Tau dataslate leak

[Jack Shrapnel]

spoiler alert...they're still blue:


war-of-sigmar.herokuapp.com/bloggings/2086

[Jack Shrapnel]

psst... follow the facebook link to the original source over at grot orderly for basically the whole thing...

www.facebook.com/GrotOrderly/photos/a.245863995479768.59225.245848535481314/1453283608071128/?type=3&theater

[voodoo]

That feels like an appropriate change to markerlights.

[Jack Shrapnel]

that pulse blastcannon is pretty dirty at short range - 2 shot, S14 -4 AP, D6

97 point gun though....

[voodoo]

Also interesting that stormsurges and riptides only come in units of one now

[raceygaming]

Ya i think all the tanks and MCs look like they are back to units of 1. I guess with the new command formations its super easy to get what you want so who care.
Now i think Nids will be the only guys who get MC units, which is kinda how you want them.

[cmcd]

So much info to process.

I find it weird that the Pope is still in the book. I thought he was killed by an assassain during the last Tau update.

Other interesting things I saw. Crisis suits are back to small squads. no more 9 man suits.
I cant seem to find any reference to Relics Looks like Buffmanders might be out.

Broadsides are nice again. Chance to inflict Mortal wounds with their HEAVY RAIL Rifle.

evocation now only targets Infantry and Battlesuits. Sorry drones.

[raceygaming]

So after some more in depth look at my tau options it looks like there are going to be MAJOR changes to army structure.
I think you are going to see about half the number of "toys" the non basic models hitting the field and the "boys" basic infantry will be on the rise.

Some quick points to this:

Ritide - Cheapest possible model is 286 pts, the stock one is 304 pts, with some gear they are pushing 360 pts. They looks really deadly tho so not a bad thing.

Crisis - Stock 50 pts, with a "normal" 7th load out looking at 68-110 pts/ per model., Now T5 with 3W so big improvment

Storm surge - staying the same Stock in at 350, with shield +gun buffs looking at 410-440 pts/model. Still looking deadly

Broadsides - Stock is 183 pts, But this guys are not T5 and 6W can bring them in for as cheap as 142 pts for plasma/pod

Pathfinders, Strike and Breachers - all coming in at 8 pts with stock gear, lots of S5 shooting and marker light options

Krootox - 34 pts for auto cannon sounds good!

kroot - 6pts for decent troops, loss of sniper rounds to no ones surprise with change to sniper rule

Hounds - 4 pt combat screen...

Tanks - looking at 140-180 pts for your stock tank, obviously they are now better

[Jack Shrapnel]

so what you're saying is everything got better but the riptide got more expensive?

broadsides being T4 isn't a worry now with loss of instant death - and six wounds greatly increases their survivability! (especially since nothing we've seen thus far will completely ignore their armor unlike in 7th!)

[raceygaming]

Not exactly my point,i was more that there will be a quantity shift both in number of models AND in dice per phase.
Damage per Phase (DPP), dice per phase (d6pp)

Example: 6 Wounds worth of Broadsides

7th: 6 wounds, max d6pp 24, max DPP 24 , 3 models, 195 pts
8th: 6 wounds, max d6pp 12, max DPP 20 , 1 model , 161 pts

Or Plasma Crisis

7th: 6 wounds, max d6pp 6/12, max DPP 6/12, 3 models, 156 pts
8th: 6 wounds, max d6pp 4/8, max DPP 4/8 , 2 models, 130 pts

Or Missile Crisis

7th: 6 wounds, Max d6pp 12, Max DDP 12, 3 models, 156 pts
8th: 6 wounds, Max d6pp 8, Max DDP 24, 2 models, 182 pts


It looks like the general feel is more efficient wounds BUT less models. Also less total dice rolled but similar damages, gonna look at the max models removed per phase as well as I move forward since the d3 wounds stuff doesn't spill into the rest of the squad.
This was just a quick thing I was looking at, still wanna do some looking at Riptides, Keels, Stormsurge and the tanks but so far a consistence NO super weapon i"ve seen which is good.

[Jack Shrapnel]

I think you'll find broadsides and crisis were always thought to be "about right" power wise, so it makes sense that this would be the case. They were useful and strong but not OP and appeared to be costed about right.

firewarriors, kroot (of various forms) and fliers were thought to be underpowered so will likely get a boost

riptides (including FW variants), stormsurges and formations were thought to be overpowered so will likely get a cost increase (which appears to be with tides) or lost some survivability/special rules (surges).

Plus formations being gone will make a LOT of armies, including Tau, a lot more reasonable.

I'm thinking overall Tau should get basically a boost to many of their units, given that they were often seen as pidgeonholed into a certain army build or non-viable. So I would guess diversity of options is going to be the biggest benefit of 8th (and armies like tyranids will likewise benefit from this greatly)

[raceygaming]

So averaging large blasts at 6 hits per shot, this is what i got with the new riptide, sorry for the bigger numbers to to accurately compare I needed equal wounds.
Damage per phase (DPP)

HBC riptide

7th: 42 wounds, Max DPP 112, 7 models, 1260 pts
8th: 42 wounds, Max DDP 60 , 3 models, 912 pts

So you are getting way more wounds per point in 8th, but you are halfing the offense. This is a better trade off than i thought, we will have to wait and see how easy it becomes to melt wounds in the 8th.

Ion Riptide

7th: 42 wounds, Max DPP 70, 7 models, 1295 pts
8th: 42 wounds, Max DPP 78, 3 models, 1068 pts

So the Ion model is more wounds efficient AND has a higher max damage per phase ratio in 8th. I think this is a reaction to the 3 man HBC riptide wing that really took off in 7th.

So over all the riptides point for point haven't really moved THAT much in a positive or negative direction. Obvious without the riptide wing bonuses they are less deadly, also the toys like 5 pt table covering interceptor are gone so less utility out of the model but looks like is still going to be quite effective. also the drop off as the becoming hurt will also ton them both but that's a flat edition change not just a riptide change.

[Jack Shrapnel]

also to be fair, dropping a thousand points on three riptides might not be the automatic go-to it used to be (when you could get seven of the buggers for the same points!)

[voodoo]

Yeah, if a 4-5 knight player saw 3x riptides as half your army I’m sure they’d smile pretty big once 8th drops.

Knight w/ 2x Reapers is 380 points now whereas a double rapid fire battlecannon, Meltaguns and a stormspear is 599 points. Pretty big points swing, not sure which one can be armed with what or if they’re allowed to double-up on weapons like the renegade knights can now. In any case, you can still see 5 knights across the board from you, and taking half your army in one thing looks like suicide nowadays.

[Jack Shrapnel]

plus how can you score objectives with only five models? going to be quite the challenge as it would take pretty much nothing to take the game from you.