Warning: This tactic may anger those who wish to play within our fluff.... Unless in your fluff Ethereals are the ones leading the charge into battle.

Well I was reading through my codex this evening and I found something that interested me. Ethereals that are killed give preferred enemy to the units that take their tests. In 6E preferred enemy is applied to shooting as well as close combat.

That got my mind thinking. Have a sacrificial Ethereal to give my army Preferred Enemy! And if he doesn't die, he helps with leadership. Possibly a Win Win situation? Well let us take a look at 2 important questions.
1)Is it worth 50 pts to give your army Preferred Enemy?
2)Is it worth risking the chance for half my army to run off the board?

Let's address question 1. Remember that Preferred enemy is slightly different in 6th, we can only re-roll our rolls of 1 instead of all failures. But it now works in shooting as well.
Answer 1: In a 2000 pt game, I'm sure I could squeeze 50 pts out to field a Ethereal

Now let's address question 2.This is all a risk reward situation. Are you willing to risk your army running off the field to make them more powerful? Yes or no? If yes, there are some things you can do to help your chances. Upgrade leaders in FW squads to give Leadership benefits. Along with fielding an Ethereal, field Shadowsun for her 18" Ld bubble. Finally, this is a little different for some of us, but change your deployment. Put all of your lower leadership as far away from the board edge as possible to prevent them from completely running off the board.(now remember one unit breaking will not cause another test on a friendly unit because you can only take 1 Ld test per phase)
Answer 2: Well yes, and no. I believe that it all depends on your risk tolerance. There are things that you can do to help prevent your army from running off the board to make this tactic successful.

Tactics and things to remember.
Only read this if you are interested in the ideas behind a sacrificial Ethereal.

Tactic 1: Lone Ethereal
So this is basically a lone Ethereal that you would place in the open and hope that he dies. Caution, if your opponent is smart he may realize what you are trying to do, and avoid shooting the Ethereal all together. If your opponent does this. Use your Ethereal as a speed bump. Then you will get your desired effect.

Tactic 2: Ethereal with Upgraded FW squad
What your goal here would be to get some elite BS4 FW, but still get the desired effect from the Ethereal. The idea is to put your Ethereal in the furthest front part of the squad so that he is the first one removed in shooting and CC if that is ever required. A possible advantage to this tactic is that your opponent will be eager to shoot this squad, not only because it has your Ethereal in it, but it also has the elite FW that he will want to be rid of. Caution, if your opponent knows what you are up to, you may have to sacrifice the squad by CC in order to get your desired effect.

So what does this all mean? Well a sacrificial Ethereal can be used to boost your killing potential by allowing re-rolls of 1. You can have a speed bump or a distraction
for those instant death shots. Risk of losing the game with runaway units. Having Ethereals charge headfirst into battle!!

One more thing:NEVER MAKE YOUR SACRIFICAL ETHEREALl YOUR WARLORD. YOU'RE GIVING UP FREE VP TO YOUR OPPONENT!!!


So this all comes down to a risk reward situation... With some clever deployment there is a way to reduce our risk and increase our potential reward.

Well it is a brutal tactic and its not verry fluffy either, but where is the fun in not living a little and taking a chance. Am I insane for this idea?

I've also been thinking about that. But in my case, with a unit of kroot. That allows you to have low armor scoring unit "protected" by his presence, as your oponents will try to avoid killing him (at least on the second/third game with you!).

And of course with that unit you can assault bigger units and challenge with the Ethereal! He dies for the greater good, and your kroot are still doing their job!

More suicidal Ethereal tactics:
- If your opponent refuses to play along and shoot your beloved leader, be proactive! Stand him on the battlements of a tall building, then make him step forward. The higher up the building he was on, the more likely he is to inspire the troops when he lands... (Leaping Down, p95)

- Alternatively, the Ethereal can lead a unit of Broadsides (from the front, naturally). This will give you the benefit of the Ethereal being able to assign the shots onto whichever models you wish on a 2+ (through the Look Out Sir! rule), and even if you do roll a 1, your beloved leader will still get to give one last bit of inspiration to the troops. Depending on how worried your opponent is about killing the Ethereal, this may even discourage him from shooting at your Broadsides too. (If this is the desired effect, feel free to comment before the game just how hideously powerful the Ethereal becomes in death.*)

* Bonus points are to be had if you manage to sneak in the quote "Strike me down, and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Well personally i might even consider making him warlord just to make him more enticing. That 1 VP is cheaper at least to me then an entire elite FW squad , also don't forget you can actually nullify that VP by taking the first blood VP.

Actually i find it very close to Sun Tzu's teachings you use a direct attack to mask your decisive indirect attack. In the Tau case we sacrifice him for the Greater Good of the entire army so i think it is accepted even for fluff reasons. The risk is not that bad even if it fails for example the fall back of the crisis now isn't 3d6 but 2d6 , also the new Bonding Knife rules enable attempts to regroup at all times. As for table edges block them with Kroot and /or vehicles so you increase the distance they have to move enabling you perhaps the regroup roll of the bonding knife.

That of course is one way of how i personally would utilize an Ethereal. Of course if i am mistaken please correct me.

To avoid having the Ethereal as a warlord, it means taking a Shas'O - you can't just pick a HQ character to be the warlord, it's the model with the highest Ld

I also a had plan along the lines of a bonzai ethereal and here is what I came up with. Take two ethereals, one to kill and one to keep alive. When the first one dies and all your tau have to take the leadership test (I think this includes the surviving ethereal too)you still can use the living ethereal's Inspiring Presence to help keep units from breaking. I almost forgot that units ethereals join are fearless.

Just to make sure everyone is clear, only units who take the leadership test gain Preferred Enemy. This means that you don't want your second Ethereal leading a unit when the first dies.

Or instead of killing the ethereal, buy a bastion and stick him in it (with a unit od broadsides of course). This gives you a fearless broadside unit that cannot be touched (unless you destroy the bastion but hey A14 all round) and also gives you a pretty good point of view for rerolling those morale tests. Then if he gets killed, you get your preferred enemy anyways. Combined with shadowsun and clever deployment yuou will be doing those tests on Ld10.

Shouldn't a unit joined by an Ethereal still get preffered enemy? If i remember correctly the rulebook just says that fearless units pass morale tests automatically (which is different to not taking them at all, or ignoring those tests outright).

Hmm, maybe so actually...
*is at work and so can't check his book until later*

People if i am not mistaken one HQ slot is the Xv8 Commander by default ,so running 2 ethereals means 3 HQ choices. I thought we were talking about usual games of around 250 to 1850 points, unless we discuss Ethereal tactics in general without regarding any points limitation. Also as far the fearless bonus the Ethereal gives i think it disappears the moment he dies, since in the codex is written if i remember correct that the unit gets the bonus from the Ethereal as long he remains with that unit.

And as always if i am mistaken please correct me thank you .

Very true, Amruin. I forgot about the old 1+ mandatory rule. The double ethreal ploy would work for games of 2000 pts or more thanks to the new force org chart for bigger games.

To benefit from the preferred enemy buff from the Ethereal, you must have a line of sight to him? That's not good. Thanks Nekomata. I didn't saw that before!



No, I do not think so. The Ethereal is the holy cow of the Tau Empire. There is nothing that justifies the loss of an Ethereal. And don't forget: the loss of an Ethereal is nothing good (fluff wise). The buff is, because the Army is scared and has a burning hatred. It is the most worst thing that can happen!

And another thing: Commander O'Shovah is a Commander who failed to protect an Ethereal I think. But he learned to live with it and that Ethereals are not everything. That it's bad when they die, but not the end of the world. And for that, he was driven out of the Empire.

So I think, fluff wise, there is no reason to justify the suicide mission of an Ethereal.

But indeed the death of an Ethereal is not such a bad thing following the rules. Although I forgot, that only units benefit from the buff which saw the Ethereal when he died, it's still a strong bonus. But: I lost due to this Event a full Broadside Team with two shield drones and four Ghosts with two Markerdrones. Something I could never compensate.

But, if you take an Ethereal you should buy an Shas'O. To loose a VP so thoughtlessly is unforgettable. The command traits for the warlord are indispensably in my opinion if you use an Ethereal. The one (inspiring presence) is the best result.

People please read the codex entry for the Ethereal more carefully in page 33 from the Tau empire codex
"Whilst the Tau are inspired by the presence of their Ethereals, theya re conditioned to dread their death above all things, for fear of the return of the Mont'au- the Time of Terror before the coming of the Ethereals.If a friendly Ethereal is killed then every unit of Tau on the tabletop (not Kroot ,Vespids or Drones) must take a Morale check at the start of their next turn if they are not in close combat or falling back. In addition , every Tau that takes the test will benefit from he Preferred Enemy universal special rule, with the enemy as their preferred enemy. This applies whether the Morale test is passed or failed , and lasts untill the end of the game."
That was the "Price of Failure" special rule on the Ethereal.

The one regarding the line of sight is "Inspiring Presence" which is the following: "The Ethereal and all Tau units (not Kroot, Vespids or drones) with a line of sight to him may re-roll any Morale checks.This includes passed Morale checks. The re-rolled result stands.Any Tau unit joined by an Etheral caste member becomes Fearless."

As for fluff since the Greater Good doctrine sacrifices the individual's desires for the good of the empire as a whole , i still think should the occasion be so dire instead of sacrificing an entire Hunter cadre the Ethereal himself would decide to be sacrificed.

As for the warlord VP on the Ethereal i said that as a means to make him more enticing to the enemy to kill without losing precious models and/or points. Also you can kill the enemy's HQ too for the warlord VP and thats why i said get the first blood first since that is the only secondary ojective that cannot be taken by both teams. I find it that in 6th edition its imperative for Tau armies to get the first blood, especially since its so easy to get with our railguns.

I recently read the thread on the updated forge world tetras, and when I finished reading this all I could think of was a 12 man FW squad or a full crisis unit being supported by a tetra, after my ethereal had already 'given himself the honor' of dying for the greater good.
BS 5, whist re-rolling any 1s = automatic hits.
When I first thought of this, I imminently thought that it would be too many points to make it work, but for 160 points, and if you maneuver the 2 tetras appropriately, you would be getting virtually automatic hits on the foe's 2 deadliest units every turn.
* I do think running your ethereal to the front line is anti - fluff, but the pro's outweigh the con's*

Not quite automatic hits. You only re-roll the 1st 1 you roll, if that re-roll is a 1 it sticks. I believe it is a 97.2% chance to hit (still great though)

Won a 20 man Tournament with my Tau list this weekend.

Step 1) Take Shadowsun.
Step 2) Take an Ethereal.
Step 3) Send the Ethereal to their death.
Step 4) Profit

I've been running this for a few games now to good effect. I played a huge game (6.5k each) yesterday and preferred enemy was hugely effective. In general the more points you have, the better this strategy gets. Taking two ethereals in games over 2000 could also be a cheaper way of running this strategy; using the second ethereal's morale rerolls to mitigate damage from price of failure. Still probably better to have shadowsun around though.

Another thing I noticed is how much more effective preferred enemy makes crisis suit and to a lesser extent broadside shooting; rerolling 1's is incredibly powerful combined with high-strength shots. In most cases, broadsides and crisis suits are wounding on 2; they fail 1/6 wounds. Reroll 1's and that becomes 1/36; virtually nil. Throw in a modest amount of markerlight support and you can get 35/36 on to-hit and to-wound rolls. Paired with fireknife firepower, this is absolutely devastating. Any crisis suit build that has two different weapons (twin linked suits have the rerolls built in; but lose the extra shots from the second weapon) benefits greatly from preferred enemy. Fireknife, helios, and firestorm configurations should be taken if you are running the suicide ethereal.

I am really enjoying this strategy. One downside I have noticed though is that it is tough to guarantee an early death for the ethereal. He can be attached to a unit of infiltrating kroot and deployed close to the enemy, but the kroot are usually forfeit as well. They are a 70-point delivery system in that case. And even if you get within 12" on the infiltration, the ethereal can't assault on turn one due to new infiltration rules. If the ethereal dies on your second turn, then you will be testing on turn three, which is less than ideal.

This works great!
Last night I tabled dark eldar because, my tetras stayed alive untill turn 4, my etherial died on turn 2, and my 4 squads of 12 FW demolished everything. The pulse rifles glanced his 3 Ravagers into oblivion, and at one point he had to roll 23 armor saves on his Incubi in one shooting phase. obviously the dice were very nice to me, but the tactics of the ethereal sacrificing himself worked great.
My one concern is, if the tau community as a whole recognizes this huge advantage, our opponents will learn not to touch our Ethereals, so:
1) How can we make our Ethereals too powerful for the enemy to avoid?
2) If they will let them live, can our Ethereals do enough while alive to justify the 50 points?

One thing you can do is send in the ethereal in a way that the enemy cannot ignore him; sending him at an objective, a chokepoint, or even assaulting the enemy. The kroot delivery system can be really nice here; you can make a conga line of kroot with the ethereal out front. Put that line in front of the enemy lines and they will have little choice but to send some shots their way, especially if they want to advance.