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The fact that there is a race of psychic owlbears just sitting there without a mini is a god damn crime.

I love the idea of a Kroot eating a Blood Angels space marine and getting the black rage and scream "HORUS!!!" at the top of their lungs

On tonight's episode of the Ridiculous Tour: Bricky gets confused and delivers a massive breakdown of marvel lore on the Groot. DK speculates on how cool it would be if the Tau could get the Xenomorphs to join the Greater Good And Shy puts on the wrong hat and reveals herself to be PERRY THE SHY!?

Explaining alien biology in " Could they beat a guardsman in a fist fight" is now my new standard

Little known fact, a Kroot that has been in service of the Tau, left it for what ever reason, and then gotten back into service of the Tau is known as a Re-Kroot.

Left out some parts. The Vespid language could not be deciphered by the T'au, hence the headset being used to translate it as the Vespids cannot speak it or even register the T'au as sentients. They were not necessarily violent, but were very alien, even to the T'au. The Strain is the group, and the Strain Leader is the one with the Communion helm. The Kroot don't use technology due to not wanting to rely on it and weaken their bodies. Left out the Knarlocs. And the Galg use sonic weaponry, not just tentacles.

"Its like a buffet, so many options to choose from... to kill so many and different types of Xenos is trualy a blessing from the Golden Throne." By Chaplain Grimaldus, probably and most likely.

Bonus lore time? you bet! Contrary to what folks think the ol owlbears were NOT the first species to join the Tau- that was the Poctroon- however due to unknown causes a disease wiped the entire species out in a few generations, the Tau took the chance to take over their homeworld and renamed it as Bork'an, one of the prime worlds and is now the name of a whole sept

The one thing I like about Nikkasar is that they aren't just psychic bears who love to explore They are also shaped like Pancakes

I get not having a mini in the wargame for an alien race that doesn't fight in the wars, but some of these are exclusively "they fight in the big wars" as far as their lore goes. The fact they don't even have art only gets worse when you consider that the client races are such a gigantic part of the Tau Empire's flavor as an empire.

Tau auxiliary races is indeed something GW should give some love. Until very recently, I wasn't aware there were any other aux races besides the Kroot, Vespid and the odd human.

Too be fair, Iron Hand Strakkin ripping the head off of a Crisis Suit with his metal arm... makes sense. Didn't he strangle a lictor with that thing?

Finally respect for the Tau auxiliaries! I really want more and a lot more auxiliary models (not only Kroot and Vespid).

Honestly, i think the Vespid joining the Tau isn't that far fetched. If you think about insect colonies and how they function, it's all about working together for the betterment of the group. The Greater Good is basically that, all working for the benefit of the whole. So the Vespid as an insect race would be all for it.

As per the list, the Imperium only considers the kroot and vespids notable, as the others are probably much more easily disposed of. Like an army of less mobile snotlings... Plasma throwing winged insects? A valid threat. The giant psychic owlbears are probably also super rare.

25:31 "Their models are _ooolllldd."_ I find it absolutely hilarious that a Kroot range refresh and update was announced only a short while after this episode was put out.

DK: You can't make too many Auxillary minis because then people will buy them more than the Tau All the Auxillary fans literally starving: That's the point DK!

It's pretty neat to think about the implications of the Kroot having such a wide range of morphotypes, yet them all still being Kroot. Like if you're a Kroot, your Kroothound isn't just a pet like it would be to us, that thing's like your cousin and you'd probably care about it even more - as would it for you in battle. And the amount of life experience perspectives that may feed into their overall culture could be pretty eye-opening too. Lot of potential for their various tribal groups to have all sorts of outlooks depending on their composition.

13:15 in one of the Damocles books, there is a part where iron hand Stracken pries the hatch half open on a riptide and pulls out a section of the pilots head, so I guess that counts as him meleeing a crisis suit to death. (He wasn't alone on the riptide, but still he was the one who killed the pilot)

It really is a crime that GW has not spent more time expanding on our auxiliaries, both model- and lorewise.

I've played Tau since 4th edition and I've always wanted more Xenos Auxiliaries (and for Kroot be actually good). It would be a great lore bit as well as help fill out gaps in the Tau roster in fun and creative ways. Make the Tau less of a one trick pony. -Knight sized Xeno giant? Sign me up. -Durable objective holding slugs? Sounds good. -Bruiser dog soldiers? Fuck yes. -Pysker Owl Bears? YES! -Gue'la units in the same vein as Traitor Guard and GSC? Fucking send it. -Morralian skirmisher teams? I'll take em.

That feeling when gue'vesa are in almost every tau book but aren't represented on the tabletop

I looked it up on my own and looks like in books Ta’u auxiliary races sometimes get name dropped as providing ships to Ta’u fleets too. So we get certain auxiliary races ship names being mentioned like the Nicassar have a ship called a Dhow and Ostense Council have ships called Winged Discs which is neat world-building. But I do agree it would be cool to see more of these auxiliaries in the tabletop and art

The Tau have a few minor xenos neighbors and trade partners near or around Tau space, such as Xenarch (an isolationist warp-worshiping xenos species) Draxian (a race part of the Draxian Hegemony) Dracolith (a race of crystalline aliens, that form part of the Church of Dracolith, a fledgling empire that is beginning to conquer Imperial space) Thexian (a biomorphic race few in number, but strong in influence, hailing from the oxidized worlds known as the Bloodmoons of Thex Prime. they are very persuasive, famous as masters of manipulation, and have worked themselves into integral positions in the Borlac, Loxatl, and Nicassar civilizations. When guile is not enough they are also powerful in battle, their battle forms are quite horrifying to behold) Borlac (a client race that has been heavily influenced by the Thexian Trade Empire) There are also some other possible auxiliary species that tau have encountered or assimulated, like the Arachen (a race of insectoid xenos that are noted for having blade-like legs and were capable of fighting with bizarre but deadly martial arts, and traveled through space in cocoon-like ships. they rejected joining the Tau and drove them out of their territory, which was followed by a brutal multi-year conflict known as the Veil War, as the Tau and Arachen fought for control of the Western Veil. Ultimately, a young Commander Farsight was able to assassinate the Arachen leadership, known as the Arachen Trinity as Commander Dawnstone was launching a final offensive. The plan worked, and the Arachen were driven from the Western Veil forever) Kibris (also known as Kibris Berserkers, is a xenos race whose tribes are known to be shockingly savage combatants. Their physical attributes suggest a canid ancestry and the Kibris have long heads, bestial snouts, and swept-back ears. The Kibris' canines are also so long and sharp that they can tear through Flak Armour. They are known to wield barbed Magnesium Carbines, which fire armor-piercing magnesium rounds, and the Kibris' martial savagery has led some to speculate they must consume some kind of intoxicant before a battle. The Kibris can also enter a berserker state by taking a stimulant that makes them impossible to kill, as it allows them to ignore any wounds they suffer. It is only after the stimulant wears off that any fatally wounded berserkers will finally die) Nin'aenh ( a Xenos species that possesses the uncanny ability to scramble electrical systems with a single touch. They were defeated in a brutal war with the Tau Empire, who has since tried to integrate the Nin'aenh's ability with their technology. The research done by the Tau's Earth Caste has resulted in the creation of Advanced EM Scramblers) Phoroki (a carnivorous Xenos species that has clashed with the Tau Empire. They can not visually register the color of bright green and the Empire has exploited this weakness when fighting the Phoroki by using the color on their forces' uniforms for camouflage)

There needs to be an agents of the imperium style list of units that the T'au can pull from

I don't believe they went over the Greet? The greet are essentially a species of eels known for... being kind of useless. They didn't have much resources or skills to offer the t'au empire, especially since they're eels so they can't go to much places, however they were able to offer one single thing which is their expertise on aquatic aquaculture which is especially good since they can stay in massive hydroponic farms for the t'au. In the game Gladius they are the main source of food for the t'au.

Glad kroot got some spotlight, wish they just brought over the lizard/Dino men from fantasy and made the kroot more like them. Dino’s/lizards are just cool man

It would be interesting if the tow actually went under a different name entirely. Instead of being just that race have it be a name that denotes that it's a conglomerate of different alien races. Then you could totally diversify the minis into being all these different races and things because they're all under one banner instead of being monopolized by a specific unit even if that unit is very influential in the creation of the group

Tau could have been like the Covenant. But they'll just get another mech. Speaking of, I hope we see Votaan new codex soon, surprising the range could use a second wave.

Aesthetically Kroot are my favorite part of the T’au Empire. Really great book aside from the Blackstone fortress for Kroot is Courage and Honor by Graham McNeil (5th book in Uriel Ventris series). They come off as brutally efficient ambush troops it’s wonderful

Honestly I love the idea of Tau having knight sized xenos and i think it would have been a great mini to give them a knight class

Some of these races actually get some representation in the recent Shadowsun book. ❤️

Glad too see some love for the Minor Xenos Races… kinda wanted to kitbash some Tarellian Pirates for a Tau KillTeam… It’s very sad for those guys because that bombing during the Great Crusade almost wiped them out and that’s why they hold a grudge against the human race…. When they joined the Tau, they were given a planet to rebuild their race… only to then have same planet being devoured by Hive Fleet Kraken!!! The few remaining Tarellians still act as mercenaries for the Tau, fighting Humans and ‘Nids at any chances they get….

I really need Tau faction to have more races plus battlesuits and new vehicles. GW is not expanding because all of 40k fans collectively hate Tau

A new kroot model has been teased, so we'll find out what it is eventually... Vespid definitely need a plastic set, and Gue'vesa need rules.

15:02 "Tau fans, I am so sorry." No need, I think we can all agree that art goes hard as hell.

Simple way to allow additional races in Tau list: Points penalties If you take too much of a single race other than Tau then points per mini increases. For example: two squads of kroot. No penalties. But every additional squad costs more. There could ve a base requirement of say min 66% Tau in your list or points penalties. You get the idea.

One thing I really like is a concept that the Poorhammer Podcast talked about in their ‘fixing faction counts’ episode. Basically what they said was you could split t’au up into a more imperial guard esc army with all the different races that comprise the empire (including T’au) and then have the more battle suit stuff be for a more elite style army. I personally would collect the hell out of an auxiliaries army.

See what I love about the Tau is they add to the grimdark in a special way. They are for the most part, right. They show a alternate path that very much works, and in so doing show the most brutal sad grimdark of the imperium. Nearly everything the Imperium thinks they HAVE to do in order to survive, they are wrong about. They could have many Xeno allies but they screwed themselves over, had a set of bad experiences and decided nearly all Xenos were like that, as a result they have killed off many potential allies, cut themselves off from chances to integrate effective tech, and made many enemies. Yeah the Tau get hurt here and there trying to form alliances, but over all they succeed. On top of the the imperium deals with so many uprisings all the time that a majority of its fighting is fighting itself, this is in large part because it treats its citizens so redonkulously bad. While the Tau have rebellions too, they do not have anywhere near the percentage of their groups rebelling on them. The Imperium cuts itself off from using AI assuming it can only go bad, because it went bad in their past, but as the Tau, and the Votann show, there are ways to use it where it is fine. Note I love the imperium, and the Tau. I think the cool part of grimdark is not in that the Tau are naive, cause legit what they are doing literally works, they have losses but far more gains. What is the fun part of Grimdark with them is that they show HOW wrong the Imperium is, how much it does not need to be what it is to survive, and how much it has made its own problems through its own brutality, cruelty, secrecy and more. But you know the Imperium for the most part will keep doing it, even with a Primarch who is open to change leading it, it struggles to make changes and become more than what it is. Like it has been going on a bad path for so long that stopping the sheer inertia it has is a monumental task. One that even a Primarch struggles to get going on. That is why I love the Tau, they have lots of fun stuff, mechs, and combo species and all kinds of neat things, but the fact that what they do just actually works makes the setting more grimdark because it shows the cruelty the Imperium uses never needed to be a thing.

I really hope that GW adds more aux units for the Tau, I really want my off-brand Halo Covenant army

It will never not be funny to me that Tyranids got an ally army before the Tau

So DK mentioned the idea that the Auxiliaries might over shadow the battle suits, but the Detachment system makes that way less likely. They can make a detachment based all battle suits and gundams, alongside a detachment for the Auxiliaries. At worst you can split off the Auxiliaries into their own faction. I do have hope. Kill Team exists which can feed us new Auxiliary models, besides the model drop with the codex. Personally I want the Kroot to be expanded into their own wing, as they have so much potential. For the other Tau Aux, I just need one unit, just one per race GW. It would make the Tau so unique visually and really make them fell like the little guys trying to band together. Hell give the Tau to ally in some Imperial Guard and Leagues of Votann. Maybe let them ally out auxiliaries as ercs to some of the Chaos factions. I would say Xenos but past Leagues of Votann none of the Xenos would really take them.

Considering how in previous editions Straken could one-shot a land raider in CC, I'm not surprised with him curb stomping a crisis suit.

As a former Tau player nothing infuriates me more than the lack of knowledge of the Tau Commonwealth.

The battlesuit pilot is just gonna stick a photo grenade through the slit in the cockpit and sigh since the helmet that could tell the temperature is gone, and now his air-conditioning is out

I would love the T'au auxiliaries to get more representation on the tabletop beyond just the kroot and technically the vespid, I'd also want more tau HQ choices since there are about 4 otherwise that aren't named characters. On an interesting note you mention kroot can't eat chaos but there is one instance of a shaper being tricked into eating a slaanesh daemon and developing an insatiable hunger.

The suit that got its head tore off is still combat capable. The pilot is in the chest and has a view port.

Ah, the Kroot. A result of a drunken threeway between a Carakiller, a Turian, and a Yautja.

So proud, DK is out here remembering things and putting the lore together for himself look at him go

I feel like so far the Tau are forming up for a nice balance. You got farsight and his melee mechs, you've got the leader who hates auxiliaries and only uses pure Tau, the religious tau who have tons of auxiliaries, may even one day get psyker stuff and then you have imperial Tau who are like the Tau ultramarine and are a mix of the rest.

Since the last episode, I went back and perused my rogue trader books. When I did this, I found out the Kroot had a talent called "mercenary." The effect for this was instead of rolling their willpower stat to resist pinning and fear tests, they used the groups profit factor instead. Which can be pretty busted depending on the starting stat rolls versus starting profit factor. Though, I more so found it hilarious that kroot merc can put his fears aside and push forward for the sake of that paycheck.

One thing I thought could be interesting in terms of if GW did want to lean more heavily into the internal variety in the T'au empire, imagine if the basic infantry guys (Strike teams, breacher teams, pathfinders) were visibly a mix of a bunch of different species. On the one hand, it would stop you from giving them different unique stats, but then GW doesn't seem to want to give most of them any stats. But it could be cool if like you had your Breacher Team and it was four Tau, two Kroot, a weird bug guy, a couple reptilians. Keep the characters and the like purely Tau, so it's clear they're still the ones in charge, but have the random infantrymen just be this hodge-podge of different creatures.

56:48 They should just make a compendium of sorts like Volo's guide / Monsters of the Multiverse from D&D for the TTRPG 40k game where they each get a page of lore and a 1 page image. Or they should make a box for the 40k War Game that has 1 one mini of each of the auxiliary races for the Tau / Chaos and then add them into the codex under a bulk stat block. Something like: "Tau auxiliary Company" 1-10 models depending on the size of the races you pick to fill it up with and they share the same stats with a couple of different sub-rules if they're is a majority of one species in that company.

Tau auxillaries are probably my favorite concept in 40k that's so severely underrepresented in the model range. There should be conversion kits for Guard, more Kroot, more Vespid, all of it.

I feel bad for the Proctoon. They were the first species that the Tau found, and shortly after meeting a Plague struck their planet and wiped them out. The Tau were immune to the Plague and settled the planet after it was empty. Such bad luck!

Honestly, T'au and Kroot could have such good thematic parallels with each other, it makes me annoyed that the T'au (and xenos races in general) get so little love compared to the Imperium. Hopefully books like Twice-Dead King are going to herald a bit of a change in that.

You never see the Tau winning, but thats probably just because you dont realize theyre winning. You see, if there are no enemies in a scene of the Tau firing, theyre winning. You will never see the enemy theyre killing. That would be another pieece of art... waaaaaay over there.

You forgot one of the most interesting ones - Nagi. Who are colonies of tiny telepathic wors who are indivirually non-sapient, but combined form a collective consciousness Geth-style, excep telepathis instead of digital. Tau use them to brainwash and "mind-rip" prisoners of war.

as a tau fan myself I must say, I am not even slightly offended by the picture of ironhand ripping off a crisis suit's head. that shit's metal as hell

Very interesting, just a shame GW hates xenos of ANY kind... this could be so cool, a handful of tau units, maybe a big battlesuit, surrounded by tons of different xenos species...

This just makes me want to have a xeno mercenaries faction that can ally with tau

Tau doesn’t need a single additional battle suit model before we get at least five-seven auxiliary units. Vespid, gue’vesa fire warriors, gue’vesa characters, demiurg, and either tarellian or thraxian melee units.

honestly a bit surprised that bricky didn't cover the great knarloc when talking about the kroot as its basically a kroot T-Rex

I just want to imagine like these guys in the 40k world just in a Library going through old records and combining them together and then making “informational” videos for the imperium

Ordo Xenos Inquisitor: *sees the Vespids after reading about the Tau's new headsets* "Sus."

I would LOVE to see GW do a series of minis all titled "Citizens of", and each box fleshes out the non-combatant people for each mainline faction. All these "auxiliary races" of the Tau, plainclothes Imperial citizens, Astartes chapter serfs, ork gretchin slaves, etc. Market them as objective markers or something if you need to justify it to the suits that there's a market for it.

"You wanna learn about the other Tau species? Well alright DK, sit down and let me tell you about the birds and the bees." - Bricky, maybe

31:19 I think the bottom right Kroot in that image of the four examples of Kroot variance might have been from a bloodline that ate a lot of Vespids since they were both blue and had wings.

A vorg model could be mobile cover, a giant shield guy running around providing big to hit and cover buffs from the squad on its shield

honestly the part that REAAAALLLY gets me... is like... GW could release an upgrade sprue (or something) for both imperial guard and votann and BOOM! Now you got two more axillaries to pick from. Oh, or you could also do an owl bear crossed with a stealth suit to make the nicassar unit, or just a solo one that acts as an attachment to stealth suits or something. Like a few things, not many, and boom... it'd make the Tau ACTUALLY feel like an empire that works with species. I'm okay too if not EVERYONE gets fleshed out as much as even say the Kroot, but having at least a handful that can support your mainline Tau would be neat!

For being like 20 years old the kroot warriors hold up pretty well.

Never enough Tau Auxiliaries. I’ve kitbashed some Gue’vesa, but really want to make a Nagi or a Nicassar for the Psyker phase.

Tau in Battlefleet is also fun because they're kitted for kiting as long as possible. Demiurg ships actually have a pretty powerful attack but it can only be used from the rear firing arc.

One reason I doubt GW will ever give the Tau minis of races like the Nicassar is because it would conflict with the "Tau only play in the shooting phase" rules on the tabletop. Giving Tau auxiliary races models would actually make the Tau viable in all phases of the game, including *gasp* melee! lol! :D

Fun fact. The mushroom person with guns in the artwork is in the shadowsun book.

As a black templar & black legion player, one of my most requested addition for GW to make to their model's range (besides a new Trazyn model) was ironically to flush out the Tau's other allied races. I love me mechs and all, but as you can tell from my profile pic, I also love me some Halo (including the covenant that are very similar to the Tau). I just think that not only would it flush out the army and make them more varied and play less one note, but also give a lot of other smaller xeno races and excuse to be on the tabletop within the Tau's faction. Glad you guys did this vid because this just reinforced this want. I mean we could be getting varied Kroot and alien OWLBEARS?!

An idea on how auxiliaries might not overshaddow the tau: make a second faction as a sort of "Xeno mercaries and pirates" as a mix of all the minor independent xeno species without any overaching ideology beyond "we generally work together so we dont get pulped by the imperium or chaos" and make them able to ally into Tau and vice versa.

56:52 How would this be a bad thing? With the sheer oversaturation of space marine variance (sorry, [insert chapter here] fans, but it's hella oversaturated) why shouldn't the Tau players have the option of more auxilary focused forces that's not just kroot with some vespids supporting them?

Biggest crime GW commits it's not expanding on all T'AU empire races, it's like that meme of the guy mining for diamond but give ups on last minute , inches away from the diamonds

I'd love to see a whole episode on the various xenos species not seen on the tabletop (at least in the main game). The Loxotl, Rak-Gol, Q'Orl, etc. would be fun!

Bricky underselling kroot's strength hard. Those guys will rip apart any random guardsman no matter what regiment. Those guys are STRONG

Why not have Tau Auxiliaries treated like Agents of The Imperium for tabletop?

Fun extra info. it wasnt just normal csm with huron when the fight broke out between him and the tarellians. it was hurons Terminator bodyguards. the poor dog people tried to take on a group of chaos terminators and a chaos lord

I did some Mathhammer: in one fight phase, Iron Hand Straken DOES Punch a Tau Crisis suit to death, on average. The margin isn't high though, and it's not efficient. Out of 6 attacks, about 2.22 on average will do damage, but because he does 2 damage per attack and Crisis Suits have 4 Wounds, that does translate to a kill. This changes if the Crisis Suit has a shield generator though, he'd only do damage with an average of 1.66 attacks, meaning he'd kill it just a bit less often than he'd fail to.

I love the old Krootox model. It looks like they breed the a diet of glue, marker fumes, and crayons.

14:25 By The Emporer, Tau can't catch a break!

It seems prayers for auxiliarys have been answered

A kroot in a Iiquisition retinue did get exiled from his people for eating Tau. He developed a hyper advanced intellect from that.

The best of the Kroot are able to beat up Space Marines. At least the "Old Ones"... I think I read in a new Book that a Krook Chieftain nearly beat up a Primaris Space Marine Lieutanent(something about Seargant at least) if he had not the Plot Armour.

For me, the T'au are 40k's Covenant analogue, but with mechs. A collection of diverse races coming together under the banner of an ideal they've been lied to about. I really wish they'd lean harder into that concept on the tabletop.

You guys always give me good ideas for some kitbashed for my army

Please please, the T'au arent *fish*...if anything they're closer to goats

9:00 the sphere at the top left is from the astartes fanmade cinematic

Kroot only need like 5 kits to have their own army, like they do in lore. Plastic for the old Forge World Great Krootox and cavalry, then refreshes for hounds and Krootox riders add on a command squad and bam Kroot army.

underselling the shapers all kroot can taste what their eating but the shapers know what it will make and both the krootox and hounds are genetic dead ends

You know, the Gue'Vesa would be the easiest thing to add. Just copy and paste the Genestealer rules for Brood Brothers, let them have a wider choice than Brood Brothers (like letting them take Ogryn stuff), replace the word "Brood Brother" with "Gue'Vesa Auxiliaries", and you’re good.

7:50 every time i see this i think back to playing MarathonI/II

Adding more kits for Tau client species would go a long way towards shoring up deficiencies in the army's playstyle. Yes, normal Tau doctrine focuses hard on ranged combat, because Tau aren't idiots. But 40K is kind of an idiot setting, and the _game_ part of it improves if the factions within it have options. Being able to engage in melee, for example, would help Tau players avoid being a pure skew list in every matchup. Moreover, just because Tau doctrine is ranged-focused, doesn't mean their auxilleries can't be used in those times when melee is unavoidable. The Nicassar, for example, are giant beat-sticks in waiting. Make a plastic kit that's just three owl-bears wearing Tau-themed armor plating, on larger sized bases. Big claws for rending, and maybe a shoulder or wrist mounted gun for doing things in the Shooting phase. Or give them a Psychic shooting attack, and some other psychic effect. Maybe let people build one of them as a separate Character option, that can be embedded in the Nicassar unit, that gives out more Psychic buffs. Boom, you now have a set of elite bruisers that can engage the enemy in close range.

The Tau have a good variety of Battlesuits now to fill pretty much every role. Some more attention on Alien Auxiliaries and other vehicles that aren't Battlesuits would be nice. I don't think more alien species would necessarily break the aesthetic of the army if they are kitted out appropriately (e.g. with armor that is very clearly Tau Empire issue armor, Tau-made weapons etc.)