Kill Team Dead Silence. Tau vs Space Wolves

[ThePenitentOne]

Super stoked for stealthsuits!

 

The Tau army I'm planning was always intended to be heavier on Alien Auxiliaries than actual Tau... But I had always planned to lean into stealth suits- the plan was two sets of three, a unit of Pathfinders and the Store Anniversary Ethereal from last year. Two units of Vespids... And just for cosmetic fun, I was going to get a box of the new flying Helamites and put one in each unit. And then just a ton of Kroot. I have their launchbox + a Kinband + a box of Hounds, but I want to add to that- I really like Krootox and Hounds, and I want all three Shapers.

 

But these stealth suits rock, and the larger unit size is welcome- I'll still have the same composition, but with bigger stealth suit units, they'll by a much larger proportion of such a relatively small detachment.

[mel_danes]

Love the new Stealth Suits!
Why does the Neutraliser have a bigger forehead section?
It's the only unit with this feature. The leader has an extra bump sensor on his helmet, and they seem to not share jump packs across the squad.
I'm not sure why that one unit has a bigger noggin.

 

[Marshal Reinhard]

Looking again at the wolf scouts, several of them seem to have Logan Grimnar's Great company badge molded on their pads, which I think might be a first?

[Evil Eye]

Mixed feelings on the Wolves, I am not a fan of Phobos armour in general, but could be much, much worse. The Stealth Suits though? I was fully expecting to hate them and preparing the memorial for the existing (rather old) poseable kit but these actually look quite good! Nice blend between XV-25 and the old metal XV-15 suits. I kinda liked the static helmet on the prior plastics but these do convey the shape of that very well whilst adding head mobility. Well done, GW, well done.

[Silvereyes]

 

Stealth Suits are lovely, great designs. I must admit, I am a little biased against the XV25 suits. Not because I don't like the look of them, but because the models are so fragile. The upper torso being so big and round means I constantly have issues with the upper body falling off the lower half, or arms falling off. They're not sturdy models. Hopefully these ones should be a lot more stable. Noticing that the pack seems to only include 5 models, with 6 variants? Does that mean in 40K a unit size change from 3-6 to 5-10? With new weapons, could be quite a different data sheet. I don't really mind, Stealth Suits in the current meta really only exist to be spotters, rather than actual fighting units.

 

Honestly, makes me wonder if a Crisis Suit refresh might not be too far off. Not for 11th, but maybe not too far after. With the cull of T'au units in the codex, the auxillary refresh, and now with the Stealth Suit refresh, there isn't really much left that needs to be updated. There is the Devilfish/Sky Ray/Hammerhead, which with the T'au themselves will turn 25 next year. But with GW they seem less eager on vehicle refreshes, so I could see that kit hitting 30 years old even. There's also the Firesight Team, currently the only resin model left in the T'au range, but honestly, I'm betting that will be culled in 11th edition. If T'au only get a single character model for the 11th edition codex, I'd be shocked if it was a new Firesight Team, and not something like a new Aun'shi or something. I mean, Crisis Suits don't *need* an immediate refresh, I'm sure there are at least a hundred+ models in the 40K range that need it more. But you can definetly see their age when compared to newer battlesuit designs. One of the reasons why I don't really understand why Farsight can lead Crisis Suits, it's such a big difference in their designs. Just speculation.

 

I have 2 Space Wolf players in my gaming group. Good chance I'm going to buy 2 copies of the box set, and split a box with each of them. 10th edition has been very kind to the T'au in terms of model releases, wonder if things might cool down for 11th? Guess we need to see what those recent Rumour Engine pictures are, if they are more T'au auxillary or just something else.

[Brother Tyler]

Note that I split the side discussions about T'au suit nomenclature and whether or not Wolf Scouts are "veterans" into their own discussions in the appropriate faction forums so that this discussion could remain on topic about the expansion and the models within. Those other topics are worth pursuing, but in their own discussions with the appropriate audience, allowing this discussion to maintain the proper focus on the subject at hand.

[Frogian]

 

21 hours ago, Moonstalker said:

8 total models.  No Warrior (which in kill team, you can usually take multiple of).  Current Phobos team allows you to pick 6 operatives (leader+5).  So this is probably a one box kill team.  It looks like the Hunter/Fangbearer and Leader/Frosteye have duplicate poses, so that's one duplicate sprue.  The other four appear to be unique.  Might be possible that you get 2 puppers?  Two marines seems a little light for one sprue.

 

Box art only has 5 scouts on it, so don't think you are getting any duplicate sprue. So they are both gonna be quite small squads, and no terrain from the looks of it

[LSM]

1 hour ago, Frogian said:

Box art only has 5 scouts on it, so don't think you are getting any duplicate sprue. So they are both gonna be quite small squads, and no terrain from the looks of it

 

It might also be notable that the two Wolf Scouts shown with Blackmanes' pauldrons are the ones with the shared legs/different basing style.

 

I assume the "regular" studio Wolf Scouts are painted as Blackmanes, and the Kill Team ones are in Grimnar's colours.

 

Which then also makes me wonder if the Wolf Scouts Kill Team will be like the Death Korps of Krieg - where there were two full sprues for the "regular" kit and then a little extra half-sprue with a bunch of bits for extra "Veteran Guardsmen" Operatives.

 

(In the case of DKoK: the Zealot, Bruiser, Demolition, Hardened, and Comms Operatives are all from the little "B sprue". The Sergeant, Confidant, Sniper, Spotter, and Gunner Operative are from the "A sprues". The Medic then has builds from both.)

 

In the case of the Wolf Scouts, that would probably mean two "A sprues" and then a "B sprue" with: Fangbearer's dagger, Frosteye's scoped carbine, Trapmaster's mine (~?), Skjald's stick, and then a bunch of extra heads and accoutrements. 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by LSM

[Moonstalker]

2 hours ago, Frogian said:

 

 

Box art only has 5 scouts on it, so don't think you are getting any duplicate sprue. So they are both gonna be quite small squads, and no terrain from the looks of it

I was probably too hopeful to think it's a one box team; you're probably right, it's 6 models (including the pupper) with two additional variants you can build, that you'll need two extra bodies for.

 

Maybe time to start shopping for cheap Phobos bodies on ebay.