Codex: Creepers part II

So, let's look at some more units from the Creeper Codex. Most of these models are from Warhammer Fantasy.

 The mysterious Shadow Creepers, not all painted yet... 

(Eldar Harlequins)

And the big guy himself: The deamon they call the Lord of the Pit!

(Eldar Avatar)

From left to right: I don't know who the first guy is. Yet. The two in the middle belong to the Cult of Mystics (Eldar Warlock Council). The last one is Garokil: Supreme Engineer, with The Sharpshooter (Eldar Uldanorethi Long Rifle).

Finally, there are the Reaper Creepers (Eldar Dark Reapers). I have the models, but they are not painted or even assembled yet. As models I used Veer-myn Scourgers.

Codex: Creepers part I

I made a codex of just a few pages that are supposed to be used as allies for Tau. The codex is based on selected units and options from the Eldar codex, so it is completely "legal" as far as values and point costs go. They would probably not be welcome in any tournament though...

Here's the story:

The ratmen had been living alone and undisturbed for many millennia, when a deamon from below emerged, proclaiming that it was time for them to watch the stars. The first ones to oppose the at the time seemingly insane idea where slain by the beast, silencing others. Quietly they followed, up and up, until the deamon broke the roof of the world with it's strange weapon. The people of the underworld had been let loose, now forced to accept a new destiny for themselves. They stood in the middle of an open wasteland, all gazing silently upon the star sprangled sky above.

The beast led them to a new home in the mountains, waging war against all that stood in their way. The beast was their king now, and no one dared question his demands. It was not until a blue alien being ascended from the stars that the bloodthirst of the beast could be calmed. The creature came with new ideas, a new purpose, that was appealing to the deamon. The ratmen and the blue ones would join forces, reach for the stars, and conquer them.

The models below are Veer-myn from Mantic games.

 Creeper Militia with flamer in the front and fusion gun in the back

(Eldar Storm Guardians)

 Storm Creepers 

(Eldar Dire Avengers)

Creeper Commandos 

(Eldar Striking Scorpions)

Next time we'll take a look at the HQ options and some other units.

Conversion: Knarloc riders

With some regular kroot soldiers and dark elf cold ones (lizard mounts from Warhammer Fantasy) I made a unit of four knarloc riders (Imperial Armour vol. III). The tricky part was the rider's legs, which needed some reconstructing.

As a Tau player, it is always nice to try out cavalry, since they don't have any in the codex. They are fast moving, and the Hammer of Wrath rule with strength 5 is a nice combo. But they are still fragile, like all Kroot, so it is best to try to run from cover to cover with these guys. Probably easier to keep them hidden if they are few, but you can have up to nine riders if you like.

Conversion: Pathfinders

Markerlights. One of the great inventions of the Tau warmachine. Use them to boost ballistic skill, ignore cover save or send a seeker missile from anywhere on the table at an unsuspecting target. 

There are several units that are equipped with or offers the possibility to be equipped with markerlights. Pathfinders are of the former, having them attached to their pulse carbines. They also have a lot of other options, like special weapons and drones that aren't available to other units.

For my pathfinders, I just used regular Fire warriors without backpacks, "non-helmet" heads, and one head from a tank commander. I used stealth suit antennas (if I am not mistaken) as markerlights. I also added black tattoos on their heads (I like those small details...).

Below is a picture from my first try using pathfinders. After disembarking, they got shot to pieces (like the rest of my army...). Not a good way to use them. I think the best way is to hide them in some ruins. They can't be very mobile if you want to use the markerlights (and you will), since these are heavy weapons.

Campaign report part IV

The relic

The cadre was moving south during night time when our scouts reported a lone figure among some ruins. One of the human helpers recognised the woman as a daughter to a leader of a human nomadic tribe. Assuming she was lost, if we were to bring her to her tribe, we might gain new followers of the Greater Good. Quickly a task force was dispatched, led by commander Coldsun.

When the force was nearing the target, the sound of engines across the wasteland brought the soldiers to a stop. Appearently, our rivals the Renegades was heading the same way. The two forces started to take positions among old industrial buildings and battle debris, the ”relic” in the middle.

The task force took only minor losses, while the enemy was utterly crushed. One tank retreated with some soldiers running after it. Left on the battlefield were the pieces of four troop transports together with the bodies of the fallen.  

The "relic"

Renegades disembarking from their transport vehicle

A Hammerhead searching for targets, unaware of the enemy commander with one of his henchmen, lurking with a meltagun

Two Fire warrior squads closing in on the "relic"

Themed buildings

Instead of buying terrain, I prefer to build my own out of plastic containers, paper, parts of toy cars, drinking straws and various pieces of junk I come across. Then I spray it black and throw some paint on it. The trick is to make them "themed", so that the buildings look good together. Below are some examples.

 

 A monument dedicated to some kind of snake god

 A power station...

 

A statue raised to honour a legendary hero

Conversion: Tetras

The Tetra is a fast skimmer used for reconnaissance (again from Imperial Armour vol. III). The model, well, I think I found a suitable one: The Hunter Killer 2000 Grav Bike, from the Void miniatures game.

The human pilots were converted to tau pilots by cutting off their noses and slicing a vertical line on their forehead. Painted blue they look ok, I think. The bike itself looks great, I skipped the minigun mounted under the "beak" (yes, maybe it resembles a duck...). The backside with the model is that it is metal. The paint scrapes off, and it tips over quite easily.

I have not attached any weapons on them yet. Pulse rifles and markerlights, that is. Maybe they are built into the front somehow...

Fast skimmers are nice, and with disruption pods they can increase their much needed jink save to up to 3+. They are great markerlight units, with 2 twin-linked shots each. There is most often room in the organization chart for them, since they are fast attack. I prefer to take two units with two Tetras each.

Conversion: Commander Farsight

My Farsight conversion is based on Shadowsun. I used the arms of a stealth suit, regular plasma rifle and shield generator, and an oversized sword from some Confrontation model (i think) that I had used to make a Blood Bowl player with (swords are not allowed in Blood Bowl...). Maybe the model is too small compared to the original Farsight model, and might therefore not be allowed in a tournament.

Farsight is one of the few Tau units that offers some close combat capabilities. With a sword that cuts through most armour he (or she in my case) delivers quite a punch. In a game against Space Marines, he/she slaughtered unit after unit of marines. After all the beating I had taken before then, that was a moment of joy! :-) So I believe that Farsight is a good and fun addition to any Tau army, even though you might not want to use him in every battle.

A cool unit to try is to give Farsight a bunch of bodyguards. It will probably end up in a very pricy unit, and you may regret it if it gets locked up in close combat, unable to bring down it's firepower on the enemy. Regardless, it is a fun unit to try! You can also try out adding a "support suit" to the unit. With a Command and Control Node and a Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite it will boost the other battlesuits shooting attacks, but only if it does not fire itself, so don't bother to spend too many points on weapons for this suit. Also, it's only really effective together with quite a number of battlesuits, and Farsight may take up to 7 bodyguards, so just go crazy with those suits!

It is also nice that Farsight doesn't scatter when Deep Striking, so combine the above with some target locks, and you can potentially take out quite a lot of the opposition in one spectacular blow! For the Greater Good, of course.

Broadsides

Inspired by a custom model I saw somewhere, I put the heavy rail rifles under the arms of the broadsides, instead of over the shoulders. The rifles connects to the arms by wires on one arm, while the other is covered by a shield generator. On the shoulders I put the smart missile system, but instead of the regular ones I used some kind of missile launcher from "skinnies" from the Starship Troopers miniatures game.

So, what to say about broadsides? Never leave home without them? Well, they sure were more powerful in the old rules, since the strength of the rifles has been reduced. But I think it's reasonable that the railgun on the Hammerhead tank is more powerful than the guns of the broadsides. I still really like them, and they have an unmatched ability to soak firepower, at least among the Tau ranks. AP 2 weapons may of course blow them away quickly, so it might be good idea to give them some shield drones, if you have the points to spare. Against mechanized opponents, target locks may be useful. With a little luck, you might take out several vehicles in one go! Also, do not forget the built-in multi-tracker that allows the broadsides to fire both the twin-linked railrifles and twin-linked smart missile system in the same turn.

"The Dogs of War"

Why settle for human helpers, when you can have human helpers best friend: The dog! Or dog people, more accurately, but what's the difference? Since the Tau don't keep pets (apart from drones), they have a hard time understanding the concept of keeping animals in your home (that I made up).

(Maybe I went a little too far with this conversion project...)

These guys are played as gue'vesa, i.e. human auxiliaries. The heads are from some kind of cyberdogs for the Starship Troopers miniatures game. The rest are fire warriors bodies, with modified weapons. Their feet (paws?) shows my attempt of using "green stuff". Tricky...

Campaign report part III

The lost bunker

Our intelligence reported the location of an underground bunker, near a small deserted mining village. When moving in to investigate, one of our scout force commander's vehicles was wrecked by incoming enemy fire. Apparently, the Renegades had also discovered the bunker, and was moving into the village.

A task force was quickly dispatched, lead by commander Coldsun, in an attempt to secure the village, take the bunker, and rescue the scout force commander. Two Devilfishes were lost in the fighting, along with some infantry and a Hammerhead railgun. One of the outflanking kroot squads really managed to stir things up among the enemy troops, slaughtering an infantry squad and a storm trooper squad, before running off under heavy fire. With some repairs, most of the other vehicles will soon be ready for action. Commander Firesun secured the village single handedly, after which the enemy started to pull back. One fire warrior squad entered the bunker, which exploded and caved in shortly after. The inside of the bunker remains unknown to us. All for the Greater Good.

Kroot

What to say about the kroot... Well, do not be fooled by their appearance, they look like they could bite the head off an orc, but that is not the case. They are fragile and mediocre close combat fighters, at best. But they can be useful, as long as you know how to use them (and how to not use them).

The kroot has three strengths: They can infiltrate, get good cover in forests, and they are cheap. Remember that infiltrators also can outflank. Outflanking kroot can cause trouble for the enemy, and may even take out a vehicle if shooting at it's rear, or by assaulting it. They will not live long, but don't worry, they are cheap, remember? :-) 

Another way to use them is to let them dig in somewhere, preferably in a forest (maybe it's time to get some model trees?;-). From there they can harass the enemy and draw some fire, maybe even letting them go to ground to make them last longer. Watch out for flamers though, or they will easily get, well, toast... But don't worry, they are cheap, remember?

There is always that exception that confirms the rule, right? Above you can see two squads of kroot advancing on a unit of terminators. The whole thing ended up in a melee, and the kroot won...

Conversion: Darkstrider

Darkstrider is one of the new additions in the latest Tau Codex. With his Structural analyser, he will lower the Toughness value by one for his target, which also counts for his whole unit. Should be quite effective if you put him in the lead of a 12-man Fire warrior squad. You can also outflank with that squad, thanks to Darkstrider's special rule. A nice addition is that his unit may retreat D6 inches if charged. But make sure not to put him in the front row. Whit only a scout armour, he'll soon bite the dust.

Here I used a pathfinder officer (metal model), cut the head off and replaced it with a Fire warrior head. I also cut off the "ponytail", making him bald.

The Structural analyser is made from a battlesuit antenna and a piece of transparent plastic, which shows a little better on the second picture below.

I only used Darkstrider on one occasion yet (I find him a bit expensive). I used him to outflank together with a Fire warrior unit in a Devilfish troop carrier. Generally, it can be a good tactic to keep troops in transports in the reserve, since bringing them into the fight later in the game will increase their odds of survival. After all, they are the ones you want near the objectives at the end of the game. With Darkstrider's outflanking ability, you have a chance to get a troop unit close to an objective near the opponent's table edge, possibly getting a victory point for "Linebreaker" in the process.

Human helpers

I really like the idea of humans joining the Tau Empire. After all, Tau are the only good guys out there, right? The forces of the human imperium are not good, just read the stories, and Eldar are just evil killer pirates. The rest don't need commenting, I think...

The Tau call them Gue'vesa, which translates to human helpers. These humans come in squads of six to twelve, and they are equivalent to imperial guardsmen. They are quite useful, since you get a cheap troop unit to hold objectives (or use as cannon fodder, whichever you prefer). A good restriction is that you must have a fire warrior squad for each gue'vesa unit, and they may not be taken as your compulsory troops.


Now to the fun part: Building the gue'vesa models! I used the bodies of fire warriors since I wanted them to blend in with the rest of the army. Since most humans don't have hoofs, I had to do something about that. This came to my first attempt at using "green stuff" to make tiny boots for these little guys. Quite tricky, I must say, and the result - well, ok I guess.

The heads are from militia soldiers from Warhammer Fantasy, as well as some other ones that I don't know where they are from. Since all races ready to embrace the Greater Good are welcome, I also made a non-human gue'vesa soldier. With a head from a (non-GW) orc and some head tails made from green stuff, I think he became a very cool addition to the bunch!

Converting a Devilfish to a Hammerhead

This conversion project was especially successful. Since a Skyray comes with enough parts to build either a Skyray gunship, a Hammerhead tank or a Devilfish transport I thought that if you have a Skyray and a Devilfish, you should be able to construct one Hammerhead and one Skyray. And even better, you could have the option to run them both as Devilfishes. And so I did!

The result is shown below, first with both as Devilfishes, then with both as Hammerheads (note that I made a custom Hammerhead with long barrelled burst cannons instead of a Skyray, as shown in an earlier blog post).

The trickiest part was the front gun, since the Hammerhead/Skyray has some kind of sensor equipment instead. This was solved by sculpting some green stuff together with the use of those tiny but strong magnets, so that they became interchangeable. Since I only had one piece of sensor equipment, I made the second one out of the rear end of a burst cannon together with a battlesuit antenna.

Another fun detail is that I was lacking a top hatch for one of the vehicles. So I used something called "blue stuff" to make a mold of the hatch from the other vehicle, then used green stuff to make a copy of the hatch. You can hardly tell the difference! To use blue stuff, you put it in hot water for a couple of minutes, press something into it, and let it cool. Then you have a solid mold.

Campaign report part II

Defence of the ABGOD

Near one of our recruitment centres there was an old inoperable piece of war machinery. According to our Water caste negotiators, this object was of great affectional value to the local humans. They referred to it as the ABGOD, short for Ancient Big Gun of Doom. There were rumours that the Renegades were interested in plundering this machinery, using parts from it to repair their vehicles and weapons, or maybe even repair and use the gun itself. A task force was sent out to defend this object, to stop the Renegades from using it. Defending this object that was important to the locals would also be used in our propaganda for the Greater Good.

The battle was even at first, with our great Tau forces slowly gaining the upper hand. Our brave Firefly warrior dropped perfectly from the sky, stopping a squad of renegades from gaining control of a fortified watchtower with his twin-linked flamer. A squad of outflanking kroot took control of it instead. Commander Coldsun made a solo offensive during the whole battle, taking out a lot of infantry units with his special issue wargear. The airbursting fragmentation projector was proved a success, and should be made more widely available to our troops. Soon enough, the armoured vehicles of the renegade army could not withstand the pounding of our railguns. Their whole army was on the run, leaving a few burning wrecks behind.

New auxiliary recruits was now queuing at our recruitment centres, all for the Greater Good.

Magnetized battlesuits

Personally, I am not too strict on the "what you see is what you get" rule, but magnetized weapons is a nice way of keeping track of who carries what. You can get some cheap 2 mm magnets off eBay. Drill a hole with a 2 mm drill, and the tiny magnet will fit perfectly. They are quite tricky to handle, since they are not only very small, but also very strong. Also, make sure you put them in right, otherwise they will repel instead of attract each other.

Three of my battlesuits with magnetized weapons

Speaking of battlesuits, here is a unit that is fun to bring to a fight. I call it the firefly. Take a lone battlesuit with cheap weaponry: one or two flamers and nothing else. Let him deep strike behind enemy lines to torch some infantry. You can also give him a fusion blaster and watch when their biggest tanks start to sweat. Then watch the firefly go up in flames! All for the Greater Good, of course.

Hammerhead conversion: Long barrelled burst cannons

Here I converted a Skyray to a Hammerhead with two long barrelled burst cannons (as found in Imperial Armour vol. III). These will replace the railgun, and have the same values as regular burst cannons, but with double the range and two extra shots.

Instead of two big cannons I used four of the regular burst cannons that you can use instead of a smart missile system (which I never use, since I believe that drones or SMS are a better choice).

To fill out some space under the Skyray turret wings, I put a seeker missile under each wing. These are magnetised, so you can choose whether you want to pay the extra cost for them, and also to keep track when you use them.

Lightbringer

I am very fond of building models (more so than painting them, actually). And I don't mean just assembling dozens of fire warriors, but creating something with a touch of individuality. Here is one of those examples (and there are more to come).

This one I call Lightbringer. He is a unique character inspired by Guardsman Marbo (Imperial Guard), although not as powerful. Lightbringer is a fast attack choice that is yours for 40 points. To cheap/to expensive? Well, let me know what you think:
Stats: WS4, BS4, S3, T3, W2, I4, A4, LD8, SV4+
Wargear: 2 pulse pistols, EMP grenades

Special rules: Independent character, Infiltrate, Move through cover, Fleet, Stealth, Hit and run, Eternal Warrior, Lucky, Not a leader

"Lucky"? Well, sometimes that is what it takes to survive out there. Lightbringer adds +1 to all save rolls (note that this does not affect the AP of weapons, an AP 4 weapon will still penetrate his armour).

"Not a leader"? No, he works best alone. If he joins another unit, he loses Infiltrate, Move through cover, Fleet, Stealth and Hit and run.

As you can see the model is a regular Fire warrior, but armed with two pulse pistols made from the front part of pulse carbines. Since he was raised among the Kroot, he also carries a Kroot backpack.

So, what is this guy good for? Well, the purpose was not to create a powerful character, but to make a fun addition to the Tau army list. He is supposed to be cheap, and with a little luck he might be of good use. In rare cases he might even be a gamechanger, which is true for any unit.

Effective painting

Looking back on my old Warhammer Fantasy skaven army, I did not want my Tau army to end up in the same way. That is, 10 % of the models adequately painted, the rest unpainted. And that's how far I got since the 90's... This was also the reason why I was reluctant to start playing 40K - not another unfinished project. So, instead my goal this time was: 100 % almost adequately painted! :-)

If you, dear reader, are not at all interested in painting techniques, you can stop reading. Also, if you consider yourself an expert painter, continue at your own risk... This is for amateurs only! ;-)

I needed to find a way to paint the army fairly quickly, since I didn't feel like I had that much time to spend on painting, and also because my back is killing me after sitting at the painting table too long (hey, 40 is closing in on me!). So, my goal was, and still is, to paint the army to a nice enough standard as effectively as possible. I decided to go for black and white, with orange details. Painting models in black and white was a bold move, someone told me (I thought maybe I had made a mistake, thinking bold=stupid...). Well, here is how I did it:

Step 1: Spray the model black (obviously).
Step 2: Highlight (drybrush) most of the model with dark grey.
Step 3: Drybrush some details with boltgun metal (old citadel with screwcap, still going strong!).
Step 4: The white areas are first painted white, then a creamy white, then highlighted with white. (They were actually just painted white at first, then I improved them like this... which was much needed.)
Step 5: Finally, the part I like the most, add some orange details, almost like warpaint. Done!

Below is an example of one of my battlesuits. I guess you recognise the antenna from a devilfish. I also chose to cut off one of the antennas on his head... makes him look less "rabbit-like". The blue thing under his foot is a Ultra Marines power fist...

Campaign report part I

Faris Campaign Report

From Shas'o Lao'Tai of the Fire Caste Firestorm Cadre to Venerable Aun'Ka of the Ethereal Caste.

The Faris system

The Faris system is distant to most races, but rich in resources and an important outpost.

Faris II

The great planet of Faris II is covered by a veil of dust and debris, protecting it from the rays of the sun, but making communications and scanning of the planet from space nearly impossible. The exploration of the planet must therefore be done on the surface. The climate is hot and arid, and the surface of the planet is covered mostly by sand. The sand is rich with minerals and metals in some areas.

Humans

The planet of Faris II contains many human independent settlements. We have been establishing recruitment centres in some of these. Many gue'vesa has chosen to join the auxiliary forces in our glorious struggle for the Greater Good.

The hounds of the human imperium have left the system completely. However, one regiment seems to have been left behind, now forming a renegade band of warriors, plundering settlements, industrial facilities, and the remains of conquered enemy vehicles.

Orks

We have not yet encountered any ork forces, but has seen remains of defeated ork armies. The vehicles of the renegade army seems to be made up partly of plundered ork warmachines.

First contact

The first contact with the Renegade army took place among some old ruins that was of some tactical value. The ruins seemed to be the remnants of an old spacecraft, and we will send in our earth caste members to work on it. Our brave Tau forces took some losses, including a battlesuit and a Hammerhead, but otherwise the fight went our way, and we could count our first victory on Faris, all for the Greater Good.

In the beginning...

I started with Warhammer 40K a few years ago (I am now 36), after a short but effective persuasion campaign: They said "start playing 40K", I said no, then I started playing 40K. I am just a sucker for tiny models with weapons, and has been since I was a kid.
 

So I chose Tau. Why? Well, I had some Tau models that I bought just because I thought they were cool, and the plan was to use them in one of my own game ideas (I thought that Fire warriors were robots...). Also, after reading about them, I liked the idea that they allied with different kinds of alien species, like the kroot and vespids. Now I have also learned to love all the possible options that come in the form of high-tech equipment!
 

As many others (I guess), I started with the "Tau Battleforce", thinking that it would give me an army that I could take on some enemies with. And so I did, finding myself utterly crushed time after time. It took a while (and the acquiring of more models) before I got a hang of how Tau should be played. And now, I must say, my army kicks some serious butt (thanks to some help from Tau blogs and forums). Maybe I might give some helpful tips to other Tau players on this blog, as well as to tell about my experiences with the hobby.
 

And why not start with a favourite of mine: A two-man battlesuit unit with dual missile pods (not twin-linked). Maybe throw a target lock on one of them, and split their fire. Then let them fire missiles to their little hearts content, mainly at light vehicles! Jump from cover, poof-poof, then jet pack move back behind cover and have some tea. Very convenient.