I'm thinking about
putting together an Epic Tau army and I'm trying to
work out how many miniatures to put on each troop stand. Am I correct
in
the following?
Yay! Another Tau player! I am the person to talk to! I
recently purchased a substantial Tau army and am constructing it as we
speak.
Fire Warriors: 5
miniatures per stand
Yes.
Pathfinders/Pathfinder Snipers: 5 miniatures per
stand
Pathfinders: yes. PF Snipers: I'd suggest 3 to a stand. Its
what I am doing.
Stealthsuits: 3
miniatures per stand
Yep. Its fairly representative of a 40K squad and means a single
Stealthsuit pack from FW makes a detachment.
Kroot: 5 miniatures
per stand
Yep.
Gun/Shield Drones:
5 miniatures per stand
Gun Drones: Yes. Shield Drones: there is no need to actually put a
Shield Drone stand together as they have no actual game stats for a
stand, but if you want to, they would be 3 to 5 per stand.
Broadside/Crisis
Battlesuits: 1 miniature per stand (since they're
walkers)
Yes, especially if you are using the square bases.
If anyone has any
suggestions about building a Tau army, I'd be grateful
to hear them.
Absolutely! My suggestions:
Cost-wise: the Tau are expensive! The tanks and flyers from
Forgeworld are pretty decent value but its the battlesuits and infantry
that are the killer! The Kroot Carnivores and Tau Fire Warriors are
insanely expensive. For the Fire Warriors is suggest using Dark
Realm Miniatures' Kraytonian "Karrok II and Guard" infantry
packs
(
http://www.darkrealmminiatures.com ). The Kraytonian Guard
figures look a helluva lot like Fire Warriors. All you do is snip
off the sword tip and carve the eyes off each side of the face and you
have a Fire Warrior. At £4 per pack of 39 Guard figures, you get a
lot of bang for your buck (I am using the single Karrok II figure you get
in each pack as an Ethereal). They are what I am using. For
Pathfinders I am using the DRM Kraytonian Scouts. For Kroot I am
currently using the billion Ork figures I have lying around but will
eventually get around to using the GZG Dirtside Kra'Vak 6mm infantry
figures
(
http://www.gzg.com
). These proxies will save you a lot of cash!
Everything else I use is from the Forgeworld range except the Swordfish
(I am trying to track down a good Swordfish proxy at the moment).
For decent proxy tanks I recommend the Brigade Models 6mm Pacific
Federation (PacFed) range
(
http://www.brigademodels.co.uk). They are hovertanks/APCs that
could pass as Tau at a pinch but really, the Forgeworld lines are
best. You can get decent proxy battlesuits from the GZG Dirtside
range by using their Hound Dog Support Walker figures. It is
possible to make Gun/Shield Drones from thin plastic strip and
dress-maker's pins but it is time-consuming and requires a lot of
patience. In the end I gave up and just bought the FW
ones.
A word of caution with the Forgeworld products: be careful of their
quality control!! Many of the Epic Tau moulds are getting very old and so
the quality of the figures can be pretty bad. The Stealthsuits and
Tank chassis I was sent were absolutely shocking. Yes, they did try
to fix my problems but they are slow about it. If you have problems
with them,
call them regardless of where you live. Do not
use email as they may never answer you. For more details on my
Forgeworld ordeal see here:
http://defiantgaming.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=1115 .
Gaming-wise: Get a hold of the most recent incarnation of the Tau rules
(V5.3) from the NetEpic Files Folder (in the NetEpic V5.0 folder) and
read them carefully. There a lot of significant changes from the
V5.0 list. I have yet to win a battle with them but I feel that is
because I haven't found the right groove for them. Battlesuits are
your friend! Crisis Suits with their Fire-on-the-Fly and Quickdraw
abilities make them incredibly dangerous. They are well worth their
cost, especially the Cadre. Mantas are the bizness! They
trash anything that comes their way and look awesome too boot (they just
cost a bomb cash-wise). Kroot are almost essential. Without
decent or expendable CC troops the Tau can struggle, so the Kroot are
very important, especially late in the game. Go for as many
objectives as possible as fast as possible! You need to try and get
them before your opponent does because taking them back can be a chore
without CC troopers.
Finally: if you do get a Tau army up and running, please send in lots of
feedback on them. Despite recent work, they are still the least
play-tested army in the NetEpic ranks and need all the play-testing we
can give them.
Good luck with it all!
-Kelvin....
Received on Tue Aug 07 2007 - 23:40:11 UTC