Sometimes Nurgle speaks to me...

And everything else falls to the wayside. I have a bit of an obsession with Nurgle. I'm not really sure why. I don't like the Prince of Excess for his lack of self control. Tzeentch mutation bothers me; I don't like anything that corrupts the body. Khorne martial honor and simplistic purpose should appeal to me the most. But for some reason it's Nurgle, kind of corrupting the body...

I like Tau from a tactical and model perspective. I like the lore too, but I feel like it isn't represented well enough in the rules. Putting the rules together with the lore, it's as if the Tau said "Close combat is dishonorable, therefore we won't get into it. It will just simply never happen."

The XV-9 I think is a brilliant representation of "Close combat is dishonorable, and we will do all we can to avoid it, but sometimes it will happen." (They all have "hit and run" and defensive grenades; They can also sacrifice drones to auto-pass the initiative test for "hit and run")

I feel like every single Tau model should have defensive grenades and hit and run OR Combat Tactics. Combat Tactics (you can choose to auto-fail any morale test) makes brilliant sense to me from a Tau perspective. It represents the Space Marine discipline. The Tau fire caste lives for war. It's all they do. Their meaning in life. Their unit is so incredibly important to them that they have a ritual bonding to signify them as literal brothers and the members of the unit are the only ones who can call each other by name. It's like in all that time and training they just completely ignored that melee combat existed.

/EndRant

I'm not saying so much that it's a hole in the use-ability of the army, so much as it's a hole in the fluff-to-rules that bugs the living crap out of me.

I do feel like Nurgle is well represented in the rules though. Most mono-Nurgle armies are tough. Damn tough. And they approach like a slow plague that, once it grips you, drags you into a war of attrition that you're hard pressed to escape.

After writing that I kind of don't want to mention this idea, but /shrug.

I came up with a CSM Warband, the Flesh Reapers...
The idea would be that one of the CSM Sorcerers that knows the secrets of creating Plague Marines is traveling with a Daemon Prince or CSM Lord that is carrying a most interesting creation of Papa Nurgle. This creation is a wasting sickness that kills most, or leaves them begging Nurgle for salvation (for he possesses the cure for all diseases). These the Sorcerer converts to Plague Marines, bloating their bodies back out and outfitting them for battle to die for their "savior".

Those that survive the illness are withered, wretched things. The Sorcerer approaches them and offers them into the family of Father Nurgle. If they refuse, they are gathered up and carried on, kept alive until they their suffering bids them accept the offer. Once accepted, the Sorcerer brings them into Nurgle's love. Their bodies, though they remain withered, are infused with daemonic foulness. Their minds are warped, instilling a devotion to Lord Nurgle before all others. Their flesh rots, continuously, driving them to battle were they can harvest the flesh of their enemies to sustain their own bodies, that they might continue spread the plague Nurgle has bestowed upon them.


Representing this would be a core of Plague Marines, a Sorcerer and lord or daemon prince HQ, and maybe some tanks if I could find a way to like them. Maybe modeled like a carrier of those that haven't yet accepted the offer? I like the idea of modeling one or two tanks with large patches of their armour replaced with the skin of monstrous creatures the warband has taken down)


The real gem of it would be the Raptors and Bikers (rare choices for CSM player, overcosted, but eh). 

Raptors: Skeletal, winged, scythe wielding, monstrosities, with patchs of their slain enemies skin stretched across the gaps their disease bores through their power armour.


Bikers: Like the raptors, without wings. The skin would also be stretched across the armour of the bikes, with large containers attached to the back that leave a wake of filth, contaminating the very ground with the creation Nurgle bestowed upon them.

This is mostly for the fluff and modeling challenge, but I would really love to do it. My only real wish is that I could have Nurgle Daemons in the army and that CSM had some notion of Sternguard? Vanguard? whichever Space Marine veteran unit has jump packs... so that I could have more of a degree of freedom in modeling the power level of the various models in the raptor units (Leader, Veterans with power weapons, and normals with normal weapons. I wish there was a rending option, like a lesser power weapon. I don't want much :).

Either way I think this will be almost 100% on hold until their is a new CSM codex or I get the core of my Tau done. By "core" I mean the 1850 army I know I like and I know works. I Need 6 more FW, a Devilfish, 3 Broadsides, a Skyray/Hammerhead, and 4 Crisis Suits. Beyond the core would be things like Piranha's and XV-9s.

I just needed to share :) My roommate isn't big on fluff, so it's all lost on him.