Tau custom objective markers WIP

I've only played a few games of 7th so far but it's a lot of fun with the Maelstrom missions. It really makes the game much more dynamic and keeps things interesting until the end.

Who doesn't love a dead Tau? The pic quality isn't so good but I really like the way his pistol ended up posed in his open hand.

Anyway, so far we've been using dice to mark objectives but they inevitably get picked up, rolled, knocked over or whatever. So, I thought it was time to make some custom objectives to give something more interesting to fight over.

Battle Report: Bu'Kuro Sept Tau vs Yme Loc Eldar

I rolled some dice today and also took some (poor quality) pictures. 2 (mostly) painted armies fighting it out over (mostly) painted terrain. That's what this game is all about!

We played 1750 using the Maelstrom mission cards. I really enjoy using that mission type. Very fun and dynamic and really changes the flow of 40k. I won't bother typing out army lists because this isn't really very in depth but I can if anyone is interested.

Broadsides survey the Eldar flank.

Longstrike takes a pot shot at the distant Wave Serpent but the Eldar shields prove effective

Dirty Tau - Bu'kuro Sept

For the past year or so of hobby time I've been focusing on the Tau. As I type this they're a few units away from finished (1750 points with some extras), which is pretty great for me. I'm usually both slow and easily distracted, which is not ideal in this hobby.

Fire Warriors take cover in an Imperial ruin

I started the Tau for a paint and play escalation league which I was running with my group. My main goal for this army was to keep it quick and easy to paint. Having a beautifully painted squad doesn't seem so impressive if the rest of your army is grey plastic.

At the time I'd been painting scenery using rust weathering powders and loved how it looked, so I decided to apply the same stuff to these guys.

The idea behind the army is that they were an explorer fleet from a distant Tau Sept named Bu'kuro. The Sept was used as a staging ground for deep space exploration, and these guys were sent off on one such mission. However, their homeworld was was lost while they were away, abandoned and sacrificed for The Greater Good, and so they've been cut off from the Empire. This had the benefit of encouraging a quick and dirty paint style, having them all look beat up, as well as giving them a vague justification for fighting the other Tau player in the group. If they've been forgotten by the Empire, maybe they wouldn't be too friendly towards their old brothers.

More pics after the jump

1500 Tau and moving away

Note: My own Tau are half painted by my wonderful Girlfriend, half proxied miniatures, and entirely unphotographed. Instead, I shall pepper this post with images of my good friend OtherRob's Tau, from the Cheltenham Warchiefs gaming club.

It's been a while!


I have been pretty busy with an upcoming massive move and life-change (watch this space for more info) which has rendered my usual intermittent hobby output even less...mittent. Lots of games played, but I've not been painting or buying much. The move is possibly short term (a few months) but it may well end up being a full year. It's also overseas. Obviously, this means my tonnes of miniatures won't all be able to come with me. I decided early on that I'd take a single army with me, and I've been working over the choices in my head for a while now (yes, I think about important things like this). I think I've settled on taking my Dark Eldar. They're plastic (thus, light), mostly unpainted (so even if I don't get much gaming done I can channel my hobby energy into painting them), and they also tick the all important "evil pointy eared space elf" box.

I've been cycling through all of my various armies, trying to get some games in with each of them before I depart. This is the first of a possible series where I talk a little about each of my most common lists.



Today, my experiments with the Tau!
Tau were, for me, an early idea for an army to take with me. They're a very different play style to my usual (I normally live for the assault phase), but wrecking faces with Rail Guns is certainly awesome. In the end I decided against taking the army beyond my experiments because I'd still have so much to buy. If the rumours are true about them getting a new book sooner rather than later are true though, I may have to join the greater good permanently!



Here's my 1500 list.

HQ:
Shas'el - Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker


Elites:
2x Crisis Battlesuits, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker

2x Crisis Battlesuits, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker

2x Crisis Battlesuits, Twin Linked Missile Pod, Target Lock (didn't have enough points to make them all Fireknife load out)

Troops:

6x Fire Warriors (these guys steal the pathfinder's fish)

6x Fire Warriors, Devilfish with Disruption Pod

10 Kroot

10 Kroot

Fast:
8 Pathfinders, Devilfish with Disruption Pod

Heavy:

Hammerhead with Rail Gun, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pod and Target Lock

Hammerhead with Rail Gun, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pod and Target Lock

2x Broadsides, Advanced Stabilization System, Team Leader with Hard Wired Target Lock, Hard Wired Drone Controller, 2x Shield Drones

1497 points total.



Pretty simple stuff.
So far my Pathfinders have consistently been shot and immediately broken, but I think their markerlights are too useful not to have them in the list.
Kroot are a useful distraction/sacrifice unit, and I love them. Bigger squads would be nice, but I can't afford them.
It might be worth dropping the SMS on the hammerheads and using the points for something else.

Anyway, that's my take on the Tau! Kind of an epic and rambling post.

Suddenly...Tau!

Yeah, I know. Tau?
Anyway, I've been inspired by some wonderful converted battlesuits from around the net, and after proxying a tau list on monday I decided to have a go and make some of my own.
The conversion is essentially copied outright from a dude online named Tael. His site is here, and this is his thread on Advanced Tau Tactica. Both are a few years old so you might have run across them before, but very much worth a look.

Anyway, this is my effort. A WIP Broadside.