Back in 2018, I started a Tau army. It was glorious – but it was really short-lived, now I look back. I don’t know how much I spent on it, but it must have been a lot – I had a bunch of stuff for it, pretty much all built. I had two Riptides, after all! I had fliers, I had troops, I had loads and loads of stuff. But it outgrew me, and I definitely did not keep pace with the painting-to-building ratio, so was playing with a predominantly grey plastic force. I think I painted five units, tops. Looking back, though, I think it was perhaps the colour scheme that hampered me, as I never really sat down and thought it through, only thinking about the very broad strokes (green armour! blue markings!)
I think the Tau project was the first time I really had that sense of being overwhelmed with my hobby. I had thousands of points of 8th edition miniatures, and I found myself forever buying stuff to add to it. I did this with Dark Eldar, but it never felt overwhelming somehow. I’ve felt a bit overwhelmed with Genestealer Cults, but have done something about them. But I decided to sell the Tau army and cut my losses with just those five painted units.
The other factor that was at play last time, and one that I haven’t really thought about before, is that I just wasn’t into them last time. I bought the army because some of the previews on the Community page for their codex sounded exciting, and I was impatiently waiting for the books for Dark Eldar and Necrons (at least, I think I was still waiting for Necrons). The Tau book came out in the early spring, so I jumped with both feet, simply because they had a book and were an army with a vaguely similar playstyle to my other forces at the time: gunline.
So I bought an army, then sold it pretty much 6 months later, if not sooner, and hadn’t really given much thought to it until recently, when I started to read the Dark Coil stuff by Peter Fehevari. A few of those stories involve the Tau, and the way he really delves into the characters and provides much more nuanced looks at personalities, far more beyond the usual “space communist” meme that most people probably know.
It was reading The Greater Evil that really got me, though, and I’ve pretty much been hooked on the idea of the Tau since I finished that story. Not gonna lie, I think I might well re-read it soon, as I was so impressed with the way it unfolds, but that’s for another day. I have decided to start the army over, but I’m going to take it slow this time. I had the Kill Team Chalnath box for my birthday last month, which comes with Pathfinders with the new upgrade sprue, so have been busily working on them since New Year.
I’m painting these up as Sa’cea Sept, following the guide from the old How to Paint Tau Empire pdf from back in the day – the sort of icy blue-grey with orange sept markings. The whole sept markings/colour scheme for Tau is a fairly complicated business, I seem to recall, so I’m sure I’ll have a blog on that soon, with the fruits of my labours on researching that!
I also have asked the local games store if they can still get the Start Collecting box, as that has got a really nice core force (in my opinion!) It used to be one of the best value SC boxes around, as the Crisis Suits were priced so expensive the Fire Warriors and Ethereal were basically a fiver, or something. I’m sure there’ll be a Combat Patrol box coming out as well, but I thought I’d try and grab a Start Collecting if possible, as it would be a cheaper start for me! However, I’m determined that I won’t be going too crazy with this army. As I said in my Hobby Goals 2022 blog the other day, I’m planning to paint up just one unit per month, but taking this idea further, I’m only going to buy stuff as and when I need/want it. Start Collecting box aside, then, I’ve got the Pathfinders and that’s all for this army. If I can get the SC box, then it’ll keep me going until Easter or thereabouts, when I will then look at adding something else (possibly more Fire Warriors!) I think, if I can get to the middle of the month and have finished the current project, I might then start another – I sincerely hope that I could find myself in the sort of position where I can make some fast progress once the colour scheme is nailed down etc!
But for now, I’m keeping it slow and steady!
Of course, I do have something to aim for in mind – I definitely want a Commander, and a Riptide, and a good amount of Fire Warriors. I’m thinking I’ll get another Pathfinders box as well, and make more use of the upgrade sprue etc. Fireblades are always useful too, and some Crisis Suits would probably round things out nicely! Taking it bare-bones, it seems that would come in somewhere around the 1100 points mark, which is quite interesting as I’ve been playing a lot of 1000-point games lately. Definitely something to aim for there!
Basically, I’m not going to buy all of this and end up with it just looming over me before bailing out and selling the army again:
But I would like a Stormsurge at some point!
I think I’m going to keep the monthly retrospective blogs going for 2022 as well, so come back soon and see how I’ve gotten on with these guys!
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