My last post was about the fear that I feel every time my son threatens to pull out his Death Guard. The terror that strikes into my tactical heart is disconcerting (obviously) and I have to build armies that specifically consider the opponent. For someone who builds "take on all comers (TAAC)" lists, this is a pain.
But the laws of the pendulum apply and I have the opposite feeling with one of my armies- the T'au! These upstart aliens seem to be DOMINATING the battlefields right now both in the tournie scene and casual corners. If you look at the BCP app or follow the results-tracking blogsites, you'll know that this new codex popped up only a few weeks ago and has already generated more trophies and musings than any codex I can remember.
Here's the crazy part- this army was TERRIBLE in the last edition! I've mentioned it before, but it's insane the flip in this case. I was reminded of this in two ways recently. The first is when I played a game against my son's Dark Angels. It was only my third game with this new book and he built a list that was more focused on infantry and big guns to take down my big robots. I got the first turn and annihilated his force immediately. The second is a video that was posted illustrating how good a particular T'au unit is. Let's discuss.
In the game, the T'au were lucky enough to take the first turn. The Dark Angels had a ton of bolters and happened to include Eradicators, Hellblasters, Devastators, some Inceptors, Suppressors, a couple of lascannon squads, a Venerable Dreadnought and a Strike Speeder all full of big guns. This was a list that could alpha strike just as well as mine could. But I aimed my Hammerhead at the Dreadnought at one-shotted it. I aimed my Broadsides at the speeder and one-shotted it. I aimed my Pathfinders and a unit of Fire Warriors at the Eradicators and destroyed them. My Fireblade focused a couple of Fire Warrior squads at some Intercessors and destroyed them. By the end of the first turn, more than half the Dark Angels had been removed from the board. It wasn't fun, it was oppressive.
I tend to build my armies to the fluff and always include 'a little of this and a little of that'. I have this 'display cabinet' mentality from my days in the service of the Emprah. This tends to hamstring my armies and force some of my friends to balk at the ridiculous choices that I make. The T'au are no different in army build, but they wildly outperform my typical outcomes. This edition seems to be set on 11 in a power scale to 10.
This morning, a video was posted by a very prolific creator that illustrated how powerful the Broadsides are. This matters to me because I was, for a very long time, the only T'au player that used Broadsides with their rail rifles. I always liked the Macross-themed robots with shoulder-mounted cannons, but they were never anywhere near as effective as the missile-spam bot. This is still true when firing against basic Space Marines, but everything else now explodes when the rail weapons smack them. Everthing. The ability to add mortal wounds to everything, plus playing the T'au sept to get the reroll, Mont'ka to move-and-shoot without penalty, and Pathfinders nearby improving their ability to hit... oppressive.
This video triggered me to write this post because I'm benefitting greatly while my opponents aren't. After the recent performances, I think I need to retire this army until GW comes out the nerf bat and hits some home runs on this codex. Have you had the same experience, from one side or the other? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy Gaming!
