Farsight Enclaves - O’Vesa Riptide - Complete sans base

[Bryan Blaire]

So I have finally started painting up my FSE Kill Team (no story just yet, haven't gotten to start playing or come up with a campaign idea just yet) - starting with three Stealth Suits:


So the base colors for my FSE is slightly brighter than the standard, I use Mechanicus Standard Grey (which is honestly a little irritating, because it's almost Sprue Grey dammit) and Mephiston Red. The above all have their base coats of Mechanicus Grey, and you can see the limited amount of red I've gotten on. For the grey markings, I start with Celestra Grey.

Here are some other pictures of my FSE units I have done before (previously posted), but only the Fire Warriors are going to be able to be used in Kill Team (the scanner guy will probably be my Comms Specialist):

Shas'vre Ob'lotai 9-0 (a little big, so you'll have to Unhide them to look at everything):

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My Sub-Commander Torchstar:

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Some Fire Warriors:

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[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Wow, that really is the same color as the bare plastic. Moar!

[brother_b]

So good. These are amazing.

[Panzer]

Ah finally some FSE here. I was wondering why we haven't seen more of them ... always thought they had the biggest fanbase among T'au player (aside from the standard colour schemes of T'au and now Vior'la). :D

 

I'm still on the fence whether I want to stick with Sa'cea, switch to Da'lyth (I've honestly got good results weathering alpha strikes with them and it fits my theme best) or switch to FSE for pure awesomeness (tho it would play and feel a lot like my Blood Angels I guess). :D

[brother_b]

I have to ask, because it looks so good.

 

How are you getting your black lines in the armor panels so clean? Do you use a wash or actual paint? I really like these Tau.

[Bryan Blaire]

I have to ask, because it looks so good.

 

How are you getting your black lines in the armor panels so clean? Do you use a wash or actual paint? I really like these Tau.

Appreciate it!

 

The panel lines are either deep red (Carroburg Crimson) or brown (Agrax Earthshade) shade/wash, and then depending on where the panels are, cleaned up along the edges with the base color, and then possibly edge highlighted.

 

I realize now that the lighting on all those images is terrible. :lol:

[brother_b]

Yes clean up is hard part but again love those abd thanks for the quick reply.

[MithrilForge]

Cool!! i look fwd to this, i love the contrast on the Fire warriors shin parts nice bone colour 

your right though... Mech grey is sprue grey 

 

Cheers, Mithril

[Bryan Blaire]

Really appreciate it guys, glad y'all are liking them. Can't say I'll ever have the level of fondness for the Tau that I do for the Unforgiven, but I definitely think they are up there with the Wolves for me.

Made a slight revision to my paint scheme: had been doing Mechanicus Standard Grey with two coats of Nuln Oil for my understructure/fatigues, but it didn't turn out well on the Stealth Suits - so I revised it to a 1:1 Abaddon Black:Mechanicus Standard Grey, and re-based the understructure. I tried to keep the Nuln Oil in recesses (although I'm going to have to redo a couple of them). I did the lenses with Leadbelcher and Stormhost Silver, glazed with Waywatcher Green. Once I get all the recesses shaded, it will be on to the arms! I'll finish all the shading and highlighting when I get everything together.

[Panzer]

Yeah that looks a LOT less like unpainted sprue plastic. Very good decision! The only time I used Mechanicus Standard Grey was when I got myself a can of spray primer in that colour and it was horrible. I couldn't really see which parts got primed properly and which not. Ever since then I switched back to black spray primer and more recently to leadbelcher spray primer (gets covered by paint properly and if you happen to scratch paint off of it over time it looks more like battle damage on armour lol).

[MithrilForge]

Nice work, i'm presently working on an Xv-25 for my Kill team leader so this is a little bit o' inspiration for me  

Q- my stealth team box has old small bases...what's the new size for them ?..is it 32mm now?..

Also speaking of that...what are the bases going to be like on your team ?...

 

Cheers, Mithril

[Bryan Blaire]

I’m going with 32s for them, that’s what they are depicted on in the new Codex (checked the 'D s, definitely 32s!).

 

As for bases - I got a box of the Sector Mechanicus bases and I have a lot of that terrain to use for Kill Team, so I’m heavily leaning toward those. However, if I can come up with a good story for my Tau in the interim, I may change my mind and do something more arid-ish.

[MithrilForge]

not to hijack with pics but i'm going with Necromunda bases (i painted them in old school T'AU colours as a nod to the original scheme)

see here -

oh and thanks for the clarification on the bases sizes i should have just looked in the codex...doh

Cheers, Mithril

[Bryan Blaire]

I like it! Not bothered by the pic at all, it looks good.

 

Terrain-wise, I'm wanting to tie the Mechanicus stuff into some of the Imperialis stuff, make a power unit and factorum area, but I really wish I could figure out how to get a custom mat made with a more Mechanicus style layout similar to the Kill Zone Sector Mechanicus (only not tilted at a funny angle).

[Trevak Dal]

Ah finally some FSE here. I was wondering why we haven't seen more of them ... always thought they had the biggest fanbase among T'au player (aside from the standard colour schemes of T'au and now Vior'la). :D

 

I'm still on the fence whether I want to stick with Sa'cea, switch to Da'lyth (I've honestly got good results weathering alpha strikes with them and it fits my theme best) or switch to FSE for pure awesomeness (tho it would play and feel a lot like my Blood Angels I guess). :D

You haven't seen more because the violent pounding crisis suits took. They cost like dreadnoughts, have "hop" (fly), and gw want us to be a gunline army. Like the knife ears and guard had mixed babies, forgot about psykers and did everything else quarter ass for more points.

 

Farsight Enclaves were THE Crisis suit heavy army. And crisis suits points costs for their output and statline makes power armored space marines look cheap.

 

GW wants us to be gunline. Our best septs have increased range on most of our weapons. Since we can't take more than on Commander (yo but space marines can flood the field with a company's worth of captains if they want to...) FSE can take... fireblades. Because we can't take ethereals.

 

Farsight Enclaves are the Flesh Tearers of Tau (where the best units are with the mainline Sept/chapter and we are playing "hard mode" by indulging in our hobby).

 

I'm eagerly awaiting chapter approved. If I'm not shocked and awed like I was when the 6th edition Tau codex came out, with sweeping changes to make crisis suits, grey knights and marine power armor in general great, I'm out for good.

[Panzer]

 

Ah finally some FSE here. I was wondering why we haven't seen more of them ... always thought they had the biggest fanbase among T'au player (aside from the standard colour schemes of T'au and now Vior'la).

 

I'm still on the fence whether I want to stick with Sa'cea, switch to Da'lyth (I've honestly got good results weathering alpha strikes with them and it fits my theme best) or switch to FSE for pure awesomeness (tho it would play and feel a lot like my Blood Angels I guess).

You haven't seen more because the violent pounding crisis suits took. They cost like dreadnoughts, have "hop" (fly), and gw want us to be a gunline army. Like the knife ears and guard had mixed babies, forgot about psykers and did everything else quarter ass for more points.

 

Farsight Enclaves were THE Crisis suit heavy army. And crisis suits points costs for their output and statline makes power armored space marines look cheap.

 

GW wants us to be gunline. Our best septs have increased range on most of our weapons. Since we can't take more than on Commander (yo but space marines can flood the field with a company's worth of captains if they want to...) FSE can take... fireblades. Because we can't take ethereals.

 

Farsight Enclaves are the Flesh Tearers of Tau (where the best units are with the mainline Sept/chapter and we are playing "hard mode" by indulging in our hobby).

 

I'm eagerly awaiting chapter approved. If I'm not shocked and awed like I was when the 6th edition Tau codex came out, with sweeping changes to make crisis suits, grey knights and marine power armor in general great, I'm out for good.

 

 

Eh, if that's all that it takes to make FSE armies disappear from the community then FSE player were never fans of their armies anyway.

I know Crisis are bad currently, apart from Flamer Crisis, however there have always been units and even whole armies that were bad and people still played them because they liked them for other reasons. Otherwise we wouldn't have any Blood Angels or Tyranids players left after 7th edition now.

 

Also actually the love for Crisis Suits is one of the reasons why I would have expected to see at least some FSE armies in the first place. The FSE Stratagem is the one thing that makes non-Flamer Crisis actually worth their points. Just try it. Drop them, activate the Stratagem and maybe put a Markerlight on the target and suddenly they are worth their points.

CIB Crisis for the same points as Mortarion can with the FSE Stratagem and a Markerlight almost kill Mortarion in a single round (remove 14 of 18 wounds).

That's actually a huge feat! It equals damage from 27 BS3+ Lascannons which alone would already cost 625p total (about 150p more than the Crisis unit), the unit using those Lascannons not included. Keep in mind that a unit doesn't have to nuke its equal amount of points in a single turn to be worth their points. This puts Mortarion already at its lowes profile on the wound table and requires only a little more to kill him off completely which can come from any source.

It's really just the BS3+ they need to make them scary again.

 

As for your claim that GW wants T'au to be a gunline army ... I can't see that. At least not completely.

Yes there are effects that require them to be stationary (Ethereal aura, Kauyon, Dal'yth Sept tenet, etc) and things that increase their range on Heavy and Rapid fire weapons (Bork'an Sept Tenet), however that's only one part of the truth. The other part is that we have lots of 18" weapons, Breacher, access to lots of Flamer, 30" Rapid fire weapons which are obviously better at half range as goes for any Rapid fire weapon, the Vior'la Sept Tenet + Stratagem that promotes moving towards your opponent, the FSE Sept Tenet that promotes moving towards your opponent, and lots of units with scout and infiltration moves (Kroot, Pathfinder, Stealth Suits, Ghostkeel).

All in all the T'au Empire Codex is actually pretty balanced. Not in terms of how strong it is, but in terms of what it offers. There are fast units, there are slow units, there are fraguile units, there are tanky units, there are long ranged units, there are short ranged units, there are mobile units, there are stationary units.

[MithrilForge]

..... This Thread is about Killteam not 40k. i think T'au are pretty good in KillTeam and i look fwd to Bryan's finished Unit 

 

Mithril

[Trevak Dal]

I was a fan of crisis suits. GW pointed my chosen force out of viability and neutered it's effectiveness. I went with enclave because in previous editions I could take them as troops (take more) and also take stealth suits (elites).

 

I only ever ran 3 commanders if I wasn't playing The Eight. While I have the assets to play however I want, I liked being on the bounce, flying around the battlefield in real power armor.

 

I played a buddy of mine in a 7th edition game and there's a lot I really like about 8th, but my god my Tau gave his army a hot Cosby with extra preparation h in the

pudding to soothe his legion's orafices.

 

I still lost the game, but my chosen army was badass again.

[Panzer]

Yeah Crisis armies were fun, no doubt. However that's only one reason to play a FSE army imo. You still see BA armies even tho Assault Marines aren't troops anymore and generally suck this edition and that's because people actually like Blood Angels and not just Assault Marines. That's what I was talking about. ;)

 

Anyway, mithrilforge is right. This is the wrong thread to talk about that. It's about Kill Team where Crisis were never a thing and more importantly, it's Bryans thread. I'm open to continue the discussion via PM or in another thread tho!

[Bryan Blaire]

I’m not too bothered about discussion on Farsight Enclaves, but I’d rather discuss them and not play styles, issues between 7th and 8th, etc. I always liked the idea of a group of Tau that rebelled against the higher order of the Ethereals and struck out on their own, fighting for the “Greater Good” as they see the need (anyone else picking up on a theme) - however, I was really hoping that we would see some distinction between the Enclaves and normal Tau armies this go around, not getting stuck back into the Codex with no real movement forward in the fluff. Would have been nice to see an FSE only Crisis variant or a Riptide version, etc. Maybe even how their culture is diverging without the Ethereal influence - do FSE Tau begin to display any variant traits, maybe things that were “engineered out” originally that begin to creep their way back in?

 

In painting news, I’m all done with the shading on the main body + legs and have started to clean up and get the color back to where I want it. Next step is to get the same done with the arms, then get everything glued up. I’ll get into highlighting after that, but I may move on to the rest of my Kill Team before worrying about highlighting.

[Panzer]

Yeah FSE unique unit variants would be great considering how cut off from the rest of the T'au Empire are. I'd be fine with them not having access to Stormsurges, Ghostkeels and such in return even however GW already handwaved them into the FSE territory via "they have some supporter in the Empire who smuggled the newest fancy technology to them".

[Bryan Blaire]

I don’t really see the need for a Stormsurge, personally (but then again I don’t see a reason for Knights and the like to be in 40K), but I would like to use my just purchased Ghostkeel in my FSE army eventually! :lol:

 

But maybe a unit of Stealth Crisis would have been cooler for FSE...

[Panzer]

With Stealth Crisis I would have a hard time deciding between FSE and Dal'yth ... I like the stealth theme just way too much. :D

Pretty much the only reason I didn't paint my models as FSE is that it reminds me too much of Blood Angels which I already have anyway. Big red guys who have a thing for dropping in and overwhelming their opponents. Just too similar a theme to justify a second army. :P

[Bryan Blaire]

Hey, if you paint up a Speed Freaks force too, you could have a red army trifecta, ‘cause da red wonz go fasta!

[Panzer]

I've been trying very hard not to start a speed freaks army so I can save money for Slaanesh. It becomes harder and harder tho! :D