Tau unit ideas

[fok12]

So, I don't know if anyone is still interested, but here are some suggestions about the Tau.

Tier 1
Fire Warriors(starting unit), 5 models. Basic ranged unit with high dps but very low melee skill.
Abilities: -
Upgrades: Shas'Ui leader: Adds a FW Shas'Ui to the team and unlocks the Photon Grenade ability (does what the name sais)
Shield Drone: Adds a Drone to the team (no DPS, ranged or melee) and the Protect ability, which reduces ranged damage taken by the unit. The shield breaks upon retreat.

Pathfinders 3 models. Basic scouting unit that works with other Tau units.
Abilities: Pinpoint: Marks a target enemy unit with a markerlight, increasing the ranged damage it takes from all other Tau units.
Upgrades: Rail Rifle: Replaces the weapon of a Pathfinder with a Railrifle (sniper weapon).
High Intensity Markerlight: May not take this if it has taken the Railrifle. Upgrades the Pinpoint ability to Scour, further increasing damage taken by the market unit and it may also not gain any benefits of cover (works on garrisons).

Kroot Pack 8 models. Counter0melle squad with high melee skill but not charge or special attacks.
Abilities: -
Upgrades: Kroot Shaper: Adds a leader to the unit who has a Pulse Rifle.
Kroot Hounds: Adds 2 Kroot Hounds to the unit how have power melee and attack as fast as a Hormagaunt.

Gun Drones 4 models. The suppression team of the Tau.
Abilities: Supporting Fire: Targets an enemy squad and suppresses it for duration (similar to Aimin, what's dat)
Upgrades: Missile Packs: Updrages all the Drones to carry missile pods effective against vehicles. They lose the Supporting Fire.

Tier 2
Ethereal 1 model. Sub-commander. Has no ranged damage and little melle effectivness but buffs allies Tau units. Also passively inspires nerby units cusing them to take reduced damage.
Abilities:(taken from the Invocation of the Elements from the codex)These abilities may not be uses all at once. When the duration of one ends you may use another.Storm of Fire:Decreases the weapon cooldowns of all surrounding Fire warriors and Pathfinders, thus increasing their dps.
Zephyr's Grace: Increases the speed of surrounding non-vehicle Tau units.
Upgrades: Equilisers: Grants a power melee and unlocks the Calm the Tides ability, which allows all surrounding Tau units to break suppression and be immune to it for the duration.
Honor Blade: Grants power melee and the Sence of Stone ability, which decreases damage taken by all surrounding Tau units.

Devilfish Transport Vehicle. The transport vehicle of the Tau.
Abilities: -
Updrages: Smart Missile System: Replaces the side Gun Drones with smart missiles, effective agains vehicles.

Broadside Battlesuit 1 model. May be kitted to fit different roles. Starts as anti-vehicle.
Abilities: Entrench: The unit is immobilie but can fire its Heavy Rail Rifle instead of its Smart missile system.
Updrades: Plasma Rifles: Replaces the smart missiles with Plasma rifles, doing what every Plasma Gun does.
High-Yield Missile Pods: Replaces the Heavy rail rifle with HYMP, effective agains groups of enemies (like autocannons but in form of missiles)

Stealth Team 3 models. Start as anti-infantry and may be upgraded to anti-tank.
Abilities: Inflitrate: What the name suggests.
Upgrages: Fusion Blasters: Replaces the Burst Cannons with fusion blasters, effective agains vehicles (like meltaguns).
Marker Drone: Adds a Drone to the unit and unlocks the Target Acquired ability, which marks a target and sunergises with the Skyray Gunship found in T3.
Shas'Ui Leader: Adds a squad leader armed with the same weapon as the other Stealth suits and unlocks the EMP grenade ability, which throws a grenade damaging and stunning any vehicle hit.

Tier 3
Hammerhead Gunship: Vehicle. Can serve as both anti-tank and anti-infantry.
Abilities: Solid Shot/Submunition Rounds: The first if a single target anti-tank shot while the second is an AOE shot, pretty much like the Fire Prism's two firing modes.

Skyray Gunship: Artillery Vehicle. Long-rnge supporing fire.
Abilities: Seeker Missile Barrage: Manualy target 3 missiles in a location where you have vision. The first missile must be targeted at an enemy unit that is marked with a markerlight, either through the Pathfinders or the Stealth team and it will always hit its target without fail,unless it is a vehicle, which can simply move out of the way. The other 2 missiles may be targeted in an area around the first missile. The missiles deal AOE damage and if the targeted unit retreats in time, it can dodge the missile (it still lands where it was targeted, not on the unit though).

Greater Knarlock: Monster, vehicle armour. The Tau super unit, a close combat beast.
Abilities: Feeding Frenzy: For a duration, the Knarlock becomes uncontrollable and attacks nearby units (friendly or enemy) and deals increased damage.
Rampage: The Knarlock charges forward, knocking back and damaging models it passes over.

What do you guys think?

[ThongSong]

not sure if I like the idea of pin point, if it would have comparable damage to that of the tech marine's debuff or that of doom. seems a little too powerful on a scout squad that can also get a sniper rifle.

also the t3 artillery that ALWAYS hits with its first missile. not so sure about that one either. sounds like a super hunter killer missile

kroot with out a melee charge might detract from the lore but oh well balance.

[Orkfaeller]

I dont see why Kroot shouldnt have a Charge.

In fact I even would suggest giving them the ability to leap over cover.

My knowledge about TAU rules might be a bit outdated, but I'm pretty sure they got a bonus to both strengh and initiative when being the attacker.

Also doesnt their background state that they got super muscles that allows them to leap great distances very sudden?

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Since we have staying corpses in Elite I wonder if a carnivore ability could be given to Kroot? You know, similar like in Dark Crusade where they could eat dead bodies for a health buff?

[Indrid]

Kroot aren't good at melee anymore (not that they were ever great at it). They are more stealthy long range shooters in the new edition, with Hounds for CC support.

Not all models leave corpses in Elite, so the feeding idea might be hard to make work.

[dance commander]

Do we even have the models for half of that stuff?

[TomastheTankEngine]

Do we even have the models for half of that stuff?

There some models floating around. I think some will have to be made and most fixed up a bit. Once the roster is set I expect there will be a community request which be put out for animators to fix/create models.

[fok12]

I didn't give the Kroots a charge simply because I thought them out to be very fragile, so sending them in wouldn't be the best idea, as they would die instantly. They are more of a counter charge unit, hence the high melee skill but lack of special attacks.

not sure if I like the idea of pin point, if it would have comparable damage to that of the tech marine's debuff or that of doom. seems a little too powerful on a scout squad that can also get a sniper rifle.

Then how about if you take the Rail Rifle you lose the Pinpoint?

also the t3 artillery that ALWAYS hits with its first missile. not so sure about that one either. sounds like a super hunter killer missile

Edited, what do you think now?

[Darkbulborb]

I'd make the Submunition shot from the hammerhead more like a ZZzzap shot from the Battlewagon. Since the railgun is his main weapon and submunition not it's primary damage do-er. It could be like the Eldar fire prism but musn't have too much damage

[Shas'el Doran'ro]

How about you have marker light ability for some Tau units and then instead of having a physical unit - the skyray (like the manticore) you have a global ability that fires seeker missiles at marked enemy squads?

I really don't like the idea of losing the shield drone for your Fire Warrior squad when they retreat, seems very inefficient and un-tau-like.

Why only 3 models for most of the squads? Should be 4 models, 3 model squads by default is reserved for heavy infantry squads or some weapons teams, Tau infantry aren't really that heavy except for the Battlesuits

Did I miss something there? Where's the XV8 Crisis Battlesuit team? jumping ranged squad with plasma rifles? That's a 3 model team.

I actually made a concept of that squad.
XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Team (tech 2) 500/70: 3 Models of Tau XV8 Crisis Battlesuits (default battlesuit model from TLS).
Default weapons: 3 plasma rifles (one of each model) (plasma gun type weapon) effective against infantry and heavy infantry.

Abilities: Jumpjet (35 energy cost, 10 seconds recharge time)(same effect as Assault Marine squad)

Upgrades: Flamer 80/20: Adds 1 flamer to the Crisis team (removes any other weapon upgrade, like Tactical squad weapon upgrades), effective against infantry in cover and buildings.

Burst cannon 90/30: Adds 1 burst cannon to the Crisis Team (removes any other weapon upgrade), effective against infantry grants ability "Over-drive" increases rate of fire and suppresses infantry for time of duration (no energy cost, 60 seconds recharge time, lasts 10 seconds).

Fusion cannon and Missile pod 120/40: Adds 1 Fusion gun to the Crisis team (the fusion gun have a 10% chance to snare enemy vehicles) and 1 missile pod(the missile pod is inactive, usable with ability) (removes any other weapon upgrade), grants ability "Anti Armor missiles"(also adds the missile pod model to each Crisis Battlesuit in the team) (55 energy cost) Target enemy vehicle to fire a missile barrage (like in TLS) (damage stats should be determent via in-game play tests) (suggested damage stats 2x the damage of 1 Tactical Missile Launcher missile)

"Ta'ro'cha" (Three minds one purpose) 150/35 (tech 3): Increases the Crisis team's health and increases plasma rifles armor piercing, grants the "Three minds one Purpose" ability (charged by taking damage). While active the Squad takes less damage, does more damage and in the chance one of the team members falls the remaining team members will fight harder improving the bonuses granted by the ability (active 20 seconds).

This is just a concept, should of course be corrected to be balanced.


I still believe it is crucial that you use the TLS assets to get this Faction started, you should get official permission from Relic/SAGA to do this, If it would help promote the game I'm sure you can be granted permission.

[Orkfaeller]

I really dont see why Tau should have squads this small ( 3 / 4 models ).

Dont really see the point why they should deploy less models than eldar for example.

As adnvanced Tau may be, they still deploy their soldiers in quantity.

[GrimReaper]

Well i think that people is taking ideas from dow 1 where tau had 3 to 5 model squads But in the board game the fire warriors, for example, reach 12 models (including 2 drones and a shas´ui) which i think is a bit too many for the game perhaps 5 to 7 model squads would be more balanced

[fok12]

But then the Tau have the highest damage weapons in the game (30" str 5). They can even seriously hurt monstrous creatures. If the Tau are to get 5-7 models, then each model's DPS would have to be low so that it would not end in an OP ranged team that just goes trolololol and kills Heretics in 3 secs. If they get less models, each model gets higher DPS, thus hurting you more to lose them and making them less efective in combat, as all models do some DPS in melee. Pit 3 SMs vs 12 guardsmen and you'll see that guardsmen can win that just through the sheer number of attacks.

[Shas'el Doran'ro]

I think 5 models (by default) for Fire Warriors (without model upgrades) and 4 for the rest excluding heavier battlesuit teams is a fair balance for the current game build.
Maybe like 6 models for kroot units. 4 for Pathfinders, XV15 (3 models if XV25) and drone squadrons.
Assuming that these squads is going to be packing a lot of ranged firepower it would seem unbalanced for them to have larger amount of models in their squads.

I don't think it's necessary to point out that every model with the XV8 chassis should be the exact same size, this really bugged me out in the Destroyer mod. (How the Commander was way smaller than the "XV8")

[sk4zi]

i think Tau Fire Warriors should have a slightly higher Range than Normal squads but no fire on the move like it is in DOW1.
the damage should be similar to what tactical marines do maybe with an upgrade which makes them doing Kranken Bolts´ damage.
their durability should be about as the Eldar Guardians´
four models in vanilla is enough. Space marines are also 8 models in TT...

[Kilgarn]

Tau is famed for its ranged superiority, so balacing this in the game wont be easy. Tau Fire warriors in DoW 1 had 4x base units. Was able to upgrade it to 8x (with 2x Shas'ui or shield drone). In comparison, Space Marines also could get from 4x units to 8x. So its a safe assumption to get them on the same amount.

BUT!

Note that tau uses plasma weaponry! Which is inherently stronger then bolter rounds So a 3x base, up to 5x units would be solid in my opinion. If we take the same mechanic they had in DoW 1, then they cant fire on the move, but get longer range and dmg boost compared to say a Tactical marine squad

The Stealth suits should work as the Kommando nobs, as far as the cloak goes. They have EMP 'nades, that can hard stun a vehicle + the upgrade from pulse to fusion makes them an effective tank-hunter.

The XV8x suits should be single model as the sentinel. Balancing the Broadside will be hard ^^; Crysis got the most versatyle builds :3 Oh there is a new Broadside model out :3 might be easier to animate since it has its gauss in one "hand" instead of shoulder :3

Pathfinders could get same model count as Scout marines. I can already see people swearing a lot with their Mark Target x)

Kroot erm... tricky. Kroot work like Gaunts boys a lot, just a bit stronger. Could see them with a jump-like ability that Banshees have + combine it what the termagaunts have (that leap-after-the-guy when in melee synapse) and you got a fine troop :3

Vespid... well they are like the Raptor/Assault marine in Tau They work quite similar ^^ They dont have anti tank nades tho x) but their claws are amazing *-*

Kroot hound... eeeh... beefed up versions of Kroots. And by a lot They can rip a 2nd ars to anything infantry xD

Vehicles are quite straightforward... quite similar as how Eldar grav tanks work ^^ You could actually use their animations as a base on a lot of cases Like Hammerhead ---> Fireprism similarity :3

As for heros:
1. Commander Shas'O ---> similarly in a Shadowsun armor =) It can get a lot of gadgets, the 2x DoW expansions both use a bit different approach on how they kit it out ^^
2. Kroot Shaper ---> Actually I think its the best to use them as a Kommando Nob ^^ similar in most sense :3 just no rokkit lancha' and bombs
3. Etherial ---> Etherials are leaders... actually the de-facto leaders of the Tau, so I cant see this unit as a sub-commander, since if an Etherial dies, it has DRAMATIC consequences on the tau ^^; (I think the latest codex makes them go into berserk?)

Sub-commanders:
Duh... oO Kroot shaper can be a sub commander if you get only one hero unit.
Other then that... I cant really name a unique unit in the Tau arsenal that could fit this role. Tau has the most iffy unit setup in this regard... quite a few unique solo unit.
Named heros, they only got 3-4 if I recall it ? Shadowsun, 2x etherial(Aun'Va + Aun'Shi), Farsight... and that new Fire Warrior guy... Darkstrider or something xD

Hmmm could use the sniper drones tho... just a thought

My 2 cents ^^

[Black Relic]

I remember talking to one of my friends about how Tau would work in Dow2, and how I would make the race be. I couldnt give him an essay but the following is what i told him.

Fire Warriors would have plasma dps of 17-18 per model (5 in a squad). Would have a small set-up and small tear-down time (was thinking .75 seconds to 1 second for wind up and .5 to .75 seconds on wind down) Their weapons would have a 90% accuracy to units in the open. Weapon range: 41

Their melee damage would be the same as the Guardsmen Sergeant. 4 sword dps

Melee skill: 50

Movement speed: 4.85 or 5 (a little faster than termies, unless 5, that is Space Marines movement speed)

Health per model: 120-130

keen sight: 5 (same as plain scouts)

Sight Radius: of 35 (lowest sight radius in the game)

Upgrade: t2 (idr the name of their leaders in TT my bad) Squad leader. Grants a Photon Grenade. I have no ideas on stat for the leader.

No default abilities.

Pathfinders: A simple scouting unit like Scouts. (300\0\0)

Models would be 4 in a single squad.

range: 13-14 piercing dps. Weapon range : 38
melee: 1-2 sword dps

melee skill: 50

movement speed: 5.5

Capture Rate: 1.25-1.3

Health per model: 120-130

keen sight: 45 (Better then ranger)

sight: 60 (same as rangers)

Upgrade: I have nothing on this one....

Ability: Marked (or pinpoint caz i like dat name): Increased accuracy in the target by 15%. Grants allied ranged units attacking that squad have increased range (maybe 5). Prevents "full" infiltration. Duration: 5-7 seconds. Cooldown 25-30 seconds. CAN ONLY TARGET INFANTRY.

I am posting this here to see if these two ideas sounded fair\interesting.

[fok12]

Seems pretty good, but I have believe that Pladma dps in tier 1 would be too op vs sentinels and other heavy infantry. Also, based on the fluff/codex they must do almost nill melee dps, since they totaly suck in CC. Even a Guardsman is better in combat that a Fire Warrior. (for those who play tabletop)

[Caeltos]

Uhr, 17-18 plasma dps is a horrible horrible idea. That kind of dps would go up to a total of around 100-110 dps in total vs HI/SHI (due to 30% increase dps) , they would be the most lethal damaging squad in the game, and in T1.

[Nurland]

Isn't plasma a 50% increase against HI/SHI? Well anyway high plasma dps in T1 would be horribly overpowered against anything that has HI/SHI armor.

For comparison what is Dark Raper dps?

Also Pathfinders. For 300 req you would get 48-52 dps piercing damage (dire avengers do ~44 iirc). So high dps, an effective ability, faster capping speed and good mobility and detection for no power. Sounds way too strong to me.

[Caeltos]

I think Dark Reapers are somewhere between 12-14ish dps. 4 models + 1(Exarch)

[Lulgrim]

Fire Warriors would have plasma dps of 17-18 per model (5 in a squad).

18 plasma dps per model would be 90 per five-man squad, doing 135 dps against heavy infantry. That's almost the firepower of 5 unupgraded Tac Squads. On their basic ranged unit, which also outranges other ranged infantry. Your suggestion is completely insane. I suggest taking the time to learn a bit about the metagame before writing long theorycrafting messages, or they will only result in lots of WTFs from other players.

[Forestradio]

dark reaper dps is 15.1, but the Aspect of Reaper gives it a 10 percent increase, so it turns out around 16 per model. Not taking into account their "pinning fire" ability or whatever it's called.

Fire warriors starting with plasma DPS would be OP, even though it is true to the lore.

Make it a T2 optional upgrade like "Overcharged Pulse Rifles" or something like that.

[Nuclear Arbitor]

or you could stick fire warriors in t2 and find other stuff to fill the gaps. rather odd, yes, but it might be the best solution.

[Black Relic]

Dps does should broken now that i look back (hated tau SOO much in dow1). But fire warriors should do a lot of ranged dps. Maybe 8-9 plasma instead?

Based on my idea for them they would have to have a pathfinder or another allied players units to provide them sight. They would have a small wind up and tear down time. Making kiting more difficult and being ideal targets of jump troops just as suppression teams (set-up team in general).

Yes they would have fire power, but their mobility is what would take a hit for having such fire power. Like termies for being soo bad ass. Low mobility ,after the teleport is used, and sitting ducks if not supported\looked after. Just like this squad would be.

The pathfinder units in dps seemed ok to me but i guess only to me lol. I only JUST realized this (surprised no one said anything). The default keen sight would be 10, instead of 45. An upgrade for them would increase their keen sight to 45. Since default keen sight of 45 is...WAY to much. OR keep it like this. And change the cost for them to 300\35\0.

Other than the fact that dps seemed too much, I hope the ideas be hide the units were worthy of some acknowledgement. Even if it all was off the top of my head at the time.

[Caeltos]

I'm not very sold on the concept of Power weapons at all available at your disposal in T1. They tried the concept with Raveners back in TiOW Beta, it didn't last very long.

Now, I know the game is vastly different - but the general design is just somewhat broken in the terms of how the gameplay actually pans out. Power weapons can really spike the performance all across the board, it might be borderline useless against regular infantry oriented factions matchups, and it might just downright bonkers down the more heavy infantry oriented matchuos. It's really difficult to balance it propertly.

Now, I've already got the tidbits and design of Tau already somewhat figured out - and it's sort of already mentioned here in this thread. Tau are the long range specialist factions, but balancing it to make it fun & enjoyable is of course a neccasity.

Pathfinders, will have the superior speed / vision range that makes them a perfect synergy unit alongside with Fire Warriors. Fire Warriors possess great weapon range, but in order to fully utilize it - they need the support.

Their support on the other hand, should not provide to much of damage spike in conjunction with this. Much like how scouts/tacs harmony functions. The only difference here in this, is that Tacticals would be the superior sustained fighters (due to their natural high health pool) whereas Fire Warriors functions more of a glass-cannon.

Fire Warriors being sent off into the unkown, should not however translate into a death trap. They should be however, extremely vulnerable to melee confrontations, but their should be a small glimpse of reaction time available to them. This makes them also, quite a micro dependant faction if you really want to utilize even Fire Warriors as a capping squad when the time requires it.

So the sight radius, should be more on the lines of somewhere around 25ish. It allows melee to be able to efficiently close the distance and inflict damage, but at the same time - give Fire Warriors either a moment to open fire to inflict some damage - or get the hell out of there.

Now to make their early-game really distinguishable different, and avoid having a "All-out super long range army", I'm inclined to give them the Drones in T1, semi-functional supressive squads.

Whilst not packing neccasarily long range as standard-TAU units, they're a rapid fire close-quarter unit, that is unable to be supressed. But due to their fragileness, you're more optimized to keep them around with your Fire Warriors, and having a slightly better sight radius, (like let's say 35), gives your Fire Warriors more range to utilize to maximize their full potential.

Or, if one is to be so inclined- they could also go with Carnivores, functioning as their frontline meatshields, that whilst not pack alot of damage- they're a very capable of sustaining a firefight. You're not looking to inflict economical damage with them, you're looking to either stall, or give time for your Fire Warriors to react and assist.

Obviously, it's not a really inclination to streamline the Tau faction early-game, to really only be about Tau Fire Warriors, it should open up strategical play with Pathfinder/Kroots/Drones, and then make a transition for the more "Heavy Hitter" Tau units, like the Battlesuits and alike. But theorycrafting all that is just the beginning, since one has to consider popcaps/timings and general costs to make it all worth debatting.

All of that, is sort of my duty to get done right. And so for, simply based on my game experience and very early-draft, we're looking at quite the distinguishable & fun faction that is capable of both standing on their own, and of course - offering a playstyle that boils down to supportive-play.

[SecureHades]

Dps does should broken now that i look back (hated tau SOO much in dow1). But fire warriors should do a lot of ranged dps. Maybe 8-9 plasma instead?

Based on my idea for them they would have to have a pathfinder or another allied players units to provide them sight. They would have a small wind up and tear down time. Making kiting more difficult and being ideal targets of jump troops just as suppression teams (set-up team in general).

Yes they would have fire power, but their mobility is what would take a hit for having such fire power. Like termies for being soo bad ass. Low mobility ,after the teleport is used, and sitting ducks if not supported\looked after. Just like this squad would be.

The pathfinder units in dps seemed ok to me but i guess only to me lol. I only JUST realized this (surprised no one said anything). The default keen sight would be 10, instead of 45. An upgrade for them would increase their keen sight to 45. Since default keen sight of 45 is...WAY to much. OR keep it like this. And change the cost for them to 300\35\0.

Other than the fact that dps seemed too much, I hope the ideas be hide the units were worthy of some acknowledgement. Even if it all was off the top of my head at the time.

I dont understand why people keep wanting to make the firewarriors slow, thats not how Tau work

Tau, lore wise are a fast mobile army, it wouldnt make sense to have them be slow, or have a setup time, while i know we cant always get what we want lore wise (*cough* Space Marines *cough*) gameplay wise it also doesnt make sense cause while say, tacs and termies have good firepower and healthpools, firewarriors are glass cannons. If you make them slow, a person could just run up with any squad and start melee with them, since they have no melee skill whatsoever they lose that fight, and your opponents army will just tear into them at range, and then your entire backbone in t1 is gone

[Ace of Swords]

The Tau are basically Eldar with Mechas, nothing more, nothing less, 5man squad, low hp and high damage.

Even their vehicles are pretty much the same the hammerhead is a FP and well, transports are transports.
They probably would just have walkers with low HP and specialized for ranged combat that would function as ranged fire platforms instead of linebreakers.

[Black Relic]

Well if the sight radius is 25 for fire warriors. Then they wont need a set up of wind down time since that is about 3 to 5 seconds away from melee combat if the unit forcing melee can charge. Any more then say 30 I would think about a very small set-up time. Maybe not wind down, but it all come down to testing out the race in the first place.

_____________________________________________________________________

As we all know Caeltos has some ideas up for Tau as he has already stated and I for one am eager to hear\read what he brings to the table with Tau. However I cant help but be concerned about mid to late game. Not that they will be weak. Quite the opposite. But before I express my concerns I would like to have an idea on how much power would the Tau race expend.

Would they be as power hungry as Space Marines, or like Guardsmen? I ask this because if they require quite a bit of power like Space Marines then my concerns are meaningless.

Please note that i am not saying IG don't spend power in t2. But from my experience from watching replays and playing IG, they usually spend less in t2 than Space Marines , unless there are 2 manticores(though it maybe be just me since I main SM). Even though there is t3. I consider mid-late t2 almost a game decider (until a bad ass nuke, a fuck up, or quick super unit come along) since it seem very important.

I bolded the letter "I" so people don't mistake it as me being fact, since sometimes a gen bash could change the game or any other number of variables that could probably take up 15 pages.

[fok12]

The way I thought the Tau was to have little power expence in T1 and then more in T2 and 3. Also, Plasma DPS in a T1 ranged unit is just plain op. Of course, it is up to Caeltos and the team to balance things, we just suggest how they COULD work.

[Kilgarn]

Hmmm I think for Fire Warriors, they should be T2 units, since the plasma weps would be quite OP in T1 (would melt SM, CSM and so on). Not so much in T2, where the game is more balanced with heavy hitting weapons.

For T1, I think we could use:
1. Pathfinders --- they are technically the mirrors of Scouts ^^ The pulse carbine is not considered as a plasma weapon, so it wont be a problem. They could also use a stealth mechanic like scouts so they wont die if an enemy looks on them XD

Possible upgrades: Shas'ui, Rail Rifle, Shield or Gun drone (they often field-test new ones ^^)

2. Kroot Carnivores --- They are a solid choice I think ^^ They are the soft melee counter for the Tau army. While they dont pack as big of a punch, they works as the termagaunts for the Nids They are fast and could see them use the jumping + leaping, similar to termas under synapse (as it was made in DoW1 too, making them a nice hint-and-run units :3)

Possible upgrades: Kroot Shaper, Tau weaponry, stealth while stationary (similar to catachan devils)

3. Drone Squad --- As Caeltos mentioned, this would be the solid option between Pathfinders and Fire warriors until T2 ^^ Drone squads can burrow in DOW1 which could be used here too as a potential ambush unit and it would make use of their glass cannon like nature (they dont have that good armor...) + be able to set up ambushes ^^ All drones have jump jets

Possible upgrades: Burrow, T2--> Sniper drone ugrade (all drones switch to snpier drone, loses borrow, works as a normal setup team, quite long range, plasma dmg), Marksman tau (if got sniper drone)
*Reason for Sniper Drone upgrade, is that Gun drones would quickly lose their worth in T2-T3, due to their short range and squishy nature + it would be a waste to not use this team :3 :3*

4. Vespid Stingwings --- the morror of the Raptor/Assault Marines technically. They are quite agile, but not as though as they are, but perfect for tieing up units in melee and they can hit vehicles/heavy infantry too ^^

Possible upgrade: Vespid elder leader, AV granade, Tau weaponry ^^

Technically we are looking at a perfect tau scout team setup that would be lore friendly too What they cant handle, the fire warriors and other heavy duty stuff will ^^ I think this would be an interesting line-up for T1 :3