Tau'va fellow hobbyists, and welcome back to "For the Greater Good" - a hobby blog following my journey as I collect and learn the Tau Empire for Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition.
Part Five will be the final installment of 2020; a close out post for the final pieces I've painted for the Tau this year.
Needless to say... it's been a bad year for the Greater Good. The metagame for 9th Edition really doesn't favour the Tau play style, and the consensus on the internet is that the Tau are in one of the worst positions (competitively) they have been for a while.
Couple that to the ongoing COVID situation, which has really slashed gaming time (particularly in the UK), and it would be easy to finish the year on a downer.
I, however, am determined to NOT LET THE VIRUS GET ME DOWN THIS CHRISTMAS!! and will be looking to celebrate at least some elements of my progress on Tau in this post!
Read on to see how I've got on!
Blog posts one to four focused on what I've affectionately named my "First Sphere expansion"... although First Sphere Backlog is certainly a better term to describe it!
By the end of post four I'd managed to paint up all of my existing backlog models (minus a few drones...) and had started on my "Second Sphere Expansion" - an XV88 Broadside Battlesuit with Heavy Rail Rifle, three XV8 Crisis Battlesuits with Missile Pods and shield generators, 2x 5-man Breacher squads, and Ethereal on foot and a Devilfish.
Quite the sizable addition, and a big painting challenge over the last few months!
The XV88 Battlesuit was first up!
Bold statement incoming... Nothing in the Tau range defines the "Tau" quite like the Broadside Battlesuit with rail rifle.
The unit and weapon combo really define the "Tau" style, and I was so happy to finish this model. I opted to paint the unit and Contingent markings on the shoulders instead of the chest for the XV88 mostly because the chest is less flat that other marks of battlesuit; the coolant grills and sensors disrupting the usual surface.
I also decided to paint the rail rifle barrel black with bright blue highlights, just like the Pathfinders. With so much of the army having grey weapons this really makes the rail-weaponry stand out.
After the Broadside I moved on to my first Tau Tank - the Devilfish!
As the keen eye'd of you will notice, this Devilfish belongs to "First Blade" (denoted by the "i" emblem on the front-right of the chasis) - my first Breacher Team. "Second Blade" will be getting their own transport in the new year!
With the two new models down all I had left was another (and probably final!) Start Collecting to paint.
I kicked things off with the Infantry
Two five-man Breacher teams completed both First and Second Blade (rounding them up to 10-men each), and the Ethereal on-foot.
I know MSU is popular in 9th, and the extra 5-men per unit makes the Breachers a little susceptible to blast weapons, but I wanted to take the squad size to 10 to add more dice to shooting, and more wounds to take them off objectives. I could always run them and 2x5man squads instead for some added protection (forcing multi-charges, blocking shenanigans, etc) but I'll need to see how they play frst.
Finally I painted up my XV8 Crisis Team
My third and penultimate Crisis Team, these guys are kitted out with twin Missile Pods and Shield Generators. I didn't really care about the competitive viability of these models - with twin-burst, twin-plasma and twin-Fusion Crisis Suits already painted I knew I wanted to add twin-missile and twin-flamer to the family! (You can guess what my final team will be!)
The small conversion I made to these guys was the Markerlight places under the right arm. I know the Crisis Suit can't take a markerlight, but I made this conversion from a kind of narrative perspective. I like the visual of the Crisis suits using their own personal markerlights to designate targets for their shoulder-mounted missiles, independent of the central markerlight network - kind of like lesser versions of the Seeker Missile launcher, or this scene from Iron Man.
With all the major models done I dusted I thought I was clear... but I still had a few little pieces to go!
The final pieces were a splattering of drones I had left over from various kits - some more useful... some less!
Two Shield Drones and two Guardian Drones will make great accompanying drones for the Breachers - 5++ Saves and "Savior Protocols" are horrible things to deal with after all (especially if I can obscure the drones with the Devilfish!!)
The two Shielded Missile Drones and the Gun Drone aren't likely to be super helpful (at least in this addition), but are pieces of backlog cleared.
The "desert" drones wee my final pieces from the Pathfinders - a Grav Inhibitor, Pulse Accelerator and Recon drone. The Pulse Accelerator Drone always looks great on paper, but suffers from needing Pathfinders with it (models I always find deeply disappointing!). The other two don't seem particularly useful either, but again represent cleared backlog!
The remaining two mini markers (the homing beacons) were from the Stealth Team kits; lesser used pieces I had lying around.
With those drones complete I can very confidently say...
I HAVE NO UNPAINTED TAU LEFT TO PAINT!!!!
(well, assembled unpainted Tau at least....)
I've got the parts to build 6-12 Drones still in my bitz box, but bitz don't count!
Getting though all these guys was a phenomenal achievement this year. In total I've painted about 2750 points of Tau since we kicked off our Xenos Tale back in June.
I've certainly enjoyed painting the models, and having such a big project has been a bit of a lifeline during Lockdown (especially one I didn't need to invest too heavily in).
The army definitely needs some pieces to complete ahead of any gaming in 2021.
I want another 1-2 Commanders - at present mines only has default weapon options and I need either the Fusion/ Fusion Blade Coldstar or Cyclic-ion Blaster Coldstar/ Enforcer as a dedicated threat in this list. (I'm weirdly considering Fusion Blade commander and a CIB-Coldstar with Onagar Gaunlet as a potent double-threat... but I don't think it'd work)
I want another Broadside or two to fill out the Heavy Rail Rifle squad I have. The Relic Rail Rifle is kinda crazy powerful, and could be pretty useful in games. Not the best equipped model in 9th, but at least the model is easy to magnitise should I want to swap to a full missile loadout.
A second Devilfish is a must, at least for how I think I want to play the Tau.
I also want a second XV104 Riptide Battlesuit, this time with the Heavy Burst Cannon.
Ultimately I want a new codex! But I'm not an experienced enough Tau Commander to get the most from it from minute one. All I can do between now and then is continue to build on the collection I have, add a few more offensive threats, strengthen my pool of objective takers, and to wait patiently until something new comes out.
Don't expect the Tau to go away in 2021!
Until next time my friends, may the Ethereals guide you!
Stay happy and healthy all, and Happy Hobby Holidays wherever you are in the world!
Medge
Congrats on painting up such a huge force.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the pathfinder drones they can be useful. The pulse accelerator drone works best with a fire warrior horde. In 8th edition I ran 40 fire warriors and the pulse accelerator drone was excellent for increasing their range to 36, and more importantly their half range to 18". I don't use it in 9th edition as most of my fire warrors have been replaced with gun drones. The recon drone is good for being a two drone, I've rarely used its other abilities once I took special weapons out of my pathfinder squads in 9th edition. I haven't used Grav drones but just put them as I'm also put in XV9 Hazard suits so hoping to occasionally double dip on the -2 to charge. The main reason I like pathfinder drones is that they give you another small squad of drones without using up a tactical drone squad, and not only that but they get to make a pre game move, excellent for getting early board presence to threaten mid field objectives and get Engage on All Front points.
You mentioned "CIB-Coldstar" - unfortunately the Coldstar can't take CIBs, all commanders would probably be CIB-Coldtars if they were :)
Looking forward to reading what you get up to in 2021 !
Thanks for the info Rathstar! I think I meant a CIB Enforcer... but I definitely need to check the rules before I full build one! Fortunately the Commander box only comes with 1 CIB anyway, so I'll need to get a few!!
ReplyDeleteThe Pulse Accelerator sounds pretty awesome, but I don't like that you need to buy the pathfinders to go with it. I've always thought it restricts your Pathfinder deployment, as you want you Pulse Accelerator near your Fire Warriors, and your Pathfinders may need to go elsewhere. I don't think I'll try it in 9th, since shorter range seems to be the big thing. But who knows what our new codex will bring! (whenever that will be!!!)
As the pathfinders and their drones get a 7" pre game move, and the fact that the drones are 2" faster than the fire warriors gives you lots of flexibility. The pathfinders and their drones have to deploy within 2" of each other (note only one model from each of them has to be within 2") then they can move 7" in different directions and the pathfinder's drones can move and advance to catch up with the fire warriors on turn 1.
Delete