Concepts for new T'au units?

[Evil Eye]

I've always had a soft spot for the Tau (or T'au or whatever), and whilst I don't know if I'd start a whole army of them- yet-  I do rather like them, and would certainly be tempted to make a few models just for the fun of building/painting them.

 

Anyway, to cut to the chase; what new kinds of models/units would you like to see, either from a gameplay niche perspective or just from a "this would be cool" view?

 

Speaking for myself, I'd love to see more non-battlesuit vehicles. The battlesuits are cool and all, but it'd be nice to see more regular vehicles; for one thing I really like the design language of T'au tanks and aircraft (and I like how they play into the way T'au wage war, with more of a modern "combined arms warfare" approach) and for another thing I don't much care for them being pigeonholed as "the mecha faction". A few things I'd like to see in terms of vehicles are:

>A slightly heavier grav-tank chassis, not HUEG but slightly bigger than the Devilfish chassis, kind of a Malcador to the Devilfish/Hammerhead/Skyray's Leman Russ.

>Some kind of long range indirect artillery/mortar vehicle, preferably on the above chassis (call it the "Wobbegong" to keep with the naming theme). I can see it as looking a bit like a Covenant Wraith in shape, albeit Tauified.

Spoiler

>Bring back the Orca, and give it three build options- classic dropship, bomber and gunship.

>Some kind of light transport, slightly larger than a Piranha but smaller and faster than a Devilfish. Some guy did a 3D printed model of that sort of thing and it was very cool.

>T'au "bike" equivalents to the Piranha's land speeder. Call them "Crawfish recon speeders" or something.

 

I'd also like to see some more love for the Kroot and the Vespids, of course; the Vespids especially as the poor buggy blighters get no love at all.

 

If we must get more battlesuits, I'd like to see the Hazard suits made in plastic, they're really cool designs and truth be told I'm OK with resin, but I fear for their continued safety given FW's habit of purging their old cool stuff lately.

[SvenIronhand]

Combat Engineers.

[Iron Lord]

On 3/22/2023 at 1:46 AM, Evil Eye said:

 

>T'au "bike" equivalents to the Piranha's land speeder. Call them "Crawfish recon speeders" or something.

 

The Tetra from Forgeworld was almost exactly this - like the piranha but narrow-bodied and much more lightly armed. 

 

 

[sitnam]

I hope the Xenos coalition aspect of the T'au gets more attention. It really is my favorite part of the T'au. The new Kroot kit is lovely, and I think giving them a new shaper and Krootox kit is a no-brainer. The return of the Knarlocs in plastic would be fantastic, and could fill out the FA and HS slots.

 

Besides Kroot and a new Vespid kit, one or two new aliens would be a nice addition. Lets explore the wide variety of 40k Xenos. A Water Caste character for auxiliary armies would be an ideal addition

[Guest Triszin]

I really hope they go full xeno coalition.

 

We need the the expansion of the Tau line from xeno units. All filling a squad/vehicle role.

 

With Tau tech* of course.

 

However.

 

I DO NOT want Tau to get a dedicated cqc unit.

 

At maximum, they get a single

"agent of the greater good"

- a nicassar that is a cqc unit that has some psyker abilities. A one off.

 

 

I would like a devil fish 2.0

Along with a devil fish 2.0 micro drone swarm factory.

 

Kroot: krootox, kroot transport

 

Only 2 new suits and that's it (,besides making taunar baby on plastic)

 

Agreed on combat engineers.

Have a earth caste in a modified suit with repair drones.

 

And kai's in a upgunned unique ghostkeel

 

I would like tallaran troops as a gravis like role.

Pulse blasters, multiwound.

 

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by Triszin

[Evil Eye]

Would definitely love the Drone Harbinger to make an appearance in model form! I loved that thing in DoW. If they did a Devilfish 2.0 I'd hope it'd be along the lines of stuff like the Leman Russ refreshes from a while back where they kept the base design near identical, made the assembly better and added extra options/parts. The actual design is really nice and doesn't need to much change, though obviously I haven't built one so I don't know if it's a pig to assemble.

 

Not quite "new" but if they refreshed the Devilfish chassis, a new Skyray/Hammerhead dual kit with options for the old FW turrets in plastic would be amazing. Likewise, accurate/faithful plastic translations of the Hazard suits, as IMO they're the best looking middleweight suits the Tau have.

[Guest Triszin]

1 hour ago, Evil Eye said:

Would definitely love the Drone Harbinger to make an appearance in model form! I loved that thing in DoW. If they did a Devilfish 2.0 I'd hope it'd be along the lines of stuff like the Leman Russ refreshes from a while back where they kept the base design near identical, made the assembly better and added extra options/parts. The actual design is really nice and doesn't need to much change, though obviously I haven't built one so I don't know if it's a pig to assemble.

 

Not quite "new" but if they refreshed the Devilfish chassis, a new Skyray/Hammerhead dual kit with options for the old FW turrets in plastic would be amazing. Likewise, accurate/faithful plastic translations of the Hazard suits, as IMO they're the best looking middleweight suits the Tau have.

I would be fine* with hazard suits.

If.

If they change the lore slightly and make them xeno piloted suits for suicide missions.

 

It leans into Tau being equal bit more equal.

Allowing there allied xenos to pilot some suits, but odd how they always end up I. The first responder suicide mission suits.

[sitnam]

On 3/29/2023 at 3:43 PM, Triszin said:

I would be fine* with hazard suits.

If.

If they change the lore slightly and make them xeno piloted suits for suicide missions.

 

It leans into Tau being equal bit more equal.

Allowing there allied xenos to pilot some suits, but odd how they always end up I. The first responder suicide mission suits.

I love the idea of non-Tau battlesuits, but if it happens I’d like it to have a distinct aesthetic. Still identifiable as Tau tech, but also as indicative of whatever the race is.

[SvenIronhand]

On 3/22/2023 at 5:50 AM, SvenIronhand said:

Combat Engineers.

To elaborate on this concept: 
 

• Primary weapons are mole launchers, with a choice of fusion grenades or "ground-popper" grenades (Assault 3, S5, AP -1 D1). Both options can be fired indirectly.
• Concealed positions.
• The old multi-function surveyor rule from DX4 drones?
   

My primary inspiration was the Tankbusters from Red Alert 3.

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by SvenIronhand

[Commander Dawnstar]

I've always liked the idea of the T'au having a heavily armoured unit (presumably auxiliaries) which is specifically designed to blunt charges, something that isn't a powerful close combat unit in its own right but that presents a durable roadblock which can redirect or delay the opponent's melee threats. It might be a bit too 'negative' game design, but giving them an array of tools including things along the lines of photon grenades, grave wave projectors, flechettes, and maybe even something to limit Deep Strike could make for a solid anchor which looks to make life difficult for anyone trying to dive down your throat.

[Indy Techwisp]

More Auxiliaries would be great, but in a way could be solved with allowing a "Brood Brothers" style detachment from another Army (Guard, Leagues, Aeldari maybe?).

 

Personally, I'd like to the the XV15 come back as a "Troops" Style unit that could fit in between Pathfinders and XV25s in a Stealth focused list.

 

Alternatively, an Avatar of Tau'va model that just has the whole T'au psychic phase to itself because the idea of the T'au responding to enemy psykers by pointing a fledgling deity at then is funny to me.

 

[ThePenitentOne]

Shaper

5 piece Kroot Hounds

3 piece Krootox

5 piece Knarloc Riders

Greater Knarloc

 

Vespid Leader HQ

Vespid Psyker? (2nd Character Model)

10 piece Vespid Kill Team box (40K Elite Build + 40K Troop Build)

 

Demiurg Leader

Demiurg Technician

10 piece Demiurg Kill Team (Elite/ Troop)

 

Wargames Exclusives have a pretty extensive range- cool things like bikes and trikes that are fitted with drones to provide the lift. Lots of infantry ronin/ monk types. Being WGE, some of the female models are too racy, but others are cool.

 

 https://wargameexclusive.com/shop/?yith_wcan=1&product_cat=greater-good

 

[Indy Techwisp]

On 4/20/2023 at 3:45 AM, ThePenitentOne said:

Demiurg Leader

Demiurg Technician

10 piece Demiurg Kill Team (Elite/ Troop)

 

T'au being able to take some Leagues of Votann units like the Genestealer Cults can take some Astra Militarium units would fit the bill for Demiurg since the SrrykTok Brotherhood a.k.a the Seran-Tok Mercantile Leagues are just a LoV Prospect, after all.

 

Considering the new thing about Characters joining units, I guess we're gonna get a character that goes in Strike/Breacher Team Squads.
The Cadre Fireblade likely won't go into squads as they're effectively the General.
Darkstrider is probably gonna attach to Pathfinder Squads since he does lead a group of them around in-lore.

[40k_fan]

I want to see more T'au Auxiliaries, maybe it would be cool to see some Jindarii, even if they are probably Yautja knockoffs, they would fit along just fine with other Tau auxiliaries like the Kroot and Humans and the like. Might be fun to see, their tech level is probably on par with the Tau, but they might actually be good at melee too lolol.

 

Speaking of humans, I do wonder... If a Space Marine joined the T'au for the Greater Good, would they be considered a Chaos Space Marine for fueling the very real Warp Entity of the greater good with their belief? Who knows, it'll probably never happen because who knows why.

 

And back to my melee point, an actual T'au unit that uses melee weapons might be cool too, it could have a more traditional honor theme or something. Would be pretty funny juxtaposed against the rest of the T'au with their spacetech.

 

And speaking of spacetech, more battlesuits. There's no such thing as too much. Especially the really big ones. Now that's the good stuff.

 

Okay, that's all I have to contribute. GW should hire me. Or not.

[WrathOfTheLion]

Gives us farsight battlesuits with beam sabres, my precious.

 

Gollum. *cough*. Gollum.

Edited May 12, 2023 by WrathOfTheLion

[Guest Triszin]

Well I wouldn't be shocked if there's a crisis suit upgrade sprue coming with fusion blades.

[Tawnis]

At the VERY least, I'd like to see the Jokero Weaponsmith (you know the unit with an actual model that is canonically an ally of the Tau empire), usable in a Tau list. Currently they are on the Imperial Agents list. T.T 

After that, more Kroot. Bring back the Knarlocs and give us a Psyker, that would at least put Kroot on par with Harlequins. 

More Vespid and other allies. A Brood Brother's style rule for a limited number of Gue'Vesa or Votann would be cool.

For Tau proper, hmm, honestly I think their range is really good. For suits, just bring the FW models to plastic. Otherwise, having an Earth Caste engineer to repair vehicles, or a Water Caste diplomat to buff Auxiliaries would be cool. 

[TrevorLoLz]

For me, the T’au are an army that could have such diversity, unified by a central theme and visual cues, but just doesn’t get there due to the Gundam-isation of the army.

 

I’d like to see a slight expansion of the Vespid. A secondary HQ would be great, along with a plastic kit for the base unit. 
 

Human auxiliaries are constantly mentioned in the background, but we don’t see them. A Gue’va unit finally making appearance (Guard but with pulse rifles and not a whole lot else) would be cool.

[drakheart]

Definitely need an unit able to repair combat suits and vehicles given their technology - ideally an earth caste engineer with support/ bodyguard drones. 

 

Also a psychic unit, we know they are aligned with the Nicassar, the lore say the Tau have tried to keep them hidden from the imperium, but surely they could still find a way to use them in battle, perhaps a specialist stealth suit to help disguise them?

 

Plenty of other races that would make interesting auxiliaries given the list of known Tau allied races, as found  Here.

[Indy Techwisp]

Some suggestions from a T'au player I play against frequently are:

• A Firesight Marksman esque Generic character for Pathfinders
• A Generic XV22 Character that can lead a team of Stealth Suits
• A "Broadside Commander" character
• A T'au Infantry unit with Flamers.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Indy Techwisp
Formating