Tau SEED Destiny 1000 points force completed

 Consider it a fun side project that had no time pressure on it, I finally finished the first 1000 points of the force.

All painted like Gundam mobile suits from SEED and SEED Destiny (bar the drones, I went to the classic Ball for that), that means a very colourfull force to put on the table.

Okay, so rumours have it that 10th is around the corner and everything might change again, but here is the force now, using the Bor'kan Sept as it's root for the rules.

Commander

Bodyguard unit

Crisis squad

Stealth suits

Broadside squad

So yeah, it is a small force of course with all the battlesuits, but the drones do bulk the force out a bit.

Though of course, at my speed... I started building and painting this force for 9th edition, and in the meantime 10th has been announced and the points tally will probably be all the way off by the time I get it actually to a table.  And with the total system overhaul, I`m skipping 40k I think in favour of The Old World...

Oh well, at least it looks cool in my shelves and I`ll see with the new edition what has to be done with it to bulk it out and add I guess...

Tau SEED Destiny project: GAT-X131 Calamity Broadside battlesuit

 The latest addition to the project, and the one that brings the points total of my force now to a 1.000 points making it playable, is this Broadside painted up as the Calamity.

An ideal match as this older Broadside sports the dual rail cannons on it's shoulders, like the Calamity does with his two huge guns, that meant it was time for a turquoise and orangy-yellow battlesuit.

And considering the Calamity is developped from the Buster, in whose colours my other Broadside is painted, that makes for a nicely paired unit.

Adding a serious amount of firepower as such to the force, as in no matter what edition those railguns could ruin an opponents heavy units, this also gives some good mobility due to being mounted on a battlesuit compared to a tank.  Add to that the missile pods, whom in the current edition ignore cover, and you have a unit that poses a serious threat anywhere on the board.

 

 

And with a shield and a gun drone, it has some additional suicidal protection as well...

The Inspiration

The GAT-X131 Calamity gundam, piloted by Orga Sabnak, was one of the antagonist suits in the second half of Gundam SEED, it was finally destroyed in the finale against the Justice gundam at the second battle of Jachin Due.

And that rounds out the units for my initial 9th edition Tau battlesuits force!

 

 

Tau SEED Destiny project: ZGMF-1001/M Blaze Zaku Phantom Heine Westenfluss custom

 It has been "a while", as in over a year, since I did an update on my budding Tau battlesuit force inspired and painted by my beloved Gundam SEED Destiny series.

But, I completed recently the third suit for my bodyguard crisis suit team.

Based on the third member of the Zaft elite team alongside Lunamaria Hawke and Ray Za Burrel, this mostly orange tinted mobile suit was piloted by the late Heine Westenfluss.  A brave warrior and capable and skilled officer, he met his end when outmatched by the Freedom gundam.

For the suit, I went with dual Burst cannons, and a multi-tracker for even more possible hits against rank and file units like cultists or guardsmen, to allow the other suits in the team to take on the juicer targets.  For even more low power mass volume firepower, he is joined by two gun drones to boot.

So that completes the bodyguard team, and in the current points cost system the force is now nearly ready for a 1000 point outing, just needing to finish, as in go beyond the undercoat, a single suit and it's drones.

 

 

The Inspiration

I based the paint scheme on the mostly orange suit of Heine ofcourse, specifically his Blaze Zaku Phantom, even though he also piloted a Gouf Ignited in the same coulours.  But as the other two piloted Zaku's, this seemed more appropriate.

 

 

Now to get that force finished and get a game in hopefully this summer...

AHPC11: Chamber of Darkness: ZGMF-1001/M Blaze Zaku Phantom Rey Za Burrel custom

 We decent further into the abyss with perhaps the hardest of the entries to wrap my mind around: paint something in grayscale.

Now, my first idea was to be boring and go for a ruin or a statue or the likes, but then as I was preparing my hobby goals for 2021 (a post found on my blog from the beginning of january), inspiration hit me.

As part of my Gundam SEED Destiny inspired Tau force, the third bodyguard suit for the commander still needed to be painted.  I already did the orange one and the burgundy one, but the third elite ZAFT pilot in the series, Rey Za Burell, pilots a light grey modified ZAKU suit, so I went along and painted that one for this entry.

And I admit, his drones have been used for the previous chamber, the Golem's...

Making use of various greys (bar the base), the suit is completely done in the spectrum from black to white, and about every grey I have lying around here in it.  Add some small details for the eye and lenses, and voila, one greyscale battlesuit ready to fight for the Greater Good (or the ZAFT, depending your preferred franchise).

The Inspiration:

As I stated above, this is the modified Blaze ZAKU piloted by Rey.  The suit has a generic loadout, so as such I also went for the pretty standard combination of a tracker, a meltagun and a missile pod, which is a bit of a good combination for all purpose duties on the field of battle.

Next up for this project, though doubtfull that will be during the AHPC, will be "regular" ZAKU suits in their traditional olive green liveries.

AHPC11: Golem Haunt: Tau Gun Drones

 For the next chamber to be braved in the Chambers of Challenge, a place full of dreaded traps and horrid beasts, the Golem's Haunt has to be conquered.

The idea in this room is to submit something that has been "created", and while I initially thought of some beast to print for my DnD pile, I went for another route and chose AI.

The Tau empire makes extensive use of AI drones to accompany their troops, and as part of my Gundam SEED inspired army (work in progress, estimate finishing 2027) I painted up a couple of Gun Drones (in the colours of a "Ball" worker mobile suit).

These little discs of sheer annoyance add some additional firepower to a Tau unit, but their real use lies in the Saviour Protocols, in which they sacrifice themselves for their masters nearby when under fire.

So that is 2 models for the room, which with the room bonus yields a lovely 30 points for the tally.

And now, onwards to the one challenge I dread the most this year!

T'au SEED Destiny: ZGMF-1000/A1 Gunner ZAKU Warrior

The next, and second, mobile suit for my bodyguard unit of Tau, is the suit piloted by my long time anime crush: Lunamaria Hawke's Gunner ZAKU.

You see, the unit will have widely varrying colourschemes, as all three of them (Heine, Lunamaria and Rey) had personalised suits, and this one is perhaps the hardest to recreate.

Sporting a purple / reddish / burgundy colourscheme, it was a bit hard to find a good balance between fitting together yet contrasting, but in the end I`m happy with the result.  Being a long ranged suit, I went for the best weapon loadout to represent this, in the form of a missile pod and a plasma rifle.

Together with the right Sept treats (of course, my sept is called Gun'Dam) this makes for a rather mobile yet stable force of all battlesuits, even if it is a pity in 9th edition the Fly rule got tweaked as that made battlesuits forces look really playable.  Not that I tried, I faced them once and snatched victory, but I have been slowly building the force during 8th and it still isn`t ready, as it really is an "in between" project.

Accompanying her are a gun drone (more guns) and a marker drone (best fitting for the sniping nature of the original suit), and as such completes 2/3rd of the unit, which I hope to get completely finished by, say, the end of 2020...

So to that end, she adds 81 points to the total, putting the project now at 849 points in 9th edition.

The Inspiration

One of the many variants of the ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior achieved through use of the Wizard Packs, the Gunner ZAKU Warrior is specialized for artillery strikes. Besides the standard armament of the ZAKU Warrior, the Gunner ZAKU Warrior also carries a M1500 "Orthros" high-energy long-range beam cannon, which is installed on the back-mounted Gunner Wizard Pack. This beam cannon is the strongest ranged weapon available to the ZAKU Warrior and grants it an impressive firepower over long ranges, capable of destroying any mobile suits or mobile armors within its line of fire.

And that is it for this mobile suit or battlesuit, I tend to use the first term for my force for obvious reasons... see you next time for some more SEED Destiny inspired models...

A pair of Gun Drones

Nothing fancy in this post, as it is just a little tying up of a loose end.

Back in april, I painted the Heine Westenfluss battlesuit for my Tau SEED Destiny army, and I finally found a little hole to paint up his drones.

Both are of the Gun Drone variation, and while suits became far less intresting in 9th from what previews show (no fall back and shoot anymore, ouch), they still remain bloody cool looking.

I might even get the force finished before 9th comes to an end x-D

T'au Kill Team

It took a while (like, 7 months or so) but I finally rounded out the Stealth suits this month to be able to field my Kill Team.

While nothing to fancy, it does contain a mighty 8 models for it's 100 points limit.

Leading it of course is a Stealth suit Shas'vre, armed with Burst Cannon as well as a Markerlight and Target Lock, so it can either provide some support to the team, or stroll guns blaing over the field.

The same goes for my Fusion Blaster one, as he has the Heavy specialism so he can blaze away at full speed.

The third suit received the Comms specialism, so the three can actually set up a nice combo to get a very heavy hitting fusion blast in if needed, or lay down a hail of burst cannon shots against lighter armoured troops.

And they are greatly helped by the fact they all have Fly and their Camouflage Fields of course...

Supporting the suits are 5 drones, in the guise of 1 shield drone and 2 each of the gun and marker variants, to make the most of the Saviour Protocols for the Stealth suits.

For the Greater Good!

T'au SEED Destiny: UMF/SSO-3 ASH

Well, I had hoped to present this post as my newest Kill Team force, ready to go to battle in Kill Team at the local club.

But once again, something new isn't embrased by the local player base (you should have seen the discussion about Beta Bolters back when those where published...) so well, this is just my newest entry in the slow building force of T'au, based on the SEED Destiny anime.

The Stealth suits are in my opinion nice little sculpts, and honestly, for Kill Team they have a great skillset.  The -1 to hit and the high armour makes them pretty resistant, the multishot burst cannons can wrack an opponent to high heaven, and the fly rule of the suits makes them mobile as heck.  Sure, you are heavily outnumbered, but then again you have the cheap markerlight drones to fill out the force, take hits for your suit, AND add markerlights on the enemy...

The Inspiration:

Seen in episode 13 of the anime, when the Freedom makes his glorious return to the franchise, the ASH suits are new high tech infiltration suits created by ZAFT.  Hence the SSO in their designation, being part of the Special Ops wing of the organisation.

While the anime version is well armed as well, with beam claws and missile pods, I choose to copy their colour scheme.  The burst cannons nicely represent the fast firing pods, while the fusion blaster is a good representation of the beam weapons.

So that's the fourth unit of my force now completed, maybe it's time to build more of the actual "mainstay" suits for the force, the Crisis suits, next...

T'au SEED Destiny: GAT-X105+AQM/E-X01 Aile Strike Gundam

Every force needs a commander, and for the battlesuits I'm painting up, this one is it.

While I do have some other ideas, like the Coldstar Commander, a Tau battlesuit force can at the moment only have a single commander suit per detachment, so he will have to do the job in the 1500 points force.

The models is a slightly converted battlesuit commander, with the 'fins' on the head repositioned in order to pick him apart on the table (apart from his colourscheme) as the migthy plasma leader of dead.  Because I went for both a regular plasma (painted purple as the color of his anime counterparts Beam Saber) as well as a Cyclonic Ion Blaster for armaments, and a shield generator for protection.  Add to this his signature wargear of a Seismic Destabiliser to annoy models in cover, and his treat of Exemplar of Mont'Ka to advance and shoot without penalties with his Cyclonic.  And his armour is upgraded to Iridium for some extra protection...

He is also joined by two drones to intercept some shots coming his way of course, who like all my other drones have been painted up as "Balls", in the form of a Gun drone and a Shield drone.

The Inspiration

Strike was the first Gundam Kira Yamato piloted in the series, and it had an attachable jump pack for air combat, the Aile module.  I went for this option as inspiration because the T'au suits have those large jump packs, and the red of the Aile contrasts nicely with the predominant white and blue of the bodywork as a result.

Next in this project, either Zaku inspired normal battlesuits, or stealth suits which double as my Kill Team force...

T`au SEED Destiny: ZGMF-2000 GOUF Ignited

My latest unit in my Gundam SEED Destiny inspired T`au army, this is the first set of 3 Battlesuits that will become my force's mainstay units.

Basicaly standard Crisis suits, and they have the option to add an extra armoured suit.

So to represent the special upgraded 2+ suit, I used an old commander head for the `leader` of the squad, and armed him with the Cyclonic Ion Blaster, a bit of the T'au equivalent of a plasmagun as it has the danger of overloading and wounding the bearer.  The other two come with the Burst cannons to lay down a serious amount of firepower with the unit.

They also have Missile Pods each, but more importantly, and together with the 'horn' on the head of the leader, they have shields.

Joining the squad are six drones, in the form of 2 Marker Drones and 4 Gun Drones.

And those let me to teh completed unit, good for 254 points to add to the tally...

The Inspiration:

The GOUF, a mass produced, more close combat orientated suit that usually works in unison with the ZAKU.  They are often seen in the series, though they where part of the large force wiped out by Strike Freedom in bare moments.

Because of the shields they all carry, I opted for the blue colour scheme for my battlesuits as well, copying the scheme onto the models.

So that`s the next unit done in a slowly growing force of mobile suits, now to paint up some more shield drones to go alongside these guys...

Emperor's Children vs Tau: 1000 pts battle report

This friday I faced Ivan and his Tau forces on the battle field, in what would become a weather the storm type of battle in all probability.

Now, there are some things about the Tau...

Fact 1: for some reason, over all of the editions, I never faced them myself before, so this was a first experience
Fact 2: I fielded an army made to battle Space Marines, so not optimal for battling a shooty force with barely any close combat troops.
Fact 3: Luckily, I knew he is a battlesuit style player, so no ranks of pulse rifles at least to decimate my lines.

And with that knowledge, I was ready to face them in my first game after the huge battle from the end of May...

The Tau forces opposing me consisted of a Coldstar Commander, two Ghostkeel suits, a squad of 6 markerdrones and 2 units of 3 battlesuits each, one with burst cannons and one with plasma rifles.

My force was led by a winged demon princess, a sorcerer, a squad of noise marines, two units of cultists, a havoc squad with 2 autcannons and 2 heavy bolters, a rapier Laser Destroyer and a Helbrute with plasma cannon and missile launcher.

The scenario rolled was Contact Lost, in which we would get a fresh objective card every turn, and the table was set up, objectives placed.  As I couldn't seize the intititative, the Tau went first.

The plasma squad of battlesuits was in orbit in their manta, so the rest of the force used the Farsight skill that they could advance and shoot normally, coming forward just a little bit.  The Ghostkeel on the left opened up on the helbrute but only caused a single wound, while the cultists in the centre lost 8 of their number to burst fire, while the Havoc squad was decimated to a single autocannon marine.  And that was it as the Tau had a rather average round of shooting.

I responed by sending the demon princess forward to take on his commander.  My firing eliminated the burst cannon team first, reducing his greater good ability for the upcoming charge.  The rest of my firing wasn't that effective, doing a few wounds on one of the ghostkeels.  But the first VP was scored as First Blood was drawn.
Under the influence of the Diabolic Strength the princess charged into the commander, and ripped him to pieces.  This scored me another point, but the Kingslayer roll came up on a 5, netting me 3 more points.

At the end of the first turn, it stood 5 - 0 for the Emperor's Children as such.

His second turn saw the arrival of the other Crisis suits behind my lines.  His firing hurt the second cultist squad, as well as the Noise Marines a good deal.  The right Ghostkeel, flying out of the consolidation from the demon, fired his flamers on the cultists and his raker hurt but not finish the Rapier.  The left Ghostkeel reduced the Helbrute to a single wound.  Ivan scored his first point as such for having troops in my deployment zone.

My second turn saw me pull out the demon princess and camp her on objective 5, which would give me 2 points should she stay there for 2 turns.  The rest of the force moved into combat range for those pesky fusion suits, while the cultists surrounded the Ghostkeel.  In a not so effective psychic phase, the only thing of note was that the demon princess smited three drones.
My firing didn't do that much, some wounds of the Ghostkeel and reducing the battlesuit squad a bit. The Noise Marines charged in on them next, just as all the cultists, who saw a unit almost wiped due to overwatch charged one Ghostkeel, and the ramshackle wreck of a Helbrute the other one.
Combat went as suspected, as the Noise Marines made short work of the battlesuits bar one, while the cultists achieved nothing, as did the Helbrute.

And so the second round ended at a 5 - 1 score.

Turn three would turn out to become the last one, as all his suits moved out of combat.  He finished off the last Havoc in his shooting phase, while the other Ghostkeel finished my Helbrute.  With his two remaining suits on the left flank back to back, and the Ghostkeel on the other side more or less okay and running around, this might not be as easy in the bag as I hoped.

My third turn saw the Noise Marines advanced to the two suits, while the Sorcerer went to camp on an objective to defend it for the next two turns.  The cultists parked on one as well, but this one only needed to be held for a single turn.
Boosted by Prescience and using the Endless Cacaphony stratagem, the Nosie Marines finished off the battlesuit first, and the Ghostkeel, who after a smite was down to one wound, afterwards.  The Noises charged the lone Stealthdrone as well in a sadistic display of ripsy-a-partsy...

This resulted in me scoring two points for the demon princess and one for the cultists on their respective objectives, and bringing the score to 8-1.

At this point Ivan yielded, as he now had a single Ghostkeel with 6 wounds left, ready to be chased by a demon princess and two smite casting characters, while two extra points would be added by my sorcerer should we play a fourth turn.

So we added a point each for being in each others deployment zone, and the end result became 9 - 2, victory to the pink phalanx!

Now what I learned is that Ghostkeels, with their stealth drones, are damn irritating buggers.  For man of the match I'm torn between on the one hand the demon princess, who managed to score 7 out of the 9 points I gathered on her own, or the Noise Marines for the sheer amount of firepower they throw out.  And if there is one thing I love, it's lots of firepower...

Unless I manage to arrange a game the 10th, my next opponent will be Mike and his Orks near the end of august, so time to overthrow the list and build it in a totally different direction...