The Tau HQ slot, while possessing many good choices, is arguably one of the more restrictive spots in the codex. Several of the codex’s weakest choices are in the HQ slot as well as several of its strongest, making the disparity between them particularly obvious. Now, this isn’t to contradict my earlier statement that there are no truly “bad” choices in the Tau codex, but certainly not every unit is created equal, and probably nowhere is this more obvious than with the HQ units. However, there are still more than a few options for HQs, so you’ll won’t just be seeing the exact same models over and over in every list.

We’ll start talking about specific units in the article to follow this one, so try to sit tight until then; this time, I’m going to be looking at the role that HQ units play in the codex and the reasons why you’ll want to consider different types of HQs in different lists.



One of the biggest considerations for your HQ slot is that it will dictate your warlord, or choice of warlords. In the Tau book, the warlord choice is especially relevant because so many of the Tau warlord traits are dependent on what sort of unit your warlord is- unlike other books, you have abundant rerolls available if you get something useless. While it’s still possible to get a weak or undesirable pick off the table, compared to rolling on the generic warlord tables (or even those of other 6E codices) you will rarely get something bad.

There is another layer to this ability, however- since most of the weaker traits are unavailable to some HQs, if you have more than one HQ selection it is possible to up your chances to get a favored trait- say, Hunter of the Skies or Exemplar of the Selfless Cause- by picking your warlord appropriately. Not all Tau armies will be able to pull such a trick, but for those that can it’s extremely useful.

Warlord Traits

Precision of the Skilled Hunter isn’t a game-breaker, but it can allow you to pull some interesting little shenanigans with your HQ model, especially a Plasma-armed Commander. Look Out Sir! is such a fundamental part of how wound allocation works these days that being able to break that rule can throw a lot of players for a loop; just remember to roll your Commander’s dice separately if you get it, since it will be relevant.

Through Unity, Devastation isn’t all that flashy but is still quite strong, especially when paired with some Markerlight hits. For a BS5 unit, this trait is just as good as twin-linking is, and even BS4 models will find their chances of missing drastically lowered. And, failing all that, anyone that doesn’t already have a reroll will find some use for it- remember that Gets Hot weapons can reroll their die to see if the weapon overheats if they have ANY kind of reroll on the to-hit dice, including limited rerolls such as this one.

A Ghost Who Walks Amongst Us makes your HQ (and their unit) into a pretty speedy little devil, although depending on their weapon loadout that may be more or less useful. It can let you move in to contest or take Linebreaker near the end of the game or just get a Plasma or Fusion squad into effective range more quickly- and out of the enemy’s range just as quickly. Even just when functioning as insurance against bad JSJ rolls it can be very helpful.

Exemplar of the Selfless Cause is one of the best traits on the table, as it lets you negate Going to Ground for everyone in the army, regardless of range. For Tau, with their limited survivability, this is absolutely huge- it can let you soak up an alpha strike essentially without consequence, negate a critical turn of enemy shooting, or get you back on your feet after some bad Pinning rolls. Especially if you have an Aegis Line or some ruins to duck behind, Exemplar can make your army essentially invincible for a turn.

Predator of the Skies fails to take the top slot only because Exemplar is so widely applicable- while Predator may be one of the few ways in the game to get Skyfire, Tau already have some pretty good AA available to them and the enemy won’t always be bringing along any airplanes for you to shoot down. On the other hand, for a Commander with Missiles, Plasma, or Fusion equipped this trait can be exceedingly deadly to enemy flyers, allowing you to score practically an entire air force from the sky in a single turn. With flyers as dominant as they are in the current environment, Predator of the Skies will be highly influential in enough games that you won’t be sad to have it on the chart.

Through Boldness, Victory is perhaps the most likely trait to end up being a “dead” choice, since you won’t often want your Commander off-board sitting in reserve, but in the right circumstances it can be very helpful. Fusion may have had its range pushed outward, but landing inside that critical 9″ zone near a heavy tank can still be rather tricky… unless, of course, you can land with perfect accuracy. It can also be helpful in arriving behind enemy fortifications to deny cover saves or set up contesting or other trickery, and the ability to JSJ out of the tight-packed formation only makes it more flexible. Still a relatively middling trait, but easily better than many of the BRB ones.

Army Roles

Tau HQ units, while they may be individually fragile or invulnerable, deadly or harmless, all share a common feature- they serve the army as a whole first and foremost, with their individual strengths coming only as a secondary role. This is, of course, highly in fitting with the Tau’s philosophy of the Greater Good, which is a nice little touch to things on the fluff side, but it’s important to remember when making a competitive army, too. You aren’t Space Marines or Dark Eldar or Orks; you will not have a badass hero charging to the front in order to win the day for you. Your warlord’s job is to coordinate the rest of the army and make everyone else do their jobs more efficiently. Depending on the HQ this might mean any number of things, but it will always be central to their role.

As a result, Tau HQs, as with some other codices, will dictate what sort of army they will work with (and vice versa, of course.) If you take an Ethereal, you probably aren’t going to buy any squad leader upgrades for your units, since you are already benefiting from his Leadership buff; contrawise, you had BETTER be taking significant numbers of Pulse weapons or Invocation of the Elements probably isn’t getting you much. A Fireblade without a squad of Fire Warriors to accompany is a tragic waste; Shadowsun shouldn’t show her face unless she has a pricey unit that wants to benefit from 2+ cover and Infiltrate; etc. Tau HQs all have specific roles to play in an army (though many of them are customizable to some degree) and need to have an army built to support them in order to maximize the potential of that role or roles. The roles fall into a couple main categories:

Buffing a specific unit

Many Tau HQs exist largely to sit with a single unit and maximize its potential (which, in theory, then helps the army as a whole.) Whether Fire Warriors or Marker Drones, the HQ’s job is to lend some unique ability to that particular unit to make sure that it does what it is supposed to. While in many other books such a plan is… subpar to say the least (such as Chaplains in many of the older codices), the Tau book manages to pull it off by making these buffs large enough or cheap enough that they work out.

Buffing multiple units

While improving one unit is nice, improving a whole BUNCH of units is obviously better. Several of the Tau HQs can lend their aid to many different units in an army, either simultaneously or one at a time depending on the need, and in some cases these units overlap with the specific buffs available above. The Commander and Ethereal in particular are extremely useful in both roles.

Improving resilience

Either by direct bonuses (Feel No Pain, Stealth/Shrouded), Leadership boosts, or by soaking the wounds themselves, Tau HQs can add a lot of toughness to a list that is traditionally a bit fragile, especially in some of its troops. Being able to count on your units staying on the table is obviously a pretty huge bonus when it comes to planning your strategy for next turn, and their HQs can go a long ways towards ensuring that.

Tau HQs, like the rest of the list, are mostly about synergy- matching your HQs to the rest of your list, and vice versa, is critical to making an army work properly. Some HQs will work well with (or as) allies; others will not. Some HQs are mostly locked into a single role in a list; others are more flexible. Starting in the next article I’ll go into detail as to what each of the units is capable of and suited for, but what I hope you’ll take away from this article is that choosing your HQ in a Tau army is not simply a matter of “take 1x of the best loadout, move on” but rather a very important step in list-writing that will influence what other units you can or should run in your army. They can unlock cheap sources of Markerlights, multiply your firepower in several different ways, enable some very sneaky tricks, and be virtually as cheap or as expensive as you are willing to let them be, but an HQ chosen in a vacuum is unlikely to do anything but fail you.