How do Pathfinders work in this Edition then? Because in 6th they are able to target enemies with Markerlights so that whenever another Tau unit fires at that unit, their Ballistic Skill is increased by 1 for each Markerlight until they are hitting on 2s, and for each additional Markerlight not yet counted the target reduces its cover save by 1, so that the shooting experts would almost automatically hit, and moving into cover was of no help against them.
You need to stack markerlights, that give increasing effects (reroll 1s, ignore cover and so on, til "+1 to hit" when you land 5 markerlights on a target). So yeah, 5 markers to have that +1...
Well, these were their rules in 8th. But I don't think there will be a great change when the new codex will be printed.
As someone who wants to play Tau in 40k, I'm in agreement. I like Space Marines, don't get me wrong. But the Tau honestly always seemed like the coolest faction, even after GW tried to placate the Grimdark fans by turning the Ethereals from wise rulers to "vaguely untrustworthy, possibly evil mind-controllers who may or may not be just as authoritarian and ruthless as the Imperium, just in a different way" kind of characters. But the concept of a small, idealistic, high-tech race that genuinely wanted to work other races and formed an almost Star Trek-esque coalition really stood out as a contrast to the xenophobic, backward, dystopian vibe the Imperium gives off. But I haven't gotten into playing them at all yet because frankly, their rules suck. They essentially only get to play the game in one phase, the shooting phase. No melee, no psychic powers, a playstyle that encourages them to stand still and shoot when they're supposed to be an extremely mobile army in the lore, but except in a few editions not nearly enough firepower to actually make the shooting phase count enough to make up for not being able to do anything else. The fact that GW seems determined to keep pushing the "Tau can't melee" idea actually makes them probably the hardest faction to balance properly. They've always run into the problem where they're either so overpowered in the shooting phase that other armies can't do a thing against them because they just get shot to pieces before making it into combat, or their shooting isn't enough to stop enemies from getting into combat with them and they almost automatically lose once the enemy closes on them. The entire 9th Edition has been a significant nerf to the faction so far. They're going to need a complete re-work in their new codex if they're going to be compete. Smaller table sizes mean you can no longer keep your units away from melee for any length of time. Crisis Suits can no longer jump out of combat with jetpacks. In fact, the jetpack keyword basically does nothing at the moment. Buffs to blast weapons now discourage taking larger units of troops, which nerfs Fire Warriors hard because they want large units putting out lots of shots. Shield Drones, which have always been annoying to the opponent but were also the only way to keep anything alive for more than 1 turn have been nerfed. Not to mention the constant buffs to Space Marines, the most prevalent army in the game, have made it almost impossible to play against them. Only the Necrons, who thankfully got a major rework, are able to put up a decent fight against them right now. Necrons also hard-counter Tau at the moment due to the C'tan shards being massively OP, especially the one that can only lose three wounds per phase, and heals 1 a turn. The Tau literally cannot kill it until turn 4 at the minimum. Honestly, I think it comes down to GW unintentionally allowing all the "Tau can't melee" and "weeaboo space communist" memes about them influence them into thinking that the majority of players really do hate them. They only want to focus on stuff they think will sell well, and of course that's why all the constant support for Space Marines. But if it's true and most of the fanbase dislikes the Tau, why bother making them good on the tabletop? Which also brings up the point that in every edition where they've been good, people have complained about them non-stop, mostly because of the poor balance issues mentioned above. If they were better balanced and able to interact with all phases in the game, they wouldn't be such a "controversial" faction.
I totally agree with everything you've said, but at least for this very specific aspect, i blame the players too. there are some units that, indeed, required to stand still to function properly (Stormsurge, I'm looking at you), plus the whole Kauyon... but many others are made to be played with a mobile approach. Coldstar commander can move 40" (!) Ghostkeel and stealth suit can infiltrate Riptide can be able to move 12" and shoot with no penalties one of the most effective way to exploit infantry requires an aggressive movement (breachers + darkstride + devilfish) so, I'd say there are plenty of ways to play mobile T'au But the BIG nerf they are going to suffer in 9th, is that with the new way objectives work, you need to move, grab the obj and hold it, resisting shooting and melee. Not a good deal for poor T'au
well first of all hi second of all the T´au are the most broken piece of sh.t in the 40k tabletop( don´t get me wrong i have a small tau list and i love their mech)but the tau just dosen´t work, space mariens are op yeah thats true but their are fun to play against and defeatable, the imperial knigths are almost invincible but their are machine gods and are exciting to play ( even if your army got blasted apart in turn three) ¿but the tau? a friend of mine plays tau and every game every single game the tau just sit on a hill and blast you to ovblivion and its not just him I ve seen battle reports and in one the tau literally dont get out of their deployment zone and still win the game. But the worst part its that the tau are not op its enough to rush them charge them and auto win or just bring 10 psykers and show them that the greater good will not save them of the hell itself, playing with the tau its throwing a coin to the air and or you blast the enemy into a pile of ash or you get chopped into sushi.......thats not fun. i complettly agree with lord killer angel the tau have mobile,swift mechs why dont use them and skirmish the crap out of the enemy. my 700 point tau list are crisis suits, stealth suits,etc my friends call my army of tau the "khorne tau" ¿why? because i rush out of my deployment zone and blast and bounce throug the battlefield(its pretty easy to mess it up once my unit os crisis suits got charged by the warboss raazdag fyre crusha[the custom boss of my friend] and its 10 nobz and well they got turned into a bloody paste], also its pretty lore friendly one of the favorite warfare strategys of tau its called "patient hunter" and its based on skirmish with battle suits. so lets be more titanfall(reference archived) and bounce around with mechs.
They kind of did, once. The original Renegades and Heretics army was Cultists, Mutants, Plague-Zombies, the occasional unit of Chaos Marines, and all kinds of IG tanks and such with the Defiler from the Chaos army added. We had our own "Scions" in the form of Blood Pact Elites (which over time became the Marauders from the Index R&H codex)...
I thought up a kind of stupid theme for a 40K army. It would use the Craftworld Eldar rules and codex.. for converted Sylvaneth miniatures. The theme is: We Are Groot.
I could use a Treeman as an Avatar of Groot (Khaine), Spite-Revenants as wraith-whatevers, Kuronoth Hunters as other kinds of Wraith-whatevers, and dryads as Guardians... or Kuronoth as both kinds of wraith-whatevers and Spite-revenants can be aspect warriors... I won't DO it mind you, but it was an idea I felt the need to share. I like Craftworld Eldar, don't get me wrong. They're a classic 40K army, going all the way back to Rogue Trader days, but I am terrible at running Eldar, so making that army would be sheer gaming futility. It would look nice and never win games (instead of almost never winning like I do now...)
My first EVER army in Warhammer, of ANY ARMY AT ALL, was Eldar. No idea what edition it was (1990, I think? (starting to feel a bit old now) or somewhere around there). I loved the aspect warriors, the whole futuristic elves idea. My favourites were the Warp Spiders (teleportation?!? Yes please!) and the Jetbikes (ANTI-GRAVITY MOTORBIKES?!?!? YES PLEASE!!!)
My favorite Eldar units were the Howling Banshees. I actually have some REALLY old metal ones (like, Rogue-Trader old) that I used to use as female Tempestus back when you could give them all hot-shot pistols and swords. Oh, and the Swooping Hawks! ...and all of the other Aspect Warriors from 2nd and 3rd editions... They were just so.. unusual... compared to the Space Marines.
I'm torn toward Eldar. They are very cool (especially some models... looking at all the wraith range) and i like the playstyle... However, in the end they are elves, and elves on the gaming table have never tickled my inner self. Except maybe Wood Elves, but only because of the whole "ranger" part and the living trees. What a pity.
I bought my all-metal Eldar army on mail order. Yes, that's right, MAIL ORDER. I sent off a form with payment and got a parcel back in the mail. Still remember how exciting it was to finally arrive. I had warp spiders, fire dragons, dire avengers, swooping hawks, dark reapers, howling banshees and striking scorpions. I also had exarches for each and the special character for each. I've always loved the weight of the metal models. Plastic and finecast don't do it for me and always seem a bit flimsy.
Agreed. I like plastic for conversions, but metal just has a presence to it that the plastic and finecast do not...
Well, you guys know about my Salamanders collection for both Horus Heresy and 40k. Really good close quarters firepower army to begin with in both games, and, since I don't play Primaris due to HH, a good 1st Company mechanized veteran list is how I typically roll with them in 40k. TL;DR: Combi-weapons. Combi-weapons everywhere. I've mentioned a few times elsewhere that I've also been working on a high-tech mechanized amphibious Guard army (plenty of conversion work to go around, from the stormtroopers and exo-suit bullgryn proxies (SM centurion base models) to repulsor tank hulls for Leman Russes and (hopefully) Gladiator hulls for Tauroxes when they come out. Since I have the kits, I'm tempted to include a Stormblade super-heavy and a Praetor assault launcher as well, both converted into grav tanks to go along with the rest of the army. Despite having the kits, I've yet to start the insane idea of a close-quarters Tau army primarily composed of breachers and pathfinders working in unison with battlesuit support. Likely wouldn't be any good outside of a Zone Mortalis game, but I figured why not have a try at making something worthwhile out of them. Night Lords are also on the agenda for both HH and 40k as my jump assault army. Given that I'm primarily going to be going with Heresy-era power armour, it's entirely feasible that I could run them as a "loyalist" splinter for 40k, especially since Chosen can't take jump packs.
Salamanders are my favorite Space Marine chapter. I like the color scheme, the flamethrower specialization, and of course Vulkan is my favorite Primarch If I ever do start playing 40k, I'll probably get at least enough of them to play 1k games.
It's of course not just the flamer that they specialize either. The Covenant of Fire rite of war they can take in HH makes all inferno pistols, meltas and multimeltas count as master-crafted for free, as well as have all of their vehicles able to shrug off attacks from flamer, plasma, melta, and volkite weapons on a 5+ FNP. MC'd equipment is also their kind of schtick as masters of the forge too.