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I like the Tau, but I couldn't eat a whole one

2nd favorite army behind the Guard/Krieg

If I had any room in my signature, Elder, I would quote that into it.

I actually like the tau. Fluff wise I don't know much of it, but I like the models. They be cool models.

I wasn't a big fan of the change in art style they brought, but whatevs, if they bring more players that's always a good thing.

Always a fan of shooty armies.

Jimsolo wrote: If I had any room in my signature, Elder, I would quote that into it.

Feel free to use it.

I like Tau. They are the army that got me into 40k. I like how they look and their background.

It's their codex I hate. It's just awful.

I like Tau, they speak to my inner anime fan. They were released alongside the Warhammer release in Japan, after all.


One of my current projects is a Gue'vesa army, complete with Sentinels kitbashed with Crisis Suits to have human drivers.

My tauaboo army shall be glorious.

See, I just don't see them as very "anime." I never assosciated giant robots with asian cartoons. I kind of assosciate them with older wargaming (Mechwarrior) instead. The Tau themselves seem drawn (historically) from an amalgam of plains dwelling cultures, including the Cossacks, the Mongols, and the Native Americans of the American Southwest. That's just been my take on it, I'm not going to tell someone they can't see an anime connection if they do. It's just interesting to me how different people see the same thing in such a different light.

*cough*

Mechwarrior was an anime before it was a wargame. Only, they called it "Macross" then.

I thought the mechs of Battletech were only visually based on 'Macross.' I grant that they look alike (and in some cases, dead alike) but I was under the impression that the Battletech universe was begun as a game. (First Battledroids until George Lucas sued over the term 'droid') I could be wrong, though. (I was, once.)

Which isn't the point. They could be totally based on anime. (In point of fact, the Firewarriors are visually based on some old sci-fi artwork.) I'm not saying that all these influences aren't there. I'm sure there's a lot of anime influence in a lot of things. The things that an artist reads or sees or hears influence him throughout his life, and I just think it's fascinating how one person can pick up on part of those influences, while another person will pick up on completely different ones. For instance, if you read the Tau codex, their battle strategies are very similar to those employed by the Comanches, which was my first thought when I read it.

The Tau draw influence from several Asian cultures in terms of their styling. Specifically, the armor of FWs draws a lot of inspiration from the armors worn by ancient Chinese and Japanese warriors. The Kroot take inspiration from African savannah dwellers, and with their lanky, sinewy frames, look much like warriors from the Masai tribe (or other similar tribes). In terms of Tau vehicles and battlesuits, it seems they took heavy inspiration from sources like Gundam and Robotech.