New T’au Codex

Hi all. 

Today we are having a look at the new T’au Codex.

 The Codex contains all of the usual Codex background information regarding the army, it’s history, trials and tribulations and also more recently, lightly touching on how it is doing following the recent rise of Roboute Guilliman (would like to know more information about this). 

The T’au are an emergent alien race which have in the consideration of time “appeared from nowhere” and forged an empire. They are the galaxy’s ultimate good guys in my opinion, with their views on unity and acceptance. Their civilisation is broken into a Caste system where their military is formed into the Fire Caste (the models you see across the tabletop are primarily from this), there is also the earth, Air and water Caste. 

They are guided by Ethereals, which are noble monk like beings. Unlike most army commanders, these aren’t really fantastic in combat but do add some nice buffs. 

The book has a fantastic system for creating your own Sept, which adds a fluffy way of choosing traits (called tenets). You can either choose an Allied World to get their associated traits, or choose 2 tenets based on your Septs homeworld’s location on a star map provided and grab a tenet from a neighbouring sector too (this shows a nice example of how civilisations absorb other traditions and values from their neighbours). 

There is a cool section which details Prototype systems and how they can be attached to your  Commander, Crisis/Crisis Bodyguard/Ghostkeel Shas’vre models. Depending on what you choose the power points/points value increases. The army can only select prototype systems if it is battle forged though. 

The Crusade section is what I was most looking forward too as this army is a conquering force, I was expecting it to be really cool (especially after the recent Genestealer Cult one). It does not disappoint. 

You generate a new star system with 4 to 8 planets and randomly determine the Star system’s temperament, which adds a nice flourish to the star system’s background. For instance if you select Warlike the military power of each planet in this star system by 1 point. It gives the impression that the Star System has been attacked numerous times over the millennia by Xenos and their whole civilisation is based on a martial background. 

You then randomly determine what sort of world it is and these traits are added to the planet type field. 

There are two routes to take over a planet, the diplomatic Takeover approach and the military takeover approach (roll some dice). 

The Diplomatic takeover can be done by subtracting diplomacy points from your Crusade to technically conquer a world peacefully. These points increase as your crusade grows. 

After this you have the army list which is as you expect really good. If you really like guns and mechs then this is the army for you. Their standard weapons are fantastic Marine killers, and are great against Tyranids from range too. 

In the future I would like to see more Kroot options and some new species that the T’au empire have brought into the fold (maybe Tarellians). 

Thanks to Games Workshop for the sample. 

Battle Bunnies.