Warhammer 40K Tabletop XV: "More People Should Be Punched In The Head."

[Renegade Paladin]

Hmm, is 195 points in a 1500pt game too pricey to give Thunerwolves and attached IC's Infiltrate?

This is a win button. If you can do it, your opponent should punch you in the face.

[Timberwolf]

This is a win button. If you can do it, your opponent should punch you in the face.

How is it done ? (can't go delving in the codex atm)

[Renegade Paladin]

How is it done ? (can't go delving in the codex atm)

I don't know how he's doing it. Planetary Empires rules allow for it via owning a command bastion and using the special rule it allows you to give for that purpose. But I don't know any ruleset that allows just coughing up points for it.

At any rate, it absolutely should not be done. There is nothing less fun than a unit of Thunderwolves with a Thunderwolf-mounted Wolf Lord with Saga of the Warrior Born multiassaulting half your deployment zone the turn they arrive.

[BoSheck]

Hmm, is 195 points in a 1500pt game too pricey to give Thunerwolves and attached IC's Infiltrate?

No real way to do it in the Space Wolf Codex. That is, however, he exact cost of Shrike. I presume you have some special way to get him.

2 things: Infiltrate's maximum range is 18 inches. Thunderwolf cavalry's (if Shrike leaves them) minimum charge range is 19 inches.

You won't make any friends, but you'll probably sweep every game you go first unless your opponents reserve everything and give you turns to move the rest of your army up to support the monsters...which increases your odds of winning anyway.

[Renegade Paladin]

No real way to do it in the Space Wolf Codex. That is, however, he exact cost of Shrike. I presume you have some special way to get him.

2 things: Infiltrate's maximum range is 18 inches. Thunderwolf cavalry's (if Shrike leaves them) minimum charge range is 19 inches.

You won't make any friends, but you'll probably sweep every game you go first unless your opponents reserve everything and give you turns to move the rest of your army up to support the monsters...which increases your odds of winning anyway.

Indeed. The only way to stop Thunderwolves is to either trick them into assaulting something scarier than they are (read: Abaddon, because there's not much else) or to drop S10 on them before they get into assault, because once there, they're staying there; they'll bounce from assault to assault and never get shot at again. If they're not shot at in the first place, 260 points of Thunderwolves will clean up an entire 1500 point army by themselves.

[Squark]

Indeed. The only way to stop Thunderwolves is to either trick them into assaulting something scarier than they are (read: Abaddon, because there's not much else) or to drop S10 on them before they get into assault, because once there, they're staying there; they'll bounce from assault to assault and never get shot at again. If they're not shot at in the first place, 260 points of Thunderwolves will clean up an entire 1500 point army by themselves.

Or squeeze your entire army onto the second and third floor (first and second for those outside the US) of a ruin. But this is probably a bad idea for different reasons.

[Tychris1]

Or squeeze your entire army onto the second and third floor (first and second for those outside the US) of a ruin. But this is probably a bad idea for different reasons.

This has actually started up quite a argument between me and a Blood Angels player when he told me that my Trygon Prime could not assault the Space Marines inside of the ruins since they occupied the second and third floor. Eventually after enough arguing (And pointing out how the Trygons head literally puts it at FACE VALUE of the second floor) the topic eventually changed to how ruins are not buildings and thus couldn't be assaulted/destroyed (The one trump card for my Trygon in a last ditch effort to kill those damned marines). But nope, monstrous creatures are useless end of story.

[BoSheck]

Or squeeze your entire army onto the second and third floor (first and second for those outside the US) of a ruin. But this is probably a bad idea for different reasons.

Yes. Beasts, Cavalry, and Monstrous Creature rapidly lose value the more buildings/multi-level ruins you happen to play with.

[Cheesegear]

Anyone here play Deathwatch?

Yes. I absolutely love the 40K setting (as it is meant to be, not what we see in Codecies and the 5th Ed. novels), and Dark Heresy lets you live in that. Deathwatch, has all the same fluff and flavour of DH, except you don't die in one shot and the psyker's head doesn't explode in the first five minutes of the first gaming session.

However, if you're asking us to pirate or point you in the direction of a pirated copy of any of the books like you did in the Fluff Thread; the answer is a definite 'No.'.

[Ricky S]

Yes. Beasts, Cavalry, and Monstrous Creature rapidly lose value the more buildings/multi-level ruins you happen to play with.

At my local gw we all play it that trygons can assault a unit in a building. Due to its sheer size it makes sense that it can assault through windows even if its base is not on the same floor

For a thunderwolf army I would suggest using longfangs. So even if your opponent doesnt deploy on ground level you can still put the hurt on him.

[TechnoScrabble]

Yes. I absolutely love the 40K setting (as it is meant to be, not what we see in Codecies and the 5th Ed. novels), and Dark Heresy lets you live in that. Deathwatch, has all the same fluff and flavour of DH, except you don't die in one shot and the psyker's head doesn't explode in the first five minutes of the first gaming session.

However, if you're asking us to pirate or point you in the direction of a pirated copy of any of the books like you did in the Fluff Thread; the answer is a definite 'No.'.

I have the book now, actually. Just wondering if anyone would like to GM a game and help me learn how to play.

[Tome]

I have the book now, actually. Just wondering if anyone would like to GM a game and help me learn how to play.

Completely the wrong thread for that. Stick to asking in the Finding Players (Recruitment) forum.

[BoSheck]

For a thunderwolf army I would suggest using longfangs. So even if your opponent doesnt deploy on ground level you can still put the hurt on him.

This comes down to a pretty basic tenet of the game that I see abandoned, expecially in discussion: No piece of an army operates in a vacuum. Most often with "I like unit X!" "Well my unit Y beats that automatically."

A good balanced list with pieces working in synergy and supporting each other, combined with good generalship (and a little bit of luck) is what wins games.

For example: you're going to be hard pressed to find any Wolf army that doesn't have a unit or two of long fangs--they're so cheap it's practically criminal and the fluff compliments the mechanics; these are the guys who make sure the big gribblies don't eat your fellows doing the heavy lifting midfield.

[evisiron]

Hmm, is 195 points in a 1500pt game too pricey to give Thunerwolves and attached IC's Infiltrate?

As for how it's done, it is indeed Shrike being stuck in the unit for the aforementioned doubles tournament.

It seemed like one of those things that looks great on paper but could fall down in actual gameplay. I know it'll be good, but since each for only gets 750pts (split FO chart) I was pondering if 195 was too much for the special ability, especially since the tournament is rife with multi story ruins and the frequency of Choosers Of The Slain and Servo Skulls bouncy around messing up infiltrate.

My thoughts now turn to what else to take in the Space Marine side? Popping transports will be vital, the best I have so far is:
-10 Scouts, Missile Launcher, Melta Bombs
-Shrike
-Predator, Lascannon sponsons, autocannon turret
-2x Landspeeder typhoons
-1x Landspeeder typhoon with multi melta

I was looking at triple predators, but it only takes one central bit of terrain to scupper LoS, while the 'speeders are nice and mobile.

Any other ideas?

[TechnoScrabble]

Completely the wrong thread for that. Stick to asking in the Finding Players (Recruitment) forum.

I did. A day or two ago. One other person posted. 'Swhy I asked.

[Squark]

This is still the sort of thing that can easily get both you and your partner the reputation as "That guy", which isn't something you want. That being said, you're probably going to want some template weapons to take advantage of the enemies who are packed onto the upper floors while they cower in fear of your wolf-based deathstar.

[BoSheck]

As for how it's done, it is indeed Shrike being stuck in the unit for the aforementioned doubles tournament.

It seemed like one of those things that looks great on paper but could fall down in actual gameplay. I know it'll be good, but since each for only gets 750pts (split FO chart) I was pondering if 195 was too much for the special ability, especially since the tournament is rife with multi story ruins and the frequency of Choosers Of The Slain and Servo Skulls bouncy around messing up infiltrate.

My thoughts now turn to what else to take in the Space Marine side? Popping transports will be vital, the best I have so far is:
-10 Scouts, Missile Launcher, Melta Bombs
-Shrike
-Predator, Lascannon sponsons, autocannon turret
-2x Landspeeder typhoons
-1x Landspeeder typhoon with multi melta

I was looking at triple predators, but it only takes one central bit of terrain to scupper LoS, while the 'speeders are nice and mobile.

Any other ideas?

Pod dread? Space wolves have a lack of Ironclads and I've always been of the opinion an ironclad (with meltaguns!) or two in pods would have roughly the same effect as logan+multimelta long fangs but a bit cheaper, albeit a little more vulnerable to meltaguns. You could opt for heavy flamers too--you know your meta better than I do. The assumption is lots of melta toting MSU in rhinos, of course.

On LoS and predators: Those guntanks can still move around that LoS blocking terrain! Multimelta/typhoon speeders are 100 in C:SM, aren't they? That feels steep. Auto/Las predator is probably the way to go.

[Hazzardevil]

Hi, I'm a tau player and next weekend I will be going with a friend to a games workshop tournament. Now I haven't played Warhammer much before, but I have a grasp on the rules.

Unlike most people who start 40K, (so I'm told) I didn't start with Space Marines, I started with Tau, i got a mostly complete Tau Battleforce and a box to keep it in (One of those briefcase sort of things) for £25.
I got in it the following:
Tau Codex,
2 Crisis Battlesuits,
Devilfish,
8 Kroot, (I can't use these because you need at least 10 Kroot in a squad)
11 Fire Warriors,
6 Gun Drones,
1 Shield Drone
and 1 Markerlight Drone.

I also have 3 stealth suits.

Here's My current Army List:

HQ
Commander Tau Shas'O - 89? Points
Stimulant Injector (Gives feel no pain), Rail Gun, Flamer (twin-linked)

Body Guard Suit Shas'vre - 35 Points
(Needs 3 weapon or support systems)
ELITES
Stealth Team Shas'ui 2, Shas'vre - Points 100

TROOPS
Fire Warrior Team 10 Shas'la, Shas'ui 1 - Points 120

Devilfish Troop Carrier - Points 100
smart missile weapon system
FAST ATTACK


Total: 444 Points

Although I have a few questions:
1. What is Strategy Rating? It was removed in Errata, but it still interests me.
2. How do you get the Rail Gun? It is in the Armoury but is mentioned nowhere else and has no point cost anywhere.
3. Are Grenades any good or should I leave them?

[Renegade Paladin]

2. How do you get the Rail Gun? It is in the Armoury but is mentioned nowhere else and has no point cost anywhere.

You take something that can take a railgun as wargear. Broadsides and Hammerheads come immediately to mind.

[Timberwolf]

Although I have a few questions:
1. What is Strategy Rating? It was removed in Errata, but it still interests me.
2. How do you get the Rail Gun? It is in the Armoury but is mentioned nowhere else and has no point cost anywhere.
3. Are Grenades any good or should I leave them?

The Rail gun is available on the following - the Hammerhead tank, there it's not twin linked but can fire a Submunition blast for helping with horde armies or you can get it on the Braodside Battlesuit where it is twin linked (rerolls to hit) but no big blast. Both are nasty.

Grenades... well. I have a little story about those. I charged a Blendernaught (Talon Dreadnought, keeps attacking until all its attacks miss, fail to wound or are saved.) into a group of Firewarriors in cover. The Blendernaught goes last. a load of EMP grenades later, I am down one Dreadnaught and my opponent is up one smug expression. Yes, they're worth it in my experience because who doesn't put Firewarriors in cover ?.

[evisiron]

Although I have a few questions:
1. What is Strategy Rating? It was removed in Errata, but it still interests me.
2. How do you get the Rail Gun? It is in the Armoury but is mentioned nowhere else and has no point cost anywhere.
3. Are Grenades any good or should I leave them?

1. Each army had a rating, and if memory serves it affected who got to pick deployment zones and go first.
2. See above
3. From my experience, they aren't really worth the points. With assault and defensive grenades, by the time Tau reach that point the unit is practically lost. It may be better to invest the points elsewhere for more shooting and avoid combat altogether.
As for EMP, with such effective ranged anti tank firepower, the Tau shouldn't have to reply on sticking grenades to tanks, so again I would pass them over for the most part.

[Timberwolf]

As for EMP, with such effective ranged anti tank firepower, the Tau shouldn't have to reply on sticking grenades to tanks, so again I would pass them over for the most part.

This is true, they are only really useful against Dreadnoughts and Walkers, since they will be assaulting into cover and even then, really only a Blood Angels Player will find a bunch of Firewarriors to be anything other than a tarpit for his Dreadnought since most Dreads can only swing with a relatively small number of attacks. It's up to you really, if you're expecting to play someone like me who runs gunships and dreadnoughts, they could be worth it. For everyone else, probably not. Of course, this is what happened last time I ran my Moriar the Chosen (old special character Dreadnought that I built a model for - I use him as a Talon Dread) into a bunch of Firewarriors.

Spoiler

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[Tome]

Although I have a few questions:
1. What is Strategy Rating? It was removed in Errata, but it still interests me.
2. How do you get the Rail Gun? It is in the Armoury but is mentioned nowhere else and has no point cost anywhere.
3. Are Grenades any good or should I leave them?

1. Absolutely no idea. Something from 4th edition I guess, but I never played 4th.

2. Check the default equipment for Broadsides. Then check the options on the Hammerhead. Bear in mind that there are slight differences in functionality between the two.

3. No, they're not, for a variety of reasons. The first being that Fire Warriors are basically going to die no matter what if something assaults them. The only exception is a Walker of some sort assaulting into cover against a unit with EMP grenades - which shouldn't ever happen because your opponent will know what the unit has in advance. Relying on your opponent to make a mistake is a very bad tactic.

That aside, I've got some good news and bad news about playing Tau.

Well, mostly bad news actually.

Tau are currently the worst army in the game. Most of the units are terrible, the codex is hideously outdated, everything is badly overpriced and half the wargear and special rules are no longer relevant. There is exactly one way to build an army to have a chance of winning, and even then you have to be prepared to really work for it. In particular, your entire army will basically evaporate if the enemy can get into assault with it. Yes, even the Kroot.

Good news... well, I suppose they still do pretty good in really ultra-casual environments. Railguns, which is to say Broadsides, are still one of the best anti-tank units in the game. You're about 20% cooler than every other army though, which sort of makes up for some of the suckiness.

Here's a run-down of the good, the bad, and the ugly in the Tau Codex.

Spoiler

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The Good

• Broadsides & Hammerheads - Still some of the best anti-tank units in the game. Well, it's more like Railguns are good, actually. But Hammerheads and Broadsides are a pretty good chassis to mount them on too. Broadsides are notably better value, but you should probably take a Hammerhead or two as well - they're not much worse and are one of the few ways to get a large Blast into your army for dealing with horde armies like Orks. All three of your Heavy Support slots should contain one of these if you have even the vaguest intention of trying to win, no matter the game size. Without a doubt, the best unit the codex.
• Crisis Suits - Jump Shoot Jump (JSJ) is still a functioning tactic, whereby you move out from behind some LoS blocking terrain in the movement phase, shoot during the shooting phase, then use your Jetpack move to move back into cover during the assault phase. The standard load-out is two different guns and a Multi-Tracker. Sometimes switched for two of the same gun and a Targeting Array. Either way, Plasma Rifles and Missile Pods are the guns to take. Probably the second best unit in the codex, the other units I have listed in this section aren't so much 'good' as they are 'usable'.
• Crisis Commanders - See what I said about Crisis Suits? Yeah, that still applies. You must take at least one Crisis Commander in every list list, but unlike the other mandatory stuff in the codex, Crisis Commanders are actually good.
• Piranhas - They're Fast Skimmers with a Meltagun Fusion Blaster on the front. That's pretty good. Their primary use, however, if that they make an excellent defensive wall to block enemy assault units - just so long as they move Flat Out every turn and always keep their Front Armour facing the enemy anti-tank.
• Kroot - They're cheap. And that's about it, really. Put them in cover so their lack of armour save doesn't matter. Ring them around your more valuable units to buy them an extra turn before the enemy gets into assault. Also, point-for-point their weight of fire makes them just as good at shooting as Fire Warriors. Kroot Hounds are worth adding if you have the points, but Shapers are a big no-no. Pretty much everything ignore a 6+ save, and Kroot are only good when they're cheap.
• Pathfinders - They have Markerlights. That's good. You have to take a Devilfish for them. That's bad. Doesn't matter that they have no use for a Devilfish, they must take one because the rules say so. This drives the price up. Fortunately, you can just let your mandatory Fire Warrior unit ride around in the Pathfinders Devilfish. Rail Rifles are a personal choice thing.

The Bad

• Fire Warriors - S5 shooting at 30" is pretty good. Unfortunately, BS3 is pretty bad for a shooting unit, considering how much each one costs. Imperial Guard can manage with BS3 by being dirt cheap. Fire Warriors are not cheap. But you have to take one unit of them. It's mandatory, in the rules, etc. Let them ride in the Pathfinders equally-mandatory Devilfish and use them hold objectives.
• Stealth Suits - Stealth Fields and Jet Packs are good. Only having guns that require them to get into the range where the enemy can shoot them anyway? That's bad. Also hideously overpriced.
• Skyrays - You know how Railguns are the best things in the codex and basically the only thing that let's us Tau have even a hope of victory? Well guess where every Railgun-carrying unit lives? That's right, in the Heavy Support section. Skyrays do not carry Railguns, which means that every HS slot spent on a Skyray, is one not spent on Railguns. Their firepower also tends to be distinctly unimpressive for their cost.
• Gun Drones - Yeah. Like a more mobile Firewarrior with even worse aim, less shots and less range. Which is kind of... really bad.
• Sniper Drone Teams - Rail Rifles are kind of nice. But their range? On a stationary unit? Not so great. And they're still taking up a HS slot that could be used for something with an actual Railgun.

The Ugly

• Ethereals - It's a trap! Yes, it's only 50 points. That's 50 points you're paying to have half your army run off the board when he dies. And, being both incredibly fragile and a massive target, he will die.
• Vespid - Their guns are nice. They're also pretty fast. But they have to get into assault range to fire and they're unbelievably fragile. Which means that they will die. Quickly. And for something that costs as many points as they do, that's bad.
• Shadowsun/Farsight/Aun'Va - Special Characters? What are those? Tau don't have any special characters. Or, at least, any who aren't horribly crippling. Aun'Va is like a pumped-up Ethereal, and bad for exactly teh same reasons. Farsight prevents you from taking many of the units you need to win. Shadowsun is the best of the lot - by which I mean she doesn't actively make your army worse - but she's still a Tau character wielding nothing more than two extremely short-ranged guns.

The thing you may notice about the above list, is that you pretty much only have one or two valid choices for each slot. Your list is basically already written for you. Just remember to keep everything as cheap as you possibly can and the wargear to the absolute minimum you can get away with.

Even if you build the best list possible with Tau, your chances of victory are still pretty low. All but the slightest concessions to fluff will mercilessly reduce those already slim odds. If this bothers you, I'd advise learning how to play with a different army.

If I haven't managed to discourage you yet, then welcome to the few, the proud. Welcome, Shas'la, to the Greater Good.

[Wraith]

Although I have a few questions:
1. What is Strategy Rating? It was removed in Errata, but it still interests me.

At the start of the game you and your opponent roll a dice, and whoever rolls the highest gets to choose whether they set up first/takes the first turn, or set up second/go second and try to Seize The Initiative.

In 4th Edition, you would add your army's Strategy Rating to the roll so that 'intelligent' and 'strategic' armies like Eldar were more likely to get to make the choice, compared to 'chaotic' armies like Orks. Certain scenarios would also make use of it as a limit on some units - for example, if you had a Strategy Rating of 4, you could only hold up to 4 units in reserve, and other annoying little gimmicks like that.

So in other words - ignore it. It no longer has anything to do with the game.

[Ricky S]

Hi, I'm a tau player and next weekend I will be going with a friend to a games workshop tournament. Now I haven't played Warhammer much before, but I have a grasp on the rules.

Unlike most people who start 40K, (so I'm told) I didn't start with Space Marines, I started with Tau, i got a mostly complete Tau Battleforce and a box to keep it in (One of those briefcase sort of things) for £25.
I got in it the following:
Tau Codex,
2 Crisis Battlesuits,
Devilfish,
8 Kroot, (I can't use these because you need at least 10 Kroot in a squad)
11 Fire Warriors,
6 Gun Drones,
1 Shield Drone
and 1 Markerlight Drone.

I also have 3 stealth suits.

Here's My current Army List:

HQ
Commander Tau Shas'O - 89? Points
Stimulant Injector (Gives feel no pain), Rail Gun, Flamer (twin-linked)

Body Guard Suit Shas'vre - 35 Points
(Needs 3 weapon or support systems)
ELITES
Stealth Team Shas'ui 2, Shas'vre - Points 100

TROOPS
Fire Warrior Team 10 Shas'la, Shas'ui 1 - Points 120

Devilfish Troop Carrier - Points 100
smart missile weapon system
FAST ATTACK


Total: 444 Points

Although I have a few questions:
1. What is Strategy Rating? It was removed in Errata, but it still interests me.
2. How do you get the Rail Gun? It is in the Armoury but is mentioned nowhere else and has no point cost anywhere.
3. Are Grenades any good or should I leave them?

2. You cannot take the railgun on a commander, unfortunately.
3. Leave them unless you have a counter assault unit. Which tau never should have so you never should have grenades.

When writing army lists dont put the individual costs of each item.

Now to your army.

-I suggest giving your commander a shield generator for a 4+ invulnerable save in higher point games.
-I suggest giving your crisis suits this combo: Plasma Gun, Missile Pod, Multitracker. This is the best setup that crisis suits can take. Check all the forums.
-Always take a disruption pod on all of your vehicles. It means that you always count as being obscured if the enemy is more than 12 inches away so you always get a 4+ cover save.
-Give your firewarrior shas ui a bonding knife. That way they can regroup if they are falling back even if they are under half strength.

Your army might look something like this.

-Shas'O, Stimulant injector, twinlinked flamer, 94pts
Bodyguard plasma gun, missile pod, multitracker72pts
-Stealth Team Shas'ui 2, Shas'vre - Points 100
-Firewarriorsx 10, Shas Ui Bonding Knife - 115pts
-Devilfish, smart missile system, disruption pod, multitracker - 115pts
496pts

[Cheesegear]

-I suggest giving your crisis suits this combo: Plasma Gun, Missile Pod, Multitracker. This is the best setup that crisis suits can take. Check all the forums.

Correct, with one addendum; On a few of your 'Suits (assuming you have 8 or 9 like you should) it's worth having a Burst Cannon. Something like 2/3:1.

[Hazzardevil]

Correct, with one addendum; On a few of your 'Suits (assuming you have 8 or 9 like you should) it's worth having a Burst Cannon. Something like 2/3:1.

I thought there was a limit, something like 3 per army? Also, I own 2 Battle-suits.

-I suggest giving your commander a shield generator for a 4+ invulnerable save in higher point games.
-I suggest giving your crisis suits this combo: Plasma Gun, Missile Pod, Multitracker. This is the best setup that crisis suits can take. Check all the forums.
-Always take a disruption pod on all of your vehicles. It means that you always count as being obscured if the enemy is more than 12 inches away so you always get a 4+ cover save.
-Give your firewarrior shas ui a bonding knife. That way they can regroup if they are falling back even if they are under half strength.

Your army might look something like this.

-Shas'O, Stimulant injector, twinlinked flamer, 94pts
Bodyguard plasma gun, missile pod, multitracker72pts
-Stealth Team Shas'ui 2, Shas'vre - Points 100
-Firewarriorsx 10, Shas Ui Bonding Knife - 115pts
-Devilfish, smart missile system, disruption pod, multitracker - 115pts
496pts

Does anyone know when Tau will get another codex? Since as far as I know only Tau and Necrons don't have codex's. (Okay, Necron's do have a codex, but it was written by Anti-Christ, AKA Matt Ward)

Also, what are so good about Pathfinders? All I see are an extra 6 inches of movement on the first turn for more points with a worse gun.
And will I be allowed to use Fire Warrior figures for Pathfinders?

[deuterio12]

Does anyone know when Tau will get another codex? Since as far as I know only Tau and Necrons don't have codex's. (Okay, Necron's do have a codex, but it was written by Anti-Christ, AKA Matt Ward)

Tau aren't geting a new codex any time soon. Rumors are that chaos is next, and you can bet in between two more SM variants will be released, because it isn't GW if half the codexes aren't SM.

Also, what are so good about Pathfinders? All I see are an extra 6 inches of movement on the first turn for more points with a worse gun.
And will I be allowed to use Fire Warrior figures for Pathfinders?

Markerlights. They're one of the best things of the Tau codex, greatly helping the rest of your army shooting stuff dead before the enemy gets too close. Never bother shooting the carabines, just keep puting markerlights in whatever you want to focus fire this turn. Just their ability to negate enemy cover makes them worth it.

As for firewarriors as pathfinders, as long as you do something to the models and guns so they're diferent from your other firewarriors, is all good.

[Squark]

Does anyone know when Tau will get another codex? Since as far as I know only Tau and Necrons don't have codex's. (Okay, Necron's do have a codex, but it was written by Anti-Christ, AKA Matt Ward)

It's actually quite good. And half of the tier 1 armies aren't even Ward's work (Dark Eldar and Space Wolves are both Phil Kelly's. Not sure about Blood Angels and Imperial Guard, the other two top tier codexes.)*

And a lot of armies are still in need of a new codex; Let's see...

Chaos Space Marines (PErsonally, I think these would be a good choice for the next release, if GW thinks they qualify as marines for the purposes of "every other codex a marine codex" policy), Eldar, Orks, Tau, Black Templars, Dark Angels, and maybe Chaos Demons.

(Note that Templars and Dark Angels both have an FAQ that brings them up to 5th edition, although Dark Angels, outside of Deathwing, are still in need of some love)

And, yeah. Marker lights are one of the best things in the Tau Codex.

*We had this discussion a while ago. The tier 1 and tier 2 codexes both have multiple competitive lists. Tier 1 is distinguished from tier 2 in that Tier 1 usually gets something for nothing (Fast Razorbacks are the most commonly cited example here). Tier 3 was defined as having only 1-2 lists that are basically just trying to do what Tier 2 does, but not doing it as well, and Tier 4 was defined as "Even the good stuff in the codex is bad". And Demons are... well, all over the place.

Reconstructing that list

Tier 1: Dark Eldar, Imperial Guard, Space Wolves, Blood Angels
Tier 2: Codex: Space Marines, Grey Knights, Dark Angels, Black Templars, Necrons
Tier 3: Orks, Eldar, Chaos Space Marines, Sisters of Battle
Tier 4: Tau, Tyranids
Tier 1d4+1: Chaos Demons

[Hazzardevil]

Tier 1: Dark Eldar, Imperial Guard, Space Wolves, Blood Angels
Tier 2: Codex: Space Marines, Grey Knights, Dark Angels, Black Templars, Necrons
Tier 3: Orks, Eldar, Chaos Space Marines, Sisters of Battle
Tier 4: Tau, Tyranids
Tier 1d4+1: Chaos Demons

I have played little of WH40K, but I thought Orks would be Tier 4, since they are quite expensive to get aren't they?
And why are Tyranids weak?
And does Tier 1d4+1 mean the strength is random due to how they deploy?