Autumn of Fliers

[tsuruki]

I actually thought the new marine gunship kinda looked like something out of StarCraft (Terrans).

Thats because Starcraft as originally supposed to be a 40k game till GW dropped support for it, no joke

[KarlPedder]

The name I am guessing you have heard is a snake and a fish.

Admittedly the name is most associated with a snake .... but it is also a fish.... a disc shaped fish

As the Cobra has been mentioned ... I shall use Cobra as an example. A cobra is a snake but there is also a Cobra fish. (although it is only a guppy and not very scary. ) There is also a Viper fish .... You get the point.

See what not paying attention does...... I didn't factor in the possibility of the unit being named like the Devilfish ala Cobrafish or such so was only looking for fish and snakes that share names such as the Asp... But then there is the whole thing where there isn't technically a Cobra Fish rather it along with at least Green Mamba are flashy sounding names in this case snake names used by sellers of tropical discus fish for certain colourings........Which now leads me to raising my eyebrow a little at your um example....

Though I hope it doesn't turn out to be "insert snake"fish, Devilfish is fine, Swordfish or even Razorfish IMO every combination of snake+fish sounds silly Cobra (though with the Eldar SH Tank it seems unlikely) or Mamba on their own would be fine but yeah the combos all sound horrible.

[Sildani]

Well, I've come up with "Habu", a Japanese family of vipers as well as the name of a Japanese box jellyfish. As the Tau are manga-inspired, this might not be too awfully far-fetched.

[MooseOnTheLoose]

My guess is the Boafish lol

[brassangel]

I'm going to think out side the box a bit here and go for something less obvious. A jellyfish perhaps; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptomedusae The Leptomedusae is somewhat disc shaped, and we all know a certain creature called Medusa had snakes in her hair.

Isn't the Medusa already an IG tank?

[Deff Mekz]

Ah darn it so it is. Thanks for clearing that up brassangel.

[Captain Collius]

I prefer the Tau flying fish.

So what we seem to have gotten from this is a new kit that i will want will be out in June.

Ohh and GW is trying to suck every dollar out of necron players wallets

[Fable]

It surprises me to hear that the Tau flyer could be out before the end of the summer rather than an Eldar flyer. The main reason is because the Tau dex is rumored to come first and it has been rumored that there will be at least three codexes before Eldar is out. It would seem like Eldar would need a stretch unit more than the Tau who are supposedly the second or third dex in this edition.

Why not just wait for the dex? Why make another force wait for the codex when their codex is further out? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. "Here, Tau, play with this toy that is just a taste of the new hotness you'll get in a few months. Hey, you, pointy ears, you have to sit outside the toy box and watch everyone else play."

What business acumen leads to this decision?

[Brother Dimetrius]

It'll be interesting to see how (and if) the new SM/IG flyers will be incorporated into the other Imperium Codexes. I speak primarily as someone who is not fond of Storm Ravens but would nonetheless make a Air Cavalry GK army

[verydarkshadow]

It surprises me to hear that the Tau flyer could be out before the end of the summer rather than an Eldar flyer. The main reason is because the Tau dex is rumored to come first and it has been rumored that there will be at least three codexes before Eldar is out. It would seem like Eldar would need a stretch unit more than the Tau who are supposedly the second or third dex in this edition.

Why not just wait for the dex? Why make another force wait for the codex when their codex is further out? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. "Here, Tau, play with this toy that is just a taste of the new hotness you'll get in a few months. Hey, you, pointy ears, you have to sit outside the toy box and watch everyone else play."

What business acumen leads to this decision?

I guess I don't understand precisely what GW's rationale is, but to me it seems that they are doing with Tau what they did with Vampire Counts recently, releasing a centerpiece model in the late summer and following that up with a new codex/army book early in the new year. I think it worked pretty well with Vamps, if I understand correctly.

I suppose that there is the possibility that a new model like a Tau flyer might draw in new players for that particular army, and therefor possibly increase the potential customer base for the impending 2013 release.

[MajorWesJanson]

I agree about the idea of building the player-base, it also may be a subtle stock reduction plan. Supposedly Battlesuits are getting redone as a 3-pack, and Fire Warriors coudl easily use a recut/redesign maybe merging with pathfinders. both are rather core units, so building interest in Tau some time before will help deplete existing stocks of those two sets before a potential redesign of the kits basically tanks sales of the old ones.

[drbored]

My money is on 'Tau Cobra'.

It's a single word snake. It's not going to be called the 'Tau Snake', that's just.. odd. It could be the 'Tau Viper', that would fit a fighter jet. It's not going to be any two-worded snake like 'Coral Snake', and it's not going to be culturally derived, like the 'Water Moccasin'. Viper, Cobra, Sidewinder, maybe the Adder or Asp, Krait, Mamba, Python, maybe even Boa. It won't be any sort of snake that describes its appearance like 'hognose' or 'bush' or 'constrictor'. It'll probably be a one-word snake name, perhaps with 'Storm' or 'Void' in front of it, as per GW's current naming conventions.

[The Dude]

Cobra and Vyper are both established Eldar vehicle names.

[MajorWesJanson]

Cobra and Vyper are both established Eldar vehicle names.

On that note, Pathfinders was an established Eldar unit name...

[drbored]

On that note, Pathfinders was an established Eldar unit name...

+1. Stormraven, Voidraven

Just because one word is used by something else doesn't mean it's fully claimed in all forms always.

[The Dude]

On that note, Pathfinders was an established Eldar unit name...

Ah. Just so.

+1. Stormraven, Voidraven

Just because one word is used by something else doesn't mean it's fully claimed in all forms always.

<Something>raven is less of a direct conflict than Pathfinder.

That said, weren't Pathfinders killed with the Craftworld Codex?

[Chrysis]

Ah. Just so.



<Something>raven is less of a direct conflict than Pathfinder.

That said, weren't Pathfinders killed with the Craftworld Codex?

They're still in the current codex, but instead of getting their own unit entry you can upgrade a unit of Rangers to Pathfinders. So it's less of a unit and more of a special rule that everyone uses as the name of the unit.

[Gorbad Ironclaw]

On that note, Pathfinders was an established Eldar unit name...

It's a newer name than either the Cobra or the Vyper though, and I'd argue much less iconic. It's a minor upgrade for a minor unit in the list. If I hear Cobra or Vyper in a 40k context I think Eldar, if I hear pathfinders I'll think Tau before Eldar, but I might also look blankly at you for a second while I drag up the reference. In any case, we will know soon enough. Randomly guessing at fish/snakes seems a little silly, and won't actually tell us anything anyway.

[ForgottenLore]

They're still in the current codex, but instead of getting their own unit entry you can upgrade a unit of Rangers to Pathfinders. So it's less of a unit and more of a special rule that everyone uses as the name of the unit.

The codex entry says you upgrade the rangers to pathfinders, and the description of rangers says that they sometimes become pathfinders.

There is also the Chimera and Khymera, very different spellings but same pronunciation.

[blooddragon]

Has anyone sorted out whether this 'dragon' thing is bogus or not? There was that comment a while back that suggested it might not be Chaos? I'm having fantasies about an Eldar Wraith-Dragon and need to be brought to reality please before the disappointment becomes inevitable.