I'm a big tau fan and am planning to play them when i get the game (at least to start with) but I have no idea how many attachments I should put in my deck. Obviously with just the core set out I will be severely limited in the number of attachments but what is the number I should aim for?

obviously I will want 1 in hand/discard every turn for the warlord ability and I will want to attach some myself but I don't want to be flooded with them.

at the moment i'm thinking 1/4 should be attachments 2/4 low-mid cost units and 1/4 high cost units, supports and events but I have never been very good at deckbuilding.

I'm not even going to attempt to fathom this until we a) see the whole card list and b) get a feel for the flow of the game.

Also, Shadowsun's signature squad (and some Gun Drone previews I've seen) can act as units OR attachments (some via Shadowsun's ability and some via special Deployment), so there'll be some flexibility there as you'll have cards that can fit both roles.

Like Commissar Feesh said, the important note is the Drones and Shadowsun's signature squad which can dual purpose. Now the penultimate problem in an attachment deck is having attachments but nobody to put them on. Shadowsun's signature ability helps with this by letting you recur the signature squad to either put things on them or use them as attachments. You also can't forget that you'll have Shadowsun herself who will definitely benefit from attachments. (Land on a planet to mono a mono another warlord, use ability to bring signature squad as an attachment for +2/+2, use ambush platform to put ion rifle on her just before combat starts, pumps her up to 6/9. Hello bloodied warlord. Not that that's likely to happen, but still).

Still, you definitely don't want to glut your deck with attachments so it's best to think about the things you need. You also need to think about how it's going to fit into your overall strategy. For instance, I'm planning on doing Tau/SM so I can do Ninja Tau. I'm gonna run 3 Eager Recruits, 3 Crisis Bodyguards, 3 Vash'ya Trailblazers and focus on Ambush and Mobility. Now I'm going to run other units as well (Like Vior'la Marksmen, I'm sure the firewarrior striketeam will be good too) but they're to round out my strategy. So I know I need to focus on deterrents (like impact shield), and AOE (gundrone). I'll have an ion rifle or two as well, but they're not as high on my priority as the pieces that fit into my strategy.

Inevitably, you also need to plan for when you don't get any attachments. So personally, I think I'm going to limit my single use attachments (as in, can't be a unit as well) to 10 cards. That's 20% of the minimum and 3 cards shy of the starting hand. That'll reduce the probability of my getting a hand I can't do anything with. And since shadowsun can recur them while Hale, I'm not too worried about running out. The larger concern would be not drawing them, which is why you need to keep enough units who have solid stat lines without attachments (like a Landraider in my case) to make sure you can stay competitive while waiting for the big guns.

That's how I see it at least.

Unfortunately, attachments so far can only be attached to army units and I don't think Warlords are army units.

Looking back at it, many of the tau spoiler attachments do say army unit. The Command link drone and Talissarian blade don't say army unit, only unit. So clearly they were meant to be on their commander or another eligible unit. That's probably true of many of the warlord specific attachments. That's too bad, I was looking forward to kitting out shadowsun.

I think that's again a deliberate design choice - you can make your Warlord strong with the eligible attachments, but not completely mind-bogglingly OP. Keeps the focus on strategic plays with your other forces, and not just I HIT YOU FOR LOTS WITH MY WARLORD.

EDIT: That's actually an excellent catch, as before now I hadn't realised that Nazdreg can't be equipped with the Cybork Body - which is only a good thing for everyone else!

I think your deck should run only a few of the "dedicated attachments" for Tau, but run LOTS of the "Versatile Unit or Attachment" cards in it. Add in the Earth Caste guy who can dig for attachments or drones and you should be golden! I do feel like Tau are going to be the "Combo" faction, though.

The Tau army has always been a combination army, so that's not a surprise. To our knowledge there's only one unit other than shadowsun's signature squad that's versatile (the gun drone). If there's more, great! If not, well we're still stuck figuring out the balance.

Unfortunately, attachments so far can only be attached to army units and I don't think Warlords are army units.

Correct they are not. They are Warlord units.

traditionally heavy attachments decks have always performed badly due not he easy of disruption and also that a single unit no matter how buffed dose not increase your board presence.

In this game there will be a particularly heavy weight on attachment decks caused by presence. Units exhaust to deeply and exhaust to attack, so board presence, is going to be vital. You will most likely have to have many units out or face many attacks with no counter attack. It doesn't matter how awesome and powerful your unit is, if it is tapped and can not do anything.

Also attachment deck are traditionally easy to disrupt as if yo kill the unit all the attachments die as well. This is almost always a great trade. Think of casting cards in terms of time and cost, not just cost. Some big as spider robot with a ton of attachments might be ubr powerful, but once it goes done you board state is weak as ****. Meanwhile a someone casting normal units can replenish their board much faster, and most importantly, each unit is a self contained entity and can instantly start advancing the win condition. While to get out a new spider + attachments takes a few turns before it is even useful.

The real test is going to be the shielding system. I am not really sure how this will effect the game it is a rather cool and relatively unique(ish) idea in a game like this. Shielding should be able to protect these large powerful units in a way that most attachment decks in other games can not, and this could radically change how the attachment deck functions in this game.

What we are looking at with this leader is "discard deck". Like others I am not willing to talk of ratios, 1) because we do not know and 2) because ratios are bull, put in what you need to get your win conditions working. Still the power of the Tau commander is his yard ability.

These games are all about "options", the more options you have (the more card in your hand) the better your turns will be. This tau commander makes the entire discard pile a extension of his "ready to play" hand. Many spoiled attachments have got shield icons.. so discard those all the time.. get your yard as full as possible. Use shielding to keep units alive in the early game and fill the yard. Now you can use the commander to play these cards at will. Just grab w/e you need.

So in short, when I look at the tau leader I am thinking of a discard deck that is trying to fill up the yard as fast as possible with libril use of shielding and then recursion, effectively increasing the decks functions as most other warlords will have to choose between shield and put into play. So his true advantage is NOT in attachments per se, it is in getting both uses of the duel use cards, as in always playing the shield. Also all discard decks sorta need card draw, so I think this will effect the ally faction choice for this leader.

So in short, when I look at the tau leader I am thinking of a discard deck that is trying to fill up the yard as fast as possible with libril use of shielding and then recursion, effectively increasing the decks functions as most other warlords will have to choose between shield and put into play. So his true advantage is NOT in attachments per se, it is in getting both uses of the duel use cards, as in always playing the shield. Also all discard decks sorta need card draw, so I think this will effect the ally faction choice for this leader.

I agree here. Lets take a look at the Tau attachments.

Looking at these cards, you notice that they all have shield icons. So with Shadowsun's ability, you do not necessarily need to hard cast them in deployment phase. You can hold on to them to shield your units, then toss them in with Shadowsun's ability. Combo in with this fella.

Then you have some serious shielding potential with utility to buff your units free of charge. This is not including the Stealh Cadre because they begin as units, but their utility goes without saying.

So I am fashioning a deck much like booored suggests. Use attachments for shielding to sync with Shadowsun's ability. Pump your units and hit the enemy hard. When the unit dies, the attachment goes back in the pool for reuse.

The question is, with 2 core sets, do you go mono Tau or supplement with Eldar or SM. Eldar has some great events that can be used to manipulate the field but SM's Exterminatus could really help you out as well as the AOE units that SM has that Tau is lacking.

SM Units are also more durable

Imagine this guy with one of Shadowsuns Cadre and a Repulsor Impact Field?

and I'm a fan of the Eager Recruit with Ambush. You can also get the Godwin Pattern Bolter from SM. It's another attachment with a shield icon. You can't recur it, but you can get an extra shield from it with our character and it's pretty useful to boot.

I also think it may be hasty to say that the strategy idea is to discard the attachments for shields so you can then recur them. Remember that you can only recur 1 attachment per turn, and you may not always want that attachment to go on who shadowsun is deploying with. Any attachments in your discard pile have to follow Shadowsun's rules. I think in many cases it may be better to hold the attachments and deploy them at the right time (such as with ambush platform) rather than tossing them to be recurred.

However, like anything else it's about the balance. Kais'Vre does give us great reasons to be a bit more liberal with shield cards.

If attachments are like enchantments in Magic the gathering, playing a lot of them on one unit is like putting all your eggs in one basket: If you play two cards on one unit and your oponent can get rid of the unit with one card, then you're in trouble. hence i'd not put to many attachments in my deck, unless those attachments would help the unit survive. (kinda like buy wargear for characters in 40k. put some points into keeping them alive before you ga all out on weapons)

SM Units are also more durable

Imagine this guy with one of Shadowsuns Cadre and a Repulsor Impact Field?

and I'm a fan of the Eager Recruit with Ambush. You can also get the Godwin Pattern Bolter from SM. It's another attachment with a shield icon. You can't recur it, but you can get an extra shield from it with our character and it's pretty useful to boot.

I also think it may be hasty to say that the strategy idea is to discard the attachments for shields so you can then recur them. Remember that you can only recur 1 attachment per turn, and you may not always want that attachment to go on who shadowsun is deploying with. Any attachments in your discard pile have to follow Shadowsun's rules. I think in many cases it may be better to hold the attachments and deploy them at the right time (such as with ambush platform) rather than tossing them to be recurred.

However, like anything else it's about the balance. Kais'Vre does give us great reasons to be a bit more liberal with shield cards.

Pardon the nitpick, but Fireblade Kais'vre up there only boosts the shield icons on TAU cards themselves, so he wouldn't add a shield icon to the Godwin Bolter. It's still probably a good idea to include it in the SM/Tau deck though because you can still use it with various attachment focused cards from Tau like the Earth Caste Technician or Ambush Platform.