Friday 15 March 2013

Tau! This weekend! Airbrush time.. again!

Tau...as cool as Iron Man by Adi Granov? Just about...
So I am super stoked about Tau hitting us very soon. I love the little fish heads...when they are in freaking cool cyber suits...

Frankly, of all the xenos, Tau and Tyranids have it best.
Nids - masses of irrepressable swarmage and huge Godzilla psyker bugs - 'nuff said.
Tau - hyper-experimental Shellhead style suits everywhere! Plus the dudes have this weird Japan/Samurai armour thing going on.
See. Cool as fuck.

My Tau are built to the fifth edition standard of:
- Bugger all fire warriors (for some reason I still have 40!)
- Disruption Pod/SMS "Warfish" Devilfish (5)
- Crisis Suits EVERYWHERE! (18)
- TL Missile Pods EVERYWHERE!
- Broadsides! (3)
- Hammerheads (2)
- Piranhas for fast blocking as part of a skirmish screen to roadblock (5..actually less now after I built a Barracuda!)
- even Pathfinders! (8) 
- Kroot meat shields.. dont know how many I have.. I dont really like them and I am glad I didnt buy too many as I prefer the mega firepower you used to be able to bring.
I love all this shit. I cannot wait for a Tau flier. I scratch built a Barracuda over the Christmas period and am going to airbrush it this weekend hopefully as I have just about finished the Nids to basic tournie standard (don't worry, they'll get more work over the tournament year as I am loving them) ... So anyway, Tau .. 

Ahh 5th ed.. 1500 points! How small it seems.. on my parents kitchen table!
New codex means new ways to play. I've not played my Tau in 6th, not for a long time.. I checked the blogs history... July 2010 was the last game I reported on for my Tau..

Since then..

I've moved house (buying my first house with my then girlfriend)
Married said girlfriend.. almost 9 months now!
Been in the house 2 years!

It's been a while since the Kroot bubblewrap and Jump-Shoot-Jump with Suits inside the wrapping..
I've even put money aside for it! although I am hoping that I only have to buy in the new Ubersuit (or "Riptide" as it has been rumour revealed to be called, check out Faeit212 blog) and the new Crisis Suit models.. Plus more fire warriors if the points costs go down as universally as they have across other armies.

Cannot wait to spunk shit loads of money on FRESH new Crisis Suits.. genuinely.. I love our hobby!

Oh and several fliers if they are any good. Lets quantify that a bit... S7 guns...thinking missile pods and ion cannons... Cheap, 125-150, three HPs and av11. 

I personally don't want much more than that. How about you? The barracuda fits this it just needs another hull point and another point of AV. 

Man.. fears though.. changes to Broadsides. If you look at the pattern of codex changes.. the really good stuff gets a "balancing" or in some cases out right nerfing... or just stay the same whilst everything else gets a bit better. Dark Angels for example.. Deathwing got a bit more expensive..just enough to make them untenable.. then Ravenwing (which were niche in 5th and before) get a huge boost through Standard of Devastation and relatively cheap price, combined with the way the codex interacts with the core rules.
Demons.. Tzeentch got balanced, Slaanesh gets a big boost..
Some people get angry about this, I just call it business.
Fair play.
Anyway.. I wonder if this is going to be the same.. after all, Crisis Suits are iconic to the max, no way they can be made pooski, especially if there are truly new models. In which case, they have to sell them.. so.. Flier and Supersuit the same..as long as they are all viable.. I am going to buy and play them. 
I love the fact that Marines are in fact on the back foot now - 5th was Wolves and GK.. with Crons taking over and emerging from the Tomb Worlds for the last year and a half.. now we have Chaos erupting, Tau hitting.. Ork rumours, Eldar in Q3/4 (Games Day slot I imagine).. and the PACE of releases! 

Who says GW doesn't give us the good shit? Love it. 

10 comments:

  1. I still haven't settled on a choice for my second army (a few GK don't count!), and Tau are looking very interesting.

    My wish list would be decent anti-air options in different slots, so ideally on Crisis and Broadside suits. This would also make them excellent allies (my Wolves really need the help vs fliers!), especially if a Crisis bodyguard was available from the HQ slot. Throw in a decent transport flyer (I'd be surprised if this was dedicated, but I can wish!), and I will be very happy!

    Looks like it's not long to go till we find out, anyway!

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    1. Yeah man think they'll be an excellent ally. Plenty of good stuff in multiple slots.

      Re fliers. .. Broadsides are supposed to have Skyfire but are now s8 not s10.. Rumoured to be more durable and tough enough to actually survive not being Interceptor.

      Man... Cannot wait.. End of March for White Dwarf and re info!

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    2. I also like that the new Broadside kit's railgun is handheld, rather than shoulder mounted. Nice.

      S8 skyfire is still reasonable, considering what's available outside of Forge World at the moment. If they can take hits, say from Helldrakes, and still be shooting, happy times!

      I guess it all comes down to points and what's in the codex. Need... more... info!

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    3. Yeah, I'm not complaining about s8 Skyfire...decent, effective.
      It's supposed to be 85 for base + Skyfire...not bad, but depends on envy thing else. Also saw that it was t4, 2+ .. So not sure how that is "survivable of the flier alpha strike" as the rumours go.. Still goes down to a vendetta without interceptor.

      I like the hand held.. Like the old phil Dunn conversion from ages ago.

      It's exciting, such fast release schedules...

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    4. I wonder if the Broadside squad in a bastion trick will work? Not sure on the lines of sight out of that thing and if a flier could get around to an oblique angle to deny shots. Saying that, the Broadside squad could disembark, blast the flier, then hide round the back of the bastion (assuming they keep JSJ). The 2+ would at least help vs Helldrakes!

      So much potential, I need rules! If they drop the models then wait a month for the codex I'm going to be gutted...

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  2. 85*3 plus Bastion (with quad) is near 400 points. Screw that..

    I wouldn't worry about the models coming before rules... Codex will hit at the same time. Only question now is will it be at the start of the month or at the end!!?

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    1. Heh, that is a lot of points! So far I've yet to feel the need to use a fortification in any games with my Wolves, but I like to consider all the alternatives, and you never know, they might have a place in the right Tau build!

      As for the codex, let's hope it's the start of the month. I don't think I can wait any longer!!

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    2. It'd be cool to start seeing some race specific fortifications, but like yourself... I simply don't use them at the minute.
      An aegis seems to lend itself quite naturally to Tau however.

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  3. I'm positively wet looking forward to this.

    Bought a tau army in 4th ed, playing it for a few years, got bored of not being unique and shelved it.

    Bought house with gf, had a kid, decided to whip it back out again in 5th and slap down some GK razor spam. Shelved it after last year's GT.

    Guess I'll get it back out in a month's time then. Funny how armies go in circle but you're always drawn back to one.

    What I'd like from the codex: cheaper troops that do something other than be shit scared of a light breeze, few funky 6th ed things like skyfire and passing on special rules, some flyers and everything being viable but nothing OTT. I'm liking what I hear!

    Chris

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    1. Armies ae very cyclical it's true..that's why I can almost never convince myself it's worth sellng the, whe I get bored in the current edition.. U know, later down the line, that it'll all be fresh again..

      From the codex: everything viable is the way. Nothing stupid, but good units that reward good play. I think I want the flyers, crisis suits, fire warriors and the bog boy to be viable most of all. Pathfinders too... I love the concept of tau scout forces, but, like all other scouts, are never really worth it.

      I'm re spraying at the minute, coming up with a decent airbrush pattern etc.. Should all be redone and ready for April 6th.. Then I can just build and add new stuff.. A Riptide or three...

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