New Tau First Impressions

Image Courtesy of Games Workshop

I had my first game against the new Tau codex the other day and was very impressed with most of it. The vehicles seem to be just as hard to crack as before due to disruption pods granting +1 cover save. Combined with the Jink save for moving this means they are still getting the 4+ cover in the open. This was the biggest problem I faced as my Imperial Guard weapons just seemed to be bouncing off the Devilfish and Hammerheads, which then dispatched my tanks.

The new tank commander Longstrike is deadly in a Hammerhead,  particularly against Imperial Guard as they are his Preferred Enemy. He destroyed one Leman Russ without it even getting a chance to fire. In fact my opponent had the first turn and the first two shots destroyed a Chimera and a Leman Russ. A third Chimera was stunned and I would have lost a big chunk of a 20 man Infantry Squad if they had not gone to ground in some ruins for a 3+ cover save.

Despite this I fought on and dealt roughly one wound a turn to my opponents Riptide, who shrugged off almost my entire army's firepower. After an initial surge forward my opponent spent the rest of the game retreating and defending with his Riptide. Overall he seemed tough to take down due to his overcharged 3++ save and Toughness 6 but his damage output was woeful. Certainly not something to be feared in 1500+ point games. Below 1500 though, Riptide's could be difficult for many armies to deal with. Riptide's can get Interceptor and Skyfire, which is very nasty, and it nearly shot down both of my Vendetta's before they could do anything. They were dispatched two turns later after they had finally destroyed the Hammerhead with Longstrike. Two Hammerheads still remained unharmed until the end of the game though.

The Vespids still sucked and despite getting to my lines were wiped out without causing a single wound.

I lost the game due to quite a few bad rolls but also because of the ridiculous disruption pods. They should have been removed from the codex in my opinion because of the Jink save vehicles now get or should have been nerfed to 5+. They may cost 10 points more than in the previous codex but they are also better as now they work against models within 12" whereas they didn't before.

At the end of the game all I had killed was 1 Hammerhead with Longstrike, 5 Piranha's, 3 Stealth Suits, 5 Vespids and 4 drones. The riptide had taken 4 wounds.

This game reminds me of a previous post I did about the fact that player who goes first will usually win, assuming similar abilities and experience between the players. This game highlighted that fact and showed why it is so important to get the first turn, especially against Tau, as their weapons can cripple an army very fast.

To summarise, the Tau are back with a vengeance and this codex could well be one of the most powerful around.