The 25mm Warrior

Looking at my unfinished Tau squad from last nights post, I decided to burn the midnight oil and just get 'em done.



Just using the model for painting that the GW site has on painting these guys, it took a little bit. I started with this squad last Sunday and finished them up on Saturday morning.



I was having a bit of trouble at first dry brushing vomit brown over scorched brown. I learned that giving the model a nice coat of vomit brown and the inking the hell out of it with flesh wash really helped keep the paint from getting all over the place. In fact I think the whole technique turned out pretty good



The decals were a lot easier than I first anticipated. Since there just markings and not like a chapter symbol like Marines have, it's ok if you screw em up a bit. The effect still looks the same.



Anyway it feels good. My plan worked. Six minis in six days (with one day left over to chill, hows that for Biblical?). It's not the fastest way to crank out an army but with my schedule it fits perfectly. It doesn't burn me out either. Too many times you can start out on something go hard charging into it and loose steam. This way it spaced out my time enough to do the figs in stages in stead of just knocking in out in one fell blow

OK so now that I'm the proud owner of the actual 40k rulebook (out fifty bones for that alone... damn GW) I have been enlightened to the ins and outs of getting my army on the table in less time flat. I say "less time" and not "no time" becuse it still take a heck of a lot of time either way to get an army put together, primed and painted. The insight is helpful though. You know the whole painting squads at a time not just one mini at a time, keeping the paint pallet of colors down to a minimum, dry brushing and inks etc. With that said they also preached to start with a force of 500pts as a starting army.

So I sat down, cracked open my Tau Codex and used my wicked addition skills to come up with something. Now granted it might suck ass, I mean the last time I played a real game of 40k was years ago with a Necron army that ended up on ebay. I tried to stay to the overall feel of the Tau which is range and maneuverability and came up with this ... (DISCLAIMER... to view the picks fully just right click on them and scroll down to "view image" and click on it)

HQ

- Commander (Shas'el) x1: 50 pts
Cyclic Ion Blaster: 15 pts
Fusion Blaster: 12 pts
Multi-Tracker: 5 pts

TOTAL: 82 pts



Elites

- XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Team x3: 75 pts
Twin Linked Plasma Rifle: 30 pts
Twin Linked Burst Cannon: 12 pts
Plasma Rifle: 20 pts
Missile Pod x3: 36 pts
Multi-Tracker x3: 15 pts

TOTAL: 188 pts



Troops

- Fire Warrior Team x11: 110 pts
- Fire Warrior Team x10: 100 pts
Shas'ui Team Leader Upgrade x2: 20 pts

TOTAL: 230 pts





ARMY POINT TOTAL: 500 PTS



What I'm thinking is that you use the battlesuits to dance around the battlefield taking pot shots at the enemy while the fire teams get set up to open fire. With the battlesuits being outfitted with jet packs and all of them having multi-trackers (lets my fire off each weapon in a single round) I think I captured the essence of the Tau shooty army. Of course that is all conjecture and talking out of my ass since I'm sure when I play it will all go to shit. My two regular opponents will be Sisters of Battle and Imperial Guard. The IG scare me a bit as Tau really don't have a whole heck of a lot when it comes to heavy weapons and IG are tank heavy. Troops won't be a problem though I think. Sisters on the other hand with their +3 save and mandatory 10 troops per squad could be a real problem too. That's where range really will have to come into play. The real weakness with this first 500 is zero, and I mean zero chance for survival when it comes to close combat. Thank goodness for jump jets.