Heretical Thoughts: The Legend of the Purple Tau

Once again, the Tau of the Vior'La sept have proven themselves combat masters at the art of hand to hand. Over the past year since I have been running my Tau, they have defeated the following in close combat - mostly with drones:

Necron Lord

Space Marine Commander

Terminator Squad

Harald Deathwolf

The body count for these vicious hand to hand combatants continues to increase and our drones are especially adept at hand to hand combat. But why are they as good in hand to hand as this and of course, the most obvious question I hear - "Why are my Tau Purple?". Well read on and find out.

Tau are not normally hand to hand beasts, but lets take a look at the most common hand to hand combatants that I use - Gun Drones. Without going into actual stats, realize the drones have the same initiative as a Marine so we are attacking at the same time or better than most armies. Our strength and toughness is the same as a guard and the weapon skill is poor, but I have not hesitated to charge others with them. Also, I do not gang up a lot of drones. At best, I have 8 drones total onthe board so why have they been effective? It all has to do with timing. Prior to assaults, it never hurts to soak units with a lot of shooting to whittle them down. They will lose to a full guard mob or full terminator squad. However, when enough shooting has been applied, it is possible to drop individual models in hand to hand - of course dice rolling helps. I have been successful in lining up drone charges after about 2/3 of a unit in shooting. All of the models above, except Harald have been dropped by the drones as they were individual models. If they would have had squads attached, I would have lost. Its always about timing and when to charge and when not to charge, when to shoot and when not to shoot. Future articles will get into phase break down, but suffice it to say, my drones have become a terror for people and a running joke that people do not take for granted and are now being targeted instead of ignored.

Now, why are my Tau purple? Well, when I originally envisioned my Tau I was looking for them to be fighting on an alien jungle world where many of the plants have a purplish hue with the ground being similar. Therefore, the camo scheme would be in different shades of purple. However, the main reason is that my wife likes the color purple and that is easily the best way to start another army. If your significant other is asking about how much money you spend on your hobby, all you need to do is say "I was thinking about you and started to paint this army in your favorite color" Works every time, well for the 1 time I have tried it, it worked. I don't know that the Nurgle color would have went over as well.

Heretic

"Know this! What comes to pass is no longer war! It is endless sacrifice in His name. Blood for the Blood God . . . Let the Universe Drown in it!" - Crull, Warlord of the World Eaters