A special dreadnought, or even a special Chaplin dreadnought would be an amazing addition to my forces.
*sigh* I eagerly await this new codex in a year or so. I have my fears, of course, that certain things I like will get removed. But after seeing the Wolves codex, I do believe GW will maintain the spirit of the chapter, and not make me buy some 40 new marines because I can't configure them with sword and bolter.
Only spamming a single image of the Hell Prawn here just because I'm so damn happy I got it past the "omg I will never have this thing assembled" to "yay I get to do incredibly tedious detail work now!"
In game terms I'm thinking of using it as a super heavy vehicle. Or atleast to fill in for my absolute lack of tanks in regular games, and use it as a type of Predator. I only lack the lascannon, but I could always make my own if I can't find any to trade for. I think the size of the thing, it would be fair to use as a super heavy tank with 2 structure points? Keeping it with the same lascannon/havoc launcher from the predator. I haven't really played any games of that size, but it's possible so I've been thinking of alternate ways to use this as I've been constructing it.
OK, I've been planning this army for a long time (I just searched through my old posts and found that I'd mentioned it first back in '07), but since recently actually purchasing some models, a lot of ideas have solidified and so I'd like a bit of a fluff/canon check, to be sure all this is in line.
Huge wall of text:
The idea is, that these are Tau from Dal'yth (the most trade-oriented sept, on the NorthEastern fringe of Tau space, near hive fleet Kraken and various Imperial worlds, including Ultramarines). My particular force started out as a fleet trading with (particularly backwater Imperial) worlds, under the name of Ent'aula ('seeker fleet'), who were protected (BSG style) by a smallish Fire/Air caste capital ship known as Gatta ('vanguard'), who mostly provided support for the traders in case of crisis. They make roughly year-long trade runs between non-Tau and Tau space, and have been doing this very successfully for roughly 15 years. The Ent'aula benefit from the guardianship of the Gatta, and the Gatta benefits by analysing useful technology gained through the Ent'aula's trade, and by gaining information about the galaxy outside of Tau space. This beneficial arrangement has resulted in a large amount of respect between the traders and their vanguard and good experiences negotiating with other races, however it has left them rather over-optimistic and naive.
Recently, within the last couple of years, peaceful contact has been made with a particularly progressive (but small) Eldar Craftworld. (These Eldar are my GW-employed flatmate's army, who are more 'let's fight the threats' than 'we're a dying race, let's try to survive'. To support this cause, in life they commit themselves to becoming Wraithguard upon death, so his army employs more Wraithguard models than is considered normal among Eldar, including using them as parts of other units, though obeying their adopted units' rules.) Eldar are known for their manipulation, which is most often secretive, but in this case, seeing the Tau as no threat to the galaxy, they were quite peaceful and open with their information. From this meeting, the Tau learned of some of the major threats to the galaxy - those who, if unchecked, could easily overrun it - including Orks (if ever they all allied), Necrons (if ever they all woke), and Tyranids (whose numbers are unknowable but considered vast). This may be a skewed view, but even so, it is what those particular Eldar believe, and is the message that the Tau took away from the experience.
So, due to this meeting, the Tau considered themselves more enlightened, and the Ent'aula and Gatta unanimously decided they would take a new path: To serve the Greater Good, fight the greatest evil. The Dal'yth (and possibly higher) Ethereals authorised this more proactive stance, as, again, it would bring back much information about threatening races. The Ent'Gatta (as the fleet now calls itself, a 'seeker vanguard' of the Tau) still perform trade runs, but now also actively seek out Tyranid remnants, possible Necron tomb worlds, Ork strongholds, and other threats, due to information given by the Eldar. The Eldar have no objection to this, indeed they see it as outsourcing somewhat, and the Tau are naively excited at the concept of following commander Puretide's example of Dal'yth warriors leading a fight.
So, given all of the above, these are Tau who have had much contact with other races, and I want to reflect that in my army. I also just generally like the idea of having lots of customised 'counts-as-X' units in my army, who play by the standard army rules, but are modelled to be using other tech. Mostly these will be the non-Tau races who are part of the Tau Empire, which again works as those are already differently coloured than normal Tau armour, and lets me play with some other colours in their models. Oh, also, I'm avoiding using sensors on my regular Tau, both because I don't think they look so great, and because I want to plaster them all over the non-Tau tech, to emphasise that they've made them Tau-y. With that in mind, here are some of my unit ideas:
1) Firewarriors with Space Marine jump packs and Vespid neutron blasters as counts-as-Vespid. Pretty straightforward. In the fluff it states that only Vespid can use the neutron blasters as their wings beat at a particular frequency which keeps their weapons working, and also we can assume that Tau wouldn't have much interest in others' jump packs as they already have jump pack tech. However, oh! What a suprise! Turns out that the jump packs conveniently vibrate at just the right frequency! I like the idea of having the jump packs be Ultramarine, as the Ultramarines are local to Tau space, and also it adds some blue to my mostly red-and-white army. In my mind these packs have been traded for with some backwater Imperials who scavenged them after a losing battle years ago.
2) Catachan jungle fighters with kroot rifles as counts-as-Kroot. Pretty straightforward. I'd probably have a shaper in there too, to emphasise that maybe these guys have been trained by Kroot. Tau can take Human auxiliaries in the Chapter Approved stuff, so it's not too much of a stretch to have Gue'vesa trained by Kroot. Jungle fighters seems pretty appropriate for counts-as-Kroot too. These guys can wear some Tau armour which I'll have spare after turning some Firewarriors into Pathfinders.
3) Kroot with Necron gauss rifles as counts-as-Kroot. Apparently the gauss rifles are almost identical in stats to the kroot rifles, so I'll just stick some Krooty blades on them and any other discrepancies in stats can be explained away by the Kroot using weapons they're not so familiar with. Pretty straightforward conversion, and leaves the kroot rifles free for the Gue'vesa-Kroot above. There's the argument that Necron bodies and weapons fade away from the battlefield after some time, but there're models produced by GW which have Necron heads on spikes and such, so I can't be too concerned with that.
4) Normal Kroot wearing Tyranid armour plating as their own armour. Kroot are known to like wearing animal hides and such for armour, so again, not too much of a stretch that they'd use some Tyranid plates from a battlefield they'd fought on. I'd paint the plates in Hive Fleet Kraken colours, as that's the local and most recent Hive Fleet.
5) Maybe I'd do some Orky Kroot. This is a more recent idea, and I'm not too sure about it. Kroot can absorb and employ others' DNA, so I might do some kroot in orky green colours, with maybe ork body bitz replacing Kroot arms, legs and so on in the occasional model. Furthermore, Orks contain all their technology in their DNA (I think), so I could almost have OrKroot riding Orky bikes or similar as counts-as-Kroothounds, though as Ork tech would definitely be looked down on by Tau, that may be a bit too much of a stretch.
6) Maybe one of my crisis suits will carry an Eldar flag, or have some sort of Eldar marking, to indicate the respect for the Eldar from whom they gained their new drive.
So, huge wall of text, cheers if you read it. I'd love to hear your comments on if that's all taking it too far, or of what fits and what doesn't, and any other suggestions as to interesting conversions and themes.
Edit: God, sorry, that was full of copy-paste errors. Should read smoothly now.
OK, I've been planning this army for a long time (I just searched through my old posts and found that I'd mentioned it first back in '07), but since recently actually purchasing some models, a lot of ideas have solidified and so I'd like a bit of a fluff/canon check, to be sure all this is in line.
Huge wall of text:
The idea is, that these are Tau from Dal'yth (the most trade-oriented sept, on the NorthEastern fringe of Tau space, near hive fleet Kraken and various Imperial worlds, including Ultramarines). My particular force started out as a fleet trading with (particularly backwater Imperial) worlds, under the name of Ent'aula ('seeker fleet'), who were protected (BSG style) by a smallish Fire/Air caste capital ship known as Gatta ('vanguard'), who mostly provided support for the traders in case of crisis. They make roughly year-long trade runs between non-Tau and Tau space, and have been doing this very successfully for roughly 15 years. The Ent'aula benefit from the guardianship of the Gatta, and the Gatta benefits by analysing useful technology gained through the Ent'aula's trade, and by gaining information about the galaxy outside of Tau space. This beneficial arrangement has resulted in a large amount of respect between the traders and their vanguard and good experiences negotiating with other races, however it has left them rather over-optimistic and naive.
Recently, within the last couple of years, peaceful contact has been made with a particularly progressive (but small) Eldar Craftworld. (These Eldar are my GW-employed flatmate's army, who are more 'let's fight the threats' than 'we're a dying race, let's try to survive'. To support this cause, in life they commit themselves to becoming Wraithguard upon death, so his army employs more Wraithguard models than is considered normal among Eldar, including using them as parts of other units, though obeying their adopted units' rules.) Eldar are known for their manipulation, which is most often secretive, but in this case, seeing the Tau as no threat to the galaxy, they were quite peaceful and open with their information. From this meeting, the Tau learned of some of the major threats to the galaxy - those who, if unchecked, could OK, I've been planning this army for a long time (I just searched through my old posts and found that I'd mentioned it first back in '07), but since recently actually purchasing some models, a lot of ideas have solidified and so I'd like a bit of a fluff/canon check, to be sure all this is in line.
The idea is, that these are Tau from Dal'yth (the most trade-oriented sept, on the NorthEastern fringe of Tau space, near hive fleet Kraken and various Imperial worlds, including Ultramarines). My particular force started out as a fleet trading with (particularly backwater Imperial) worlds, under the name of Ent'aula ('seeker fleet'), who were protected (BSG style) by a smallish Fire/Air caste capital ship known as Gatta ('vanguard'), who mostly provided support for the traders in case of crisis. They make roughly year-long trade runs between non-Tau and Tau space, and have been doing this very successfully for roughly 15 years. The Ent'aula benefit from the guardianship of the Gatta, and the Gatta benefits by analysing useful technology gained through the Ent'aula's trade, and by gaining information about the galaxy outside of Tau space. This beneficial arrangement has resulted in a large amount of respect between the traders and their vanguard and good experiences negotiating with other races, however it has left them rather over-optimistic and naive.
Recently, within the last couple of years, peaceful contact has been made with a particularly progressive (but small) Eldar Craftworld. (These Eldar are my GW-employed flatmate's army, who are more 'let's fight the threats' than 'we're a dying race, let's try to survive'. To support this cause, in life they commit themselves to becoming Wraithguard upon death, so his army employs more Wraithguard models than is considered normal among Eldar, including using them as parts of other units, though obeying their adopted units' rules.) Eldar are known for their manipulation, which is most often secretive, but in this case, seeing the Tau as no threat to the galaxy, they were quite peaceful and open with their information. From this meeting, the Tau learned of some of the major threats to the galaxy - those who, if unchecked, could easily overrun it - including Orks (if ever they all allied), Necrons (if ever they all woke), and Tyranids (whose numbers are unknowable but considered vast). This may be a skewed view, but even so, it is what those particular Eldar believe, and the message that the Tau took away from the experience.
So, due to this meeting, the Tau considered themselves more enlightened, and the Ent'aula and Gatta unanimously decided they would take a new path: To serve the Greater Good, fight the greatest evil. The Dal'yth (and possibly higher) Ethereals authorised this more proactive stance, as, again, it would bring back much information about threatening races. The Ent'Gatta (as the fleet now calls itself, a 'seeker vanguard' of the Tau)easily overrun it - including Orks (if ever they all allied), Necrons (if ever they all woke), and Tyranids (whose numbers are unknowable but considered vast). This may be a skewed view, but even so, it is what those particular Eldar believe, and the message that the Tau took away from the experience.
So, due to this meeting, the Tau considered themselves more enlightened, and the Ent'aula and Gatta unanimously decided they would take a new path: To serve the Greater Good, fight the greatest evil. The Dal'yth (and possibly higher) Ethereals authorised this more proactive stance, as, again, it would bring back much information about threatening races. The Ent'Gatta (as the fleet now calls itself, a 'seeker vanguard' of the Tau) still perform trade runs, but now also actively seek out Tyranid remnants, possible Necron tomb worlds, Ork strongholds, and other threats, due to information given by the Eldar. The Eldar have no objection to this, indeed they see it as outsourcing somewhat, and the Tau are naively excited at the concept of following commander Puretide's example of Dal'yth warriors leading a fight.
So, given all of the above, these are Tau who have had much contact with other races, and I want to reflect that in my army. I also just generally like the idea of having lots of customised 'counts-as-X' units in my army, who play by the standard army rules, but are modelled to be using other tech. Mostly these will be the non-Tau races who are part of the Tau Empire, which again works as those are already differently coloured than normal Tau armour, and lets me play with some other colours in their models. Oh, also, I'm avoiding using sensors on my regular Tau, both because I don't think they look so great, and because I want to plaster them all over the non-Tau tech, to emphasise that they've made them Tau-y. With that in mind, here are some of my unit ideas:
1) Firewarriors with Space Marine jump packs and Vespid neutron blasters as counts-as-Vespid. Pretty straightforward. In the fluff it states that only Vespid can use the neutron blasters as their wings beat at a particular frequency which keeps their weapons working, and also we can assume that Tau wouldn't have much interest in others' jump packs as they already have jump pack tech. However, oh! What a suprise! Turns out that the jump packs conveniently vibrate at just the right frequency! I like the idea of having the jump packs be Ultramarine, as the Ultramarines are local to Tau space, and also it adds some blue to my mostly red-and-white army. In my mind these packs have been traded for with some backwater Imperials who scavenged them after a losing battle years ago.
2) Catachan jungle fighters with kroot rifles as counts-as-Kroot. Pretty straightforward. I'd probably have a shaper in there too, to emphasise that maybe these guys have been trained by kroot. Tau can take Human auxiliaries in the Chapter Approved stuff, so it's not too much of a stretch to have Gue'vesa trained by Kroot. Jungle fighters seems pretty appropriate for counts-as-Kroot too. These guys can wear some Tau armour which I'll have spare after turning some Firewarriors into Pathfinders.
3) Kroot with Necron gauss rifles as counts-as-Kroot. Apparently the gauss rifles are almost identical in stats to the kroot rifles, so I'll just stick some Krooty blades on them and any other discrepancies in stats can be explained away by the Kroot using weapons they're not so familiar with. Pretty straightforward conversion, and leaves the kroot rifles free for the Gue'vesa-Kroot above. There's the argument that Necron bodies and weapons fade away from the battlefield after some time, but there're models produced by GW which have heads on spikes and such, so I can't be too concerned with that.
4) Normal Kroot wearing Tyranid armour plating as their own armour. Kroot are known to like wearing animal hides and such for armour, so again, not too much of a stretch that they'd use some Tyranid plates from a battlefield they'd fought on. I'd paint the plates in Hive Fleet Kraken colours, as that's the local and most recent Hive Fleet.
5) Maybe I'd do some Orky Kroot. This is a more recent idea, and I'm not too sure about it. Kroot can absorb and employ others' DNA, so I might do some kroot in orky green colours, with maybe ork body bitz replacing Kroot arms, legs and so on in the occasional model. Furthermore, Orks contain all their technology in their DNA (I think), so I could almost have OrKroot riding Orky bikes or similar as counts-as-Kroothounds, though as Ork tech would definitely be looked down on by Tau, that may be a bit too much of a stretch.
6) Maybe One of my crisis suits will carry an Eldar flag, or have some sort of Eldar marking, to indicate the respect for the Eldar from whom they gained their new drive.
So, huge wall of text, cheers if you read it. I'd love to hear your comments on if that's all taking it too far, or of what fits and what doesn't, and any other suggestions as to interesting conversions and themes.
Huge wall of text with annoying repetitions.
If you could eliminate the Department of Redundancy Department influence it would be much easier to read.
OK, I've been planning this army for a long time (I just searched through my old posts and found that I'd mentioned it first back in '07), but since recently actually purchasing some models, a lot of ideas have solidified and so I'd like a bit of a fluff/canon check, to be sure all this is in line.
Huge wall of text:
Horrible mess of text. Please see the original post.
Huge wall of text with annoying repetitions.
If you could eliminate the Department of Redundancy Department influence it would be much easier to read.
Forgive me, that was horrible. All clean now (at least in the original post).
OK, I've been planning this army for a long time (I just searched through my old posts and found that I'd mentioned it first back in '07), but since recently actually purchasing some models, a lot of ideas have solidified and so I'd like a bit of a fluff/canon check, to be sure all this is in line.
Huge wall of text:
Horrible mess of text. Please see the original post.
Huge wall of text with annoying repetitions.
If you could eliminate the Department of Redundancy Department influence it would be much easier to read.
Forgive me, that was horrible. All clean now (at least in the original post).
For me, the relationship you've got going on between the Eldar and Tau is a bit too chummy. Eldar are out for themselves. They really don't care about any other race and what happens to them unless it ultimately is going to have an effect on Eldar. The 2nd War of Amageddon came about, because Eldar helped a more "anti-human" orc come to power, over a more "anti-eldar" one. I don't know how many humans have died as a result of the 2nd war, but we're talking about this action saving eldar numbering in the 1000's.
Eldar are bastards; the idea is that they'd quite happily manipulate things so that a million tau died to save 100 Eldar.
The training to become Wraithguard upon death thing is more due to your mate's fluff more than anything else; it's an incredibly taboo thing to do, to raise the dead for Eldar; Iyanden only does it as it's really their only option. It's abhorrent. Most Eldar are scared shitless of death.
Ultramarine jet packs? I've always been under the impression that Marines are incredibly anal about their equipment, and the recovery thereof after a battle. I'd imagine tau jetpacks, for troops anyway, would be of similar bulk of the ones you get from the Stealthsuits. For what it's worth, I don't know what to make of Vespid; they're incredibly fragile, and typically aren't anti-marine enough for my liking.
The concept of everyone getting along is really, really naive, but I think that works with the Tau. The Eldar could keep this fleet around, but only because the fleet will somehow prevent a few of them from dying in the future or something.
I think Necron guns are powered by the necron internal energy supply.
I like the idea of human auxiliaries, but keep in mind that the Imperium would see them as species traitors and heretics, and would slaughter them on sight. And if the Imperium saw the Tau with the imperial jump packs, they would probably kill the whole planet. Not kill everything on the planet, but kill the whole planet.
And this Tau battle fleet would probably be seen as heretics by their own kind. Fire Warriors are the lowest caste in Tau society, and any aux troops would be even lower than that.
You could grimdark it up to make it work-- The Eldar are manipulating the naive (but still ruthless and almost comically totalitarian+fascist) Tau.
The counts-as Vespid unit should probably just be Vespid, since the Fire Warriors are specialized for ground fighting anyway.
The human aux could still work, and death worlders counting as Kroot seems like a neat idea.
Does Black Library have any decent Blood Angels stuff?
Unfortunately... No, not really
Nax on
The following people are amazing and I love them: Wildcat, Timspork, Kias, Denada, susan, Sharp101, [GHSC]Ryctor, Matev, Matrias, ItBurns, Slapnuts, Dayspring, see317, and the unknown poster that sent me a box of Death Company! If you get them as Santees you should buy them amazing things!
@EddieDean - I like it. Though as others have said the Eldar would certainly make use of any lesser race to accomplish their own ends, the positive aspect of the relationship would only be on the Tau's end. As far as that goes, the Crisis Suit wearing any sort of Eldar iconography would probably be offensive to the Eldar and certainly go against everything the Tau stand for. Remember, the Tau are just as smug about their way of life and how superior it is to every other race as the Eldar are. Unlike the Eldar, they accept aspects of other races. When the Tau admit a new race under the banner of the empire, it is only after that races swears to accept the rule of the Ethereals and the superiority of the Greater Good. The rest of your ideas are very very fluffy and cool, and I'll look forward to seeing pictures of your conversions.
Hey guys, don't know the rules on posting lists, but I'm working on this one for Adepticon coming up and wanted someone to give an opinion or two on it. Take a look if you would like.
I'm about 20 points short of 1750, so I've got plenty of room for tweaking.
Didn't see any response to this, so I'll offer my opinions.
Ethereal. I've said this before, I simply see no real reason to take an Ethereal. You've taken the one good thing he offers: the slightly-upgraded Fire Warriror honor guard. However he's just not worth the points sink. You've given him the honor blade wargear, which takes him from having no weapons to have a couple of attacks in assault. As with all Tau, you do not want him in assault, as he will die quickly. The debuff your army takes on his death is a bad thing. I recommend removing him and his honor guard entirely, and using the points to give yourself another FW squad. Alternatively at this points level you can take O'Shovah (minus the Kroot) or O'Shaserra (probably the better choice in terms of your list) for your other HQ. And of course you could just add another Crisis Suit Commander.
Commander. While I normally recommend taking a Shas'El at low points value, in this case you may consider upgrading him to a Shas'O. Looks like you're planning on keeping this unit at long range with his weapon loadout and use the positional relay to guide deep striking units in. Don't have my codex in front of me, so if the Shas'O upgrade doesn't benefit BS (I want to say it's a buff to WS and Ld) keep him as is and consider adding a Shas'O as your other HQ choice as above.
Crisis teams. First one looks good. I'm guessing you're going to deep strike this unit behind the enemy lines and use it as a tank hunter group? If so it'll take serious fire. Maybe a shield drone for the leader. Second group is weird, you've got a mix of extreme close range (flamer) and long range (TL missile pods). If you're intending this unit as mostly long-range support, drop the flamers and add target locks to increase hits generated. In general I've found "all-comer" Crisis Suits to be sorta ok and not really good at any particular task. Third team has the same issues as second team. You've given them three weapons choices and no support systems, meaning they'll be lacking any particular abilities. Again with the mix of close-range/long-range. Flamers are plenty cheap, but the pricy plasma rifle is keeping you from building a sturdier unit. Ablative wounds via drones are always a good choice, and would cost about the same if you drop one of the plasma rifles from each suit.
Troops. Going with the old mechanized squads in Warfish, eh? Good choices, plenty of firepower in the Dfish, and smaller squads keep your points in check, but with only two Troops slots and max capacity on HQ, Elite, and Heavy Support choices I'm fearing for your ability to hold objectives in missions that call for them. Maybe throw in a squad of Kroot to keep the enemy distracted, or a footslogging FW squad if you're out of Dfish models. At this points value I'd be looking at three or four Troops choices (I run three in a 1500 list, myself).
Fast Attack. Looks good.
Heavy Support. I'm not a fan of Ionheads, myself. I've seen them put to good use but find that more railguns is always the correct choice. Broadsides out the ass! Marker drones are a good choice, and even if your targets are further out than the drones can see, you've got your Pathfinders to spot for them.
Hope that's of some benefit to you, but as always play what you want to play and observe the results!
I have decided to abandon the Greater Good and join the WAAAAUGH!!!
Offered up my Tau Battleforce on bartertown, hopefully will get a good starter set of Orks out of it.
Why the change of heart?
1. I bought the Orks codex and read it cover to cover in one sitting. I still haven't read my Tau codex because after the first couple pages of fluff, I set it aside to be used as reference as I just couldn't get into it.
2. After reading the Orks codex I knew I wanted to build an Evil Sunz/Kult of Speed themed army and knew what colors and how I wanted to paint it. I've spent hours looking at other Tau armies on the web and still can not settle on a color scheme or theme that I like.
3. This last weekend's tourney at the LGS was: Chaos, Chaos, Eldar, Space Marines, Demon Hunters, Tau, Tau, Tau. It feels silly for me to bring in yet another Tau army.
I just don't think Tau was the army for me, especially after falling in love with the little green fungi.
Scurv, you're gonna be there on Wed right? I need to get my wolves from you. Did you sort them out? They are supposed to have different heads so make sure I don't get 4 of the same :P
Then i just need 60mm bases... I have no idea how I'm going to mount them.
That is the best image linking scold I have ever seen
Nax on
The following people are amazing and I love them: Wildcat, Timspork, Kias, Denada, susan, Sharp101, [GHSC]Ryctor, Matev, Matrias, ItBurns, Slapnuts, Dayspring, see317, and the unknown poster that sent me a box of Death Company! If you get them as Santees you should buy them amazing things!
Scurv, you're gonna be there on Wed right? I need to get my wolves from you. Did you sort them out? They are supposed to have different heads so make sure I don't get 4 of the same :P
Then i just need 60mm bases... I have no idea how I'm going to mount them.
Yes i gave you a variety of heads i didnt hog them all and yes ill be there wed. Also ive got 1 spare base you can have past that cant help
The following people are amazing and I love them: Wildcat, Timspork, Kias, Denada, susan, Sharp101, [GHSC]Ryctor, Matev, Matrias, ItBurns, Slapnuts, Dayspring, see317, and the unknown poster that sent me a box of Death Company! If you get them as Santees you should buy them amazing things!
Posts
And he will end you.
A special dreadnought, or even a special Chaplin dreadnought would be an amazing addition to my forces.
*sigh* I eagerly await this new codex in a year or so. I have my fears, of course, that certain things I like will get removed. But after seeing the Wolves codex, I do believe GW will maintain the spirit of the chapter, and not make me buy some 40 new marines because I can't configure them with sword and bolter.
Man, a Chaplin dreadnought would be the best thing.
*cough* librarian-dreadnought *cough*
Doesn't change what I said.
But they still don't have Grey Hunters.
In game terms I'm thinking of using it as a super heavy vehicle. Or atleast to fill in for my absolute lack of tanks in regular games, and use it as a type of Predator. I only lack the lascannon, but I could always make my own if I can't find any to trade for. I think the size of the thing, it would be fair to use as a super heavy tank with 2 structure points? Keeping it with the same lascannon/havoc launcher from the predator. I haven't really played any games of that size, but it's possible so I've been thinking of alternate ways to use this as I've been constructing it.
Huge wall of text:
Recently, within the last couple of years, peaceful contact has been made with a particularly progressive (but small) Eldar Craftworld. (These Eldar are my GW-employed flatmate's army, who are more 'let's fight the threats' than 'we're a dying race, let's try to survive'. To support this cause, in life they commit themselves to becoming Wraithguard upon death, so his army employs more Wraithguard models than is considered normal among Eldar, including using them as parts of other units, though obeying their adopted units' rules.) Eldar are known for their manipulation, which is most often secretive, but in this case, seeing the Tau as no threat to the galaxy, they were quite peaceful and open with their information. From this meeting, the Tau learned of some of the major threats to the galaxy - those who, if unchecked, could easily overrun it - including Orks (if ever they all allied), Necrons (if ever they all woke), and Tyranids (whose numbers are unknowable but considered vast). This may be a skewed view, but even so, it is what those particular Eldar believe, and is the message that the Tau took away from the experience.
So, due to this meeting, the Tau considered themselves more enlightened, and the Ent'aula and Gatta unanimously decided they would take a new path: To serve the Greater Good, fight the greatest evil. The Dal'yth (and possibly higher) Ethereals authorised this more proactive stance, as, again, it would bring back much information about threatening races. The Ent'Gatta (as the fleet now calls itself, a 'seeker vanguard' of the Tau) still perform trade runs, but now also actively seek out Tyranid remnants, possible Necron tomb worlds, Ork strongholds, and other threats, due to information given by the Eldar. The Eldar have no objection to this, indeed they see it as outsourcing somewhat, and the Tau are naively excited at the concept of following commander Puretide's example of Dal'yth warriors leading a fight.
So, given all of the above, these are Tau who have had much contact with other races, and I want to reflect that in my army. I also just generally like the idea of having lots of customised 'counts-as-X' units in my army, who play by the standard army rules, but are modelled to be using other tech. Mostly these will be the non-Tau races who are part of the Tau Empire, which again works as those are already differently coloured than normal Tau armour, and lets me play with some other colours in their models. Oh, also, I'm avoiding using sensors on my regular Tau, both because I don't think they look so great, and because I want to plaster them all over the non-Tau tech, to emphasise that they've made them Tau-y. With that in mind, here are some of my unit ideas:
1) Firewarriors with Space Marine jump packs and Vespid neutron blasters as counts-as-Vespid. Pretty straightforward. In the fluff it states that only Vespid can use the neutron blasters as their wings beat at a particular frequency which keeps their weapons working, and also we can assume that Tau wouldn't have much interest in others' jump packs as they already have jump pack tech. However, oh! What a suprise! Turns out that the jump packs conveniently vibrate at just the right frequency! I like the idea of having the jump packs be Ultramarine, as the Ultramarines are local to Tau space, and also it adds some blue to my mostly red-and-white army. In my mind these packs have been traded for with some backwater Imperials who scavenged them after a losing battle years ago.
2) Catachan jungle fighters with kroot rifles as counts-as-Kroot. Pretty straightforward. I'd probably have a shaper in there too, to emphasise that maybe these guys have been trained by Kroot. Tau can take Human auxiliaries in the Chapter Approved stuff, so it's not too much of a stretch to have Gue'vesa trained by Kroot. Jungle fighters seems pretty appropriate for counts-as-Kroot too. These guys can wear some Tau armour which I'll have spare after turning some Firewarriors into Pathfinders.
3) Kroot with Necron gauss rifles as counts-as-Kroot. Apparently the gauss rifles are almost identical in stats to the kroot rifles, so I'll just stick some Krooty blades on them and any other discrepancies in stats can be explained away by the Kroot using weapons they're not so familiar with. Pretty straightforward conversion, and leaves the kroot rifles free for the Gue'vesa-Kroot above. There's the argument that Necron bodies and weapons fade away from the battlefield after some time, but there're models produced by GW which have Necron heads on spikes and such, so I can't be too concerned with that.
4) Normal Kroot wearing Tyranid armour plating as their own armour. Kroot are known to like wearing animal hides and such for armour, so again, not too much of a stretch that they'd use some Tyranid plates from a battlefield they'd fought on. I'd paint the plates in Hive Fleet Kraken colours, as that's the local and most recent Hive Fleet.
5) Maybe I'd do some Orky Kroot. This is a more recent idea, and I'm not too sure about it. Kroot can absorb and employ others' DNA, so I might do some kroot in orky green colours, with maybe ork body bitz replacing Kroot arms, legs and so on in the occasional model. Furthermore, Orks contain all their technology in their DNA (I think), so I could almost have OrKroot riding Orky bikes or similar as counts-as-Kroothounds, though as Ork tech would definitely be looked down on by Tau, that may be a bit too much of a stretch.
6) Maybe one of my crisis suits will carry an Eldar flag, or have some sort of Eldar marking, to indicate the respect for the Eldar from whom they gained their new drive.
So, huge wall of text, cheers if you read it. I'd love to hear your comments on if that's all taking it too far, or of what fits and what doesn't, and any other suggestions as to interesting conversions and themes.
Edit: God, sorry, that was full of copy-paste errors. Should read smoothly now.
Huge wall of text with annoying repetitions.
If you could eliminate the Department of Redundancy Department influence it would be much easier to read.
Forgive me, that was horrible. All clean now (at least in the original post).
For me, the relationship you've got going on between the Eldar and Tau is a bit too chummy. Eldar are out for themselves. They really don't care about any other race and what happens to them unless it ultimately is going to have an effect on Eldar. The 2nd War of Amageddon came about, because Eldar helped a more "anti-human" orc come to power, over a more "anti-eldar" one. I don't know how many humans have died as a result of the 2nd war, but we're talking about this action saving eldar numbering in the 1000's.
Eldar are bastards; the idea is that they'd quite happily manipulate things so that a million tau died to save 100 Eldar.
The training to become Wraithguard upon death thing is more due to your mate's fluff more than anything else; it's an incredibly taboo thing to do, to raise the dead for Eldar; Iyanden only does it as it's really their only option. It's abhorrent. Most Eldar are scared shitless of death.
Ultramarine jet packs? I've always been under the impression that Marines are incredibly anal about their equipment, and the recovery thereof after a battle. I'd imagine tau jetpacks, for troops anyway, would be of similar bulk of the ones you get from the Stealthsuits. For what it's worth, I don't know what to make of Vespid; they're incredibly fragile, and typically aren't anti-marine enough for my liking.
I think Necron guns are powered by the necron internal energy supply.
I like the idea of human auxiliaries, but keep in mind that the Imperium would see them as species traitors and heretics, and would slaughter them on sight. And if the Imperium saw the Tau with the imperial jump packs, they would probably kill the whole planet. Not kill everything on the planet, but kill the whole planet.
And this Tau battle fleet would probably be seen as heretics by their own kind. Fire Warriors are the lowest caste in Tau society, and any aux troops would be even lower than that.
You could grimdark it up to make it work-- The Eldar are manipulating the naive (but still ruthless and almost comically totalitarian+fascist) Tau.
The counts-as Vespid unit should probably just be Vespid, since the Fire Warriors are specialized for ground fighting anyway.
The human aux could still work, and death worlders counting as Kroot seems like a neat idea.
Unfortunately... No, not really
Kill the Witch!
Didn't see any response to this, so I'll offer my opinions.
Ethereal. I've said this before, I simply see no real reason to take an Ethereal. You've taken the one good thing he offers: the slightly-upgraded Fire Warriror honor guard. However he's just not worth the points sink. You've given him the honor blade wargear, which takes him from having no weapons to have a couple of attacks in assault. As with all Tau, you do not want him in assault, as he will die quickly. The debuff your army takes on his death is a bad thing. I recommend removing him and his honor guard entirely, and using the points to give yourself another FW squad. Alternatively at this points level you can take O'Shovah (minus the Kroot) or O'Shaserra (probably the better choice in terms of your list) for your other HQ. And of course you could just add another Crisis Suit Commander.
Commander. While I normally recommend taking a Shas'El at low points value, in this case you may consider upgrading him to a Shas'O. Looks like you're planning on keeping this unit at long range with his weapon loadout and use the positional relay to guide deep striking units in. Don't have my codex in front of me, so if the Shas'O upgrade doesn't benefit BS (I want to say it's a buff to WS and Ld) keep him as is and consider adding a Shas'O as your other HQ choice as above.
Crisis teams. First one looks good. I'm guessing you're going to deep strike this unit behind the enemy lines and use it as a tank hunter group? If so it'll take serious fire. Maybe a shield drone for the leader. Second group is weird, you've got a mix of extreme close range (flamer) and long range (TL missile pods). If you're intending this unit as mostly long-range support, drop the flamers and add target locks to increase hits generated. In general I've found "all-comer" Crisis Suits to be sorta ok and not really good at any particular task. Third team has the same issues as second team. You've given them three weapons choices and no support systems, meaning they'll be lacking any particular abilities. Again with the mix of close-range/long-range. Flamers are plenty cheap, but the pricy plasma rifle is keeping you from building a sturdier unit. Ablative wounds via drones are always a good choice, and would cost about the same if you drop one of the plasma rifles from each suit.
Troops. Going with the old mechanized squads in Warfish, eh? Good choices, plenty of firepower in the Dfish, and smaller squads keep your points in check, but with only two Troops slots and max capacity on HQ, Elite, and Heavy Support choices I'm fearing for your ability to hold objectives in missions that call for them. Maybe throw in a squad of Kroot to keep the enemy distracted, or a footslogging FW squad if you're out of Dfish models. At this points value I'd be looking at three or four Troops choices (I run three in a 1500 list, myself).
Fast Attack. Looks good.
Heavy Support. I'm not a fan of Ionheads, myself. I've seen them put to good use but find that more railguns is always the correct choice. Broadsides out the ass! Marker drones are a good choice, and even if your targets are further out than the drones can see, you've got your Pathfinders to spot for them.
Hope that's of some benefit to you, but as always play what you want to play and observe the results!
Offered up my Tau Battleforce on bartertown, hopefully will get a good starter set of Orks out of it.
Why the change of heart?
1. I bought the Orks codex and read it cover to cover in one sitting. I still haven't read my Tau codex because after the first couple pages of fluff, I set it aside to be used as reference as I just couldn't get into it.
2. After reading the Orks codex I knew I wanted to build an Evil Sunz/Kult of Speed themed army and knew what colors and how I wanted to paint it. I've spent hours looking at other Tau armies on the web and still can not settle on a color scheme or theme that I like.
3. This last weekend's tourney at the LGS was: Chaos, Chaos, Eldar, Space Marines, Demon Hunters, Tau, Tau, Tau. It feels silly for me to bring in yet another Tau army.
I just don't think Tau was the army for me, especially after falling in love with the little green fungi.
Am I crazy?
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
YOO WUZ CRAZY 'FER A BIT 'DERE, BUT YOO IZ BACK TO BEIN' PROPPA NOW. GREEN IZ BEST!
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
this looks like a job for...
THE CRIMSON FISTS!
Then i just need 60mm bases... I have no idea how I'm going to mount them.
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
HAHAHA i did just get owned, i was posting up the ork image one sec
OK reset eat this other forum!
Yes i gave you a variety of heads i didnt hog them all and yes ill be there wed. Also ive got 1 spare base you can have past that cant help
NAx, what machinations of 40K have you planned for Friday?
I say we bet: If I / my side wins, you and Ayana have to see Avatar. If I lose, I'll... PAY for you to see Avatar...
HAH!
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
So he'll have lost either way?
Ba dun tish.:winky: