To the dark gods of the uh.... Greater Good?

 

XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Commander

So, it all started when the Cities of Death book came out,  This Art from the front cover (the artist of which is evading me through google) blew me away when i saw it.  Easily one of the strongest Games Workshop related art pieces i have seen in years, and as badass as the Vostroyans look (they do look, very badass) what caught me was the Tau in the picture, this White and Red colour scheme is so striking i was surprised it hasn't been replicated onto any studio models before or since.  I always wanted to try my hand at converting it to the real thing (even though the Tau are taking an absolute pasting in the picture and one Fire Warrior appears to have lost a fight with... a spike?).

I had tried to play Tau for a while but their past play style never really gelled well with me, i loved painting the models, but for such little payback in actual gaming the investment didn't seem worth it, fast forward to the recent Tau re-release and everything had changed, i had been struggling to paint some new models for a Chaos Army and getting nowhere in terms of inspiration so decided to put them on the back burner for now, especially after a flick through the Tau book itself..   My god they have done well this time.

The new Tau Empire book is easily my favourite of the "new era" codices and seems to be one of the best written, and bar the disparity between arming your vehicles with burst cannons and smart missile systems (why would you ever choose Burst cannons ever?) there seems to be no redundant rules or units, something i definitely look for when starting a new project to allow me to play with the full range of options at my disposal.  As i have been fairly light on actual gaming lately i decided to dive into my bits box and buy a few new toys and mash together to see what i could do, i instantly had to have a Riptide Battlesuit (pictures to come) and opted for a core of a Hammerhead and two Fire Warrior units in Devilfish with a piranha and crisis commander + bodyguard as support.

In terms of playing, i've got one game in so far (which i won) but i've picked up a unit of pathfinders to jimmy into the army (probably at the expense of a devilfish).  I'll let y'all know how i get on!