W.A.R: campaign: The Tau Sept.

At the end of the Third Sphere Expansion, the Tau Empire, were victorious at Mu'Gulath Bay. In the aftermath of that stunning victory the High Commander ShadowSun set out to consolidate the progress of her campaigns. With the Tyranid menace making more appearances along the Tau's eastern arm and the Imperium of Man beginning to reposition it's forces following the Kryptman Gambit the Tau found nearly all of their veteran forces fully committed to holding the gains they had made with few opportunities to drive onwards. One such option presented itself to the Galactic East of Mu'Gulath Bay, Commander Shadowsun and Ethereal Aun'Va directed a battle force for the Vior'La and Sa'Cea Septs leading a small yet powerful fleet of Earth Caste settlers to the regions in the Tau flank.


Worlds of the Sept

Ky'Oke

Ky'Oke is the Prime world of the Proto Sept to the East of Fi'Rios Sept and Mu'Gulath Bay. the seat of Sept Command and the centre of all Tau Economic, Political and Military co-ordination in the Subsector.
As a planet Ky'oke is a temperate world. primarily a Air caste replenishment outpost for fleets guarding the flank of ShadowSun's campaign, and has the most sophisticated orbital dockyard and defensive grid in the sept, it has begun to be rapidly expanded by the Earth caste settlement fleet and is on the progression to becoming a full Sept World.

 

 

Wilal'Lio

 Wilal'Lio is an Ice world that has been designated by the Earth caste as a Primary Resource World (PRW). Wilal'Lio is a barren, frozen, inhospitable world that is astonishingly rich in minable resources. The Wilal'Lio system has an asteroid density far denser then any other yet encountered by the Tau, 67% higher then the previous record, all of these asteroid fields have proven to be also high yields in resources.

 Tas'aio



 Tas'aio is the newest planet to join the Sept. Originally belonging to the Imperium of Man and known as Tasilio, the planet seceded early after the Tau arrival on the planet but before any Empire military forces were assembled in strength. The declaration was followed by a Pro-Imperial PDF faction that ignited a year long civil war that swept the planet and caused wide spread devastation. By the time the Tau Empire deployed a stabilisation force, indigenous population levels had dropped 36% by the end of the pacification worldwide casualties were 61% of population level at the start of the crisis. Most of the planet's surface is devastated Imperial settlements, most of the main surface population centres have been reconstructed but have still yet to repopulate.

Lu'Jan

Lu'jan is a desert world. Initial exploration revealed evidence of both Ork and Human settlement. However there has been no biological trace of either race found only hard objects, buildings, vehicles etc. Earth and Ethereal Castes have established a Research facility at unknown ruins in the southern hemisphere.

Jic'Ane

The Jungle world of Jic'Ane has so far resisted mass colonisation efforts by the Earth Caste, nocturnal predators, poisonous plant life and Ork infestations are few of the issues requiring a heavy Fire Caste presence. Ky'Oke Coalition have questioned the worth of a presence on Jic'Ane compared to cost in personnel and materials, yet Earth Caste scientists have recently made several breakthroughs in medical fields making it a moot point.

In the world of the Shas'la

So here's a quick update,

The local club have kicked of a year long campaign, based in a subsector of the Eastern Fringe, its something I've been looking forward to for a while.

Hopefully it's going to be a great way to bring battle reports and stories to the Internet, a tale of bringing the Greater good to the races of 40K and playing some fantastic games!

the next post will be outlining the worlds of my proto Sept, names,  a bit of planetary info the usual approach.

But one campaign is not enough!!!

no, it certainly isn't. if bringing war to a whole subsector wasn't enough the Tau have also being dragged into another campaign. this one is a three person campaign based in a Hive city. the three forces are Imperial Guard, Tau (of course), and forces of chaos.

this one will be a hard slog, map based , tough opponents who have a desire to see as many fire warriors gutted as quickly as possible.

so it's a busy time ahead for the Tau. and hopefully it'll bring more photos and more content and more fun to this page :)

The Pavonis Annexation.

Its time for the Shas'La to be baptised in the fires of true war.

as part of the Blog I'm teaming up against a gamer at my local group to run an attempt by the Farsight Enclaves to Annex a nearby Imperial Planet: Pavonis.

The campaign will be a combination of map/narrative with missions and scenarios dictated by prior events and  not just random rolls of a dice although we will use the BRB too. Our campaign will be turn based over 2 weeks each time. move/counter move etc.

This campaign will also be running alongside a major campaign been held by the WAR gaming group about a whole subsector.

So here we go..

PAVONIS:
STATUS: Imperial held habitable world along the edge of Empire/Enclave/Ork territory.

Pavonis

PLANTARY HISTORY: Colonised relatively recently in the aftermath of the Damocles gulf crusade Pavonis is one of the Imperium's most remote outposts in the region. Used for both a fleet replenishment base, forward listening post and most recently as a Forward Operating Base for Imperial 'Police actions' against Tau expeditions, planetary raids and 'Xenos Culls' against Hrud and Orks.
TAU INTERVENTION: After suffering multiple harmful actions at the hands of Imperial forces, the Tau Enclaves have decided to send an expedition to end the 'Pavonis Abnormality' with their own police action.

THE TAU INVADE

896.999.M41: With the Imperial Fleet withdrawn to meet the Empire's own offensive operations the Farsight Enclaves launched their Expedition against the Pavonis defences. While the expedition had originally been planned for a huge overwhelming blow to end the issue quickly, over two thirds of the original ground forces allocated to the campaign were redeployed to meet renewed assaults from both Orks and Tyranid threats. While this en-mass redeployment forced a reconsidering of the campaign, it was decided that failure to act would be seen as weakness by the Humans and a punitive action would be launched.

 

The Imperium was caught completely by surprise. Their System Defence Forces and the few remaining true Navel vessels were swept aside in a furious action at the systems edge and the few survivors hunted down and destroyed in a four day running battle through the system until a last stand by a pair of navel frigates finally ended the Imperium's space borne resistance. with all resistance crushed the Tau combat fleet withdrew to re-enforce stretched defences elsewhere in the enclaves leaving troop transports and a lone warship to manage the invasion.

Warship Dauntless Warrior

 

 

Shas'o StormBlade, Commander of the forces on Pavonis, identified that he wouldn't be able to engage in conventional planet wide conflict to defeat the planet's defenders, instead tau forces would be deployed in pockets all across the planet each aimed in a specific area/objective that when combined would form a pattern of control all across the planet.

 

Commander Quickthrust, assigned to the Northern sector studied his combat sector.

 

well that's the start of the campaign and a bit of back story. the first turns and actions will be posted up in the following weeks :)



Recruitment drive.

So the time has come to fill the Training Domes with eager recruits, hone the skills of battle and prepare the Shas'la for war in expanse of the deadly void in the name of the Enclaves!

 Or in Human terms...

I've been shopping.

The overall aim is to achieve a 5000 point target cadre made up of multiple formations and mini armies. From this 'Cadre Roster' I can then chose formations to become my armies in smaller games, this plays into my aim of always having as fluffy an army as possible.

Now the problem with going shopping is GW are incredibly, incredibly expensive!! As we all know damn well...

So its a bargain I'm looking for and a bargain I've found thanks to YOU my fellow gamers! Thanks to the wide variety of people selling their collections to fund other projects (I'm doing such with my own imperial guard) it's relatively easy to find good models at reasonable prices.

How to start shopping?
So all these value models floating around how can we gamers take advantage? It's simple stupid! get a shopping list of what you want BEFORE you go looking. Or like me your likely to get side lined by shiny things...

so shiny...

 

So the other key point is to not get distracted by changing your list constantly to fit with models as you see them. You have a list you like/works so stick with your choices and don't deviate.

 

Don't just look around, advertise what you want. People will come to you to sell their things and you can get good deals on the things you need.

 

Remember to be like the water caste. Haggle! get the best amount of models/quality for a cheap price, and save your money.

 

So... the troops are being marshalled, the War machines are in production, and the muster begins in two/three working days depending on delivery service.



A new legand begins.

welcome to the new blog on and a bout the Tau empire!

now this blog will mainly be dedicated to stories, battles and campaigns aimed at enjoying the warhammer 40k universe and in particular my Tau army forces.

1st question I guess people will ask is: Why Tau??

I guess it comes down to the fact I just plain like them! reading the background stories and the history of the Empire I was hooked from day one! an elite focused army, dedicated to a mobile aggressive 'Hunting' approach was always a big hook to me.

people will always cry out 'Gun Line'! and 'boring noob army!' but I don't mind. I think the tau are among the most variable and fun armies to play with. my forces are never overloaded to the cheese, (in my opinion and not many people say otherwise).

But also just the imagery and the look of the tau models is something I dig. they just look awesome!

2nd question: what will be in this blog specifically?

Well this blog will be a journey. I'm going to chose one unlucky/random fire warrior and follow his career through the ranks of my army. we'll follow him through campaigns, battles, Promotions, victories and defeats as we move a long it'll be all here to follow him as he stumbles towards immortality or ignominy.

Along the way I'll be posting my thoughts on the units I use, the choices I make general selections in the Warhammer universe. these will not be a 'Tactica' with wonder posts but just a gamer's observations on the things that happen.

Now, I'm not a tournament focused player, I'd rather have an idea from the Tau fluff and develop army lists from that perspective rather then how can I just win, win, win, win, win. While I except that there is a certain skill required to do this style of gaming, all out list to win at all costs just isn't my preferred choice.

The main arena's for my tau forces will be the Warriors And Renegades (W.A.R) Gaming Group with opponents from all over the 40k spectrum and 'No Hope Hive' a friend's gaming table where the opponents are Dark Angel space marines, Imperial Guard and Chaos Black Legion.

so buckle up kids it's going to a be a wild ride!