Allies is the In Thing and my Tau Wolf Runners

Allies? HORSESHIT! I have always been a purist. When 6th Edition was released and read about Allies, I thought it was cool but as a purist, I largely ignored it. I always thought if you played Space Wolves, you should just play space wolves. No mixing it around. No cheezie pairing. No shananigans! But let's face it, in 6th edition, allies is becoming a huge part of playing Warhammer 40k. So the purist relents and realizes that he's got to change with the times. Not to mention, it's actually quite fun!

So when 6th Edition came out I took a break from 40k.  I mostly filled my gaming fix with Malifaux.  Then they announced 2E and things started to die down for Malifaux around here.  So I took a break from that to jump back into 40k again.  That's when I started up my Tau and started to play with them,

I was in love. What entices me about Tau is that I can dig in with a gun line and unload on anything that may come my way.  Let's ignore the whiners for a while who will hate on Tau... or Chaos... or Necrons... or Eldar or just whatever the big threat is out there now.  That's for another discussion and really, the whining will run it's course when people start realizing how to beat the flavor of the month and/or when their new codex come out.

It's always the same shit that happens in the 40k community; New monkey arrives that slings bigger poop, rest of the monkeys scream and beat their chest in resistance until they realize it's not the size of the poop but how the poop is slung and how much in quantity of poop to sling to bring new monkey down with the rest of the monkeys.  Then 2 months later, another monkey arrives with bigger slinging poop (and to add insult to injury, his poop is filled with glitter).  Rest of the monkeys holler and beat their chest... etc.  You get the point.  Everyone is so worried about getting hit with poop that the forget how much fun it is to just sling it.

Now, I'm not saying that when the next time you go to your LFG to play 40k that you should squat, grunt and start flinging your poop at your opponent.  That'll probably get your kicked out of the store.  I'm just saying if you fall for the "poop slinging" theory like I did, you get stuck.

I think I realized this when I was talking to my friend David.  He just game back from the ATC and we got into a conversation about what he saw playing there.  I hit him up with how I can't win with Tau half the time because of my cursed dice problem.  He suggested a list he saw and the conversation went something like this:

David: Why don't you just ally with Eldar?
Me: HORSESHIT! I don't ally. That's stupid. And I HATE Eldar.
David: But you can get a Farseer with a spear to tank hunt and two squads of windriders to take objectives or to harass anyone getting close to the gun line.
Me: Firewarriors can run.  Lazy bastards don't do anything if they aren't shooting at someone anyways.
David: But put your farseer on a jetbike and run him up and down the line to cast Guide and Prescience on your Tau units so they can re-roll failed to hits in the shooting phase.
Me: (beats chest) OOO! AHA HA HAAA! POOP SLING... POOP SLING... POOP... wait... what?
David: Yeh.
Me: ...

So to give credit where credit is due, David help me see the light. So I put the list together with the Eldar allies and it looks pretty good. I haven't had the chance to play it yet though as I have to build and paint the bikes and THAT is seemingly the problem.

I have a problem with elves (or eldar) in which I hate them.  It's not the type of hate that I want to purge them from existence but it's more a thing that stemmed from my RPG days where I got tired of them because everyone always played them.

Ever tried to game master a group of all elves? It's hard to tell a story while your players are prancing around in Elven panties trying to hump any piece of wood they come across.  Add more to my disdain when years later some asshole director puts one in a huge budget movie surfing down the steps of a stronghold shooting orcs like he's fucking Snake Plissken from Escape from LA.

First, I feel sorry for all the game masters out there who had to deal with players in their campaigns years after the movie who's tried to surf down anything they can on a shield thinking they can pull off x10 shots with a short bow in a round.  Second, there can and only be one Snake Plissken and as stupid as that surfing scene was, he is Snake Fucking Plissken, so it was ok. Sissy pretty elf boy surfing? Not OK.

I digress as I always do in these blog posts.  So I figured let's ally them with wolves.  One problem with Tau is once things get close, it's over.  Tau and close combat goes together like Kim Jong-un and the My Little Ponies. Tau is big and intimidating from afar but once you get close, you realize it's all just bark and you want to just hold them and cuddle with them because you just feel sorry for their existence.

I texted Jay and talked to him a little about doing a 40k game on Wednesday's Live Show and see if he can put together a Chaos Marines list instead of his Dark Eldars.  I'm basically going to try and throw threats down so my opponent will have to try and figure out what to take on first.

From playing The Coach (this is why I love playing passive first games to learn about people) I have to protect the back end from drops.  He did a great service to me as I watched him drop two pods down first turn to run my line to havoc.  The Grav Guns are pretty decent weapons.  The Centurions are very slow and they weren't getting to me fast enough.  So I dropped my suits in the back to shoot as his plasma command squad on the side where his Centurions were.  I figured he'd turn them around to go after the suits which he did. Coach is a good person to play and knows some good tactics.  I can't wait to play him again.

The game is actually here if you want to watch it.  You going to see me do some weird things but that's ok. For those that know me personally in the gaming group here, you already know what I'm doing.  For those that don't, just arrive at the fact I don't know how to play 40k.

So pretty much let's get some wolf allies on my list that can help with some of the weak spots of Tau.  I'm still thinking about changing up my Cadra Fireblade for an Ethereal. I just have to get a model but I'm not buying finecast.  Good news is I got a Farseer model I was going to use for the bike but ended up getting The Chapter House Studios Farseer Conversion Kit instead (awesome by the way). So I can simply use the Farseer body with a Tau head.  Simple quick conversion if you can even all it that.

This is the list I came up with:

Tau Wolf Runners (2000pts)

Total Roster Cost: 1992

Troops: Fire Warrior Team (13#, 168 pts)
   1 Cadre Fireblade
   1 Fire Warrior Team
      12 Fire Warriors

Troops: Fire Warrior Team (8#, 82 pts)
   1 Fire Warrior Team,
      7 Fire Warriors
         1 Fire Warrior Shas'ui

Troops: Fire Warrior Team (8#, 82 pts)
   1 Fire Warrior Team
      7 Fire Warriors
         1 Fire Warrior Shas'ui

Elite: XV104 Riptide (1#, 220 pts)
   1 XV104 Riptide, (Ion Accelerator + Stimulant Injector)

Elite: XV104 Riptide (1#, 220 pts)
   1 XV104 Riptide, (Ion Accelerator + Stimulant Injector)

Fast Attack: Pathfinder Team (5#, 55 pts)
   1 Pathfinder Team, 0 pts
      5 Pathfinders

Fast Attack: Pathfinder Team (5#, 55 pts)
   1 Pathfinder Team, 0 pts
      5 Pathfinders

Heavy Support: XV88 Broadside Team (3#, 255 pts)
   1 XV88 Broadside Team, 0 pts
      1 Broadside Shas'ui, HYMP + SMS + Velocity Tracker
      1 Broadside Shas'ui, HYMP + SMS + Velocity Tracker
      1 Broadside Shas'ui, HYMP + SMS + Velocity Tracker

HQ: Rune Priest in Power Armour (1#, 110 pts)
   1 Rune Priest in Power Armour (HQ) [SW], Chooser of the Slain

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (7#, 195 pts)
   5 Grey Hunters Pack (Troops) [SW], Mark of the Wulfen + Wolf Standard + Meltagun
      1 Grey Hunter w/ Mark of the Wulfen [SW]
      1 Razorback [SW], Lascannon and TL Plasmagun

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (7#, 195 pts)
   5 Grey Hunters Pack (Troops) [SW], Mark of the Wulfen + Wolf Standard + Meltagun
      1 Grey Hunter w/ Mark of the Wulfen [SW]
      1 Razorback [SW], Lascannon and TL Plasmagun

Fast Attack: Thunderwolf Cavalry (3#, 240 pts)
   1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Fast) [SW], 0 pts
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry [SW], Storm Shield
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry [SW], Storm Shield
      1 Thunderwolf Cavalry [SW], Storm Shield

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (5#, 115 pts)
   4 Long Fangs Pack (Heavy) [SW], Missile Launcher x4
      1 Squad Leader [SW], 15 pts

So let me know what you guys think.  Two riptides, Missilesides, Calvary, Grey Hunters in Razorplasmas, and Missile Fangs for more heavy support.  The Rune priest will sport living lightning and then either Jaws or Tempest Wrath or Hurricane. Cadre or Ethereal to buff the Tau group.

One question for sure is for the Grey Hunters, Flamers, Melta or Plasma? Should I reserve the GH and Razorbacks? Or should I reserve one of the Riptides? Or should I just plop everything down and say, "Deal with it?"

Anything advice or changes you would suggest? Let me know.  Love y'all!