Alongside everything else I've been doing I'm trying to paint a 1500 point Tau army over 6 months. Doing it slowly which has led to its own issues over motivation, but also doing it in 250 point chunks each month.
The background is designed to run alongside my Dark Eldar Kabal and Wych cult and to write fluff that has the two sides as antagonists. My first issue had been in getting a Sept name which I've cracked and started on the fluff.
The Kel’siral Sept was formed during the Third Phase expansion. It sits towards the edge of the redefined line after the Space Marine counterattack halted it. Therefore military presence has been kept high to defend the Empire.
The sept use 'monats' more extensively than some other septs, and favour teams of identically equipped battlesuits rather than mixed teams. Currently the Sept has found itself dealing with the issue of raids by Dark Eldar. Following the death of Shas’O Kel’siral Tol’tor Pir’du in one of these raids it fell to Shas’O Kel’siral Shi’va Ti’ran, the one they call Commander Brightstar, to come out of retirement to help lead the defence of the sept. He has taken to wearing his previous battlesuit which has instilled a great deal of pride in the firewarriors under his command.
Set up this way to allow my Commander to use a lovely FW battlesuit and he maybe recruiting some old colleagues along the way.
The plan of attack for the painting schedule is
Month 1
Previous month's leftover: 0
This month's amount: 250
Total budget: 250
Item 1: Hammerhead - Railgun, smart missile, disruption pod, multi tracker
Points cost of item 1 = 175
Item 2: 3 Kroot
Points cost of item 2 = 21
Item 3: Shas'ui - Missile pod, Fusion blaster, multi tracker
Points cost of item 3 = 54
Total spend: 250
Remaining amount to be carried into next month: 0
Subtract total cost of all items from Total budget: 1250
Month 2
Previous month's leftover: 0
This month's amount: 246
Total budget: 496
Item 1: Shas'ui x 2 - Missile pod, Plasma rifle and multi tracker x 2
Points cost of item 1 = 124
Item 2: Broadside - smart missile, advanced stabilisation system
Points cost of item 2 = 80
Item 3: 6 Kroot
Points cost of item = 42
Total spend: 246
Remaining amount to be carried into next month: 4
Subtract total cost of all items from Total budget 1004
Month 3
Previous month's leftover: 4
This month's amount: 244
Total budget: 740
Item 1: 6 Pathfinders and Devilfish, disruption pod, multi tracker, targetting array
Points cost of item 1 = 172
Item 2: Shas'vre - Missile pod, Plasma rifle and multi tracker
Points cost of item 2 = 72
Total spend: 244
Remaining amount to be carried into next month: 10
Subtract total cost of all items from Total budget 760
Month 4
Previous month's leftover: 10
This month's amount: 236
Total budget: 976
Item 1: Shas'o - Plasma rifle, missile pod, fusion blaster, hard wired multi tracker, hard wired target lock
Points cost of item 1 = 129
Item 2: 10 Firewarriors
Points cost of item 2 = 100
Item 3: 1 Kroot
Points cost of item 3 = 7
Total spend: 236
Remaining amount to be carried into next month: 24
Subtract total cost of all items from Total budget 524
Month 5
Previous month's leftover: 24
This month's amount: 265
Total budget: 1241
Item 1: Hammerhead - Railgun, smart missile, disruption pod, multi tracker
Points cost of item 1 = 175
Item 2: Broadside - Smart Missile, advanced stabilisation system, Team Leader w/hard-wired Target Lock
Points cost of item 2 = 90
Total spend: 265
Remaining amount to be carried into next month: 9
Subtract total cost of all items from Total budget 259
Month 6
Previous month's leftover: 9
This month's amount: 256
Total budget: 1497
Item 1: Shas'ui x 3 - Missile pod, Plasma rifle and multi tracker x 3
Points cost of item 1 = 186
Item 2: 10 Kroot
Points cost of item 2 = 70
Total spend: 256
Remaining amount to be carried into next month: 4 - But we're done
Subtract total cost of all items from Total budget 4
The idea is to only have to paint a tank every other month and to figure the scheme out month 1 when there is a little more time. Put a battlesuit at least in each month to try and break them up as well. Firewarriors seem to be the easiest to paint based on the trials so put them in the same month as the army commander to give him a bit more focus.
Which will end up as a list of
Shas'o - Plasma rifle, twinlinked missile pods, hard wired multi tracker, hard wired target lock
Shas'vre x 2 - Missile pod x2, multi tracker x2, plasma rifle, burst cannon
Shas'ui x 2 - Plasma rifle x2, multi tracker x2, burst cannon, plasma rifle
Shas'ui x 2 - Missile pod, plasma rifle, multi tracker x 2
10 Kroot
6 Firewarriors
10 Kroot
6 Pathfinders - Devilfish, rail rifle, disruption pod, multi tracker, targetting array
3 Broadsides - Smart Missile, advanced stabilisation system, Team Leader w/hard-wired Drone controller, 2 shield drones & hard-wired Target Lock
Hammerhead - Railgun, smart missile, disruption pod, multi tracker
Hammerhead - Railgun, smart missile, disruption pod, multi tracker
Comes to 1496 points.
Gone for functioning force and some of the fun things to paint I've left out hence no vespids or stealthsuits. But what's becoming clear is that especially this month I'm bored and so some fun stuff may get painted alongside this lot.
My test model was this guy
which I followed up painting a battle suit alongside.
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