Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm making a rebel Guard army who has defected to the Tau during the Damocles Crusade. I've removed all the aquilas from my models, but there are a number of other symbols which I wondered at the meaning of (and whether they would be inappropriate for a unit which no longer bathes in the light of the Emperor, finding the respect for life accorded by the Greater Good more appealing). Anyone know what these common sigils represent?

-winged skulls
-armored gauntlets holding lightning bolts
-axes with lightning bolts
-armored fists
-scythes


All of these can be found either on guard models or on guard transfer sheets. Thanks a lot! FOR THE GREATER GOOD!

Not sure about the symbols.
Are you using the Tau codex or Guard codex?

mesaknight wrote:I'm making a rebel Guard army who has defected to the Tau during the Damocles Crusade. I've removed all the aquilas from my models, but there are a number of other symbols which I wondered at the meaning of (and whether they would be inappropriate for a unit which no longer bathes in the light of the Emperor, finding the respect for life accorded by the Greater Good more appealing). Anyone know what these common sigils represent?

-winged skulls
-armored gauntlets holding lightning bolts
-axes with lightning bolts
-armored fists
-scythes


All of these can be found either on guard models or on guard transfer sheets. Thanks a lot! FOR THE GREATER GOOD!

1) youre position was spotted and the exterminatus is in transit NOW

2)
- winged skulls are old symbols and used commonly in IG and SM. They are as imperial as the double eagle.
- armored things,weapons and lightnings are symbols of campaigns or units.

3) If youre defected to xenos, you should never field any of the symbols of the IG or SM decal-sheets.

Winged skull is the symbol of the Imperial Guard. Needs to be removed.

A lot of the others are 'campaign badges' given to all units on a particular imperial campaign. I guess the defectors could have their own campaign symbol, but it would be much more likely to be tau-looking...

Basicly anything with wings should be taken off. Everything else ahould probably go too. Thats up to you though. Theyre all symbols of something (even if we dont know what they are) imperial. Best of luck. Be sure to post pics when theyre done. Sounds kind of interesting.

According to fluff, the Tau are perfectly happy for Gue'vesa to continue Emperor worship, so you could keep anything religious.

Kilkrazy wrote:According to fluff, the Tau are perfectly happy for Gue'vesa to continue Emperor worship, so you could keep anything religious.

Which fluff?

I don't see many religious symbols there, usually such is only part of Sob kits.

Neither the Aquila nor the imperialis ( winged skull ) is a symbol with any other than a loyality purpose.
The rest are campaign badges.

Maybe explain to us the religious symbols of IG / SM / SoB decals?

The fluff in the 3rd edition Tau codex and the Gue'Vesa supplement.

There aren't any religious symbols on normal IG kit AFAIK but if there was a model which had them, it could keep them when operating under Tau command.

Feel free to keep any symbols, just denote that they are religious symbols & not loyalty symbols. The Tau are usually very accepting of anyone wishing to join & aside from a change of loyalty don't require much other change, though it may be encouraged (Kroot and their eating habits).

Welcome to the greater good!

Kilkrazy wrote:The fluff in the 3rd edition Tau codex and the Gue'Vesa supplement.

There aren't any religious symbols on normal IG kit AFAIK but if there was a model which had them, it could keep them when operating under Tau command.

Yes he could, but this doesn't answer the question why the rebel guard should keep religious symbols at all.
So we got 0 symbols on the sprues and decals to keep.
May I dare to say he could walk the easy path and just use T'au symbols for everything?

A secondary point of mine would be the common way the God-Emperor is shown in imperial armies.
IIRC, he got no icon to represent him , but is always depictured as figure on a flat surface ( banners, vehicles, buildings )
or a sculpted statue when they got more cash to spent on their pledge to him.
This is the spot where I would suggest to remove this part of the model.

Before he adopted the aquila as his symbol, the lightning bolt was the symbol of the emperor in the early days of the great crusade. Having said that, its a lightning bolt its been around since cavemen it could just designate the shock troops if you choose to do mark them that way.

1hadhq wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:The fluff in the 3rd edition Tau codex and the Gue'Vesa supplement.

There aren't any religious symbols on normal IG kit AFAIK but if there was a model which had them, it could keep them when operating under Tau command.

Yes he could, but this doesn't answer the question why the rebel guard should keep religious symbols at all.
...

Because they want to.

The Tau don't care whom any of their allies worships as long as it does not interfere with the big picture. The Tau don't seem to have a religion of their own.

Damn, I had hoped that the scythes merely represented executioners and the flaming dogs represented hellhounds, both of which hold key places in my army. It struck me that an executioner crew might maintain the symbol denoting them as the crew of a rather elite tank, even if it was an imperial tank, and hope that huge tau empire symbol on the turret would demonstrate their loyalty to the greater good. If the scythe is a campaign symbol though, it'd be a different story.

I'm using Guard Codex. None of my units use pulse weapons or railguns, alas. I'm just modeling them to have some tau fluff added. Pics up when I'm done modeling everything.

The scythe is definitely a campaign or unit badge. I have one on my standard Russ.