The Chime of Eons - The Tau

“To follow any path other than the Tau’va is to doom us all. Only together and with courage and discipline shall we stand victorious. Fight with fire and courage and nothing can stand against us.”

- O’Shaserra / “Commander Shadowsun”

Thanks for returning to The Chime of Eons, a column about the fluff of the Warhammer 40,000: Conquest LCG. In the first instalment we introduced the column, and last time we discussed the Eldar faction.

From this point on we’ll move step by step around the alignment wheel, which brings us to the Tau!

The Tau are relative "newcomers" to Warhammer 40,000, in real world chronological terms.

Codex: Tau was introduced way back in 2001, but as the game has been going since 1987 many veterans still see them as "new to the setting". This shorter history does mean we have a lot less fluff to compare against, and FFG has far fewer signature characters to include than for most factions. Expect this article to be a marginally shorter than the Eldar one!

There was a strong initial backlash from many against their introduction, with their clean lines, futuristic aesthetic and “anime style” battlesuits causing irritation to many established fans who preferred the grim and grimy style of other more established factions.

Over time they’ve gained acceptance with the fan community, and personally I adore them, seeing them as making the darkness of the 41st millennium deeper and more defined for the sharp bright contrast they provide. For the LCG they’re a blessing: an opportunity to present a faction that is shamelessly in favour of technology and progress, with an art style that reflects their optimism.

THE TAU

The Tau Faction Meta-Fluff Score: 3/5

Within the setting as well, the Tau are a young race.
A mere five to six thousand years ago they were surveyed by Imperial explorators as being primitive tribal hunter gatherers with no real technology to speak of. A combination of circumstances, including a warp storm isolating them and the Imperium’s attention being diverted by their own apostatic civil war, left them free to develop without the Imperium noting them again.

In 742.M41 (that is, a handful of centuries ago, 40742 AD compared to the current date of 40999 AD) they were re-contacted, and were had developed by an astounding amount, making the leap during that time from an almost prehistoric civilisation to a spacefaring interstellar one that had already absorbed neighbouring systems into its sphere of influence. This rate of change is impressive even by modern day standards, but in the world of Warhammer 40,000 it is insanely rapid!

Because they’ve not been around long, they’re a tiny force compared to most, controlling a handful of star systems. In fluff, we know of around twenty major Sept Worlds, five or more aligned alien worlds that are part of their federation, and half a dozen much smaller Tau colonies, plus some unnamed minor sept worlds. There's probably more Tau worlds and allied alien worlds unlisted to date, but broadly we know of the rough degree of magnitude of the Tau Empire. It's tiny.

To give you an idea of the contrast, the Imperium of Man is described as being spread across “at least a million worlds” and has existed for ten thousand years, with human starfaring civilisations going back thirty eight thousand years. The Orks, as another example, are all across the galaxy and likely beyond it too, with Imperial explorators noting that wherever they went and wherever they looked, they found the Orks were there first. The Tyranids are aeons old, and have consumed several galaxies before coming to ours. The Eldar and Necrons date back to a younger age, and their civilisation was at a pangalactic height while humans themselves were prehistoric.

The Tau are small fry in a big pond, absolute newcomers to the galactic scene, but capable of such rapid technological advancement and expansion that they may well be the next dominant galactic power, after humanity self destructs. Its rivals may be orders of magnitude more powerful than it, but on a local scale they are a significant power and they have more future potential than most factions.

The faction is referred to as the Tau Empire, and though it is ruled by a Council of Ethereals, this is under the leadership of a highest ranking member (alternately referred to as the Ethereal Supreme or His Etheral Majesty, the current one is named Aun'Va). We’ve not seen much indication if this is a dynastic succession or if the Ethereal Supreme is somehow elected: in fact, Games Workshop has purposefully kept the ruling “Ethereal Caste” mysterious in background terms, leading to much fan speculation.

The Tau are notably a psychically inert race, and rely instead on technology. They don’t use warpspace proper for travel (instead developing parallel FTL "skimming" technology which is notably slower and shorter ranged, but broadly more reliable), and likewise lack the psychic astropathic communication that allows humanity to maintain a pangalactic empire. This, along with their short timespan on the galactic scene limits their influence to a very small stellar space. All this could change with the Tau's rate of technological progress, but for the moment the sphere of influence of the Tau is very much limited to a single Sector's distance

Luckily for us, the game’s Traxis Sector is in the Ultima Segmentum (a segmentum being one fifth of the galaxy, and a sector being a region of space within that, typically about 200 light years wide), as is the Tau Empire, so we can just about allow for a Tau presence there fluffwise! We can also hope and assume that it represents a sector neighbouring the Tau Empire, and thus allow out favourite blue-skinned buddies to be a local and significant force.

The Tau are notable for having technological progress that is frighteningly fast in galactic terms. When you have eldar, humans, orks and necrons who have been using the same tech for millennia (or tens of millennia), a race that can create new effective weapons and vehicles in the space of a few years is nothing short of paradigm-breaking. Central to this is that they are scientists in the modern sense: they test hypotheses, seek to understand technologies and always seek to push the boundaries of Tau knowledge. Compare this to the Imperium, where almost all technological advancement took place in earlier ages, and where the maintenance and creation of technology is governed by mysticism and religious ritual.

Their society is defined by their caste system, with four castes (earth – the builders, water – the diplomats, fire – the warriors, air – travel and flight) ruled over by a mysterious fifth caste, The Ethereals. They are bound together by a seemingly selfless philosophy of The Greater Good.
The Tau philosophy of war disdains attrition tactics and static fortifications. In war, they don’t believe in pursuing and holding territory, instead adopting a fluid battleline that concentrates on destroying enemy forces and taking out key strategic assets. That’s not to say they don’t have treasured homeworlds, but they’ve always valued life first, and have shown willingness to abandon worlds wholesale to preserve the lives of their inhabitants.

Their main tactics include the Mont’ka (trans. "Killing Blow") and the Kauyon (trans. "Patient Hunter"). Both of these are methods to dismantle an opposing army in different ways, and the execution of these strategies tells us a lot about Tau psychology.

Mont'ka is the identification of a target of opportunity, and the swift deployment of a carefully planned and fully coordinated strike, with ideally the entire cadre or battleforce opening fire on the target moments after the attack has begun. It is the principle of concentration of force, of blitzkrieg and of shock tactics all at once.

Kauyon is an ambush, where the opposing army is drawn into a kill-zone by a designated bait, one that they will never make contact with as the carefully prepared ambush forces attack from all directions.

Also, the Tau don't stand alone. In true Star Trek style, their sphere of influence includes a whole federation of alien races (including some humans) who have been convinced to serve the goals of the Tau Empire. These allies have their own cultures and philosophies, and it is a testament to the progressive and open minded attitudes of the Tau that they can co-exist alongside them, though of course with the Tau themselves firmly pre-eminent in the Empire.

Within the LCG, its clear that we’re looking for a force that plays a game that isn’t focused on attrition, which doesn’t like to hold territory in a static fashion with their precious troops, and which specialises in swift killing blows and baited ambushes. We also want to see some representation of their progressive and powerful technology. We need to see that their society is caste structured, with well defined roles cooperating for the Greater Good. It’d be good, but not essential, to show that they’re great at long ranged firefights, but weak against close combat assaults. Of all the races, the Tau should have the most Ranged units, they should be up there or close in battlefield Mobility with the Eldar and the Space Marines, but they should be really poorly suited to a drawn out combat. If we’re looking for true excellence in fluff depiction we’d expect them to be very mobile within a battlefield, but relatively slower than some factions at moving between planets, thanks to their lower quality FTL. We also want to see non-Tau allied units, of varying loyalty, who help cover the weak spots of the Tau.

The Conquest LCG does reasonably well here. The strong Attachment theme helps emphasise the reliance on equipment and technology. Army Units being playable as attachments helps a theme of combined arms and a single powerful "eggs in one basket" Mont'ka strike, and the nature of attachments in LCGs makes the Tau player very reluctant to sacrifice his powered up unit, which discourages 1-for-1 attrition exchanges.

Best though is that there’s a strong presentation of Mont’ka and Kauyon as battle philosophies through emergent play of the cards. Often against the Tau you'll aim at a weak point, then find yourself suddenly surrounded by superior firepower, or you'll find the Tau taking the battle to you with concentrated force at where you are most vulnerable.

There’s somewhat less Ranged than might be expected even if they have a decent showing, however, and no feel at all of weakness against assault units. To be honest, this is largely because the LCG as a whole doesn’t really differentiate between short ranged firefights and melee charges, which given the source material and chosen scale here is a serious systemic fluff failing. It is most pronounced and notable here though, with a faction that is so strong at firefights and so weak in close combat.

The choice of a heavy Mobile contingent (moving between planets ) over Ambush (fast strikes within a battlefield) is a choice that looks to be guided by the feel of the faction, rather than its fluff detail. Again, I feel this is a product of the warzones being designated “planets” rather than say “objectives” or “zones”, and that latter decision is cause of much fluff-mismatching. I'm happy to see the Tau be Mobile, but would have been much happier if the scale of the game was warzones within a planet, rather than planets within a sector.

The lack of a caste-based trait for units is also disappointing, but we are looking to see representation of the various castes in the cards, and there seem to be mechanical thematic elements that fit well with fluff.

It is definitely pleasing that the Tau have a very unique playstyle and that their emphasis on their tools and technology is played up. However the faction doesn’t 100% feel like the Tau in play: while they arguably have a good focus on killing and preserving units, there’s little sense of the disdain for holding territory.

Mostly though, the fluff mismatch comes in failing to demonstrate their weaknesses, though this is a product of game design rather than Tau card design.

Despite this, the match between fluff and LCG faction is still certainly good enough for a 4/5 rating so far.

With the Alliances, we’re on shaky ground, and this is a definite forced fit, and is where we drop from 4/5 to 3/5.

As I mentioned last article, there’s very little to justify an Eldar / Tau alliance, and the basis for it is a single quote in the first Tau Codex (a codex being an army book supplement for the warhammer 40,000 wargame) where an Eldar Farseer stated sympathy for the Tau.

Incidentally, that same Codex also provided a piece of short fiction where a Tau Water Caste Ambassador attempted negotiation with an Imperial Fist Space Marine and was told in no uncertain terms that they were foul xenos. This, and the fact that the Taus contact with space marines in fluff has almost always been as dire enemies (vide Damocles Crusade) makes this alliance even more unlikely. There's more evidence still of space marine / tau conflicts, and only one of working together, but we'll come back to this more next column, when discussing the Space Marines, as their fluff history is mostly told from the perspective of that faction. Suffice to say that this alliance is one that is on very shaky ground indeed.

Generally speaking, a better Tau ally would have been the Astra Militarum, not so much to suggest that the armies of the Imperium would work with them, but rather to represent the sizeable numbers of disloyal humans subverted by the philosophy of the Greater Good and who now serve the Tau.

In summary and in summation, I'll give the Tau a 3/5 meta-fluff score, or 4/5 if the alliance wheel doesn’t bother you.


THE SIGNATURE SQUAD



Commander Shadowsun (Core Set)
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

The original tau flagship character was Commander Farsight, but as the codex army book was updated for the newer edition, Commander Shadowsun took his place, both in the real life as flagship character for the faction, and in the setting as the most beloved military commander of Tau society.

Shadowsun is a first tier signature character, in that she has her own rules-set in the latest army codex, she has her own miniature, and she’s the preeminent named special character of the Tau in their current incarnation.

I’m very happy for entirely different reasons to see Shadowsun chosen as the core set warlord for the Tau. Let’s face it, for all the greatness of its setting W40K is something of a “sausagefest”, with a truly Tolkeinesque approach to having significant female characters (i.e. there generally aren'y many). Shadowsun is one of only two female warlords of the base set. Of course, you can’t especially tell that O’Shaserra (for that is her proper name) is female from her appearance or armour, but that’s actually another plus in feminist terms, as 40K already has way too much attachment to depicting bare midriffs and spiky boob-cups as standard battle equipment. This is nothing to do with the fluff-assessing intent of this article, by the way, just an aside to be thankful for FFG including female warlords in the core set!

Shadowsun is the archetypal Tau Fire Warrior and Commander: a student of the long deceased sensei-like Commander Puretide, fiercely loyal to the Ethereals and the Greater Good, and fully embracing the Tau ethos of war. She’s a straight-down-the-centre orthodox Tau leader who is a good choice for showing the Tau at their most archetypal.
1/7 is good stats for a dual blaster-toting battlesuit-wearing Tau. Her artwork is exactly right, in detail, colouring, decoration and demeanour. The Shas’o trait is a nice fluffy inclusion indicating her caste and rank, and given that only a handful of Warlord-level Tau are ever going to have that trait, it has to be included purely for flavour purposes, which I applaud. I must say though, that if we were going to find room for a trait denoting rank, it'd have been more useful in game terms and more interesting in fluff terms for FFG to instead found room for a trait denoting caste.
Her special ability is somewhat questionable. On a broad strategic level it is clever and appropriate, as it guides deck construction towards the inclusion of high tech toys and drones, and it results in highly equipped troops, which is entirely appropriate for a favoured and well equipped Tau commander like Shadowsun.
As a specific ability on a specific card, it feels odder, as the recursion/recycling aspect doesn’t make a great deal of sense: she’s not renowned for fixing equipment or scavenging. One could say that her recursion ability represents resupply, as she’s so well favoured by Tau high command, so we’ll let it pass for now, especially as the meta-effect on deckbuilding creates a thematic construction.

Shadowsun’s Stealth Cadre (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

The art here is fine, showing the XV25 design that you’d expect, and the traits selected are properly shared with other Battlesuit users.

Their special rules help represent a combined arms approach and multiple units “acting as one”, and that’s very in keeping with both the Tau in general and with Shadowsun’s tactical preferences.
My only quibble here is that there’s not much else to suggest these are battlesuits rather than infantry, and nothing to suggest their stealth capabilities or high fragility. I’d like to have seen them have 1 HP and Ambush for fluff reasons. Barring that keyword, it’d have been neat to let their attachment form be deployed as a combat action. Even better would have been a Stealth keyword of some sort, with appropriate ruleset.
In game design terms, I appreciate the need not to make them too complex or for Ambush to be too common, but in fluff terms it’s disappointing how generic they are.

While Shadowsun is more of a whole army commander rather than a leader of a Stealth Cadre, having these be the signature squad is a nice way of acknowledging that she herself wears stealth armour and has a tendency towards stealth approaches.


Communications Relay (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

This works fine, seeing as we know Shadowsun is an orthodox Tau commander, so likely to appreciate the benefits of a well coordinated technologically-based combined arms approach. The attachment theme helps support the Shadowsun theme of a well equipped army. Art is good, with T’au Sept colours and markings.

(A fluff note: T’au isn’t a typographical error. Tau is the name of the people and the Empire, while T’au is their homeworld, and their capital Sept.)



Squadron Redeployment (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 5/5

This is a good fluff match for Tau and for Shadowsun, epitomising the fluid nature of their battlelines.

I also like the art, appropriately showing an Orca Dropship with T’au Sept colours, which while isn’t the ship Tau would use to move from planet to planet, would certainly be used on the last step of redeployment, moving from orbit to planet.

My tiniest of fluff objections would be that the Tau don’t actually have great interplanetary mobility of note, and are in fact slower in FTL travel than many factions. I’ve already criticised this elsewhere though, and the card doesn’t say that they’re not using a combination of spaceships and good communications support.

This card feeds well into the ideas of Mont’ka and Kauyon, allowing both of these strategies to be executed in play.

This is a well fluffed card, with the right artwork, the right emergent play results and the right effect. Its this, combined with the solid fluff base and the good artwork, that make this a 5/5 card.



Command-link Drone (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

This has exactly the right art, sharing Shadowsun’s colours, and exactly the right place in her squad, as she’s the only Tau in the whole Empire who has (at present) the Command Link Drone prototype. Being the Empire’s favoured daughter means you get all the coolest toys!

Main criticism fluff-wise is that its not something that moves from unit to unit literally – it’s a piece of equipment belonging to her, which she uses to coordinate her squads. I’d have liked to see it attached to Warlord only, and to be able to ping its effects around her current Planet without moving literally, or even give her an attack bonus based on number of allies.

As it is, the crunch suggests that this is an independent entity that flutters around from unit to unit. This takes it down from 4/5 to 3/5.

However, a nice emergent play detail here is that if you have the resources, you can use its action in the deploy phase to stall for time, and give you a good chance of deploying last. This is nicely tied to the idea of the Tau devoting resources to planning their actions, gathering intel and creating a coherent reactive battle plan rather than leaping in blindly. That bit of subtlety pushes this back from 3/5 to 4/5 for me.


LOYAL CARDS

Crisis Battle Guard (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

Spot on artwork. Loyal is acceptable, though missing this would not have scored us down either. Soldier, Pilot, Elite, Mobile, high command and the numerical stats all are very fluffy and start this card off on a high point. In fact, the combination of Mobile and a high command rating is very fluffy, as in emergent play this will have you having these guys lock down one segment of the battlefield with command rating, then jet-packing into the fray to contribute their firepower.
The only thing keeping us off a perfect score is my old complaint about the warzones being named “Planets”, and the fact that most Mobile-keyworded units (including this one) don’t have any means to travel between planets. Different nomenclature in the core rules would have made this work. As it is, we’re back to jetpacking across space, which isn’t right.





Deception (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

]I love this card’s idea, as it allows Kauyon strategies, with a baited lure being pulled away at the last moment and then having forces crash in around the hapless target. I also like the idea that with Shadowsun you can pull back the gun drones that baited in the opponent, and then drop them into the battle as an attachment to suggest the coordinated strike that follows.

The artwork is fine, suggesting as it does an ambush of some hapless orks by a Tau cadre.

However, in emergent play it is just as often (if not more often) used to remove an opposing unit from play, banishing an opposing unit from the battlefield. That isn’t part of the Tau playbook as we know it, as though a clever feint that lures an enemy away from the battlefield is good tactics, its also good tactics that aren’t especially associated with the Tau. A better effect, fluffwise, would have been to remove a Tau unit back to your hand, then to drop in a unit from your hand in place, with some game balance mechanic to make this work. The current effect is more elegantly versatile from a game design point of view, but less fluffy.


Fireblade Kais’Vre (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

The name echoes several other characters with the Kais name in the Tau lore, including Shas’o T’au Kais (from the Fire Warrior and Dawn of War games), Shas’la Tau Kais (from the Fire Warrior novel, probably that same character at a different rank) and Shas’o Viorla Kais (a source of quotes and a short fiction character from the first Tau codex and other sources), and even Commander Farsight has Kais amongst his names. Kais, however, is a “gained name” in Tau language awarded with deeds rather than at birth, and meaning “skilled”, awarded to a heroic or talented Tau.

Thus, this guy is probably someone different to the Kais characters named above: likely his full name would be Shas’el T’au Kais’Vre going by his sept markings, rank and uniform colour. Some might say Kas’vre could be a linguisitic variation of the rank Shas’vre, so making it possible for him to be the Dawn of War character at a different rank, but the path of becoming a Shas’nel (fireblade) specifically caps a Tau’s career as Shas’el rank, making it impossible for him to be anything above Shas’el, and unable to become a Shas’o. Conclusion: Almost certainly a new character.

Yes, this is as confusing as it sounds: someone ought to tell Games Workshop and FFG that in fiction, the One Steve Limit exists for good reasons! (Look it up on TV tropes if you’re not aware of the concept).

The "tldr" version is this: he’s almost definitely an original character.

As such it is harder to criticise his fluffiness, so I can just say I'm happy with his artwork and his traits. I’ll also give kudos for the deckbuilding effect this guy has, encouraging more shield icons and thus tilting a deckbuild towards having fewer units and more shields, which is a very Tau-style of battleforce.

A possible miniscule fluff objection is that the knife he is holdign appears to be drawn, and the Talissera Bonding Knife is generally kept sheathed, even in battle, as it is a mark of kinship and the Greater Good, not a weapon. I'm not 100% if it just has a grey sheath from looking at the art though, and it might be this isn't a bonding knife at all. That in mind, no mark down for this.
Those who have been following my commentary may be surprised I’m not calling out this on being a one-man Army. To be clear, I have no objections to named unique special characters (especially with a Hero trait that seems to have been created just for him) being the equivalent of a whole army. That’s a well established feature of the Warhammer 40,000 setting!


Gun Drones (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

The art is correct, and the traits and effects make sense, as they could either be independently deployed or used to boost firepower. The command icon lets this down, as deploying these with no backup isn’t going to garrison or control any world, in fluff terms. While it is established in fluff that any group of 4 or more drones has sufficient processing power to form a self aware AI network, their autonomy extends only as far as battlefield analysis and target selection.

They may be too pricey and powerful as well, but pluralisation gives an escape clause here: we don’t know how many gun drones the card represents. Loyal is out of place here too: these are everyday pieces of equipment, and far less precious to the Tau than the average Fire Warrior, and no drone is going to object to working for whoever holds its control box. They can no more be loyal than an automobile can be loyal!


Recon Drone (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

I can’t decide whether I love or hate the fluff of this.
On the one hand, it makes perfect sense that you send these guys out alone to a distant planet to gather intelligence, and that you consider them disposable. It is also great that there’s an emergent play incentive to play these guys early, ahead of your more decisive battle troops.

On the other hand, 2 command icons just for a drone? That is, more ability to control a planet’s supplies than a whole deployment of marines or guardsmen?

As its not 100% clear in fluff terms what the command struggle is defined as, we have to allow this level of abstraction I think, so I’d run with 4/5 on this basis.

However, the “Ally” trait seems to have been placed thoughtlessly here: this is a drone, a slaved AI that is obliged by programming to obey. Again, FFG has made the ally trait mean “a small unit”, and that makes no sense to me. This, combined with the dubious description of a single Drone as an Army, drops a point.


Repulsor Impact Field (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

As a Tau prototype, this is a piece of wargear that justifies its inclusion as a separate card. However, it also ought to be unique as there’s only one of these in existence! Also it’s a battlesuit system upgrade, so should really be limited to battlesuits in some way (and on that point, a Battlesuit trait would have been a good addition to many Tau units).

However, the ability is appropriate, and so is Loyal as the Tau aren’t going to give a one off prototype to an ally, so we’ll give it a midrange score.



NON-LOYAL CARDS



Ambush Platform (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 1/5

My fluff or rules knowledge may be failing, but I can’t link this to any piece of equipment the Tau use in the game background. From the looks of it, nor could the artist, hence the depiction of some Kroot (a feral ally race that were one of the first to join the Tau) hanging around in the trees. It is definitely not clear either why an ambush platform discounts equipment or deploys it more quickly.

Offering a recovery from this massive unfluffiness is the emergent play and deckbuilding effect of this card, both of which help the Tau feel of playstyle. This is just enough to stop this being a 0/5 card.






Calculated Strike (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5
This card manifests an aspect of Mont’ka: a sudden attack to remove key enemy assets.

The art here shows some ships of Tau design, but they’re not known to me: I’d have liked to see Sun Shark bombers instead. However, if anyone more Tau-cognizant can correct me and identify their silhouette, I’ll gladly mark this one up to 5/5 for the joy of the obscure fluff reference!


Carnivore Pack (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Artwork is good, and with the nice touch of the Shaper (squad leader) carrying a Tau rather than Kroot rifle, which is a squad upgrade in the tabletop game and mentioned as being something that is often gifted to squad leaders to help their loyalty to the cause. The forested background is also appropriate, as the Kroot are renowned for their woodcraft.

I see the resource-return as an attempt to show that the carnivores are well known for being self sufficient behind enemy lines, and perhaps to show the “recycling” of flesh. Its not perfect as a depiction, but in the absence of any unit maintenance mechanic its about as close as we can achieve in the game system. Zero command, and an in-play feeling of disposability is good too.

In emergent play, the nice synergy with Deception is clever and thematic.

This card would have been an excellent place to put an Ally trait, as the Kroot are about as disloyal as Tau-followers go, almost certainly in the Empire for the opportunity to eat new and exciting species, rather than because of the Greater Good.

All in all, not a perfect representation but adequate.


Earth Caste Technician (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Instant kudos is granted for including non-combat and non-Fire Caste personnel, which is always good to see as it makes Conquest a game about war and logistics, rather than just individual battles. It has a nice support reaction too, simulating the arms and armaments support that you’d expect, and encouraging deck builds that simulate the Tau style of equipment-dependence.

The one man army thing is an issue again for me, as is an attack value being assigned to a non-combatant. Should we really have a sole technician having the firepower and resilience of a deployment of Biel Tan Guardians? Then there’s that damn Ally trait again, entirely inappropriate for a loyal Earth-Caste Tau.

Even the Odds (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 1/5

Praise is due for the fact that this event encourages an equipment-reliant force.

After that, fluff wise this is an Epic-scale Fail.

First, and least significantly, the Tau don’t look for even odds, and they prefer not to battle at all till the odds are massively stacked in their favour. “Stacking the Odds” would have been better.

Second, they don’t especially have a tactic of field reassignment of wargear, and they definitely don’t have any means to interfere with the assignment of equipment of their foes.

Third, the art: that’s just a kroot attacking a guardsman, and has nothing to do with the concept. Is he snatching the guardsman’s lasgun with the intent of delivering it to another guardsman? Is he giving his kroot rifle to the guardsman and bullying him into delivering it to his Tau buddies?
The flavour text references Kauyon, which is great, and the card’s effect loosely allows Kauyon strategies, though not in the normal sense. Rather it’s the lure turning out to have an Ion Rifle or Repulsor Field FedExed to him by his buddies.
This is a 1/5 card, saved from 0/5 because of its meta-effects on deckbuilding and playstyle.


Experimental Devilfish (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

Any card with “experimental” in the name is instantly fluffy for the Tau, and the flavour text reinforces why this is the case. The art is more or less of a standard Devilfish, though with the eye of faith I can convince myself it has unusually shaped engines with a more vertical take off vibe to them, which ties in nicely with the game mechanic.

Transport is a nice trait to see, though it seems inconsistently applied to other cards in the game, it at least hints at the possibility there might be a Fish of Fury strategy (look it up if you want) possible some time in the future. Flight or Mobile would have made sense as well, depending on how you define those traits.
What I love about this card most is the emergent play effect of it, and that it epitomises the Tau style of Mont’ka. As part of the main attacking force the unit comes in from HQ hitting hard and immediately, with no delay between redeploying and attacking. It is attack-heavy, so relies on that first strike, and as it is following the Warlord and given the nature of Shadowsun’s ability, it demands a combined arms force (as you need another unit along to accept the free attachment).
All in all, a great Tau card in fluff terms.


Fire Warrior Elite (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 1/5

At last, Fire Warriors! In fluff, they are the mainstay of the Tau battleline, with stupendous firepower that shreds opposing infantry (in fact, they have the best small arms of any line infantry in the setting), but notoriously weak when close combat occurs, and despite their halfway decent armour generally way less resilient on the front line than a full platoon of guardsmen or a tactical squad of Space Marines.

Something has gone wrong in translating this into a card.

For the art, we have T’au sept Fire Warriors with the right equipment and armour. If these are elites though, where are their Ta’lissera Bonding Knives? They should be either worn by the warriors, or clearly visible as painted decorations.

Also, if they’re elites, where is their Elite trait? I realise that in game terms, FFG have defined Elite as any unit above a certain cost, but there’s an instant and obvious fluff disconnect of naming a card Fire Warrior Elite but saying “but not really” with the lack of trait.

As a smaller complaint, perhaps they should have the rank Shas’ui rather than Shas’la, though we could claim they’re an unpromoted elite: if only they lived up to that moniker in some other way.

The worse thing here though is what they are in emergent play: meatshields.

If they’re fire warriors, why are they able to be meatshields at all? Shield drones might fluffily have this ability, but Fire Warriors definitely not. How does having a meatshield unit feel Tau in any way at all?

These are depicted as attrition warfare specialists, mook bodyguards, and guys with peashooter guns, which is the exact opposite of what Fire Warriors are supposed to be.

We can recover a little, if we evoke that they are sacrificing themselves for The Greater Good, and encouraging a combined arms approach. All in all though, its only just enough to avoid 0/5.


Fire Warrior Strike Team (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

Barely better, we’re still looking at generic Fire Warrior art with no indication of why they’re a strike team. A Devilfish transport in the background or some Pulse Carbines in place of Pulse Rifles wouldn’t have gone amiss and might have suggested a “strike” role better. As it is, they’ve just gone with Generic Fire Warrior picture #14.

A lack of Elite trait is not a problem here, but otherwise many of the same flaws as previously presented for the Fire Warrior Elite. The stats are wrong, though the attachment synergy is nice.


Frontline Launch Bay (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Very little to say about this: the effect more or less makes sense, but it’s a generic effect with appropriate art.


Ion Rifle (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 2/5

This is an experimental weapon rather than a standard armament, so it passes muster as an attachment. One rifle shouldn’t quadruple the firepower of a Fire Warrior team though (or pentuple for the strike team). It is also a light infantry weapon, so is less potent than the armaments already found on battlesuits. More fluffy would have been to limit it to infantry and drones, and for it to enhanced ranged capabilities more modestly.

It is also pretty odd when played in many combinations, creating close combat units that are way more powerful than expected, or heavy battlesuits that would normally carry much heavier guns having their firepower significantly boosted with a rifle strapped to the side. Its also dead odd that we often see it played on allied ranged units.

In emergent play, it finds some footing, creating an overall Tau experience that feels right: equipment dependence, offensive firepower, and so on. This gives it some leeway, and gets us back to a begrudging 2/5.


Stingwing Swarm (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 0/5
A flying squad of allies of the Tau who are equipped with short ranged weapons that are the bane of armour.
Right then, lets just give them Ranged as a keyword.

Sorry, what?


Vash’ya Trailblazer (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 4/5

A last minute recovery of fluffiness, giving us a unit that name-drops a Tau Sept that is dominated by the Air Caste, with art depicting a Barracuda air superiority fighter and appropriately placing the Pilot trait. That’s all great.
Vash’ya Sept’s colours aren’t known to us, so I can’t complain about red and gold, so long as they stay consistent with this in future. The sept symbol would have been good to see though.

2/1/1 is suitable stats for a lone flyer. Mobile makes sense (with my usual complaint that planets ought not to be named planets), and the concept of air superiority is well represented in that these guys shift their command struggle icons around to where you need them most. In play, we’re looking at a hearty Pythonesque cry of “Run Awaaaay”, and that’s not a bad thing for a Tau unit designated as a scout.

Other complaints are the obvious ones: no Flyer keyword, which while may have been redundant in game mechanic terms on a 1HP unit would have made sense in fluff for a guy in a fighter plane. That, along with anti-Flyer abilties would have suited me best to match the artwork. And as a final minor complaint, if the Fire Caste guys get ranks as traits, so should this card: Kor’vre would be appropriate.

Generally though I’m impressed enough with this card’s fluffiness to give it a high score. If this were a standard 40k unit, it'd be a 3/5 card, but having the air caste have an in game role is interesting enough to just about scrape a 4/5 score.


Vior’la Marksman (Core Set) +
Overall Fluffiness Rating: 3/5

Vior’la Sept colours are spot on, the traits make sense, as does the rank. Usual complaint: one guy should not be categorised as an “army”, nor should he be tougher than cards that represent pluralised squads of equally tough and armoured soldiers.

However, the art of a rail rifle suits the card name, and this is a good use of Ranged keyword. Also, well suited to a combined arms approach and fitting the Tau style of war. A high 3/5.


CONCLUSION

All in all, FFG is providing a generally acceptable fluff experience, and I’m starting to sound a bit like a broken record as the complaints I do make are the same ones repeated, and ones which I entirely recognise the design reasons for letting happen. If only planets were named objectives / warzones and if FFG could be consistent about matching scale to stats and the “Army” trait, a lot of cards would be scoring a lot better.

There's a big deficit here in the LCG as a whole, in that it doesn't properly recognise the importance of melee combat in the setting. When you've got a background described where around half the fighting forces around are close combat specialists, and about half the weapons are for melee, its a serious omission to leave this out. With the Tau especially this becomes very obvious, as the Tau's main weakness is vulnerability in close combat.
The Chime of Eons peals on as we march through the factions and delve into the fluff of the setting. As always, please feel free to disagree with anything and everything I’ve said, as its still my habit to be confidently wrong, and love to be shown just how wrong I am… For the Greater Good!

Next time, we head to Games Workshops’ own most favoured faction: the Angels of Death, the Adeptus Astartes, the Emperor’s Finest… The Space Marines!