KX139 Ta'Unar Supremacy Armour
- – Opening narration, Damocles Rim
If the Stormsurge Ballistic Suit was considered the Tau's first foray into Imperial Knight death machines, the KX139 Ta'Unar Supremacy Armour would be the Tau's first attempt at mass producing a Tau Titan. The Ta'Unar Supremacy Armour truly is the Metal Gear Rex of the army.
- Height: 16m
- Crew: 1-2 crew; approx
- Weight: 200-300 tonnes; approx
Overview[edit]
The largest class of Battlesuit in the Tau inventory at almost twice the height of the already chonky Stormsurge Ballistic Suit, it is intended to meet a threat that the Tau Empire has not yet prepared for; the defense of worlds within their growing domain from the threat of other galactic races. Designed to counter anything from Imperial Knights to monstrous Tyranid bio-titans, the KX139 lacks the maneuverability of other battlesuits, and is instead intended for balls out firepower. Earth Caste engineer Fio’o Ke’lshan Sho’aun developed the KX139 to mount a dynamic yet stoic defense against the enemies of the Tau Empire. Development began after it was found that Tau heavy flyers such as the Manta were often outclassed in the form of a gratuitous amount of Flakk cannons.
The KX139 bristles with weaponry, with its primary armament being a back-mounted Pulse Ordnance Multi-Driver or Nexus Meteor Missile System. Additional weaponry includes triple Ion Cannons or Fusion Eradicators on each arm and two chest-mounted stations known as the Vigilence Defence System with Burst Cannons and Missile Pods. Other weapons options include a Heavy Rail Cannon Array with Fragmentation Cluster Shell Launcher. Protection is provided by a Barrier Shield Generator, which can withstand even Titan-class weaponry.
Crunch[edit]
The Ta'Unar is an absolute beast on the battlefield. A massive 30 wounds supported by T13 and 2+/5++ saves means only the biggest of firepower will be able to make a dent in this big boy. M8" and the ability to walk over all non-Titanic models and terrain that is not more than 4" tall (this includes flying models!) means that it will only be limited in its mobility by whether you can actually place the damn thing with its 160mm base. A cool OC10 means that once it sits on an objective it will hold the objective, and you can gun down your enemies at your leisure. Its abilities are rounded out by a Deadly Demise D6+3 and once it hits 10 or fewer Wounds it halves its OC and gets -1 to hit on all its attacks. Note that it is Titanic, so unless it is fully hidden, cover won't do it any good.
Now, the real reason you get one of these bad boys is its massive arsenal. And you're eating well indeed. The following are standard:
- 4 Burst Cannons, with each 4 shots at S5 AP0 D1. Perfect for cutting into hordes, but lack the firepower to deal significant damage and the 18" range hurts.
- 4 Smart Missile Systems, with each 3 shots at another S5 AP0 D1. Their 30" range paired with Indirect Fire makes them perfect for taking potshots at light targets hiding behind cover, but again lack the firepower to deal a lot of damage. If you can shoot them at the same target as your Burst Cannons for maximum damage against hordes.
The two arm weapons, which you can mix and match freely:
- Fusion Eradicators. Great for dealing with tanks. 5 shots at S10 AP-4 DD6 with Melta 3 will deal quite a lot of wounds at close range (24" means 12" for the Melta to kick in), but the S10 means that against the tougher tanks and monsters in the game you'll often need a 5+ to wound. The Fusion Eradicators can also be used to vaporize even the toughest of infantry if no large target is nearby, but they will be wasted against hordes.
- Tri-Axis Ion Cannons. Two charge modes that both have Blast and D6+3 attacks: regular has S8 AP-2 D2, with the Hazardous one having S9 AP-3 D3. Great for vaporizing MEQs, and the Supercharge mode works great against TEQs. While the Hazardous rule is, well, a hazard, 3 Mortal Wounds is nasty but something that the Ta'Unar can take. With two of these you have a 30% chance to fail at least one roll, and a 2.7% chance to suffer six in one go. Use the Supercharge when needed, and the standard when not like shooting hordes because of a lack of proper targets.
Finally there's the primary weapon, of which you can have only one:
- Three Pulse Ordnance Drivers. 8 attacks at 60" with S5 AP-1 D3. This might look a like wimpy stat line, but A: you get this three times so 24 shots total, and the gun has Anti-Infantry 2+, so no matter how tough you are you are getting wounded on a 2+. Sure the AP-1 sucks, but this weapon functions through its sheer rate of fire: every failed save is a dead model.
- Two Nexus Missile Launchers. The middle of the road option: two times 8 shots at S8 A-3 D2. Melts through MEQs and can chew through lighter tanks with ease.
- A Heavy Rail Cannon Array and a Fragmentation Cluster Shell Launcher. The Cluser Shells are a staggering 2d6+2 Blast weapon, and with S6 AP-1 D1 they can evaporate GEQ with the best of them, with 15 attacks on average against 10 man squads. But the reason you pick this is the Heavy Rail Cannon itself. The final word when it comes to Tau firepower: a massive 120" range with 2 attacks at a mind-melting S26, AP-5 and a massive middle finger of D16 damage. Yes, 16 damage. On top of that it has Devastating Wounds, so on a 6 you can even ignore Invulnerable Saves. Everything from Baneblades to Tyrannofexes and Greater Daemons have to kneel before this gun. Even a mighty Land Raider can be one-shot with this thing. Sure it cannot obliterate everything in one shot: Great Unclean Ones and the aforementioned Baneblade just have too many wounds for that, but that's what the rest of your firepower is for. It is Heavy, but as long as you don't walk you're in the clear.
Now, the primary weakness of these guns is their 4+ BS, but there's a fix for that. The Ta'Unar has the Coordinated Strike rule that if it is Guided through the For The Greater Good rule, it can re-roll all hits of 1. In combination with the regular FTGG rule this means that it misses only on 2s, and with the re-roll it still hits on on a 3+. This gives the Ta'Unar a roughly 78% chance to hit. Note that the +1 To Hit when using a Heavy weapon does not stack with this bonus as per the rules for modifiers, but it does negate any -1 To Hit you might receive.
All of this comes in a heavy but managable package of 790 points, meaning that unless you're willing to heavily hamstring yourself (and be That Guy in the process) you won't be using this outside of larger games. But aside from this, what weaknesses does the Ta'Unar have? There are a few things to watch out for that your opponent can take advantage of to take out your expensive hunk of resin:
- Massive Target. Being huge, a Titanic model and just very threatening in general your opponent will try level every gun they have at the thing to keep it from mauling their army. Sure the Ta'Unar is extremely tough, but every gun above S12 will have a 4+ or better chance to wound it. Anti-Vehicle weapons are especially threatening because they only become more cost effective the higher a vehicle's Toughness is. Mortal Wounds also work well against it, but it's the sheer amount of Wounds that pose a threat. Do note that once you hit 10 or fewer wounds you get -1 To Hit, which lowers your accuracy to 58%, which is suboptimal. Note that the +1 To Hit when remaining stationary with your Heavy Rail Cannon Array mitigates this, so keep on blasting.
- Melee. The Ta'Unar's melee stat line has so far not been mentioned with a reason: 6 attacks at WS5+ S8 AP-1 D2 might be able to destroy one Intercessor in melee, but if your giant fuck-off robot is throwing down you're doing something wrong. Armies that have true monsters of melee like Bloodthirsters and Imperial Knights kitted for melee will turn this thing into a pile of resin, likely at a fraction of the cost.
- Battle Shock. Despite being an ecksbawkshueg robot the Ta'Unar is not invulnerable to Battle Shock. An LD of only 7+ means that it has a 42% chance to fail these tests. Being Battle Shocked strips the Ta'Unar of its superior objective camping capabilities, but it also cannot use the For The Greater Good rule to increase its accuracy. This means that its geat 78% To Hit drops to a mere 50%, which is a massive blow to your firepower.
- Looney Tunes Shenanigans. A very careful reading of the Fall Back Moves rules reveals that while a Titanic model does not need to test for Battle Shock if it tries to Fall Back over enemy models, this does NOT apply when you're trying to Fall Back while you're Battle Shocked. This means that if you manage to Battle Shock a Ta'Unar and get it in melee, you will either have to force your opponent to spend Command Points to get it out of Battle Shock (and letting you mess with the rest of his army) you can force your opponent to either remain stuck in melee with a unit that it just cannot kill like a sufficiently large mob of Grots) or take the risk of a Desperate Escape, with a 1 in 3 chance to losing the Ta'Unar. Sure, there's a re-roll possible for this, but this again relies on your opponent having the Command Points to do this. So in practice it won't happen a lot, but in theory it is possible for a bunch of Grots to charge a Ta'Unar, start chasing it off, then presumably using a length of rope to trip and destroy this massive piece of technology. Because, you know, it'd be funny.
Buying One[edit]
So you actually want to buy one? Well, you can but there are a few things to keep in mind. For starters, it is a large and complex Forge World resin kit that should not be picked up by a beginning modeller. Start off with something more managable and cheaper like the Stormsurge to cut your teeth on. And for the love of the Greater Good, learn how to magnetize parts of the model. If you're going to splurge on a large Forge World kit like this, spending a little more time to learn how to switch between weapons will let you get the most out of the set. The rules between editions fluctuate, and the last thing you want if to get stuck with a sucky loadout when you have a model like this. So learn to magnetize!
Then, there's how the purchase itself works. You see, for the base price you get the Ta'Unar itself, but none of its guns. Those are seperate purchases. The suit itself is pricy enough on its own, but having even the required set of guns roughly doubles this amount. Then, if you want to have access to the whole garmut of weapons (and let's be honest: if you're the person who spends money on Forge World stuff you are the kind of person who wants all the options) you can add another 150% times the base cost (50% each for the big guns, and 25% for each arm weapon). This comes down to, at time of writing, a total of £545/$845/€675 for the whole kit. Sure that's a lot of money for a single kit, and not at all cost efficient when compared to the rest of a Tau army, but... let's be honest, if you're buying a Forge World model you don't care about that sorta stuff.
| Vessels of the Tau Kor'Vattra and its Auxillaries. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spaceships | ||
| Space Station | Tau Space Station | |
| Battleships | Battleship (Tau Merchant - Or'Es El'Eleath Stronghold - Warsphere) | |
| Cruisers | Light Cruiser (Tau Merchant - Tau Protector) Cruiser (Tau Merchant - Tau Protector - Bastion) | |
| Escorts | Escort (Tau Merchant - Tau Protector - Nicassar Dhow) | |
| Logistics | Il'Emaar | |
| Dropships | Orca | |
| Landships | ||
| Titans | KX139 Ta'Unar Supremacy Armour | |
| Airships | ||
| Flying Fortress | Tiger Shark | |
| Aerospace Vessels | Manta | |
