After looking at my last post and noticing some areas of the Broadsides that needed clean-up, I spent tonight doing small touch-ups. Mostly, this involved breaking out the foundation paints and recoating all the areas that didn’t quite match. I even found a few spots on the SMS arms that, despite priming and painting, still had small spots of bare metal showing through. The bases got some cleanup as well, with a liberal application of Gryphonne Sepia wash followed by some drybrushing with Vallejo Cobra Leather. With them finally looking a bit sharper, I decided to break out the portable studio and snap a good picture of them.

I also managed to finish up the shield drones that go with the team leader:

Somehow, I managed to have a minor catastrophe with one of the suits while I was working. As I was doing my touch-up work, one of the railguns started getting a bit… wiggly. I worked the gun back and forth to see what the damage was, and the entire gun came loose from the body. My biggest fear was that the tab at the bottom of the gun had broken loose, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. The glue just gave up. Thankfully, getting the gun reglued was just a matter of cleaning up the area with my hobby knife and regluing it.

Now that these are complete (minus any decals I might apply), it’s onto my third Hammerhead next, as it’s already primed and basecoated, along with its Ion Cannon turret. After that, there’s a couple of Devilfish that need some basecoating. I’ve also been giving my Kroot a closer look. I might not use them much, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be painted!

This weekend, I finished up my latest Tau project, a unit of three Broadsides. Technically, the unit’s not finished – I have a couple of shield drones that have the flat colors done and are getting ready to move into the inking and detail phase – but the battlesuits themselves are. These three are painted a bit differently from my standard suits. For one thing, I didn’t use much Goblin Green on them. Instead, they’re mostly done in Knarloc Green foundation paint, with just a few areas (heads, middle armor panel, thigh armor panels) done in Goblin Green for contrast. I did this to distinguish the Heavy Support suits from the Elite suits. Just as my Hammerheads have more Knarloc Green showing than my Devilfishes, the Broadsides are generally in a darker shade of green than their Crisis Suit counterparts.

One downside to this is that Knarloc Green, while being great for basecoating, is not a good color for minor cleanup work due to the thickness of the paint. It’s easy to thin it too much, though, and make it runny and hard to control. As a compromise, I tried to find a standard paint for doing the little touch-ups, and settled on Vallejo Model Color Reflective Green. Preliminary tests on the palette looked good. However, when actually applied to the model over Knarloc Green, the Vallejo color was noticeably darker. Because of this, there are small areas here and there where the color doesn’t match. I tried mixing in some Goblin Green, and that helped somewhat, but it’s far from perfect.

To be honest, it’s not my best paintjob. The lenses don’t “pop” as much as I’d like, some of the highlighting work is messier than normal, and even the back, where I have blue shining through the heat sink vents on each suit, don’t look as clean as I’d hoped. I imagine I could spend more time cleaning them up – and I might – but not right now. They’re definitely done enough to play with. Modeling-wise, they’re a bit below my preferred standard as well. There are a few sprue marks still visible on some pieces, and the railguns are slightly bent/bowed on at least one of the suits. Even the priming was a bit rougher than I’d prefer, as there were still a number of silver areas showing when I was done. Those were all covered with the appropriate base color paints, though.

They’ll still look good from the tabletop, of course, and I may yet add some decals to them. I’m also happy with how the blue lining on the railguns turned out. It’s a minor effect, but one that keeps them consistent with the Railheads I’ve put together. They may not be perfect, but they’ll still look good alongside the rest of my army.

Last night I managed to get about three hours of painting in, which gave me the time to do the detail work and basing on my second team of Fireknife suits. There may be one or two spots of touch-up to do, but they’re pretty much done and ready for the tabletop. Next up on the list is my Broadside team, which has the basecoating done and is ready for cleanup and detail painting. After that, I have a pair of Devilfish that are primed and ready for basecoating. It’ll be time to break out the spray gun again!

Adding up everything I have painted, not counting upgrades that aren’t modeled on the minis (like Team Leader upgrades and vehicle upgrades for which there are no bits), I’m finally up to 1,689 points worth of painted Tau. When I finish my Broadsides, that’ll push me to just over 1,950, and the Devilfishes will take me over the 2000-point mark. It’s been a long, slow slog – I started painting my Tau in the early months of 2007 – but three years later, I can finally field an entirely painted Tau force. I’m hoping to pick up the pace so that the rest of my Tau, and my two Chaos Marine armies, won’t take another three years finish.

Here’s a cellphone photo of last night’s painting progress. I did some final touch-up on the basecoat to take care of some spots where my coverage was a bit thin, and then it was on to cleanup and inking. I also touched up the accent colors, as my paint was a little too thin last time. In the past, I’ve mixed up a darker shade of Goblin Green by adding a touch of black (usually about 6:1 green to black), but this time I decided to go with a pre-mixed color: Vallejo Model Color’s Reflective Green. The results are good, and it’s close enough to Knarloc Green that I think I can use it as a touch-up color on my Broadsides as well.

When it came to inking, though, I had a bit of a dilemma – both my micron pens were drying out. In the past, I’ve used micron pens for doing all my armor lining, and I’ve been pretty pleased with how my minis turn out. However, they’re sometimes hard to find, and the pen point is very delicate. Instead of fretting about finding replacements, I decided to try something new. One of the reasons I’d switched to micron pens was because I’d had poor luck with paint washes in the past, but that was before GW released their line of washes, so I decided to give washes another try.

With a pot of Badab Black, and a fine brush (I was using an Army Painter Hobby: Precise Detail brush, which is about a 10/0, I believe), I started washing the armor lines. The process and the results were nearly identical to using the micron pen, other than having to clean and reload my brush from time to time. Load brush, dab off excess, draw into line, wipe away overwash with thumb (or lightly with the corner of a paper towel, in tight spots), repeat. In fact, the coverage was a bit better than with the pen. With a micron pen, you only get ink precisely where the tip is, so if you want to get the walls of the groove you sometimes have to wiggle the pen a bit. The wash fills the groove and provides much smoother coverage.

There is a caveat to using the wash, though, and it has to do with your priming quality. If you’ve got a spot with rough priming, when you try to wipe off the overwash, it’ll instead sink into the pits of the primed surface. I discovered this on a couple of spots on my Crisis Suits where high humidity left me with a less-than-ideal priming job. When I wiped away the excess, I ended up shading the entire antenna that I’d been inking. Fortunately, a little Goblin Green on the same fine brush allowed me to touch up the affected areas. On smoothly primed portions of the mini, though, there was no muss, no fuss.

I still like my micron pens, and I’ll still use them for drawing on fine details, but I think wash is the way to go from now on for armor gaps. It’s cheaper, is just as easy to work with, and delivers results that are just as good, if not better.

Just a quick cellphone photo of my workspace right now. I’ve been working on getting paint on the Fireknives and Broadsides I recently assembled and primed. So far, so good. I’ve got the base color down on them all, and I’m starting to do the flats on some of the details, like rank markings and accent colors. The Fireknives are being painted in my standard Goblin Green, and I’m carrying over the markings from my other team of Fireknives to keep them consistent. Meanwhile, I’m going with a darker base on the Broadsides. I’m using Knarloc Green to give them a darker color, which will let me use Goblin Green as the accent color to bring them in line with the rest of my army.

A couple things I’m noting as I keep working:

1. I am not a fast painter. In three hours, I did the base coat on two Broadsides, and did the accent colors on the Fireknives. I’m not meticulous; there’s still several spots where I’m going to need to do cleanup. I’m just… a bit slow, I suppose.
2. I hate painting red. Even with Mechrite Red, a Citadel Foundation paint, I have to put down two to three layers to get anything remotely resembling a strong red. Note that I didn’t say “solid coat”. Even painting Mechrite Red on top of Knarloc Green (such as on the markings on my Broadside team leader), two coats still leaves me with patchy, streaky color. I wonder if this is why I haven’t gone back to my Berserkers recently.

Once I get these two teams finished up, I’m going to try to finish up the rest of the Tau I have primed, which includes:

• 12 Kroot
• 3 Stealth Suits (and 1 Marker Drone)
• 2 Devilfish (probably next on the list)
• 1 Sky Ray
• 1 Ion Cannon for a Hammerhead (not a separate mini, technically, but big enough to be one.)
• 8 Fire Warriors

If I can get this painted by year’s end, they’ll earn me (along with the Fireknives and Broadsides) another 68 painting points. Along with the 22 I already have, that’ll put me just 10 points away from my yearly goal. Hopefully, I’m not too slow to get it done!

EDIT: I just realized this is my 100th post on this blog. Hooray!

I will say that there’s some luck involved, though. There’s some absolutely lousy rolling on both sides, but particularly on the Chaos side. Had the dice been more favorable to Krox’s opponent, he would have been in a much better position to overrun Krox’s positions. It’s a very hard-fought battle, though, for both sides, and I’m definitely leaning towards agreeing with Krox in the Null Deployment v. Alpha Strike debate.

My list isn’t working. Most notably, it’s not working well against Blood Angels, especially the deep striking variety. Changes are obviously required, but the question is, what changes? And are the weaknesses limited to just a few unit choices, or is it an overall playstyle issue?

Let’s look at my current 1500-point list:

HQ: Commander Shas’el (130 pts)
1 Commander Shas’el (Cyclic Ion Blaster; Hard-wired Drone Controller; Hard-wired Multi-tracker; Plasma Rifle; Targeting Array)
2 Shield Drones (Shield Generator)

Elite: Fireknife Team (186 pts)
3 Crisis Battlesuits (Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Multi-Tracker)

Elite: Deathrain Team (94 pts)
2 Crisis Battlesuits (Flamer; Twin Linked Missile Pod)

Troops: Fire Warrior (155 pts)
6 Fire Warriors (Pulse Rifle x6)
1 Devilfish (Gun Drones; Disruption Pod; Multi-Tracker)

Troops: Fire Warrior (155 pts)
6 Fire Warriors (Pulse Rifle x6)
1 Devilfish (Gun Drones; Disruption Pod; Multi-Tracker)

Troops: Fire Warrior (155 pts)
6 Fire Warriors (Pulse Rifle x6)
1 Devilfish (Gun Drones; Disruption Pod; Multi-Tracker)

Fast Attack: Pathfinder (145 pts)
5 Pathfinders (Pulse Carbine x5)
1 Devilfish (Gun Drones; Marker Beacon; Disruption Pod)

Fast Attack: Piranha Light Skimmer (150 pts)
2 Piranha Light Skimmers (Fusion Blaster x2; Disruption Pod x2; Targeting Array x2)

Heavy Support: Railhead (165 pts)
1 Hammerhead Gunship (Railgun; Two Burst Cannons; Disruption Pod; Multi-Tracker)

Heavy Support: Railhead (165 pts)
1 Hammerhead Gunship (Railgun; Two Burst Cannons; Disruption Pod; Multi-Tracker)

Total: 1500 Points

On the surface, there are a lot of solid choices here, with units that can deal with many different kinds of threats. My HQ and the Fireknife suits are killer against marines. The Deathrain suits (and the Fireknife suits, to an extent) are good against light armor and transports. The Hammerheads can deal with both heavier armored threats  and clumps of infantry. The Piranhas can also handle heavy armor, and can do so before the heavy armor gets me within range. Finally, the Fire Warriors provide objective control and ancillary fire against weaker targets. Meanwhile, the Pathfinders aren’t there to do damage or handle threats; they exist solely to help other units do their jobs more effectively. Everyone has a job to do, and they can do it decently well.

However, play experience is starting to show that what’s there just isn’t enough. Or at least, not enough of any one thing. For example, there aren’t enough low-AP anti-infantry weapons in the list. What’s there can be devastating, but it’s also insufficient to do more than put a few wounds on a unit. Wiping the unit out isn’t likely in one round, and that’s what this army needs to be able to do – focus-fire on a unit and kill it outright, removing it as a threat. At the same time, there’s not enough heavy armor killers on the table. With two railguns and two fusion blasters, all of which are attached to vehicles that can (and often do) get one-shot-killed, one bad turn can ruin my day. At the same time, other units aren’t contributing enough. The Fire Warriors are required, but they’re not providing much that’s useful. I need them for the list, and I need them for objectives, but I’m not convinced that I need so many of them. The Pathfinders are questionable as well; yes, their markerlights are useful, it’s true, but I rarely get more than a turn or two out of them.

The Tau’s strength is in their Elite choices – namely, Crisis Suits – and in their Heavy Support choices – Hammerheads and Broadsides. I need to maximize my list’s usage of those slots, and to make room other units will have to end up on the chopping block. So, what’s likely to go?

• Fire Warrior Squad #3: Common wisdom is to run at least 3 troops choices in a 1500-point list. However, that assumes that your troops are likely to accomplish much on the table. If you’re planning on keeping them in reserves (and thus off the table for at least a turn), I think you can run only two with relative safety. Hopefully, your opponent will be too busy dealing with the rest of your army to focus on the Fire Warriors, who aren’t likely to contribute much more than being warm bodies on an objective.
• Pathfinders: This is more a personal choice than one dictated by objective unit value. I know there are people who swear by Pathfinders and get a lot of utility out of them. While I’ve had battles where they’ve definitely been helpful, I don’t know if I can say that any of them have been game-changing. In a larger game, I’d still hang onto them (and probably run an 8-man unit), but for me, I just don’t think there’s room for them in my 1500-point lists.
• Piranhas: Cutting these is a much more painful decision than the others so far. I like these. I’ve gotten some good use out of them. However, they’re just too fragile to enemy fire, and it’s a rare occasion where they survive the entire game. They’re very fast, and they have a decent gun, but when they slow down and get close to a target, it opens them up to too much enemy fire to be survivable. With a larger point list, this would be one of the first things to go back in.
• Railhead #2 (maybe): Railgun Hammerheads are great. However, with some of the changes I’m considering, having two of them may be redundant. This is something that’s on the block if I need to spare the points.

Now that I know what I’m cutting, what am I going to put in instead?

• Fireknife Team #2: Fireknife (Plasma Rifle/Missile Pod/Multi-tracker) suits have been the multi-tool in my arsenal. They tear marines apart, they’re good against light vehicles, and they’ve got maneuverability and survivability going for them. They have weapons that will wound just about anything and ignore armor and Feel No Pain, but still have enough range to be used at a safe distance. There’s not enough that I can say about them, and given the number of Marine armies in my playgroup, taking more is a good thing.
• Broadside Team: As I’ve said, one of the downsides of vehicles is that they can be taken out with one shot. Broadsides do not have this weakness; yes, they can be doubled-out, but even then you’ve only taken out one member of the team. A team of three Broadsides, with two shield drones for good measure, can take a great deal of punishment and dish it out in return. I can safely pull one Railhead without losing much in the way of anti-vehicle power.
• Ionhead: With these two additions, there aren’t quite enough points for two Railgun Hammerheads. However, replacing the Railgun with an Ion Cannon on one of the Hammerheads shaves off just enough points to fit in, and allows for a few other goodies, like a Smart Missile System and a Target Lock. I get more anti-marine firepower that’s still decent against lighter vehicles/side and rear armor, all in a nice maneuverable package.

Here’s the new list:

HQ: Commander Shas’el (130 pts)
1 Commander Shas’el (Cyclic Ion Blaster; Hard-wired Drone Controller; Hard-wired Multi-tracker; Plasma Rifle; Targeting Array)
2 Shield Drones (Shield Generator)

Elite: Fireknife Team (186 pts)
3 Crisis Battlesuits (Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Multi-Tracker)

Elite: Fireknife Team (186 pts)
3 Crisis Battlesuits (Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Multi-Tracker)

Elite: Deathrain Team (94 pts)
2 Crisis Battlesuits (Flamer; Twin Linked Missile Pod)

Troops: Fire Warrior (155 pts)
6 Fire Warriors (Pulse Rifle x6)
1 Devilfish (Gun Drones; Disruption Pod; Multi-Tracker)

Troops: Fire Warrior (155 pts)
6 Fire Warriors (Pulse Rifle x6)
1 Devilfish (Gun Drones; Disruption Pod; Multi-Tracker)

Heavy Support: Railhead (165 pts)
1 Hammerhead Gunship (Railgun; Two Burst Cannons; Disruption Pod; Multi-Tracker)

Heavy Support: Ionhead (145 pts)
1 Hammerhead Gunship (Ion Cannon; Smart Missile Systems; Disruption Pod; Multi-Tracker; Target Lock)

Heavy Support: Broadside Team (280 pts)
1 Broadside Battlesuit (Team Leader; Targeting Array; Hard-Wired Target Lock; Hard-Wired Drone Controller)
2 Broadside Battlesuits (Targeting Array x2)
2 Shield Drones (Shield Generator)

Total: 1496 Points

Like the previous list, I have tools to handle a bit of everything. However, the difference is that this time, I have enough redundancy and overlap in capability that losing one unit doesn’t remove my ability to do what that unit does. I can safely put some elements in reserve, for example, because there’s more available that can do what they do. Also, by focusing more on battlesuits than on vehicles, I lessen my list’s vulnerability to their general fragility. I’ve also managed to trim 6 kill points off of the list – I’ve gone from 19 to 13, which is a much more comfortable number to field.

I’ll be getting in some games this weekend, so I’ll field this list and keep you all updated on how it performs!

If you haven’t had a chance to listen, my first podcast appearance is available for download now.  About 38 minutes in, Tim (“ThatDamnPunk”, or just “Punk”) talks briefly about his basic strategy with his Blood Angels: pin his enemy into a corner. Late Saturday night, we tried just that scenario out, as I ran my Tau against him. Our mission/deployment? Annihilation/Spearhead. We only managed to get two and a half turns in before we had to call the game on time, but the first two turns were the key to the game, and what happened is making me re-evaluate how I deploy my army, especially in Spearhead.

First, let me just say that Spearhead is my least favorite of the three standard deployment types. The deployment area is the smallest, and my opponent is closer than in any other deployment style. With 5th Edition’s strong support of assault armies, this is that much more dangerous for me. Invariably, my army ends up being plastered along the very back corner to try to maximize my distance from my opponent’s army. Hopefully, this can buy me a turn or two of firing and maneuvering out of the corner, splitting my army to attempt to pincer the enemy between two firing lanes. I can relieve the clutter in deployment by putting some things in reserve, such as my Fire Warriors. However, while this does allow me to deploy them later outside of the box, it takes away their firepower, weakening my first-turn “alpha strike” capability. This hurt me in my tournament earlier this year, when I faced Dark Eldar. Had I left the Fire Warriors on the field in deployment, their fire would have likely brought down a number of Raiders, but by putting them in reserves, I just left them to come on piecemeal and get taken apart by the oncoming horde.

Against Tim’s Blood Angels, though, even this Alpha Strike plan didn’t work. He went first (with me failing to seize the initiative), and proceeded to, well, pin me in the corner. Between his Baal Predators rushing me with 30″ of movement (a 18″ flat out Scout move, plus 12″ of normal movement), and dropping two of his three drop pods right in my deployment area (each of which contained a Furioso Dreadnought and a Locator Beacon), he boxed me in and opened fire. Before I could even take a turn, I was down a Piranha and a Hammerhead, and my avenues for movement were highly restricted. I was able to get a bit of revenge on my turn, though. A combination of markerlight and railgun fire brought down one of the Predators, and I was able to remove the melta from one of the Furiosos. My Crisis Suits were able to start moving out a bit, but quarters were still a bit tight.

Turn two saw two of his Assault Squads deep-striking in, but because of the scattered units in and around the drop pod locations, denying him the use of his Locator Beacons. Still, he was able to drop one squad just behind my Crisis Suits, winning the gamble that he wouldn’t scatter. He proceeded to disarm my remaining Piranha, kill one of my Deathrains, and slaughter my Pathfinders in assault with a Furioso. Thankfully, the crater left from the Hammerhead I’d lost slowed down his other Furioso, keeping it out of assault with my Fireknives. In response, I had two squads of Fire Warriors come in around the middle of my board edge, and I opened fire on his forces with what I had left. A railgun round destroyed a Dreadnought, my remaining Deathrain disarmed his remaining Predator, and my Fireknives and Commander whittled away half of one of his Assault Squads.

However, even with the injuries I’d dealt him, it just wasn’t proving enough to stop him. His third turn (the last turn we played) saw his Librarian and Honor Guard dropping in near my Fire Warriors, my last Deathrain eliminated by an untouched Assault Squad, and my Fireknives caught in a pincer assault between his remaining Dreadnought and the remnants of his other Assault Squad. I was quickly running out of firepower, and once again, massed pulse rifle fire from my Fire Warriors had not made any scratches in a unit with Sanguinary Priests. At that point, we called the game, extrapolating out that while I might be able to bloody him some more, he definitely had the upper hand.

Clearly, this game was lost for me in the first turn. Even with what casualties I was able to inflict in return, I could not overcome the momentum of that initial tank/pod rush. The Alpha Strike strategy doesn’t work if you don’t get the first turn, and even if I had, what would I have had to shoot at? Two Baal Predators, and that’s all. My best bet would have been to leave the corner entirely and avoid getting boxed in. As more and more armies get solid fast/deep-striking options, I’m beginning to really question whether or not I should deploy at all. To paraphrase Monty Python, the first lesson of not being seen is not to stand up. If I don’t want to be targetted, I shouldn’t present one in the first place.

This brings me to the Null Deployment idea. Should I, instead, deploy as little as possible on the table? One strategy that got some traction in Tau circles shortly after 5th Edition was released was the Ninja Tau plan. This involved using a Shas’O Commander with a Positional Relay, usually with a Shield Generator and Shield Drones for maximum survivability. He would avoid fire as long as possible, bringing in one unit a turn to keep the rest of the army off the table until turn 4 or 5, when everything else would sweep in and catch the enemy off-guard in a “Delta Strike” of sorts. There’s something very attractive about this plan. It denies my opponent anything beyond the HQ (and possibly 2 troops in Dawn of War) to target, and neutralizes much of their battle plan. It also negates the “piecemeal army” effect of putting things into reserve, while allowing you to pull out units that can be useful on their own, such as Hammerheads and Broadsides and the like. On the other hand, it’s entirely dependent on the survival of that Shas’O; if he dies, the entire plan falls apart and you’re left with an army that comes out in small, uncontrolled clumps. With all the melta that’s popular in armies today, there are a lot of weapons out there that can easily double-out the Commander with one hit.

The Alpha Strike is too dependent on getting the first turn. The Null Deployment is too dependent on keeping one unit alive for four turns. Is there a middle ground? Perhaps it’s a matter of running a Positional Relay commander with a firebase of some sort, and then bringing in the heavy artillery as needed. It’s more of a Kauyon-style plan, but it might work. I don’t know if I would use Fire Warriors as the firebase, though, especially in any sort of objective-based mission. You need them to be able to grab/contest objectives late in the game. Perhaps it’s a Crisis Suit-based firebase, with Deathrains and Broadsides taking aim at the oncoming enemy while Piranhas, Hammerheads, and Fire Warriors in Devilfish sweep in late in the game. It’s going to take some doing, and more playing and testing, to figure out just the right strategy.

I love the idea of Tau in a Kill Team game; I went on at length when I wrote my opinions on what would make a good Tau kill team. When the latest Army Builder update for 40K came out, I was very happy to see that support for Kill Team lists had been added. However, trying to actually build a legal Kill Team list is a bit trickier. In fact, according to Army Builder, it’s impossible.

Why? Because even though Kill Team changes the Force Organization Chart that everyone uses to build their army, it doesn’t change any other rules for army building, and the codex always trumps other rules. The Tau codex (and thus Army Builder) says that Crisis Suit Commanders are a 1+ choice; you are required to take one in a Tau army list. However, you can’t take one in a Kill Team list, as HQ choices aren’t legal. Does the revised FOC trump the Codex requirements? My gut says yes, but a literal reading of the rules would say, “No.”

Let’s just say, for argument’s sake, that not having an HQ slot does negate the 1+ Commander requirement. That’s when you have to deal with the 1+ Fire Warrior squad requirement. They’re a troops choice, so it’s still inside the FOC. Does any Tau Kill Team have to have at least 6 Fire Warriors (the minimum squad size) in it? That’s 30% of your allotment for Kill Team right there and uses up half of your troop slots. Again, I can’t help but thing that the Kill Team rules should trump any 1+ requirements in an army – it’s in the spirit of the game to have a full Kroot team, or a Stealth team, or a Crisis team – but if you want to stick with a strict rules-as-written approach, the Fire Warriors are required.

So, is there any consensus? Is Army Builder wrong/being too strict? Does Kill Team and its modified FOC trump Codex army creation rules?