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Fire Warriors and Kroot.

The asymmetric nature of their first iteration was what sold them to tennage-me back in 2002. The suits are cool in concept, but they never looked like the illustrations in the codex, being way too stocky and blocky. The current Commander and Broadside kits were huge steps in the right direction, but the Crisis still stick out like sore thumbs.

Interesting that we see such heavy love for Fire Warriors when it seems like they're increasingly being sidelined in most peoples' lists/GW's own focus on bigger and bigger bots.

Could it be that 40k is actually a - gasp - miniatures game?

The only good Tau is a dead Tau. And the only thing better than a dead Tau is a dyin' Tau who tells you where to find 'is mates.

Ghostkeel for me. Fun to build and paint, with interesting (thematic) rules to go along with it.

Until the Ghostkeel, it was the Hammerhead (w/ rail gun). Both are very sleek-looking, but the ghostkeel's rotating gun, opening canopy and the head mounting won me over.

I do wish there were more designs for the crisis suit heads that had some fancy kabuto-like and mempo-like features, instead of the square box heads.

I actually like the Riptide best. It's a giant mecha carrying a big gun; what's not to like? I just wish it was about 50-100 points cheaper because then you might actually see them on the table again. I just hope that whoever is doing (or probably already did, at this point) the Tau codex wasn't on the wrong end of a Riptide Wing too many times in 7th edition.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
I actually like the Riptide best. It's a giant mecha carrying a big gun; what's not to like?

In the 40k setting? How about "giant mecha carrying a big gun"?

 Dysartes wrote:

 ZergSmasher wrote:
I actually like the Riptide best. It's a giant mecha carrying a big gun; what's not to like?

In the 40k setting? How about "giant mecha carrying a big gun"?

Not like the Tau are the first to have agile looking humanoid mechs. Eldar have their slew of wraith units with their Wraithknight being fairly Evangelion like. Outside of that you have the IoM that have more of a Battletech mech design while the Orks are more along the lines of junkyard wars mixed with mad max engineering. Giant robots with guns are par for the course for 40k and up until the Riptide and especially the Stormsurge + Tau'nar, the Tau had some of the more practical mech designs.

 Vankraken wrote:

 Dysartes wrote:

 ZergSmasher wrote:
I actually like the Riptide best. It's a giant mecha carrying a big gun; what's not to like?

In the 40k setting? How about "giant mecha carrying a big gun"?

Not like the Tau are the first to have agile looking humanoid mechs. Eldar have their slew of wraith units with their Wraithknight being fairly Evangelion like. Outside of that you have the IoM that have more of a Battletech mech design while the Orks are more along the lines of junkyard wars mixed with mad max engineering. Giant robots with guns are par for the course for 40k and up until the Riptide and especially the Stormsurge + Tau'nar, the Tau had some of the more practical mech designs.

Shhh you're not allowed to mention other factions with unique aesthetics in 40k that contribute to the broad appeal of the interesting setting when people are whinging about the design of tau.

Clean aesthetics never happened with Eldar. Historical rather than fantasy inspired elements did not get added by Imperial Guard. And absolutely no factions have any hint of noble-bright mary-sueness, certainly not Space Marines. Nope, Tau are TOTALLY incongruous because theyre not gribbly groobly spikey grimdarkness and absolutely nothing that does not fall in that category exists in 40k.

Please don't derail the thread, guys. Either post what you like in T'au (even if it's a dead one) or go post in another thread - preferably those with 10+ pages discussing the English of a rule in YMDC

Why are Tau so unliked? I searched the "Army List"-forum and got to the middle of page 7 before I found the first post about Tau.

I'm currently reading Ciaphas Cane, hero of the imperium, and got my interest up for the Tau, described pretty nice in the novel (have only yet read half of it).

So, why no love for Tau?

 Jedborg wrote:
Why are Tau so unliked? I searched the "Army List"-forum and got to the middle of page 7 before I found the first post about Tau.

I'm currently reading Ciaphas Cane, hero of the imperium, and got my interest up for the Tau, described pretty nice in the novel (have only yet read half of it).

So, why no love for Tau?

My Favorite Tau is because they are competitively very weak currently, you tend not to see many of their army lists, and they're also a Second Class Xenocitizen so they're generally ignored in the fluff. They used to be much more popular, but also tend to have vocal crowds of haters because they commit the double-crimes of not being marines and also being the only shooting-focused faction in the game if you ignore the existence of dark eldar, necrons, guard, etc.

The Reason Its My Favorite Tau is in previous editions when they were just starting to get the big wave of larger suits, they got a big influx of people who wanted to play the biggest and robotiest robots, so largely your traditional infantry-and-tanks tau is quite rare at the moment.

Fire warriors and pathfinders and kroot.

I'll always have a space in my heart for kroot, and kroot hounds. Big robots don't do much for me, which is what keeps me away from the tau* but if there were a way for me to easily make a kroot army i would.

I also do like just the basic fire warrior, but i honestly like pretty much every army's basic infantry. I like the little guys!

*also lack of time/money, the most powerful demons.

Firewarriors and Hammerheads certainly is what got me interested in Tau, though I've grown to like the larger suits as well.

Rule wise both Breachers and Stealth suits seem pretty well suited to getting up close and doing some damage, letting you actually close in on the enemy for a change.

 Jedborg wrote:
Why are Tau so unliked? I searched the "Army List"-forum and got to the middle of page 7 before I found the first post about Tau.

I'm currently reading Ciaphas Cane, hero of the imperium, and got my interest up for the Tau, described pretty nice in the novel (have only yet read half of it).

So, why no love for Tau?

As already said they're not the most competitive right now and for list building the best answer to every problem is spam commanders and drones... not really much to discuss. How's the book? Would you recommend it?

I would definately recommend it! I had high enough expectations when I started reading, and now on page 332 of 756, I'm sure not disappointed!

I really like the XV-9 suits.

 Jedborg wrote:
Why are Tau so unliked? I searched the "Army List"-forum and got to the middle of page 7 before I found the first post about Tau.

I'm currently reading Ciaphas Cane, hero of the imperium, and got my interest up for the Tau, described pretty nice in the novel (have only yet read half of it).

So, why no love for Tau?

The army list thing is because Tau in their current iteration are terrible. They have about one viable list, and half of their index invalidates the other half while failing to stand up to Codex armies.

As for why people hate them it’s for a variety of reasons, mostly relating to ideas about the tone and aesthetic of 40k. People have problems with the idea of a faction that bears very few similarities and less connection to the rest of the setting (Tau aren’t as grimdark and only exist in a small part of the galaxy). Some people dislike the Tau look, citing the similarities of Tau suits to mecha. Others are upset that the faction has received a lot of support in previous editions while their army languished. They were top-tier in 6th and a contender in 7e, and they’ve received new kits with more regularity than, say, DE or Necrons. Still others hate them just because it’s popular to do so. If you like Tau, then just ignore the haters and enjoy the Greater Good.