The fact that the people who literally play this game as their job had a hard time explaining/understanding our faction rule makes me so upset at GW for writing something so convoluted
It actually seemed extremely straight forward to me when I read it, and this video confirmed that I understood it correctly. The issue is not the rule, but the word salad that GW uses in EVERY rule it writes. I've read some poorly written rulebooks before, but GW holds a special place due to having 10 editions to get it right and still being unable to.
its hella straight forward, they just tried to make it un-gamable by wording like mtg does with their cards but made it convoluded and hard to understand by using shitty keywords Think of it less as observer and guided and more in IRL terms and it makes more sense Spotter, Shooter, Target Observer is the spotter, the rest starts to make sense its just they did a terrible job with any part of the wording. I got confused af too
I'm new to the hobby and wanted to start a T'au army as my first army to build. And I'm not entirely sure if I feel encouraged or scared off right now 😅
Pretty much every T'au vehicle has a loadout designed around positioning well and split firing, but the Army Rule actually penalizes this. Weird index.
GW obviously hates the T'au and want players to just buy space marines. I bet they made the T'au index terrible on purpose in order to make T'au players buy different armies, then buy the T'au codex once it drops to get decent rules and stats.
@@alexandrudorries3307 I don't necessarily disagree, but allowing disenfranchised employees to do a bad job is the manager's fault and could still be rooted in GW not wanting/caring about Tau.
I am getting into Tau and 40K with the launch of 10th edition and loving it and this video really helps me continue to expand my grasp and understanding of the army! Great job guys!
Man, as a Tau player I sure do love everyone saying how much they hate my army, hate that I am playing my army, and that I'm not welcome in the hobby. Defnitely not the main reason I decided to not play Warhammer 40k for these past 9 years despite having a 4000 points army of Tau.
Fr I just got into warhammer and even just barely the actual Tabletob I gravitate to Tau because I just they they look cool, rule of cool and all but all I see whenever literallly Anyone mentions tau it’s always so horrible. Like genuinely hateful for some reason why do ppl feel so strongly about them?
@@shellyzzz6440 Tau were and have been one of the hardest armies to play... even dfuring FIsh of Fury and Riptide days, because we only function in 2 turns and then crumple. But good Tau players could table a lot of armies who would just blindly rush forward not using cover, not considering anythign etc to get into melee... and people are obsessed with melee dice vs shooting dice. Even though it's in effect the same thing lol. So if you killed armies before they got into melee because the other player failed to use ANY tactics or brainpower, they'd get VERY upset at you. Even the 3 riptide meta was pertty trash because if you were smart... you could strike in and wipe them out in a turn. But most people play space marines to just mob forwad acrosst he board and they don't want to think about pro-actively reacting to another persons' army. They literally just want to do what they want, with zero consideration and thought of what's going on.
@@shellyzzz6440personally getting into Tau now, but the main reason is just how one-sided they are. Since they just have so much firepower and range as their identity; it basically will feel like a race to get in close. On the opposite side of the spectrum, they don’t have that same feeling as an all-melee army where you need to navigate a hail of bullets in order to reach a target, which to most opponents will feel more interactive. It also means when they’re over tuned, as they have been in the past, it can make an opponent feel terrible, which will leave a sour taste in their mouth for a long time, especially if it’s a very early experience in Warhammer for them. If you play fighting games it’s like if somebody uses a gimmick and you lose to it, without learning what it actually does.
As a tau player, I feel... 10th nerfed our army in many many ways. For example. Our flamers. Hammerhead. Lost anti-inv shoots. Drones. Now our suits just die quickly. Riptides, poor weapon load-outs. Nova charge, nerfed. Characters are now weak. We have a melee character, in an all-shooting army! We have an overall army buff that starts turn 3, to late for most of our units. We have a stupid spotter-observer rule. Where as other armies gain a straight buff. Looking at you space marines. Most units are unplayable now. The same units are now spammed in all lists. Lost the gauntlet Lost the other wargear. No new tech buffs, Low toughness Poor damage and AP on most weapons. That's a quick summary as I see it. Who wrote these rules? Do they hate tau? Also, this was a good video, a good few tips on creating a 10th list for us Tau players. Thank you. May I add, I'm gonna try coldstar Commander leading 6x crisis suits, all missile pods. That's 6 suits, with 3 missile pods 6x3=18. Plus 3 shield gens for 3x 4++ saves, and another 3x missile pods. That's 21 missile pods altogether. They Missile pods fire twice that's 21x2=42 shots. Plus the crisis suits can stay out of range of enemies, as the missile pods have 30" range... With the coldstar leading the crisis suits, thats 18" move . plus his missile pods!
"Do they hate Tau?" Well, according to a certain Tau-themed discord community, there are two possible answers: 1: Yes, the person who wrote the Tau index was likely someone who got tabled by Tau several editions ago when we were actually a problem, and has been holding that grudge ever since. (Malice) 2: No, the person who wrote the Tau index does not "hate" Tau, they just have never played a single of 40K before, has never read a single book, has no clue who or what "Tau" is supposed to be, and did not bother to even glance in the general direction of any of the other indexes or the core rule book. (Incompetence)
@@archer9480 the author likely answered the question about how often they played 40k with 'Tau' which can be taken to mean average-ly or constantly in addition to the army choice.
@@TwitchyMofo indeed, I am on a 9 game losing streak (partially because I don't want to use ONLY CIB's) and partially because goddamn did we get fucked.
I'm pretty sure the rules writers made T'au terrible on purpose. There's no way anyone can be so incompetent to make rules that make so little sense. Also Jordan is channeling that modern GW writer energy.
Tau is one of the hardest armies to balance, same with Eldar. As they're either OP and run through every army that's not above them, or they are lower mid tier and struggle against anything above them.
Love your content guys! And your style! Special thanks to Mike for making such a good job of explaining Tau With all the new stuff getting released for Tau in 2024, I’m starting a new Farsight Enclaves army Already stocked up on the big man himself, and a ghostkeel
I counted at least ten times the assistant talked about how he hates the tau maybe next time have someone who actually likes the faction help you instead of reminding us every 5 minutes how much he dislikes them it's very off-putting to hear that so much.
I get what you’re dropping with the Farsight Kick, Char in Gundam, who is basically farsight’s famous for his kick. Also there’s the Gespenst kick from Super Robot Wars
Haven't watched yet, been waiting for this since the first "how to play X-army in 10th edition" posted like 2 months ago, very excited and thankful for the dedication you guys all have to the hobby!
“I’m a big fan of hammerheads”. Okay you lost me. The one shot gun will hit and wound very consistently…and then be saved by a 4+ invul. And failing that, a re-rolled invul save. You have a 75% chance of doing a big fat 0 damage every turn. It is untakable on competitive tables.
My goto quote for Tau this edition: "Welcome to playing Tau in 10th edition! It's just like playing Imperial Guard, but with only 2/3's an army!" The surprising thing about this is that I picked 2/3's as a random guess, but the %'s of how/where Tau got shafted keeps pointing at how Tau is currently only ~67% of an army? (more info below if you care) 18/55 (33%) Tau Units can *not* use For the Greater Good... (Drones, Ethereals, Auxileries, and Fortifications)(to compare, ALL Ork units can use their faction rule, including buildings) On average, in order to be on par with Space Marines in regards to "% of weapons/firing modes with (buffing) keywords", Tau would need about 50% more of its weapons given keywords. (aka, we currently have 2/3's of the keywords a faction of our size would normally have)(51% of tau guns lack any kind of buffing keywords, while 29% of SM's guns nave no keywords at all) Tau, as a faction, usually only interacts with 2 of the 3 biggest parts of the game (Movement, Shooting, and not Melee) If you took Tau's overall win % according to GW's statistics given out earlier this month, and added an extra 33% more wins, that would put Tau at a 51% Win Rate...
@@SpiritStoneWarrior94-yx3gs Just to be clear, the original comment was from pre-dataslate changes. After the changes where GW had effectively said, "we're not going to fix any core issues, but instead we will turn you into a horde army", now Tau is just "guard but fast". Now, to address your comment specifically, yes, we get a rule that doesn't rely on character models. Instead, we get a rule that 1/3 of our army just can't interact with at all, and then half of the units that CAN interact with the rule can not benefit from that rule by intentional design. (not to mention the part where the rule itself actively punishes you for splitting fire while using it) That being said, from what I've seen, most Guard players generally just keep their important characters safe behind a building, and/or surrounded by 20 ablative wounds. (I have yet to actually play vs guard and then actually damage a leader) Also, I absolutely had to respect the sheer number of shots coming out of a Guard army, about half of which was indirect fire from the opposite side of the board.
FtGG its a stupid rule, since they removed the drones as models the army rule should have been around "A.I" since Tau are suppose to use it in warfare marker drone should give 1+bs, gun drone +1ap, shield drone +1t +1w (if not still invul) stealth -1 to hit recon free overwatch and stuff like that. Or if they want to keep the stupid assist rule let one unit sacrifice its shooting to mark a unit and every shooting against it be +1bs. But no, tau got less range on some weapons, low T, lost Ap, little to no weapons keywords, punish for split firing, not all units can use the army rule, HQ units have no really useful buff, no melee that are worth it, no psyker buff or damage, only shooting and they are lacking on that.
So if I have a unit in engagement range with a melee focused enemy I can potentially use spotting from another observing unit to then fire close range? I didn't realize this
Strike and fade being 2cp is a bit of a kick in the teeth. it is not THAT powerful to merit the cost. it should at least be the 1cp/2cp unit size like it was in 9th
Excellent video, a pleasent surprise to turn up in my feed. Great to hear Mike talk about the Tau. Tau are normally command ppint starved so as we jave to pay for the stratagem we use twice with the puretide engram enhancement I don't see it being worth as much when we will be spending command points on steike and fade and command ppint rerolls on hazardous tests. I prefer the Exemplar of Kauyon on a coldstar with a full crisis suit unit. It may be a 1 tirn buff but it increases the damage of the 500 point combined unit by 50% for that turn. It helps punch a whole somewhere unexpected for the army to capitalise on turn 3 when they all gwt kauyon. I used the dual cyclic and plasma loadout on my crisis suits last weekend on a small unit with a commander and it was brutal. Still experimenting whether it would be fine for a larger unit as that is a lot of hazardous tests.
It’s interesting how all the sudden the Ghostkeel’s ability being called the meta “Lone Operative” ability brings it into the limelight, when it already had the same exact ability with a different name in 9e, and was a similar points cost and profile. 🤷🏽♂️
No. It get your point but you are quite wrong. It used to be 18”, not 12” so thats quite an improvement. But even more important it was also still targetable at larger distances if it was the closest enemy!
Quick question, let's say I have my spotter unit who is seeing an enemy unit which is located behind a ruin terrain, can such unit be spotted or does the visibility rule apply?
One suggestion I might make for you. Don't change your old videos. Leave them up. Look back at them as a marker from where you come from and new people see how you've grown. Seen to many remasters of old video and found them less than their originals. Anyways. Take care. Remember Tukayyid.
I think that darkstrider on a unit of pathfinders makes them an excellent candidate for "through unity, devastation" to boost your armor punching for small arms fire twice.
You for sure cannot overwatch twice. Overwatch specifically says in its text that it cannot be used more than once per battle round. period. That Enhancement lets you reuse a stratagem that but does not state that it ignores the rules of limitations built into that specific stratagem itself. RESTRICTIONS: Until the end of the phase, each time a model in your unit makes a ranged attack, an unmodified Hit roll of 6 is required to score a hit, irrespective of the attacking weapon's Ballistic Skill or any modifiers. You can only use this Stratagem once per turn.
Early in 10th like for the first 2 months fire overwatch did not have that limitation. While this video was released only 1 month ago i assume they recorded it before that change and did not update the video to match. Things in 10th are still changing so quickly as it is very new.
The moment the PDF was released it did have that restriction written right at the bottom of the card. I have the original pdf and it does say it cannot be used more than once per turn. So if that is the case, then this video was record long before the actual release of 10th. when they gave us the full core rules. Not that it matters at this point. @@gabrielmonroig2026
I find they are useful, but with their special weapon options getting 5+ to hit with heavy, they feel overpriced a bit to me. Also, they still have to be in a spot that can see two things that you actually want to hit, and with good terrain that can be fairly challenging. They like the stratagem that gives them the +1 in addition to their guided unit, for sure. Other issues with them are their only leader option is Darkstrider, who does have a really cool ability, but it is a really expensive +1 to wound buff when you are against armies with no deep strike. They could really use an ethereal for help keeping them alive, though in general I think all of the leadership options feel a bit underwhelming. No leader except maybe shadowsun feels like a legendary presence on the board, and even then, shadowsun's weapon ranges make it hard to use her and keep her out of lone operative range. Perhaps a long and ranty response to pathfinders, sorry lmao
@@Pajamas.Tepanek I like to play them defensive, since you can place them anywhere at deployment so they're usually not moving and when they're guided they're hitting on 3+ which is great with the damage of their weapons.
Tau! The shooty army that can't really shoot. With big mechs that are weaker than a dude with roid-rage and an axe and guns weaker than a dwarfs pistol. GW is still pushing shit and can't create good rules to save their lives. My recommendation to play Tau is to buy a resin printer so you haven't wasted your money when most of the units that are viable now become useless when the codex is released
This was helpful but how would you play if you were using mont'ka? Also if you are guiding (sorry observing 😂) a unit that has stealth do you lose that buff?
Tau should be able to overwatch at full BS in my opinion. Since they are basically toothless in CC, it would be nice to see an additional opportunity for softening/thinning enemy units before they waffle stomp you. Reason I went from Tau to DE.
If I guide a unit can I use the same unit to guide that unit again, like if I have a unit of tetras and they observe for my broadsides or crisis can I do the same next turn?
@@boli2746 whats the keyword? Looking on the app they have infantry and tau empire the same as breachers/fire warriors and according to the app FtGG only needs the tau empire keyword so struggling to see why they wouldn’t have the rule.
Something to note about Precision of the Patient Hunter: It only affects the model it is equipped to, not the entire unit. I think it's best on the Firesight team since it's considered a character and can equip enhancements. A character hunter with extra accuracy and heavy to get a 2+ and extra strength turn 3 and beyond, then stick it up high to get plunging fire for a total of -2 ap 2 damage shots. There is a debate on whether puretide allows a second overwatch considering the overwatch rule itself says specifically only once per turn. I'm glad you brought up the puretide for a dual rapid ingress with stealth teams though. Haven't thought about that one. Most of what I've thought of involve using double (regular) grenades and stuff like that (too bad you can only generate one cp per turn via ethereals/shadowsun) I've been seeing more swarm armies lately, so the ion cannon hammerhead/longstrike is likely going to be pretty important if it becomes meta. It might also be useful to have a small squad of crisis suits with airburst fragmentations for the blasting capability. Kauyon guided lethal hits with the airburst and maybe burst cannons or missile pods would be pretty nasty (too bad you can't use more than one airburst per suit.) Add the regular crisis commander for rerolls of 1's giving even more potential chances for 6's. I really want to see a bunch of kroot carnivores going ham as a 20 man unit with a shaper and that 4+ feel no pain after nomming a unit in combat. I think they could have a lot of potential this edition if you play it right. Not to mention when Kauyon kicks in. I think this is the first edition where Tau won't be nearly as crippled in melee. Almost all their troops have plasma pistols that can still be shot while they're in combat and almost all of their other stuff has big guns never tire or can disengage and shoot. Plus the new morale system makes it so they're just kinda okay to stay in melee rather than running, so the only real reason to disengage is if you want a different unit to shoot at the guys you're in melee with. Obviously they still don't want to be in melee though.
Edit: I mention that I think the Precision of the Patient Hunter is possibly best on the firesight team, but someone pointed out to me that it's best on a commander fitted with plasma rifles. After thinking about it, I do agree.
And gain no objectives which around half of the secondaries are based around meaning limited points gain, meanwhile your opponent has capped every point your not.
Must admit, I am still hella confused by the FtGG rule. The way I understand it, and that's how we've been playing it up until now with my Tau compadre, is that a unit that is guided can also be an observer for another unit that hasn't been yet chosen as an observer. Is that the way to play it or is there some FAQ or something else that we are unaware of?
Rules as written it is possible for a Guided unit to then Observe for another unit, GW has not issued a statement or FAQ/Errata saying whether or not that is intended.
Technically you can do that, but it is very obviously not intended by GW. The technicality is that the rule says any unit that is eligible to shoot can be Guided. The Observer has not shot yet, thus is eligible to shoot, thus can be Guided. You can daisy chain this down the line. However, I agree with VT here that this is obviously not intended--this is demonstrated by the existence of the stratagem that lets your Observer function as a Guided unit. For what purpose would that stratagem exist otherwise? GW just needs to put out an errata to clarify that Observer's are no longer eligible to be Guided to resolve the confusion.
Pathfinders are awesome. Great fire power. Good utility. Lots of Drone options(compared to other units). Only downside is lack of characters that can make them better. Also, Farsight is such a letdown. Mostly due to him not having the Coldstar profile(yet), in spite of the new model having it. Still stuck with Movement 10 and no Assault benefits. His greatest benefit is the Tank Shock, which requires CP. In fact, currently, a Coldstar Commander is better for "close range fire fights" than Farsight. Personally, I am not a big fan of the Ghostkeel. 170 pts for a tough platform with low damage output. The Cyclic Ion Raker is poor vs most vehicles(compared to the Ion Cannon on a Hammerhead) and not reliable against a lot of other targets either due to, at best, 6 shots at -2 AP. Again compared to the Hammerhead Ion Cannon, which has Blast, D6+3 shots with the same damage and AP profile(and a lot of other weapons). The Fusion Collider has decent tank hunting potential, and the stealth drones can absorb some heavy hits for anything close enough to retaliate, but again, you pay 170 pts for the model. It is not "efficient". All in all, it is a great distraction, but it wont hold objectives well and wont dish out enough damage to remove threats for the rest of your army.
is the pathfinder team firepower really that good the special weapons are all hitting on 5+ without any other modifiers and the pulse carbine is 20" range no ap decent number of shots i'll agree but that seems to be about it. there utility with observing 2 units and one specialist drone can be useful but one of the pulse accelerator drone seems pointless and recon giving infiltrate might not be the most useful either since the unit has a scout move.
@@555tork The special weapons hit on 4+ if stationary, 3+ if guided(with potential rerolls to hit). The CIBs can fire a total of 9 shots, Strength 8, AP-2, Damage 2 if overcharged. All with 30" range. For 120 pts of infantry, that is a lot of firepower. And when Sustained Hits starts to kick in, it gets even better. Then we have the grenade launcher, which, while only a single shot, is still strength 6, AP-1 and damage 3. The rest of the squad has the Pulse Carbine, which is still 2 Attacks, Strength 5, which will still cut down a lot of basic infantry. Against other light infantry, Pathfinders are better than your regular Strike Teams and easier to use than your Breachers(as they have a range between 20-30", rather than 10"). Against "Marine"-type models(2 wounds), they are better than Breachers. They can hurt light vehicles and heavy infantry(T6-7) reliably(and kill things like Sentinels fairly easily) and have some chip against even the heavier stuff(against T9-T15, 2+ save, they will generally deal 2-4 damage). Pulse Accelerator Drone is probably the least useful, yes, but can still come in handy, as it allows you to outrange a lot of other weaponry. 6" can feel like a mile at times. It can mean the difference when trying to stay in a good position and still shoot. The Recon Drone is awesome. Extra attacks are nice against hordes that tries to overwhelm you, and sometimes you get lucky against tougher stuff as well. It is basically 2 extra pathfinder models "for free", more or less. Infiltrate+Scout is great. Infiltrate allows you to deploy aggressively, forcing your opponent to deploy reactively. It can screen the board and threaten objectives early on. Scouting can then reposition your unit if needed, since it happens after the deployment. The opponent who thought they only had 9" to their target suddenly has 16".
@@fendelphi if your taking pathfinders for their utility in observing for 2 units though how often are they going to be guided themselves, there is also that if they need to move to see a target to observe it the heavy benefit goes out the window, I do agree that they have a lot of anti light infantry firepower it's more about how effectively they can use it. You are right about the combination of the recon drone infiltrate with scout move after though that is very helpful.
@@555tork The thing is, you dont take them for the Observer bonus. Stealth Teams and Tetras are much better Observers. IF you need it, and the situation allows it, you can use them as Observers, but they really are much better at being guided. A single round of shooting, and they will probably kill 5-6 marines(T4, W2), no issue. It is a similar issue as with the Firesight Team, just in reverse. Firesight Teams have a "being guided" ability, but are much better Observers than they are a target for being Guided. They have pitiful damage, but Markerlights and Lone Operative makes them able to spot things easily for other units without fear of return fire. Also, if what some people claim is true, then Pathfinders can both be Guided(say, by a Stealth Team) and later Observe for a different unit in the same turn(the "domino effect"). Personally, I dont think this should be allowed, but if it ends up being ruled this way, that would make Pathfinders even stronger.
precision of the patient hunter is perfect for the Firesight team - allowing prescison to +1 to hit and eventualy +1 to wound, it has markerlight to oberve for other units and its a lone operative able to snipe Characters in units.
You are paying 20 extra pts on a 70 pts unit, for it to sometimes do a tiny bit more damage. I guess if you got nothing better to spend 20 pts on, it can round out a list, but otherwise it is not worth it.
@@Dre0oq "Precision of the Patient Hunter" is a single model buff and have no such restrictions. You might be thinking of "Through Unity, Devastation", which does require the model to be leading a unit.
Confirmed from GW a couple weeks ago that being a guided unit does not preclude you from then being an observer unit. This video is outdated three minutes in, therefore I can’t see how the rest is going to be much better. Moving on sadly
The fact that the people who literally play this game as their job had a hard time explaining/understanding our faction rule makes me so upset at GW for writing something so convoluted
I remember in the movie Jarhead they call the two person sniper teams spotters and shooters. That would have been easier.
It actually seemed extremely straight forward to me when I read it, and this video confirmed that I understood it correctly.
The issue is not the rule, but the word salad that GW uses in EVERY rule it writes. I've read some poorly written rulebooks before, but GW holds a special place due to having 10 editions to get it right and still being unable to.
its hella straight forward, they just tried to make it un-gamable by wording like mtg does with their cards but made it convoluded and hard to understand by using shitty keywords
Think of it less as observer and guided and more in IRL terms and it makes more sense
Spotter, Shooter, Target
Observer is the spotter, the rest starts to make sense its just they did a terrible job with any part of the wording. I got confused af too
I'm new to the hobby and wanted to start a T'au army as my first army to build. And I'm not entirely sure if I feel encouraged or scared off right now 😅
@@skraz0rdo what feels right , if you wish to get into the t'ua'va we will await you Gue'la
Pretty much every T'au vehicle has a loadout designed around positioning well and split firing, but the Army Rule actually penalizes this. Weird index.
GW obviously hates the T'au and want players to just buy space marines. I bet they made the T'au index terrible on purpose in order to make T'au players buy different armies, then buy the T'au codex once it drops to get decent rules and stats.
@@havyn88 tactical drones still being 70 points proves this...
In retrospect, probably just incompetence (because nobody on the current design team is excited about the faction).
@@alexandrudorries3307 I don't necessarily disagree, but allowing disenfranchised employees to do a bad job is the manager's fault and could still be rooted in GW not wanting/caring about Tau.
I am getting into Tau and 40K with the launch of 10th edition and loving it and this video really helps me continue to expand my grasp and understanding of the army! Great job guys!
Wellcome to the jungle shas'o.
Have fun.
Man, as a Tau player I sure do love everyone saying how much they hate my army, hate that I am playing my army, and that I'm not welcome in the hobby. Defnitely not the main reason I decided to not play Warhammer 40k for these past 9 years despite having a 4000 points army of Tau.
Fr I just got into warhammer and even just barely the actual Tabletob I gravitate to Tau because I just they they look cool, rule of cool and all but all I see whenever literallly Anyone mentions tau it’s always so horrible. Like genuinely hateful for some reason why do ppl feel so strongly about them?
@@shellyzzz6440 Tau were and have been one of the hardest armies to play... even dfuring FIsh of Fury and Riptide days, because we only function in 2 turns and then crumple.
But good Tau players could table a lot of armies who would just blindly rush forward not using cover, not considering anythign etc to get into melee... and people are obsessed with melee dice vs shooting dice. Even though it's in effect the same thing lol. So if you killed armies before they got into melee because the other player failed to use ANY tactics or brainpower, they'd get VERY upset at you.
Even the 3 riptide meta was pertty trash because if you were smart... you could strike in and wipe them out in a turn. But most people play space marines to just mob forwad acrosst he board and they don't want to think about pro-actively reacting to another persons' army. They literally just want to do what they want, with zero consideration and thought of what's going on.
Some people are just gatekeeping assholes. The Tau aesthetic kinda clashes with grim dark and that seems to bother people. @@shellyzzz6440
@@shellyzzz6440personally getting into Tau now, but the main reason is just how one-sided they are. Since they just have so much firepower and range as their identity; it basically will feel like a race to get in close.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, they don’t have that same feeling as an all-melee army where you need to navigate a hail of bullets in order to reach a target, which to most opponents will feel more interactive.
It also means when they’re over tuned, as they have been in the past, it can make an opponent feel terrible, which will leave a sour taste in their mouth for a long time, especially if it’s a very early experience in Warhammer for them.
If you play fighting games it’s like if somebody uses a gimmick and you lose to it, without learning what it actually does.
Just started getting into 40k and I'm already at the I would absolutely fight a skinny nerd for telling me I'm not welcome because I play Tau point
You got to play this list, it would be loads of fun to watch
As a tau player, I feel...
10th nerfed our army in many many ways.
For example.
Our flamers.
Hammerhead. Lost anti-inv shoots.
Drones. Now our suits just die quickly.
Riptides, poor weapon load-outs. Nova charge, nerfed.
Characters are now weak.
We have a melee character, in an all-shooting army!
We have an overall army buff that starts turn 3, to late for most of our units.
We have a stupid spotter-observer rule.
Where as other armies gain a straight buff. Looking at you space
marines.
Most units are unplayable now.
The same units are now spammed in all lists.
Lost the gauntlet
Lost the other wargear.
No new tech buffs,
Low toughness
Poor damage and AP on most weapons.
That's a quick summary as I see it.
Who wrote these rules? Do they hate tau?
Also, this was a good video, a good few tips on creating a 10th list for us Tau players. Thank you.
May I add, I'm gonna try coldstar Commander leading 6x crisis suits, all missile pods. That's 6 suits, with 3 missile pods 6x3=18. Plus 3 shield gens for 3x 4++ saves, and another 3x missile pods. That's 21 missile pods altogether. They Missile pods fire twice that's 21x2=42 shots. Plus the crisis suits can stay out of range of enemies, as the missile pods have 30" range... With the coldstar leading the crisis suits, thats 18" move . plus his missile pods!
Just want to say that the regular Crisis suits can only have a max of 3 weapons. So it is 18 Missile Pods, excluding the Commander.
Ah , Thank you @@fendelphi
"Do they hate Tau?"
Well, according to a certain Tau-themed discord community, there are two possible answers:
1: Yes, the person who wrote the Tau index was likely someone who got tabled by Tau several editions ago when we were actually a problem, and has been holding that grudge ever since. (Malice)
2: No, the person who wrote the Tau index does not "hate" Tau, they just have never played a single of 40K before, has never read a single book, has no clue who or what "Tau" is supposed to be, and did not bother to even glance in the general direction of any of the other indexes or the core rule book. (Incompetence)
@@archer9480 the author likely answered the question about how often they played 40k with 'Tau' which can be taken to mean average-ly or constantly in addition to the army choice.
@@archer9480 tactical drones are still 70 points. its malice
I still think it is stupid that one of the tau stratagems can't be used until turn 3 especially since it has a 9" range.
TWO restrictions for an additional AP feels a little heavy handed, yeah.
Insanely. The rules writer hated Tau.
if you feel like that is the only stupid thing, you need to reread the index
@@villian_von_badguy_ii145 he never said it was the "only"stupid thing.
@@TwitchyMofo indeed, I am on a 9 game losing streak (partially because I don't want to use ONLY CIB's) and partially because goddamn did we get fucked.
I'm pretty sure the rules writers made T'au terrible on purpose. There's no way anyone can be so incompetent to make rules that make so little sense. Also Jordan is channeling that modern GW writer energy.
The phil kelly energy
Tau is one of the hardest armies to balance, same with Eldar. As they're either OP and run through every army that's not above them, or they are lower mid tier and struggle against anything above them.
Love your content guys! And your style! Special thanks to Mike for making such a good job of explaining Tau
With all the new stuff getting released for Tau in 2024, I’m starting a new Farsight Enclaves army
Already stocked up on the big man himself, and a ghostkeel
I counted at least ten times the assistant talked about how he hates the tau maybe next time have someone who actually likes the faction help you instead of reminding us every 5 minutes how much he dislikes them it's very off-putting to hear that so much.
Stand strong brother for the Greater Good
I get what you’re dropping with the Farsight Kick, Char in Gundam, who is basically farsight’s famous for his kick. Also there’s the Gespenst kick from Super Robot Wars
Haven't watched yet, been waiting for this since the first "how to play X-army in 10th edition" posted like 2 months ago, very excited and thankful for the dedication you guys all have to the hobby!
Thanks for this. Really good breakdown. 🙏🏻
Glad it was helpful!
You can absolutely guide a unit that's been an observer lmao wtf..
Im in this instant building a list around a KX139 Ta'unar and its a total blast haha ^^ "if you have tips for that feel free" ^^
“I’m a big fan of hammerheads”. Okay you lost me. The one shot gun will hit and wound very consistently…and then be saved by a 4+ invul. And failing that, a re-rolled invul save. You have a 75% chance of doing a big fat 0 damage every turn.
It is untakable on competitive tables.
Yeah the reroll invuls are absolutely killing me rn
Guiding Broadside with stealth suits. Hitting on 2+, likely wounding on 2+ and rerolling 1s.
My goto quote for Tau this edition: "Welcome to playing Tau in 10th edition! It's just like playing Imperial Guard, but with only 2/3's an army!"
The surprising thing about this is that I picked 2/3's as a random guess, but the %'s of how/where Tau got shafted keeps pointing at how Tau is currently only ~67% of an army?
(more info below if you care)
18/55 (33%) Tau Units can *not* use For the Greater Good... (Drones, Ethereals, Auxileries, and Fortifications)(to compare, ALL Ork units can use their faction rule, including buildings)
On average, in order to be on par with Space Marines in regards to "% of weapons/firing modes with (buffing) keywords", Tau would need about 50% more of its weapons given keywords. (aka, we currently have 2/3's of the keywords a faction of our size would normally have)(51% of tau guns lack any kind of buffing keywords, while 29% of SM's guns nave no keywords at all)
Tau, as a faction, usually only interacts with 2 of the 3 biggest parts of the game (Movement, Shooting, and not Melee)
If you took Tau's overall win % according to GW's statistics given out earlier this month, and added an extra 33% more wins, that would put Tau at a 51% Win Rate...
Tau are much better off than guard are, at least you get a rule if your character units are taken out and also don't just suck massively.
@@SpiritStoneWarrior94-yx3gs
Just to be clear, the original comment was from pre-dataslate changes.
After the changes where GW had effectively said, "we're not going to fix any core issues, but instead we will turn you into a horde army", now Tau is just "guard but fast".
Now, to address your comment specifically, yes, we get a rule that doesn't rely on character models. Instead, we get a rule that 1/3 of our army just can't interact with at all, and then half of the units that CAN interact with the rule can not benefit from that rule by intentional design. (not to mention the part where the rule itself actively punishes you for splitting fire while using it)
That being said, from what I've seen, most Guard players generally just keep their important characters safe behind a building, and/or surrounded by 20 ablative wounds. (I have yet to actually play vs guard and then actually damage a leader)
Also, I absolutely had to respect the sheer number of shots coming out of a Guard army, about half of which was indirect fire from the opposite side of the board.
What fixed objectives would you take as the Tau player?
Bro I was looking for this and I see "uploaded an hour ago", amazing
Except it’s wrong straight off the bat!
I like Tau in 10th. There are some flaws though. Our opponent picking fixed m Bring it down and Cleanse are our biggest downside :( Its just evil
Anti vehicle and fly is also a pain, limited anti anything for our stuff is a pain too, the rules just aren't well designed this edition.
FtGG its a stupid rule, since they removed the drones as models the army rule should have been around "A.I" since Tau are suppose to use it in warfare marker drone should give 1+bs, gun drone +1ap, shield drone +1t +1w (if not still invul) stealth -1 to hit recon free overwatch and stuff like that. Or if they want to keep the stupid assist rule let one unit sacrifice its shooting to mark a unit and every shooting against it be +1bs. But no, tau got less range on some weapons, low T, lost Ap, little to no weapons keywords, punish for split firing, not all units can use the army rule, HQ units have no really useful buff, no melee that are worth it, no psyker buff or damage, only shooting and they are lacking on that.
Tau was also my first army !!
Why are people saying this army is terrible. It seems godly strong. Especially against low model melee armies.
pathfinders are able to act as a observer unit twice due to their special rule
So if I have a unit in engagement range with a melee focused enemy I can potentially use spotting from another observing unit to then fire close range? I didn't realize this
Cant wait to watch this. Long time black templar player, who bought his first 1500 points of tau.
Strike and fade being 2cp is a bit of a kick in the teeth. it is not THAT powerful to merit the cost. it should at least be the 1cp/2cp unit size like it was in 9th
Excellent video, a pleasent surprise to turn up in my feed. Great to hear Mike talk about the Tau.
Tau are normally command ppint starved so as we jave to pay for the stratagem we use twice with the puretide engram enhancement I don't see it being worth as much when we will be spending command points on steike and fade and command ppint rerolls on hazardous tests.
I prefer the Exemplar of Kauyon on a coldstar with a full crisis suit unit. It may be a 1 tirn buff but it increases the damage of the 500 point combined unit by 50% for that turn. It helps punch a whole somewhere unexpected for the army to capitalise on turn 3 when they all gwt kauyon.
I used the dual cyclic and plasma loadout on my crisis suits last weekend on a small unit with a commander and it was brutal. Still experimenting whether it would be fine for a larger unit as that is a lot of hazardous tests.
please do next ADEPTA SORORITAS :D
It’s interesting how all the sudden the Ghostkeel’s ability being called the meta “Lone Operative” ability brings it into the limelight, when it already had the same exact ability with a different name in 9e, and was a similar points cost and profile. 🤷🏽♂️
No. It get your point but you are quite wrong. It used to be 18”, not 12” so thats quite an improvement. But even more important it was also still targetable at larger distances if it was the closest enemy!
Quick question, let's say I have my spotter unit who is seeing an enemy unit which is located behind a ruin terrain, can such unit be spotted or does the visibility rule apply?
Great content. Sounds like everyone is saying illegible instead of eligible though 😂
I’m not from U.K., haha
I'm just a Gue'vessa hoping for a hot mecha riding Tau girlfriend. Before I'm given the emperor's mercy.
One suggestion I might make for you. Don't change your old videos. Leave them up.
Look back at them as a marker from where you come from and new people see how you've grown. Seen to many remasters of old video and found them less than their originals.
Anyways. Take care. Remember Tukayyid.
Entertaining guide, thank you!
Unless tho non Tau player is rolling really, really bad, I have found no way to win as Tau.
great video guys bin waiting for this great way to use units :-)
I think that darkstrider on a unit of pathfinders makes them an excellent candidate for "through unity, devastation" to boost your armor punching for small arms fire twice.
I don’t think darkstrider can take enhancements
You for sure cannot overwatch twice. Overwatch specifically says in its text that it cannot be used more than once per battle round. period. That Enhancement lets you reuse a stratagem that but does not state that it ignores the rules of limitations built into that specific stratagem itself.
RESTRICTIONS: Until the end of the phase, each
time a model in your unit makes a ranged attack,
an unmodified Hit roll of 6 is required to score a hit,
irrespective of the attacking weapon's Ballistic Skill
or any modifiers. You can only use this Stratagem
once per turn.
Early in 10th like for the first 2 months fire overwatch did not have that limitation. While this video was released only 1 month ago i assume they recorded it before that change and did not update the video to match. Things in 10th are still changing so quickly as it is very new.
The moment the PDF was released it did have that restriction written right at the bottom of the card. I have the original pdf and it does say it cannot be used more than once per turn. So if that is the case, then this video was record long before the actual release of 10th. when they gave us the full core rules.
Not that it matters at this point. @@gabrielmonroig2026
One unit i think could be useful is the Pathfinders they have an ability to act as an observer for two separate units.
I find they are useful, but with their special weapon options getting 5+ to hit with heavy, they feel overpriced a bit to me. Also, they still have to be in a spot that can see two things that you actually want to hit, and with good terrain that can be fairly challenging. They like the stratagem that gives them the +1 in addition to their guided unit, for sure. Other issues with them are their only leader option is Darkstrider, who does have a really cool ability, but it is a really expensive +1 to wound buff when you are against armies with no deep strike. They could really use an ethereal for help keeping them alive, though in general I think all of the leadership options feel a bit underwhelming. No leader except maybe shadowsun feels like a legendary presence on the board, and even then, shadowsun's weapon ranges make it hard to use her and keep her out of lone operative range.
Perhaps a long and ranty response to pathfinders, sorry lmao
@@Pajamas.Tepanek
I like to play them defensive, since you can place them anywhere at deployment so they're usually not moving and when they're guided they're hitting on 3+ which is great with the damage of their weapons.
T'au look like they are from an entirely different game.
Tau!
The shooty army that can't really shoot.
With big mechs that are weaker than a dude with roid-rage and an axe and guns weaker than a dwarfs pistol.
GW is still pushing shit and can't create good rules to save their lives.
My recommendation to play Tau is to buy a resin printer so you haven't wasted your money when most of the units that are viable now become useless when the codex is released
This was helpful but how would you play if you were using mont'ka?
Also if you are guiding (sorry observing 😂) a unit that has stealth do you lose that buff?
Tau should be able to overwatch at full BS in my opinion. Since they are basically toothless in CC, it would be nice to see an additional opportunity for softening/thinning enemy units before they waffle stomp you. Reason I went from Tau to DE.
If I guide a unit can I use the same unit to guide that unit again, like if I have a unit of tetras and they observe for my broadsides or crisis can I do the same next turn?
You touched on it lightly, but which two fixed secondaries would you take, then? Deploy Teleport Homer was one mentioned.
What stops Kroot and Vespids from using FtGG?
They do not have the keyword/rule.... so nope. (both units need the rule)
@@boli2746 whats the keyword? Looking on the app they have infantry and tau empire the same as breachers/fire warriors and according to the app FtGG only needs the tau empire keyword so struggling to see why they wouldn’t have the rule.
Overwatch is a once per phase limit. You can not use it twice.
OH BOIIIIIIIIIIII
Something to note about Precision of the Patient Hunter: It only affects the model it is equipped to, not the entire unit. I think it's best on the Firesight team since it's considered a character and can equip enhancements. A character hunter with extra accuracy and heavy to get a 2+ and extra strength turn 3 and beyond, then stick it up high to get plunging fire for a total of -2 ap 2 damage shots.
There is a debate on whether puretide allows a second overwatch considering the overwatch rule itself says specifically only once per turn. I'm glad you brought up the puretide for a dual rapid ingress with stealth teams though. Haven't thought about that one. Most of what I've thought of involve using double (regular) grenades and stuff like that (too bad you can only generate one cp per turn via ethereals/shadowsun)
I've been seeing more swarm armies lately, so the ion cannon hammerhead/longstrike is likely going to be pretty important if it becomes meta. It might also be useful to have a small squad of crisis suits with airburst fragmentations for the blasting capability. Kauyon guided lethal hits with the airburst and maybe burst cannons or missile pods would be pretty nasty (too bad you can't use more than one airburst per suit.) Add the regular crisis commander for rerolls of 1's giving even more potential chances for 6's.
I really want to see a bunch of kroot carnivores going ham as a 20 man unit with a shaper and that 4+ feel no pain after nomming a unit in combat. I think they could have a lot of potential this edition if you play it right. Not to mention when Kauyon kicks in.
I think this is the first edition where Tau won't be nearly as crippled in melee. Almost all their troops have plasma pistols that can still be shot while they're in combat and almost all of their other stuff has big guns never tire or can disengage and shoot. Plus the new morale system makes it so they're just kinda okay to stay in melee rather than running, so the only real reason to disengage is if you want a different unit to shoot at the guys you're in melee with. Obviously they still don't want to be in melee though.
Edit: I mention that I think the Precision of the Patient Hunter is possibly best on the firesight team, but someone pointed out to me that it's best on a commander fitted with plasma rifles. After thinking about it, I do agree.
Nice
first people i heard that are up on hammerhead, interesting
Ima jist play 9th
Can someone send me a link to where I can get Tournament legal guns for crisis battlesuits like the ion blaster & grenade launcher?
Consider 3d printing
Not sure why this video is an hour long ?! Simples
Step1: hide in the corner of the map
Step 2: fire EVERYTHING!!
A good tactic to lose every game as a Tau player :)
Most people do not play on planet bowling bowl type terrain.
And gain no objectives which around half of the secondaries are based around meaning limited points gain, meanwhile your opponent has capped every point your not.
Must admit, I am still hella confused by the FtGG rule. The way I understand it, and that's how we've been playing it up until now with my Tau compadre, is that a unit that is guided can also be an observer for another unit that hasn't been yet chosen as an observer. Is that the way to play it or is there some FAQ or something else that we are unaware of?
Rules as written it is possible for a Guided unit to then Observe for another unit, GW has not issued a statement or FAQ/Errata saying whether or not that is intended.
Technically you can do that, but it is very obviously not intended by GW. The technicality is that the rule says any unit that is eligible to shoot can be Guided. The Observer has not shot yet, thus is eligible to shoot, thus can be Guided. You can daisy chain this down the line. However, I agree with VT here that this is obviously not intended--this is demonstrated by the existence of the stratagem that lets your Observer function as a Guided unit. For what purpose would that stratagem exist otherwise? GW just needs to put out an errata to clarify that Observer's are no longer eligible to be Guided to resolve the confusion.
Pathfinders are awesome. Great fire power. Good utility. Lots of Drone options(compared to other units). Only downside is lack of characters that can make them better.
Also, Farsight is such a letdown. Mostly due to him not having the Coldstar profile(yet), in spite of the new model having it. Still stuck with Movement 10 and no Assault benefits. His greatest benefit is the Tank Shock, which requires CP.
In fact, currently, a Coldstar Commander is better for "close range fire fights" than Farsight.
Personally, I am not a big fan of the Ghostkeel. 170 pts for a tough platform with low damage output. The Cyclic Ion Raker is poor vs most vehicles(compared to the Ion Cannon on a Hammerhead) and not reliable against a lot of other targets either due to, at best, 6 shots at -2 AP. Again compared to the Hammerhead Ion Cannon, which has Blast, D6+3 shots with the same damage and AP profile(and a lot of other weapons).
The Fusion Collider has decent tank hunting potential, and the stealth drones can absorb some heavy hits for anything close enough to retaliate, but again, you pay 170 pts for the model. It is not "efficient".
All in all, it is a great distraction, but it wont hold objectives well and wont dish out enough damage to remove threats for the rest of your army.
is the pathfinder team firepower really that good the special weapons are all hitting on 5+ without any other modifiers and the pulse carbine is 20" range no ap decent number of shots i'll agree but that seems to be about it. there utility with observing 2 units and one specialist drone can be useful but one of the pulse accelerator drone seems pointless and recon giving infiltrate might not be the most useful either since the unit has a scout move.
@@555tork The special weapons hit on 4+ if stationary, 3+ if guided(with potential rerolls to hit). The CIBs can fire a total of 9 shots, Strength 8, AP-2, Damage 2 if overcharged. All with 30" range. For 120 pts of infantry, that is a lot of firepower. And when Sustained Hits starts to kick in, it gets even better.
Then we have the grenade launcher, which, while only a single shot, is still strength 6, AP-1 and damage 3.
The rest of the squad has the Pulse Carbine, which is still 2 Attacks, Strength 5, which will still cut down a lot of basic infantry.
Against other light infantry, Pathfinders are better than your regular Strike Teams and easier to use than your Breachers(as they have a range between 20-30", rather than 10").
Against "Marine"-type models(2 wounds), they are better than Breachers. They can hurt light vehicles and heavy infantry(T6-7) reliably(and kill things like Sentinels fairly easily) and have some chip against even the heavier stuff(against T9-T15, 2+ save, they will generally deal 2-4 damage).
Pulse Accelerator Drone is probably the least useful, yes, but can still come in handy, as it allows you to outrange a lot of other weaponry. 6" can feel like a mile at times. It can mean the difference when trying to stay in a good position and still shoot.
The Recon Drone is awesome. Extra attacks are nice against hordes that tries to overwhelm you, and sometimes you get lucky against tougher stuff as well. It is basically 2 extra pathfinder models "for free", more or less.
Infiltrate+Scout is great. Infiltrate allows you to deploy aggressively, forcing your opponent to deploy reactively. It can screen the board and threaten objectives early on.
Scouting can then reposition your unit if needed, since it happens after the deployment. The opponent who thought they only had 9" to their target suddenly has 16".
@@fendelphi if your taking pathfinders for their utility in observing for 2 units though how often are they going to be guided themselves, there is also that if they need to move to see a target to observe it the heavy benefit goes out the window, I do agree that they have a lot of anti light infantry firepower it's more about how effectively they can use it. You are right about the combination of the recon drone infiltrate with scout move after though that is very helpful.
@@555tork The thing is, you dont take them for the Observer bonus. Stealth Teams and Tetras are much better Observers. IF you need it, and the situation allows it, you can use them as Observers, but they really are much better at being guided. A single round of shooting, and they will probably kill 5-6 marines(T4, W2), no issue.
It is a similar issue as with the Firesight Team, just in reverse. Firesight Teams have a "being guided" ability, but are much better Observers than they are a target for being Guided. They have pitiful damage, but Markerlights and Lone Operative makes them able to spot things easily for other units without fear of return fire.
Also, if what some people claim is true, then Pathfinders can both be Guided(say, by a Stealth Team) and later Observe for a different unit in the same turn(the "domino effect"). Personally, I dont think this should be allowed, but if it ends up being ruled this way, that would make Pathfinders even stronger.
@@fendelphi yeah, hopefully GW clarify one way or another whether they intended daisy chaining to be how the rule was intended.
I hate how the Tau feel in 10th bc i dont want to play a gunline but now that is the only viable way to play Tau
If you don't want to be a gunline, tau may be the wrong army for ya lol
@@stephenskaggs7230😂I am cracking up over here
I want to play gunline but i want to have friends
@@B1GG33 do people hate gun lines that much:(
It's simple - you dont. If you want friends. Don't play Tau. If you wanna be a Billy NoMates go ahead and play Tau.
Why?
How are you duplicating weapons on a single suit?
It’s their rule
precision of the patient hunter is perfect for the Firesight team - allowing prescison to +1 to hit and eventualy +1 to wound, it has markerlight to oberve for other units and its a lone operative able to snipe Characters in units.
You are paying 20 extra pts on a 70 pts unit, for it to sometimes do a tiny bit more damage.
I guess if you got nothing better to spend 20 pts on, it can round out a list, but otherwise it is not worth it.
The enhancement only kicks in when leading a unit and Firesight teams are not leaders.
@@Dre0oq "Precision of the Patient Hunter" is a single model buff and have no such restrictions.
You might be thinking of "Through Unity, Devastation", which does require the model to be leading a unit.
@fendelphi oh yup, switched those around in my head!
Confirmed from GW a couple weeks ago that being a guided unit does not preclude you from then being an observer unit. This video is outdated three minutes in, therefore I can’t see how the rest is going to be much better. Moving on sadly
Hi Geoffrey, where did GW confirm this? I can't see it on the Index Card changes or any of the commentaries?
WTC will allow it which is good enough for many. GW is still silent on it tho, not sure what this guy is talking about.
how to play tau 10th ed. - don't play 10th ed., go back to 4th