My thought is there should be a special rule that emphasizes the two "Tactical Philosophies" of the Tau: Patient Hunter and Killing Blow.  

Mainly as a "meta-rule" that allows the player to pick one or the other to be the tactical focus of their army.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Yikes, that makes three of us.  The world may well be coming to an end soon.

I just can't figure out how to implement (other than maybe a modified BTS rule, like two/three most expensive formations all count for BTS for the Tau).

I have always leaned toward the killing blow theory of warfare for the Tau in whichever game I'm playing, so I may be really biased here.

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"For the Lion and the Emperor!"

I had a "Patient Hunter" Special Rule in my Battlesuit Tau Army List that I submitted to the EPIC army competition.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

I've been having a bit of a think about why the tau are proving so problematic to represent properly in Epic scale. I'm not making any suggestions here, just thinking out loud.

In the background Tau are, broadly speaking, awesome at shooting but awful at close combat. This is represented well in 40k, as in that game those two elements are of roughly equal importance.

However, in Epic, close combat is a minor aspect of the game when compared with ranged shooting and firefights, both of which Tau should theoretically excel at. This leads to a problem - if represented accurately Tau will be overpowered, or will need to be so expensive that they have significantly less numbers than their opponents.

Instead, we have gone down a third path, that of artificially reducing their firefight capabilities in order to make them a managable proposition. While this works to an extent, it feels somewhat odd, and is unrepresentative of the background. However, it does serve to give the Tau a unique playing style.

The Tau background was designed for a game that places equal importance on shooting and brawling, and representing that fairly in a game where shooting is more prominent is a difficult challenge.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

It's been two months since this topic was started and ten days since anyone has posted anything in the Tau forums.

Any word on when the next version is going to be released?

I was thinking about asking for Tau for Christmas, so I'd like to know what's going on and whether I should just build an army using my "variant" list.

Thanks.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Yep. When the EpiComp galleries are up, I review the current two threads and open up the next one.

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https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond.
https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.

CS - Have you put much thought into the future of sublists for the Tau?

The reason I ask is that it might make things easier to balance in the current , main list if we had an idea about future sublists.  For example:  Sentry Turrets are causing some trouble, so knowing that they could be relegated to a future Garrison type list rather than Section 6 might make things easier.  PLayers with them would know there would be a list they could be played in, but if they are a stumbling block to getting the Main list dine, they could be out of the way.

Shmitty, see page one of this thread, starting with my post and going from there.  CS has certainly put a lot of thought into it - unfortunately for you and I (and people who may agree with us) he disagrees- at least as of the date of that posting.  

Here is the critical person's take on it:
-My take is that the Tau need variant lists to reduce the number of units in each list
-Assumption: With less units each list will be presumably easier to balance
-Cybershadow feels the main list should be all-inclusive
-Cybershadow feels that variants can be built even though virtually every model type and formation is used in the main list.



So there you are on the variant idea.

I was re-reading Zombo's comments above and one thing that dawned on me is everyone overlooks this aspect:

This leads to a problem - if represented accurately Tau will be overpowered, or will need to be so expensive that they have significantly less numbers than their opponents.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Thanks Mosco, I don't know how I missed all of that.  Makes my question look a bit silly.  I have been going through all of the threads on here, trying to get caught up on where development stands.  So, i know what to playtest, etc.  But, it has been tough to get it all straight.

From what I can gather, a consensus has been reached on a few issues, while others are more up in the air.  Obviously, the plan of getting out a 4.5 list and moving towards 5.0 has hit a delay.  I don't know if the real world has eaten into CS's time or if folks just weren't playtesting enough for progress.

To me this begs the question: who cares if there are significantly less numbers?  If the list is balanced the list is balanced!  According to the fluff, the Tau are supposed to excel at firefighting and distance attacks and stink at close combat.  Fine.  Then have them excel at those things and just have there be less Tau (i.e. make the formations more expensive).

As you increase the point cost of formations across the board, the activation count goes up, and the list building challenges increase.  Why would this be a bad thing?

Assuming you mean activation count goes down not up

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

I never understood how someone could sellhis army if he didn't need the money dearly.
If lack of games is the reason then i had sold all my armies a long time ago.

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We are returned!
http://www.epic-wargaming.de/

I don't want to derail the thread, so here is your answer.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Having played a game using your list Chroma I think I'm finding myself in the Tau can FF and cut down the options camp.

Now, the game (batrep here) ended in a big victory for the marines but this was mainly due to some really bad dice on the Tau side.

My only real niggle with Chroma's Tau is the inclusion of Hit and Run as an alternative to Jump Pack. It probably does make the Tau a little too Eldar-ish. Can't say I've got an alternative to suggest right now though.