Just how bad are these increases to their fancy? Battle suits hello and welcome back to all specs tactics where weve been looking through. The points changes from the recent chapter approved nephilim today, weve reached the tao empire so were going to take a focused look at the faction. All the units that went up and how much of an impact its going to have on armies going forward since their codex came out in january. The tower had a rather good time of it. They went through a period of dominating the tournament scene alongside custodies for a bit then got a fair few nerfs in the previous balanced data slates one car on the far side, enclaves being hit and broadsides losing core its meant that a fair few tower lists have Pivoted, a bit to making very heavy use of crisis suits a lot of the other support. Elements remain very good, but they just generally seemed one of the most efficient shooting platforms in the codex, really quite good core stats, with great flexibility and theyre. Also, the best unit for layering loads of buffs on particularly now broadsides lost core. Such was the case that, in that poll, that i did, the crisis battle suits were a single most voted unit to receive nerfs. Perhaps the tyranny vote was divided a little bit just because there were so many units that arguably could go down, whereas with quite a few tau armors, taking almost nothing but crisis suits, they were firmly in the crosshairs.
In any case, lets talk through the changes. Well, go through each of the sections of the codex in turn and then a quick overview of the biggest changes and how i think the faction might adapt from here. So, first up, i thought wed talk about the two drone changes, the gun, drones and the shield drones, just because theyre kind of relevant to several of the data sheets here gun drones were eight points for those four pulse: carbine shots and the nice ablative wounds. Theyre. Now, 10 and shield drones were 12 and have gone up to 15. id say maybe both of these have the biggest impact on things like crisis suits and broadsides. They were very commonly taken just as ablative wounds, where you could absorb higher damage shots on these level. Critters or potentially even employ savior protocols on other units. The gun drones are easy to kill, but still will eat a very high value shot and they do chip in with their post carbine fire. It could actually be a fairly decent scary threat in themselves in big units backed up by a drone controller and other buffs shield. Runes, on the other hand, are basically nothing but ablative wounds. 12 points for two wounds and a four plus involve is a really annoying profile to shift points for wounds theyre far cheaper than crysis suits. So a really nice choice to tank damage for them, theyve both taken a big 25 nerf.
Arguably, with the shield, drones and gun drones therell be similar sort of effectiveness to screening the crisis suits as they were before, but only because the crisis suits themselves have got a lot more points intensive and less efficient. I guess this perhaps slightly improves market drones by comparison with gun drones going up a bit. Maybe that extra drone is a bit more tempting to make a marker drone to have another source of improving ballistic skill. I guess maybe it depends on whether or not you want to be advancing the unit around the place. Overall, i still think theyre usable, probably gun drones as direct damage. Dealers and big squads are a bit less functional. I think theyre still okay for the crisis suit units, but obviously the entire proposition is a bit less good, compared with other non prices options. Next up lets talk about the battle suit changes as theyre, probably the most important ones. The really big change comes to crisis suits whose biggest hit is just to the core data sheet. Theyve gone up, not just five points, but 10 points per model, all the way up to 40 base. Before any guns, i think maybe a fair few people were expecting them just to go up five, but going up 10 really makes the nerf very substantial. Indeed, on top of this, the air bursting fragmentation projector now costs a bit more with plus five points on the two lower points costs.
Personally, i dont think that that was really a necessary nerf. Theyve already hit it very hard with the barrage changes and a lot of people were choosing to take other options, rather than that. I know that a lot of people expected, though, was to the plasma rifle that ones basically gone up by five points on each bracket. So 10 points for one 15 points for the second and 20 for the third i felt like the plasma rifle was probably the best weapon of the entire bunch before now. I think its probably at the point where you probably want to use one of them, but i think that 15 points for the second is just a bit too much. It really favors going for mixed lowdown battle suits now. Finally, as well as the drone changes that we already mentioned, the iridium suits now cost 10 points for that two plus armor save rather than five before i thought it was almost an auto, include territory just to have one suit that you can tank ap zero hits On really well now its a lot more of a give and take, i guess if you do wind up being shot by ap, zero or ap minus one fire, it still could have decent value as a first durability. Upgrade though i think id be more tempted by shield generators before this overall for the crisis suits still the other weapons seem pretty good. I think that cyclic ion blasters are now going to be a real go to burst, cannons and fusion blasters are both looking less overshadowed than they were.
Maybe a typical loadout could be something like plasma rifle cyclic, ion, blaster and burst cannon, maybe perhaps with a shield generator for added durability. Overall, though, that loadouts gone up by 15 points now its 70 points pursuit rather than 55 a fairly whopping plus 27 nerf. I feel like thats, basically enough for tower players not to want to spam them as much, maybe having a bit more of a niche role within the army rather than having multiple big units, otherwise their cousins. The crisis bodyguards theyve gone up five as well. They were 35 now theyre 40.. Basically, the choice between them and the regular suits is whether or not you want the slightly nerfed bodyguard ability to protect characters with one model versus having fewer hardpoints. I think, typically, probably the crisis suits. Are the first go tos these guys feel like theyre in second place to me. Finally, for broadside battle suits theyre, now 85 points base plus 10 points on the 75 points before so now, 95 points with plasma rifles and rail rifles or 100 points with rail rifles and smart missiles around an 11 nerf. I feel like the choice to nerf the broadside base. Chassis was a bit of an interesting one. I think i probably would have increased the rail rifle points cost as the high yield missile pod. Just doesnt seem as good its a bit of a double nerf for broadsides after losing the core buff. It went from some of the best direct firepower that tau has to something a lot more run of the mill.
I still argue that overall, their core firepower isnt too bad right now, i quite like the rail rifles plus plasma rifles, build that gives you a decent amount of anti armor for the cost. I feel, but theyre, certainly looking at a lot less standout compared with other platforms like hammerheads or sky rays, say next up. The hq section got hit as well. Ethereals were almost auto includes at the moment and theyve all gone up. 20 points the standard ethereals 80 or she is 105 and on var, is a hundred id say. Buffing hq choices. I still think theyre worth it, giving out a five plus phil. No pain is really quite a nice boost to crisis suits. Presumably, you are still running say, one big unit, and otherwise just sitting around and farming out. Those command points is going to be particularly extra value in nephilim when theyre a bit more limited. I guess if people do just completely abandon crisis suits and go for other things, theyre going to be less use, provided they do have something at least semi good to buff. Then i still think that theyre worth the 100 points, or so all of them, i think, are still usable the standard, one that you have to pay for. The stave relate to make the invocations reliable. The other two have extra fun things but cost a bit more. I feel like in general, altitalis are still going to run them theyre, just going to be playing with 20 points less in lists that they do, as you usually just want one.
Otherwise, theres commander changes as well. Commanders were another auto include unit. The regular ones gone up to 100 points, the cold start to 110 and the enforcer to 120 after youve accounted for war gear. Being added in the nerf is around about something like eight percent up. I still think that the regular and the cold start are probably my favorite two of the three and again they still seem perfectly usable deal a decent amount of damage when theyve got upgrades like relics or prototype systems, id be surprised if lists choose to forego them All together, but it does seem again a small nerf to tower in general. Finally, for the big points changes weve got the biggest single move of the loss, a big plus 70 points on the storm surge, which again was one of the units that a lot of people thought was a bit undercosted for the town. The storm surge really has been hit. Pretty hard people usually tended to take the pulse blast cannon its gone up from 340 to 410 points with that loadout. That equates to a 21 nerf, really quite a sizable one and its just far less tempting as a unit. Now, just in terms of raw firepower, i probably rank it behind hammerheads and broadsides. Now the broad ties didnt go up as much though it certainly still has its advantages. It is fairly mobile and can fall back from combat and still shoot and in particular for bor khan.
They can still use that very scary stratagem to almost guarantee one shotting, something like an imperial knight in that kind of match up its still going to be a big area, denial or psychological warfare option overall im, not too surprised that it went up, but i think It went off a bit more than i would have expected. I dont think i would have put it up quite that much myself overall for the tower going forward. Each one of these nerfs is fairly painful. I think it will change the way that army lists are built. The crisis suit changes, i think, are the worst nerf to the army. They were the powerhouse unit that a lot of people built around and theyve just got flatly less efficient, with the big points increase, plus a couple of nerfs to their guns and durability upgrades. I still feel that, even after that, fairly hefty points bump theyre still worth using, i think that maybe people would be more tempted to use maybe one or two units that are really quite buffed up with things like commanders and ethereals and maybe invest things like command Points to jump, shoot jump them to keep them a bit more safe. I feel like, while you could still spam an entire army of them, its probably going to be optimal to mix them in with other things a bit more. Otherwise, the commanders and ethereal still seem fine, but it will make towel lists in general cost something like 30 points.
Extra broadsides, i still think, are broadly okay. As anti tank more static gun line elements, they can still do a fair amount of damage to armor, say a broadside battle suit, with a marker light token that can do around about seven wounds to a toughness seven vehicle just on average, i dont think thats, particularly Awful for 95 points, particularly when they can get light, cover or zip around quite quickly with monk storm surges, though i think will feel it a bit more. I think theyre just less likely to get picked by tower players in general. Maybe they can still have a bit of a niche role in boar khan in general nerfing. A lot of the good units is going to mean that the other stuff that didnt get touched will get played a bit more breaches in devil. Fish are going to be a bit more of a competitive option. They can move fast and disembark with the stratagem and can pose a pretty hefty threat to most things in the game when theyre buffed up, i do feel like it now could be the time of the hammerhead to finally shine with that scary railgun theyve been pretty Solid firepower since the book came out, but just in general, just werent, quite as good as crisis suits or broadsides. Even with the big ignores involved thing, the damage output is pretty swingy, but the competitors have basically all got nerfed. So id expect to see a fair bit more tower armor, including long strike and sky rays as well, making up gun lines and lists.
Otherwise, there might be a few more points left over for spending on cheap screening, troop mercenaries or hounds, and the other hqs are just going to look a little bit better by comparison. Dark strider, giving you plus one to boom from tower sept, is now looking like a very cheap deal and maybe shadow sun fur. Four re rolls to hit as an overall impression i dont think the tao armies are going to be made completely useless by this. They were performing very solidly already, but i feel like theyre, going to feel a bit more middle of the road as a faction, as opposed to being one of the top dogs of 40k. In any case, let me know what you think down in the comments below. I look forward to hearing any insights that you have and any other implications of the changes that i might have missed. Finally, if you have enjoyed the video feel free to subscribe to all specs tactics, ill, certainly try and keep the regular 40k content coming and try and cover the points changes for a fair few of the other factions. If youve enjoyed the video. I would just like to mention as well the all specs tactics done by patreon page and you can find that down in the video description channel patrons, do get a fair few advantages, seeing certain videos early, regular votes, to see what sort of things come next on The channel and automatic entry into the regular price giveaways with a chance to win some big model kits each month.
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