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What happened to this great Ethereal? I know from what I hear he was sent to hunt down O'shovah, but there is a serious lack of him in the new codex!

Sure, I rarely used him but I still thought he was a kick-butt IC choice. I am a little sad that they replaced this great ethereal with Aun'Popes-alot. I mean, that guys a bump on a log as opposed to a trained blade master who fended off an entire ork invasion for several hours by himself and a few buddies in one bunker...

Actually, I was wondering the same thing. You can't buy him in the shops anymore, and I didn't see him in the new Codex. What happened?

The key problem with Aun'Shi was that they couldn't charge £20 for the figure.

Yep. He's the only named commander that couldn't be had for the low-low price of $25+! Normal ethereals might only be $10 but you need a $25 commander anyway!

GW has also released something on the US site that said something along the lines of, "You can use Aun'shi in your Tau army as a Tau Ethereal. You are also free to make up your own rules for Aun'shi in your friendly games." Now I can't find where I found it but it suggests his special rules are gone. Sucks to be me since I spent at least 5 hours on my model and have barely gotten to the 7th layer or thereabouts...bah.


Lastly, please don't talk badly about the Battle Pope. He's a good guy once you get to know him.

I'm still surprised I haven't seen any conversions of the battle pope with a space marine hanging on his pod and punching him in the head...

Maybe that's because the Battle Pope hasn't been released yet...

Death to the Space Pope, Servant of Tzeentch!

Here's a revised Aun'Shi article just released on GW UK.

It looks like the fluff out of the original codex, minus the actual rules.

Aun'shi cant really do anything a normal Ethereal can. He has a hardwired shield generaor, thats all.

He had a rending blade which he could use to parry, and I think he had four attacks.

But not any more, because now he doesn't have any rules unless you make them up yourself.

well, I guess when your opponent agrees to use special characters, I'm sure you can get him to let you use the "old" Aun'Shi Rules. it wouldn't bother me, you just have to remember that special Characters are there to give the game a little more story. hey, I know. he's the one etheral you can use TOGETHER with O'Shovah.
that's it! the Space Pope send Aun'Shi on a mission to get Farsight back. maybe he found him, but O'Shovah convinced him that the current way of the Tau is wrong. now, Aun'Shi and O'Shovah are fighting alongside to restore the Tau Realm to what it former was.

death to the space pope of tzeentch and his puppet.

Well that just sucks...

you think?
sounds actually pretty realistic too me. I mean he was the other great Hero of the Firecast and Space Pope just send him away to hunt O'Shovah down. I would more say to have him out of the way.
btw, what are the chances of a single etheral, even if he is a blade master against an army of Firewarriors.

If Ethereals have mind control then Aun'Shi might be able to take over a whole army easily, providing he got close enough before they blasted him. O'Shovah didn't go off the rails until his Ethereal got killed.

Of course, the extent to which Ethereals can control (rather than influence) other Tau is debatable.

I thought Etherals use more some sort of Pheromones so that everyone around them is like "yeah, greater Good! sounds cool". I wouldn't call it Mind control, because for that they would need Psykers. maybe etherals are really some weird tzeentch creation

I really like O Shovah, but would find it very hard to use him and work around the whole supply-defunct army thing. But it is almost like they (GW) replaced Aun Shi with Shadowsun... not a fair trade if you ask me.

But this comes from a spiteful player of Tau who just bought the last Aun Shi before finding that he is no longer used.... bummer.

well, he still looks better than the new etherals.
and hey, you could still use him in a normal game with a buddy like he was in the odl Codex. the use special characters should be about the fluff and not about the rules.

and I still think he could/should team-up with O'Shovah.

Hmm... it seems that all the Tau heroes (save for some of the new ones) specialise in close combat... odd seeing as Tau view it as a brutish affair.

It never made the slightest bit of sense that Ethereals, the most peaceful and intellectual members of a fairly peaceful and intellectual species, would resolve philosophical or logical disputes by duelling with naginatas.

Unfortunately GW cannot get away from H2H combat.

It would be more fun for Tau heroes to have their number of attacks applied to their shooting. I would like to see a Tau Commander behaving like the "Man with no name" with a plasma rifle.

"I don't think it's nice your laughing. see, my kroot doesn't like being laughed at."
but an interesitng idea, fannin' with a plasma rifle...