Listed below is a summary of comments etc from the Peer review. I think this presents a pretty good consolidated view of the list outside of our normal circles as I followed up on some comments with others.
Apologies on the editing bits, I don't have time to clean it up like I might normally.
Cheers and I'm sure we will be in discussion soon.
PEER REVIEW COMMENTS
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Hi
I've had a look at the list and tried to draw up some sample armylists etc,
firstly I really like the changes in
the special rules - jumppacks and MLs and the other changes such as the trimming
down of allies.
Reading the forwarded email from Neal I, and other epic Uk guys, had also picked
up on the ease with which you
could create a 14-15 activation army - whereas most 3k armies max out at about
10-12 (effectively).
These are issues that I've picked up on - its not meant to be a criticism of
your efforts but merely things that
I had noticed. Some of these may have been brought up before so apolegies if I'm
going over old ground.
SPECIAL RULES
Expendable - is it necessary?, viewing even equipment as being throwaway doesn't
seem very tau. I can agree with
it as an upgrade to formations but the it makes the gun drone formation very
useful - bulk up a couple of those
and with minimum points outlay your opponent has to spend several activations
killing every one of them to
remeve the screen.
Markerlights - new rule is a huge step forward, my only reservations would be in
combination with units that
quickly become stationary artillery rather than tau-like combat of gret
movement/shooting. -
stingray+scorpionfish
STRUCTURE
Hammerheads - Most of the sample lists we have drawn up are useing these as
core.I'd really like them to move to
support groups as I think Tau armies should really be based around crisis and
FW.
Simplification - do all the support groups need so many upgrades. I think most
of them, for simplicity and to
ease testing, should be fixed numbers with minimal upgrades. Most would be fine
with just drones as an upgrade,
though some obviously could have skyrays, networked drones etc. where
appropriate.
Piranhas+Tetras - would they be better as a combined Recon Support group
reflecting the package size - and also
probably more expensive at about 200
UNIT COSTS
Orca - worth far more than 100pts - for its gun but also as a cheap activation
to force the enemy to move
towards you before your guided missiles are used.
Piranhas/tetras - too cheap for guns/importance - see above
Gun drone squads - really diificult to move with Expendable
- I'd consider only having them as an upgrade.
Pathfinders - really cheap - another contributing factor why FW are a poor
choice - PF can be your ground
holding formations cheaper and with MLs. Why are their devilfish free?
UNITS
Scorpionfish - I like the concept - it provides something different from hhead
sized vehicles. However it does
have difficulties with being a artillery barge at the back - though if it is the
only one and restricted in
numbers I think thats ok. I would suggest removing the SC option - makes people
take the fluffy Shas'o as SC,
and without shields removes some of SCfish power.Also to keep its numbers down
could it be 1 per FW cadre? In
terms of simplicity and power reduction would combining the missiles into 1
weapon be feasible.
Moray - Is this a necessary unit anymore? It seems like the AX-1-0 has rather
taken it sole.
Gun drones,Piranhas+tetras,pathfinders  - I've gone into above
Stingray - suffers from the same problem as the scorpionfish of acting as
stationary artillery without the
benefits of being something different. (and no model)I'd drop this and keep the
SCfish
Swordfish - seems quite unnecessary as the list is hardly lacking in long range
AT (and no model). I'd replace
it with the fusion hhead (using an existing model) with a 30cm MW reinforcing
the idea of Tau being death at
30cm.
I hope this has provided something to think about at least - having to think
hard about the list has certainly
reignited my interest in the tau
cheers
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Hello, I am the Tournament Rules Pack writter for EpicUK, I was just sending my
comments on Tau 5.0 as part of
your peer review process.
First too say good luck with this - I would love to be able to use my Tau army
at a tournament and really hope
you can get the list in shape.
Obvious (at least to me) stuff first
1. Fire Warriors - These guys really should be the only core cadre choice a Tau
hunter cadre is built around its
core group of fire warriors with teams of suits and tanks and whatever acting in
support.
2. Expendable Drones - Remove this its actually completely against the
background.
Only shield drones could be considered to act in this way (although in reality
they are not disposable any more
than a bodyguard is disposable - just willing to lay their lives down for
important individuals) and they are
supposed to already be factored into armour saves.
Gun drones act like normal troups and in fact their neural networking capacity
is reduced by casualties which
would be represented perfectly by blast markers.
The concept of the greater good does allow sacrifice but not the wasting of
resources that is implied by
expendable.
Plus it removes a special rule from an army that still has too many.
3. Orca Dropship - No air unit with the transport capacity should really be
under 200pts even in a list without
any real assault options. its just such a useful activation booster at 100pts.
4. Networked drones - Not required
5. Supreme Commander - Should be limited to being added to a crisis suit.
6. Pathfinders and Tetras - Too cheap for scout and co-ordinated fire plus all
the disrupt weapons on
pathfinders.
7. Gun Drones - Another cheap activation booster. Get it up to 150pts as a base
cost and then perhaps +50 or
75pts to add the drone upgrade.
Its a good idea too artifically raise the base cost of a formation too take into
account how useful activations
are in epic and then reduce the cost of any upgrades.
8. Merge the Kroot into the support groups (it should really be support teams by
the way) and remove alien
auxiliary formations box.
9. Units with no models - try and drop these if possible. If something really is
needed by the list for it too
function then keep it, but at most one or two should be the limit.
Less important stuff
a. Smart Missile System - should be 15cm range, could probably be AP4+
b. Missile Pods - should be 30cm range and AP5+/AT6+
c. Crisis Suit weapons - Mostly just questions here?
What are plasma blasters?
Fusion blasters are basically melta guns which other armies generally have
abstracted why not Tau?
Are the stats meant to represent 2 crisis suits if so wouldnt something like 2 x
Missile Pods + 2 x Plasma
rifles (burst cannon or whatever) be a better representation of their weapons.
d. Two many types of Rail gun simplify to Rail gun + Hammerhead railgun + Heavy
Rail Gun
e. Shouldnt the Manta have 8 twin linked busrt cannon, why does it need a
different type of ion cannon, 3 x twin
linked ion cannon seems fine.
f. Ethereal - why have it make its formation fearless, in 40K only makes its
bodyguard squad fearless which is
represented by a character adding the fearless ability to a unit, if went with
this could then drop the 0-1
limit which is a bit arbitrary. Should probably have inspiring too.
g. Would be nice if formation sizes could be matched a bit better to forgeworlds
blisters.
h. The way the army list boxes are structured could probably be tidied up a bit
- example
Type-------------Formation-----------------Upgrades------------------Cost
Hunter Cadre-----8 Fire Warriors units-----Ethereal, Fire
Warriors---200---------------------------------------------Devilfish Troop
Carriers--------------------------------------------------Drones-------------------------
Sorry bit hard too show what I mean, an example would be to look at the codex
marine listing format.
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Below are my initial thoughts.
Size of list - Overall I still think the list just has too many options to ever
really be sure its balanced. It
feels like 3 lists in one, Fire warrior base, Crisis suit based and armoured
cadre based. Without a true focus
balancing everything for tournaments will be a long and arduous process.
Guided Missiles - The change to requiring the target to be lit is good, but an
average of 90cm still feels too
long range.
Expendable drones - If drones were only allowed as upgrades to some formations I
can see the relevance of the
rule. But as they have a formation too a clarification to the rules is needed. A
complication that the list
doesn't need.
The rest of the special rules changes are OK, but I'd like to play using the jet
pack rule before more comment.
Armoured Mobile Hunter Cadre - I'm not convinced that this should be core
choice. It feels much more like a
support option to me.
Piranha and tetra - Why two different scout formations with exactly the same
upgrade options. Drop one or maybe
change the base to a mix with the allowed upgrades.
Scorpianfish - Why would any one take any thing else as a SC unit? Probably too
cheap and too flexible with its
missile options.
Stingrays - A unit I can live without. DO Forgeworld produce a model for this or
is it a converion?
Drone formation - Drop it and leave drones as an upgrade. With expendable they
are too good a pop corn formation
for 100 points.
AX-1-0 and Moray - They do pretty much the same job, are both really needed? Is
there a moray model?
I had a quick solo game last night. I was taking pictures but forgot from turn 2
onwards! I'll right it up and
send you a link.
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Hey Honda:
I’m afraid I haven’t played Tau in long enough that I can’t really evaluate the
potential combos.  However,
there are a few things that caused me raised eyebrows.
Most of the upgrades are ½ of a formation - everything except Gun Drones, which
are a full formation, and
Piranhas.  Why are Piranhas +4 units instead of +3?  Seems random.
If there is a premium on costs in the formation v upgrade, the formation is
always the more expensive.  That’s
fine as these are fairly small formations and the activation count is something
to keep under control.  However,
Stingrays reverse that.  They have a premium on the upgrade instead of on the
formation (125 for 2 v 225 for 4).
Why?  Stingrays seem better as GM-Arty, so they’re not going to fit with most
formations that will want direct
fire.  They don’t use the BP table, so there’s no special effects from that.  It
seems like they ought to be
half-price, rounded down like all the other upgrades, i.e. 100 points, or bumpte
to 125/250 for
upgrade/formation.  Is there some synergy I’m missing?
Hammerhead:  I still can’t see why anyone would take the Ion Cannon.  The
Railgun has better AT and longer
range.  The army as a whole has tons of AP so it’s easy to specialize
Hammerheads in an AT role so the lower AP
is unimportant.
Swordfish:  I’m still in the “Swordfish is unnecessaryâ€Â
