In today's piece we will begin our tactical review of the new Tau Codex. We will be looking through the codex to see what it tells us about how it needs to be played. For starters we will be looking broadly across the Tau for trends and opportunities. We will start here as it is important to understand the whole before before trying to put together the parts.
 |
| My old Tau army gearing up for an apocalypse game |
To start a few basic premises -
Strengths-
1. Access to an abundance of strength 7 firepower across the entire FOC outside of troops.
2. Access to a significant amount of AP 2 and 3 firepower (including templates) across the entire FOC outside of troops.
3. Multiple cover denying options (markerlights, AFP, Smart missiles).
4. Unparalleled access to interceptor and skyfire.
5. Army wide buffs from ethereals, supporting fire and markerlights.
6. Troop options that easily wound most basic troops and have better than normal ability to wound high T opponents. (Only DE really rival us in this department)
7. Great mobility from JSJ units.
Weaknesses
1. Assault phase with the majority of the army, and the entirety of the army when you're talking about combating a dedicated assault unit.
2. Pronounced lack of long range greater than strength 7 firepower (only hammerheads, railsides, and the occasional nova blast)
3. Access to cost efficient troop mobility.
4. Dependence on synergistic effects to maximize shooting or leadership.
 |
| No more massed strength 10 shooting, one of the biggest changes in the new codex |
So what lessons can we take from this in building a list?
1. We will be able to deal with infantry, heavy infantry, and monstrous creatures at range.
2. We have to make sure that we provide adequate firepower to deal with high AV vehicles, either through mobile melta delivery platfoms or the inclusion of high strength long range firepower.
3. We have to invest in troop mobility either through high cost transports, large numbers of outflanking troops or allies.
4. We have to be wary about over investing in strength 7 weaponry to the exclusion of a range of tools.
5. Because of the synergistic effects we enjoy from markerlights etc... We have to very carefully balance the inclusion of allies. While they can certainly balance some of our weaknesses, they also dilute the synergies. (Every non-Tau unit added is one less unit that can take advantage of those markerlights or supporting fire).
We will apply these takeaways in a later post as we start looking at individual units and how they complement the overall army. However, Part III will focus on my new color scheme thoughts.