Games Workshop dropped new points for the T’au today through their Army builder app, finally giving us the last piece of the puzzle for the army as the standalone codex is set to hit shelves this weekend. There’s a ton going on here, and it’s only now that the final picture of this army will slide into place, so join us as we dive into these new points – what changed, and what it means for the army as a whole.
There’s also an updated FAQ & Errata which while short, has some important things to cover.
Updates & Errata
You can find the FAQ here.
- The Mont’ka Detachment rule now only gives ranged weapons [ASSAULT] on the first, second, and third rounds of the game, and gives Guided units [LETHAL HITS] in those rounds. Previously Mont’ka gave all GUIDED units [ASSAULT] for the entire game, while giving Lethal Hits on rounds 1-3 with no requirements to be guided. This is a reasonably big nerf to Mont’ka’s damage output, and in particular hurts hypothetical builds going wide on hulls and suits with minimal support (and reduces mobility late game). The other big impact is on Overwatch – this is way less good without Lethal Hits naturally, which hits anything with built-in hit re-rolls particularly hard, as previously they could be very strong with this. However, you now get more mobility early game, and crucially can now use ASSAULT to carry out objective Actions after Advancing, where previously the timing wouldn’t support that, which is good for trying to establish an early lead.
- Sunforge battlesuits had their Sunforge rule fixed. This was a minor wording change to clean up the effect. Allocation happens after wounds are rolled, and so previously the rule didn’t work as written.
The Points Changes
You can find the updated points document here.
Most unit costs went “down” in cost in the new document, though “down” is a relative term here – these costs are down from the Codex points values, but not necessarily from the point costs in the old Munitorum Field Manual – and that’s how they’ve been marked in the new Munitorum Field Manual. So while Breacher Teams at 100 points are down from the listed value of 120 points in the upcoming print Codex, they’re actually 10 points more expensive than they were in the most recent update. This makes navigating the changes something of a mixed bag – if you look at the doc, most values are green, but if you’re going by the points you were playing with two weeks ago, most of the changes go in the opposite direction.
Point Decreases from the Codex Points (and not in the previous MFM)
There were several new units in the Codex which did not appear in the Index, and so these had no point values in the prior field manual to reference. This primarily includes Crisis Suits, which were split from one datasheet into three in the new book. All of these are cheaper than the previous version (200 points), though they’ve changed substantially from that original single datasheet, losing access to cyclic ion blasters in the process and being limited to only 3 models
- Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits -15
- Crisis Starscythe Battlesuits -10
- Kroot Flesh Shaper -10
- Kroot Lone-Spear -20
- Krootox Rampagers -20
Point Increases from the Codex Points (and not in the previous MFM)
Only one of the new datasheets in Codex: T’au Empire actually increased in cost between the printed points and the new Field Manual, and that’s Sunforge battlesuits, i.e. the ones with Fusion blasters (that’s Melta to our Gue’la readers).
- Crisis Sunforge Battlesuits +10
Point Increases from the previous MFM
The remainder of changes to unit costs saw them getting increases from the previous points update. Some of this reflects the fact that these units are just plain stronger with the options available in the new book – Retaliation Cadre makes close-range shooting from Crisis suits with flamers very nasty, while Farsight has more wounds and a better save and the Sky Ray missile rack gains twin-linked.
- Breacher Team +10
- Broadside Battlesuits +20
- Cadre Fireblade +10
- Commander Farsight +15
- Devilfish +10
- Kroot Carnivores +20
- Kroot Farstalkers +15
- Kroot Hounds +10
- Razorshark Strike Fighter +5
- Riptide Battlesuit +15
- Sky Ray Gunship +10
- Sun Shark Bomber +10
Not everything is offset, however: While Breachers are still plenty good at +10 points, combining them with a Cadre Fireblade and a Devilfish will now set you back a whopping 30 extra points, making the combo much tougher to offset. Broadsides just lose out here, eating a 20 point increase without much additional value to show for it.
Enhancement Costs
Something we didn’t have context on is the Enhancements. For the most part, these are the same as they were in the print codex, with one notable exception – Internal Grenade Racks in the Retaliation Cadre Detachment dropped 10 points, from 30 points to 20, making it a bit tastier an option for dropping out extra mortal wounds with your battlesuit commander.
Winners
The Kroot walk away with some big wins here, with Flesh Shapers, Lone-Spears and Krootox Rampagers all coming in substantially cheaper than expected. The Lone-Spear in particular is a 90-point Lone Operative with some insane movement options, and the Rampagers at 110 seem like a solid option if you’re into using Kroot. Otherwise, it’s not so great a story for the standard T’au, who mostly see increases from the last MFM.
Wings: I’m also very high on Fireknife Battlesuits after this – I already really liked them in the Codex, and going down seems strong. I do have to caveat this that no longer having re-rolling Lethal Hits on overwatch in Mont’ka is a blow, but they’re cheap enough now that I’d start considering them everywhere.
Losers
There aren’t a lot – the big losers here are the units which both went up in costs but didn’t improve much from the index from a datasheet standpoint. Sunforge Battlesuits are another big loser in that they ended up being more expensive than expected, and you can make a case that units like Breachers and Devilfish which are only more powerful in certain contexts lost a bit here, and when you look at combining the two, those extra point costs add up really fast. And Broadsides took a pretty big hit here, eating a 20-point increase while also losing the battlefield support system which allowed them to fall back and shoot. They can still shoot while in combat, and ignore modifiers to hit if they have the Weapon Support System, but doing so means giving up a gun. They also take a second hit from the changes to Mont’ka making them less viable.
On the whole, these points tend to fall somewhere between the old Field Manual points and the admittedly crazy points in the codex, giving us something that most players should be able to live with. The bigger hit to the faction is the loss of Tetras, which gave the faction a second set of fast, high-toughness vehicles to chew through.
Final Thoughts
TheChirurgeon: This was interesting as an update. I think there was a lot of thought in our internal competitive circle that T’au might be too good upon official release, and I think these points reign that in for the most part, leaving us with a T’au faction that’s good and interesting to play while not being oppressive. These rules and points push them toward more of an aggressive, trading-centric MSU play style than before, and while Sunforge suits came in at more expensive than expected, it’s not by so much that they shouldn’t see play. It’s a faction that should be among the game’s best while hopefully not being too good. At least, that’s what I’m saying now. Ask me again after I inevitably lose to a Retaliation Cadre at the GW US Open in Dallas next week.
Additionally, I’m not much of a T’au player. For a more informed second opinion, we’ve asked noted T’au player Nassim Fouchane to weigh in on these points and how they affect his Mont’ka game plans.
Nassim Fouchane: The dreaded T’au Empire, perpetual new kid on the block in the 40k universe, gets a gutting with this points update. Everything in the index received something of a nerf while the missing datasheets really hurt some synergies in the Mont’ka detachment. The key ones which stand out to me here are the Breacher/Fish combo with a Cadre, as each unit went up 10 points, putting a total tax of 30 points on the package for Mont’ka lists, compounding the issue if you’re planning to take multiples Couple this with a hefty 20 point increase on the Broadsides – another unit taken in multiples as Mont’ka previously gave them access to increased speed, and you start to see the floor dropping out pretty quickly for the Detachment strategy. Mont’ka didn’t need Tetras due to the Detachment’s Stratagems so that’s not a big loss but on the whole this is an overall downgrade and significant nerf to the Mont’ka detachment, significantly impacting them in the metagame as their usual lists just aren’t going to work.
Wings: I’ll admit I was dreading the Mont’ka lists I was expecting and this goes a long way to mitigating that – I do still think it’s got play, but I’d now be much readier to try either Retaliation Cadre or a re-vamped Kauyon build (though I’d still lean on Mont’ka to come out on top). The Broadside hit honestly seems a bit excessive, as does the combined hike on Breacherfish – both units were too cheap before, but this feels like a bit of an overcorrection. Presumably no one wanted a repeat of the 9th Edition Tau codex release.
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