics let them ignore penalties for moving and shooting, and also for shooting heavy weapons into combat. Which you want depends on how often you think you’re going to reliably be in Mont’ka while getting them into position – if you’re even the slightest bit unsure, probably take the Optics, if you’re dead certain you’re ride or die for Mont’ka, go for the ATS or one of the other choices. High-yield missile pods return as an option too, sporting baseline AP-2 in line with all other missile weapons, but they’re a considerable price premium over rail rifles and flat damage two, so definitely not the play competitively while damage reduction is such a big thing.Enforcer Commander, missile pod, cyclic ion blaster, flamer, plasma rifle, thermoneutronic projector, Be’gel Hunter’s Plate, Precision of the Hunter– 165, 1CP Support systems (worth mentioning): RT can take two. ATS -1 AP, 20pt cost. Auto include for HBC, and really amps up damage of SMS, but at 20pts, you should only take it with HBC. VT +1 to hit against fly, 10pts. Decent these days with a AIA against Drukhari raiders. CDS reroll misses in overwatch, 10pts. Really good on either primary weapon, and cements the supremacy of SMS in overwatch. Absolutely murderous with HBC, and does activate when firing FTGG. EWO shoot at deep striking unit within 12in, 10pts. Limited by the fact that it is 12in max range. Drone controller +1 hit to Sept drones, 5pts. Pretty good for remoras and for Shielded missile drones, but takes up a slot for the others. Shield Drones increased by 50 percent, from 10 to 15 points. There’s no other way to slice it: this is a significant bump. It’s a pretty big deal for T’au players, but that’s not the whole story. Gun and Marker Drones stayed the same price, which means that, relative to the rest of the game, these two units became cheaper. The advancement of T'au Battlesuits has mirrored the rate at which the T'au have expanded across the galaxy. The earliest prototypes were field-tested during the early stages of the First Sphere Expansion, and although they were successful, the going was slow. In 576.M39, improvements in anti-gravitic motors were combined with relatively new T'au Battlesuit technology at the time to form the first T-Series Battlesuits, which helped the Fire Caste complete the annexation of the Tash'var Sept.

From my point of view, this Codex passes the crucial test for any 9th Edition book – it’s extremely clear that the writers wanted Tau to feel cool and understood how best to use their mechanics to accomplish that. This Codex looks like a total blast to play with – it’s loaded with cool options, the majority of the units feel like they’re good at their job and are aggressively priced, and the suite of mobility and defensive tools you have access to means you should be able to plan then execute some really exciting stuff on the table. I’ve been tinkering with some army lists while preparing this review and there are a lot of things I’d be excited to try out, and the internal balance seems good enough that there are very few clearly “wrong” choices. This aspect has grown on me over the course of the review, which is generally indicative of a good amount of depth – so very positive. XV46 Vanguard Void Battlesuit - The XV46 Vanguard Void Battlesuit is a newly developed T'au Battlesuit that was designed by Earth Caste mechanics of the T'au Empire out of a need for a specialised battlesuit to explore space hulks. They incorporate many advanced and miniaturised technologies in their armour, and are armed with an array of powerful short-ranged weapons and potent defensive systems to aid them in their exploration role.Sa’cea ends up pretty middle of the road overall – you’re going to feel like it’s doing good stuff for you, and if it’s your favourite Sept you’re going to have a great time in narrative play, but it’s probably not quite where the top competitive builds will come from. Dal’yth If they succeed in that demanding role, they will go on to be assigned to a T'au Commander's Battlesuit Bodyguard Team, and eventually will become a T'au Commander themselves once they attains the rank of shas'el. By the time a Fire Caste warrior has reached this stage, they are a veteran of many battles, extremely experienced in the way of mobile warfare and equipped with a set of wargear perfectly suited to support their style of combat. Further service and success in the role of shas'el will then lead to a promotion to the highest Fire Caste rank of shas'o. T'au Battlesuits are only piloted by those Fire Warriors who have proven themselves in battle and completed their first Trial by Fire to earn the Fire Caste rank of shas'ui. Often, the first battlesuits that Fire Warriors learn to pilot are the XV15 and/or the XV25 Stealthsuit, to complete their training in the arts of infiltration and ambush that they began as Pathfinders. Once their time utilising a Stealthsuit is complete, they are then given the honour of piloting an XV8 Crisis Battlesuit and becoming a member of the Fire Caste's elite. Once the enemy is visible, well, the pain begins – Skyrays come out and start dropping markers and missiles, the Broadsides burst through a wall and blow something into tiny pieces, and Longstrike himself can commit if the opponent’s short on big guns, or something vital needs to become dead. From a strict optimisation point of view, right now the Stealth Suits should be a two-model Crisis Bodyguard team with minimal equipment just so Longstrike can act with impunity, but I like still being friends with people I play Warhammer against afterwards so that’s out. By all means do it in tournament lists, but don’t expect me to like it when I write it up in Competitive Innovations. Finally in HQs, Kroot Shapers. They lead Kroot. That’s kind of it – they’re pretty mediocre stat-wise, but they’re incredibly cheap (a mere 25pts) and help out Kroot enough with a RR1 aura that if you find yourself with some points left over, you could bring one. Aerospace Relays allowing Characters to do it helps make them a bit more appealing too – like all Kroot they get a pre-game move, so you can swing them over to a mid-table relay position very easily out of the gate, even from relative safety. The last thing to say here is that there’s a new wargear option for a grenade bandolier that’s presumably intended to represent Dahyak Grekh now that the BSF datasheets have been retired. RIP to a real one.

By the start of the Second Sphere Expansion, great strides had been made in T'au Battlesuit design, particularly in the areas of power generation and the increased potency of weapon load-outs. By the end of this period, repulsor jump jet technology -- augmented with anti-gravitic technology -- came into its own and the Hunter Cadres were conquering new planets in the name of the T'au Empire at a rate never before seen.Three secondaries on offer for Tau here, and they’re… interesting. Aerospace Targeting Relays is a Shadow Operations objective which requires you to place an Aerospace Designation marker halfway along each battlefield edge, and lets your INFANTRY units do an action at the end of the Movement phase which completes at the start of your next Command phase or the end of the battle. Like similar objectives, your goal here is to scan each point once, and you get a scaling number of VPs depending on how many you achieve – a paltry 2 if you only manage one, all the way up to the maximum 15 for hitting all 4. Commander in XV8 Crisis Battlesuit x1 with Missile Pod x2 Plasma Rifle x1 Burst Cannon x1 Solid Image Projection Unit DW-02 Advanced Burst Cannon. Warlord – Precision of the Hunter – 150 Realistically, every Tau list you build is going to have at least one Commander, often two, and you can fill to taste from the rest of the options here – there’s plenty of decent stuff. Troops The Fireblades and loaded Devilfish should allow me to move up to the flanks and use the Fireblades to set up some Aerial Targeting Relays, requiring both a unit of Devilfish and its Fire Warriors to be killed before they can shoot at the Fireblade nestled behind them from completing the action. This is a fine theory but I’ve still been struggling with the execution slightly. Wings