Warhammer 40K Tabletop Thread XL: Bloated Rules

[Tyracus]

Edit: interesting and perplexing update to Tau: they basically get Overwatch as they did before. On the one hand, they needed a boost under the new Overwatch rules, but on the other hand, going back to exactly what they had before, including the shared overwatch, is really surprising.

Yeah I'll admit that was odd and the faction preview for Tau left me pretty underwhelmed with everything. The change the fly rule also go "Well that's a thing" so one model clipping a riptide basically stalls it from shooting at something more important because it has to shoot into melee and can't fall back to shoot anymore.

So my take on Tau in 9th so far from what we've seen:

Pros:
+ Heavy weapon changes: now tanks flying and broadsides/riptides moving keep accuracy without markerlights (which is actually a con for markerlights). It lets a suit build keep moving and shooting without going to Ork accuracy.
+ Blast weapon changes: Assuming ion weapons get blast then thinning hordes will be a bit easier but this is a bit of a corner case.
+ Assault changes: No more charging a close unit and tacking on a far unit "just in case" so they can get swings in.
+Overwatch: the fact we get to keep 8th's overwatch is good as is the ability to post up units on terrain for a 5+ to hit with it (if this stacks with the T'au sept trait then that's crazy but my gut says no so maybe more septs will see play?) makes it nicer as well.

Cons:
- Heavy weapons changes: Markerlights are now more useless, except the 1 and 5 options, since tau infantry don't carry heavy weapons except markerlights and everything else in the army will shoot the same no matter what. Markerlights to feed into the next con though...
- Terrain changes: Dense terrain is going to REALLY hurt the Tau army and make markerlights even more focused of a target (which is a pretty fragile target). We already took a hit with weapon strength with the changes to wound rolls in 5th but more widespread -1 to hit because of terrain is going to be tricky to deal with.
- Fly change: This hurts crisis suits a lot more than riptides and I'll need to double check on ghost keel ranges (don't have any and don't know their ranges too well) but now that suits still have to get close for their most effective weapons (18" on fusion and cyclic ion) the speed boosts available (and sheer amount of move+run+charge that's around now) means that they're going to be getting shut down more and thus LESS useful when they were already hurting in that regard, which is a shame because suits are what brought me to the army.

Overall the edition has me somewhat pessimistic about how things are going to turn out and I'm hoping the sheer amount of jankery that's going on with Tau (like holding on to holdover rules from 8th) and the overall "Meta" build and it's function will lead to a relatively early codex for the army to roll things over a bit. There's actually a few things I'd like to see if that happened (some of which are definitely wish listing).

1) Markerlight overhaul - The markerlight idea is fun but it's always been kinda clunky and with the revisions in 9th we probably need to re-evaluate the table/system because they're a lot of book keeping for relatively minor benefit.

2) Battlesuits hitting on 3s - This is something that I've said for a LONG time because I don't get how a full suite of targeting gear and computer assist tools means that veteran soldiers shoot the same as grass green rookies footslogging it. Tau vehicles already hit on 3's so why don't suits for their cost? The markerlight argument is suspect at best and honestly I'd give up markerlights for this buff.

3) New Kroot/Vespid models - Not strictly rules related but I actually like vespid by their stats and if we're going to be screening with kroot in the new edition can we get new models that aren't as dated? I don't like finecast and trying to find metal vespid is not easy so this would be a nice fill. Maybe add a special weapon to vespid as well to play up their role as a mobile skirmish unit.

4) Return of JSJ - This is a long shot but it was such an iconic part of the models and I miss it and the options it gave. Yes it made suits SUPER hard to pin down but given their LAUGHABLE close combat effectiveness it helped. As stated I find the overwatch hotfix to be a bit janky and I would give up those bonuses to make suits more viable this way.

5) Force Org Changes - I've said for 3 editions that pathfinders should be troops (they're Tau scouts, every other army has them as troops) but I would LOVE to see things spread out from the Elite slot to give more options in list building.

6) Drone changes - I'd prefer to see something more akin to the old system where shield drones had to be assigned to a unit and they couldn't just bounce around shielding anyone because that leads to things like the current meta list of "3 riptides and as many shield drones as you can get to tank for them" which is just dumb all around. Having drones be a 2 per item for riptides makes them more valuable and encourages diversification because I've been told "you're fine, you have a meta build" in discussions and I HATE riptide+shield drone spam.

7) 1 commander per detachment - This should have always been "No more than 3 models with the commander tag per army" to fall in line with the usual rule of 3 application but was a knee jerk response to the "12 commander list" that cheesed tournaments. This rule actively encourages more detachments when everything else in 9th seems to be about minimizing them so they're at odds with the current rule as written.

8) Weapon strength/AP adjustments - Tau are a very odd duck with their weapon strengths mostly falling in the 5-7 range which saw some significant changes in 8th with the "to wound" adjustments and a new emphasis on AP as well over simply strength. Tau plasma has no real excuse for being Str 6 which hurts it's effectiveness against monsters/light vehicles when every other race's plasma is safe at 7 and hurts at 8. Ion may see a boost with the blast rules but the infantry/crisis variants are a bit weak on AP so the weight once more is carried by Riptides. Even basic firepower used to have Tau hitting less while wounding easier (4's and 2's against T3 infantry rather than 3's and 3's for marines) where now a bolter and pulse rifle wound a guardsman on the same target number.

Overall I still love the look of Tau but if you want a mobile and quick army to move around the board then why do their special rules emphasize grouping up and their keystone Lord of War model is a mass of Str 5 AP0 shots with a few Str 10 shots that can't move for max efficiency? A lot of the rules seem to be at odds with GW's stated design goals and I think that Tau would benefit much more from a widespread overhaul (potentially dumping the overwatch/marker light rules) to better mirror what GW supposedly intends.

Edit: this turned longer than intended but I love Tau as they're described in the fluff and the gameplay REALLY doesn't reflect that. Tau I think could use a good hard look and a big shake up to spread things out and rebalance how the army works rather than just "slap a new unit on it and call it good" that GW has previously done.