Army List Redux

SO... My adventures in Warhammer 40k Army List building have left me with an illegal and weak Tau Empire army so far. Thankfully, a re-read of the Codex and some much appreciated advice by Jacob from Advanced Tau Tactica have given me a bit more stable list to work with. Here's the updated list:


1850 Pt, Semi-Mechanized Tau
1. HQ
o Crisis Commander Shas’o (O’Suam) – O’Suam is my character shas’o that I wrote up. He’s armed with twin-linked Plasma Rifles and a flamer, and supplemented with a Multi-Tracker, Shield Drone and Gun Drone. I’ll post up his back story later 

2. Elites
o Crisis Suits - My Elites section is filled out with two units of 3 Crisis Suits each. Both units are equipped with Plasma Rifles, Flamers, and Targeting Arrays. Both units have team leaders with Hard-wired Drone Controllers and Shield drones. One of the units' Team Leader has been upgraded to a Shas'vre and given a Positional Relay.

3. Troops
o Fire Warriors - I have two units of 8 Fire Warriors in my Troops section. They're equipped with Pulse Rifles. Both units have Shas'ui with Pulse Rifles and Bonding Knives. They've also go dedicated Devilfish Transports equipped with Gun Drones, Disruption Pods, Multi-Trackers, and Targeting Arrays.
o Kroot - I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love me some Kroot. I don’t think you can truly do an Infantry heavy Tau army without them. They make for a great front lean, screening your soldiers and keeping your smaller assailants occupied while you focus on more high priority targets. They also make for great surprise assaults with the Infiltrate special rule. Surprise! I’m out flanking you! I have two units of 10 Kroot in my army along with 1 Kroot Hound in each unit. After reading over Jacob’s suggestions, I can’t justify keeping the Shaper, so he’s gone from this list.

4. Fast Attack
o Pathfinders – Pathfinders are for marker lights, and that’s pretty much it, as far as I’m concerned. Those marker lights not only allow you to boost your own BS, but also to duff your enemy’s LD stat, making it that much easier to send them fleeing. My army list contains one squad of 6 Pathfinders, equipped with Pulse Carbines and Markerlights. The Shas'ui is additionally equipped with a Hard-wired Drone Controller and a Marker Drone. Sound redundant? Consider this: If my Marker Drone hits its target with a mark the Pathfinders are even more likely to hit their target. (3+ roll to hit). I'll take it. Their required dedicated transport is equipped in the same manner as the Fire Warriors dedicated transports.
o Piranha – Piranha’s are fast vehicles that I can use to move around and harass the enemy. I’ve got this one in my list mostly for harassment value, zipping around and using it’s Fusion blaster to cause whatever trouble it may. The Gun Drones attached add an addition attack I can use with the threat of pinning. Ideally I’d like to have this up to three Piranha’s and make use of the unit to truly do some damage, but the one will do for now.

5. Heavy Support
o Broadside Team - My army contains two units of 2 Broadside Suits. Equipped with Twin-linked Railguns, and Twin-linked Smart Missile systems, these bad boys are trouble just waiting to happen. I also added a Target Lock to give them more flexibility on the table. Their team leader also equipped with a Drone Controller a shield drone, and a gun drone.
o Hammerhead - No Tau army is complete without a Hammerhead Gunship. Armed with a Railgun, Burst Cannon, Disruption Pod, and Multi-Tracker, it's ready to tear up anything you throw at it. Primary use is pie plating enemy infantry with its 72", S6, AP4, Large Blast Ordnance shot. Couple that with the Broadsides cracking off railgun blasts at enemy vehicles, and you’re dealing with a nasty tag team of OMG.

As always, if you guys see any improvements that could be made, or have any ideas for strategies that I could use with this army, let me know! I'm having a blast making this list :D

Prosper, as Tau shall!

-Aaron

Army List Fox Paws

kay... first of all... I know it's faux pas, so don't yell at me for my spelling :P

Second of all... I need to actually READ my Codex and THINK about what I'm doing.

Jacob from Advanced Tau Tactica left me some awesome guidance and crits on my list, but I was starting to realize that I'm a tard even before that. Markerlights on Crisis suits? WTF >_<

So yeah, I'm going to be completely redrafting that list, taking some of Jacob's suggestions, as well as some of the changes that I want to make. I'm also putting some more thought into my selections from a fluff point of view. I think I've mentioned "The Firebreather", my Tau General character, before on here (can't remember for sure), but I've got a whole back story based on him, and I'm planning on sort of restructuring my army to be more reflective of his style. His style is my style, so it's not much of a deviation from the list I've got here, but it is a deviation. Plus, it will make changing the army even more fun as I develop reasons for the change, and start giving character to my units (kill ticks on the pulse rifles anyone? :D)

I other news, I STILL haven't gotten to play a battle yet (good thing too, since my list was illegal) but it's looking like this Friday will be my return to the table top. (famous last words). I'll be sure and post a battle report of how things good. I think I'll be playing an Ork opponent, so it should be an interesting match up :D

Prosper, as Tau shall!
-Aaron

Pathfinders Ahoy!

So I finally fleshed out the last of my Pathfinders. When I originally started playing Tau, I really didn't understand what they were for. Kept trying to sacrifice the Markerlights for Rail rifles. What was I thinking?

Marker drones are a constant part of my army now, too. They're more expensive than a Fire Warrior, but add them to a unit of Crisis suits and you're suddenly hitting on a 3+. Yeah, that works for me.

One of the tweaks I made to Tau of War's army list was the inclusion of Marker Drones. It's a steep cost, but when going up against foes like the Space Marines, isn't a better chance to hit worth it? I definitely think so. Kill them before they can assault you.

So don't forget your laser-pointer-toting friends in your army list. They'll never steer you wrong.

Prosper, as Tau shall.
-Aaron

The Tau Empire Army List

There's nothing more fun than sitting down with your Warhammer 40k army's Codex and trying to figure out the best way to utterly decimate your opponent. It's even more fun to me with Tau because you can't rely on strength with Tau, you have to rely on tactics.

I took a look at Tau of War's YouTube vid on Army Structure where he covers his army build that was based on Fritz' "Attack Support Defend" model of army building. The army makes a lot of sense to me, so I created a dream list based on that one. It's not a carbon copy (I changed the Shas'o to my own character general, Shun'aun aka The Firebreather, and made a couple other small tweaks to fit my play style) but it's a close proximity. Then I realized that I'm about 3 Piranha's and a Hammerhead short of being able to field that army. Sooooo, it was time to rebuild my list to fit what I've currently got. I'M READY FOR BATTLE!

1850 Pt, Semi-Mechanized Tau Army

1. HQ
   
   • Ethereal - My Tau ethereal is equipped with his symbol of office, a bonding knife, EMP Grenades, Hard-wired Drone Controller, a Gun Drone, and a Shield Drone. He's also accompanied by his Honor Guard of 12 elite Fire Warriors, Equipped with Photon Grenades, EMP Grenades, and Pulse Rifles. The Honor Guard's Shas'ui has a Hard-wired Drone Controller and a Marker Drone.
     
   
   
2. Elites
   
   
   
   • Crisis Suits - My Elites section is filled out with two units of 3 Crisis Suits each. Both units are equipped with Missile Pods, Flamers, and Targeting Arrays. Both units have team leaders with Hard-wired Drone Controllers and Marker drones. One of the units' Team Leader has been upgraded to a Shas'vre and given a Positional Relay.
     
   
   
3. Troops
   
   
   
   • Fire Warriors - I have two units of 8 Fire Warriors in my Troops section. They're equipped with Pulse Rifles, Photon and EMP Grenades. Both units have Shas'ui with Pulse Rifles and Bonding Knives. They've also go dedicated Devilfish Transports equipped with Gun Drones, Disruption Pods, Multi-Trackers, and Targeting Arrays.
     
     
   • Kroot - I find it advantageous to have Kroot on the field, especially when I'm fielding a Fire Warrior heavy army. Kroot attack like Orks: In mass numbers and relentlessly. I don't expect them to survive till the end of the battle, but I do expect them to be an annoying holdup for the enemy so that my main army has time to fight. All for the greater good, right? I have one unit of 16 Kroot in my army, one of which is a Shaper. Unlike the rest of the squad, who are wielding Kroot Rifles, my Shaper is upgraded with a Pulse Carbine (pinning = good). The whole unit has been upgraded to have a Armor Save of 6. It ain't much, but anything that keeps my Kroot alive longer is good by me.
     
   
   
4. Fast Attack
   
   
   
   • Pathfinders - When you consider that a squad of 6 pathfinders have the potential to drop six marker lights on the enemy, they become essential to any range-based army. My army list contains one squad of 6 Pathfinders, equipped with Pulse Carbines and Markerlights. The Shas'ui is additionally equipped with a Hard-wired Drone Controller and a Marker Drone. Sound redundant? Consider this: If my Marker Drone hits it's target with a mark the Pathfinders are even more likely to hit their target. (3+ roll to hit). I'll take it. Their required dedicated transport is equipped in the same manner as the Fire Warriors dedicated transports.
     
   
   
5. Heavy Support
   
   
   
   • Broadside Team - My army contains one unit of 3 Broadside Suits. Equipped with Twin-linked Railguns, and Twin-linked Smart Missile systems, these bad boys are trouble just waiting to happen. I also added a Target Lock to give them more flexibility on the table. Their team leader also equipped with a Drone Controller and Marker Drone.
     
     
   • Hammerhead - No Tau army is complete without a Hammerhead Gunship. Armed with a Railgun, Burst Cannon, Disruption Pod, and Multi-Tracker, it's ready to tear up anything you throw at it. Primary use is pie plating enemy infantry with it's 72", S6, AP4, Large Blast Ordnance shot. SCARY STUFF!
     
   
   

The whole army comes in just shy of 1850, and should give me the versatility that I'm looking for in my army. I finally found a place to play that's all about minis. I couldn't be happier. Spent some time talking to the owner today and he's really cool. I'd be going up there to give this army a try this Friday, but I'll be traveling. BUT... all going as planned, I'll have a Battle Report to post next Saturday :)

In the mean time, I'd love to hear any opinions you guys might have on my list. Leave a comment and I'll answer any questions. And please, if you see any gaping holes in my line up, or a flaw I'm not thinking of, lemme know! I'm still learning all of this :D

Prosper, as Tau shall!
-Aaron

The Right Paint for an Army

When you're painting miniatures for a Warhammer 40k army (or any other table top wargame for that matter), the type you choose is insanely important. With the number of paints and types available on the market, it's easy to get a little overwhelmed with the choices. Acrylic or enamel, this brand or that, the only real way to know for sure is to try them and that can get pricey.

I've used Games Workshop, Testors, P3, and Reaper Pro Series, and I have things I like about each. Except Testors. No thank you to enamels. But that's just my personal preference :)

I'm not a big fan of Games Workshop paints, but their washes are phenomenal. The paints tend to get thick and chunky unless you water them down, and I really don't like to have to do that. I prefer to paint straight out of the pot. The recently released their washes, though, and I was hooked. The GW washes fill into detail cracks and crevices like you wouldn't believe, making them pop, before trying to a killer satin finish. It's great for everything from weathering to adding a sickly pallor to your Chaos Lord's armor. I went ahead and got the full set, but the ones I'd say are a must have for any paint collection are Badab Black, Devlan Mud, Gryphonne Sepia, and Ogryn Flesh. The Asurmen Blue and Baal Red colors are good too, though I use those less. I, personally, find the Leviathan Purple and Thraka Green too bright for what I use it for, though. But that's merely a matter of preference. I also keep a couple of their foundation paints around: Tallarn Flesh and Astronomican Grey. These tend to have a bit of texture to them, so I like using them for things like skin or stone.

Next up is Testors. They've been around forever and I think we've probably all used them to paint up our model airplanes at some point or another. They paint well, and they're typically easy to use. My main issue with them is that if you need to strip your model after painting it, it's difficult to do without using a solvent that may potentially damage the plastic bitz. That's a big downside to me. I do, however, like their black base spray, even though I usually do my black base coat by hand anymore.

Privateer Press (makers of Warmachine and Hordes) has released a line of paints that I was absolutely in love with for a long while: P3. Their paints flow smoothly and have a great selection of colors. I definitely still love these paints, even though they've been dethroned as my paints of choice. While you don't have to water them down to get a nice consistent flow, they suffer from the same chunk issue that GW paints do, except you've got a lot more time to work and a lot less chunk when it does. The other issue that I have is that their lighter colors (yellow, orange, etc) tend to paint on a little thin, requiring a couple of coats for adequate coverage. The one thing that still hasn't been replaced as my faves are their inks. Their inks are ridiculously vibrant in color and have a great stick to them. They're awesome for adding some cool highlights to metals, or giving gold or copper a verdigrised look.

Now... I saved the best for last: Reaper Master Series. I have never worked with a paint as smooth, with as good coverage, and as easy to work with as the Reaper Master Series paints. With over 200 colors to choose from (many grouped into handy Base-Shade-Highlight triads) you can come up with all sorts of different combinations for your army. The finish is extremely smooth straight out of the bottle, and you can use their additives (like Flow Improver or Drying Retarder) to change the way the paint flows to help with layering and shading and other techniques like that. As of yet, I haven't tried their washes or metallics, so I can't speak on their quality, but if its half as good as the paints themselves, they rock.

My paint setup is like this:

Paints: P3 and Reaper Master Series (slow phasing out the P3s for the Reaper stuff)



Washes: GW washes all the way. Absolutely awesome stuff.



Inks: P3. I haven't found nicer inks as far as hue and stick goes. love it.



As of right now, I'm using the Reaper brushes as well. They seem to be the best bang for your buck and they stand up better to use than the GW ones do. I haven't tried P3's brushes yet, but I'm in dire need of replacement, so guess which ones I'm gonna pick :D

Have you guys had different experiences with these paints? Let me know! I'd love to get some good ole discussion going here :D

Prosper, as Tau shall!
-Aaron

The Start of an Army

What's up, guys! So I wanted to take some pics and show you guys where I'm starting from. I pulled out a Unit of Fire Warriors, a Broadside, a Hammerhead, and a Crisis suit to give you an idea of what this army looks like right now. The paint job isn't phenomenal, but it's consistent... unfortunately, it's not up to my anal painting standards, nor is it what I want my army to look like sooooo... repainting time!

You can get a general idea of the look of the army as it stands by looking at this pic (you can also get a teaser of my new scheme if you look in the background). I think the original painter was going for a T'au Sept theme, but the orange coat and reddish wash just isn't cutting it for me. I like a lot of detail when I paint models, especially the GW stuff which tends to be a bit more cookie cutter. You've got to give them uniqueness in the paint, otherwise it's just a mass of color.

Here's a better look at the Fire Warriors. Like I said before, it's not a BAD paint job, but it's not what I want. I'm leaning toward more of a Sa'Cea Sept look, which isn't orange. The biggest hurdle on the trooper models i that the paint that was used is fairly thick. I tried using Mean Green cleaner to strip them before, but I couldn't get it cleaned off well enough to make a difference in a short enough time to keep from melting the models. I've found on the models I've started on so far that multiple coats of thin paint covers the current coat while keeping the details mostly in tact.

I love me some broadsides. 72" of reach out and touch ya with a St10 AP1? Yes please. Add to that it being Twin-Linked and you're looking at a sure tank killer. Seems a shame that such an awesome unit that's no doubt a hero of many battles (you don't get to be a Broadsword controller for being a chump, ya know!) was left so very... plain. One thing you guys will learn about me is that I'm a story teller. I'll post my units up as I finish them, and as I do, I can promise you you'll get a background for each one. That's how I roll ;)

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? There's barely ANY Detail work on this tank. It's just a basecoat and a blotchy wash and a few highlight colors. This guy clearly didn't have the Codex handy when he was painting. Once I'm done you'll see a more traditional Tau style camo scheme and a lot more details. Details are goooood.

I like the pilot, though. Too bad he's not the right color scheme :D

And lastly, ye old Crisis Suit. Same as with the Broadside, he's relatively uninspired and plane. At least this guy has a unit marking on his chest plate instead of being completely non-descript. I'll fix that :D

I've got my work cut out for me on this army. Trying to keep it looking good while painting over old work is difficult at best. I prefer to paint things in bits and assemble as I go so I can get to all of those hard to reach areas. Unfortunately, I don't have a choice on this one. Believe me, trying to cover up bright orange with dark greys is TOUGH in those tiny nooks and crannies!

Hopefully, I'll be able to show you that Fire Warrior team you're seeing in the background completed by the end of the week.

Prosper, as Tau shall.
-Aaron

The Dawn of War

So about two years ago now, I was given a Tau army as payment for painting some models for a buddy of mine. I'd been thinking really seriously about getting into Warhammer 40k, so when my friend offered a trade for my painting, I couldn't say no.

I'd been playing Warmachine and Hordes pretty heavily, and loving it, but I wanted something bigger and badder. The idea of the grand, sweeping battles, and massive contingents of troops was too good to pass up. I'd been eyeing the Space Marines, but couldn't really afford to buy the army, so Tau it was. Best part? I liked them. The more I read of the codex, the more I liked them, fluff and all. So I was pretty damn happy with my deal.

So I went out, got the Warmhammer 40k 5th edition rules, and started plugging away at making my first army list. I got about 3 battles in (getting crushed each time) before life took me away from Top Deck Games in Tulsa, OK, and moved me 1,200 miles away to Philadelphia, PA. That sort of killed my table top gaming for a while. Bummer!

So recently, life has slowed down to a dull roar again and I've been reading through my Warhammer 40k rulebook again. My Tau have been collecting dust under my desk, longing for the call of battle. And dammit, I can't take it anymore!

I've tracked down a couple of game shops in the area, and I've got my Tau back out of their case. They are in dire need of a new paint job (the one the had when I get them was passable, but not my style), and I need to modify my personnel loadout a bit to field them and get them ready to fight... but really, I need to learn tactics.

So that's why I'm writing this blog. I was planning on keeping a logbook of battles and tactics that worked and didn't work, as well as army lists and notes on modeling and what have you, so then I thought, why not share it? I'm more likely to type than I am write, so it's blogging time! You can expect a lot of updates out of me as time goes on. At first, I'll be talking about painting and what have you as I get my army fighting fit, but once I get onto the table again, I'll be posting battle reports, tactica, and army lists too.

Keep your eyes open :) It should be fun!

Prosper, as Tau shall!
-Aaron