Codex Tau Empire - First thoughts (style, fluff, pictures)

This was the first weekend with some actually nice weather, so life got in the way of the hobby. The garden needed some TLC, the pond was in need of a good spring cleaning and we had to find out if the BBQ still worked.

... and if the new Palm beer is any good... it is!

I did however, get some reading done, although not as much as I had hoped. These are my first thoughts about the stuff I have seen in the codex.



First of all, the moment you get your hands on the Codex and take a quick flip through the pages, what you see is clean. The first thing that pops into your head is "What grim darkness??"

The style of the book breathes technological advance, showing beautiful full-color pages with clean diagrams and wonderful photography.

Reading through the fluff, you actually feel the young and dynamic nature of the Tau species.

They are in some cases terribly naive, like for example the piece of text about Kroot. It says that the Tau greatly appreciate the military symbiosis with the Kroot warriors, and that they think maybe prolonged exposure of the Kroot to the Tau way of life "might help them reconsider their cannibalistic tendencies".

You also get the sense that the Tau way of war has really deep-set roots, and even though their technology is advancing at an incredible rate, their tactics and how they use this technology remains the same, even through (a few) millennia.

These kinds of insights into the way Tau think are great to actually get into (or just "get") the Tau mindset.

The fluff really made me want to field the army on the tabletop, including (of course) the latest Earth caste innovations and prototypes.

XV8-05 Commander

The new art in the codex is amazing. It really evokes the way Tau do war: fast and hard. Striking at the foe and retreating before the enemy can strike back. Ambushing the prey and overwhelming them with superior firepower.

Full-color model showcases of a lot of different septs, color schemes and models are also present in the book, even though the T'au sept is heavily represented in their desert camo scheme of ochre and dark red.

But not every model in the book is painted in the traditional T'au colors, there are a lot of variations and you just can't help be inspired to create your own color scheme. (At least I couldn't :p)

After reading through the fluff and looking at all the pretty pictures, I decided I wanted to try a new color scheme for my Tau. Before, I wanted them to be red with white sept color for the markings. (Making them from T'au sept)

But now I'm thinking a deep purple with either Bor'kan (turquoise) or Sa'cea (orange) markings. Of course, I will need to Smik it to see if it is paintable without being too much hassle. I don't want to spend ages painting the rank and file.
Downside to this is: the only model that I got painted completely in my Tau army... was the hammerhead. So I will need to repaint that... *urk*.


Do you have your Codex yet? What do you think of the fluff and styling?