Landfall, battle and retreat

"Early in the morning we made landfall near the location where the spy drone had crashed. The Pathfinders set out to find the imperials. After a few hours the scouts reported that an imperial mechanised company were heading towards a small rural village. Why were they here on this planet? I decided to ambush the company and take some prisoners. The village would provide good cover. At nightfall we were ready and waited for the imperials to drive through. In early dawn we heard the loud noise of their primitive vehicles and saw the glint of their lights. They were here!

The ambush would consist of pathfinders marking targets from their vantage point in a tall building in the middle and me and two groups of fire warriors hidden in two other buildings. The second group of pathfinders in a devilfish would scout out the imperials and mark a landing zone for the XV8 tank hunter suits and drones to drop in a surgical strike from orbit.

The plan was set in motion and had started well

It was a sound plan, but there is a truth as old as warfare that victory requires both cunning and luck. In the cover of darkness the Devilfish with the homing beacon drove forward to mark the landing zone. My fire warriors took up position in the buildings. The pathfinders in the tall building painted the front Chimera with their markerlights. Two flashes was seen from the speeding Devilfish when the Seeker missiles launched in to the air and speeded towards the Chimera. Two large explosions followed and I could feel how the sight bolstered our fighting spirit. But alas, the crude engine of war just pushed forward. Soon after a hail of fire rained down on our position. The flimsy building just barely held together and many a proud hunter fell. Pinned down by the heavy fire I really hoped that the suits would descend any moment to turn the imperials to smouldering heaps of slag. The Devilfish reported that it was also taking heavy fire but was in position and marked the LZ. I could hear over the communication grid that several hails were made to the skies, but no response came. Something blocked our communications to orbit, either they were jammed or then some electrical weather phenomenon blocked the signals. 

The Devilfish was marking the LZ, but the orbit was silent.
Chimeras closed in on our postion in the middle.

The wall of steel was rolling towards our positions and we could as well throw rocks as fire our weapons against them. The situation was dire and I had just a few of my men left. Even if the combat discipline held I could sense the underlying despair in the voices on the com grid. Suddenly the building turned to a burning hell. Drops of the burning liquid touched my face and I fell to the ground in agony. Around me I could hear the screams of my men and the guttural battle cries of charging humans. Somehow I managed to save myself through a space under the floor and crawl outside. Blinded by my wounds I scrambled for safety in a random direction. After a small eternity I was grabbed by my arms and dragged inside a vehicle. After I regained my posture I learned that our forces was withdrawing. We had managed to get an emergency extraction signal to orbit and the landing crafts were waiting for us a few clicks away. We had suffered horrendous casualties in just a few moments and I will bear the mark of my failure on my face as a sober reminder and to commemorate our fallen warriors.

My last warrior buying me time to esacpe in the midst of the confusion.

A few days have gone past. We are heading back to Sa’cea sector.  I look into the darkness of space and fear for the future. The fire caste will demand retribution and I crave for it also. We still don´t know why the Imperial armies are mustering on that planet. Revenge will only lead to escalation and the possibility of a full out war with the imperium, a situation we are not prepared for. Maybe we should wait for Imperials next move. On the other hand a pre-emptive strike with overwhelming force could be the other solution to stall any Imperial lordling’s ambitions for conquest in this sector…”

Recon Cadre sent to action

Hi,

There have been reports from spy drones situated on planets on the outskirts of our Empire that the Imperials have been more active than usual. Only a week ago one of the spy drones went offline. Without the drone we are blind.  I, Aun'La Sa'cea Shaseira, of the Ethereal caste have been dispatched with a small Pathfinder recon cadre to investigate the situation further.

We left our home Sept Sa’cea a week ago and tomorrow we will make landfall on the planet near where the drone went offline. Something is clearly going on the surface. The first objective is information but if I deem the threat to be substantial we will try to neutralise it with the forces at hand. I held a small ceremony this evening for the Fire Warriors to calm their souls and remind them that we all work for the Greater good for all beings in the galaxy and it gives us all resolution and a purpose. The humans maybe need our guiding hand, even if it is a harsh one, to set them on the correct path to enlightenment.

The industrious Earth Caste sent us a few examples of the new Recon Drones with homing beacons and positional relays. The Pathfinders are eager to use their new toys so I decided to take one with us. It should give us real-time pinpoint co-ordinates at all times to guide our forces. 

The hunt begins!

Recon Drone side view

Recon Drone, front view

Recon drone inside the Devilfish

State of the Greater Good

Hi,

It is night before Christmas eve, so I decided to go through the status of the Greater Good (I don´t want to compete at new year with state of the union). What it all means is that I will go through what I have painted at the moment in my Tau Army and my future direction with it. My taus are from the Sa'cea sept, and therefore have the orange markings on everything. 

At this point i calculated that my current painted army stands at ~800 points (according to 2013 Tau Empire Codex).  

Tau Painted (800pts)

Tau Empire: Codex (2013) (Combined Arms Detachment) (800pts)

• HQ (50pts)

  • Ethereal (50pts)

• Elites (156pts)

  • XV8 Crisis Team (156pts)

    • Crisis Shas'ui

      Missile pod, Plasma rifle
      

    • Crisis Shas'ui

      Missile pod, Plasma rifle
      

    • Crisis Shas'ui

      Missile pod, Plasma rifle
      

• Troops (236pts)

  • Fire Warrior Team (118pts)

    11x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
    

    • Fire Warrior Shas'ui

      Pulse rifle
      

  • Fire Warrior Team (118pts)

    11x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
    

    • Fire Warrior Shas'ui

      Pulse rifle
      

• Fast Attack (358pts)

  • Drone Squadron (168pts)

    12x Gun Drone
    

  • Pathfinder Team (190pts)

    10x Pathfinder Shas'la
    

    • Devilfish

      Two Gun Drones
      

Created with BattleScribe

800 pts of  painted Greater Good

My most recent addition were the 12 Drones you can see to the right. This time I experimented to make orange much more prominent colour. I really like how it gives that extra punch that make them stand out. This made me think that should I revisit my fire warriors to either paint the helmets light grey with a orange antenna or vice versa? The current colour scheme is more realistic, but to be honest they look a bit dull on the table. Either way I most revisit them to complete their bases. As it stands now they have only a fine grain sand glued on the base without colour. I will probably add some grit and go with a grey colour (look at the pathfinders)

Latest addition were 12 Gun Drones

Pathfinders got an additional 5 members with  pulse carbines and markerlights

That was the current situation. What about the future? I have made lists after lists for 1000 and 1750 points and tried to think about what I like. The core army I have now is very light on anti-tank and a Sentinel or Dreadnought will have a breeze walk in the park as long the front points in the direction of  my pulse rifles. Worst case a Sentinel could walk up to my gun line and shut down an entire unit from shooting.  My battlesuits equiped with fusion blasters (Str 8, AP 1, melta) and some markerlights is the only option at the moment. So the remedy for armour would be broadsides or/and Hammerhead. My standard setup will include 1-3 broadsides and most of the time probably with all missiles and missile drones. While thinking about how to add more AT to my list I got the idea to have a Mecha-suit list. The king of the suits is of course the  XV-104 Riptide. A Monstrous creature with jetpack and a freaking battle cannon  equivalent as the main gun. The Riptide together with Broadsides and XV8 suits would form the hardhitting core of the army, FW, PF and Drones would be support units. My warlord would probably be a commander in a suit with buffing wargear.  With only one elite slot left I could opt to go for more XV8s or Stealth units. If maximum number of suits is the order of the day it would be a squad of 6 Stealth suits and my commander would take two XV8 Bodyguards (does not take a force org slot). The Stealth team would probably have a homing beacon so my XV8s could deepstrike precisely where I want them to be. This could be squeezed under 1500 points.

For that tournament point level of 1750 points I could get an secondary detachment with say a second riptide or another XV8 team and maybe some kroot to fill the points. Looking from my opponents view the horde of robosuits would look both awesome and intimidating. But looking from my side I could as easily be intimidated with the 6 tanks or the likes coming in my general direction (thats why the melta suits pops the tanks from behind),

After all this ranting you got a general idea where my future plans are. That said I also have a vision for a fast recon army with flyers and piranhas as the main theme. But my next step is to get the unit of broadsides assembled and painted to get the current army up to 1000 points.


Merry Christmas!

The Ethereal

Hi again dear readers!

Christmas is almost upon us, That means I have more time to work on my projects. During the weekend I have been busy working on Aunshi, hero of the empire as he, probably in mistake, defeated a tactical Space Marine in close combat. Anywys many thanks to my friend "Decorus" for donating the miniature. I hope you approve of his new home.

I replacde the normal 20 mm base with a 40 mm one, so that I would have more space to modell on it. I had to ponder a bit on the choise of larger base. He will look a lot cooler but in games he will stand out as a sore thumb and be the height of a XV8 crisis battlesuit. I still decided I wanted to go forward with the larger base, and from an artistic stand point I am really glad I did. Here are pictures and videos of  the miniature. My next project will either be the horde of drones or the rest of the Pathfinders with special weapons. Until next time!

Material used for the base:
-40 mm generic base (not GW)
-GF9 cement rubble (for stairs)
-Brown card board
-GF9 rocky basing grit
-PVA Glue
-Quick dry putty to fill holes in the card borad
-Paints: black, greys and browns.
-PlayStation 4 as background for picture...

The base assembled. The white stuff at the bottom is putty

Aunshi painted without base

Aunshi from back

Aunshi standing on his new base

I am really happy with this end result.

All Your Bases belongs to the Pathfinders

Greetings follower of the Greater Good!

Yesterday evening I started a small project of basing my XV8 Crisis Suits and my 5 Pathfinders I almost got ready.

I had just acquired some cement rubble and coarse grain from the hobby store (brand is Gale Force 9 and costs about 4.5 euro) so I put my skills to the test. My goal was to make it look that the bases would belong into a ruined cityscape. Here follows the work steps:

Step 1 

In Step 1 I glued on the empty bases the white cement pieces and the grains with PVA glue. I also glued fine grain sand after the larger pieces had dried a while.  I let everything dry completely overnight

Step 2 - base coat and drybrush

  In Step 2 I first base coated the bases with brush and watered down black. The fine grain sand soaks in the watered paint much better than thick one. After the undercoat had dried I dry brushed all the bases with a darker and lighter grey. It is really easy and the end results look really good. I could have ended here, but I decided to go one step further. 

Step 3 - Finished bases

  In Step 3 I watered down a dark brown and brushed over the bases, not at every spot, but here and there to add some dirt colour to the base for a warmer tint. After it had dried I glued on some Citadel dead grass. I really liked the end result, but maybe for the ruin feeling I would have better stopped at Step 2. The finished bases have more natural rock formation look than ruins and rubble.

Crisis Suits with their new bases. 

Pathfinders leading the way. Sergeant is in the middle with binoculars and radio

Pathfinders from other view. I added some small details like gun holster and knifes to the models. 

How I learned to stop worrying and love the Heretic (i.e. Dark Vengeance unboxing)

Hi, 

This is more of a filler update with nothing new finished. It is more like a preview what I will work on the next months. 

Today after work I took a stroll to my local game store (Poromagia,com) with the intent to by some material for bases, rubble and the like. Tuesdays are gaming days and there were 20 or more people playing Warhammer 40k games at different tables. I watched the games for a moment after picking up the stuff I came for and saw that Tau are quite popular. Then from nowhere the consumer demon possessed me and I picked the Dark Vengeance starter set (7th Edition) with some additional secret boxes of Tau tools of destruction. After spending ten times more then I intended I walked out of the store feeling like Santa with a sack of presents for myself. The staff was very nice in the store and even gave me a free card game in addition to the purchases.

I opened the box and looked through the model sprues in the box. The box comes with about 500 points worth each of Chaos Space Marines and Dark Angels. "Holy cow" was my first impression. The details on the plastic sculpts are insane now days. I remember buying GW plastic stuff over 10 years ago and it doesn’t even come close in quality or detail of modern sculpts. One specific Chaos Space Marine sprue made me fall in love with the Chaos Gods and I let out a mad cackling cultist laughter. You will see soon which one. But here follows an "unboxing" of the starter kit and some impressions. Overall I felt that I got value for my money. Enjoy!

Box Art, a bit bland in my opinion. The newer Dethstorm is much more eye catching

All the contents in one picture

The gaming aids and paper contents of the box. The "how to play" guide is really nice with a simple go-through of the rules a phase at a time with clear examples. Notice that only 6 dice + scatter dice are included...c´mon. You include miniatures worth 100 euros, but only include six dice. Also I see that the horrible measure sticks are the same that first appeared in WH Fantasy 5th edtion box 16 years ago. The templates are nice though. 

Size comparison of the 6th Edition Rule book and the one in the box. A4 vs A5 and ~700 pages vs 208. Nice and handy to only have the rules in one small pocket sized book. It is full colour and the quality is ok. The cover is very soft and will probably look like hell after a few months. 

Comparison between page designs. These ones are almost identical, The design language in the 7th edition feel fresh and striking while the 6th edition is more traditional. I like both .

Then onwards to the first sprue with Chaos Chosens and a hellbrute. This one is absolutely spectacular

These 3 dudes made me fall in love with Chaos. The horns, the horns...and the crazy axe wielding cultist champion. Insane details. Admit it, after seeing them you also want to embrace the dark gods. The left side one with two horns is Krampus himself (Kranon the Relentless IRL)  .

Details of backside of the Hellbrute, I am not a greates fan of the flesh mechanical look, but again awesome details. 

The box contains two of these sprues. Bikes, Space marines and cultists.

Just look at these! They look adorable with their gas masks and spiky periphelia, Would go well wiht the Dark Eldar SM look. 

The Special Edition miniature inside the box, Vrosh Tattersoul, aspiring champion. The miniature is ok I guess, but Krampus sweeps the floor with him. 

Dark Angel Sprue

The Dark Angels are great sculpts with lot of cool details, but... put three horns on the Deathwing terminator in the middle and he would be awesome.  

More details of a terminator with a power sword. I really like the stuff that hangs from his belt (is the spehere a incense burner?)

Details of the bike. The banner pole annoys me tremendously and oterwhise they look a bit meh. If it must have wings I would put them as details from the front wheels going upwards or as covers for the legs. 

Bigg and Small

Hi,

Last time I promised you that I would revisit Super Dungeon Explore. Here you go. New painted miniatures are the Druid and the transformed Bear/wolf  (this topic is up for heated debate amongs SDE scholars), and the kobold Ogres Rex Mini and Rex Max.

Here is a small photo cartoon introducing our new heroes. "Big and Small" -Enjoy!

The Druid encounters some kobolds while searching for mushrooms for his stew. It does look a bit bad for our hero!

Rooargh. The kobolds are suprised when the druid tansforms to a gigantic monster!

The poor kobolds run for their life, pursued by the druid. 

Oh Dear, the Kobolds ran to their big brother Rex Mini for help. 

How will this end, as also Rex Maxi have come to his brothers aid?

Below are som more details of the minis. The transformed Druid is painted by my friend, all credits to him for the awesome painjob.

Rex Mini and Max

Ready for Battle

Hi there, 

Last time we visited the vehicle factory, this time we take a look at the finished product, namely the Tau Devilfish. The whole project took about one week calendar time. One Sunday and several evenings to finish. 

I must say I am quite pleased with the end result, this being my first painted vehicle and even with a camouflage pattern. I think that next time I maybe skip the pattern stencils altogether and do the pattern with a brush directly on the model itself. 

But enough with the text, here are some picture and video of the thing. 

In my next update I will re-visit Super Dungeon Explore and I promise you it will be very cool! Until next time. The Devilfish will also get some more love in an upcoming update when my next project with the Pathfinders are done. 

Fire Warriors taking postions after exiting the vechile

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