Unreleased Tau Models

I was going through some old pictures from Games Day, 2008 and discovered some snaps of prototype and upcoming models. Most had since been released (specifically the AoBR set which was huge at this Games Day), but there were two Tau-related models that have yet to see the light of day. These are old news but I wanted to put a record of them on my blog before I delete the pictures.

This kroot shaper would have made an amazing edition to the kroot line. The pose is very dynamic and really gives a sense of how brutal the kroot fight in close combat.

This tau battlesuit pilot is clearly in a bad way - what with entrails hanging out the side and all. But he steadfastly refuses to give up a kill point. Too bad is likely we'll never see the model in person.

Here Kome the Kroot

When I started playing Tau back in 2005, I remember reading through the book thinking what's the deal with these ugly kroot models?! Their look was a complete reversal from that of the Tau - rather than the sleek helmeted lines of the firewarriors, the kroot presented an animalistic facade closer to feral creatures than a sentient life. Needless to say, I was not impressed and for a time refused to consider playing with kroot. However, as I dug into their background (inter-galactic mercenaries who seem to be "gaming" their allies for better guns), I really started to like the extra dimension that they added to the Tau Empire.

The clincher for me was the discovery of the Kroot Mercenaries PDF (ping me if you are looking for this). Kroot Mercenaries was a variant list that allowed kroot to be taken as allies to a number of forces or to be run as an army in its own right. Granted the list was almost impossible to play on its own given the distinct lack of effective anti-armor. But the variety of new kroot units (winged kroot, mounted kroot, kroot shaper council, etc.) made for some compelling conversion opportunities. In addition, the army list rules actually advanced the background by allowing kroot to have specific upgrades based on the general species that they had frequently dined on.

From there I was hooked. I made some ebay purchases, messed around with conversions, and tried some quick painting techniques (which failed miserably) to bring them up to table top standard. Unfortunately, as this hobby goes, I was soon distracted by yet another difficult army to play - the Daemonhunters (not Grey Knights). Soon I was whipping gun metal blue on my Miles Cerulean (Blue Knights) and cheesing out my allied Inquisitor list as best I could - jk.

I have sporadically played my Tau in the years since, but never got back hardcore into the little fish heads. After the Daemonhunters, the Vostroyan Firstborn proved to be sufficiently distracting that I had little time to put paint to anything else and being spoiled for choice in the current IG book has not lent itself to looking back to the Tau.

But of course the wheel turns and we turn with it. The new Tau codex has inexorably drawn me back to the blue guys and I have finally started getting the army up to a table top standard. The good news is that my painting skill (and patience) have increased in the intervening years such that I am better able to do justice (even in an assembly line fashion) to my little, plastic soldiers. Re-enter the kroot...

While my firewarriors definitely need some fresh paint, I have re-discovered my interest in the kroot for their gritty look and updated rules - so they are getting the first cleanup. The rules are an interesting question as a few minor tweaks have fundamentally changed how kroot operate. They lost 1 attack and 1 point of strength which has seriously diminished their close combat ability. Before the update, kroot could make a reasonable stand against space marines and now they are good for picking off a few stragglers in close combat (if they are lucky).

On the flipside, the individual kroot dropped 1 point in cost, gained an armor save (6+), and have access to a shaper that is 33% cheaper than before. Perhaps most importantly, the kroot can now take sniper rounds for 1 point each in addition to their regular kroot rifles.  Without this upgrade, I would argue that the kroot got worse from previous edition to the current - with the upgrade they simply take on a different role in the army.

For 7 points each (6 + 1 for sniper rounds), the kroot become dirt cheap, infiltrating snipers that are fully capable of sniping a heavy weapon or lobbing a volley of S4 firepower or even taking down a monstrous creature. They still act as a great buffer between the precious firewarriors and an oncoming assault horde and with the benefit of markerlights, ethereal powers, and leadership buffs kroot can put out a lot of hurt for a relatively nominal cost.

This post kind of rambled around for a bit when it was really just an excuse to show off the newly painted kroot in the first image. These guys were basecoated with a flat camo khaki from Home Depot, given some base colors (belly, carry-alls, and guns), washed with devlan mud, then punched up with high contrast orange. The orange is my Tau's sept color (sa'cea) so the kroot quills and war paint are meant to tie the army together a little better.

Tau Sun Shark Rules Rundown

Here is a quick rules rundown of the Tau Sun Shark from the upcoming codex:
Armor/BS: 11, 10, 10, 3HP, BS3
160 points base
Weapons

• Pulse Bomb Generator - S5 AP5, Large Blast, Bomb
• Missile Pod - S7 AP4
• Networked Markerlight
• 2 Seeker missiles (S8 AP3)
• 2 Interceptor Drones

5 points more nets you a twin-linked missile pod - so really, why not? You can also select vehicle upgrades from the armory but I'm not sure dumping more points into such a fragile unit is worth it.

For me, the most interesting thing about this flyer are the interceptor drones. These guys are armed with twin-linked Ion Rifles (30" S7 AP4, rapid fire) and come with a bevy of special rules:

• Skyfire
• Interceptor
• Afterburners
• High speed deployment
• Supporting fire

First off, the ion rifles have an additional firing protocol which nets you a 30" S8 AP4, small blast at the expense of a Gets Hot! roll. Not too terrible when you consider the drones are only BS2 and twin-linked means you can re-roll the Gets Hot. 2 Strength 8 shots is enough to put paid to most side armor in the game.

Skyfire and interceptor should be fairly obvious - park these guys midfield and wait for a pot shot at your opponents Zooming flyer. Afterburners let these guys Turbo boost and High speed deployment allows the drones to disembark during the movement phase even if the flyer is in Zooming mode. Supporting fire is the new Tau special rule allowing fire support of friendly units in Overwatch.

What you end up with is a interesting flyer that can drop a decent strength large blast in the movement phase, disembark some fairly nasty little hornets, and still grab a shot at a different unit (with what appears to be a turret mount) with a decent, twin-linked, light armor killer. And did I mention the seeker missiles? Oh yeah and them too. Between the turret mount missile pod and the ability for seekers to reach out a touch anyone, anywhere it shouldn't matter which way the Shark ends up facing at the end of the movement phase.

The drones of course will make an easy target and likely get swatted pretty quickly. But with some judicious placement they could live long enough to do some damage to either a ground or air target.

Any thoughts on this interesting new unit? Would you consider running it?

As a footnote, the Razorshark has the same stat line but comes armed with:

Quad Ion Cannon - S7 AP4 4 shots

Burst cannon (S5 AP5 4 shots) or Missile pod for +5pts (S7 AP4 2 shots)

2 Seekers missiles

At 145 points, it's not a bad little Air to Air fighter but to me lacks the X factor of the drones. Still probably a better choice in the battle for air supremacy that has become 40k.

How are you going to build your 'shark kit? Are you even going to get one?

Advocatus: Playing Tau in 40k 5e

Playing Tau in 5e becomes a whole new game. With the new assault rules and new line of sight rules, I predict Tau will be one of the strongest army lists (at least until the FAQ comes out). Basically, with assaulting units not being able to consolidate into a new assault, the Tau gunline becomes a very feasible tactic. Add to that the Tau almost unique ability to be able to remove conver saves (markerlights) and the amount of AP1/2 weaponry that can fielded mean that the Tau should be nigh on unstoppable.

The real weakness will be in the troop department for scoring and the number of possible kill points that a decent Tau list can give up. However, keeping troop choices in transports and always taking a disruption pod (4+ cover save), you should be able to claim objects relatively easily. The key is going to be a mix of mobile and static infantry and knowing when the static troops need to become more mobile (even at the expense of shooting).

My current 5e Tau list looks like this:

Shas'el - Plasma rifle, CIB, Multitracker
2 x Crisis squad - Suits x 3, plasma rifles and fusion blasters
3 x Firewarrior squad - 10 x firewarriors, Shas'ui with bonding knife
2 x Kroot squad - 14 x kroot carnivores, 3 x kroot hounds
2 x Pathfinder squad - 8 x pathfinders, devilfish with disruption pod
1 x Hammerhead
1 x Broadside squad - 3 x broadsides, advanced stabilization, 2 x shield drones

A lot of markerlights coupled with the pathfinders' devilfish that can transport both firewarriors and kroot (not at the same time, of course).