Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Fishheads on GW's Blog

If you follow the Games Workshop's on-line blog, you've probably noticed the recent love and attention given to the Tau Empire in the past couple days.

First of all let me say, do not listen to Games Workshop advice on tactics and army composition. The most glaring mistakes are in the Tactics Article put out this past Monday. After reading the article, I had to ask myself, "Is this guy playing with the same Codex as I am?" At one point he states that the Ethereal is surprisingly good at close combat. When did that happen? Earlier he mentions that Pulse Rifles have AP4 and that Marker Drones can mark targets after disembarking from a Devilfish, last I checked a markerlight was a heavy weapon.

Then today's post had a spot light on some GW staffer's Tau army, complete with sniper drones and vespid. I'm guessing from this that vespid sales are down, as are sniper drones, so GW is trying to make us think these are worthwhile units to take. I beg to differ. Vespid will only disappoint you and sniper drones just can't compete with the other Tau Heavy Support Choices. Why waste those precious slots on a sniper when you could be getting Strength 10 Railguns?

But it's not all bad, Monday's post also featured some of the coolest XV8 Battlesuit conversions and paint jobs I have seen of late. Side note: isn't it funny how everyone converts their XV8s? Hint to GW: you need to re-do the XV8 sprue. We need more detail!

At any rate, I'm not sure why all this attention is being posted on the Website, I suspect its related to sales and the bottom line, but could it very well be, a primer for a new codex?

I doubt it but I do hold a sliver of hope in my three-fingered hand.

8 comments:

Brian N. Henry said...

You're not the only one suspecting this is all preamble for the new codex. There's similar buzz on Advanced Tau Tactica along these lines.

Here's hoping though - we could use it.

SorcererDave said...

Somewhat cynical, but probably true, especially when it comes to Vespids. They clearly haven't even given them much thought in the article...

Cons: "Due to their speed it can be easy to get them into an unsupported position."

LOL, only if you're scatterbrained enough to let that happen, I'd imagine. Then again, as one who is more used to fighting Tau than playing as them, I've no real idea of how exactly Vespids fail, though the fact that I've never faced them before is enough to make me think that they do.

Tim said...

No kidding! It's not like they get throw out of control when they get going too fast!

Vespid could probably work if they had BS4, but with BS3 they are too reliant on markerlights to do any damage. plus their paperthin armor is a major drawback. (I love how he said they were slightly more durable due to T4!)

Their fluff suggests too that they should have razor sharp claws, or in other words, Rending.

Chuckles said...

Call the wahmbulance for this pity party.

Just kidding. GW is walking some stupid ground in those articles. Not only are there multiple proofreading errors (then for thin, in one case), but including errors in the stats of the units is inexcusable. The whole thing is sloppy and gives me the impression that they don't really care about the army.

Unknown said...

I've had quite a few comments on my Tau blog about GW's Tau articles. The writer has blatantly never played the army.

At least it's not as inaccurate as the Tau Tactics on BoLS

Unknown said...

God I'm loving those Robotech scheme Tau.

I was thinking of restarting my Tau with simpler painter models and that might be the way I want to do it!

Tim said...

Adam, I,too, have had thoughts of re-starting my tau army with a simpler color scheme, then I come to my senses. You've got a rad Tau army now, why re-do it?

Chuckles, whambulance! I love it!

Apollo said...

Couldn't agree more on Sniper Drones. A unit of Broadsides is a much better choice for Heavy support, especially when supported by shield drones.

I never use Vespids.