The Tao of Tau

Hey all, this past Saturday (Halloween) I got my first taste of Apoc with myself and two other Tao players going against 2 Imperial Guard and a Space Marines Army in a 18000 point game (3k points per player).  I had an absolute BLAST!  It was so hectic trying to move/shoot/assault with 3000 points in the 30 minute per turn time limit.  My wife accompanied me and shot over 300 pictures.  Rather than only posting one or two i thought i'd just upload all of them and let you take a look for yourselves :)





In the End the Tau ended up coming out on top and i think a good time was had by all. Thanks to Faye (one of my teammates) for the pizza. And to Deacon for loaning me enough extra points to make the 3000 point mark.

This is the battle report of my first game last night against Lee's Ultramarines.

The mission was 5 objectives with spearhead (table corners) deployment.



I won the roll to go first and passed it to Lee who set his army up behind cover.  I deployed a spread out squad of firewarriors with my Sash'O attached to them.  i deployed my Pathfinder's Devilfish next to the other group of 12 Fire Warriors so they could jump in and hitch a ride, and set up my massive line 'o hurt™ (my 5 unit broadside squad) I deployed my pathfinders behind a little cover during my scout move.



Lee's dread came into view and i hit it with my railguns, removing an arm and stunning it.  he moved one of his speeders behind the little colliseum on the right of the table...



during turn 3 i managed to explode his dread (though he left the model on the table because "it's sooo pretty") and moved my sash'o and fire warriors up closed to the objective... now in lee's turn he had jumped his landspeeder into the colleseum thing... and out of site is out of mind... RIGHT?



Turn 4 the landspeeder popped out right in front of my squad and the scouts inside disembarked and assaulted me... it took both his and my assault phases but i manged to kill all of his scouts... Hurray for me... his other landspeeder shot up my pathfinders killing 2 of them, and they managed to pass their leadership test and didn't flee.



Turn 5... WHERE are my sash'O and firewarriors you ask?  oh they rolled "box cars" on their leadership test and ran off the table... after i was patting myself on the back for actually winning a CC Lee drove up his Rhino and unloaded a mess of Sternguard... who proceeded to shoot me to bits (there may have been some assault involved too... what ever happened it was GRIM...



Turn 6 it all comes down to the objective on the hill on the far left of the field... we're both in range to win and both trying to destroy the other... we both manage to take out a few... and then.....


Turn 7... yeah... i can't roll to end a game on turn 5 to save my life (lol)  Turn 7 goes a lot like turn 6 we both end up with a few troops within 3 of the objective so we end in a draw...

all in all a great battle, i do realize now that i'll need to start taking notes to make writing these battle reports easier :) 

In closing here's my favorite pic i snapped....

I call it "Killing Blow"



Anyway thanks for reading...

-P

Last night was awesome!  Got 2 games in with my 1000 point list... First went pretty well, ended in a draw (look for a battle report coming soon-- my Nyquil induced coma didn't allow me to finish it all last night) The second game i made a couple of HUGE errors and lost big time (though didn't get tabled) but both were learning experiences... first off i realize that i need more troops, 2 units of 12 Fire Warriors just wont cut it, also railguns dont equal "instawin" and a 3 man Broadside squad is a bit of overkill in a 1000 point match... (but they sure look neat)... So currently i'm rethinking what i want to add next... perhaps some kroot are in my future... i guess time will tell...


More to come...

Hey all, I am very excited, after a busy weekend of cutting, sanding, assembling, and painting, this evening i will be test firing my broadside squad of doom!  No pics yet as the wife took the new camera with her to Chicago this weekend (which should take much much better pictures than our old one.  With the addition of a 5 piece broadside squad (1 XV-88-2 plasma 2 XV-88 and 2 shield drones) and another 12 man Firewarrior squad (which sadly is not fully painted yet) i now have a full 1000 point army.  I'll be bringing the camera with me tonight to fightclub and hopfully be getting some great pictures of the action.

While at my local gaming center (Pandemonium) for my Tuesday 40k Planet Strike league (i'm fielding Blood Angels currently) I had a quick look through the used bins and walked away with 9 unpainted Tau Pathfinders
and an XV8 Crisis Battlesuit (with plasma rifle and missile pod) all of only $30... a pretty good haul... I've got a bunch more assembly to finish on my fire warriors, but barring work and a trip to the Michigan Renaissance Faire this weekend I should have plenty of time to get them painted up.  Stay tuned for more Warhammer 40k Tau goodness.

This weekend i finished my first Tau Fire Warrior.  I did him as a test to see how my selected color scheme would work and to try a couple of new techniques.  Here is a basic run down:

1. Based model (using PVA glue, and a mixture of sand and kitty litter)
2. Attached model to the base.
3. Primed White
4. Base coated. (Liche Purple for the "cloth parts", Catchatan Green for the Armored sections, and black for the gun and base.
5. Attached right arm, backpack, and shoulder pad. (i painted these seperatly to insure better coverage.
6. Dry-Brushed gold on the sept on the shoulder pad and the round part of the gun.
7. Inked the model in black. This added a lot of depth.  (I made the ink myself by using 1 part cheap black paint and 5 parts water)
8. Painted the lenses. Red, a mixture of red and silver for the highlights and a dot of pure white.
9. Painted the edge of the base black.

Although it was a very time consuming and tedious process, I am extremely happy with the way it turned out.  Hopefully this week i will have enough time to complete the rest of the squad.

Hello and welcome to The Tao of Tau, a Warhammer 40k blog.  My name is Paul and even though I've only been playing Warhammer 40k for a short while I LOVE IT...  Currently I am playing a 2000pt Blood Angels army and have decided to build a Tau Empire army next.  My plan is to build them in a "slow and steady" manner. (eg. get a box... build it... base it... paint it... then get something new... this way i wont have 200 models in front of me )  My goal will be a full 2000pt Tau Army.  I'll be posting updates of the construction process along the way, and sharing things i learn through trial and error. So feel free to follow this blog and comment and ask questions about the Tau Empire of about Warhammer 40k in general.