Monday, April 4, 2016

Tau Didn't Win 2: Electric Boogaloo


Adepticon 2016 has come and gone! It looks like the event was amazing as usual, but let's focus on a very specific part of it for a sec, the 40k Championship...

First, let me show you a picture (not mine) of the first page of results:
(if left-clicking the image doesn't open a larger version of it, right-click on it and choose the equivalent of "open image in new tab")


You'll notice that Tau only placed twice in the top 38 lists at 11th and 25th. However, according to [this post], the 11th place Tau List wasn't actually Tau. It was a White Scars primary + Optimized Stealth Cadre list. So, the highest place a Tau-only list took was 25th. 24 other spots were taken by the usual suspects: Eldar, Space Marines, and Daemons (though Necrons' highest was 27th, which is unusual for them).

But, again, the powers that be would have you believe that we still need to do something about those damned dirty communist fishes known as Tau.

Except we don't. Because of the nerfs that are still in effect, and despite the un-nerfing of the Optimized Stealth Cadre (which lead to an earth-shattering 11th place tournament win...or wait, no it didn't), we actually won't know (nor does anyone know) what the full potential of Tau can be even with all their rules and toys left in tact, as written. I have a sneaking suspicion though that they still wouldn't be the top dogs. An army that does one phase well and basically fails or doesn't even participate in the other, is of course beatable with or without their cool rules and toys. Don't let the Chicken Littles of the 40k world tell you any different.

PS: I won't discuss (further) the fact that the first place list was a point over in a tournament setting that they had advance notice about and somehow slipped through the cracks. Hopefully the guys involved in Feast of Blades aren't getting more involved in Adepticon. I just don't remember this happening as much in the past...

2 comments:

  1. Curious to see how the design team rules on it in their faq and how it affects all of the independent systems' rulings

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    1. Ah, that's right, there's finally more official FAQ's on the way (the posts by GW about "send us our questions", etc). Yeah, it will be interesting to see if Reece and Frankie had ulterior motives and will keep their rulings in place, or if they stick with their story, that they are just trying to apply patches to holes in the rules.

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