Objectives secured and a bit of nostalgia.

You can buy these here.

 They will likely be my last eBay purchase before I move. Sizing up at about 40mm in diameter, 1/16th to 1/8th thick, laser cut brushed steel, yes they're a bit pricey but oh so nice! I went with the generic Aquila design, because the Tau markers were only 30mm in diameter and 40mm is the 'official' objective size.

Here's my Baxter 'helping'...

In other news, packing has commenced and as such my house looks like a warzone. Indeed even my Space Marines are packed up as are the majority of my Orks, Eldar, Bolt Action, Star Wars Legion, and some other bits and bobs. Yet is still looks like I've hardly put a dent in my gaming collection. 

...sigh...

The falcon was a terrain piece, whereas that Piranha was the old Forgeworld model. 

I also unearthed some old photos whilst sifting thru the menagerie. The above was my last fully painted Tau army circa 2007. This was taken at Gamesday Atlanta's 40k fiasco Grand Tourney (the guy that ran it every year was woefully unqualified). As usual, I placed somewhere in the middle of the pack, though the GW painting judge really liked my army despite not having a display base unlike my opponent for that round. Speaking of...

Rob Baer's 's Iron Warriors and display board. 

Said opponent was none other than the alarmingly young (16ish I think?) Robert Baer of Spikey Bits fame! At the time he was still making waves at GW with his Bitz selling service. We first saw him in line passing out catalogs at the tourney registry where he excitedly let us know that if we called to order then we'd be able to talk to a girl (his sister...lol). The boy was clearly aware of the socially awkward gamer stereotype and working that angle for all it was worth!

Anyways, back to the Iron Warriors above, I mentioned to him that they likely knew who he was and disregarded his Iron Warriors out of spite. He pretty much agreed. 

I recall our game being an all night fight scenario and as I was lacking in blacksun filters, the night fight rule negated the Tau's range advantage entirely! Much to his relief as he was already deeply concerned with my force prior to that announcement. It was a close and fun game that he ultimately won. The most memorable part however was the following exchange we had mid-game:

Rob: Every fucking tank has a smart missile system!

Me: You sold 'em to me.

Rob: Oh and I guess I'm supposed to thank you for that right?

One of his friends lit up and exclaimed Ooh! Are those our smart missile systems? However with a withering glare from Rob he meekly went back to quietly watching. 

In all honesty, that was my favorite part of the entire day!

*****

Coming back to the present, Neverness and I have rescheduled our snow-delayed 40k game for this coming Saturday. So hopefully there will be a bat rep forthcoming of my Tau versus...something no doubt fiendish and dastardly. 

On station once again.

 o/

Sans helmet, he can now stare death directly in the eyes!

This lone Fire Warrior was a 1-off paint job I did some ways back when a bit too much OD Green globbed out of the dropper bottle whilst painting something Bolt Action and I didn't want it all to go to waste it. Anyways, I brought him into work to 'stand guard' in my cube and thus he came into immediate combat with...our cleaning lady. 

Didn't matter which nook or cranny I tucked him into, I'd always come in the next day to find him somewhere else on my cube's shelf. His first injury was when I came in one day to find his Pulse Rifle almost snapped in two indicating his first fall to the floor. That was an easy fix.

After a few more months are waging war vs. a feather duster wielding blue hair,  I arrived to find him decapitated!  Victorious she surely thought: Take your toys home nerd! Thusly defeated, he indeed was taken home, his helmeted head was never to be found. 

He's got a bit of a gnarled look about his face due to the dry brushing on his head and face. I'm rather pleased with that. 

He knocked about in the clusterfuck that is my hobby desk for a few months until, on a whim I scrounged thru my bitz for a new noggin, and painted him up earlier this week. He's now back on station and will likely take a cue from my chocolate chip camo marine by meekly cowering standing guard beneath one of my computer monitors, which is apparently safely out of range. 

Or at least it might be, right up until his old feather dusting nemesis sees that he's returned... 

Gue'vesa (aka: Humans for the Greater Good)

 o/

My Heresy Lab Kickstarter minis arrived this weekend, and I'm quite pleased with them. Hell, I wish I'd gotten more! This KS finished up in early December of last year, with an ETA of March/April of this one. Considering that (1) it's a Kickstarter and (2) Covid, it's a pleasant surprise that they were only delayed a few weeks. 

These came with 32mm bases, however my Tau infantry are all on 25mm bases. As such I had to scrounge up some 25mm bases, all of which had already been used previously. 

The casts are crisp, clean and of superior quality and came with only one complaint: one mini had an unfortunately located gate on the helm. It's removal took with it the raised helmet stripe his/her companions have.

The full squad.

These will serve as my Fem Fa'Tau garrison army's pathfinder squad (I say garrison as it's almost bereft of heavy weaponry). Armed almost entirely with small arms and accompanied by a lone Piranha, they're basically a force that was left behind to hold recently captured ground whilst the frontline continued to advance. 

This Xenos species is as-yet unknown to the Imperium. Whilst this rarely seen species (known to the Tau as the Aww-Zees) is of little threat to the Imperium (despite that this one appears to be carrying some sort of rail rifle), the fact that yet another species has thrown it's lot in with the Greater Good should be cause for alarm...

In total (now that these have arrived), the army clocks in at a little over 500pts. It's probably a pushover, though I'll still field it as-is at some point.

Hogs & Ends

 o/

Here of late, aside from painting Battletech minis (which is no longer in the purview of this blog) I haven't been doing much hobbying outside of just buying stuff. Several recent purchases were showcased in Neverness' recent battle report in the form of a few newly added Aeldari Eldar Corsairs with spar-glaives (a CCW that confers +1 attack), a Warlock conversion, and a beautifully painted (or perhaps wrapped?) Falcon. 

Pic taken straight from the eBay auction.

Still, the space elves needed a bit more anti-tank weaponry as was sorely evidenced in that game and as such the above minis are traveling in my direction via the webway as we speak...

Zzzzzz's 'Xi' standing proud atop the 'Brick of Scrutiny'. This is the mini that lead me on a somewhat on again, off again (but ultimately successful) search.

I've recently found, and summarily ordered the old, wasteland scavenger mini (pictured above) that I first spotted on Devos IV. No idea what I'll do with it, but I do love the mini. Having a bit of an AdMech-esque (or possibly a Heretek?) appearance, I've dubbed him Dev0504 in recognition of Zzzzzz bringing this mini to my attention.

Lastly, I scrounged up enough 25mm non-slotta bases to invert and glue in my Tarrelian Hog Soldiers (and their non-removable integrated bases). I then added the Tau Breacher shoulder pads as of all of the fire warrior shoulder guard types, those fit best regardless of which side they're on. The originally painted hog, and one other (wearing 2 shoulder guards designating it the Shas'ui equivalent) had their base gaps filled in with my mortal enemy: green stuff. 

The Greater Good is not above using some hired swine as cannon fodder.

Recently though, Neverness mentioned the use of filing in gaps with Elmer's glue. That's a method I used long ago and pretty much had forgotten about at some point. Thus I duly chose to do that here, though having watched one to many an episode of the Great British Bakeoff, it felt as though I was piping royal icing onto the bases rather than it did glue, lol.  

It was a toss up between this and a couple Forgeworld titans. I mean let's face it: the cost was roughly the same. I'm just hoping I made the right decision... 

Amongst my recent purchases is my new (to me) 2020 Subaru Forester. As such, in light of this last purchase, my little spending spree is now officially at an end. 

A productive week of painting.

 o/

Not bad for just one week!

Aside from working on my Inquisitor for Neverness' Enclave challenge, I've also been cranking out minis at an alarming rate (well, for me). No, no, I can assure you that the Ork Bomma is sadly not on this list, and as such hasn't been painted in anyway since my last post that mentioned it. 

The Fem Fa'Tau, v2.

First up, my 'retirement' of the Fem Fa'Tau naturally piqued my painting attentions. I don't want to revisit the prior paint scheme(s), other than to keep the color pink. No, the green test mini from my prior post won't be used for them either, My Beloved Wolfy loathed OD green, probably a holdover from being an 'army wife' in her prior marriage (that mini is instead 'guarding' my desk at work). 

Previously, her cloak was orange.

Instead I took my two Farsight Enclave Tau and added pink to their paint jobs. I'm thinking that'll work. It was quick and easy to paint originally, so they ought to paint up fairly easily. I did opt for the lots of grassy/flowery tufts for their bases though. The Cadre Fireblade not so much, but her base is sculpted. 

The armor plate worn by the one on the left was crafted from Smurf power armor. 

As an homage to the Fem Fa'Tau's original paint scheme, I've decided that the Kroot contingent shall be purple in color. We were both fond of the Kroot minis, despite the fact that they absolutely suck rules-wise. Hell, their piss poor rules offer the most likely chance of their survival in-game, as there are vastly more dangerous units to shoot at! Their bases follow the same method as their Fem Fa'Tau brethren.

They have a very WWI French look about them.

Lastly, I also painted three 'test models' for my forthcoming Astra Militarum Imperial Guard army. These are based the same as my baby squiggoth, so I guess they're Ork fighters...or at least have been shipped to an Ork infested warzone. 

Note the Squad emblems on the bottom of their coats, the wash
seems to puddle there, so may need to move those... 

These are Wargames Atlantic minis, which clock in at $35 for a box of 24 minis. I found 2 on sale, totaling $63 including shipping for 48 minis. To those I added these three that I already had for filling out a survey last year. Were I to have bought the same old, tired Cadians, 50 of them would have clocked in at approximately $150. Up your game GW! Not everybody wants just primaris space marines all of the time!

Anyways, they were painted fairly simply which is kinda required given that I normally can't paint more than FIVE of anything before I lose interest. Whilst individually they don't look all that impressive, hopefully a fully painted horde of them (pause for laughter at that notion) would...

Retiring the Fem Fa'Tau (for now...)

I have a whole sheet of these decals, none of which have been used.
I'll remedy that...someday.

Several folks have inquired about the fate of My Beloved Wolfy's Fem Fa'Tau army. Locally her army was infamous for a time though it has been inactive since the end of 7th ed. Whether that infamy was due to it's groan inducing yet glorious name, my trash-talking beauty who was in command of said army, or simply her penchant for vaporizing enemy characters with railguns (indeed, Tyberos the 'Red Mist' and Neverness' Big Mek with the Shokk attack gun both come to mind) is a matter of debate. Likely it was a combination of all three. 

The Fem Fa'Tau's small completed menagerie. 

I can assure everyone that they'll never appear on the auction block due to sentimental reasons alone. That said, there is one oft sold/given away/recycled squad that was originally mine, went off to fight on other fronts, and was 'donated' eventually back to her that may well get sent off once more. Hoss, a mutual friend of ours and aspiring Tau commander himself would I'm sure like to have a portion of her old army (such as it is) in his new one. That and quite frankly I'm sick of seeing it. She only used them as they were fully painted, though neither to her taste, nor her army's color scheme. 

Two Fire Warriors and two breachers alongside the 'pin-up',
who was often a sniper specialist in games of Kill Team.

Speaking of paint, sadly I painted only a handful of her Fem Fa'Tau minis, and there isn't much consistency among those few that are painted. Ironically, I think her favorite amongst her painted Fem Fa'Tau was the 'pin up' Wargame Exclusive fire warrior that Neverness gifted to her at Christmas? her birthday? something like that some years back.  

She didn't dislike Smurfs anymore than any other loyalist chapter. Chaos marines however, were the only marines that she actually liked!

Her vehicle pool is almost all partially painted, perhaps if I had concentrated on just one tank rather than three... The half paints consist of a hammerhead (a 2nd is simply primed black), a devilfish and what's the small skimmer...a remora I think? (edit: Piranha). I doubt they'll ever be painted in her army's last color scheme (which is kinda guesswork for vehicles as none were complete). Though I might leave the pink engine cowls as is...who the hell knows at this point.

So unassuming, yet so deadly...

Lastly, her Tau Commander was originally my only painted Crises suit, and later her only one as well. It is painted in a color scheme that predated my meeting Wolfy altogether. Still, she insisted that it's colors never change after it was dubbed The Belial Slayer by another gamer after one particularly glorious, multi-turn, hand-to-hand slugfest vs. the aforementioned, and eventually deceased Dark Angel. Indeed, her Stealth suits always seemed to fare rather well vs. the Dark Angels in hand to hand as well. If not by winning, then at least by refusing to die! Which reminds me, I believe there are a few painted Fem Fa'Tau stealth suits now that I think about it. No idea where they might be at the moment though. 

*****

Looks like he's kneeling in my yard which is of a
similar height were I to kneel in it right now...

I do like the look of it though.

Also on the Tau front, I did a speed-paint (for me) test model the other day. I wanted to see what it would look like to have the base be entirely covered in those little adhesive tufts of grass. I like it though wouldn't likely again cover the entire base due to the cost of said tufts. but maybe half or so, more than the usual one random tuft we so often see. 

Also fear not for Oblivi'Anna. She's up to 4 colors now, just the basics but it is a start. 

Relictors Kill Team Debut

o/

The Tau were remarkably resilient in HTH...must've been the additional,
ablative layer of paint. My Relictors really need some of that!

I managed to get a game in at the FLGS Saturday, and was having so much fun that photos were more or less an afterthought. As such few photos were taken and of those, most were lousy. We had a 4-player free-for-all, between myself with the Relictors and a few cultists liberated penal guardsmen, Bob and his (sadly muppet free) Tau Fire Warriors, Noah and his Salamanders Pollywogs, and Phil with his frickin Ulthwe (I think) Eldar that hid in the corner, behind heavy cover all game. 

The good guys shooting the bad guys...as to which is which is a matter of opinion.

Noah and Phil are younger players, and have the ridiculously simple tactics match (i.e.: nobody moves and everybody readies themselves). Thus the 1st turn, Bob and BS'ed whilst the teenagers blazed away at one another with their fully readied teams. Noah actually started moving after that...Phil, not so much.

They're game play is very reminiscent of Screech at that age, so much so that I was calling Phil: Screech (the actual Screech wasn't present but at home playing video games on STEAM, I meant fixing software...). Noah does at least maneuver to some extent now...well, sorta. 

Mercifully, the Tau's massed overwatch supporting fire was wildly inaccurate, allowing me to make multiple charges in as many turns!

My marines used stub cannons in lieu of bolters and they really weren't any better or worse. The S:5 is lost when shooting at filthy xenos and the inability to rapid fire was a little painful, however the shortened range was of no concern in such a target rich environment and wounding marines on 3's balances out the negatives qualities. 

In the end Phil won, Noah was down to his last, shaken Primaris marine when his ride showed up (and he promptly fled the field), Bob's Tau were broken and the game ended before I could test to see if mine were broken as well. I probably got that last bit out of sequence, but the game was over and I  certainly wasn't in the lead making it a moot point. 

Tau Muppet Auxiliaries-Built and ready for action!

However Shas'Wut aside, paint has yet to be acquired...

Yeah they're not much to look at right now, especially as photographing bare metal, or minis primed with light colors wash out terribly due to the glare from the flash.

As you can see, I finally got my Tau Muppet Auxiliary Kill Team assembled. I got them a little over a week or so ago, but I had to wait to get some non-slotta bases for them prior to assembly. The slotta bases they come with leave a lot to be desired, and the tiny little tabs under their spindly little feet were best just removed altogether in my opinion. 

For those who are wondering just what the hell these are, you can refer back to my earlier fluff post on how these fit into the 40k universe (well, according to me anyways). 

I specifically requested that they all
be wearing helmets.

It took awhile to get my order set up as I placed a special order for these. As they're just 'toys' with no sense of urgency attached, I took my time and waited for Anthony at Zombiesmith (who apologized profusely when he admitted he forgot about my order), to get it all together. No worries though, despite being a small company their customer service has always been first rate, and I knew from prior special orders that such oversights on their part usually results in freebees, discounts or in this case: both!

These muppets on the other hand have kinda ugly helmets (as is
seen on the base of the one in front), so I left them bare headed.

As such I got a trio of technicians and a robot as freebees! These will be perfect for use as scenario objectives for my Muppet Kill Team. They're serve as Earth Caste Muppets and their accompanying 'drone' who presumably have wandered into harm's way and are in need of an extraction.

As for the robot, whilst there are several available, this one in particular is nowhere to be found on the Zombiesmith website. When I inquired about it, Antony just replied with a cryptic: The robots are coming... Woot! An advance release mini! I did use a slotta base for it as it's feet were so tiny I was afraid they'd snap off when removing the tab. 

Now I just need to get these guys painted up, along with everything else in my current paint queue, i.e.: the container, my Relictors (sorry Siph), and whatever else strays into view of my oh-so-short attention span.

Tau Muppet Auxiliaries

The peaceful Jaloof Confederation was located deep within the unexplored (by the Imperium) regions of the Eastern Fringe. They maintained cordial relations with their distant neighbors of the Tau Empire along with limited trade. Unfortunately the Jaloof were easy prey for the then strengthening Hive Fleet Gorgon, with only the smallest fraction of their population surviving the onslaught and destruction of their worlds. Escaping in a few small, ragged flotillas to Tau space. 

'...cry havoc and let slip the muppets of war!'

Indeed, some of the Tau Water caste have theorized that it was their Jaloof neighbors who had inadvertently lead the Hive fleet directly to the Tau, but they've not been held to blame and all accusations of such have been suppressed. Such are the ways of the Greater Good. Following the destruction of Gorgon, the scant few thousand Jaloof survivors left were resettled within the protective realm of the Tau Empire.

That's a lot of gear for those little legs to hold up...

Shattered psychologically and on the verge of extinction, the majority of the remaining Jaloof have found both their niche within the Empire, as well as a degree of mental solace in the production and distribution of wholesome, educational video-programming, with which they entertain the youth of the various Tau castes. A few somewhat unhinged individuals however, embittered by their losses have taken a different path and fight to defend the last dregs of their species, alongside the Tau's Fire caste warriors.

Looking down upon the remains of the infamous Hoominz ,
against whom their Tau allies have fought both with and against.

Possessed of a shockingly light build (enough to make an Eldar look rotund!), the Jaloof are a species ill suited for war. However their long legs aid them well in advancing (and retreating) quickly. As such, they're currently training with both Fire Warriors and Pathfinders, though they have yet to prove themselves in battle...

I'm calling this mini a Demiurg...

o/

Monday afternoon a thin little box with British postage arrived in the mail for me. The only package I'm expecting from across the pond is one coming from Warlord Games, containing 5 Ghar battlesuit sprues. This box however looked to be able to hold just one at best. Never looking at the return label, I cut thru the tape thinking: 'Great, they ran out before getting to my order, and I just spent $12.50 in shipping on a $1.50 sprue'.

The Regimental Standard does NOT approve of this message!

Thus, you can imagine my pleasant surprise when upon opening the box, I instead found the contents to a Kickstarter that I had completely forgotten about! My minis from Gydran Miniature's Pelegian Sapper Kickstarter had arrived! The KS was for a space rat which struck me initially as appealing. However on seeing the final model I didn't like it and messaged the creator to see if I could order something else instead? 

No problem! Order whatever you'd like from our store-was their reply. So after a brief perusal, I made my selections, paid the postage and promptly forgot all about it. 

That was 3 months ago...

Looks like something from
The Jetsons!

Gydran is a small outfit in Worchestershire, England who specialize primarily sci-fi dwarves (so anybody wanting some 30k Squat breachers, this is the place to go!). Anyways, I had selected the Pugwanian Mercenary B (the 'A' version has an open helmet with the pug's head visible inside), and a funky, retro-bot objective marker (indeed they do make some pretty cool robot minis).

'Wrex' marks the spot!
(yes, I named the objective marker)

The objective marker's casting is nearly flawless, and whilst the Pug-merc did have a few obvious mold lines, when set against the gold standard-it was still a better casting than many of the Forgeworld minis that I have gotten over the years. 

sans-tail

I opted not to use the curly Pug tail sticking out of the back of the space suit (how would that work anyways?), carved down the socket that said tail was to go into (yes, I literally cut off his butt hole...get over it), adding some Space Marine ammo packs and krak grenades instead. I made an antenna by using a barrel from a spare Tau burst cannon, lopped off the teeny tiny gun barrel, replacing it with a trimmed down plasma pistol tip, then added a spare jet/rocket pack made by Bombshell miniatures. Finally I glued it to the MDF base, and added a pair of human skulls just for shits and giggles. 

 All in all I'm quite pleased with it!

Now...what the hell do I do with it? Well, for 40k, the only thing I can come up with is to call it a Demiurg. I only have the one however, so I guess I could just blow a command point to field this as an understrength auxiliary support detachment. For rules, it could be a 'counts as' Vespid (like anyone has those minis anyways). The Vespid in general can barely stand up to a stiff breeze, so I doubt that just one would bother anybody much! Actually, that both sounds like a total waste of points...and something I'd totally do!

You're short! Fat! And a waste of points!

That said, Rogue Stars is really the only viable option. Whilst this mini won't fit in with either of my existing crews, I do have a pair of Tau Muppet Auxiliaries (yes really) coming soon. I suppose I could just make another, never-played RS crew for this to belong to.

Regardless I like the little guy, and that's all that matters!

*****

On a different note: Check out this AWESOME card my Beloved Wolfy got me for my birthday! Its mounted on the wall, just above my computer's monitor.

Farsight Enclave Cadre Fireblade

o/

We've had this mini for what seems like ages, but for whatever reason I all of a sudden wanted to paint it. This will be the commander of my small Farsight Enclave force, though odds are he'll likely serve as just a glorified Shas'Ui in Kill Team games. Unless of course I revert to the 6th ed codex in which case he'll get all of his Fireblade stats as the Fireblade was originally a squad leader upgrade.

This was a simple conversion, with the addition of a helmet and a hand swap showing him tossing a grenade rather than waving a sheathed blade around in the impotent fury as he was on the original sculpt.

In looking for a color for the cloak, it ended up with a rainbow of individual splashes of color on it until I decided on orange. Not quite sure why, perhaps because I use the color so rarely? Dunno, but I figured a Fireblade would want something a little less ostentatious given that he's only armored in Tau equivalent of carapace armor. In the red desert terrain of his force's bases, this doesn't stand out nearly as much as would on say, a green flocked one. 

This still needs to be clear-coated
but its too cold outside to do so.

Speaking of his base, the Tau debris is painted in the colors of My Beloved Wolfy's Fem Fa'Tau army. The Fem Fa'Tau are commanded by none other than Commander Shadowsun who (it is rumored) has been charged with the task of taking out the renegade Commander Farsight. I have no intentions of getting the Farsight model given that this will be such a small force, but it easily justifies her Fem Fa'Tau and my Farsight Enclave forces fighting one another in games of Kill Team.

Tau update

o/

Notta whole lot of hobby time this week, so I'm working thru the backlog.

All they need now are some space marines to kill!

A little ways back I managed to assemble the remaining three Breachers and their attendant Guardian drone. I've never seen this squad type used and am curious to see how they fair in our games of Kill Team. The Guardian Drone confers a 5++ save to the squad which ought to (hopefully) compensate for the fact that their guns are most effective at point blank range.

The Gue'vesa Squad leader is the one on the left with the little critter who will mete out her 2 close combat attacks. 

This week I did manage at least to finish painting the first of my Farsight Enclave Fire Warriors. This is a repaint of one of my older minis which was painted in a time-consuming camouflage scheme of discontinued colors. This color scheme is much quicker to paint!

As small as the auxiliaries' guns are, I think I'll just use the same stats as the auxiliary carbines that they wield in 30k rather than the standard lasguns. I doubt any of my opponents will mind. 

He's painted to match my Grymn who will serve as Tau Auxiliaries (a.k.a.: cannon fodder) for my Kill Team. Its a simple color scheme that's easy to paint, and considering that the Fem Fa'Tau are led by Commander Shadowsun (who is tasked with bringing Farsight in), its easily justifiable to have our forces shooting at one another in a Kill Team game.

The Fem Fa'Tau would like to suggest moderation on this day of American Gluttony...

Yeah...screw that, now pass the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy-mmMMmm...gravy! Oh and there's pie! Don't forget the pie!!!

Anyways...

A little ways back, I said that I had a plan to revitalize my Beloved Wolfy’s Fem Fa’Tau. It was simple really: Every other painted mini would be a tau mini. And then…Dreadtober hit, and the Tau haven’t been heard from since! Worse yet, I only painted one mini during that time (and then got sick shortly thereafter).

Turns out, I was for once true to my word (well, hobby-wise), and I actually did paint some Tau minis, two in fact. Primarily whilst waiting for the inordinate amount of ink I slathered onto that dread to dry. 

Ya know, they say the camera adds 20 mistakes,
but then you take pics from four different angles...

These two breachers are deceptively difficult to paint, because I’m not inking and dry brushing the hell out of ‘em like I normally do. All the filth and grime that usually coats my minis hides a hellova lot of mistakes, meaning with these I instead have to actually fix said mistakes when painting her Tau rather than just hide them. That said, I do rather like em, as does my Wolfy.

I still need to assemble another three plus their savior drone (or whatever its called) for the squad minimum. Once that’s done, then hopefully we can see how they perform in combat via Kill Team.  

Introducing one's self via treachery...

Its not recommended, just saying.

Okay time to rant. It's been awhile right? Yeah, I've missed it too. Let's begin:

A new guy arrived at the FLGS this past Saturday looking for a game of 8th. Bob and I were the only 40k players present, and we were looking to forward to a game of Kill Team as (1) neither of us had been able to get in a game of any sort for the past month or so (2) neither of us like 8th ed. Happy to join in, the new guy (to us mind you, he'd been playing since 6th ed) was happy enough to join in. Cool!

Bob's Dark Angels spewing death as my 'Eagle-Eye' upgraded Dire Avenger lines up a shot.

He had his new Tau army he was showing off, he'd gotten it used for a rock bottom price of $150 which was a steal that he couldn't shut up about. Stereotypical gamer I figured, over compensating for the lack of social skills by going on and on about his new army. Though lets be honest we've all done that at some point right?

My Dire Avengers charging forth into the Tau onslaught, few would survive...

After explaining the how to's of KT: 200 point limit and unit restrictions, the guy hemmed and hawed but finally made a Tau list using my borrowed codex (he brought the 8th ed one with him). It seemed like he had an awful lot of stuff in his force: 5 fire warriors with marker light toting sushi (no not an auto correct), 4 pathfinders with 2 rail rifles, and 3 crises suits decked out just about to the max including one with a 25 point shield generator, who can afford that in a 200 point game?

Asking to check his math seems like a dick move so on we went to a 3-player kill point free for all. Game play was fun though the overwhelming Tau firepower was kinda rough, with Bob and I focusing on that threat whilst only trading sporadic fire with one another. It wasn't planned rather a case of dealing with the biggest threat. Ultimately Bob was tabled and by game's end, I had 2 Eldar left. The Tau won handily.

Fist bump, good game, etc. all was good.

Then whilst packing up i was treated to a self-congratulatory monologue on how he used superior strategy to lure us in and pick us apart. Tau turtled up in a corner and pounded anything that came close, yes very original, I've never seen that before.

Afterwards, annoyed Bob and I started comparing notes...and there was an awful lot of Tau for 200 points. Sunday Bob texted me saying he redid the new guy's list in battlescribe and that Tau list was about 350 points! What the actual fuck??? My beloved Wolfy and I were out and about so I wasn't able to tally up the list till later.

The pathfinders, fire warriors and crises suits WITHOUT any weapons or wargear clock in at 210 points! By my reckoning his list clocked in at 330 points, either way, that's more than 50% over by a veteran player who knew how to build a kill team. So yeah, he won thru superior strategy: cheating. Not shady dice shit, that happens periodically, but luckily we haven't seen that locally in quite awhile, but seriously? Wow, he actually cheated...that hasn't happened in what-years?

There's no way he didn't know he was fielding almost as much as the two of us combined. So word to the wise, if something smells fishy (and we're not just talking Tau in general) with a new guy's army, don't go purely the 'nice guy' route and ask questions before rather than later.

Also: A note to the locals, we will provide name description, etc, of this guy to give you with adequate warning so you'll know to be on your toes.