Leaks - release date, changes etc.

sataniel a scris:http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/games-workshop-prohibits-online-sales-sales-bitz-and-more?utm_source=newscontent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newscontent

another step closer to...

lemanruss a scris:http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?23749-Tau-Rumor-Roundup-Mk-2/page36

Several notes on fluff:

- Tau are described as far more ruthless than in previous fluff. Gone are the days of "nice Tau". They are out to carve and Empire and the method is to kick ass and annihilate cultures. Yes, they still send Water caste to offer a sweet deal first and if it seems to work, they'll take their time, but if the alien world does not surrender will be bombed to stone-age and beyond. There is also several mentions of Tau destroying whole planets and conducting genocide on races that don't surrender. They are still described to be somewhat nicer than Imperium, but just barely.

- The Ethereal control over Tau is described as being total. "Were an Ethereal to order a Tau to kill himself, he would be met with instant obedience."

- The source of Ethereal control is not disclosed. Three possible explanations (Psychics, Technology, Pheromones) are put forward but no hint is given on which, if any, of them is the true reason for the control.

- Tau do not use Warp-based space travel. At all. In any way. No sign of earlier fluff on space travel is here. First stage expansion is not explained, but second stage was done using "ZFR Horizon Accelerator Engine" which "allowed ships to attain near-light speed". Third stage is done with "impulse reactors" which "propelled starcraft forward at hitherto unthinkable velocities". I would assume this to be true FTL travel, but still slowish since "to further lessen the burden on those space-faring craft with the longest journeys, the Earth Caste had outfitted transport craft with large stasis chambers - Aloowing Hunter Cadres or whole commands to shift to far distant battle zone months or years away without actually aging a day in the process."

- Demiurg have been apparently axed. There is a whole bunch of new xeno races namedropped here and there, but Demiurg is not one of the names.

- Commander Farsights resistance of Greater Good still goes unexplained, but his mind was apparently changed after everyone else in his unit but himself was slain by a an unknown enemy on world of Arthas Moloch "a desterted world save for strange monuments and ruined shirnes of some long-forgotten culture". "Soon, however, the mysterious beings disappeared with the same suddenness with which they had arrived." The Dawn Blade was looted from the ruins of Arthas Moloch.

- The last hint on Farsight is a little quote of his own personal recordings: "I've seen things you wouldn't believe - Entire worlds in flames, chains of supernovas on the edge of nothingness, the great hole is space. I am changed, an outcast now..."

- No word, absolutely nothing is said on any Tau being particularly resistant or immune to warp or psychics.

Now I haven't yet read all the unit descriptions word-by-word, just had time enough to scour through the fluff one the pages leading to unit descriptions, but this is what we have so far.

- The undefined FTL technology is, IMO, just fine. The Ethereals have total control over the society and the septs are very, very independent in terms of resources and military so "slower than light empire" plausible in the first phase when it was only a handfull of systems anyway. All you really need is to remember that at first phase the Empire was not a centrally led superpower but a conglomerate of septs all joined by common ideology.

- The Tau have some really impressive technology. They can harness power of the stars and make stars go nova in ways that have been previously mentioned in the fluff only for Necrontyr. Thats some really impressive stuff.

- Funny fact: Tau don't seem to understand the difference between Eldar and Dark Eldar at all. This shows in fluff passages where "War is declared against cruel riders victimizing the new colonies of Ke'lshan. Believing they have tracked their foes down, the Tau instead destroy the Eldar maidenworld of Lilarsus." Also "horrific tortures in the hands of cruel Eldar overseers" kind of points to that.

- The description on the page 30 about how a Tau invasion on a world would progress is a mix of old fluff with some nasty new twists. If you read only what happens and when the Tau takeover of an alien world wouldn't be very bad at all... Untill you read the actual text: "Whether willingly, under the intimidating threat of a pulse rifle, or after a series of crushing defeats in bloody battles, many populations now find themselves as part of the growing Tau Empire." "Important alien dignitaries are whisked off for private conferences - often returning with comforting plans of how the situation will progress, although sometimes never returning at all." "One constant is that Tau are always treated as first amongst equals." These are just snippets, but the p 30 is, IMHO, finely written emphasizing both the fact that Tau rule is, after all, far pleasurable for great masses than Imperial rule is in most places and yet still it is a ruthless system that crushes resistance, a steel gauntlet under thin veil of silk.

- As of Farsight I'm still to make up my mind, but really the fluff opens three possibilities:
1) Farsight has had a private meeting with Khorne (he now likes close-combat, his color is blood red, he has seen Eye of Terror etc.)
2) Farsight has had a private meeting with Necrons (he was the sole survivor of an attack by what sounds suspiciously lot like Necrons on a planet which sounds suspiciously lot like Tomb World, the Dawn Blade looks exactly like the balde of a Necron Warscythe and even has the same statline: AP2 with no Initiative penalty and Armoursbane etc.)
3) Both of the above
How these meetings have changed Farsight, what is his real agenda and who, if anyone, he serves now is open to speculation as fluff just doesn't tell.

Tarash_Bulba a scris:Poze mai multe si mai clare cu noile modele de Space Marines aici !

Caracterele arata OK. Nu ca mi-ar mai trebui ca deja am dubluri din fiecare, lol.

Varianta de rhino arata super, mai ales cu magnetizare, tre sa imi iau unu !

Centurionii. Hmmm...varianta de CC arata nasol. Asta de shooty nu arata chiar rau, doar ca pare cam greu sa se miste in ele. Nu ca shooting platforms trebuie sa miste prea mult, dar come on.

Vanguarzi si sternguarzi arata fain, doar ca mie nu mai imi trebuie asa ca probabil ca skip.

Sa vedem cum o fi cand or aparea in carne si oas...ahem...si plastic. 

Si bineintele sa vedem si codexu...