6th Edition: Vehicular changes and Stealth Teams

My last article had a bit of an alarmist tone, noting the issues the current ways of playing Tau would have in the new edition. However, I figured I would take a few guesses at how Tau will be played up until the new 'dex based solely on how the new rules and FAQ have shifted the game. This will be segmented into a few articles, starting with this one. Onwards!

Big changes:

As I'm sure I don't have to tell you, 5th edition was mech edition. Everything you took was aimed to take down vehicles. Melta suicide squads, Long Wolf Missile spam, the works. For the Tau, a big part of that was maxing out on Missile Pods. However, 6th edition has changed the game quite a bit in regards to vehicles; not only can they never score (save that one mission), they can't contest. They also have taken huge hits to durability. While in 5th landing a glancing hit was nothing to write home about, now it chips off a third of the health of most vehicles.
So what does all this mean? First and foremost, it means vehicles are going to be less prevalent. We need to switch over to a larger focus on anti-infantry firepower. Other armies may be focusing on this through packing plasma guns where they can and making use of weapons like bolters and lasguns. Luckily, we excel at anti-infantry naturally, having a plethora of S5 options. That brings us to...

The Humble Stealth Suit

Stealth Suits were never that great in a competitive environment. While proponents of the meek weapons platform would prattle on about the versatility of being able to both Outflank and Deepstrike, their durability and armaments left a lot to be desired. Being only Toughness 3 with their Stealth Fields buffing them, they were not at all durable, and subject to counterfire. In addition, Deepstriking them left them unable to jump away from their targets (3+ save and Stealth Fields didn't matter too much against rapidfire), whilst Outflanking was unreliable at best. While this may sound like nitpicking (and it is), these are all notable flaws when compared to their bigger brothers in 5th, the Crisis Suit. For a mere sixteen points more per model, You could have a Crisis Suit with an additional toughness, wound, and a twin-linked Missile Pod instead of a piddling Burst Cannon. You could fight from a much farther range effectively. All you gave up was the weak Stealth Field and Outflanking.

Now things are different. While you could make the comparison that a TL-Burst Cannon/Black Sun Filter Crisis Suit would just be a better Stealth Suit (gaining a wound, a toughness, and a Twin-linked weapon for only 10 points more), Stealth Suits now have two excellent USRs thanks to the FAQ; Stealth and Shrouded. Shrouded increases your cover save by 2 points, while Stealth does the same by one point. This works even in the open, meaning if you would normally have no cover, Stealth Suits go from nothing to 5+, then from 5+ to 4+. Behind the weakest cover, they have 3+ cover saves. Behind the majority of cover, they go down to 2+ cover saves. 2+ cover saves. That's a huge deal. We all know that Tau are masters of obscuring themselves using their own units or terrain. Combine this with the new Stealth Suits and you have huge saves.
Furthermore, Stealth Suits make efficient vehicle hunters via Deepstrike or Outflanking in this edition, even without a melta. A full squad of Stealths shooting at AV10 get on average 1.5 Penetrating hits and 1.5 Glances... enough to drop a vehicle with the standard 3 hull points. While this may seem like little, it makes them something your opponent has to watch for and adjust for, and with the Stealth Generator giving us a 2+ cover saves, it makes them a difficult to crack force. Not to mention that they can still act their original role of dicing through infantry models. Unfortunately, we lose out on the old Stealth Field rules to get these bonuses, but this is a decent enough trade-off in my opinion.
I can see Stealth Suits being a much bigger part of the game.

6th edition: First Impressions

So, I got in a couple games of 6th this 4th of July weekend.
As a whole, it is definitely a good improvement on 5th. They give players much more reason to take troops, as well as to possibly eschew taking transports. The rulebook has a nice focus throughout on reminding the players that the game is about creating interesting scenarios and enjoying yourself, while adding flavorful rules (Look out Sir!, Challenges, a plethora of terrain options) to the game. In addition, we are provided with six standard mission types over the prior three, and the new allies system, which adds some interesting gameplay decisions.

Tau, it seems, will be an interesting army to play prior to their new codex. And by interesting, I mean a tad frustrating. Some of our better units took notable hits this edition; Cover was nerfed, hitting Kroot. Hammerheads and Devilfish (already pricey units) are far less durable, and in 5/6ths missions Fire Warriors can no longer score from inside a transport, nor can Piranhas contest objectives. In addition, Fast Attack units and Heavy Support units both have a mission where they count as scoring... but are some of the only things that give up Victory Points when they die. What this means is that the standard 5th edition list that maxes out on Piranha squadrons and Railguns is in fact incredibly dangerous to take, as they give up additional points (though something could be said for the scoring effectiveness of our Heavy Supports in the one mission they are allowed to score).

The new shooting allocation also doesn't help our Crisis Suits; no more wound allocation shenanigans to keep our guns alive, and our melta units are often the first to be targeted by the "closest model is hit" rule.

The random charge length is coupled with random Assault Jump length, which means that avoiding assault with suits is no longer a science but a gamble if we use rapid-fire or melta. This is a bit of a shame, as Crisis Suits are already terribly costly without losing them to bad dice.

Basically, we took hits all throughout the codex, which ends up hurting our gameplay even more than it already was. We need scoring units, but our defensive options (cover and transports) have been weakened. We need durable firepower, but Crisis Suits, Broadsides and Hammerheads die more easily. We need roadblocks, but Piranhas are not only less durable to Alpha strikes (reduced cover throughout, weaker vehicle durability), but also become more important to conserve in the mission in which they are conserved.

As of now, I can't see Tau seeing much time on the competitive table except for as opt-ins as allies for other armies; adding a Crisis team and some Kroot or Fire Warriors. Hopefully the new codex will have more options.

A final note; some of you may have noticed that Jet Pack infantry now have the bulky special rule, despite not being able to enter transports unless the rules specifically state they can. I believe this might be to open the way for a new Tau transport.