Mu'gulath Bay T'au and Project G'undam

... attack of the apostrophe drone.

With the release of the new codex, it's time to revisited my proud and scarred warriors from Mu'gulath Bay.

I don't have the codex yet, so I don't have the details, but from what I gather it hasn't gone well for the intrepid colonials from the Damocles Gulf.

In the wake of the fighting on Mu'gulath Bay (called Agrellan in the Imperium), the Imperials decided to spitefully launch one of their more spectacular Exterminatus attacks. Rather than just destroying the surface of the planet, they somehow set fire to the Damocles Gulf itself, erupting an entire region of space in flames... which potentially ripped the The Great Rift wider than it would otherwise had done.

The T'au left on Mu'gulath were kept proected by powerful Earth caste shields, but it looks like they may have had to abandon the planet. The survivors may even have been attacked by the T'au Empire itself, possibly running to the Farsight Enclaves.

It's been a bit of a roller coaster for the T'au from Mu'gulath, and I've chosen to treat them as being mentally scarred by the experience. In fact, I'm bending the usual T'au fluff to make them almost Imperial in outlook.

What does that mean?

Well, let's look at the Codex "warrior" sept, the hot-blooded Vior'la. Whilst for T'au they may seem like frothing beserkers, by human standards they're rather disciplined. Their bouts of fury manifest in more vigorous applications of firepower, as opposed to say a Black Templar zerg rush or Blood Angels literally drinking the blood of their enemies.

But then these T'au haven't had their home not only destroyed but the very space they live in set ablaze.  One of the bloodiest conflicts the T'au has ever been involved in was fought on their doorstep, and such events would have badly damaged the soul of the Mu'gulath Bay T'au.

I haven't quite articulated what this means yet. I've chosen the Farsight Enclave Sept Tenant (re-roll To-Wound rolls of 1 under 6-inches range), to represent a more brutal form of warfare, but that may change later on. I like the Vior'la tenant to represent an eagerness to blast the enemy apart as well.

Those are crunch to go with the fluff, and that can be flexible even once an army has been made. I've settled on a colour scheme for them, even though it is quite complex:

The Mu'gulath symbol is blue, but to differentiate it a little from the Sa'cacea T'au colours, I've opted for the warmer blue of Thousand Sons. Orange is a natural complimentary colour for lenses and light sources, giving them a somewhat sinister appearance.

They are, however, colonials, and as such they still retain the Tau Light Ochre of their origin world.

This is all overlaid on some drab dark grey cloth parts, and some darker blue panelling for the crisis suits as a secondary colour.

The commander and hero units all carry the red and white marks of command, usually on a shoulder pad:

This is a hold over from my old Tau colour scheme, which was more traditional.

Whilst I like the colour scheme, it doesn't stand out on table top. It also doesn't display my nerd as much as I'd like... so I have a new colour scheme in mind:

This is Destiny Gundam, from Gundam Seed Destiny. I grew up obsessed with mecha anime, which is the huge draw of the T'au for me. Despite all the criticism the show received, I really liked the first half of Gundam Seed Destiny. Suffice to say the mecha itself left a big impression on me.

Whilst I will be trying to emulate that alone for my Commander, I've given myself two more templates to follow from the same show; Impulse and Strike as below.

One last thing to consider... my Riptide. For me, there is only ever one Gundam that could match the tonnage of a Riptide. Double Zeta Gundam.

To achieve the desired result, I'll be using the following paints:

Undercoat: Mechanicus Standard Grey

Blue - Thousand Sons Blue, Drakenhoff Nightshade, Ahriman Blue, Baharroth Blue
Red - Mephiston Red, Carrabourg, Evil Sunz scarlet, Troll slayer orange
White - Celestra grey, Ulthuan grey, Fenrisian Grey/Lamian medium wash, White Scar
Yellow - Averland Sunset, Tau Light ochre, Seraphim Sepia. Kislev flesh
Black - Abaddon, Eshin grey, Dawnstone
Grey - Mechanicus standard grey, Nuln oil, Dawnstone

Commander specific weapons:
Gun: Catsellan green, Biel-tan green, Dawnstone
Fusion blade: Caldeor sky, Drakenhoff Nightshade, Lothern Blue, Fenrisian Grey

This is one of my most ambitious projects, and I'll keep you updated as to how it goes.

Until next time!

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