FORWARD YOU FILTHY SWINE!

Harsh. Accurate, but still a bit harsh. 

This week I painted up my Dal'yth Tau's Cadre Fireblade & a squad of 8 'counts as' Strike Team Hogzilaries (yes, you pronounce that phonetically). The latter were cheap, 3D printed minis I got some ways back just because I found them amusing. With the simple addition of Tau pauldrons they blend in nicely looking like some sort of lesser known species that has been subsumed by the Tau empire. 

Their guns are of a blocky Tau-esque style, though they are a bit chunkier despite their puny dimensions compared to say pulse rifles and/or carbines. There were two doodads protruding far from the fronts of them which I trimmed down with varying levels of success (3D printed minis don't like to be converted it seems...).

With a barrel opening that large, it's almost like a blunderbuss!

I plan to use 'em as Standard 'FireWarriors' albeit it with vastly inferior weaponry, IG shotguns most likely. Points costs remain the same as is standard, chalked up once again to the price of proxies. Also of note are their inverted 25mm bases. These came with integral 20mm bases any any attempt to remove them resulted in broken legs. Gluing them on top of 25mm bases didn't look satisfactory to me, so instead I inverted the GW bases which works well enough if a bit odd in appearance. 

The one in front with pauldrons on both sides is the squad leader, which is called a Soo'ui! 

It isn't recorded (as far as the Imperium knows anyways) as to just when the Tau Empire took the small world of Scrofa into their possession. The indigenous Scrofan inhabitants (who collectively refer to themselves as just 'Hogs') were all too happy to provide troops to assist in the expansion of the Empire in exchange for improved technologies and security for their homeworld which had long been subjected to alien raids. 

Whilst the Tau's influence on the Hog's manufactured kit and weaponry are easy to see, they nonetheless stubbornly cling to their woefully inferior native weapons. This severely limits their battlefield utility, much to the Fire caste's collective annoyance. This 'issue' has mostly relegated them to 2nd line garrison and policing duties.

Indeed, some within the ranks of the Water caste have privately speculated that the insistence on fielding their weak armaments has little to do with pride. Rather by rendering themselves largely combat ineffective, they are instead successfully manipulating the Tau into limiting Scrofan casualties on far off deployments about which they care very little.

With only 4 fingers on their hands, how does a Tau flip off the Imperium? Asking for a friend...

As for the Cadre, he's stock aside from a hand swap. I bought him via eBay, missing his sheathed honor blade hand (for a 30% retail discount). I had this missing bit as I didn't use it on the Fem Fa'Tau's Cadre Fireblade. However after dry fitting it, I decided I still didn't like it. So I went with this hand instead. 

Showing off his pulse rifle with integral marker light.

I was pleased with the camo cloak even though in hindsight, it's not going to be too effective given how this army is based. 

The Cadre will serve as my army's 2nd in command after my as yet unassembled Crisis suit commander. He'll likely hang back with the Pathfinders and other rear area objective campers. As for the army as a whole, I have the XV8 commander backed up by 43 infantry models of various types. As they all currently stand, my army is half painted with another eight minis in progress!