Great show, really enjoyed it. I have ordered a Manta! It wont be touched until the rest of my Tau are finished…said no one ever!

GW actually made some prototype earth caste on bikes, a Techpriest equivalent if you will. They occasionally leak pics with them in:

[img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_ym5jLFz-z4/ViPs-sRHDJI/AAAAAAAAJEk/erS9jkW1pVQ/s1600/IMG_5070.JPG[/img]

Oh and as for the Auxiliary troops. The Gue’vesa seem to assimilate quite well, including taking ranks. There is one story of a Imperial guard leader (maybe Lieutenant) being refereed to as Gue’vesa’el

As for converting them, I am going to be working on some Gue’vesa having done lots of research into how the internet has done it. Happily share my findings if you need

What I know regarding auxiliaries is probably from 4th/5th so could be wrong now. Races that pledge allegiance completely get to use the tau tech but those that are abit wayward like the kroot do not get the privilege. By wayward I mean the kroot will work away from the empire as mercenaries for other aliens to gain a wider variety of genetics. You could play with some really interesting dynamics with auxilies……maybe those less integrated get the honour of being bait for a hunting cadre?? Regarding the equality of races in the empire, my gut feeling is the Tau… Read more »

I played Tau in the beginning and I like them a lot but it has been a long time since I played 40k. The fluff is good, they really worked it out further with later editions. This is making me want to check out what they all have for the Tau. For other races, it depends how committed they are. Like Ogreblood said Kroot still work as mercenaries and don’t want to integrate fully in the Tau society that is way they don’t get so many Tau upgrades and gear. Vespid on the other hand have a lot of Tau… Read more »

The auxiliaries have always been a cool concept, it’s also how I’ve always been able to shoe-horn allied units and formations into my Tau (Mantic Forge-fathers proxied as Space Marines to represent the Demiurg, but Gue’vesa too). Will try and find some pictures (just promise me you’ll ignore the missing fingers, only problem with trying to use Tau arms!!) but I did some cool Highland auxiliaries a few years back, tau bodies, kilted legs with some spare heads from the space wolves sprue (wolf scout heads) to make some really cool auxiliaries. In game either use them as straight up… Read more »

Oh, and on the subject, I forget who did it but I remember a bloke’s project log where he’d tried to do Tau orks – the Ethereals had experimented on captured Ork DNA and created a new strain of Ork, the Grey-skins, the ultimate Tau defence against the evil hordes. Give a load of grey-skins a pile of crap from which they could fashion weapons, then pile them in – all along completely subservient to the wishes of the Ethereal cast ‘Fur da Greata Gud!!!’ Also proper hope you cover the Tau/Eldar creation myth conspiracy, that the Farseers have been… Read more »

Very interesting guys,
The BOW bonding ritual is to gang up on Justin/ @dignity ?
I always considered the imperial stormbirds would look more the manta from descriptions in HH books

An observation, The Tau are not Communists.
The Communist Ideal advocates the dissolution of all social divides such as the rank or caste systems which are integral to Tau society.
Instead, with its highly stratified and structured caste systems, Tau society is more akin to Taoism, with a place for everyone/thing and everyone/thing in their place but with social mobility restricted to within each caste.
This is all paraphrased and abridged somewhat, and I may, in fact, be completely mistaken.