[Circus Freak]

Some of you may have seen a couple of posts relating to what I am calling my "Walking With Tyranids" project (named after the BBC programs about dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals), which now seems to be aiming for at least two Hierophants, something scratchbuilt that rivals a Warlord Titan and all manner of smaller creatures (none of which shall be smaller than a Carnifex...).

My main problem with Tyranids is their lack of personality, a problem I also had with Necrons that I surmounted by creating O'Ho'lans. I have surmounted the Tyranid lack of personality by a similar means, through creation of O'Su. No, he's not a Tau who has been subsumed to the Hive Mind and acts as a Tyrant - he is a Tau who has left the Greater Good for the Greater Good - he is a Tyranid Big Game Hunter!

I'm not going to post a points cost for him, because he will work as follows. I shall never use him. Instead, whenever I field a Tyranid gargantuan creature at any sort of Apocalypse battle, an army on the opposing side will be allowed to, should they wish, take O'Su regardless of silly things like points - just because it would be cool.

So without further ado, here are the rules and background for my Tyranid hunting Tau:

On the far side of Shas'etra, antipodal to the main settlement, is a wasteland of ice and gargantuan trees. Between these trees roam huge monsters, the smallest of which weighing in at several tonnes and over ten metres tall; some are herbivorous, but many more are carnivores, preying on others of their breed or on smaller, light morsels.

The Tau of Shas'etra train against these giants, as if a hunter can bring down a beast such as these in the close quarters enforced by the foliage then they shall have little trouble setting up an ambush for a force as unrefined as those the Gue'la put forth, or even many other races.

The first truly elite hunter of these was a Fire Warrior named Serra Myr, whose great deeds led to the position of Shas'O and the highest ranked commander from Shas'etra and ultimately his tragic death at the hands of the Necrons on O'Ho'lans' World, and he trained many other Fire Warriors in the art of bringing down the beasts. The greatest of his students was Su.

Su relished operating alone, a distinctly un-Tau trait, but nevertheless effective. He developed an agility largely unseen in his race, to even scale the beasts and bring them down by point blank pulse rifle shots in the neck. He was ruthlessly effective: some said that he was Serra's equal in combating these creatures in his first few kai'rotaa of training. His performance at war as a Fire Warrior was passable, as good as he needed to be, but hunting huge monsters was where his true skill lay.

So when the threat of Hive Fleet Leviathan reared its head to the Tau Empire and they first saw the huge monsters spewed forth from the Hive ships - Carnifexi, Hierodules, Trygons, Harridans and Hierophants - even those on T'au thought that the experience fighting the beasts of Shas'etra would be invaluable against these monsters. And Shas'etra's Ethereals knew the best Tau for the job.

Su was given an enhanced battlesuit, by now already a 'Vre, and charged with jumping from system to system* in the East of the Tau Empire, hunting the Tyranid threat. He was branded 'Ka'ra', meaning 'Exile,' but he is also bestowed with the highest of honours for they know his work gets results.


*Still working out how to do this. I think the best idea is to give him an Air Caste partner with a specially modified Barracuda, who can make warp jumps in the wake of other ships - that means I'll have to buy and convert a Barracuda too though...


Kara'Shas'O Shas'etra Su Monat Li'Sun'yi and the XV816
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
O'Su 3 5 4 5 3 1(7) 3 10 3+

Special Character: O'Su is a special character and may only be used if the opponent fields at least one Tyranid Gargantuan Creature. He may not be part of a force that contains Aun'va, Commander Shadowsun or Commander Farsight. He may however be deployed alongside Tau, but he will never be the 1+ commander, and his Special Issue equipment doesn't count towards the 0-1.

Equipment: XV8 battlesuit with the following pieces of equipment: Railgun, plasma rifle, fusion blaster, twinlinked missile pod, shield generator, hard wired multi tracker, vectored retro-thrusters, stimulant injector.
NB: The multi tracker cannot be used in combination with the railgun. If the railgun is fired it is all that can be fired. And I know these are too many hardpoints - I did say in the background he has a modified suit!

Unit Type: Jump Infantry (jet pack)

SPECIAL RULES
Preferred Enemy: Tyranid Monstrous and Gargantuan creatures (i.e. not Gaunts!)
Independent Character
Fearless: O'Su is Fearless and may elect to pass or fail any Morale check. He is immune to The Horror that some Tyranid creatures have (not sure if Fearless implies that already, so I've clarified).
Point-blank Firepower: All attacks made by O'Su in close combat with a Tyranid Gargantuan creature (not Monstrous creatures) count as being made with a S10 power weapon, at Initiative 7. His CC attacks against anything else are resolved at his normal Initiative (which is so low as he is equipped with huge guns) and Strength, and without a power weapon.
Modified Railgun: O'Su's railgun may be fired on the move, but if he does so he may only fire it at half range.


A model will follow probably around next week!

[Wargamer]

Interesting... although what caught my eye was the name; Li'sun'yi was the name of my anti-Tyranid Shas'O.

[Circus Freak]

I was just looking through the xenolexicon - that's where I got "ka'ra", and that's what I was looking for - and Li'Sun'yi struck me as being cool =)

This isn't the first time I've done something similar to something you've done with absolutely zero awareness of it >_>

Ack! Just realised his strength is so low he can't actually hurt the creatures in CC, despite his counts-as power weapon!

*Fixes*

I'm tempted to make him Immune to Instant Death too... do all Special Characters have that as standard, by virtue of being Special Characters? It makes sense that he shouldn't get killed in one hit from a S10 weapon, when all the big Tyranid gribblies are S10 and carry S10 guns...

[Wargamer]

Hell no! Special Characters die just like everyone else.

[Kai]

For your large projects. In 2nd Ed Epic the Hydraphant is the largest biotitan, roughly the same size as a warlord in height, but longer.

[Circus Freak]

Originally Posted by Wargamer

Hell no! Special Characters die just like everyone else.

Yes, but maybe I could do a Tyranid gargantuan specific anti-instant death thing. I agree he should die just as easily to a railgun shot to the face, but it doesn't make sense that one shot from the things he is supposed to be good at bringing down will kill him straight away.

[legio mortis]

Originally Posted by Circus

I agree he should die just as easily to a railgun shot to the face, but it doesn't make sense that one shot from the things he is supposed to be good at bringing down will kill him straight away.

OF course it makes sense. Yarrick can be insta-killed by Orks, Gaunt can be insta-killed by Chaos units, ect... Being immune to insant death makes absolutley no sense at all. If bioplasma melts his head off, he's not going to keep fighting. He's T5 anyway, so he should be tough enough.

[Circus Freak]

Just realised what a total noob I'm being - he has his invulnerable save from the shield generator anyway, so why he needs an immunity to Instant Death is actually beyond me :

Anyway, I'm actually building this guy as I type this so there'll be an unpainted photo in less than an hour, I expect.

[Bugga62]

Originally Posted by Wargamer

Interesting... although what caught my eye was the name; Li'sun'yi was the name of my anti-Tyranid Shas'O.

What a coincidence.

Very good rules. I smell a Godzilla army killer!