Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team (HoR)/Tactics/Tau(8E)

Predictably, the scale-shrinking of Heralds of Ruin has radically changed how the Tau now run, as they can no longer be as reliant on their fancy suits. Of course, this means that you'll be relying more upon your Fire Warriors and auxiliaries. The loss of the Ethereals also means that you no longer have any way to bolster your men. Compensating for this means abusing cover like a bitch to avoid being splatted/cooked.

Your common keywords are T'au Empire, <Sept>.

Rules

• Sept Tenets: Mostly unchanged, though Sa'Cea can now only use it on half the army up to five times a turn.
• For the Greater Good: As the early adapters for supporting overwatch, your models get to double the range with which allies can overwatch to 6", but this precludes them from doing so again.
• Bonding Knife Ritual: This now works on nerve and rout tests.
• Markerlights: Setup's the same - shooting this prevents a model from shooting anything else. The benefits, however, changed.

1. Same as before, re-roll all 1s to hit with guns.
2. Drops the target's cover bonus by 1 rather than robbing it altogether.
3. Your boys no longer take penalties for shooting heavy weapons on the move or assault weapons after advancing against the target. Same as the 4+ bonus on the codex.
4. +1 to hit, same as the 5+ bonus on the codex.

Wargear

• Hard-Wired Light Shield: Leader only. You get a Tau-branded Refractor Field. Enjoy your 5++.
• Command Node: Leader only. Your leader's IP range is doubled. Useful for a very mobile force.
• XV05 Armour: Leaders beside the Pathfinder Shas'ui only. You now have a Battlesuit-tier save on a hoof-slogging Tau. And only for 5 points.
• Sniper Training: Leader only. Your model re-roll a 1 to hit if they didn't move.
• Combat Stimulant Injector: Leader only. You regain that old standby as a save-after-save of 6+.
• Kodachi: Leader only. A slightly better CCW, so you won't entirely get laughed at by the better leaders, especially if you roll a 6+ to wound and deal 2 damage with AP-4. Your WS is still pretty naff though, but hey. Sometimes you just really need to have that fantasy of being a badass weeaboo with a dashing cut.
• Extended Drone Controller: Leader only. Drones within 12" now add +1 to hit, which is necessary for any drone-centric forces.
• Rail Carbine: A dangerously expensive gun. Assault 2 S6 AP-4 and Dd3 make it a pretty evil thing against anything, but rolling a 6 to wound for a mortal wound? How cruel can you be?
• Marksman Honour: Shas'ui only. You can fire one gun again each turn, which isn't something to refuse. Not unless you have better things to spend 15 points on, that is.
• Stabilizing Jet: Battlesuit only. Your suit can advance a little bit further, which is pretty nice.
• Hardwired Support System: Battlesuit only. In the event that you really, really, REALLY need that one support system, you can take this and include it at a markup.
• Iridium Armor: Crisis Suit only. You now get a 2+ save, same as the Codex.
• DNA Samples: Shaper only. This gives you some random boosts based on some recent prey.

1. +1 Weapon Skill thanks to the Ogryn.
2. +1 BS from a Ratlings. A real thing that are really real.
3. +1 LD from humans, presumably the genetic ability to shoot your friends.
4. +2" Movement thanks to Eldar, which is always nice.
5. +1 S. Now you're as strong as a Space Marine. Pretty nice.
6. +1 T. Thank the Orks for some good bonus defense.

• Specialized Hunter: Shaper only. Lets you re-roll to hit for only 5 points, which is practically a steal.
• Vicious Strain: Vespid only. Adds +1 to wound in combat. While a decent insurance policy, but these guys aren't the sort to want to be in combat.
• Extra Chitin Layers: Vespid only. Nothing like a +1 to saves to your bugman flying.
• Crushing Claw: Vespid only. Take this. No, seriously, take it. It'll give you some real bite if you have to be in melee. You can make back that point anywhere else.
• Stealth Cloaking: Pathfinder only. For only 2 points, you can make your scouts gain that -1 to hit from a certain distance thing that's so popular these days.
• Smoke Grenade: Same as the Imperium, this is a little zone that nobody hits through. Use it to protect an exposed team.
• Blacksun Visor: Since blindness no longer matters, what does this staple do now? Well, it lets the model ignore any penalties caused by their target, so anything like Venomthropes or Alaitoc Eldar are now sitting ducks for you.

Philosophies

• Mont'Ka: +2 TP, but you must advance all your models for the first turn. Depending on your loadout, this might be more of a hassle than it sounds.
• Kauyon: +1 TP for not moving any of your models during the first turn. If you have a bunch of heavy weapons, this would be more ideal.
• Monat: No free TP, but it demands that your leader be the only one in a battlesuit. If you spend a Tactical Action on your leader, you have a chance to refund your TP, which might be be handy for your economy if you intend to do a lot with them.
• Combined Arms: +1 TP for having at least one battlesuit, one non-suited infantry, one drone, and one vehicle model. Unfortunately, that last one is undoable as-is.
• Superior Technology: +2 TP for having a force composed entirely of battlesuits. This has the added perk of making your equipped drones count as Core.
• Classic Approach: +1 TP for having no battlesuits in the team. You can manage, yes, but you might want that heavy weaponry depending on the enemy.
• The Auxiliary': +2 TP for a team made only Kroot or Vespids. Pretty much hardmode since your anti-armor is pretty much locked to Vespids and your Kroot are your only reliable melee.
• The Vanguard: +2 TP for a purely Pathfinder team. Enjoy your tactical operators operating tactically.

Tactical Actions

• Uplinked Markerlight (2 TP): Your markerlight adds +d3 more counters, which is pretty incredible to consider.
• Recon Sweep (1 TP): Your Pathfinder model can advance 2d6" instead of shooting, which might be necessary for capping.
• Breach and Clear (1 TP): Your Breacher Team models can re-roll to wound an enemy hiding in cover. After all, you got plasma scatterguns.
• Fail Safe Detonator (1 TP): Kamikaze! Your suit explodes, dealing S7 AP-1 hits to everyone within 3".
• Hunting Grounds (1 TP): Once a Kroot Hound charges an enemy, all Kroot within 12" can re-roll their charges against this enemy for the turn.

Unit Analysis

Your FOC is as follows:

• 1 Leader
• 1-20 Core
• 0-3 Special

Leaders

• Crisis Shas'vre: The second most expensive Leader the Tau gets, but open to the greatest list of gear out there, as befits the iconic suit. The big curiosity here is that this guy has a sort-of damage track usually seen in monsters and vehicles. Upon being reduced to two wounds, he loses his jet pack, an attack, and a point of Leadership and is forced to footslog it with a Terminator-tier 5" movement.
• Stealth Shas'vre: He can only buy the Fusion Blaster if he plans on doing real big game hunting, and can only get support by 0-2 Drones, Target Lock+Markerlights, and his basic support systems. While not quite as massive cost with the upgrades, he still is a big investment. If you do take him, consider a drone to make it majority Toughness 4.
• Cadre Fireblade: Pretty much ported over from the codex. He still gives your fire warriors all the firepower they need, though he's the most expensive leader of the Tau.
• Fire Warrior Shas'ui: A basic fire Warrior Sarge, who can either grab his basic Pulse Rifle, a Carbine, or a Pulse Blaster and Field amp relay to join the Breachers. He can get the basic fare of inventory, including two drones (one of which can be the Guardian Drone to take the fall for him).
• Pathfinder Shas'ui:Gets Markerlights in his base cost for far cheaper, but is trapped into using a carbine. He's a bit better at being the support leader for a heavy army, but he's a bit more vulnerable in exchange.
• Kroot Shaper: For a rather high price, you get a big Kroot, which are...not astounding. He can buy a proper Pulse Rifle or Carbine, which have their own uses.
• Vespid Strain Leader: Middling cost, but he's got everything a Vespid needs.

Core

• Fire Warrior: The basic foot infantry of the Tau Empire. They come base with a Pulse Rifle, which can be swapped for a Pulse Carbine or Pulse Blaster/Field Amplifier Relay. If you really need something for melee, you can grab a pulse pistol.
• Pathfinder: Now available as a core choice with no limits. They grab the same options for guns as the codex and can grab their exclusive choices. Their versatility makes them much better for hunting.
  • Tactical Drone: For every two Fire Warriors or Pathfinders, you can take a a Gun/Marker/Shield Drone. Buying this will probably cut into any heavy battlesuit plans, so take if you're not going full-suit. That said, these are a good way to back up any weaknesses that appear in a squad.
• Kroot Carnivore: The basic cheap Kroot. He's only passably decent in melee and at range, but he can at least fight, as opposed to your Tau.
  • Kroot Hound: You can take these puppy-chickens for every Kroot you buy. They're not much stronger, but a good deal faster for assault.
• Vespid Stingwing: You buzzing friends who can fire rather comfortably against the MEQ and fly around without issue.

Special

• Crisis Shas'ui: Cheaper than the Shas'vre, but keep the same trademark versatility of the battlesuit. The only losses he takes is the Leader wargear.
• Stealth Shas'ui: 10 points cheaper than the leader, but can only take a Fusion Blaster and the Bonding Ritual. Grab him if you plan to sneak around and make some alpha-striking.
• Firesight Marksman: Want someone to just throw out markerlights while hiding? Don't want to lose a good gun? Well, this guy's 22 points and made just for that.
  • MV71 Sniper Drone: While two these don't take up your precious special slot when taken with a marksman, you're still blowing 18 points on what is essentially another slot.
• Support Drone: Here's where the Pathfinder Drones went. For every two Fire Warriors/Pathfinders you grab, you can take a Guardian/Pulse-Accelerator/Grav-Inhibitor/Scout Drone.
• Krootox Rider: Your big beefy Kroot are no longer dependent on the Carnivores to enter the list. However, their ability to do multiple things at once sees them suffering to do each thing. If you plan on buying one, focus on one thing only.
• 0-1 Broadside Shas'ui: This just happens to tote the biggest guns ever. He comes only with the big rifle, so you'll have to pony up some more in order to grab the second rifle/missile set, and he can grab all the stuff he normally could (like the Automatic Targeting System, which makes seeker missiles hit better the more markerlights are on a target). Like the Crisis suit, this also gets a statline when reduced to 2 wounds, though in the broadside's case, the damage makes their guns overheat like Imperial plasma.
• 0-1 Hazard Suit: Bigger and deadlier than the crisis suits, but slightly cheaper than the Broadsides. They tote a damaged statline that robs them of flight like the crisis suit.