T’au (or Tau) and Me
The T’au (or Tau from here on out because I know I will mess up at least once while writing this!) and I have a rough past when it comes to actually playing games. I remember vividly when the 3rd ed book came out. A friend of mine was a GW store manager and he had a copy (could have been early but who knows!) and the idea of a mecha robot army was one that I loved…. Until I found out I had to have run of the mill bovine fishy infantry dudes…
I had armies that used normal dudes… I wanted battle robots! And so the Tau slipped away into the edition and away from my collection.
4th Edition brought new hope for me – which was crushed moments later when again my dream fell short. This pattern would repeat and repeat until 7th when thanks to formations I could KIND OF do what I wanted…. And then 8th came along and my dreams of battlesuits are now coming true.
The Expansion
Much like the stories of the T’au, my hobby journey is one of mixed success in regards to this army. I have tried a couple of times over the years to start a force but they never really made an impact on me. I have bought and sold them at least twice I remember… maybe more.
My current endeavour is one of slightly retro origins. I have always thought the Tau XV15 stealth suit was one of the coolest models around – reminiscent of the Cyclones from Robotech. When the XV25 model came out it was a huge disappointment for me. So when I kicked off this project I had to use the one squad of XV15 I had already, who had sat unpainted since the earliest days of 3rd ed T’au.
Spin forward a couple of weeks and I had 4 units of 6 – for less than the cost of 9 XV25’s. I even had Shadowsun to lead them!
The Deployment
I borrowed a couple of DangerRods Ghost Keels to try the army out (pre codex) and I was hooked. I had a Tau army I could gel with. It worked the way I had always wanted. Borrowing models would be no good – so now I have a ghost keel build and part painted and another to build so I can run the list as my own.
The Codex
The new codex was met with tepid, even negative light by long term T’au players. Not me. The book offered me everything I wanted in a T’au force. Stratagems, Warlord Traits, Signature Systems and varied play styles. No one unit stood out as a must take so everything felt viable in some way – I even want Vespid now!
Results
I don’t really have any great photos to show off for the army just yet… I am aiming for a basic paint job first to get them on the table and will add details and weathering as things get closer to done. The fact I am desperate to build and paint them is a novelty for me these days, most releases see me pulling an old army out of storage to try out for a few games and then back they go. Not T’au. I want to build and paint them. I was disappointed in myself for not having them more painted so we could record games for the youtube channel (that’s going to change quickly!).
Being reinvigorated by a project is just so refreshing and its something I have not had for some time from the hobby… maybe since the Dark Eldar release in 5th ed.
Got to love finecast – am I right?
Whats next?
I have a Tidewall GunRig under way, a bunch of drones, Ghost keels, Dark Strider all in progress… as well as a riptide I am using to push my hobby even further than before – but that’s a show and tell for another day once I iron out the kinks in the model! Expect photos over the coming weeks!
