A Demiurg Titan. It was quite simple. The basic premiss, for me, was some sort of Demiurg mining vessel[ordnance in BFG, probably the Torpedoes], probably one which usually goes automated.
So, what I thought a bit more.
It'd be-
A War Engine
20cm as it's not the fastest kid on the block
Some nice firepower, but we've got really *heavy* ranged stuff from the Mantas and Morays, so not overboard
Something a bit unique for the Tau, something that the Tau simply can't do
It's Demiurg, so it's configured against folks who'll be inhabiting places they want to get at. Who inhabits most of the Galaxy? Orks. Orks have a bit of everything, including some fairly powerful stuff, so it's quite resilient too!
So, I propose>
Type: War Engine
Speed: 20cm
Armour: 4+
Close Combat: 3+
Firefight: 3+
4* Ion Cannons 60cm AP3+/AT4+/AA6+ Forward Fire Arc
Cutting Beam 15cm MW3+ Titan Killer D6
or [15cm] Small Arms Extra Attack +2 Macro Weapon
or [Base Contact] Assault Weapons Titan Killer D3
Notes:
DC4-6[probably six]
4 Void Shields
And They Shall Know No Fear[I'm proposing those cool Demiurg Magnetic Shield Arrays simulate this effect]
Fearless
Reinforced Armour
Walker
Jump Pack
Planetfall
[Mainly because it's a torpedo...]Critical Effect: The Cutting Beam is Damaged and is no longer operational. Further critical hits inflict a point of damage.
Or something along those lines...
Now my justifications for why I'm proposing them 'as is', and bearing in mind that they are very much 'not' how the Tau have operated in the past:
The Tau routinely use Demiurg things for 'things' the Tau are not capable of doing. Holding a fleet line, for instance. Providing extremely good all-round cover in a fleet engagement. They're capable of slugging it out with enemy battleships and cruisers. It's not beyond belief to me that Demiurg *would* deploy things like this, and the Tau would use them to do so. I mean, by the time of the Third Sphere Expansion the Tau may realise that they're doing not too badly with Mantas and Morays and AX-things but that they have an additional and rather copious resource at hand for doing some *very* similar. Of course...the Demiurg!
Now my fluff behind this thing is as follows:
- Demiurg make extensive use of neat ordnance. I propose this is, effectively, one of their torpedoes from BFG. In BFG, they're bog standard torpedoes. Here, I think we've an excellent opportunity to explore without too much 'toe treading'[ie this isn't anything that goes against current fluff]
- Demiurg have to fight Orks a fair bit. Having titans to go up against Roks seems a fair go.
- Everybody loves a titan[sorry, couldn't resist]
- It seems nicely 'Demiurg'. They say only the Eldar were advanced enough to have a 'jump pack' titan, but I think the Demiurg would be the next in line as 'capable'. I think it's cool to have Jet Pack in there as it's simply extravagant. It's characterful, emphasising the ability fo the Demiurg to do cool things with ease, but it's not as if it's on their premier war-machines...Demiurg don't seem to care for war.
- When it's not melting your opponent, it's *very* easy to envisage it gouging up asteroids and planets hacking out all that goodness...
So, what do I think it looks like?
Well, I'm a terrible artist, but I like the idea of a sort of 'archaic' tech aesthetic rather than 'ooh! advanced!' like the Tau, Eldar and Necron tech appears, so it'd be much like the Demiurg vessels. Heavily industrialised and very practical looking. It's there to do a job, looking cool is a side effect. I originally liked the 'tripod' idea, sort of War of the Worlds-esque, or the Tripod Trilogy or something similar, but felt it'd be too dodgy for *me* to attempt and make it look both unique and good. So, my art is one which *isn't* like that, so I took a different direction:
For an understanding of the 'actual' colouring of the thing, it's best to look at where my ideas came from: The Demiurg Stronghold itself-
For it's place in the list? Some sort of cross between an Alien Auxilliary space and an extract from the Kor allotments? Reasoning? Well, the Demiurg are typically appended to the Kor for Auxilliary duties, being primarily a spacefaring race themselves, and also because they're clearly alien auxilliaries.
It's that simple!
Xisor
PS If you don't like my art, for pities sake, do some of your own! I'm deadly serious, if you can make a cooler picture: please do![I'm really not being narky here, I am pleading!]
