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INSPIRATION
The idea to create an army of commandos started when I played Republic Commando, the idea of having an small group of elite troops taking on a large army was too good to ignore.



Sadly at the time there wasn’t an army suitable for this theme, Deathwing Terminators were more tanks than commandos. Then the Tau Empire Codex came out and the battlesuits with all the upgrades were the perfect unit to represent a well equipped elite commando team.

So I began looking at as Battlesuit heavy Tau army, with Farsight and his 7 bodyguard as the main commando team. However if there's one issue I have with the Tau it’s that battlesuit model. There are just parts of it that I just don't like, mainly it's practicality...

They can’t pivot their torso!

They can’t pick up or grab anything because of those mittens they have!

AND THOSE HORRID CHICKEN FEET!!!

The Forgeworld Battlesuits are ace but I can't afford a large army of battlesuits costing me £20 each.

THE XV23 CONCEPT
So I decided to create a new Battlesuit that was more practical than the standard issue with a more elite and commando feel to it inspired by the Republic Commandos and Dark Crusade Tau Commander. I give you the Experimental XV23 Battle Armour. I decided to use the name Battle Armour cause it too small to be classed as a battlesuit. Thou the Commander's suit in Dark Crusade was refered to as a Stealthsuit and look how hard it was.

Anyway it wasn't long before I had put together a concept and mock model...



Think of it as an experimental highly advanced hybrid of both Stealthsuit and Battlesuit tech, notice the miniaturized missile pod, the mock conversion's size was around the same height as a terminator.

GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTEN
The project soon hit a wall when I uploaded my Battlesuit heavy army list, many people thought I was nuts and commented on how ineffective the army would be. Several lists down the line and I gave up seeing no point in spending time and money on an army that was going to struggle.
But then a member of my club brought down his own Farsight list and won several games with it, using wound allocation and a wall of 14 shield drones in his Farsight unit he showed me that the army could work. But at the time I was already working on 2 other army projects so I decided to fight the temptation to pick up the Tau Commandos again.

But so many things have reminded me of the idea, mainly Iron Man 2’s Hammer Drones and Halo Reach and since I’ve just finished an army project with 73 infantry and 17 tanks I’m keen to do a small army that won’t require a huge case to carry. So now seems the perfect time to pick them up again.

REVIVING THE COMMANDOS
Two main changes are being made the commando suit; first is replacing the fibre sleeves with armour using space marine upper arm bits, another is replacing the shield generator on the back with the Stealthsuit jetpack, I plan to fit twin linked missile pods onto the sides similar to this Battlesuit from forgeworld.
As for the paint job their going to be white, thou I’m not sure what colour to paint the weapons? I also plan to give the Commandos different armour markings like the Clones from Star Wars but with the colours be based of the different septs the warriors have been transferred from.



I’ll hopefully have the new model ready and uploaded by next week?

A NAME?
Trying to think of a good Tau name for this Commando Strike force, so far I’m thinking of “Shas’lu’kar” which can translate to ‘Skilled Hunters’ what do you think, I’m open to other suggestions?

Excellent... I'm glad to see that the right army won

The test model looks great, but the missile pod is a little dinky in my view. The normal missile pod is a bit weird looking for me at the best of times, considering its role as a rapid fire weapon.

Will you be using standard drones or can we look forward to weirdness?

I like it, very stealthy and commandolike(if that is a word)

What about Sha'is Myr? It means "Wind Blade" which could refer to their precision, spearhead attacks and sudden arrival.

Also, subbed.

S_P

Woot, eager to see progression on this one!!

looks great so far!
It's funny, i was actually planning to start a stealth suit based army myself, so hopefully this thread will become a good inspiration for me!
Do you have a dead line or anything yet? Or an army list?
Subscribed

sounds like a cool idea man.
subbed.

OOOOOOOO- I can't wait to see more! I'll try to help with the name... if I come up with anything I'll be sure to post it.

Like the ideas and the concept, but then I voted for thesne guys . I agree witht he others that the missile pod doesn't really look rapid fire - or missile pod. Have you considered the IG sentinel missile pods. They're not too big and would look a tad meaner. Of course, you'd have to source a whole bunch...

Looks great so far. I going to be watching this

Just awesome i'm glad it won

EDIT: subscribed

Interesting idea, man! Battlesuits are what make the Tau awesome, so I cannot wait to see what a whole army of them will look like.

How will the army work, ruleswise?

_Tim?

I think Proiteus said it would be a Farsight suit list.

If anyone can make this project its best, it would be you Proiteus! Looking forward to yet another fantastic army

Cain

A GOAL!
I’ve decided to enter this army in the UK Armies On Parade competition in Aug/Sept, I’m hoping to use this motivation to improve my painting and conversion skills that will top that of the previous grot rebels.



Problem is I’m still unsure about what theme to use for the bases which is now either more important since I have to create a 24x24 inch display board for them. I’m either thinking desert or ice world with dark stone with snow on. I recently tried a bicarbonate and water effects mix on an old urban base.



I’m just concerned about the base not contrasting the model enough and ending up with them looking like white blobs from a distance like the BTP tau army.

DRONES?
One key thing that is required in the Farsight Battlesuit list is shield drones, lots of them. So I thought I’d convert a new shield drone from the leftover bits from the Stealthsuit box. I based them on the Protoss drone worker from Starcraft 2. If I did make them I’d paint the creases bright blue to represent the energy bubble being generated, plus add some bulk behind the shoulder pad.

Problem is Tau drones often involve the disc like shape in their design so I‘m wondering if these would work. I plan to use the FW worker drones to represent marker drones on my engineer commando and the heavy drones for the 2 with the 2+ save, so if I used the original models they‘d fit in compared to this converted ones.

I’ve also got to think about the army as a whole. I had been considering conversion ideas for the 2 fire warrior squads one of which was creating robotic drones which would fulfil the simpler tasks of holding and guarding objectives for the Commandos. But I felt this would distract people from the main theme which is the commandos, so I’m just going to convert them into Pathfinders with pause rifles. The same thing applies to the drones do I heavily convert them or use the original models so that the focus is on the commandos?

Anyway here is the design, I look forward to the hearing the feedback…

Reallly like the drones, though it's not entirely obvious that they're armed.

Sgt.Snail wrote:Reallly like the drones, though it's not entirely obvious that they're armed.

If you had read the description, you would have noticed that they're designed to be shield drones

I'll be keeping an eye on this one. I've always wanted to undertake a similar project myself, but have never had the time (or the talent really ).

(Republic Commando was an excellent game too, btw!)

i like the way the drones look, the "beefyness" of them, really makes them stand out from the regualr gun drones or whatever. But, my only complaint about them is the Tau shoulder pad under it... It just kinda seems to be hanging there by a thread... Maybe you could put something behind it so that it is not hanging so losely?
Can we see a picture of one next to a model so we can see how big it is exactly?

After the work seen on the Grot Rebellion, can hardly wait to see what you are going to do with a Tau Commando Army.

I’ll be watching this thread closely.
The idea of a terminator squad of Tau sounds cool. The elite of elite per say.
All for the greater good of course.

Like your drones. I agree they move away from the orginal Tau drones, but I'd consider it an improvement over the flying saucers... Besides, if they're all the same it should still be clear to your opponent what's what... Also, to me they look more anti-gravity equipped for some reason. The saucers looked like flying, while these really look like they're using anti-grav to stay in the air.

Love those Drones, never was a fan of the originals. Definitely make more!!

DEFENCE DRONE ADVANCEMENTS?
I have to say that I'm not happy with the shoulder pad on the defence drone; 1st because it looks too slapped on even if i was to add something behind it and 2nd I think the two round shapes (the sphere and icon) on the front when painted will look odd.
So I thought I'd try something else to add bulk to the drone, so I used a fire warrior backpack which allows me to fit the flying base into the handle on it.

What do you think, does it look better?

I like the version 2 over the first.

1-i wrote:I like the version 2 over the first.

+1

Liking what I see!

Hmmm I'm not sure.

I agree that the shoulder pad looked like it was just thrown on. However, it did serve the purpose of providing extra armor/protection. The backpack does not add to the "shieldy-ness" of the drone imho.

They look brilliant Protieus.

Version 2 looks much better.

Very interested to see how you make your suits. I've got stealth suits I don't use and I've seen your concept art around before and considdered doing what you are doing (making a dedicated Farsight list with them).

Do you perhaps have some more work in progress pictures on your suits, maybe a tutorial on how to make them?

I too have thought if I ever got around to building my Tau army to use the plastic Stealth Suits as my Crisis Suits due to my dislike of the normal Crisis' boxyness.