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The fluff behind these guys is that they were abandoned on a planet that had been ravaged by battle, with very little actual civilization left, so all they've had to fix they're gear with is scraps from the broken warmachines scattered about (thus the almost orky feel to them). Being so disconnected from the rest of the imperium has required them to create new armor and machines to defend themselves out of whatever they could find. 

Finished up the commander, and I'm really happy with him. Decided to go with a really grungy, worn out look with these guys, so there's lots of rust, mud, and verdigris on him. Also took the opportunity to try weathering powders for the first time ever, and I really like how they look on the model. Critiques / comments welcome!

Finished up one of the rhino's for these guys (for the space marine side, not the tau side, obviously). Mostly minor modifications, just some basic plasticard work. Enjoy!

Well, Guardian cup is at the end of may, TSHFT invitational is mid-may. Maybe June or July would be better?

The inspiration came from Hawken, a faster paced mech game I've been playing recently. Here's the link if you're interested.

http://www.playhawken.com/

I'll be filling the text (yeah, I love me some of that liquid greenstuff) and I'll be adding rivets. I really like rivets...

Finished the final version, what do you think? (Rocket pods are magnatized for changing later if need be)

I'll probably be using the front parts of the Stormtalon rockets and build pods off of those. They're not overly large, and match the aesthetic of the rest of the mech.

It's a tad shorter, but I plan on adding rocket pods to the top to make up the difference. Glad you like it!

Here's a WIP of the dread-tide for 'em (campus closed due to snow, so got a bunch of stuff done. )

So, seeing Aventine's wonderful models got me inspired to do some of my own ad mech stuff. I've got some modified Centurions, a dread tide, and this guy that I'm workin' on:

He'll be a stand in for the tau Buff commander, thus the comically large jetpack. :)

Not super fond of scouts in a landspeeder, a little too fragile for my taste. As for counter assault, the kroot mob seems to be the best / cheapest option for this army, as it also counts as scoring, I'll see if I can't get it to fit into the list. Also, do Tau confer their supporting fire rule to their allies? So, if a SM unit gets assaulted within 6" of a tau unit, do the tau units also get to fire overwatch?

@CaptainA: The naked libby is simply HQ tax, but does provide some nice powers. I agree, 150+ points for an HQ in this list is a bit much with the other HQ already around there points wise. 

@Chaos lord Chris: Tiggy is great, but also running into the 165 pt HQ problem. The Tau commander pretty much does what Tiggy would be doing, but has guaranteed powers instead of having to roll on the table. As for the chapter tactics, I went with Imp. Fists instead of Ultramarines for the tankhunter lascannon squads (which transfers to the quad gun), as well as the general infantry buff.

Wow, hadn't thought of any of that... good idea. Same with the sniper rounds, I'll take those out. As for counter assault units, what do you suggest?

@paxmiles: What is the benefit in combat squadding the dev. squad? The extra men are simply there to keep the lascannons alive. As for counter assault, what you reccomend as a counter assault unit?

@Bigglesworth: The kroot have sniper rounds, I totally neglegted to write them here. :)

So, after going to TSHFT and seeing Aventine's lovely Tau+SM list, it got me thinking about my own list, and adding in some Tau allies seems doable. So, here's what I've got so far (just a prototype list, mind you. Highly variable at this point), I'm looking to build a fairly competative list that isn't going to get me stomped in a standard tournament format.

Tactics: The Buff-commander starts with different squads depending on army (lascannon sm for anti-armor, riptide for anti-MEQ, broadsides for anti-horde), with the riptide and storm guppies playing aggressive, kroot outflank for late game obj. grab or killing MC, and 10 man tactical squads either combat squad for 6 scoring units or keep together for tough to kill blobs.

SM (Imperial Fist chapter tactics)

HQ:

Naked libby, Mastery Level 2 (90)

Troops:

Tact. squad, 10 man, H.B., flamer, melta bombs (160)

Tact. squad, 10 man, H.B., flamer, melta bombs (160)

Tact. squad, 10 man, Lascannon, meltagun, melta bombs (175)

FA:

Stormtalon, T.L. lascannon (140)

Stormtalon, H.B. (110)

HS:

Lascannon Dev squad, 8 man (192)

Thunderfire Cannon (100)

Tau:

HQ:

Buff commander (160)

Elites:

Riptide, Ion, Interceptor (190)

Troops:

Kroot sniper squad, 10 man,  hound (75)

HS:

Missle-side squad, 3 man, interceptor (210)

Looking to trade or sell a $25 gift card to Games and Gizmos store. I live like 4 hours away, and there's no way I can spend this thing. Looking for $20 OBO or something cool to trade for it. Thanks for lookin!

As someone who hasn't played for but 2 years, I can say that my mindset has gone from "how can I not suck" to "how can I win a lot" to "how can I have a fun game with my opponents?" in my list writing. Obviously, there are different levels of competition for tournament v. friendly play, but the key is balancing your list writing for these different play styles. The nice part about 40k is its easy to write a fun, non-competative list, and most people are willing to play friendly games if you ask.  

@paxmiles: That's be a really interesting list... Stick Cypher in a squad of shooty terminators (10 man) to make sure he lives, hide 'em behind an ageis line, take SW primary for Bjorn, and run him around in dangerous terrain to make sure he dies :)

Wonderful fix. Looks a lot more orky. :)

I love what you did with the arms, and then I saw the little tiny arms on the chest. Those add so much awesome to the model, I love it.

I would ditch a couple stern in one squad (drop one down to a 5 man?) to add combi weapons (2 combi melta and 2 melta guns) to one squad, as well as adding a Pod for the thunderfire cannon (this'll get you your 2 pods of sternguard on the board turn 1).

Adding a ridiculous amount of plasticard armor plates in random places is a great way to make something look orky. I agree that it currently looks too much like a dreadnought. 

Using the spotlight was a great idea for the head. For the arms, I'd consider lowering them, which'll re-enforce the overall "droopy" mech look the head and stance is indicating. 

Also, if I'm interpreting the rules correctly, if you're using IF devs, and the sarge mans the quad gun, it gets tank hunter, right?