Tau in Space Crusade (First Draught, Un-playtested)

[MortiS-the-Lost]

OK so, here as it stands is the un-finished playtest version of my Tau rules for Space Crusade, I wrote these a little while back when I got hold of an old Tau Codex and they need a little more work - 2 more equipment cards are needed and the effects of the Targeter Drone and Marker Light need to be balanced and also the Tau terminology needs sorting out
This is rather a back-burner thing because 1; I'm also working on Forge Fathers and Sisters of Battle rules and 2; I'm supposed to be work on stuff for MortiS Quest and another project

Squad size: a Tau Pathfinder Squad consists of 1 Tau Pathfinder Commander, 3 Tau Fire Warriors with Pulse Carbines and 1 Tau Fire Warrior with Rail Rifle and 1 Drone

Movement:  Tau Pathfinder Commanders and  Tau Fire Warriors with Pulse Carbines may move up to 6 squares.  Tau Fire Warriors with Rail Rifles move 5 squares.

Armour: All Tau Pathfinders have an armour value of 1

Tau Pathfinder Commander Weapons:

Commander's Pulse Carbine: 2 Red Dice

Hand-to-hand: 2 White Dice


Tau Pathfinder Fire Warrior Weapons:

Pulse Carbine: 1 Red Dice 1 White Dice

Rail Rifle: 3 Red Dice 1 White Dice

Hand to Hand: 1 Red Dice

Drones

All drones have a movement of 6 Squares and may move over squares containing friendly models or enemies but cannot finish it's movement in a square containing another model.
Drones have an Armour Value of 2
Drones cannot attack in close combat, if a Drone is attacked in close combat the attacker must roll against the Drone's Armour Value of 2
If all of your squad is dead then your drone cannot move.
Drones may reveal blips and open doors just like normal troops, but cannot be used to carry out other actions.

Shield Drone
Any models in the 8 squares surrounding the Shield Drone gain +1 to their Armour Value

Gun Drone
The Gun Drone can make a shooting attack of 2 Red Dice 2 White Dice

Targeter Drone
The Targeter Drone allows any of the Pathfinders from your Squad shooting at a target in the Targeter Drone's Line-of-Sight to re-roll 1 of their Shooting Dice to try and improve the score

Equipment

Marker Light
Mark 1 enemy model in your Pathfinder's Line-of-Sight. Each turn you may re-roll any 0's rolled by your Pathfinders (or Gun Drone if you have one) when shooting at the marked model

EMP Grenade
Use this card at the beginning of your turn - Same effect as the 'Android Fault' Alien Event Card, however your Drone cannot Move or Attack either – Discard after use

Photon Grenades
Use this card at the end of your turn. Any Alien miniatures that attack you in hand-to-hand combat before the beginning of your next turn must roll one die less (the strongest one) than normal. Discard this card after use.

Bonding Knife
If your Commander or Fire Warrior with Rail Rifle is killed, you may sacrifice 1 Fire Warrior in an adjacent square to save them. Swap the 2 miniatures over and remove the Fire Warrior from the board. Remains in use for the entire mission.

Sensor
At the beginning of each of your turns you may inspect three blip tokens anywhere on the board to see what they are. Remains in use for the entire mission.

Multi-Tracker
Your Commander may fire twice each turn, but must fire at 2 different targets

[2 more equipment cards needed]

Orders

Over-Watch!

Fire!

Move it!

Converge Fire!
Any 3 Tau models (which may include a Gun Drone if you have one) may combine their shooting dice into a single attack at one single target

[messyart]

1.
I'm not too sure they'd bother with markerlights in space hulks.
Too enclosed to be of use.

2. It's all pretty good so far. & Targetter drones seem fair, considering they only grant a small team of AV1 models a reroll of dice. They'd get bitch-slapped by most things that have the mind to fire.

Perhaps some sort of medkit equipment card to replace it? A general one, that allows a single body point for every member?

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[messyart]

Scouts don't do recon in space hulks. That's the problem. They're for target aquisition, that'd be useless in corridors.
"We tagged him, ge.. Where did he go?"

[MortiS-the-Lost]

messyart wrote

1.
I'm not too sure they'd bother with markerlights in space hulks.
Too enclosed to be of use.

I'm not sure on the workings of the Marker-Light system, the Codex I have doesn't explain it too well (background wise) - I think what I was going for was something that would complement the Targeting Drone with out using the same rule. I figure the Markerlight system would select a target that would be a priority to kill and (though some laser guided type means) make the target easier to aim at by synchronizing weapon's targeting systems allowing them to be 'locked on' to an important target

One huge problem with adapting the Tau for Space Crusade is that they are a new 40k race and as such entirely designed to be played on huge open tables with very little terrain - there is no mention of the equipment and tactics they use in boarding actions and tunnel-fighting. The Tau seem to revolve around the 'shoot them a lot with very powerful weapons before they kill us' school of tactics and I'm not sure how well that works in Space Crusade ...

messyart wrote

2. It's all pretty good so far. & Targetter drones seem fair, considering they only grant a small team of AV1 models a reroll of dice. They'd get bitch-slapped by most things that have the mind to fire.

Perhaps some sort of medkit equipment card to replace it? A general one, that allows a single body point for every member?

Well the Tau rules as they stand are 2 Equipment cards short anyway ...

Medi-kit did cross my mind but the bonding knife rules have that sort of thing cover but in a slightly different way (sacrificing basic troops to save more valuable squad members)

Which reminds me of point that I think needs saying here; when I worked out these rules I tried to make them fit in with the whole 'For the Greater Good' concept by having most of the equipment cards (and Order Cards) benefit all of the squad and not just particular members of the squad.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Lumberjack wrote

Pathfinders being the scouts always have Markerlights equipped standard issue so I don't think that is an issue.

messyart wrote

Scouts don't do recon in space hulks. That's the problem. They're for target aquisition, that'd be useless in corridors.
"We tagged him, ge.. Where did he go?"

1 there is no 'equipped standard issue' in Space Crusade - all equipment is picked from the cards

2 Scouts, hmm there's a point - Space Marine Scouts are used in boarding actions though ...

I've got Markerlights working as a more 'everyone in the squad shoot that guy' type thing

[messyart]

Scouts in hulk works because they're more agile. I said they don't do recon, so the picking targets use of Markerlights is useless.

& as Markerlights are treated like a heavy weapon on their own, anyone using one would have to let go of shooting for a turn to do it, ideally.


What about "One model may use a markerlight on a single character, they may not fire their pulse carbine, but every other squad member firing at that model gets an extra white dice at range"?

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Also the following were considered as equipment cards ...

Blacksun Filters: Since their are no rules for darkness in Space Crusade there is no point making rules for a night vision system. I also seem to remember reading (but I could be mistaken) that Blacksun Filters have something to do with not being effected by Blind Grenades? yes there are Blind Grenades in but the Alien Player doesn't get to use them, so there is little point in having rules for something that makes a squad immune to them

Drone Controller: Early on I decided that the Tau squad should not need to have an equipment card to take a drone for several reasons including:
- If the card was taken away by the 'Equipment Malfunction' event then the drone (a squad member) would be killed or disabled instantly which is not the intended effect of the event card and would make it far too easy for the Alien Player to kill off a player's miniature or at the very least prevent them using the miniature.
- I intended Tau squad tactics to revolve around the type of drone type the player selects and thus the Drone Controller would be pretty much a compulsory card and thus wasting a 'slot'

I also briefly considered making the Plasma Rifle an alternative 'Heavy' weapon since it's listed in the Tau codex, but strangely it doesn't ever seem to be used as an actual rifle and is just mounted on vehicles and whatever Crisis Battle Suits count as (Dreadnoughts? Walkers? Jump Troops?)

[messyart]

What about experimental subminitions for the Railrifle?

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Can the Rail-rifle fire sub-munitions?

I guess they could work like the Hell Fire Round for the Heavy Bolter

I know the larger vehicle mounted Hammerhead Rail Gun can, but my Codex is pre-Fire Warrior (the computer game) so it doesn't have Rail Rifle listed

Hmm out of interest it might be worth taking a look at the Fire Warrior computer game to see what Tau do in closed spaces and boarding actions

[messyart]

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

Can the Rail-rifle fire sub-munitions?

I guess they could work like the Hell Fire Round for the Heavy Bolter

I know the larger vehicle mounted Hammerhead Rail Gun can, but my Codex is pre-Fire Warrior (the computer game) so it doesn't have Rail Rifle listed

Hmm out of interest it might be worth taking a look at the Fire Warrior computer game to see what Tau do in closed spaces and boarding actions

They can't, but I can imagine them getting there. The Rail rifle itself is said to have only recently got out of testing.

but that was pretty much the idea, just give them an alternate shot that uses an area of effect.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

messyart wrote

What about "One model may use a markerlight on a single character, they may not fire their pulse carbine, but every other squad member firing at that model gets an extra white dice at range"?

Hmm, yes that sounds better, but I'll stick with re-rolling 0's rather than adding an extra White Dice because that would imbalance the weapons effect

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[Captin Kabeered]

Hello Mortis  and the rest of the gang ,

I have been looking at Tau For Space Crusade and have come up with some rule ideas I'd like to share : see the attached .txt file. Tua_in_Space_Crusade.txt

The file contains 2 new Equipment cards and there expanded rules. Along with a Tua leader ranking like the one usd for the Space Marine Sargent.

I found the stat line for the Rail Rifel too
4th ed
Rail Rifel  Range: 36";  Str: 6; AP: 3;  Type: Heavy 1, Pinning .

Deathwatch Mark of xeose RPG
Rail Rilfel  Type: Heavy ; Range: 150m;  ROF: S/_/_ ; Dam: 2d10 +10 I ; Pen: 9 ; Clip: 16;  Rld: Full;
Specail : Devistating (1), Overheats.

I would class the Heavy Support  XV88 Broadside Battale suit as the Dreadnought unit for Space Crusade, as this is the only one of the Heavy units able to be moved inside a Space Hulk. That is when you consider the GunShips as options. For them to be usable The Space Hulk would need to be the size of .... ooooo say Bristal or maybe a small moon.
May be they can be used for the Titan games. Or Plante strike.

Anyways let me know what you all think of my ideas the one in the .txt file. I can look into working out the profiles for Kroot , Kroot hounds, and Vespids.

One point about the troop types the Tau warriors would be basic troop types in my mind and not the fast attack pathfinder team. At least not straight away. If you look at SC the basic units were SM and SM sargent. The Exotic Terminators and wizardy Librains were not introdused untill the WD expantion missions in WD 145  Blue cover.

I would consider the Kroot, Kroot Hounds, and Optional: Vespids new Ailens for the Alian Player and Tua speace Renforcmet group. Read my rules and card for more info. This is becase To every one apart from the Tua and infact Even the Tua them selfs the Kroot are aliens and or possible hostila threats.

Remember The Tau did not appear untill WH40K  3rd ed, and SC took place in and around the time of WH40k 1sted.
Who knows what they were doing back or possible forawrds then. ... We only have the accounts of some SM chaplin and the translations of the Tau. As we all know the Zoat had disspard by 3rd ed and the UN got finished off meleana before Big Brain on the Goldnd Crapper took command of the masses..
So the translations might not be accuate.
Consider the film Mars Attacks : Peace .... Zap zap poor Pidgens...
[I will not say any more I don't want to spoil the film anyone who has not seen it yet..]

At that point the Kroot may well not have fully trused or teamed up with the Tau and there Graeter Good.

For The Greater Good ! [ I keep thinking of the Film HOT FUZZ. hee hee]

Enjoy yoursefs mee harrtiees,
Captain Kabeerd

[Captin Kabeered]

AHHHHK Beered Beerd Beared.. Captin says ' Eye eye shipmates'

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[Captin Kabeered]

Hi LumberJack and the rest of the TLATD gang,

Thanks for the reply

On the fist point about the Vespid flying units, I took the view of having them as Optional: due to NO fliying units avalible in SC. Also I was un sure of the internal size of a Space Hulk. Your Movment Hop / Hover idea sounds like it could be possible if the use of hight and depth is added or introduced to SC. I have been work on such a rule for HQ.

I can find my movement and hight/depth rules and post them soon. If people would like to read them.

I would like to hear more about  your   Hover / hop Idea.  

2nd point about the Tua Ethereal : My Idea was to use it as just a rank mark. In SC the units are below that of WH40k 's Number line. I.E. The end of game SC Etheral = WH40k Captin level. All SC ranks for SM captains and Eldar are based around the Sargent level and only Use the Higher titals as in game ranks.

IN SC if you reach Etheral level you win the game and the campain stops. Your Tau retirers is decommishond for THE GREATER GOOD.  

Also you can NOT gain Etheral level through nornal lvling you would need to be commansd lvl 4 and then complete MISSion Objectives to reach Ethereal level then you WIN .

Check the SC Mission book for Leader ranks and level ups.
Note : In SC the good guys win the game when their SM leader reaches Seror Captain and the Alien Player Wins when it reaches Chaos Lord, also The Elder Win when they Get to Avitar level.

I took the Tua Ethereal as The hiest rank level possible and gave that the same Game winning stautus as Those already in SC. For Eldar check Elder expantion pack rule book.

I hope to hear / read more thoughts about my rules and Ideas ,
Unit All Are ONE .

Captain Kabeered.

[messyart]

Equipment cards;

Bandages.
If you wish to use Vespid, you MUST take this in conjunction with the Aspirin card.

Aspirin.
Good for headaches brought on by the inelegant bumping of skulls against hulk corridor ceilings. Must be taken with Bandages if you use Vespid.


I think that's fair.

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[messyart]

We don't even have all of the cards we'd need, yet.