Kawauso
09-04-2012, 05:57 PM
Sooo allies are neat.
And I like making lists for fun - particularly since I rarely get a chance to play these days. And I'm perpetually planning 'the next thing' for my many armies.
Now I've always wanted my Tau to be a sort of melting pot army with as many divergent races present as possible. Because that's something I really like about the Tau and their whole 'first among equals' thing they've got going on. Kroot and Vespid are easy enough to do, since they're in the actual book itself (and hopefully due for a nice overhaul). Unfortunately the old WD rules for Tau Gue'vesa kind of suck, even by those standards. But hey, allies are a thing, now!
While I'm not ready to dive into making a force up without waiting for the eventual release of a book for Tau, I'm all for dreaming up possibilities. So I've been thinking about a good way to represent humans who have willingly or otherwise thrown in their lot with the Greater Good.
Now when I'm devising an allied detachment for an army my concerns are always as follows:
The allies must make fluffy sense - preferably as part of a coherent force and not a temporary 'convenience' thing.
The allies must add something worthwhile to the parent army that it is otherwise lacking.
The allies should not be min-maxed simply for the sake of finding the most powerful combination. Powerful is good, but I want my opponent and I to have fun, too.
The allies should be a relatively inexpensive detachment - probably under 650 points for a 2000-point game, to give the parent army room to breathe.
So I was going over the strengths and weaknesses of the Tau army (and extrapolating what a new codex might bring) and determined that Imperial Guard don't have all that much to offer, since many of their strengths are the same. Chiefly that of good vehicles, loads of firepower and plenty of ranged anti-tank potential. Sure Guard are better in combat, but both armies are pretty sucky at it. The only thing IG really have on Tau is that their army is effectively-costed which is more to do with how much newer they are than anything else.
So I decided to take that effective costing and run with it, to give Tau something they truly don't have: inexpensive, scoring cannon-fodder. Oh, sure they have Kroot, but can Kroot do this?
'Imperial Guard' Tau Gue'vesa Auxiliaries:
HQ:
Company Command Squad
Medi-pack, vox caster, 1x flamer, 1x heavy flamer
Company commander w/ power fist
Total: 125 pts
TROOP:
Infantry Platoon
- Platoon Command Squad
- Medi-pack, vox caster, 2x flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
Total: 375 pts
Grand Total: 500 pts even
That's 500 points for 75 scoring bodies that can screen the rest of the Tau army, and maybe even take an objective at the end of the day.
So...thoughts? Comments, critiques, criticisms? :)
And I like making lists for fun - particularly since I rarely get a chance to play these days. And I'm perpetually planning 'the next thing' for my many armies.
Now I've always wanted my Tau to be a sort of melting pot army with as many divergent races present as possible. Because that's something I really like about the Tau and their whole 'first among equals' thing they've got going on. Kroot and Vespid are easy enough to do, since they're in the actual book itself (and hopefully due for a nice overhaul). Unfortunately the old WD rules for Tau Gue'vesa kind of suck, even by those standards. But hey, allies are a thing, now!
While I'm not ready to dive into making a force up without waiting for the eventual release of a book for Tau, I'm all for dreaming up possibilities. So I've been thinking about a good way to represent humans who have willingly or otherwise thrown in their lot with the Greater Good.
Now when I'm devising an allied detachment for an army my concerns are always as follows:
The allies must make fluffy sense - preferably as part of a coherent force and not a temporary 'convenience' thing.
The allies must add something worthwhile to the parent army that it is otherwise lacking.
The allies should not be min-maxed simply for the sake of finding the most powerful combination. Powerful is good, but I want my opponent and I to have fun, too.
The allies should be a relatively inexpensive detachment - probably under 650 points for a 2000-point game, to give the parent army room to breathe.
So I was going over the strengths and weaknesses of the Tau army (and extrapolating what a new codex might bring) and determined that Imperial Guard don't have all that much to offer, since many of their strengths are the same. Chiefly that of good vehicles, loads of firepower and plenty of ranged anti-tank potential. Sure Guard are better in combat, but both armies are pretty sucky at it. The only thing IG really have on Tau is that their army is effectively-costed which is more to do with how much newer they are than anything else.
So I decided to take that effective costing and run with it, to give Tau something they truly don't have: inexpensive, scoring cannon-fodder. Oh, sure they have Kroot, but can Kroot do this?
'Imperial Guard' Tau Gue'vesa Auxiliaries:
HQ:
Company Command Squad
Medi-pack, vox caster, 1x flamer, 1x heavy flamer
Company commander w/ power fist
Total: 125 pts
TROOP:
Infantry Platoon
- Platoon Command Squad
- Medi-pack, vox caster, 2x flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
- Infantry Squad
- Vox caster, flamer
Total: 375 pts
Grand Total: 500 pts even
That's 500 points for 75 scoring bodies that can screen the rest of the Tau army, and maybe even take an objective at the end of the day.
So...thoughts? Comments, critiques, criticisms? :)