Tau Rules Hit the Net.

Rules are leaking out from those with access to the White Dwarf or the codex.


Here are the rules from two different forums:

From Dominic on BoLS:

Sun Shark Bomber......has a pulse bomb generator and interceptor drones which can detach from the sun shark to defend it from attack.
Razorshark Strike Fighter......capable of engaging aircraft or ground targets, quad ion turret that can fire at ground or air. Has hidden seeker missile arrays in the wings above engines.
Riptide - Five support systems - heavy burst cannon or ion accelerator (Charged using the reactor). 2 shielded missile drones. Jet pack. Nova reactor
XV88 Broadside - Twin linked Heavy Rail Rifle or high yield missile pods.
XV8 Battlesuit Commander - experimental armour suit, experimental weapon systems, bonding knif in box, ion blaster / airbursting frag projector.
Pathfinder Team - armed with experimental ion rifle, pulse pistol - 6 types of drone including a grav inhibitor drone and the pulse accelerator drone. recon drone links with devilfish to provide comms relay and fire support.
CAdre fireblade - 3w IC with split fire a marker light and +1 shot to all fire warriors if they stood still.
Darkstrider - comes with a structural analyser to target weak points of enemy armour
Longstrike - wears XV02 battlesuit
Sky Ray - can target land or air targets
Firewarriors - Supporting fire special rule

Battle Report in WD - Tau vs Nids
Speaks about a puretide engram neurochip for HQ suit
repulser impact fields for crisis suits
Firewarriors now able to take target lock
stealth suits with counterfire defence systems
stealth suits with velocity tracker
Seems all ion weapons can be overcharged - interceptor drones boosted ion rifles to strength 8.
There is a mail order set of Farsight Enclave shoulder pads for Fire Warriors.
Darkstrider is male.
Kroot are in.
Farsight is a rebel but still loyal.
You see the heightened field on top of the bomber wings? You can push them open and see the seeker missiles underneath.
The missile Broadside is really full of missiles 


From Siyath on Advanced Tau Tactia
 
I'm lucky enough to have my copy of the WD (English version) already in my hands. I've read only a couple of the first pages showcasing the release (literally just got home and sat down) and already I can say that, for example, the Razorshark can swap it's burst cannon for a missile pod, houses two seeker missiles in compartments above it's wings - plus that the main armament is indeed a quad ion weapon with 360 arc.


Well, more as I go: The Riptide. Apparently it's highly posable, "featuring joints at ankles, knees, hips, waist, shoulders and neck". So this is good news at least modeling-wise. Also, Riptide comes with five support systems - I'm not sure if this means the kit contains five of these or does it indeed have five hardpoints reserved for the various support systems. I suspect the former. There's a mention of a "velocity tracker" as a some kind of a new support system.

Okay, some more:

Missile drones as such apparently only come with the Broadside kit (not the shielded ones that come with Riptide). Not a difficult stretch to covert, though. The heavy rail rifles on Broadsides are twinlinked, and apparently either version, the heavy railrifle as well as the one packed with missiles can take a single seeker missile as an additional weapon.

Not much to say about the new commander with the Enforcer armour, apparently not too much compatible with existing XV8 models, since the pose is rather rigid. And yes, Finecast. The weapons portrayed are indeed the AFP and the CIB. The last picture on the page and especially the caption indicates the Crisis squad size has gone up from the previous 3, since there's 4 in the picture in addition to the commander and it's described as a squad.

Farsight, it's the Dawn Blade that we see there. Not much else to add, except perhaps the mention about there not being any question about where Farsight's loyalties lie since the "symbol of the Fire Caste proudly worn on his chest."

The Pathfinders' ion rifle is a new experimental weapon apprently exclusive to the Pathfinders. Six different drones can be built from the kit. Nothing to add about Darkstrider that we don't already know. Except that it's a "he", not "she" : ).

Squinting at the codex imagery, I can make out that the Cadre Fireblade has the following statistics:

WS4, BS5, S3, T3, W3, I3, A3, Ld9 and a 4+ save. He's Infantry(Character), and carries Combat armour (probably just the regular FW armor since it's listed on the FW entry too), pulse rifle, photon grenades and a markerlight.

He also has following Special Rules: Independent Character, Split Fire and Supporting Fire. Volley Fire: (paraphrased) not moving in the Movement phase, he and every model in his unit fire an additional shot (limited to pulse rifles and carbines).

Firewarrior stats:

WS2, BS3, S3, T3, W1, I2, A1, Ld7, 4+. Shas'uis are the same as these days. They carry combat armour, pulse rifles and photon grenades. Also have the Special Rule: Supporting Fire.


Alright, some more then. In random order, what I could deduce from the battlereport and decipher from the images.

All ion weapons are apparently overchargeable. This leads us to the two Interceptor Drones on the Sunshark. They're detachable, and armed with ionrifles that can be overcharged to produce a S8 Blast each. Fairly neat, I'd say. So the Sunshark's weaponry is twin-linked missile pod, 2 Interceptor Drones with twin-linked ionrifles, 2 seeker missiles and of course the main bombing armament. And the Sunshark is a Fast Attack choice in the FOC.

Speaking of FOC, looks like it's confirmed that the Riptide is indeed an Elite slot - no indication to the amount you can field, though. Curiously enough, in the 'rep lists the entry says "One XV104 Riptide..." which could be interpreted that there might be a way to field more in a single Elite slot. Don't know how far-fetched that is, but still...

Velocity Tracker is the Skyfire upgrade. Riptides and Broadsides at least can field these.

The ionrifle that the Pathfinders field contraticts a little with it being said being exclusive to the Pathfinders, but still the drones can field it too. But it seems to be the same weapon. Probably with severe restrictions (like 1 per team or 1 per 5 Pathfinders) but it does compete with the existing rail rifle. Pathfinders are still in Fast Attack.

Supporting Fire is an army special rule, so if not all, then at least a vast majority of the army possesses this. At least Broadsides did, according to the 'rep. And well, it is an army special rule. And yes, this is the one enabling nearby units to overwatch in addition to the just one that's being assaulted.

Stealth teams are still in Elite-slot. And the upgrade for BS2 overwatch is called "Counterfire defence systems". Hard to say if this is a support system or a team upgrade.

Broadsides still in Heavy Support.

For some odd reason all Crisis-suits seemed to be carrying the bonding knife. Not just the team leader anymore, apprently. And deducing from the hardpoint choices, multitracker indeed seems to be built in to the suits now. Still no idea what the elusive Puretide engram neurochip actually does, but it is carried by the XV8-05 commander in the 'rep. CIB and AFP are still experimental, it seems.

There's a codex size-comparison chart for the battlesuits, where it can be seen how the new Enforcer suit and the Broadside suit is 1,5 times as tall as the regular XV8. Not sure how well this translates to the models, but with what we've seen, that may be the case pretty accurately.

Deducing from the markerlight usage in the 'rep, the Crisis and the Broadsides still remain as BS3 units.

That's about it, I'll come back with more if I notice anything worthwhile.

[edit: Oh, and the Riptide's Ion Accelerator is S8 Large Blast when overcharged. Not S9, remembering that it's been speculated.]

[edit II: The Stealth suits' 'Vre is equipped with a homing beacon, which is later upon in the battlereport used to call in the HQ  Crisis-squad. Most likely either ignoring the scatter - there was no mention of them scattering at all - or at least giving a reroll. I suspect the former again. Crisis squads are wielded in teams of three plus the 'Vre, so at least 4 is valid size.] 

Extras
 
No mention at all about the Railgun on the XV104. And to clear things up, there's no railgun / railcannon difference. Rail rifles are the smallest caliber wielded by drones and Pathfinders, a heavy rail rifle is wielded by the Broadsides and the railgun is the Hammerhead's main armament.

To clarify, there are two 'Vre bodyguards for the commander in the battlereport armylist entry

Re-reading some parts of the batrep, the passage is worded in such way that it's actually not exactly possible to say whether it's S8 overcharged or just... well, interpret yourselves, good people : ) It goes like this "...the Riptide's overcharged S8 Ion Accelerator would have inflicted Instant Death on..." But I'd guess the rumours about normally it firing about 4 or so S7 shots and overcharged it would be S8 Large Blast would be rather near on the money.