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So I'm looking to creating an army and also story of/for the tau, however I have a few questions miniature and fluffwise..
Miniatures-
1.) Better hq choice, ethereal or battlesuit commander (I personally like both for their cosmetic looks so now I'm looking for actual tabletop action)
2.) Pathfinder with railguns, worth it? Pros/cons to railguns and carbines?
3.) Broadsides or hammerhead? Or both? Which is the better option?
4.).And lastly, with all if the above I want to make my tau city fighters so which options would be best?

Fluff-
1.) Have any taus shown up outside of tau space? Stowaways, merc's?
2.) Do the tau have any knowledge of the eye of terror? If so are there any of them currently fighting there?
3.) Are crisis suit warriors the elite of the tau outside of their battlesuits as well? (Can they suit up in firewarrior armor and still be dangerous)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Always use Battlesuits for HQ, and it's worth the points to use a Shas'el and give him the TA, so you get the same BS, for 15 less points (The extra other stats aren't usually worth it.)

Pathfinders are a good platform for marker lights, and the single shot at BS 3 isn't enough to kill MEQs, our anti MEQ is via PR on suits

I like using two Hammerheads and three Broadsides, it's partly due to they are the minis I have, but I also like having two templates, though more railguns the better, so larger point games it's better to have more Broadsides.
While many people don't like to I always give mine PRs but YMMV

1. Ethereals are really bad. I'm all for running fluffy units or whatever, but if they die your entire army can run off the board. No good.

2.Pathfinders are better off using marker lights, but rail rifles are cool too. You probably have enough high strength low AP weaponry in a Tau army though.

3. Both! You can give the broadsides the ability to move and shoot and split their fire, so they're very versatile. However, they're horrific metal/plastic hybrids, while Hammerheads are plastic. They're both very durable in-game though.

4. In cityfights you'll want a lot of marker lights to reduce cover saves, or in some cases outright negate it. Crisis suits with missile pods and plasma guns are your best loadouts, and they can move around a lot, popping out from behind cover and hiding again with their jetpacks. They're great for city combat.

Fluff:
1. Nothing's been written about this, but I guess it's possible.
2. They probably know it's there, but they have no warp presence so they can't do much about it.
3. Crisis suits are elite Fire caste guys in big suits of armor. Outside of the game, they could get out and walk around or whatever. There's actually a piece of wargear that lets your battlesuit HQ eject from his suit when it dies.

I'm not a Tau player, but I've played against quite a few over the years, so I hope this helps!

FLuffwise:

1. All Tau (barring captives by dark Eldar) are in the Empire (or with farsight 30 feet away from the empire) as far as we've been told.

2. All they know of the Eye of Terror is Ethereals say to stay the feth away from it.

3. Shas'ui/Vre/El/O that pilot the battlesuits are just that. Pilots for battlesuits. Outside of the battlesuit, they are normal Tau Fire Warriors.


Gamewise:

1. You have to take a battlesuit commander in your army regardless of what the answer to this question is(says so in the codex). And Ethereals suck. They seem really cool, but if they die, half your army leaves with them.

2. You really won't be firing weapons with the Pathfinders. You'll be shining laserpointers at the enemy with them. You could maybe throw one railrifle on the Shas'ui (if you take one), since it would make since that the squadleader would have a different weapon.

3. Both. Broadsides are great for popping tanks (Twin linked!), but can use the Smart Missles to hit Infantry (prolly shouldn't, but can). Hammerheads bring pie (FLAMING DEATH PIE!) to your enemies. And everyone likes pie, but can also pop tanks just as well as the 'Sides

4. I've never played actual Cityfight rules, so I can't say one way or the other here.

I expect a new tau Codex 2nd quarter 2012, so some things may change.
Also have a look at Forge World models: I never regretted to buy FW Suits (incl Broadsides) instead of GW ones, they are worth the extra 10 pound.

Fluff wise:
1. Tau don't get around much, nearlly all tau are in the Empire.
2. It would be highly unlikely due to the fact that the Eye of Terror is on the other side of the galaxy. A feat that would take even thew high end IoM a while to cross, let alone a Tau ship that has less capability of fast travel
3.Outside of battle suits, the pilots are normal fire warriors so their level of skill will be dependent on rank and ability.

So lets say my story is along the basis of a firewarrior and pathfinder squad that are sent on a mission to stowaway on one of the imperial ships leaving the system after the damocules gulf crusade to study the humans, come into contact with some tyranids, some chaos, a little shooting here, a little shooting there, does this all sound reasonable with what little fluff we know of the tau?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also what is farsights fluff?

it would be almost impossable for a Tau team to stowaway on a ship successfully.

they would have to stay out of sight(it isn't like they can disguise themselves as Humans very easily) which wouldn't be too hard, but it would require an intimate knowledge of the ship.

the time elapsed would also be a problem. long range warp jumps can take months or even years depending on the distance covered. it would be tough to stay hidden that long, not to mention the short life span a Tau has.



Farsight's fluff is basically this,

His army was fighting some orks,

they were outnumbered and we losing badly,

their Etherial was killed,

then Farsight finds this shiny sword in some ruins and then they manage to defeat the orks,

without the Etherial, he basically then succeeds from the Tau Empire proper and founds the Farsight Enclaves. the Tau there are more aggressive then Tau in the Empire.

1) Battlesuit. It is required and Etherals are made of soft, blue, squishy, nerf-y material.
2) Rails are all-right, maybe consider a few, but the marker-lights are probably better, especially in city-fights where cover is plentiful and you want to be reducing it rather than letting your opponent utilize it and take down the effectiveness of the rifles.
3)Both, I think that 1 Railhead (For submunitions) and SEVERAL precious broadsides (2-6) Should be taken.
4)Pathfinders and battlesuits will be your best bet, but given the amount of cover, you may want to throw in some vespids. They are bad in pretty much everything else but they might be alright due to their re-roll of terrain and mobility.

Fluff-wise, do whatever you want! Make a believeable story up and don't let anyone talk it down.

I like this farsight enclave thing and how the tau are more aggresive. I'll have to look into it

It wouldn't really fit with your fluff, they basically split from the Empire and are now training (God knows for what, prolly just killing stuff that happens by them)

yamgrenade wrote:It wouldn't really fit with your fluff, they basically split from the Empire and are now training (God knows for what, prolly just killing stuff that happens by them)

They have recently been roflstomped by a Nid fleet and rejoined the Empire IIRC.

Oh really? I didn't hear about that. Where did you read this?

Not sure...
I may have imagined it come to think of it...
Let me have a rummage around and see if i can find it...

Well back to the regular tau empire then!

So for my actual army im thinking on doing a dark grey/grey/black/white digital or tigerstripe camo theme to them, how good they actually come out will probably be a different story.

So alright if the stowing away on the human ship isnt entirely reasonable, is there any planets in/around their empire that are iffy. Like what inhabits the planets around them? have the nids made it to their sector of space yet?

The Nids have indeed attacked the Tau.

the Fleet was beaten off, but the Nids are now actually encircling the entire Empire with Hive Fleets to bum rush them from all sides.

purplefood wrote:Not sure...
I may have imagined it come to think of it...
Let me have a rummage around and see if i can find it...

Could you post it up on here when you find out please?

Grey Templar wrote:The Nids have indeed attacked the Tau.

the Fleet was beaten off, but the Nids are now actually encircling the entire Empire with Hive Fleets to bum rush them from all sides.

So are the tau and nids currently waging war/about to be waging war then?
And was the fleet beaten off by the tau or by the human forces from the damocules gulf crusade that were pulled off of the tau worlds to fight the tyranids?

I belive the Nid Fleet was stipped because there was a timely Waaagh which got redirected into the Nid fleet. weakining it and forcing it to retreat.

the problem is that the Nid Fleet(Naga IIRC) has now evolved to counter Tau weaponry.

That fleet was actually killed by Imperial guard and Tau, due to the wide range of weaponry they had.

I actually thing i remember seeing this somewhere with the whole orks being redirected to fight the nids.

And wtf is with the nids adapting so much, eventually they are going to adapt to living essence's of death that absolutly nothing can kill and end up destroying the entire universe... lol

TheTaurans wrote:Well back to the regular tau empire then!

So for my actual army im thinking on doing a dark grey/grey/black/white digital or tigerstripe camo theme to them, how good they actually come out will probably be a different story.

So alright if the stowing away on the human ship isnt entirely reasonable, is there any planets in/around their empire that are iffy. Like what inhabits the planets around them? have the nids made it to their sector of space yet?[/quote

How much experience do you have with painting? I suggest that if you don't have much you start with something simpler, a codex design or something similar.

yamgrenade wrote:That fleet was actually killed by Imperial guard and Tau, due to the wide range of weaponry they had.

Did they team up? like the imperium actually fighting along side an alien race? Blasphemy?!
I read the white scar novel about the gulf crusade about how at the end of the imperium and the tau came to like a cease fire agreement to fight the nids but i never knew they fought alongside each other


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And also for my painting experience im decently experienced, ive done camo on other things (Paintball guns, paintball masks, stuff like that) and i have dark angel unpainted models that ill practice on before going trying it on the tau. Should be like the paintball stuff just on a much smaller scale lol

It may surprise you. I would stay away from whites (They tend to get globby)

Hmm alright so then the white will be taken out of the scheme haha

Also is your name Taurans (Like WOW race) Or Taurians (Gal Civ 2 race)?

Or something completely different

No no no its Taurans as in the space marine's, mostly unknown chapter and thats what i was orginally going to make my space marines, buttt then i liked the space wolves and tau a lot more lol

TheTaurans wrote:Well back to the regular tau empire then!

So for my actual army im thinking on doing a dark grey/grey/black/white digital or tigerstripe camo theme to them, how good they actually come out will probably be a different story.

Prime your models grey, wash the cloth with Badab Black, paint the armor plates with a light grey, do white markings, and pick out their eye and gun lenses with a red or green for contrast. Done.

So i just did some reading in the warhammer 40k wikia site on commander farsight and the farsight enclaves and it said how farsight believes close combat is a vital part of war and utilises it, soooo could this possibly mean the tau he leads can actually engage in melee and win? This is something i would love to make a conversion of and add to my story as well, close combat firewarriors

No.

This is something that has drastically been blown out of proportion by one line of text, and is perpetuated by Tau fanbois.

The Tau, under the banners of the Farsight Enclaves, had experience fighting brutal wars against Orks. Farsight recognized that his Fire Caste shredded the Ork at range, but once the advantage of range and preparation was negated by Ork assault troops--the Tau were completely ineffectual.

So he broke a bit of tradition, and rather than exclusively train his troops in ranged combat--they engaged in close quarter drills as well. The best way to think about this is the Close Quarters Battle(CQB) drills that modern armed forces undergo. They learn how to not only utilize their weapons and standard tactics, but they also learn how to negate a foe's advantage once they come to grips with you.

Wait, i didnt quite follow that. So they cant have a close combat squad? buttt if it came down to it they would be able to engage in close combat if absolutly necessary