Games Workshop 99120113060" Tau Empire Commander Plastic Kit, Black,Medium

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Signalling the T'au who had settled on Atari Vo in the Second Sphere Expansion, Farsight prepared to make planetfall and join with the planet's Fire Caste against the imminent Ork invasion. The Atarian T'au, and their Dal'ythan reinforcements, were still scrambling their own fleet to engage the asteroids when they received the chilling message from Farsight's fleet: the asteroids would not be slowing upon entry. The Orks intended to smash them into the planet with as much force as possible. It was the same as at Arkunasha, only this time the target was a world of cities and gardens instead of a planet-sized desert. There is no figure in T'au history as divisive as Farsight, for he is the most famous warrior to hail from the T'au world of Vior'la, as well as a protégé of the legendary Commander Puretide. Farsight led the T'au Empire to reclaim space that had been invaded by the Imperium, but when he went beyond the furthest reaches of T'au space and established his own independent Farsight Enclaves, the Ethereals denounced him as a traitor to the Greater Good. In consultation with his Ethereal advisors, Farsight once more respectfully requested reinforcement from Vior'la. The war hung in the balance, he claimed; a determined assault on key Ork positions could see the course of the entire campaign end in favour of the T'au. There was a lengthy silence before the Ethereals replied that a T'au ship from Vior'la was indeed inbound. They would say no more on the matter. When a lone Orca dropship descended upon Arkunasha, Farsight and his closest advisors met it in person atop a massive natural plateau in the Argap Highlands. When the large ramp opened at the Orca's fore, and the promised reinforcements stepped out -- two ceremonial honour guards and a single Ethereal. Farsight did well to choke down the surprise and frustration that rose in his chest. A single Ethereal -- their presence was good for morale, to be sure, but they could hardly be counted a concrete asset, and certainly not the auxiliary Hunter Cadres that O'Shovah had been hoping for. He turned to his own Ethereal advisors in dismay, but held his tongue. It was well that he did, for his actions were being monitored very closely indeed. Appalled by his own failings, Farsight resolved to think long on the events that had led him to this point. There was no victory in fighting a traditional war of mobility and patience; the Orks were on the brink of bringing the enclaves to total ruin, and were so intoxicated by the scent of imminent victory that even killing their warlord would not stop them. Farsight sought insight into how he could bring the planets themselves to their aid as he had done on Arkunasha. Yet this time, the scale of the war was much greater. In his search for wisdom, he skimmed low across the saline ocean of Vior'los and then plunged into the water, diving down to the darkness of the ocean bed. Shas'O Tsua'Malor'Aloh'shas Elan'nan is a young and promising Tau Commander born of the Velk'Han Sept's capital world. He is currently leading Tau forces in the D'Shas'Ka System of the Jericho Reach.

Amidst much bowing and scraping, the Mont'yr academy's tutors told Puretide of the student they called Shoh, the first warrior to have been enrolled into the academy at such a young age. The planet of Arkunasha was settled during the Second Sphere Expansion. Despite the aridity of the oxide deserts that made up the world's surface, the T'au had settled the red planet with a sizeable population. This they had achieved through the tireless work of the Earth Caste's scientists and engineers. Commander Vesu'r R'alai has become a legend among the grim Fire Warriors of Ke'lshan, and is one of the Tau Empire's most experienced Battlesuit pilots. It is his leadership and innovation that has successfully led the way in the controversial tactics associated with the new XV9 close support armour, and he is a strong advocate for the Fire Caste adopting more ruthless tactics against the Tau Empire's growing legion of deadly foes. Shas'O Ra'Lai utilises an XV9 Hazard Battlesuit rather than the standard XV8 Crisis Battlesuit.Despite being several standard years younger than most other T'au in the battle dome, Shoh's eidetic memory and fierce determination earned him a string of perfect scores in the academy's simulations. Commander Longknife was the Fire Caste's commanding officer on Taros during the Taros Campaign. He did not lead a Cadre in the field, but was the supreme commander for an entire Fire Warrior Command, coordinating the entire campaign to take that desert Mining World and its precious mineral resources for the Tau Empire. Situated coreward of the T'au Empire, the Damocles Gulf was a yawning stellar anomaly that had long spelled little more than confusion and death for the T'au. Unknown forces roiled within it like oceanic currents that could not be predicted or even monitored by conventional science. However, the Earth Caste's invention of the ZFR Horizon Accelerator Engine allowed the T'au to circumvent the worst of the Gulf's malevolent attentions. Within years of the ZFR engine's invention, the T'au had successfully crossed the Damocles Gulf and begun to explore the cluster of worlds on the other side. Instead of conquering them with a costly series of wars, Ethereal Aun'Va masterminded a long and subtle campaign of integration. Though it took decades, the T'au inveigled themselves into the human civilisations that dwelt there. With trade, diplomacy and, above all, patience as their weapons, they effectively converted the human worlds into extensions of the T'au Empire without firing a single shot. In conjunction with O'Shaserra, Commander Farsight masterminded several large-scale assaults that saw his fellow commander draw the Space Marines into the open, only for O'Shovah to fall upon them with all the speed and fury he had become famous for. As the weeks ground on, the masters of the Imperial crusade were forced to admit that they had spread their forces too thin. Now that their supply lines had been established, the T'au had an almost limitless supply of war materiel, and astropathic messages transmitted across the Damocles Gulf spoke of a new alien threat assailing the Imperium. Regiment by regiment, company by company, the Imperial presence upon Dal'yth began to withdraw.

Profile of Commander Farsight holding his Dawn Blade; his customised XV8 Crisis Battlesuit stands behind him. Serving as a Tau Commander is a position of great honour for Tau Fire Warriors. It is attained only after long years of progressing through the ranks of the Fire Caste, where aspirants must be schooled in all forms of warfare, ranging from the arts of subterfuge and ambush they learned in their service as Pathfinders and Stealthsuit team members, to the skills required to play the heavy support role of an XV88 Broadside Battlesuit pilot. However, it is only once a Fire Warrior has become skilled in the use of an XV8 Crisis Battlesuit in combat that they can truly rise up through the ranks. The mantle of command is only earned once a Fire Warrior has attained the rank of Shas'Vre and leads their own XV8 Crisis Battlesuit team. From there, they must continue to prove their worth in battle before being chosen to be part of another Tau Commander's bodyguard. At that point, proof of accomplishment in not only the tactical, but also the strategic arts of war may earn the Commander’s approval and elevation from Shas'Vre to the rank of Shas'El. By the time Commander Shoh and his fleet reached Arkunasha's orbit, the planet had been all but overrun. With the exception of a few highly mobile strike forces abroad in the desert, the T'au military presence planetside had been destroyed in a series of disastrously one-sided engagements. Shas'O M'yen, also known as Commander Scornfoe, is a senior tactical advisor and member of the Mal'coar Shi High Command of Tau forces operating in the Jericho Reach. Shas'El Kai'Aun led a Hunter Cadre during the Taros Campaign. His Hunter Cadre operated under Contingent El'Shi'Eldi.As was standard procedure, the young T'au served the first four Terran years of his career as a member of a Fire Warrior team in a Hunter Cadre. Although he was posted to the fiercest war zones of each engagement, and that Shoh was always right on the front line, the young T'au proved more than capable during the Fire Caste's ongoing purges of the Arachen species. After his counter invasion fleet made it to Arkunasha's surface entirely unmolested, Commander Shoh was extensively briefed on the situation by the T'au trapped in Arkunasha's bio-domes. The planet's dust storms could be avoided with careful monitoring of the Earth Caste's sub-orbital drone network, but according to the Air Caste's aerial observations, there appeared to be even more of the violent alien warbands roaming the desert than in the first few weeks of the invasion.

Shas'O Or'es'Ka was the Tau Commander who led the Tau forces during the Tau Empire's unsuccessful campaign to take the Kaurava System. Shas'O Or'es'Ka utilises an XV22 Stealthsuit rather than the standard XV8 Crisis Battlesuit. En route to the war zone, Shoh memorised every fact the Water Caste had been able to glean in their dealings with the female Oestromystics of that many-legged species, and had thoroughly analysed the battle doctrine of the Arachen's blade-legged male gender. The young Vior'lan's martial temperament was the subject of much discussion amongst the academy masters. His physical skills were well above average for his age, and he proved truly remarkable with his ability to retain tremendous amounts of data from each situation he encountered. Farsight's training, much of which was under the direction of the famed strategist Commander Puretide himself, had taught him to use the natural terrain against the foe, and the importance of a bold, decisive stroke to cripple his enemies. Though his training had shown him the value of long range firepower, he nevertheless partially denounced the normal T'au martial philosophy of using ranged combat to the exclusion of almost all other tactics. In doing so, O'Shovah encouraged the aggressive spirit of the Fire Caste in his warriors, and they fought many bitter battles at close range before emerging triumphant. Barracuda • Manta • Orca • Razorshark • DX-6 Remora Drone Stealth Fighter • Sun Shark • Tiger Shark • Tiger Shark AX-1-0The fully-armoured humans first, then the heraldic vehicles, then the common tanks. Then, and only then, may you engage the common infantry." Despite their best efforts, the forces Farsight and O'Shaserra had at their command could not be everywhere at once. The Imperium was a powerful foe indeed, and unlike the barbarous Ork race, it appeared to have a strategy worked out for every combat environment and tactic the T'au could engineer. In defiance of the Fire Caste's spirited defence, the Imperium had gradually, but irresistibly, overtaken several of the planet's cities, slaughtering any T'au within and fortifying the war-torn structures. The Ethereals in overall command of the war effort could not countenance such losses. Ever more extreme measures were taken to stall the Imperial advance whilst reinforcements were brought in from the other worlds in the Sept, and beyond, yet on the field of battle, far more drastic measures were being taken. It happened at the periphery of the Damocles Gulf during a battle on Arthas Moloch, a deserted artefact world save for strange monuments and ruined shrines of some long-forgotten culture. Unknown to the T'au, the world had already been purged by the Scythes of the Emperor Space Marines in the 39th Millennium, but in the ruins of a pre- Human civilisation, the T'au forces engaged an unknown enemy and all of the Ethereal Caste leaders of Farsight's expedition were killed. By the war's end, some believed that O'Shovah was embittered by the bloodshed of the siege and blamed others for failing to break through the encirclement, instead allowing the Orks to batter themselves to a standstill against O'Shovah's defences before being easily scattered the following year. There were thoughts in his mind that the T'au Empire had failed to support him effectively during the campaign, and this feeling was shared by a number of his -- for want of a better word -- acolytes; most notably an aggressive young Fire Warrior named Brightsword. There has even been evidence -- unique signature signals from his personalised early-model XV8 Crisis Battlesuit and a few far-ranged visuals -- that Farsight himself allegedly still lives to lead his Enclaves. This is itself a great and confounding mystery, for it would mean that Farsight has lived for at least three Terran centuries; considerably longer than the ordinary lifespan of any T'au save only the unknowable Ethereals.

United, our will is greater than any other force. We shall inherit the stars, even if we must first cleanse them in blood." Over and over again, the Tyranid leader-beasts were hunted and destroyed by the pinpoint application of firepower, and over and over again, they were reinforced by fat-bodied Mycetic Spores that rained out of the skies. Thousands of citizens died every day as the insidious invaders probed at every defence and settlement, exploiting the least weakness to break through in a tide of chitinous bodies to slaughter those inside. Each time Farsight adapted his strategy, optimising military protocol to better slay the foe, the Tyranids would reinforce and adapt in turn. Though it burned him to admit it, O'Shovah's plan to cut off the head of his monstrous foe was not working. Wise Hunter was a great commander and conqueror of new territory during the initial expansions of the Tau Empire.Commander Shadowsun in an experimental XV22 Stealthsuit flanked by a Shield Drone and a Command-Link Drone Shoh repaid the faith placed in him tenfold during the engagement with the much feared Arachen Trinity at the heart of the war effort. Having unwound the maze-like logic patterns with which the Arachen made their nests, Shoh led his commander to the silken heart of the Arachen cocoon-ship. There, he and Commander Dawnstone launched the Mont'ka strike that killed all three of the Trinity and expelled the Arachen from the Western Veil once and for all. On the far side of the Damocles Gulf, the Farsight Enclaves continued to forge their worlds to better suit their own destinies. Yet with their leader missing for so many years, they too had begun to see O'Shovah as a distant memory. Generation after generation was born, lived briefly, and died out. Over a hundred years passed without sign. As time marched on without him, Commander Farsight became little more than a whispered myth. In his pre-battle meditations upon the subject, O'Shoh found that he could relate to that concept. In his heart, he relished the thought of once more risking his life in the name of the Greater Good. The spectacle of war called to him; the noise, the light -- even the letting of blood. The next few years saw a transformation in the T'au approach to the war for Arkunasha. No longer did the Fire Caste dance out of reach, engaging the greenskin menace at close quarters only when absolutely necessary. Instead, the T'au military machine reversed its tactics, driving teams of Fire Warriors and Battlesuits close to blast apart the Orks wherever Farsight's dune-stalking