Tau Warlord Traits

[Carrelio]

Over the past month that the Tau codex has been around for, I have been confronted by a rather (in my opinion) unusual trend in the Warhammer community (online and offline); that is, the praise of the Tau Warlord Traits. Since the Tau book's release I have heard nothing but glowing praise for these traits; claims that they are the best traits of any book, easily blowing the BRB general warlord table away, and stomping every codex before and forever into the future into the ground. And this confuses me....

I have not had much success with the new Tau book as of yet, and I have dedicated a great amount of time into rectifying this issue through study of the book. In particular I have been looking at the warlord, and with him, the traits. Quite frankly, if I had to describe the Tau Warlord Traits with a single word, it would not be 'Amazing' or 'God-like' it would be 'Gimmick'.

I just don't see the unbelievable power that everyone else is talking about. Each one just seems so small scale. Even compared to the BRB! So what is making everyone sing it's praises?

Arguments I can think of for our warlord trait are as follows:
-   It's the only warlord table I know which has the option to reroll if the ability does not affect your warlord (e.g. no guns/no jump pack; no problem, try again).
-   No useless traits for our army (e.g. all shooting and moving oriented; no close combat required)
However this really doesn't provide me with a lot of incentive to pick the Tau specific traits, since the arguments against are as follows:
-   4/6 traits are one use only, including some abilities which can be found elsewhere every turn.
-   4/6 have a very small area of effect, affecting only the warlord and his unit.

While I would very much like to hear the argument for why these traits are better than the average bear and hope to do so, I would also like to contribute my own understandings and solutions to this problem and thus bring up my own personal solution to the issue... abandoning the Tau Warlord Traits for our commander in exchange for the BRB again.

I would argue that of all the warlord traits available at the moment, the Command Traits of the BRB are the best for the Tau. Given the general trend to slow our army, and clump our units together, we see much less chance for our commander to go gallivanting off behind enemy lines, making a 12" mechanic a much more valuable set of traits. In many cases we will want out commander to be at the back supporting the battle line with his special gear upgrades, more than anything else, and that is what makes such area of effect abilities of such great value.

The pros of the Command Traits chart are as follows:
-   All abilities last the duration of the game (none of this one use only business)
-   Large area of effect (every single one has a 12" bubble)
-   Range of abilities with a general focus on buffing friendly units (or in one case disrupting enemy units)
The cons on the Command Traits chart are as follows:
-   Only 5/6 traits provide any benefit for Tau (increasing charge distance by 1" will not help us... shame it doesn't benefit assault moves)

So what do you think TO? Am I totally mistaken, and the Tau abilities are superior? Are the two comparable (possibly bringing a different trait set to different battles)? Or is the Command Traits set superior, giving more reliable options even if they are a little more limited.

[Arguleon-veq]

I really dont think they are anything special.

There is less of a chance of getting a totally useless one but some of the rulebook ones are much better.

I think with the amount of city terrain you see Conqueror of Cities is the best warlord trait around.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

I dont see them as great the reroll thing is nice and should have been the norm from day 1.

The only trait I really use is the one Farsight uses because he is often my Warlord. I don't rely on traits as a rule, but that one definitly helps when that unit can be 8 man and 14 drones strong.

[Chicop76]

They are great if you take specials to get desired trait like going to ground and recovering.

I do agree however that the BRB traits may be better. 1 is not that great unless it was for a squad. Re rolling on 1s at bs is nice, but is twin linked re rolling ones going to be a game changer, probably not.

12 pathfinders fire, 2 get to re roll, so 7 marker shots

Let's say you use said marker shots on bs 5 and ingnore cover for two squads of 12.

Let's assume ethereal and triple tap. That's 72 shots which means 60 hits. With the re rolls however that would be 10 extra hits, which can equal 2 dead marines or 9 more dead models.

In a way the 1s re rolling can be helpful if you max out the effect.

The only other ability is skyfire and that is if the other person is running flyers.

After all said and done you have one out of six which is really dependable and will work vs all armies.

What good is gtg is you are vsing an all melee army, or your deep strike is unliable, or the extra 3d6 movement if you are facing bikes.

Anyway I am starting to think to use the BRB traits and use the Tau Codex traits if my opponent decides to bring a bunch of flyers.