Tau Codex: 8th Edition Review

The Tau are back! March 17th saw Games Workshop release the first 8th edition codex for the Tau Empire and what a codex it was! New Sept Tenants, Stratagems and even a list building restriction found nowhere else in the game. Tau really did get it all. However after getting the codex, I decided that it was worth a look through. These will be first impressions from the codex between myself as a veteran Tau player and Jerry2die4 as a brand new Tau player. Each of us has written a segment of this article. We hope that both the veteran players and the new players see what has come out of the Eastern Fringe.

Jon's thoughts as a Veteran Tau Player

First off, the good. TAU SEPT TENANTS! Finally! This is something that I've wanted since 4th edition for the Tau. Now that we have six sept tenants, we have the ability to actually have some uses for certain units. Since my Jar'Kia sept is a world that was taken by the Bork'an Tau, I felt it was only natural for me to take the Bork'an Sept trait.

Next comes the warlord traits and there are a lot of them. Tau got a few in 6th and 7th when the warlord traits first came out. However this edition has seen the number raise drastically. Each Sept is getting its own trait and this allows for the player to have a lot of say on how their warlord is run. I plan to have my commander running a triple Ion blaster and some shield drones. However, the 1 Tau Commander suit per detachment is kind of a bust. More on that later.

The Stratagems that  Tau got were really nice. We even got the return of the Doomsday bomb from 4th ed. A pleasant surprise for those long time tau fans. I think as a Tau veteran player, the most noticeable thing about the codex was a the number of options that it opens up. I like how each stratagem allows for the flexibility of play. A tau player should be able to pull of between 10 and 15 command points allowing many tactical options for the average player. Stratagems allow for the Tau player to be able to play his or her army with a lot of synergy. Whereas the Imperial Guard is about numbers, Tau is about fire power in the right spot at the right time. Each piece of war gear and stratagems allows a Tau Shas'o to be prepared for anything and everything.

Victory for the Tau over the Forces of Chaos

Now on the bad and the ugly....

First, Crisis suits are still very expensive. The base cost for a crisis suit is seemingly too high for the output of damage that it does. With the loss of Crisis suits being troops, the usefulness of the unit has gone down. This also damages Farsights ability to "Farsight Bomb" the enemy with crisis suits.  Secondly, the uselessness of the Tau Key word for Jetpack. When keywords first became a thing, it was hoped among many Tau players that this keyword would allow for us to Jump-Shoot-Jump. However in the codex, the Jetpack keyword was not given any abilities. In essence, its useless.
Riptides, although better priced are still very expensive and usually die very quickly. Other units like the forge world Barracuda went up in points and are not worth fielding. Another problem is that some of the Special Characters like Shas'O O'Ralia are unable to be fielded due to their specific Sept Keyword which is not in the codex. At the moment, taking O'Ralia is more of a hindrance to you than to the enemy.

Now the ugly. The elephant in the room. The only 1 Commander rule for Tau is a major hindrance to the army at the moment. With no other army facing this restriction, Tau seem to have been (un)fairly treated in the restriction of their main HQ unit. I never used the Commander Spam and I understand why it was removed. However, what we got in return put a hamper on the army as a whole. For those who like to run multiple commanders, the limitation is going to hurt. With the March FAQ coming soon, hopefully this issue will be addressed.

As the codex starts to gain some age, Tau players will have to adapt to the coming meta. Already many list are aiming for as many command points as possible. The Tau Septs with their special rules allow for players to have all types of play be it defensive or offensive. Time will tell where the codex falls in the power levels. As a long time Tau Veteran, I am both excited and hopeful to see the army recover from its index era and move onward into 8th.

Tau'va Shas'la!

Read more »

Ad Mech: Electro-Priest of Metalica and Tournament play?

"Sons and Daughters of Metallica! The Enemy cannot hear you! Play your metal song and drown the enemy out! For Metallica! For the Omnissiah!" - Tech Priest Magnus Nicodemus

It's that time again for another blog post! Today I have finally finished the electro-priest that I talked about last time. Although there are a few touch ups I know could be done, I have spent the last 3 months on these guys. Im done. At least for the moment. Maybe in the future I will return to them and get them a little bit more up to snuff but I can't bring myself to do it for the moment.

Lately I've had a hard time motivating myself to paint. It seems that this is not a unusual occurrence for me around this time of year. Usually around the summer time my painting picks up and I do a bit better at keeping on track. In the mean time I have restarted my Dark Heresy Game. Once again, the team is going out into the grim dark in order to stop the enemies of the Imperium. Will they be able to survive or will they perish? Only time will tell.

Finished Electro Priest

Game 1 featured the team meeting a new member. Death Watch Marine Uriel of the Minotaurs chapter. This character will be played by my friend and contributor to this blog Matthew Rodgers. What will the Bull think of the war band? If the first session is any indication, things will certainly be heating up. Speaking of war bands, the new Esienhorn model is coming out from the Black Library.  This is exciting. With new rules for the famous inquisitor, it might be time to play a mixed Guard and Inquisition list.

So now onto the new topic of today. This past weekend I went to my stores ITC tournament. While I did not participate I certainly enjoyed seeing the tournament players from our local area play to their fullest. One of the main games I watched was a Imperial Guard vs Blood Angels game. The Guard player was playing a Cadian doctrine and was successfully able to hold out against the angelic host.

While the game was going on I was able to grab a few shots of this wonderfully painted army. The armies owner was able to take the Guard all the way to the finals and ended up winning our stores ITC tournament. Second place went to the Space Wolves. Third went to another Blood Angels player playing Flesh Tearers.

BaneBlade!

What stood out for me though was the work and dedication each of the players had put into their own models. From highlights to washes, every model on the tables was painted and done up. Long time readers of my blog will know that im not a fan of using grey models but I have in the past. However, these action shots really motivated me to start working again on my own armies. Hopefully this will bring me out of the lull I've been feeling.

While writing this post our group updated the stats. One local player lost every game but we a great sport about his games. In honor of the spirit of the game, our local admins gave him a best sportsmanship award.  What a neat idea! While winning is always fun, this is a game at the end of the day. A contract if you will between two people who are going to roll some dice and move models on a table. Fun should always been near the top of priorities in any war game.

Another group of photos I got were of the Sisters of Battle from Raging Heros. These models were awesome to look at. The paint job done by the local admin team was beautiful. They had chosen to do bright colors for the sisters. It is rare to see a nicely painted sisters army on the table and these were done well. Although not all of the army way painted, the models that were, allowed for a idea of how the army would look when they were done. I was excited to see how the army played since I have not seen a sisters army played in 8th Edition.

Overall it was a fun weekend and I really enjoyed seeing all the painted armies. Hopefully next time I will be over this lull and onto my next project!

Until next time!

Leman Russ tanks

Infantry Rush!

Tank Park

Sisters Walker

Raging Heros Sisters 

Read more »

Ad Mech: Electro-Priest of Metalica (WiP)

Today I have a real treat for you all. Since the beginning of the year, my time has been filled up with work and real life task so this blog has suffered because of that. However today I hope to fix that. Originally I had planned to start a new painting series but since my time for painting has been so limited, Ive decided to put that new series on hold for the moment.

 Instead Im going to show off some Works in Progress. Bare in mind that these are not done but have been sitting on my work bench for a while.

Adeptus Mechanicus models always seem to take the longest for me to do, and since I wanted to have something to show for February, Ive decided upon these electro-priest. I first tried the electro-priest on table top simulator against my friends Death Korp of Krieg. Seeing how powerful the unit was, I quickly set about ordering myself a squad of 5. When the squad got in, I set about assembling them and then got them primed. Long time readers will know that I play Forge World Metalica and so I have set about painting them in the white robes of the priesthood. As mentioned earlier this year I plan to redo my Metalica list and in doing so adding more Electro-Priest to my army.

This rebuilding of my army is going to be a slow job but its one that will be enjoyable over time. I have planned for this build to take me on towards 2018-2019 and in doing so will be allowing myself ample time to paint each unit. Our local store is doing a Path to Glory game and so this is the perfect time in which to build my forces up. Once this squad is done, I hope to be able to break out my airbrush for another unit that Ive been eyeing to complete. More on that later.

In other news, I have gotten my knight primed up and base coated in a silver spray. When the weather gets clear here, I intend to break out my airbrush and set about painting up the knight. My plan is to add it to House Raven, which is allied with Metalica.  As we work our way further into this new year I hope to have a few more exciting new articles and models to show off to everyone.

Until Next time! Keep rolling those dice!

Read more »

2018!: New Year and New Projects!

Hello and welcome to the 2018 edition of Behind the Lines Gaming.As a new year gets underway we look forward to the new start that a new year will bring. Like last year I will be attempting to post every other week but real life might  get in the way. As with last year, this is more a attempt to regulate myself than a true schedule or promise.

Projects for this year include finishing my Tanith 1st and only army as well as my Phantine and Pardus 8th Armored. Good progress has been made on this army and I can only hope 2018 sees to it that more good things are to come.

My Menoth forces will also continue to be worked on. This army is a small one and I am unsure if any more models will be added to it. Time will tell. What use to be a nice 50 point army is now somewhere in the 40 point range. These point changes, as well as the game going up to 75 points has left a sour taste in my mouth.

My Adeptus Mech forces might also grow some in 2018. I am planning to completely rebuild my list with a new force and build up my forces to 2000 points.

With the lack of a Tau codex for 8t Edition, The Tau Sept has been shelved until the codex hits. Once the codex comes out, I will see how Tau have transferred over to the new edition. 

The Deathwatch force remains small while the Black Templar army I bought in 2017 has been stripped and primed. Im still not certain what I want to do with them at all. I might at some point sell them. 

2018 is going to be a exciting new year that we here at Behind the Lines gaming hope everyone will be excited for! Stay tuned for a much more to come!

Read more »

2017: A Year in Review

Well here we are again! Seems like only yesterday we were starting another New Year. This year has seen a lot of changes in both myself and this blog. Every day brought something new this year and the world has kept on spinning. We here at Behind the Lines Gaming would like to wish you a Happy New Year.

The Tanith and Imperial guard have gotten a lot of attention this year. I can safely safe that most of those units have been painted. 2018 should see some additions to the armies.  The Tau as noted earlier will be getting reinforcements with the Riptide battlesuit and hopefully a few more surprises. The Adeptus Mechanicus army is growing with the additional purchase of a skitarii army pending at the moment. More news on that soon! Finally with MK III of warmachine out now, I have gotten into full swing of painting those miniatures. Hopefully i'll be able to take them out for a few games.

As always we plan to do a Top Three projects we have done this year. Located here, the Gallery is a page dedicated to the top work on completed models we've done each year.Give it a look and let us know what you think!

#1 This year was the Matlida Battle Tank Review coming in at 1,649 page views. I got the Matilda tank as a birthday present this year and so I was thankful to have one! It is a beautiful model and a joy to put together. I first posted pictures of it after I had airbrushed it German Grey and Black-Grey. It always get compliments on the table and is a real head turner. Victoria Lamb out did herself with this model! Hopefully in the future I will be able to pick up a few more!


#2 Behind the Matlida was the Mortian Tank Review I did. This review came in at 1,511 page views. The return of the Mortian was a pleasant surprise. I had never thought I would see the return of this tank but it turned out that this post was to be my second most viewed post of the year. I even got a comment! Makes me sad I sold my old Mortian tank.

#3 This was a odd third place but coming in at 833 views was my Review of Menoth Paladins. This was one that I did not see coming! The Paladin review of my Menoth models shows that our reader base has some fans that are interested in War machine! The Paladins of the Order of the Wall were really fun to paint up during football season and so came in at 3rd place on the list. Hopefully next football season I'll get a few more done up before the games.

As the year comes to a close I wish to thank my loyal readers and those who follow me. It makes writing these post easier knowing that some people read them and enjoy the content of them.If you like what you see please become a follower of the blog or leave a comment below! Every little bit helps

With that I wish you the best in this ending to 2017 and a happy start to 2018! Keep rolling those dice and stay tuned for many new exciting things to come in 2018! 

Read more »

Product Review: Matlida Battle Tank "Fury"

Today I present to you another product review. This time from Victoria Miniatures. Long time readers of this blog will know that I have done a few Victoria Miniatures reviews for her Border World Rangers before but never a vehicle.

The Matilda Battle Tank has been on my list of "to buy" items for a long time. This Battle tank was a gift from my friends for my birthday. They bought me not only the tank itself, but also the gun pack and the sponson pack. Shipping took the normal amount of time to reach the US from Australia and was not bad at all. When the tank arrived, it arrived it a single box with the bits in one part of the box and the main tank located in another box. The Tank was then washed and dry fitted together.

The casting on the tank is beautiful. The way the turret guns fit into the turret is flawless and does not even require magnets to work. It should be noted that the tank also has spots for magnets built into the sponsons. Assembly was easy and once I got started it was hard to put it down. I was able to assemble the model in one sitting but after that it was a few weeks before I could get the courage to airbrush her. When I finally did it was well worth it. I have taken the model to my local store many times and get questions about who makes it all the time. It is certainly a conversation starter and eye candy for the table.

I think sometime in the future I certainly will be ordering a few more! Victoria Miniatures has hit a home run with this model. I would certainly recommend this model to anyone looking for a change to the standard Leman Russ. If you are a fan of historical tanks but want a touch of science fiction to your 40k models you cant go wrong! Let me know your own feelings on this beautiful tank! In the mean time I got to get back to painting her.

Until Next time!

Read more »

Mortian Battle Tank: A Review

Today I present to you a unscripted post. Mostly because its Here for only a limited time. The Mortian tank! A popular favorite with the Imperial Guard Community has returned and with it the limited chance to get a very nice tank.

I first encountered the Mortian tank in 2015. At the time, I was looking to get out of Game's workshop models and move onto 3rd party stuff. The Mortian tank instantly became a favorite while doing a casual search online. It had everything I wanted. The look of a Panzer with the proportions of a realistic looking tank.

However, I soon found that the designer of the tank had not had his stuff for sale since 2009. Nonetheless, I searched through google and found his site. In a desperate bid to get a trio of the tanks, I sold of my Leman Russes and ordered three Mortian. With  that done, I also found a 4th from a mutual acquaintance. This Mortian you see in the picture was the tank from the mutual acquaintance. When i received it, it was in harsh condition. I was able to fix it up and put it back together as best I could. Finally, I got it into a game against necron. I have pictures from that game but since it was so far back, I don't really remember the details. Needless to say, the model was a absolute delight to play. I soon primed it but then things took a turn for the worst. After 2 months, my orders had not come in yet. Digging deeper, I found that the site was down and with it my order had been lost. It seemed as if the company and the designer had dropped off the face of the earth. I was able to get a refund through PayPal and that was the end of my hopes for a trio of the Mortian. I sold off my Mortian on Ebay for next to nothing and pushed it from my mind. I was disappointed and sad. Mad Robot and Victoria Lamb both had tanks coming out soon I heard. So I waited.

Every so often I would look online at Leman Russ tanks and see the Mortian and remember that it was no longer available. I tried another route and bought three Leman Russes from Game's workshop but soon tired of those too and sold them off to a friend. However with the Mortian now back (Even as a kick starter) it hold a special place in my mind.

The model is beautiful, easy to put together and looks great on the table. For those of you who want a tank that will be sure to turn heads and get comments from people around the gaming table I would highly recommend ordering one (or three!) They really are worth it in the end, even for the rarity factor alone, I would suggest at least 1. They'll look great at any photo op!


Below are some battle report photos from the Battle i used it in back in 2015. I don't remember any of the turns so its best just to leave the photos here.

Until next time!

Read more »