I've played a few games over the last couple of weeks using the new stuff. The Custodes got a couple of battles against the T-sons and came out massacring everything that questions the Emprah's authority. That army is retired until the painting spree begins again.
With my "Year of the Xenos" still going (much longer than a year now), the T'au got a new codex and I had to bust it all out. It used to be that the T'au were utterly broken-powerful in they heydays of 6th and 7th editions (mostly due to the 'ol 'Tidewing', meaning multiple Riptides that could slag anything they targeted and then not die). Then, they became hot garbage in 8th. Like baaaad. I tried to play them a few times and I was left with no choice but to cheeze out the army and then still only barely win games against less-skilled opponents.
Now it's the new book in 9th edition (9.5, if you consider the radical changes to objectives and some of the unit-balancing rules introduced already), and the T'au have gotten quite a boost. Their weapons are super powerful, especially if they have 'rail' in the weapon name- get ready for some mortal wounds! The upgrades available to suits and characters are often overly-useful and, worse yet, are free most of the time! Finally, the army can move (tons of scouting and infiltrating) AND score objectives (mostly about killing). But they have some significant weaknesses still. They still only hit half the time (but it counts) and they aren't the most resilient (on the 'obsec' guys, anyway). And they're expensive (by points), meaning you can't spam everything.
My first list with the new army was apparently cheezed out again. I'd guess old habits stick around. I took the minimum three squads of Fire Warriors and their attendant Fireblade for all the buffs. I took ten Pathfinders with rail rifles for those markerlights and mortal wounds. I took a Hammerhead for the big gun and I took a Ghostkeel for the fusion collider and three Stealth Suits for holding objectives low-key (it didn't work as they always died first). And then I took suits. Lots of suits.
A Riptide with the Ion super-cannon led the charge and it turns out they aren't the tarpit trap they used to be. And I'm still trying to determine the best weapon loadout (more on that later). There were three Broadsides, along for the move-and-shoot railguns that toss out mortal wounds. I took an Enforcer commander with a missile pod and a couple of plasma rifles (not too bad so far). But he was there simply to buff the THREE units of Crisis suits, all manta-striking to take advantage of that Mont'ka range bonus.
This is where the deliberations come in- the weapon loadouts for all the suits. Every one of the weapon systems for the suits are awesome. You can ignore line-of-sight, reach out at long range, blast those hordes, slag vehicles, and mow down mobs. There doesn't seem to be any obvious options anymore as in previous editions. My Riptide may need the plasma rifles replacing the fusion- I used to novacharge my shield for the 3+ invulnerable save and tarpit enemies, so being up close was my tactic. But that changes this edition and I may want to consider range again. My battlesuits are all armed similarly but with slight specialties. All of them come with shield generators, flamer, and missile pod. But one unit specializes in anti-tank with fusion blasters, one specializes against hordes with burst cannons, and the last specializes in killing characters with plasma rifles. This gave me the chance to test most of the weapons and... I still haven't figured it out!
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| From CGTrader |
That's a kudos for the internal balance of at least the options in the codex- great job designers! This new version of the codex is much more fun to plan and play than the last (8th edition), and that's cool. Oh, and those games I played- I tabled my enemies in three or four turns! This book doesn't suck. I need to un-cheeze my list somehow. And we know there's another Xenos book on the way...
Happy Gaming!
