[Theoryhammer] Dr. Shiny's Da'Ieldi T'au

 As any fule kno, the story of the Sector Maledicta began over a decade ago, when I was last playing 40K semi-regularly at the dawn of sixth edition. The games against Garbutt's original Hawk Lords Chapter are the bedrock of what we did in our first season back on our bullshit here, but he was not my only opponent in those giant days.

Allow me to introduce the learned Dr. Shiny, a man who I doubt holds even the pretence of a medical degree. He and I have known each other since my first week in secondary school and, at this stage, our friendship is a twenty-five to life sentence with no chance of parole. In the very early days he played Ulthwé Eldar, but after listening to him whinge about how much worse they were in three successive editions of the game, I suggested liquidating them and buying into an army that did all the things he wished his knife-ears were capable of doing.

The good Doctor is a working artist, and it shows. I had forgotten how unnecessarily gorgeous his collection was. Did you know the rotten sod is colourblind as well? It boggles the mind.

Enter the Da'Ieldi Sept. Per the man himself:

It's in what was formerly the N'Dras sept, but the Tau abandoned N'Dras for Unexplained Reasons. So a bunch of other colonies in the old N'Dras area are petitioning to be the new sept centre, with Da'Ieldi being one of them. It's in the same system as N'Dras itself, but further out, so it's colder than the Tau usually like it and a bit darker.

Also, it means "Dark Wing."

Truly, a terror that flaps in the night. 

Anyway. Over the years I've come to feel a bit bad about bullying my best friend into abandoning the army he'd had since his schooldays; I also missed his fortieth birthday due to, you know, life circumstances. I decided to run some numbers and see what we could do with his collection as it stands, plus whatever dusty pile of opportunity he has under his bed. Here's what came out of that...

Shas'O Shi'ny's Da'Ieldi Expedition
Experimental Prototype Cadre
Incursion (1000 points)

1x Cadre Fireblade (50 pts)
1x Commander in Crisis Battlesuit [Legends] (90 pts): Warlord, Battlesuit support system, Shield Generator, 2x Shield Drone, Missile pod, Plasma rifle
Enhancement: Plasma Accelerator Rifle (+10 pts)

10x Strike Team (75 pts)
• Guardian Drone, Marker Drone
• Pulse rifles

10x Kroot Carnivores (65 pts)

10x Pathfinder Team (90 pts)
• 6 with pulse carbine, 3 with rail rifle
• Shas'ui with pulse carbine, pulse accelerator drone, semi-automatic grenade launcher

3x Stealth Battlesuits (80 pts)
• 1x Stealth Shas'vre: Homing beacon, burst cannon, 2 gun drones
• 2x Stealth Shas'ui: burst cannon

5x Kroot Hounds (40 pts)

5x Kroot Hounds (40 pts)

Crisis Fireknife Team (120 pts)
• 2x Crisis Fireknife Shas’ui with shield drone, gun drone, missile pod and plasma rifle
• 1x Crisis Fireknife Shas’vre: with shield drone, gun drone, missile pod, and plasma rifle

1x Hammerhead Gunship (145 pts): railgun, 2 seeker missiles, 2 smart missile systems

1x Piranha (60 pts): Armoured hull, 2 twin pulse carbines, Piranha fusion blaster, 2 seeker missiles

1x Piranha (60 pts): Armoured hull, 2 twin pulse carbines, Piranha fusion blaster, 2x seeker missiles

1x Devilfish (85 pts): accelerator burst cannon, 2 smart missile systems

 The second Devilfish has to sit out, and the good Doctor will be required to actually paint up the rest of his Pathfinders, but still. I don't think that's a bad little list. It has the Hammerhead and Piranhas to address hard targets, decent and flexible volume of fire from the Fireknife team, and a Kroot auxiliary core to play the divot touching game while the Tau themselves do the killing work. 

I've opted for the smooth brained Experimental Prototype Cadre detachment as "everything has longer range and your commander's plasma rifle is super good" feels like an easy on-ramp to the brave new world of stratagem, enhancement, and datasheet.

Of course, I couldn't quite stop there. There's a T'au B'attl'ef'orc'e coming out for the Winterval this year, and I wondered... knowing that there are at least three more Crisis suits as yet unreadied for war... could my number one guy reach the hallowed 2000 points?

Not quite. He'd need another 10 Fire Warriors, and either a Ghostkeel or two more Broadsides on top of the contents of the box. Nevertheless, there is as the old saying goes: "much to think about". If nothing else, the fella probably deserves a commander model who isn't damned with the Legends tag, and I think he'd enjoy the Coldstar's "by the way, my team and I can now run and gun" ability. 

Much, indeed, to think about.