Topic: What the Tau Empire and the Denver Broncos Have in Common

Hey everyone,
Sorry for the delay in blog posts, I’ve gotten a couple of games in and not a ton of painting, plus my camera is low on batteries and I forgot the charger, so I’m trying to conserve it until next week. So expect some minor painting updates towards the end of the week.
Anyways, onto my games. So about that Tyranid List I put up…its pretty bad, unfortunately. My Zoanthropes got cooked off from Missile Launcher fire pretty fast, apparently a Rhino will kill a Trygon Prime in a Death or Glory!….and my Tervigon like to roll three 1’s to see how many Termagants pop out. It could be a fun list, but I need to learn my Biomorphs better, as well as how to better rush up the swarm. I’ll play it again at some point, but not for a while.
I also got talked into getting back into my Pre-Heresy World Eaters I’ve been wanting to do. I've been drooling over the Blood Angels Codex since it came out, so I broke out Army Builder to get a force going, and I have to say, I’m still not a huge fan of Marine books. They all seem the same to me, even if one gets a d6'” move every time I kill one, or another gets to assault me first turn because Shrike is a dirty cheater. I’m not going to post the list, but it had 2 Land Raiders, one full with Assault Marines and another full of TH/SS and LC Terminators, as well as Seth, some Sang. Priests, a Librarian, Death Company, and a Storm Raven. Something about Marines just doesn’t click with me. I don’t know if its just the lack of models on the table or something, but its going to take me a while to get used to them…come to think of it, I’m not even a huge fan of painting them….hmmm…

Alrighty, I’ve also gotten two or three games in with the Tau. I know that’s not a lot, but I can already make some declarations and decisions about the book and them as an army. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m a Denver Broncos fan. Thinking about it yesterday, I’ve realized that the Tau Empire is the Denver Broncos of 40k. Let me explain:

• Just like the Broncos, the Tau were once a top-tier threat. Now they’re 5-11, and just barely squeaking out wins.
• Sure we have the Crisis Suits (and more specifically, the Commander), but like Tim Tebow will learn, it takes more than one person/unit to win.
• Our defence is past its heyday. Champ Bailey might be just past his prime, just like Kroot and the lowly Fire Warrriors.

Just like the Broncos, the Tau have some good prospects. Their Suits still lay down a lot of fire, Strength 5 Weapons standard is really good, and Twin-Linked Strength 10 AP1 Weapons rock. But against most books today, they just don’t hold up. Drop Pods get vulnerable units into Close Combat or dead, in the case of my Hammerhead yesterday. Sternguard Combi-Flamers make Fire Warriors into Fish Sticks, and the Kroot need something too, like a special weapon or, hell, even Stealth, to compensate for no Armour Save and a resounding lack of Trees on most gaming tables.
So my final judgement with the Tau. The Suits are cool, the troops are interesting, and the idea behind the army is really cool; who doesn’t love communist fish people! But the army just really isn’t that good. I knew that when I started on the army, but all-in-all, it just doesn’t stack up to even other 4th Edition books.

My plans with the army are to get it finished. I’ve already started, and I’ll be damned if I quit now. I’ll keep playing with it and learning its subtle tricks. And when the new book drops, I’ll probably sell the army off as if it were a Commission. Yes, I said sell. If anyone is interested in the army, feel free to email me and I’ll get you some information.
Expect some more painting pictures, as I said, in a few days. I’ve been refurbishing our terrain a little, so expect lots of pictures of that!
Granesh