I imagine this discussion has been hammered into the ground, but not by me and not on these pages.
I recently wandered into a chatbox i used to frequent and almost immediately was asked what I thought of someone’s Tau list. It was titled “Tau with Ad Mech” There are fundamentally 3 things wrong with asking me questions like this;
1) I have touched the Tau codex once, and that was only to move it over.
2) I’m TERRIBLE at competitive list building. If it’s not the least bit fluffy, I don’t consider it a valid list option. People who ask about lists are usually needing WAAC advice.
3) When I asked “Where’s the ‘with Ad Mech?'” He said it’s a ‘counts as…’ list.
The first two I can let slide, make some funnies and move along. The third just _irks_ me. If someone does it right, then I have NO problem with a ‘counts as’ list. The problem is the definition of ‘right’ varies from person to person. I’ve also never seen a pretty ‘counts as’ list in person. I’ve seen plenty online as WIP, but nothing finished. I cut my teeth in the Rogue Trader era, when Adeptus Mechanicus were the ‘priesthood of Mars’. They were described as monastic in nature. So basically, nerds sequestered in their dorms and building things that go “Vroom” in the meantime. Now, apparently they have their own military forces- the “Skitarii”, that seem to be as numerous as the Imperial Guard, and better armed. I remember first seeing them in a novel as a veteran bodyguard with a lobotomy. They were described as better armed, but not abundant.
To me – an “Ad Mech” army should be a lot of tech priests, heavy equipment, robots, titans and some Imperial Guard to mash things up a bit. I feel that this can be done with the Guard codex. Instead, every “Ad Mech” list I was seeing prior was “Grey Knights counts as…” because (and EVERYONE said this) “It makes the most sense”.
NOW, using the Tau codex “makes the most sense” apparently. I’ll grant that the average weapon is stronger than Imperial Guard’s lasgun, but other than the very apparent “Flavor of the Month” power-mongering that this would seem to be, my problem is that people have forgotten what Ad Mech DO. They fix things!
Can any Tau do that?