This will be both fiction and pictures as I advance my army. I went with the German scheme and will do a step by step when I do Shas'O Ralai.
this was my original test suit, I have since redone the base.
Cant wait to do the other one of the pair. Its next in line after the shas'O
First of three
Fire Warrior test model, think I will stick with this, forgive the mold line

Their first battle against eldar at 2250. I took some liberties and changed a few things, the game ended in a draw with both commanders fighting in hand to hand with neither seeming to do much to the other. I didnt see a reason to include the Avatar as it wouldnt be present in such a small scale skirmish even though it was on the field. But for the most part things happened as they happen here.

Once More

The two flattened Mantas swooped through the darkness of space towards the mottled brown planet. Several almost similar looking vessels hung in orbit, although much, much larger in size. One manta dove to miss a large chunk of unidentifiable spacecraft debris. Sporadically small pulses from the larger ship’s point defense systems destroyed some minor piece of debris that endangered the ships.

A tall Tau sat strapped in his chair on the bridge of the lead Manta as it neared orbit, he looked at the control panel in front of him, and activated the hologram projector. Beside him a very slender Tau of the Air Caste with the rank of Shas’vre spoke quietly to a communications drone. “Nefelhiem Command, this is Shas’O Kozan, 1st Reaction Cadre, 755th Sturm Grenadiers, where do you want us?”

Static blurred image of a Tau Fire Caste Shas’El appeared. “Shas’O, we asked for an entire corps, I assume the rest is behind you?”

“Negative, the rest of the unit is delayed; we are all you have for the time being. I wasn’t privy to any other unit’s deployment plans. I repeat, where do you want us?”

“I copy, stand by.” The two mantas slipped into high orbit moving into the protective umbrella of the larger Tau warships.

Minutes passed and the Shas’O impatiently tapped his fingers on the arm rest. He figured he should be used to this by now. He spent the last 17 of his 23 years of service in a Reaction Cadre. Overlord commanders tended to treat Reaction Cadres with an odd mix of disdain and awe. Need someone to hold the line in a hurry? Send in a Reaction Cadre. Need a big distraction so you can evacuate your line troops? Send a Reaction Cadre. Need an epic, suicidal miracle to be performed? Send a Reaction Cadre. Casualty rate among the few reaction cadres tended to be extremely high, nearing 90% in the first year last time he bothered to check the stats. Assignment was always voluntary, and thankfully lots of young fire warriors wanted to be counted among the elite members of the Reaction Cadres. Even some of the auxiliaries joined and provided vital services. Being a member was a fast track to being a battle suit pilot, of course one had to survive long enough to get one. They also tended to get the newest and best gizmos and shooters the Earth Caste could come up with and were active testers of it, for better or for worse. His own suit was highly experimental and was libel to blow up on him when he fired, but it did have many great advantages over normal suits and the chance for self harm was low enough for him to risk it.

“Shas’O Kozan,” a new Tau appeared, this time a Shas’O with the pins of a planetary commander, “we have a vital mission to be performed by you. As you know, we are still unsure of the reasons for the Eldar incursion into our space but our bases are being hit on all sides. To the east of the city of Cameron lies a desert area of no real importance and so far the Eldar have left it alone. One of our pathfinder patrols located a large Eldar highly mobile force approaching. The scouts were engaged and are trying to make a break for the city and are under heavy fire. We need to rescue the scouts and stop the Eldar advance until sufficient defensive forces can be marshaled to that position. “

“Can do, commander. Do you have a spot in mind?”
“Coordinates have been transmitted to you mantas.” Kozan looked to the Air caste commander who looked over to him and nodded his slender head and gave an order to his bridge crew. The view screen began to shift as the vessels changed course.
“The ideal location is an open canyon which will naturally funnel the enemy ground forces. There are rocky outcroppings and old ruins present which should provide you with cover. Good luck commander, I expect re-enforcements to arrive in a few hours to relieve you.”

The connection cut out and the manta commander looked over at him, “Same worn out story, eh commander?”

Kozan sighed, “As the Guela say, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.”

********************************************************************************************************************

The Tetras sped across the rocky desert terrain, skimming several feet above the ground as fast as their twin engines could be pushed. Behind them a swarm of flattened eldar skimmers hummed after them like angry hornets, flashes of light licking out at the pathfinder scout vehicles.

The scouts discovered the eldar approaching but were detected in the process. A running battle resulted, mostly running for the pathfinders piloting the Tetras, but they had managed to separate the faster elements of the eldar force from its slower follow on elements. Now it was a race to get past the canyon where a small pathfinder squad had set up an ambush, although with the numbers involved, they likely wouldn’t be more than a small speed bump. Command set back up was on the way, but they have said that before during this campaign.

A green icon appeared on the lead Tetra pilot’s HUD, the Pathfinders lay in wait in a cluster of rock pillars ahead. The trailing tetra hit an unexpected dip and the following rise and ramped into the air.
Eldar laser fire lanced out and hit an engine. The lightly armored engine exploded in flame and smoke and the light vehicle nosed into the ground on its side rolling end over end in a ball of flame.

A shadow passed high over head.

***************************************************************************************************************

Kozan had assessed the situation in the air before arriving on location. His plan was to use the forces he had available to and envelop the eldar vanguard and then await re-enforcements. His first stage was using his longer ranged forces to sucker the eldar in towards them. He and his second in command Shas’El Morvant, call sign ‘Rip-Tide’, along with his command team dropped from their mantas and landed near the dug in pathfinders. In the distance he could see the running battle with the tetras and saw one of them explode spectacularly.

Perhaps sensing the heavier tau forces most of the eldar forces slowed down to a more cautious speed and began spreading out. A large squad of white, graceful, winged jet bikes swooped towards the pathfinders and now his location. He immediately activated his stealth field and several shots hissed past his position.

A group of wave serpents sped towards some ruins to his far right. In the distance, dismounted eldar infantry set up positions with heavy weapons in rock formations. A third wave serpent cautiously followed the jet bikes.

Enhancing his vision he observed the approaching jet bikes. Each was piloted by what appeared to be female pilots, each with a sword over their shoulders and wearing beautifully ornate armor. The leader in particular wore bejeweled and gaudy armor, he hardly thought it was fitting in a combat situation but who knew how these eldar thought?


The pathfinders began marking the jet bikes with their laser marker lights. Keying in on it, Rip-Tide and his team opened fire with their arm mounted missile pods. A cloud of missiles streaked in and two of the bikes were hit and blew up in shrapnel filled balls of flame. More disturbing though were the missiles that hit and exploded harmlessly on some kind of invisible field.
He fired his own weapons at the bikes and with a CRUMP CRUMP CRUMP noise the fragmentation rounds exploded among the bike squadron. None fell as their protective fields flared to light and protected the riders.

The jet bikes closed on the pathfinders and opened fire with their bikes’ shurican catapults spitting molecularly thin spinning discs on the scouts. Several fell, and even more were killed screaming as they when one of the riders cast some kind of sorcerous green flame on the middle of their position. The remaining pathfinder lost his nerve and scurried from cover towards the Shas’O.

The next stage of his plan came into being as multiple suit teams landed around the eldar forces. His Blade storm team landed behind the bikers and let loose with a torrent of fire from burst cannon, plasma rifles, and an experimental Cyclonic Ion Blaster. Most hit their targets but the mysterious force fields protected all but one of the bikers whose robes caught fire from the plasma bolt that shot though the thin being. His bike nosed into a nearby ruin added black char to a weather beaten exterior.

Rip-Tide’s command team fired again and this time the eldar were so close he surmised the fields did not have time to activate, three more fell in expanding balls of flame.

His two XV-88 suits landed with assistance of their strap-on, one use jet packs. They immediately regained their balance and fired on the distant pair of wave serpents with loud sonic boom cracks. Eldar deception systems proved superior to the Broadside’s targeting computers and all four of their heavy metal rounds flew off into the distance.

The jet bikes acrobatically flew through the columns and dove upon the broadsides drawing and swinging sorcerous green blades. The Broadside’s attendant shield drones flew in between and engaged the eldar in a lopsided battle, one drone was neatly sliced in half by the enemy leader’s blade and throwing off actinic sparks, the two halves fell to the ground. The suits mounted rail cannon on their arms and were hardly usable for melee combat, however one pilot timed his attack for when one of the two bikers swooped down around them and threw his arm up, neatly clothes-lining the rider. Solid stationary object meets soft movable object. The rider flew back off the bike, her neck broken. The bike continued forward eventually colliding with a pillar of stone in the distance.

His unit’s Hammerhead grav tank landed with a whoosh and a cloud of dust near Rip-Tide's team. It immediately opened fire with a loud crack at the approaching wave serpent. The aim was true but a bright flash erupted as it hit yet another energy field on the eldar tank.

On the far side of the field, one of his Fire Warrior devilfish dropped its ramp disgorged its squad into some old ruins, the well trained warriors quickly took up firing positions as another crisis team landed behind one of the two wave serpents. The Helios team opened fire with its fusion blasters. The rear armor of the serpent might as well have been paper and the vehicle exploded in a ball of flame. Miraculously four Howling Banshees somehow survived not only alive but charged at the dismounted Fire Warriors, the first enemy they could see. The Fire Warriors responded by opening up with their rapid firing pulse rifles. Azure pulses of light burst into the female banshees at point blank throwing a few of them backwards into the air but dropping all of them.

The remaining wave serpent spun in place and disgorged its own squad of banshees who swooped in on the Helios team in confusing flips and a horrifying wail. The enemy tank itself fired its bright lance at the devilfish and mauled an engine forcing the pilot to immediately land before losing control.

The next phase of combat commenced as a war walker engaged another Fire warrior team over on the left side of the canyon; it was all the warriors could do to avoid the heavy stomps of the machine. Fire from the ruins burst out from on top of one of the ruins at Morvant’s team striking both of his command team before the shield drones could react. Kozan drifted back firing a high velocity sabot round at a second war walker, penetrating both the pilot and the machine and exploding out the back of the walker.
Its partner opened fire with its scatter laser and streaks of light flew at him leaving scorched streaks in his camouflage but not harming him otherwise.

Across the field an unseen Wraith lord reared its elongated, domelike head from behind a pillar of rock firing at extreme range at his Bladestorm team, penetrating and killing one pilot instantly. Before they could react to that threat the third wave serpent swooped over the ruins it had been using for cover and opened its ramp mid-air. From within, red armored fire dragons opened fire on the two remaining suits melting their armor into slag before speeding off to another point in the field.

On a pillar of flame his veteran XV-9 Hazard suit team landed behind the Wraith lord without orders, having sensed the threat the very tough walker presented and taken the initiative to take it down. A massive amount of firepower fired from their twin armed weapons. The phased ion guns were designed to penetrate armor not by force but by phasing through the solid material. Most of the shots impacted harmlessly on the hard material of the armor, but some got through. The walker convulsed as though suffering a seizure and collapsed to the ground.

On the far right, his infiltrated kroot mercenaries took advantage of the downed walked to rise up almost out of nowhere and leap with glee into a squad of eldar infantry ripping through their fragile and lightly armored bodies causing the remaining few to run.

His last surprise was triggered as a forth crisis team landed near the entrenched guardian squad that had fired at the command team. Burning flammable gel burst from their flame throwers and incinerated the hidden eldar to the man.

A guardian infantry squad near the XV-9s panicked and swiveled their anti-grav mounted scatter laser and fired on the move as they raced into the heavy suits. Both of the unit’s shield drones valiantly sacrificed themselves to save the suits. The squad leapt into hand to hand combat not wanting to weather a volley of shots like the one that took down the Wraith lord. Led by a warlock with a glowing green blade the suits were suddenly out of their element and one quickly fell to the frenzied guardians. The nearby kroot seeing their allies in trouble raced across open ground to try and save them.

The broadsides continued to fight but realizing it was for naught against the enemy, which by then his targeting computer had identified as an incredibly skilled farseer, he ordered the broadsides to withdraw after seeing one suit’s arm drop to the ground from well struck swipe of the enemy’s blade. Kozan leapt towards the enemy, his loyal marker light drones flying in close pursuit and announced over his loudspeaker, “How about fighting me, eldar!”

The farseer looked up, recognizing the challenge and allowed the broadside team to escape and sped towards the XV-9 commander.

The Heatwave team and Morvant’s command team converged on the remaining guardian squad, Morvant stopping briefly to destroy the engaged war walker with a well timed missile blast from above as the used his jet pack to fly over the combat. The remaining Fire Warriors gathered their wits and joined the rush towards the enemy position.

All contact was lost from the right side of the canyon although scattered azure blasts indicated that someone was still fighting. The hammerhead zoomed overhead and fired at the guardian’s heavy weapon position, sending a blast of ancient brick and a couple guardians flying in a cloud of smoke.

The farseer swooped down upon Kozan and a swirl of bike, wings, robe and blade. He trained extensively with his drones and although he lacked a true weapon, his large gun backed up by the suit’s enhanced strength made a decent heavy club. The drones flew interference and occasionally dive bombed the eldar leader, one scoring a heavy strike on the back of her head.

The eldar wasn’t helpless and the blade flashed out in a dizzying blur striking him repeatedly and a glancing blow to the drone, but his suit’s physical energy shield and armor held and even the drone escaped harm with a deep gouge on its hardened carapace.

The Crisis teams converged on the guardians who instead of shooting the real threat, aimed and dropped the remaining Fire Warriors in a storm of fire and shurican fire. The command team responded by blasting the building and guardians with both its flamers and missile pods leaving the structure a smoking ruin and barely more than a couple walls.

The Heatwave team turned in time to the remaining XV-9 surrounded by the dead and bludgeoned bodies of guardians and kroot get shot down by close range blasts from the fire dragons. The aspect warrior’s wave serpent lay with its doors open and they fired a volley of their shoulder mounted missile pods. The skimmer’s engines belched smoke and flame and dropped to the ground, the turret swiveling towards them and firing a missile which missed and added to the damage to the ruins behind them.

Kozan and the farseer continued to trade blows until finally they separated by unspoken agreement. Both stared at each other warily. Behind the eldar towards the distant city a dust cloud betrayed the arrival of approaching troops. A quick glance at his commander screen showed that neither side held a positional advantage although the forces present definitely favored the Tau. A point further emphasized by the Hammerhead pulling up to the fight lining its railcannon up on the last wave serpent across the field and it’s burst cannons pointing at the farseer.

“I believe this fight is over, eldar. I offer a localized cease fire.”

“I am listening, commander.” The shrill high pitched voice of the farseer said, “It was foreseen we would hit a setback somewhere in this campaign, and it would appear to be it. What are your terms?”

“Collect your wounded and leave this canyon. My forces hold the field.”

“You have honor, Tau, we accept these terms and will withdraw, cease fire orders have been given to my troops. We will meet again, I see it but it is not under these conditions.” The farseer left his bike and began collecting glowing stones from the armor of his squadron mates.

Seeing some kind of meeting was going on the Hammerhead held its fire. Behind them, Ride-Tide and his team landed in a whoosh of dust from their jet packs ready for combat but also holding their fire. “All units cease fire, cease fire!” He ordered. “Begin looking for wounded.”

He looked up to see the approaching unit and toggled his communications equipment to them, “Approaching forces, a cease fire is in effect, hold your fire and distance, then assume defensive positions in the canyon as soon as the eldar leave the AO. Out.”

“Command, position is held by a string. We request medevac and maintenance support. Casualty count is high.”

“Good job, commander. Help is on the way. How long till you are at combat readiness, we have a mission for you.”

He swiveled his suit’s head to his number two who was monitoring the call.

“Once more unto the breach?” Rip-Tide asked.

“Once more…” Kozan sighed.

Awe-inspiring, I always like these kind of battle report. Next time forget your honor and just shoot them when you have the chance

I like the scheme, it really breaks up the edges of the model which is a sign that it is a well executed camo

Thanks for the comments. Pretty much what i was trying for. One more broadside and I can start the smaller suits.
Another XV9

The last XV9


Shas'O Kozan(Ralai)
Step 1: Base painted over Krylon Black with Khemri Brown


Step 2: Macarius Orange Blotches


Step 3: A dark Chaos black and scorched brown mix in the neighborhood of 75/25


Step 4: Dots on all the non-black/brown areas in the black brown mix. Made an effort to join the other two colors as well.

Step 5: I apologize for the lack of pic. My camera refused to focus. I would hit the button and it would go right by focus. Basically using the same idea from 4. Dots in orange on the non-orange parts and brown on the non brown parts. Once again joining thecolors where i could to break it up a bit. The following step pic shows it pretty well. Look under the wash in the next step to see what I did with the dots.

Step 6: Drybrush Bleached bone over the whole model. Throw on a wash of Devlin Mud. Let it dry and do a lighter drybrush in bleached bone.


Final: Do the details. None of the details are rocket science so I didnt list them. I can definitely improve on them. Next up, Broadsides and start to do 8 more Crisis suits.

I had a fight on very short points(I really don't like low point games since I cannot bring all my toys) against a new player at 1250 this weekend. The only unit I completely lost was a Fire Warrior squad. I wiped him off the board(aside from a stealth team member) and I didnt even get to bring one of my suit squads on the board. I was rolling very very badly too. My Hazard team continually hit way under average but using them as a instructional method we worked hits out very beneficially for him(by putting all the rending hits on one guy and the other hits on the others evenly). It was a fun game and he was appreciative of fighting a very nonstandard army, he was used to stand up gun fights I think.

“Train as you fight”

Shas’O Kozan reclined in the cushy chair in the observation room of the training range. His cadre, recently called back after the sudden, mysterious ending of the eldar incursion on Nefelhiem, currently was on rest and recovery on the Sept world Dalth. While the rest of the 1st Cadre was on leave, he and his second in command, Shas’el Riptide, were stuck in constant training and planning meetings with the war council.

Bored of this, and not wanting his cadre to get fat and lazy from all the time off, he pulled some strings to get his cadre some training time in a versus a newly formed line cadre. The cadre was commanded by a recently promoted Shas’O who by virtue of being the only surviving Shas’vre of his previous unit was Shas’O by default. The new officer had a brilliant career as a team leader, but struggled on multiple unit leadership and the massive amount of multitasking it required.

With only half of his unit back together after the huge losses on Nefelhiem, his unit was a perfect size to go after the new cadre. He himself frustratingly was told to sit this one out along with his Bravo Crisis team leader who sat in his own silk uniform playing arm chair general. Before them sat a large hologram image of the battlefield, brought to them by numerous observation drones flying over the battlefield. Range controllers also sat and watched the overall picture and several sat in booths watching and grading individual teams.

Finally Shas’O Juanti entered the vicinity of his advance forces. He had allowed Riptide to take command of the short cadre for this scenario to see how he did in total command of an operation. So far he was performing textbook perfect for a Reaction Cadre.
In an area of heavy terrain he had his short strength Fire Warrior squad dig in and well hidden for an ambush. His own team was configured in their usual Death Rain style, and hidden behind the same piece of terrain, although the bulky crisis suits did not hide as easily.

The 2nd Line Cadre entered the field aggressively in a broad line, with easily read intent. A movement to contact with his lone hammerhead tank on the far left and a kroot squad on the far right. Zooming his view in on the kroot shaper, he could see the frustration on the mercenary leader’s face at being used like this.

Behind and to the left of the kroot were a mounted Fire Warrior squad hanging back to assist once contact was made. The Shas’O himself brought up the rear center of the formation, hopping from hidden spot to hidden spot. Two short squads of stealth suits moved in support of an unmounted Fire Warrior squad on the center left.

As the range closed, finally the hammerhead noticed one of Riptide’s crisis suit and opened fire.
***********************************************************************
An explosion ripped through the terrain. One of his bodyguard suits went yellow from the ordinance round from the hammerhead. Directly to their front the devilfish hit the pedal and zoomed forward. His Fire Warriors opened fire on the kroot mercenaries on the right side, downing several. He noticed the enemy command team leaping out from cover and ordered his own squad forward and fired a volley at extreme range at the crisis suits. Amazingly every one hit their mark. Both of the squad’s shield drones and one of the body guards went up in flaming explosions. Before the enemy could react, he bounded back behind cover as their launchers reloaded.

The devilfish fired upon the now exposed Fire Warriors from its rotary burst cannon. An impressive stream of blue pulse fire, came out, but bounced harmlessly from his warrior’s armor. The enemy force moved up, Devilfish moving forward and pivoting on gusts of hot air, its side and rear door’s swinging open disgorging a Fire Warrior team, who fired a mass volley into his command squad.

Both of his shield drones, and one of his team members went red and another yellow from hits. The hammerhead tried to contribute but its shot went wide and instead landed among his Fire Warriors killing several as well in a ball of flame.
Seeing he was about to be overwhelmed, he announced in his radio, “All units, now!”

Swooping low over the field, Orca assault shuttles swooped in dropping their lethal cargo. His Alpha team landed directly behind the enemy command team. His unit of PIG armed Hazard suits landed beside the exposed kroot team. On the far left side, his previously positioned kroot team rose from the sand and rocks and charged at the dismounted Fire Warrior team protecting the Hammerhead. His Delta team, the Broadsides, rose up from a crater and lumbered forward, depleted uranium slugs cracking out at the enemy hammerhead. His own tank swooped out of a canyon and opened fire as well.

Amazingly the enemy hammerhead’s disruption pod worked as it was supposed to and every single shot missed the target. The enemy kroot were ripped apart by the PIG armed XV-9s and went into full retreat. Somehow the enemy command team survived the massive volley of actinic fire from the alpha team and leapt into cover managing not to hit anything on the way in and returned fire. Two of the team were hit by fusion fire and went yellow. The jinking hammerhead contributed to the fire by firing a blast from its rail cannon. One of the suits went red and exploded.

Nearer to his position, Riptide left cover and jumped out at the dismounted Fire Warrior squad and opened fire with their flame throwers, immolating eight of them. His Fire Warriors spotted an approaching stealth team and fired into them causing no injuries. He bounced his team back into cover.

His Charlie team was nowhere to be seen which concerned him slightly. His audio receptors picked up yelling from the left and turned in time to see the last enemy Fire Warrior there getting knocked to the ground by his kroot squad, the hounds baying into the sky. They recovered quickly and started sprinting towards a second stealth team.

His hazard team bounded backwards towards the enemy command team and unleashed a blinding barrage of phased ion gun blasts. Shas’O Jaunti went down leaving a single bodyguard. The XV-9 veterans didn’t paused and charged in after the remaining suit, beating it down in a flurry of crashing metal fists. They leapt back out of the rough terrain and started bounding towards Riptide’s position. Alpha team seeing the command team was down fired on a stealth team killing two of its members leaving one armed with a fusion gun who returned fire, missing and then jumping into cover.

Delta team and the hammerhead continued their unfair team-up against the enemy hammerhead. His own tank got a direct hit on the gunship’s engines and the enemy craft dug into the ground trailing a column thick black smoke. Both broadsides fired at it, one hitting and adding to the woes of the enemy hovercraft jarring the hell out of its crew in a resounding clang.
The kroot continued to sprint across the field at the last stealth team who opened fire on his Fire Warriors taking several of them. The enemy Fire Warriors charged out from the cover of their devil fish which kept a continuous fire on his own troops. They fired from the hip at his command team missing all the shots.

Riptide responded by jumping out of cover again unleashing a volley of missiles at the Devilfish’s side easily penetrating and destroying the vehicle. His own Fire Warriors fired on the enemy Fire Warrior team killing one. He mentally issued orders for them to go to the firing range after this.

On his left flank he vaguely noticed his hammerhead take out its enemy counterpart with a rail cannon shot to the rear. His broadsides fired upon a stealth team but missed both shots. That stealth team responded by firing a furious storm of burst cannon and fusion blasters at his Fire Warriors killing them all.

Alpha team fired upon the remaining stealth team, failing to do any damage, they then charged in for close combat. The last three members of the enemy Fire Warrior team stood their ground and fired point blank at Riptide and his team mate. His bodyguard went red leaving him on his own to exact swift vengeance. He flamed the three warriors and fired his missile pods. Amazingly only one warrior fell, but the other two decided they didn’t want to be there anymore and tried to run.

Riptide was seeing red at this point and wasn’t in the mood to let them run. He leapt forward and grabbed both warriors by their backpacks and used his suit enhanced strength to pick them up and slam them into each other in a powerful attack. The two warriors crumpled limply to the ground.

At this point all suits on the field seized up and became immobile. “EndEx! EndEx!” A deep voice yelled over the radio, “Shas’El Riptide, you have violated the rules of safe engagement! All units report to your respective armories and unsuit. AAR in one hour!”

Riptide calming down looked across the field, the remaining enemy stealth team was picking itself up off the floor, apparently having been destroyed by the Hazard team. Various team members helped each other up and dusted themselves off. A white painted devilfish landed nearby with a whoosh, its ramp dropping as it came down and medics with stretchers ran out and over to the Fire Warriors he injured.

***************************************************************

Shas’O Kozan walked down the hallway past an office. He could hear the head instructor screaming at the top of his lungs at his second in command even through the door. He quirked a smile and continued down the passage, ‘train as you fight’ he thought. There wouldn’t be any real punishment besides a hurt ego, both Fire Warriors had survived with a bad case of whiplash once they woke up.

The AAR for his opponent was underway as he entered the room. One of the range controllers was tossing out info and percentages in front of an overhead view of the hologram. Upon seeing Kozan enter the room, “Commander Kozan, do you have something to add?”

“Aye,” he said and walked forward. “Your movement to contact was textbook perfect.” He said looking at the new Shas’O who smiled at what he assumed was a compliment. “However, it was very wrong for the situation especially as you knew who you were facing.” The smile disappeared. A quick glance at the veteran kroot commander saw a look of amusement on the alien’s face.
“You knew you were facing an elite Reaction Cadre yet instead of hitting us in force, you were spread out and very easy to pick off one by one. You should have utilized your Kroot as scouts to find my command team and his warriors and then hit it with everything together. Your units were unable to support each other and ended up as individuals all over the battle field, which my cadre excels at destroying. I actually ordered one of my teams not to show up just to toss a bone in your direction, so in fact you were fighting a numerically smaller force.”

The Shas’O took the berating with a straight face. “You concentrated on the bait the Shas’El Riptide left for you and you took it hook line and sinker.” He said sitting down on the edge of the stage. “Your stealth teams were inefficiently armed, plus you should have used them to airdrop once my guys were located, targeting arrays would have helped as well and likely would have saved some of your Fire Warriors and perhaps would have taken out my Alpha team before they beat you into the ground quite literally.”

“Your command team was also inefficiently armed. Fusion blaster? Why? You were not air dropping so only by luck did you happen to get a shot on my Alpha team as close as they were. Plasma would have worked out better for you. Pick a role for your team and stick with it. As you saw, my command team was useful in all aspects of the scenario, although they only specialized in one.”

“I know I am biased due to the nature of my command, but see if you can requisition more suits. You were woefully under equipped for this mission.”

“Yes sir. More suits are due in next week along with more warrior teams. I will take the equipment info under advisement, thank you.” The young commander said, obviously trying to keep a straight faced from the light berating. Kozan didn’t even think he was being harsh, not that it mattered, the battlefield wouldn’t take it lightly on him, why should he?

“Alright, good exercise. I am giving my guys the night off and they are hitting the range first thing in the morning. Lets hit the bar, first round is on me!”

My current list 2250
Someone on another site was wondering about my list and since i do not have it posted anywhere, I figured this is as good a place as any, plus i will post and update the completion status. Not looking for critiques of it although i am willing to listen to ideas and suggestions do me a huge favor though and keep them to PMs and not in the thread itself. Painting critiques and comments however are welcome additions as always on the thread. This is straight out of memory so i expect that little details might not be listed, nor am i putting point values for this reason and for my purposes in putting it here, they arent important.

Shas'O Ralai- Complete
Shas'El- TL MP, Flamer, HW MT (assembled but painted in old paint style)
BodyGuard- TL MP, Flamer, HW MT
BodyGuard- TL MP, Flamer, HWMT, HWDC and two Shield drones

Crisis Heatwave Team-3x TL Flamers, MP (Base painted Khemri Brown)
Crisis Helios-3x Plasmarifle, Fusion, MT (Old Paint Scheme)
Crisis Bladestorm- 2x Burst Cannon, Plasmarifle, MT (test model done, rest in old scheme)
Vre- CIB, plasmarifle, HW MT, TA

FW x 7 (old scheme)
FW x 7 DF w/ DP (mixed completion levels on troops, old scheme on DF)
Kroot x10 + 4 hounds (Mostly complete paint, need just the details)
Auxilaries x 6 with a leader and Pulse rifle (mixed completion)
Auxilaries x 6 with a leader and pulse rifle (mixed completion)

Pathfinders x 6 (still under construction, annoying conversions i don't have time for lol)
DF- DP, MT (Old scheme)
XV-9s with PIGS and 2 shield drones. I gave another one a BSF, and forget what i gave the third one. (complete)

Broadsides x2 ASS, leader with a DC and two shield drones (one finished, one final detail stage)
Hammerhead RC, BC, DP, MT (Old scheme)

So far I have concentrated on the unpainted or half painted stuff. The heat wave team will be next for suits and I am slowly doing the FW and Aux troops.

Cleverly 'simple' technique for generating your colour scheme. Thanks for the insight into how you go about that. For me it's the kind of theme I'd want to clean up, which misses the point completely of such cammo styles.

Really puts the growl factor back into the new sleek XV-9s.

Smart reports too, I'm moving this thread to the Project logs for it's overall nature and great content.

- Tael.

Had a 1250 league game last night against a marine horde. It was weird since i was armed to be able to deal with light infantry hordes and prepared for armor. The game ended with a draw but I eeked out a win by kill points 3 to 2 and special scenario rules. The dice were with me and except for one case, the armor saves were not with him for example when a 10 man squad was hit by a sub munitions blast and 4 of the 8 saves failed including two of the missile launcher guys.
Missing Parts
“Delta One, to Storm One.” The radio crackled. The crisis command suit hunkered down on its knees watching the dark morning distance. It was a starless night and even his advanced vision failed to detect the exact locations of the enemy he knew was there. While their visual scanners could pick nothing up, the audible pickups could.

“Storm One, go ahead.” Storm One was their Manta that hovered far overhead awaiting his word to begin disgorging the cadre.
Shas’El Morvant had command of about half of the cadre. They were assigned to recover parts of a computer core from a downed ship before Imperial forces could get their hands on them. His commander, Shas’O Kozan was elsewhere with the other half of the cadre on an equally important mission.

They had dropped on Ciggan Four to help with an evacuation. Imperial forces had arrived in overwhelming strength and the Tau were pulling out. While for the most part, the line cadres have performed well enough holding the line against the Imperial Guard, his own unit was forced to go against the Imperial elite, space marines of the Blood Ravens Chapter.

“Sir, beacons say we have 4 cores present, one to the north, two farther east and another near some kind of well tower to the north east.” His bodyguard, Shas’vre Teir said.

“Continue scanning, the bad guys are out here somewhere.” He said on his team channel.

“Storm One, prepare to begin drop, consider the dropzone to be hot, over.”

“Roger, Delta One. Descending at this time. Boots on the ground ETA ten minutes.”

The sky lightened to a dark grey as the minutes passed. Blue light flashed as a bolter round hit one of his drone’s shields. From far across the field he spied a space marine team hidden in a rocky outcropping firing with a heavy bolter. The rapid fire report of the heavy bolter destroyed the early dawn silence.

His team quickly reacted and fired a spiraling volley of missiles from their launchers on each arm. The marine armor flashed in bright flame and smoke. When it cleared he saw three of the marines digging in, two others were still and lying on open ground with smoking holes in the red ceramite armor. After this the command team activated their jump jets and leapt behind the ruins of an old building. As the leapt, icons of enemy troops appeared on his display all across his northern horizon. All troops so far, no vehicles. A heavy weapons squad, devastators he thought they were called, not far from him. He had something for them.
His own cadre’s hammerhead tank, Slammer One, roared onto the scene. It fired at the devastator squad from two kilometers away with a sub munitions round. It exploded right on target in the middle of the squad, scattering the unit and sending four of the ten flying through the air to not get back up.

He saw a descending flame to see his Heatwave team falling from the sky. One landed on the field in a rough landing in rocks, the other two members flew off in the distance. Out of range of anything with his flamers, the crisis suit opened fire with his missile pod at the marine team his command team had fired at. A marine was thrown into the air against a rock column and slid down unmoving at the bottom. “Delta One, this is Hotel Three-Two. The rest of the team was caught in nasty crosswind. They will get here when they can--”

The Heatwave team member was cut off as he took a missile hit and multiple sniper rounds from a previously hidden scout team. The suit crumpled in place.

A saw several marine squads sprinting across the field. He waited for his missile pods to reload as one team entered the well area where one of the core pieces lay. The other squad continued to sprint towards the far right piece, outside of his range. He leapt out from cover to fire at yet another team which was moving into position on the piece in front of him and opened fire. One of the marines in that team was knocked back and fell with a smoking hole in his armor.
Another roar from the sky as his Hazard suit team landed near the sprinting squad, preparing to fire. Slammer One moved off to its right and opened fire with everything at the exposed squad , hitting most of them with another sub munition blast but the marines’ heavy armor protected the men within. One of the burst cannon however, sent a marine to the ground. A Devilfish transport roared on and opened fire with its own weapons, but most missed completely and the one that didn’t failed to penetrate.
Then the Hazards let loose with their Phased Ion Guns and four marines went down in a binding blue flash.
Seemingly, every marine with a weapon opened fire at the hazard team. One drone exploded from a direct lascannon hit and every suit took damage from the furious onslaught. A Hazard suit seemed to survive for a moment and simply tipped over and fell like a cut tree.

Morvant bounced his team forward and fired again on the small team in front of him, another marine fell. A firewarrior squad emerged from the devilfish and immediately opened fire on the depleted marine squad, along with its transport. A single marine survived the pulse weapon storm who shouting a cry for his dead Emperor, leapt into combat with them.

A much more loud and shill battle cry occurred near the devastators and his kroot mercenaries assaulted the now small devastator squad. However after a furious melee, he saw the remains of the kroot sprinting away, hounds yelping. A smaller squad turned and reoriented its remaining two heavy weapons.

The two damaged Hazard suits opened fire on the team holding the center core piece. He noticed a blue armored marine among them and signaled his cadre to make them a priority. The hammerhead and hazards hammered the marines, killing all but two, the psyker and the squad leader by the looks of the powerfist he carried.
The hazard team received another volley of fire reducing the team to a lone suit. In combat the fire warriors beat down the lone marine leaving the body of one of their own in the wake and the Shas’ui ran forward to grab the core located in the rocks near there.

The remaining members of his force, including his own team poured fire into the Librarian and his bodyguard. The duo of marines fell, right as his last crisis team, a Helios armed team landed in the center. They ran to the center to secure the core piece the marines were trying to steal.

He leapt his own team over to a third piece located nearby and one of his guards grabbed it. “Delta One, this is Storm one, I am seeing heavy mechanized forces approaching, I am engaging at this time but I recommend pulling back while the getting is good.”

A bolter shell spanged off his own armor. “All units, grab your cores and fall back to the extraction point. We are done here.”

He began leaping back away from the marines. They seemed in no hurry to pursue so after initial long range snipes with no casualties, the cadre came upon their manta and quickly boarded. He was mad they only retrieved three of the computer pieces, but doubted the marines would be able to do much with just the one. Overall, mission accomplished he thought as the bay doors closed.