Codex 38th Company (Part 5 - Revision) · 9:39pm Oct 25th, 2019
This part is all about them weasely gray critters, the Tau, and all their lovable tools friends working for the Greater Good!
Except not, because they're working for Chaos now. Ha! Updated for 8th Edition.
Codex 5 Supplemental - Detachment Xenis
This section contains rules for fielding Tau Empire units in a 38th Company army.
The Tau are reluctant converts to the pirate’s life, having sold their allegiance for the lives of the Lamman Sept stranded on Centaur III. Having completed their mission, but caught between the Orks and the forces of Chaos, the Fire Caste leaders were perplexed to see the latter explicitly not fleeing the planet to escape the former. When it was revealed to the Tau that the Iron Warriors had a plan for staving off the Ork WAAAAGH – crucially, one that did not interfere with the Tau’s plan to divert the fleet into the path of the ravenous Tyranids – the Fire Warriors reacted with skepticism, but ultimately decided they had nothing left to lose but their lives. Many characterized it at the time as a choice between slavery and death, and they have rigorously applied this attitude to their service.
The humans, quite used to bitter, lonely, and desperate circumstances, find the Fire Warriors’ poor morale annoying and even somewhat perplexing; the Tau were, after all, the ones to draw the Orks to the planet in the first place, and the 38th Company had taken on the main burden of protecting the planet. Why should the Fire Warriors be so despondent about being given a chance to fight for their lives? The Equestrians, unsurprisingly, find their ennui absolutely infuriating, given that their own planet and civilization has been endangered for the sake of the integrity and safety of the Tau Empire. While the Tau can certainly be considered insensitive to the genocide they’ve deliberately and knowingly provoked, neither the humans nor ponies can fully comprehend the loss experienced by the Tau at having their obligation to the Greater Good “fulfilled” and their lives abandoned by their Sept. A human would consider this a case of unfortunate (if not surprising) abandonment by a commander or employer cutting their losses, but to an adherent of Tau’va it is tragedy easily comparable to being forsaken by one’s family. To the Tau, the Greater Good is every person’s purpose for being and life goal, the bond that holds society and self together. One’s obligation to Tau’va ends with one’s life, and so it was supposed to be for the warriors when they were abandoned. Being told that their goal is fulfilled and that they must now fight for themselves, with individual purpose and guidance free of any greater ideals and principles, is more than a little jarring, if not QUITE as awful as the prospect of certain death. Their new human comrades, offering them membership in self-destructive and nonsensical cults, have been less than helpful in assisting this transition, but at least not overtly hostile to it as the ponies usually are.
The Tau auxiliaries, on the other hand, have reacted quite well to the offer of possible survival. The Kroot in particular made up a sizeable fraction of the abandoned soldiers, and have anyway always been more loyal to their own fortunes than the ideology of the coalition. Some Kroot have even taken to full-blown Chaos worship, intrigued by the martial power bestowed upon cult devotions to Khorne (devotion to Nurgle or Tzeentch is far more complex in its benefits and drawbacks, and they tend to scoff at it as a result).
Perhaps even more important than the addition Tau soldiers, however, was the enlistment of numerous Tau engineers and workers from the earth caste, who held a great many precious technological secrets. Although hardly more enthusiastic about their new allegiance than the fire and air castes, they do not benefit from a segregated chain of command, and their contributions are not dependent upon the presence of an enemy. As such, nearly a full hundred earth caste workers of all ranks have been placed under the control of the Dark Mechanicus and obligated to cooperate, and the Dark Mechanicus has been nothing short of gleeful in extracting the knowledge of the inner workings of Tau xenotech so that they might improve the 38th Company’s equipment and wargear. Most of the work being done is on the Company’s ships, which have ever functioned as the main workhorses of the pirate fleet, but some of the workers have been placed in the manufactorum to create superior wargear for front-line troops. The Iron Warriors themselves largely disdain such equipment, as they have used the same trusted wargear for millennia to great effect (and soundly defeated the Lamman Sept with it, at that), but the human mercenaries are as ever more flexible than their post-human masters, and quite eager to trade up from the underwhelming lasrifle and nigh-suicidal plasma gun.
In terms of combat prowess and tactical proficiency, the Fire Warriors provide an excellent complement to Chaos Space Marines, who prefer close-range combat and are fierce melee fighters. An unusual proficiency of the Lamman Sept, however, is in stealth and covert technologies. Their vehicles have communications and sensor jammers to prevent scouts from reporting their location, their infantry teams are practiced in infiltration, and they have even developed a special battlesuit design that incorporates the strengths of the ubiquitous Crisis Suit and the less common Stealth Suit into one armor construct.
Rules
• A Xenis detachment may be included as an additional detachment in any 38th Company army. It may never be the primary detachment and may not contain the army Warlord.
• Xenis detachment units are chosen from Codex: Tau Empire and those units detailed in this Codex supplement blog thing. No units from other army books or supplements may be part of a Xenis detachment.
• A Xenis detachment may not contain an Ethereal or any unique characters from Codex: Tau Empire. All other unit options are available to them as normal.
• All units considered “fire caste” are at -1 Leadership. This includes Fire Warriors, Battlesuit Commanders, Pathfinders, Crisis Suits, Riptide Battlesuits, and so on. This even extends to Tau drones, which are subject to subroutines that place suspiciously little value on the success of objectives designated by the 38th Company command.
• The Leadership penalty does not extend to units classified as “auxiliaries”, such as Kroot Carnivores or Vespids. The penalty (or lack thereof) is already taken into account in all the unit profiles listed in this supplement.
• Any Fireblade, Fire Warrior, Pathfinder, Sniper Drone, or Gun Drone unit in a Xenis detachment may take the following special rule for 20 points or +2 Power Rating. This extends to any dedicated transport taken by the units:
Infiltration: This unit may be held in reserve until after all other units without similar rules have been deployed. After the first turn is decided, but before the roll to Seize Initiative, deploy the held units anywhere on the board, as long as they are more than 24" from all enemy units.
• Any unit of Kroot Carnivores and/or Kroot Hounds can be upgraded with the Mark of Khorne at a price of 2 points each or +1 Power Rating for the unit. The Mark of Khorne gives all models in the +1 attack.
HQ
Shas’el Wraithstar (130 points/power rating 10)
Wraithstar is the highest-ranking Tau officer on Centaur III (if one does not include the statue of Shas’o Voidsong) and the architect behind the “peace treaty” that saw the abandoned Tau forces integrated into the 38th Company. Always a pragmatic and somewhat bitter leader, he performed better than most officers of his rank, but seems troubled by a cynical outlook and a distinct lack of idealistic zeal for the cause of the Greater Good. Many claim they can trace a visible deterioration in his attitude to a key battle in which Lamman Sept’s last surviving Ethereal advisor perished during an Ork raid, but he had never been considered by his superiors to be unfit for his duties or of questionable loyalty. Those same commanders would probably have to revisit that opinion were they to learn of his current allegiance.
Facing a hopeless battle on the planet surface with no prospect of escape, and intrigued by the strange Space Marines that had bested his Sept’s armies, he ultimately decided that he and his remaining soldiers would not perish on Centaur III if they didn’t have to. His peers consider it an abnormally selfish decision, even if his terms very explicitly called for the safeguarding of the Emerald Dawn project that brought the Orks to the Centaur system in the first place. Certainly, he has endured constant criticism and suspicion from the other fire caste officers for subordinating his warriors to a band of corrupted humans, but those same officers are quite reluctant to call for his removal and replacement. None of them, unsurprisingly, wish to be the one to explain to the Iron Warriors that they’ve decided to renegotiate the terms of their “alliance”.
In combat, Wraithstar favors surgical strikes and hit-and-run attacks over coordinated fusillades and heavy armor, in stark contrast to his Shas’o, Voidsong. He often takes to the field himself in his modified stealth suit, but usually contributes to secondary objectives and covering fire rather than leading a charge on the primary targets. More examples of cowardice and weakness, claim his detractors. But surely it is no coincidence that he tends to outlive his critics. Wraithstar has kept a tight leash on Detachment Xenis since its subjugation, suppressing elements of sedition and resistance to Chaos rule. However, even he has been unable to maintain high morale in the face of their new leadership and hostile neighbors.
Movement 18" | WS: 4+ | BS: 2+ | S: 4 | T: 4 | A: 3 | W: 5 | Ld: 9 | Sv: 3+ |
Shas'el Wraithstar is a single model armed with a ZV-22 Experimental Stealth Suite, Rail Carbine, Fusion Blaster, Auspex Marker, and a Power Sword.
Special Rules: Guerilla Tactician, Sneak Attack, Supporting Fire, Ork Slayer
Guerilla Tactician: Wraithstar and one other unit with keyword: Infantry can be put aside rather than deploying normally. After all other units without a similar rule have deployed, but before the roll to Seize Initiative, Wraithstar and the attendant unit may deploy anywhere on the table at least 6” away from enemy units if no enemy models can draw line of sight to them, and at least 12” away if they can.
Sneak Attack: Wraithstar studied the efficacy of surprise attacks in close combat used by Shas’o Voidsong, and adapted a hidden power blade in his armor just as she did. He is generally less aggressive with the tactic, however, and usually only enters combat from the safety of his Cloaking Field. When Wraithstar is cloaked and makes an attack in the Fight Phase, he loses the cloak as normal but gains +1 to his hit and wound rolls, and an additional +1 to his weapon's AP value.
Ork Slayer: When targeting an enemy with faction keyword: Ork, add +1 to all weapon damage caused by successful wounds.
ZV-22 Experimental Stealth Suit: An enhanced stealth suit design modified from the prototype heavy stealth suit armor models, this suit was rejected due to problems with the energy transmission system burning out mid-combat from having to cycle frankly exorbitant energy levels to the stealth, weapons, shields, and propulsion systems in short order. Wraithstar endured the system limitations, deciding that the advantages of the stealth field and weapon loadout was worth the difficulties of carefully managing the energy output during combat. Once Solon got a look at the suit interior, however, the Warsmith took the suit away without explanation. It was returned the following day, and since then power transmission has been flawless under all battlefield conditions. Additionally, his suit seemed to transmit networked targeting data for other units based on his own weapons fire, without the addition of a separate markerlight system. He decided not to ask questions.
The ZV-22 provides a 3+ armor save, increases Strength, Toughness, and Wounds by 1 point each, has two weapons hardpoints, and has both a Cloaking Field and a Shield Generator.
Cloaking Field: At the beginning of his Movement Phase, Wraithstar may decide to activate his cloaking field. So long as the field is active all attacks to hit him, whether ranged or melee, only hit on a roll of 6, and any units charged by Wraithstar in the Fight Phase may not fire Overwatch. The cloak effect ends when Wraithstar makes any kind of attack.
Shield Generator: Wraithstar has a 4+ Invulnerable Save.
Auspex Marker: This system uses data regarding Wraithstar’s firing angles and impact success to send targeting data through the markerlight network, apparently using only visual confirmation gleaned from the optical sensors fed through a strange logic engine barely the size of a grenade. The earth caste is completely confounded by this device, and has so far had no success in figuring out the processing algorithms used in the upgraded targeting system. Wraithstar doesn’t particularly care so long as it works, although he has been completely unwilling to pray to the device as recommended.
If Wraithstar hits a target with all his fired shots during the shooting phase or overwatch, the Auspex Marker provides a free, automatic Markerlight hit on that unit. If any fired shots fail to hit, the system will not work and no Markerlight is provided.
Rail Carbine: Considering the success of the rail rifle in the field, it wasn’t long before design options for battlesuit and vehicle hardpoints were considered. Unfortunately, this required the barrel to be shortened significantly, as the weapon was far too unwieldy at its normal length when attached to small weapon mounts. Ultimately the system was deemed too inefficient and problematic for mass production; the rail carbine not only forced a complete redesign of the magnetic drivers, but also a significant power upgrade to accelerate the ammunition to sufficient velocity in a shorter barrel. This caused a whole host of new technical issues, and eventually the project was abandoned. Wraithstar has again taken up the prototype assembly for his own use, deciding that the tactical value was worth the constant maintenance problems and jamming.
Rail Carbine | Range: 24” | Type: Rapid Fire 2 | S: 6 | AP: 3 | D: 1 | Unreliable |
Unreliable: Although this weapon isn’t so dangerous as to harm its user, it is prone to jamming and loading problems more severe than other weapons of its type. When using a weapon with the Unreliable special rule, a model can never re-roll missed shots or attacks, whether by exceptional Ballistic Skill, psychic powers, or other special rules attached to the unit or weapon.
Faction Keywords: Chaos, Tau Empire, 38th Company
Keywords: Infantry, Fly, Character, Wraithstar
Shas’vre Jerriha (70 points/power rating 6)
Shas’vre Jerriha is the niece of Shas’el Wraithstar, and as such things go has benefitted considerably from her uncle’s control of key segments and operations in the Lamman Sept. Those who suggest that she isn’t sufficiently talented to warrant her rank, however, are quickly disabused of that notion when they witness the Fireblade in combat. An extremely capable soldier herself, she has distinguished herself in numerous raids and assault actions, and earned high honors (crucially, from officers unconnected to her family) for her combat service defending the Myer system outposts from a Deathwatch assault long enough for all non-fire caste personnel to be evacuated. By the time the Space Marines drove the defending Fire Warriors into a full retreat, the facilities had already been abandoned and sabotaged, and casualties among the Deathwatch had been embarrassingly high. Although she doesn’t have the head for full battle plans, she’s clever enough to identify a weak spot in the enemy firing lines and pry it open, and quick enough on her hooves to escape a firefight she has no realistic hope of winning.
In the Centaur system, she faced a different kind of foe in the Iron Warriors. The Lamman Sept had never encountered or been briefed on the bizarre, poorly understood cults of the humans on the other side of the galaxy, and she proved unprepared to face the monstrous Chaos Space Marines. It is to her eternal humiliation, however, that she was only captured by the 38th Company due to the direct intervention of the pony farmer Applejack. She has been better than most of her kin at following the battlefield commands of the Iron Warriors and adapting to their new role, but still finds herself unnerved by the presence of equine soldiers. And Stetsons.
Movement: 6" | WS: 4+ | BS: 2+ | S: 3 | T: 3 | A: 3 | W: 4 | Ld: 9 | Sv: 4+|
Shas'vre Jerriha is a single model armed with Combat Armor, a Pulse Carbine with integrated Markerlight, a Pulse Pistol, Photon Grenades, and Frag Grenades
Special Rules: Supporting Fire, Crossfire, Ork Slayer, Infiltrate, Fireblade
Crossfire: A commander possessing this trait has the skill to direct a much more disciplined barrage when trying to fend off an advancing enemy, as well as an array of traps and tactical data to make their last fusillade count before getting stuck into the desperate crush of melee. All friendly units within 6" hit on 4+ rather than 6's when firing Overwatch and using Supporting Fire.
Master Fireblade: Friendly units within 6" that have faction keyword: Tau Empire may use Jerriha's Leadership value when taking Morale checks (still subject to all other modifiers) and re-roll 1's to hit with shooting attacks.
Faction Keywords: Chaos, Tau Empire, 38th Company
Keywords: Infantry, Character, Jerriha
Due to her flexible command role, Shas’vre Jerriha may always be included in a 38th Company Xenis detachment even if the HQ selections in the Force Organization Chart are already occupied; she does not take up an HQ selection unless she is the only HQ unit purchased for the detachment.
Elites
XV-28 Heavy Stealth Suits (50 points/power rating 5)
A battlesuit model designed by the Lamman Sept specifically to aid its more clandestine approach to combat, this weapons platform combines the superior armament and protection of the Crisis Suit with an upgraded, multi-spectrum cloaking system that renders them all but untouchable as they cross the battlefield and reach optimal engagement range. The drawbacks of the design, however, were enough for most coalitions to reject the production template; in addition to being disastrously expensive to produce and repair, it does not perfectly replace the other battlesuits’ roles. The Heavy Stealth Suit cannot power its Cloaking Field and its weapons as a Stealth Suit can, nor can it boast as many weapons, extra systems, or a drone controller as Crisis Suits can. In light of this, other Septs have been unable to find a reliable niche for the weapon and deemed it a gross diversion of essential resources.
That suits the Lamman Sept just fine. It did not suit the Sept leaders, understandably, to learn that such weapons had fallen into the hands of a band of post-human renegades. The Chaos Space Marines find the smaller Stealth Suit combat units unimpressive and flimsy, and have deemed the far more formidable XV-28 a superior model suited to a role that they normally have great difficulty with. The XV-28 pilots are less than enthused about their sudden popularity.
Heavy Stealth Suit | Movement: 12" | WS: 5+ | BS: 4+ | S: 4 | T: 4 | A: 2 | W: 3 | Ld: 7 | Sv: 3+|
Heavy Stealth Suits consist of 1 model armed with an XV-28 Battlesuit, a Burst Cannon, and a Plasma Rifle.
Special Rules: Infiltrate, Supporting Fire
XV-28 Battlesuit: The XV-28 model battlesuit, commonly known as a heavy stealth suit, uses a far more sophisticated cloaking field than the conventional XV-25, and attaches it over a layer of heavy reactive plating to enhance suit durability under sustained fire. The obvious drawback to this system is the extensive power drain of the cloaking device and the tactical limitations it imposes in order to obscure the suit as fully as possible. As a result, the suit cannot use its weapon systems while the cloaking field is engaged. Pilots use the field to gain tactically advantageous positions and escape enemy retribution after unleashing their weapons, and typically do so to great effect.
An XV-28 Battlesuit has two weapon hardpoints and a Cloaking Field, grants +1 Strength, Toughness, and Wounds, along with a 3+ Armor Save.
Any model can replace its Plasma Rifle with a Fusion Blaster for 5 points.
A Heavy Stealth Suit unit can add up to 2 additional Heavy Stealth suits at a cost of 50 points or +4 power rating each.
Faction Keywords: Chaos, Tau Empire, 38th Company
Keywords: Infantry, Fly, Heavy Stealth Suits
Troops
Fire Lancers (120 points/power rating 8)
With access to Tau weaponry and equipment, and the Chaos Marines’ general antipathy toward xeno-tech in general, it was only a matter of time before the 38th Company reached the obvious conclusion to arm its human mercenaries with advanced wargear to give the mortal component of the pirate fleet a critical edge over their Imperial peers. Although the 38th Company had long practiced stealing the weapons of aliens, including the Tau, without the means or knowledge to maintain or manufacture more such weapons it was unable to arm more than a few key individuals with xeno-tech, while the rest was sold or scrapped. The willing surrender of a Tau cadre’s earth caste workers and engineers finally gave the Company access to all the tools it needed to keep a complete armory of alien wargear, and though it hasn’t embraced the idea enthusiastically, it didn’t take long before the idea reached the experimentation phase. There was resistance from the earth caste of the Tau at first, which tried desperately to justify keeping Tau equipment exclusively in the hands of its Fire Warriors, but the unfortunate aliens had little leverage in the matter. There were few similar concerns among the 38th Company leadership; although some Iron Warriors grumble about the mortals humans possessing weapons dangerous enough to be a threat to them, the Company had always armed and equipped its soldiers better than most Chaos cults, with substantial results.
Humans in general do not make exceptional soldiers, but in earnest comparison they exceed the strict physical qualities of Tau Fire Warriors. With the experience of their numerous campaigns and the strategic leadership of the Iron Warriors (some of them, anyway), many human veterans training with the new wargear quickly showed ability with pulse weaponry beyond that of the average Fire Warrior. These soldiers were rapidly re-organized into units referred to as Fire Lancers, and have become the 38th Company’s key light infantry component, able to lay down swathes of vicious pulse rifle fire even more lethal than the boltguns of their Astartes masters. The one concession that the Lamman Sept survivors were able to secure in the creation of the Fire Lancers were to have the new units integrated under the Xenis detachment command structure so that they can be synced to the Tau battle networks and make use of friendly markerlight data. Even so, the Tau Commanders haven’t been able to teach them the art of covering another unit that’s facing a close-combat assault, and there’s no real confusion about who the mercenaries really serve when some of them consistently take a few minutes after a combat briefing to offer their prayers to the Dark Gods of Chaos.
Fire Lancer | Movement: 6" | WS: 4+ | BS: 3+ | S: 3 | T: 3 | A: 1 | W: 1 | Ld: 7 | Sv: 4+|
Flame Champion | Movement: 6" | WS: 3+ | BS: 3+ | S: 3 | T: 3 | A: 2 | W: 1 | Ld: 8 | Sv: 4+|
A unit of Fire Lancers consists of 9 Fire Lancer models armed with Combat Armor, Pulse Rifles, Frag Grenades, and Photon Grenades and 1 Flame Champion model that also has a Pulse Pistol.
Special Rules: Better Part of Valor, Hired Help
Any number of models may replace their Pulse Rifles with Pulse Carbines for free.
Up to two models may replace their Pulse Rifles with Rail Rifles for 20 points each.
A Flame Champion may take a Power Weapon for 15 points, or a Power Fist for 20 points. It may also take Melta Bombs for 5 points.
A unit of Fire Lancers may take up to ten additional Fire Lancer models for 12 points each or ten additional Fire Lancer models for +6 power rating.
Hired Help: These soldiers work for money, not causes, and they don’t care who’s crest is painted on their unit standard. As long as they’re paid on time it doesn’t matter whether they have to serve daemonic Chaos monsters, embittered aliens, or even uppity equines. A unit with the Hired Help rule can benefit from any friendly characters' auras or special abilities that specify a certain faction keyword as if they possessed that keyword. Other keyword rules (such as abilities that only work on keyword: Vehicles, for example) still apply.
Faction Keywords: Chaos, Tau Empire, Iron Warriors, 38th Company
Keywords: Infantry, Fire Lancers
Fast Attack
Black Hounds (90 points/power rating 7)
These strange and unsightly beasts hardly seem like they belong among the disciplined firing lines of the Tau, and in fact the Iron Warriors consider it something of a joke that the feral, daemonic shock troops are exclusively attached to Xenis detachments. The Tau, for their part, don’t know what the Black Hounds are or where they come from, but have at least found that the foul creatures provide a useful complement to their Kroot forces in dealing with any close-range combat. The humans and post-humans, meanwhile, have noted that the Black Hounds bear some lingering resemblance to Kroot Carnivores. The fact that all the Black Hound units were transferred from Serith’s control also offers a fair clue as to their origin.
The Black Hound itself is a twisted, writhing creature of scorched flesh and exposed muscle, with Chaos Stars and burning runes carved into flesh and bone. Tentacles and claws flail about as they move, and when the beasts fall upon an enemy they do so with carnal and insane intensity. They are of limited use on the battlefield, and arguably are more terrifying to their allies than enemies, but in the end the Tau Cadres are always willing to put another obstacle between them and the enemy’s close assault troops.
Black Hound | Movement: 9" | WS: 3+ | BS: 5+ | S: 4 | T: 4 | A: 2 | W: 1 | Ld: 8 | Sv: - |
Shadow Beast | Movement: 9" | WS: 2+ | BS: 5+ | S: 5 | T: 5 | A: 3 | W: 2 | Ld: 9 | Sv: - |
A unit of Black Hounds consists of 9 Black Hounds and 1 Shadow Beast. They all possess Daemonic Claws.
Special Rules: Tortured Insanity, Warp Monstrosity
A unit of Black Hounds can take up to ten additional Black Hound models at a cost of 11 points each, or take ten additional Black Hound models for +6 power rating.
Tortured Insanity: This unit is barely capable of telling friend from foe, never mind using proper tactics and strategy. Models with this rule cannot control objectives, infiltrate, retreat, or embark on transports.
Warp Monstrosity: This creature is clearly of daemonic lineage to some extent or another, although it clearly isn't a daemon itself or directly possessed. Models with Warp Monstrosity have an Invulnerable Save of 5+ and units within 1" of at least one model with this rule subtract 1 from the results of any Morale Checks.
Daemonic Claws | Range: M | Type: Melee | S: Profile | AP: 2 | D: 1 | Cursed Touch
Cursed Touch: Attacks made with this weapon add +1 to rolls to wound when attacking models with keyword: Infantry.
Faction Keywords: Chaos, Tau Empire, 38th Company, Daemon
Keywords: Infantry, Black Hounds
Sweeeeet.
Woohoo, update!
Nice to see an update on this story again.
Been reading through the Ciaphas Cain novels. This update just makes me want to see more of the 38th Company.
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I got into Warhammer thanks to Dawn of War. Then I read the adaption; it was good, but Ciaphas Cain is who I’ve spent most of my time when reading through the Black Library.
Cool, pity that i would not be able to use it here, but its appreciated anyway
so we have chaos tau i.redd.it/fio6e2la1qay.jpg