My comments (the Tau player involved)
1) Pretty good ld rolls for the capital ships. (ld8 or ld9 including assigning fleet cmdr.
Pretty poor (ld 6 or ld7) for all the escorts except the Wardens. (ld9)
I commented that I'd have a 'snowball's chance in hell' with slow, lumbering Tau vs the agile Eldar getting the 'alpha-strike' on a silver platter.
So I did what a proper Tau would for the Greater Good; group the ships around the Emissary, thus protecting the important Air Caste member travelling in there.
(or in normal-speak; I just made a 'fluffy' set-up expecting to be hammered anyway)
The initial strike was crippling for 2 Cruisers as you'd expect.
The turn after lady luck spitting in the face of Tau was a bit much.
(rolling how many 6-es again? Me failing how many BFI the very same turn? thus obliterating my Castellans?)
In turn 4 I told that I should disengage the crippled Emissary but I'd like to see how the thing works. so I didn't . It wasn't a 'tournament' game anyway.
So take note I ignored common sense to see how the (pricey IMO) ship would fare.
Conclusion:
The scenario is nigh unwinnable for Tau vs Eldar coming from behind.
Perhaps a different (facing all 4 directions) set-up would help.
But that would be rather 'unrealistic' IMO.
A group of ships travelling together but facing different directions???
Then again; it is a game involving ships with alien races.. ÂÂ
Perhaps i should not care about realism? ÂÂ
My take on Tau: (note; after a mere 2 games!)
Protectors; rather fragile but packing a mean, mean punch as long as you reload.
(but you are doomed if you fail to!)
Emissary: way expensive.
The combo 4 hitpoints/1 shield means "KILL ME FAST FOR EASY VP".
This combined with slow moving and slow turning = certain death.
Castellan; 'feels' a bit pricy but you need some squadrons of these to give you more manoeuvrability.
As with the Protectors; as long as you reload they pack a nasty punch.
Warden; Damn. how I love this ship. The *only* damn ship I do not need to bloody reload with to be effective!
Overall my take on Tau; not enough variation.
With Emissaries not worth it and Wardens limited to the number of Custodians/Emissaries Tau fleets look too similar.
I'd love some consensus on the 'Aeronautica Imperialis' Tau ships and incorporating these into the BFG Tau fleets.
This would give Tau players the option vary with their ships/fleets.
The Wardens should have an option to be bought without Emissaries/Custodian.
A simple "0-1" squadrons of Wardens with a maximum of 5 (or even 3) can be bought at 40 pts each.
Any Wardens you take with custodians/Emissaries can be bought for the 'standard' 30 points.
All things considered; I like Tau. Because the ships are so damn hawt.
But to play with? Meh.