Currently looks more likely next tuesday due to cosmic dictat!

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I'm also a little surprised by the speed change for the tanks, as DFish are reported faster than Rhinos in IA3 (75kph) and HHead chassis is just as fast (70kph).  Compare this to a Leman Russ:  35kph onroad, 24kph offroad.  Nevermind that they're skimmers, so not slowed down by much terrain, and have a couple pieces of wargear that make them capable of flying through terrain (in 40k, at least).

I'm starting to think that the popcorn list is a straw man argument, but I can't get any playtests in personally.

CS:  can we get a comment from you about how you want the tau list to balance?  I mean, are you going for a list that feels like the Tau in 40k (which is sorta where we are right now), a direct port of the 40k Tau (Forgeworld list), or a list that's called Tau and plays very differently than any other list in the game (sorta where we are now)?

I'm pretty sure that I wasn't the target of the comments about people suggesting changes without playtesting, but let me make my position clear right now:  I would love to have time to playtest, but I don't.  I haven't had a chance to play 40k in more than a year.  I take too many university classes to have free time for playing more than once a week, and that time is already spoken for.

I have tried to keep my questions to "Why are we doing it this way, Tau don't operate like that in 40k?" because I don't play.

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"For the Lion and the Emperor!"

Oh, CS?

There's an odd weapon in the new crisis suit entry:  What's a twin-linked Plasma Blaster?  Shouldn't that be a Twinlinked Plasma Rifle as one entry and a twinlinked Fusion Blaster as a separate entry?

Also, why doesn't the Fusion Blaster give a MW FF attack?  Note:  I don't mean an extra FF attack that is a MW, I mean giving the Crisis suits a single MW FF attack?

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"For the Lion and the Emperor!"

A small note, movement speed is different to tactical speed. Thats a factor of stability, time to acquire targets, how easy it is to hide the vehicle and so on - how fast you trundle is more like a top speed than an average speed .

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'Abolish red trousers?! Never! Red trousers are France!' – Eugene Etienne, War Minister, 1913
"Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography."
General Plumer, 191x

You're absolutely correct, there's a huge difference between operational speed and max speed.  Attack Helicopters tend to operate in one of two speeds:  flat-out or hovering, and they're capable of engaging targets at either speed (Helos are the closest thing to a 40k skimmer in a modern army).  Granted, a HHead is a lot slower than a helo (1/2 to 1/3 the speed, depending on helo), but it's still recorded as traveling twice as fast as a Russ on paved roads.  This means that it's almost 3x faster tactically than a Russ.  (Granted, a sand desert is one of the best places for a skimmer to zoom, and isn't necessarily a good comparison point, but it's the only one we have.)  Also, a HHead is capable of hiring on the move effectively, while a Russ is not.  This further increases the tactical speed of a HHead compared to a Russ.

For the sake of discussion, let's assume that a HHead slows down to 30ish KPH when in active combat (that's about the same speed as most modern tanks when moving and shooting).  A Russ can't get up to 30kph off-road, and is probably operating at no more than 15-20kph, assuming they can fire on the move with the same effectiveness as a Sherman.  That still puts the HHead 67%-100% faster than a Russ tactically.  If a Russ moves at 20cm, a HHead should move 30-40.

I understand the issue with the countercharge move, but I thought we were trying to get the Tau to play like an ultra-modern military.  Blitzkrieg + Shock&Awe = Tau.  Hit the enemy so hard and fast that he literally cannot react.  Granted, this does not make for enjoyable games if you're playing the Tau's OPFOR.  (No wonder I can't get people to play my 40k Tau... That's how I run them!)  Tau should be hard to run to ground, as they've got better mobility than anyone except maybe the Eldar, and the Eldar are probably just leading you into an ambush.

Again, looks like we need a mission statement from CS about how he wants the Tau to play in Epic before we can resolve some of this.

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"For the Lion and the Emperor!"

Well I got to play 3nturns of the silly 25 activation game tonight. As I have the next four days in york offline I shall write it up with lovely little maps then

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If using E-Bay use this link to support Tac Com!
'Abolish red trousers?! Never! Red trousers are France!' – Eugene Etienne, War Minister, 1913
"Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography."
General Plumer, 191x

cool!  Looking forward to the BATREP.  Any chance we could get your opponent's comments on what went right/wrong/how to play it again?

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I don't envy Cybershadow when he returns to the forum.

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http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=19176