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I have not yet wrote down the fluff of my Tau list until now. They are largely non-Tau such as this:
I have Kroot and Vespids of course, but a lot more! humans, eldar, lizard men, bat men, spider men, squid men, snake women, gretchen, orgers, dwarfs, scaven, Blobs, and a few random mutants. I may be missing someone.
My Ethereal is a Tau, and some of the guys in Crisis suits are I am sure, but that is it.
I am avoiding the bright and shiny units like Stormsurges, Riptides, and Ghostkeels as I don't see them getting issued such new stuff.
Spoiler:
Se'hen che lel
Literal Translation:
Riders of the Lightning
Twenty years ago when a human system came under Tau rule, the Tau found themselves with half a dozen large bulk freighters of Imperial design. Already possessing sufficient warp drives for the earth cast’s research, it was unclear what would be in the interest of the Greater Good to do with these ships.
An Etherial, Aun-eu, had an unusual idea. He proposed that the ships be left intact but refitted with Tau tech to turn them into military ships. This would allow the Tau to respond with a quick force to trouble that otherwise would take them months to get to. The plan met with resistance, but after several disasters that could be averted with such a force, it was put into action.
The biggest problem, Aun-eu decided, was that while if he asked the fire cast to travel on these ships they would, he felt it was too much to ask. To this point he himself decided he would travel with the force, and he would put an open call to all within the empire for duty in the force.
In small numbers Tau signed up for the duty, some to make a name for themselves, some to reconcile past failures. However most of those who signed up were the non-Tau drawn by the promise of improved status within the empire.
The force was issued older equipment painted in a beige, but because of the high alien content of the forces it was decided they should bear purple livery, a color seen by the Tau as a warning. Ordered to paint their gear with the new color, but not how, every crisis suit, every develfish, every hammerhead, and every squad came to be painted in it’s own unique pattern. At first grudgingly tolerated, the unique colors are now official as they have been useful identifying individual units on the field when the overworked and outdated F.O.F. equipment the force is given glitches.
Every warrior has a past that brought them to serve with the Riders, but now they are nothing more than stories to entertain on long nights while deployed. The only thing that matters now is that they are Riders, and together their future is for the Greater Good.
it seems ok, someone more familer with the Tau might catch errors I didn't. the biggest flaw I can see is how will the Tau USE Imperial vessels? they'd need a navigator or something. (the odds of a navigator embracing the greater good seems pretty unlikely to me) my suggestion though would be keep it vague. toss in a sentence along the lines of "Imperial observers have often wondered how the Tau could possiably navigate these ships through the warp. some have speculated the existance of a previously unknown servitor race, others that the Tau may have managed to seduce one or more navigators to side with their greater good. both theories have disturbing implications..."
Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two
Looks pretty good to me! As BrianDavion mentioned, it is a bit of a stretch for the Tau to be able to navigate ships through the Warp, but he gave a couple of pretty good suggestions. Your writeup definitely comes across very much like the Tau's version of the French Foreign Legion, with people from all walks of life coming together as a fighting force. One thing you could add is that the mainline Tau commanders might send this irregular force on especially dangerous missions, yet through it all they somehow come out on top. I feel like the Tau's treatment of subject races would lead to this sort of thing happening, although as they gain more victories the Riders would start to gain the respect of the Tau brass.
All in all a pretty good background for a very cool and unique army!
My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/7/24, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~16000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Imperial Knights: ~2300 | Leagues of Votann: ~1300 | Tyranids: ~3400 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000 | Kruleboyz: ~3500 | Lumineth Realm-Lords: ~700
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2024: 40 | Total models painted in 2025: 40 | Current main painting project: Tomb Kings
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: You need your bumps felt. With a patented, Grotsnik Corp Bump Feelerer 9,000.
The Grotsnik Corp Bump Feelerer 9,000. It only looks like several bricks crudely gaffer taped to a cricket bat.
Grotsnik Corp. Sorry, No Refunds.
What might work is if the imperium ships are refitted with the Tau warp "skimming" engines. I don't know if had been retconned but the Tau had developed their FTL travel by reverse engineering the warp drives of wrecked ships of the imperium (which originally had disastrous consequences until they tweaked how far into the warp their ships would "dive" making their method of warp travel more akin to a stone skipping across the surface a lake with their ships being the proverbial stone and the warp being the lake).
Gods? There are no gods. Merely existences, obstacles to overcome.
"And what if I told you the Wolves tried to bring a Legion to heel once before? What if that Legion sent Russ and his dogs running, too ashamed to write down their defeat in Imperial archives?" - ADB
The whole point is that the ships use Human drives and can go faster than the Tau ships with their skimming engines but the Tau are afraid of the Warp so they use a force of alien riff raff with a few Tau odd balls to man the ships.
As far as how they use them? Well, there would just have to be a few Non Tau psychers out there who can act as navigators.
And the Tau, having little understanding or trust of psykers, would not let them actually take battlefield roles, hence why there are none on the tabletop. Also they wouldn't want to risk their navigators by putting them in battle.
My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/7/24, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~16000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Imperial Knights: ~2300 | Leagues of Votann: ~1300 | Tyranids: ~3400 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000 | Kruleboyz: ~3500 | Lumineth Realm-Lords: ~700
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2024: 40 | Total models painted in 2025: 40 | Current main painting project: Tomb Kings
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: You need your bumps felt. With a patented, Grotsnik Corp Bump Feelerer 9,000.
The Grotsnik Corp Bump Feelerer 9,000. It only looks like several bricks crudely gaffer taped to a cricket bat.
Grotsnik Corp. Sorry, No Refunds.
~16000 Astra Militarum: 
~1200 | Imperial Knights: 
~2300 | Leagues of Votann: 
~1300 | Tyranids: 
~3400 | Stormcast Eternals: 
~5000 | Kruleboyz: 
~3500 | Lumineth Realm-Lords: 
~700
