Force Name: Shan’cova’vre (Army of Broken Heroes), previously the Shan’va’sin (Army of Great Ones)
Force Type: Tau Farsight Coalition
History: The Shan’va’sin began its dutiful service to Shas’o Shovah within the Enclaves as a peacekeeping and police force. They patrolled the sector of worlds under the watchful eye of Shas’o B’shase, better known as Commander Guidestar. Commander Guidestar led his forces with cunning and grace, displaying great interest in the training of young Fire Warriors and seeing them rise through the ranks to pilot suits of their own. His teachings help shape the Army into a force that stood for peace, looking to settle differences without the need of force if need be. One of his brightest pupils was Shas’el Mont’ray, a young and eager commander recently promoted to Cadre Command. The Great Ones moved throughout Enclave space, ensuring that peace was kept and that all were working toward the success of the whole. They did not support the ideals of the Greater Good, as few Farsight followers did these days, but simply wanted to promote their existence in the universe and secure their borders.
O’Shovah approached Guidestar with a very specific request. He asked that the Commander take his forces out of Enclave territory, and venture into the sectors of Imperial space in order to seek supplies and sympathizers. While the Enclaves were strong, they were isolated, and required the good will of those still supportive within the Tau Empire as well as other races if they were to expand and further secure their territory. While not typically given this type of mission, Guidestar gratefully accepted and assembled his Coalition and sailed into the void.
Their journey took them across many worlds, most left barren by aggressive xenos species or too heavily fortified to attack when diplomacy failed. They came across some secluded worlds, held by Eldar or far-flung Humans, in which they were able to trade resources for resupply or offer their services. Some deals were struck, and the terms of negotiations passed back to the Enclaves for the Water Caste to exploit. Tragedy befell the Great Ones when they were ambushed by an Feral Clan of Orks upon an unknown world. Vastly outnumbered, the Great Ones fell back into defensive lines. Their technology was far superior to the Orks, and they were killing the green beasts by the thousands but their numbers were insurmountable. Shas’O B’shase himself was killed during the conflict, and in the moment when the Tau were left leaderless and about to crumble Mont’ray himself stepped forward and took command when his peers hesitated. Rallying the Tau, Mont’ray pushed back against the Orks and obliterated their kind from the face of the planet in a daring and devastating string of counterattacks. His victory on this world was enough to secure him the position of Coalition Commander, despite his lack of rank for the position. In order to bring the army fully under his control, as well as honor the memory of his mentor and former commander, Mont’ray renamed the Great Ones the Broken Heroes. They took time to restock and repair, and then ventured out again from the planet, leaving behind a solitary monument to their fallen brothers in arms.
Now, the Broken Heroes have arrived in the Dauntless Sector. They know nothing of the growing conflict, and have arrived before the rest of the Imperial Army that has been sent to purge the secessionist forces from the area. Though they stand neutral at this time, they will not hesitate to throw their forces in with whichever side offers the most beneficial alliance for the Farsight Enclaves.
Headquarters: Fleet based.
Strength: Troops, 12,000
Fire Warriors, 8,500: Equipped with pulse rifles, carbines, blasters, and photon grenades. Wear standard Tau combat armor. Shas’ui are equipped with drone controllers in order to bring Shield Drones into battle to support.
Pathfinders, 2,000: Equipped with pulse carbines, marker lights, photon grenades, railrifles, and ion rifles. Wear standard Tau recon armor.
Stealth Suits, 1,500: An upgrade of the common XV15, the XV25 stealth suit is more heavily armored and able to carry heavier weapons such as a Fusion Blaster into battle, as well as one optional support system for team leaders.
Battlesuits: 400 total
Crisis, 200: Variety of weapon configurations and equipment. Anything available to a Tau Crisis suit can be found in numerous configurations. Cadre Commanders have access to more experimental weapons and equipment, while the lower ranking pilots typically outfit their suits in a way the supports the role of their team. This can be anything from an all-round team, or teams that sacrifice capabilities against a certain type of foe in order to excel in hunting down and destroying enemy vehicles, infantry, or other commanders.
Broadside, 100: Equipped with heavier armor than a Crisis suit, wielding a Heavy Railrifle, or arm mounted Missile Pods as a primary weapon system. Shoulder armaments include smart missiles, seeker missiles, and twin linked plasma rifles. Can be outfitted with only one battlesuit support system.
Riptide, 50: The largest and most heavily armed and armored suits available to the Broken Heroes. The primary weapon can either be a Heavy Burst Cannon or Ion Accelerator. Always equipped with a Riptide shield generator. Secondary armaments include the possibility of twin-linked plasma rifles or fusion blasters, as well as missile pods. Contains an experimental Nova Reactor that can super charge its shields and weapon systems, however doing this releases deadly radiation that can seriously injure or kill the pilot after long periods of exposure.
Ghostkeel, 25: A deadly spirit of death on the battlefield. Utilizing overlapping stealth fields from its own on-board stealth generator combined with the fields of its two Stealth Drones, the Ghostkeel can become neigh-invisible to enemy forces. Heavier armor allows the Ghostkeel pilot to go toe-to-toe with most enemy forces once it ambushes them from a hidden position. A vast array of electronic countermeasures within its Electronic Warfare Suit in its left hand wreck the firing solutions and targeting abilities of the enemy, making it very difficult to lock on and take down a Ghostkeel even when discovered. Its primary weapon can either be an anti-infantry Cyclic Ion Raker, or the anti-armor Fusion Collider. It can also mount twin linked fusion blasters, flamers, or burst cannons on its shoulders. Being new technology to the Empire that was procured secretly by Farsight sympathizers, the Broken Heroes can only field a few of these suits. Their pilots operate in lone wolf teams far behind enemy lines.
Stormsurge, 25: A walking behemoth bristling with heavy weaponry, the Stormsurge is the Broken Heroes answer to the superheavy tanks and Titans of the universe. Primary armament can either be a Pulse Driver Cannon or Pulse A.R.C. cannon. Secondary armaments include massive Cluster Rocket Systems, and four Destroyer Missiles. Tertiary weaponry can be two Airbursting Fragmentation Projectors, two Smart Missile Systems, two Burst Cannons, or twin-linked Flamers. Being a new piece of Tau technology the Farsight Enclaves have managed to steal from the Empire, like that of the Ghostkeel, the Broken Heroes can only field these suits in small numbers.
Vehicles and Air Support, 200 (Any vehicle can take a number of upgrades from the Tau Vehicle Upgrade list).
Devilfish, 50: The standard Tau transport vehicle. A skimmer, like all Tau vehicles. Lightly armed with a Burst Cannon and a pair of Gun Drones that may be replaced with Smart Missile Pods in the need of more anti-vehicle weaponry. Able to carry a squad of 12 Fire Warriors.
Hammerhead, 45: The main battle tank of the Tau. Primary armament can either be a Railgun or Ion Cannon, with secondary armaments of Burst Cannons or Smart Missile Pods. A chin mounted Markerlight receiver allows the Hammerhead to track and more accurately engage targets that are painted with a Markerlight.
Skyray, 15: The Sky Ray carries six Seeker Missiles mounted in a 360° traversable turret. It also mounts a pair of networked Markerlights and a Target Lock support system, allowing the Sky Ray to aim and fire its own Seeker Missiles against two separate targets at once. Secondary armament is either a pair of independently-aimed burst cannons, a pair of Gun Drones or a Smart Missile System.
Piranha, 20: A light attack skimmer that operates much like a Space Marine Land Speeder. Equipped with a chin mounted Burst Cannon or Fusion Blaster, as well as two Gun Drones. Can also attach Seeker Missiles to provide long range fire support against targets painted with a Markerlight. Typically operate in teams of 3-5.
Barracuda, 15: The workhorse of the Tau’s atmospheric fighting power. A Barracuda is armed with a nose-mounted, pilot aimed Ion Cannon. This is the aircraft's primary weapon of use in dogfights, backed up by two drone controlled Burst Cannons in the wings. For ground attacks, it is primarily armed with wing mounted missile pods. When used in a ground attack role a Barracuda can carry additional armament of up to four Seeker missiles.
Razorshark Fighter, 25: A smaller atmospheric strike fighter. Main armament is a 360 degree quad-ion turret, with a nose mounted Burst Cannon and Seeker Missiles. Much faster and more agile than the Sun Shark Bomber, which is built on the same chassis.
Sun Shark Bomber, 30: Capable of blasting ground targets with its primary armament, the Pulse Bomb Generator, secondary systems include Interceptor Drones to intercept incoming enemy aircraft and Missile Pods to both protect from aircraft and provide supporting fire.
Miscellaneous: Various numbers of Water Caste diplomats, Earth Caste workers for repair and construction of fortifications, and Air Caste Pilots.
Tactics: The Broken Heroes prefer to adhere most to the doctrine of Mont’ka. They will study their forces with stealth suits and Pathfinder teams, looking for weak points and learning their enemies’ patterns. They then will utilize this knowledge to bring the crushing firepower of Tau upon their foes in devastating strikes of Battle suits and heavy weaponry. They favor strength and overwhelming destruction over more mobile forms of war. This is not to say that they simply stand still and allow the object of their wrath to come to them. Being Tau, which is an army specialized in the use of mobile skimmer-vehicles and jet-packed equipped Battlesuits, they still need to utilized the strengths of their equipment and training. They prefer to provide several bases of overlapping fire from their tanks, Broadsides, and Stormsurge suits, in order to soften the enemy before closing with speed and deploying their lighter forces to the areas that look like they are about to crack. The teachings of O’Shovah make the Broken Heroes an oddity among other Tau from the actual empire as well. They do not shy away from close combat, and their Battlesuit pilots are well equipped and trained to maneuver their suits in close proximity with the enemy.
Mortal enemy: Like nearly all of the Tau under the leadership of O’Shovah, the members of the Broken Heroes despise Orks more than any other. They are known to cooperate with nearly any other race, given that they are able to provide support to their own interests.
