Ad mech/ Dark Mech army

[Rangeltoft]

Hello, been a long fan of the Ad mech/Dark mech. probebly the factions that i love the most in 40k.

 

Now for my question.

 

Would it be ok to use a "count as" tau army to field a ad mech/dark mech force? tried it with mixed inq. before, but just didnt seem right.

 

Would love to hear what you have to say.

 

/Cheers Rangeltoft

[The Master]

One way to do it would be to use Commander Farsight - and use a lot of battle suits as counts as Knight Titians, with Fire Warriors as support troops to hold objectives.

[Severus6]

Hmmm,...squads of Battle suits as Robots,...that could work,...

 

Severus6

[Rangeltoft]

This idea has really taken off since reading Machanicum. But some modelling and fluff stuff have apeared aswell.

 

Devilfish/Hammerheads, How would I convert them to represent imperial hover tanks?

 

Is there any difference between Tech-Guard and Skitarii?

 

And drones, would it be ok to use servo-skulls and those baby-servitors (converted ofcourse) to represent them?

[Severus6]

Is there any difference between Tech-Guard and Skitarii?

 

Technically no,...however with that being said there are levels and types of the above mentioned. It would seem from the background that each Forge World has their own "concept" of ground forces. I am sure that this based of resources, beliefs, and needs of the Forge.

 

The other school of thought is that a Tech Guard is basically a "menial" with some basic training, a rifle and standard equipment, where as a Skitarii is a true avatar of the warlike capabalities of the AM and has better equipment and enhancements, better training and is just over all a greater force on the battlefield.

 

Severus6

[Rangeltoft]

hrmm, ok, thats slightly diffrent from how i have pictured it..

 

The impression i got was more that Tech-Guard was like stormtroopers, but with some augmentics and stuff while Skitarii were more heavly augmented troops with thier weapons "fused" to the flesh..more like a servitor i guess.. But always nice to see some diffrent opinions.

[Rangeltoft]

Run into a roadblock atm.. Can't really figure out how to convert the Battlesuits and the tanks to make them look imperial and well...less tau.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

 

/Cheers Rangeltoft

[Sandolphon]

Go the other way around, start with an Imperial model and convert it, at least for the tanks. Tau stuff is just too curvy.

[Lion in the Stars]

You'll probably end up redoing the arms and legs of a Crisis suit (arms are too short, and legs are too Tau), but the Crisis suit->robot can work pretty well, if you also change the weapons out (Tau weapons don't look enough like Imperial). Counts-as is your friend here, since as long as all your Fusion Blasters look the same, and don't look like plasma rifles, you meet counts-as WYSIWYG.

 

For vehicles, I'd look at the way Forgeworld builds their Imperial aircraft, and scratchbuild the "devilfish" based on that. The two biggest "tau" parts of the DFish are the engines and the smooth hammerhead part where the drones sit. If you build something squared and blocky, you can get away with a similar overall shape. For the engines, I'd use something like the Thunderhawk engines: bare engines, with all the plumbing hanging out (scrounge around for some Star Wars Episode 1 pod racers).

[Rangeltoft]

thanks alot Lion in the stars. Any ideas what arms and legs to use for the battlesuits?

 

Nice idea on the tanks aswell, ill look into it

[bad buddha]

the sentinell legs would probably vork really well for the battle suits arms and legs i think.

for the tanks i would go for chimeras where you leave out the tracks and track wheels and stick on some grav engines to the hull.

[Lion in the Stars]

Well, I'd chase down some pictures of the really old, smooth dreadnaughts (link and link), and base the arms off that, just build them up from plastic tubes and shapes. (Well, build up one or two of each left and right arm, then cast multiples)

 

I'd do the same thing for legs, personally, starting with a mix of the modern dread legs and sentinel legs. Lengthen the dread legs a bit so that they can actually walk, and then cast multiples again.

 

This keeps your "look" to established GW, but not looking like "Tau". Also, don't use the sensor heads from the crisis suits (scratchbuild something that looks more like the Land Raider/Razorback/Vindicator targeter), replace the "window" on the chest of a Crisis suit with something that looks like the Machine Spirit from a Land Raider, and get enough of the Broadside jetpack covers so that none of your force has jetpack nozzles visible.

 

I'd build the force in Pairs of robots, and arm them with Plasma rifles, shield generators, and a support weapon of choice for game effect, but I'd stick to Missile Pod and Burst cannon for historical fluff.

[Rangeltoft]

Thanks Lion, that was some great ideas. I'll should be able to start working on this porject in a few months, hopefully ill have a test model up and runing in two months.

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

/Cheers Rangeltoft