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I was wondering if there are any sources that describe the difference between the various XV8 models. I ask because the tau codex displays various types of crisis suits and farsight's entry even states that he uses a "early-model crisis battlesuit". In the tau codex, pg 7 and 70 are good examples of crisis suits with a "waist" where the legs don't have sockets directly in the lower torso. Throughout most the codex we see more traditional crisis suits (example pg 40) that are very similar to the plastic kits.

Without official fluff I've kind of come to my own conclusions/assumptions:

- early-model (farsight's suit): These battlesuits look to be sophisticated and agile with their rotating waist and less bulky build. I'd like to think they were phased out due to high construction costs/maintenance rather than poor performance.
- standard crisis battlesuit (GW's current plastic kit): These suits are bulky and more simplistic - I imagine they became popular due to the need for a suit that is easy/cheap to produce (simpler design) and resilient (bulky armour)
- suits from the newer codex art (pg 70): These suits look less bulky, but still retain many characteristics of the most popular crisis variant. I'm assuming some septs prefer increased agility vs heavier armour - which is why this design has been adopted in some instances.

Does this make sense to anyone or does anyone care to share their own theories?

Seems reasonable to me.

Don't forget the FW crisis suit and broadside variants, which complicate things even more. IMO the best way to resolve it is to just ignore the current plastic kit since it's obviously just a case of poor design work rather than an attempt at representing anything from the fluff.

 Peregrine wrote:
Don't forget the FW crisis suit and broadside variants, which complicate things even more. IMO the best way to resolve it is to just ignore the current plastic kit since it's obviously just a case of poor design work rather than an attempt at representing anything from the fluff.

I don't agree, i would say think of the XV8 as a tried and tested design that can be modded for any need (a bit like the rhino for the humans) or even the basic design for a tank in the real world (tank design has never changed a gigantic amount since ww2) and all other suits we see (eg: forgeworld and shadow-sun) are one-offs to serve a purpose, if say the tau are fighting on X world they will deploy thr workhorse XV8 and then develop a suit for the planets enviroment (X forgeworld suit) after a while stuff does go though a radical change, like the stealth or broadside suits, yet due too the XV8 being still valuble, cheap too produce and the pilots racking up hours of flight time its still the empire's go-too battlesuit.

 tau tse tung wrote:
I don't agree, i would say think of the XV8 as a tried and tested design that can be modded for any need (a bit like the rhino for the humans) or even the basic design for a tank in the real world (tank design has never changed a gigantic amount since ww2) and all other suits we see (eg: forgeworld and shadow-sun) are one-offs to serve a purpose, if say the tau are fighting on X world they will deploy thr workhorse XV8 and then develop a suit for the planets enviroment (X forgeworld suit) after a while stuff does go though a radical change, like the stealth or broadside suits, yet due too the XV8 being still valuble, cheap too produce and the pilots racking up hours of flight time its still the empire's go-too battlesuit.

I'm not talking about the fluff, I'm talking about the model. The plastic XV8 kit is awful. It's a blocky static model with stupid gun mounts, and it looks like garbage compared to the newer kits. At best it's an old kit that's badly showing its age, at worst it's a design failure by GW that is best forgotten. There's just no sensible way to incorporate its design into the fluff because everything that makes it different from the better kits is just bad sculpting work. To make any sense of it you have to assume that it looks different in "reality" and the model is just a poor representation of what a "real" XV8 looks like.

The most you can reasonably do is suggest that the plastic XV8 is an obsolete first-generation prototype that still sees occasional use in poorly equipped cadres assigned to low-risk garrison duties, and the newer kits represent front-line suits.

 gossipmeng wrote:

- early-model (farsight's suit): These battlesuits look to be sophisticated and agile with their rotating waist and less bulky build. I'd like to think they were phased out due to high construction costs/maintenance rather than poor performance.

Farsight's suit is a personalized, pretty much custom-built Crisis. I doubt that there is more than one of it.

 gossipmeng wrote:

- standard crisis battlesuit (GW's current plastic kit): These suits are bulky and more simplistic - I imagine they became popular due to the need for a suit that is easy/cheap to produce (simpler design) and resilient (bulky armour)

They are actually pretty expensive to produce and maintain. According to the codex, this problem plagues all the Tau suits.

 gossipmeng wrote:

- suits from the newer codex art (pg 70): These suits look less bulky, but still retain many characteristics of the most popular crisis variant. I'm assuming some septs prefer increased agility vs heavier armour - which is why this design has been adopted in some instances.

It is the commander variant of the Crisis suit, the 'Enforcer'. It is not a mass-produced design by any means.

I'd have to disagree AtoMaki,

It states that farsight uses an early model crisis suit, while I'm sure it has been customized I think it is safe to imagine that most of farsight's original task force was outfitted with such suits. GW is pretty good at making note of when something is a one of a kind artifact such as the dawnblade or sammael's jetbike.

Though I do agree that all crisis battlesuits are expensive to maintain. By "cheaper to produce" I was inferring that perhaps the early-model suits each cost $10mil whereas the suits we see as mainstream XV8s cost $6mil - still way too expensive to outfit every firewarrior, but cheap enough to produce them on a larger scale.

Lastly on pg 70 I wasn't referring to the enforcer suit, I was focusing on the newer art of the standard XV8 - they are slimmer and their legs connect to an extended torso (waist) as opposed to having the legs go right into sockets in the main torso mass. It can be argued that it is just a new art style for the XV8s to replace the art that depicts them looking like the GW plastic kits. However, seeing as the new art looks significantly different than the older XV8 art, I tried to justify the co-existence of both by saying they were different XV8 variants.

It would be really helpful if GW would release more Tau black library content to give us more history Tau equipment and its prevalence/usage by the different septs.

 gossipmeng wrote:
I'd have to disagree AtoMaki,
It states that farsight uses an early model crisis suit, while I'm sure it has been customized I think it is safe to imagine that most of farsight's original task force was outfitted with such suits.

No, he gained a special Crisis suit as he had quite the fame when he could finally have the chance to get one.

 AtoMaki wrote:

 gossipmeng wrote:
I'd have to disagree AtoMaki,
It states that farsight uses an early model crisis suit, while I'm sure it has been customized I think it is safe to imagine that most of farsight's original task force was outfitted with such suits.

No, he gained a special Crisis suit as he had quite the fame when he could finally have the chance to get one.

Is there a source on this by chance, I'd be interested to read more.

 gossipmeng wrote:

 AtoMaki wrote:

 gossipmeng wrote:
I'd have to disagree AtoMaki,
It states that farsight uses an early model crisis suit, while I'm sure it has been customized I think it is safe to imagine that most of farsight's original task force was outfitted with such suits.

No, he gained a special Crisis suit as he had quite the fame when he could finally have the chance to get one.

Is there a source on this by chance, I'd be interested to read more.

It is in the Farsight Supplement:

Four years and one vertiginous Trial by Fire later, Shoh earned his wish. Because he had
served long enough and with enough distinction to earn the rank of Shas’vre, he was
entrusted the command of a cutting edge XV8 Crisis battlesuit. He was expected to
master its weapon systems quickly, for Commander Dawnstone herself was about to lead
the warriors of Vior’la in the final actions of the Veil War, and she needed the best troops
the planet could provide at her side.

Thanks for the clarifications, my supplement is on route to my local GW for pickup sometime this week

I'm also in the process of converting the farsight XV8 chassis into an early enclaves suit. Still trying to find the right balance between the farsight sculpt and plastic XV8/broadside bits - ultimately I want the conversions to be justifiable in the fluff

I had a chance to read through the supplement. I've come to the conclusion that the pattern of crisis suit used by farsight is not exclusive to him. He obtained his suit fairly early in his career (the early days of tau expansion) - they wouldn't give a newly promoted shas'vre (team leader) a highly advanced experimental suit. Surely commanders and their bodyguard would be first on the list, regardless of skill.

This sentence is easy to misinterpret: "he was entrusted the command of a cutting edge XV8 Crisis battlesuit. He was expected to master its weapon systems quickly".

Its not that his particular suit was cutting edge, but rather that all suits at that time were cutting edge. He also didn't need to master the suit quickly because it was a prototype... he needed to master it because he had no experience in a crisis suit at that point - he was a broadside pilot and firewarrior shas'ui.

I'm sticking with the original claim that farsight simply uses an early model crisis suit - albeit heavily modified (as any enclaves pilot would do to make the best of their limited resources).

Well its clear how things went. The XV8 was developed from the Farsight version as an "STC" workhorse.

The other suits were developed on a needed basis.

Needed stealth? Strip the XV8 down to barebones. Developed that XV15 Stealth armour that still has its Fire Warrior look. Need a little more armour? XV25.

Need a little heavier firepower? Make the Crisis bigger, more armour, bigger guns. Broadside

Need a specialised system? XV9

Crisis alone just not working for you? Crisis Enforcer.

That one mofo who just needs a bigger punch? Riptide.