A Closter Look: Part IV

Welcome to another edition of A Closer Look.  With the recent Tau-rific codex, there have come a series of closer inspections given to the rules of 40k.  Some of these rules have added a deeper understanding to some rules I had recently looked at, and some have caused many a face to be palmed around the staff here.  So lets get to it.  Caution: this article can be kinda fishy!

Update

I apologize for lack of posts in the last week.  I can't speak for the others, but I've had a chaotic week and haven't really had much time to think or talk about 40k.  Part of it is due to having moved back to my small town roots and begun readjusting to a much slower pace of life, but part is due to the illness of a family friend.  I'll try to get articles out next week, but I can't promise anything.  I have been working on another project and have been enjoying that and will be getting my toes wet with another game system soon.  I ask for your patience and continued interest in this site moving forward.

Heretic

Hunter Cadre, pt.3: Shields, Markers, and Guns...

Beep Boop Gentlereaders,

One of the most unique aspects of the Tau codex's portrayal of their way of warfare is their wide implementation of artificial intelligence to assist their forces.  In the early days of the game daemon engines were preceded by chaos androids, but those were essentially robotic vessels for daemons rather than AI.  Similarly, eldar employ wraithbone vessel for their fallen warriors, but the closest equivalent to true AI outside the Tau codex would be the dark eldar's talos and chronos engines.  All of these act as independent units, while only Tau drones are integrated into other units.  Let's look at this unique part of the greater good.

The Big Crunch: Fate of the Dark Eldar

Corvus here, revisiting my big crunch series of articles with a new fresher focus in mind. We've spent enough time bemoaning the state of the marine, but short of Templar, there's a codex out there which has recently felt the crunch of a newer book offering better options per point even more so than the boys in blue. This is Dark Eldar, whom in the wake of the Tau release are looking a bit green around the gills. As ever, with these sorts of articles, I'm not claiming Dark Eldar are incapable of winning games, rather that they're simply feeling outdated and outperformed by similar range codices.