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There is actually...well...not so much reason to create this unit, other than for fun, and add some additional grimdarkness to the Tau fluff. However, I'd imagine them as the Tau expendable shock troops and beacons for deepstriking and outflanking units. So there they are:
Fluff:
Spoiler:
During the Damocles Crusade, the heavy loss of the Fire Caste, as well as the massive number of troops and equipments the Imperium threw at them, forced the Tau increasingly on the defensive. Desperate to stem the tide, the Ethereal turn to the Earth Caste for a solution. Instead of training more troops, why couldn't they bring back all the experienced warriors who had died or suffered crippling damage into battle ? Many thought they were insane, but, in the end, they succeeded in some way. Simply put, recently dead bodies that have suffered a minimum of damage could be patched up, dead soldiers were hooked up with electronics to stimulate their brains and make them act. A simple cogitator was implanted at the base and the cerebral cortex, which control the life signs and memory respectively. The subject is brought back to life, and given the personality and knowledge of specially combined combat memories, making a passable soldier, if an unresponsive and distant person. Armour and cybernetics were hastily added, for a fairly cheap cost of resource and time. And thus, the XV19 Marionette battlesuit was borned. These battlesuits, while incredibly crude, lacking the grace of normal Tau equipments, they get the job done well enough. Some of the more sophisticated models are upgraded with advanced command and control systems, acting as leaders for their brethrens. They are not dumb brutes, and know to take cover, keep low, use suppression fire, and other battlefield basics, and due to their immunity to pain and armour they're suprisingly resilient. Most of them are still killed, however, but with no loss, since the parts can often be salvaged. While many look down on this as barbaric, the Ethereal still sanction the new weapon, for after the long years of fighting and warfare the Tau found themselves in, defeat was a black morass they would do anything to avoid falling into.
Unit Type: Infantry Unit Composition: 4 Marionettes, 1 Manipulator
Wargear: Pulse carbine, Marionette battlesuit. - Marionette battlesuit: The Marionettes battlesuit comes equipped with blacksun filter and stimulant injector, and confers a 4+ Armour Save.
Special Rules: Fearless, Supporting Fire, Marionette Control Unit, Point-blank - Marionette Control Unit: A Marionette team cannot be take as a compulsory Troop choice, and you cannot have more Marionette teams than you have Fire Warrior teams. If, for any reason, the Marionettes are not part of the same unit as a Manipulator at the start of a turn, roll a D6. On a 4+ the unit operates normally, otherwise the Marionettes may do nothing other than defend itself in combat. - Point-blank: Model with this rule can choose to re-roll failed Overwatch shots.
Options: May include up to five additional Marionettes: 18 points/model A Manipulator may take one of the following: - Positional relay: 5 points - Homing beacon: 5 points - Markerlight and target lock: 15 points For every five models in the unit, one may replace his pulse carbine with one of the following: - Burst cannon: 5 points/model - Flamer: 5 points/model - Fusion blaster: 15 points/model - Plasma rifle: 15 points/model The unit may take EMP grenades: 1 point/model
This message was edited 11 times. Last update was at 2014/07/21 07:56:59
Oh, hi guys. Check out my Homebrew army lists here
Fluff-wise this makes no sense. Why would the Tau build corpse-suits that are just a clumsy approximation of a living pilot when they can just spam more AI drones? The Imperium only uses dreads because AI is heresy and there is tremendous religious value in placing the greatest heroes and martyrs into sacred battle-relics to serve as constant reminders of the glory of their god.
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
Peregrine wrote: Fluff-wise this makes no sense. Why would the Tau build corpse-suits that are just a clumsy approximation of a living pilot when they can just spam more AI drones? The Imperium only uses dreads because AI is heresy and there is tremendous religious value in placing the greatest heroes and martyrs into sacred battle-relics to serve as constant reminders of the glory of their god.
AI isn't heresy, the Lucius Drop Pods had a form of Artificial Intelligence, and they were an STC.
Also, the Tau aren't grimdark enough to recycle their own dead.
Well, not actually. They are more like combat servitors, IMHO
Peregrine wrote: Fluff-wise this makes no sense. Why would the Tau build corpse-suits that are just a clumsy approximation of a living pilot when they can just spam more AI drones? The Imperium only uses dreads because AI is heresy and there is tremendous religious value in placing the greatest heroes and martyrs into sacred battle-relics to serve as constant reminders of the glory of their god.
As I have said in the fluff (I should have made it more clear) that the Marionettes are a weapon of desperation. I think of them as humanoid drones, fufilling the combat roles of Fire Warriors when there is none available, and the traditional drones cannot handle that task. Imagine a Tau world under siege: The traditional drones cannot replace Fire Warriors totally, while the combat loss are too great and no reinforcement can be send. So a salvageable infantry, despite some limitations, is a god-send in that situation. You don't have to build a totally new humanoid drones with all that locomotive engineering, just hook up a corpse, installing armour, weapons and cogitators.
AI isn't heresy, the Lucius Drop Pods had a form of Artificial Intelligence, and they were an STC.
It seems that GW writers cannot make up their own minds AIs, like the Kaban Machine (Schism of Mar) or the Men of Iron (Dark Age of Technology) are strictly forbidden; the Men of Iron are also the reason for IoM to consider AI Abominations. However, some machines, like Land Raiders, Machine Spirits of Titans, Cogitators and the aforementioned Lucius Drop Pod are allowed a limited form of independent intelligence under the guise of having an especially active Machine Spirit. That means, they have limited intelligence, but are not true AIs. (Yeah, I know my explanation sucks)
UPDATE: - Marionette's pulse carbine is no longer twin-linked - Marionette and Manipulator now have Initiative 2
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2014/07/21 07:57:58
Oh, hi guys. Check out my Homebrew army lists here
xalvissx wrote: Well, not actually. They are more like combat servitors, IMHO
But combat servitors only exist because the Imperium thinks that AI drones are heresy. There's no reason to screw around with reanimated corpses if you are allowed to build proper drones instead.
As I have said in the fluff (I should have made it more clear) that the Marionettes are a weapon of desperation. I think of them as humanoid drones, fufilling the combat roles of Fire Warriors when there is none available, and the traditional drones cannot handle that task. Imagine a Tau world under siege: The traditional drones cannot replace Fire Warriors totally, while the combat loss are too great and no reinforcement can be send. So a salvageable infantry, despite some limitations, is a god-send in that situation. You don't have to build a totally new humanoid drones with all that locomotive engineering, just hook up a corpse, installing armour, weapons and cogitators.
But the armor, guns, "life" support, etc, almost certainly add up to the manufacturing cost of a gun drone. And the only advantage a living soldier has over a gun drone is their intelligence and ability to lead an army in battle, if you replace that with zombie-like "move forward and shoot" you've just got a gun drones with bad aim.
And remember that this would be an incredibly specialized piece of hardware: you need fresh, undamaged corpses in a situation where you're desperate enough to use them. And you need medics who can spare time for patching up corpses instead of trying to save wounded soldiers, techs who can spend time making zombies instead of repairing equipment for living troops, etc. So something that situational isn't going to be standard-issue, you're going to have to manufacture them from scratch once you decide you want them. And at that point why not just build more gun drones if you have a working factory with plenty of materials available?
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
They have the tech to preserve the memories and personality it seems, but not reanimation, otherwise Puretide would be a dreadnaught instead of a hologram.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/21 11:21:46
I don't get what I would use these for, I would rather just have 10 firewarriors I think. I also think that the suits should just have AIs instead of reanimated dead soldiers, sorry but I'm with everyone else when I saw it doesn't fit the fluff of Tau
You could probably make tau robocops for friendly fun games saying that they started developing a life-sustaining program for dying veteran warriors (not allready dead). But that should end horribly.
Like some rules that they are fearless but can't benefit from markerlights and orders (or how are that ethereal buffs called) and on a random roll can go out of controle and shoot your own guyz. Just something like oldschool crazed chaos dreadnaughts.
...and that's why tau stopped playing gods-emperrors.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2014/07/21 18:14:51
Thank you all for your constructives comments Now I should consider changing the fluff.
I think I could combine several of your ideas above.
How about the Manipulator being a cripple Tau Shas'ui, while the rest of the unit are drones ? The Shas'ui, after a long time being interned within the suit, becomes increasingly unreliable, and sometimes mistaking friends for enemies, with "unfortunate" consequence ?
PastelAvenger wrote: I don't get what I would use these for, I would rather just have 10 firewarriors I think. I also think that the suits should just have AIs instead of reanimated dead soldiers, sorry but I'm with everyone else when I saw it doesn't fit the fluff of Tau
How about a shock units with special weapons, similar to IG Vets ?
Oh, hi guys. Check out my Homebrew army lists here
The burning pits of Hades, also known as Sweden in summer
xalvissx wrote: The Shas'ui, after a long time being interned within the suit, becomes increasingly unreliable, and sometimes mistaking friends for enemies, with "unfortunate" consequence ?
This goes against Tau combat doctrine. They almost always favour safety over power (See plasma rifles) and in the rare cases like Nova generators it's always at the user's jurisdiction.
They don't have enough special weapons to be like IG Vets and no way to get to the fight as quick.
I'm sorry but it just looks like another small arms fire unit which tau already have on mass.
If they could deep strike and 2 or 3 out of the squad take special weapons I could see a use for them, but then they would just be like pathfinders with a 4+ save
AIs, like the Kaban Machine (Schism of Mar) or the Men of Iron (Dark Age of Technology) are strictly forbidden; the Men of Iron are also the reason for 
