Taurox

The Taurox is a vehicle in Warhammer 40000. Not to be confused with Taurox The Brass Bull from Warhammer Fantasy.

This article is about something that is considered by the overpowering majority of /tg/ to be fail. Expect huge amounts of derp and rage, punctuated by /tg/ extracting humor from it.

The Taurox is a vehicle used by the Imperial Guard in the role of an APC. In comparison to the other Dedicated Transport available to the Imperial Guard, the Chimera, the Taurox is not quite as durable (T6 vs the Chimera's T7), and it doesn't carry quite as many passengers. However, the Taurox is faster and also shootier (arguably).

Unfortunately, it also looks retarded, a bit like Orks looted an IG vehicle and then the Guard looted it right back. This model is one of the ugliest things that Games Workshop has released since the Dreadknight or the Centurions. Consider taking a jeep or a Hanomag, and ripping the wheels out to replace them with mini treads which appear to have been based on the Tucker Sno-Cat, except with stupidity in place of awesome all-terrain capability. Once you've done that, the next step is to make the thing as tall as a fucking tank, thanks to those same treads being ridiculously tall. The Taurox takes the METAL BAWKSES to their retarded extreme. It also has exhaust pipes going straight into the crew compartment, so your soldiers can sniff some petrol fumes before doing battle. To top things off your troops can then get killed as they disembark due to the side-mounted guns which shoot past the doors. Sensible people simply assemble the model with the weaponry mounted in the turret instead.

The Taurox takes its design cues from real life MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles. MRAPs are tall wheeled vehicles built to withstand IEDs and landmines, and to protect passengers from injury during rollovers. Think a heavily armored Humvee upgrade that can withstand rocket strikes. Unfortunately, instead of a sensible wheeled arrangement the Taurox uses those small individual tread units. These would, ironically, be horribly vulnerable to damage from landmines, they'd do little to nothing to enhance mobility, and they would and add an unnecessary degree of mechanical complexity. Indeed, in contrast to the MRAP the Taurox seems designed to kill, not protect, its passengers. It also shares a coincidental look with the GSD LuWa, a proposed replacement for the German military’s Wiesel tankettes for airborne troops.

Oh and if you think the Taurox would look better with wheels, it does. SO much better. Good conversion kits can be bought from Blood and Skulls Industries or Victoria Miniatures.

Patterns

There are two variants of the Taurox: the Taurox itself, and the Stormtrooper exclusive Taurox Prime.

Taurox

Oh Shit! We accidentally shot Dave when he was trying to get out of the side door!

The vanilla Taurox is available as a dedicated transport for regular Imperial Guard units. This vehicle looks a lot like an Ork Trukk and is basically a big Metal Box on top of four smaller Metal Boxes. Compared to a Chimera, the Taurox is faster and has somewhat more firepower and range with its twin-linked Autocannon. Meanwhile the Chimera is slightly tougher, it can carry 2 more passengers, it can take upgrades from the Vehicle Equipment List, and it is an Amphibious vehicle (not that the latter really makes much difference in 8th/9th). This means that the Chimera is slightly better for short ranged Guard since it's less likely to get destroyed as it rushes towards the enemy, while the Taurox is better for supporting a shooty Guard army since a twin-linked Autocannon will probably deal more damage than a Multilaser/Heavy Bolter combo, especially at ranges over 36". If the Taurox is able to use its speed and firepower to support its squad while keeping the enemy safely at arm's length, that's probably where it's happiest.

Alternative take: These are excellent little vehicles for melta-vets to spring out of. The vehicle's 14" move lets them get just that little bit closer than they might otherwise have been able to, which hopefully leaves them in a better position to get within prime melta range (assuming the vehicle isn't shot out from under them before they can deploy).

In terms of the model kit itself, there are two ways to mount the autocannons of a Taurox: either on the sides, or on a turret. However, any git with a lick of common sense will have them in the turret. Not just because the concept of shooting past the passenger doors is stupid (though it is), but because the idea of having fixed weapon mounts on a vehicle is fucking retarded. Who in their right mind would choose having fixed guns that can neither elevate nor depress, nor traverse left or right, when you could have a full 360 degree arc of fire? Spoiler: Literally no one.

Like most Imperial Guard vehicles the Taurox and its sister variant, the Taurox Prime, can be equipped with either a pintle-mounted Storm Bolter or a Heavy Stubber. At only 2 points for either option, there's really no reason not to take one.

Taurox Prime

A Taurox Prime. High enough that Dreadknights can use it as cover. Also, note Captain Price in the hatch.

This is only available to the Stormtroopers. It's basically a version of the Taurox with a twin Hot-shot volley gun in place of the Autocannons (you can swap back to the Autocannon for some points, of course) and a Taurox Battle Cannon. The Battle Cannon on the Taurox is a mini version of the Battle Cannon on the Leman Russ; being 48" S7 AP-1 Heavy D6. It can be further swapped for a Taurox Gatling Cannon (having 20 shots at Strength 4) or a Taurox Missile Launcher which is basically the Typhoon Missile Launcher that Land Speeders get. In addition, it's manned by Stormtroopers instead of the regular Guard so it has BS 3+ instead of 4+.

The best gun loadout is probably the hot-shot volley guns, Gatling Cannon, and auxiliary Storm Bolter; you get 30 S4 BS3+ shots at 24", which the vehicle can close to with ease; this is excellent for anti-infantry duty. The autocannons and Battle cannon are better against light vehicles, but the Taurox Prime doesn't quite have the toughness to trade shots with enemy armor; it's better suited to lightning-fast strikes against infantry and other soft targets. The Taurox Missile Launcher is very impressive, and can fire either 2 Krak missiles or 2 Frag Missiles doing the damage that you'd expect; this gives the Taurox Prime the ability to punch above its weight class, but it's 30 points.

You might think this is overpriced, and it is. A Taurox Prime with a Missile Launcher, twin Autocannons, and a Heavy Stubber comes in at 134 points, which is only 3 points less than a plain-Jane Leman Russ Battle Tank, at a fraction of the survivability despite having roughly comparable firepower. But the truth is that in order to get the most out of a Taurox Prime, a wise player must use the vehicle's high speed to quickly deploy it and its squad to where they are most needed, and to where all that BS 3+ weaponry can make a difference. The ugly track pods will make new players mistake the Taurox for a tank, and it isn't; like the Chimera, it's an IFV, and one that's sacrificed durability for speed and firepower.

Alternative Modeling Options

A Taurox conversion by a certain Bas Dan of Spikey Bits glory. You can hear the sick nasheed the moment your lay eyes on this.

Much like every other retarded new model, GW has a habit of coming up with rules that makes you feel like you pretty much have to buy the damn things no matter how shit the models are. Well there is another way - We all want twin linked auto cannons so just convert them on to your chimera. Same for the prime, just find appropriate guns for the turret and that'll do it. No retarded box on boxes, just sweet looking chimeras with some heavy firepower.

Alternatively, just find a 1/35 Tamiya halftrack (M3 or Hanomag, depending on your preference) and stick the twin-lined autocannons on it. That way it differentiates itself from the actual Chimeras in your army, and is relatively low-profile in comparison to the actual Taurox itself.

A third option, and the one you'll probably end up going for if you play at GW stores that frown upon 3rd-party models and kitbashes that are significantly departed from the shape of the original model (important for TLOS; the Chimera is lower, longer, and wider than the Taurox), is to simply not use those idiotic track pods and put some big ol' wheels on it. Several kits exist to convert the Taurox to something more visually palatable (see above); vendors of which include Victoria Miniatures, Zinge Industries, and Blood and Skulls Industry over on Ebay, the latter of which also makes kits for half-track, 8x8, and 6x6 configurations. Hell, if you happen to like the armored suspension that the vehicle came with (it does kinda appeal in its own way, doesn't it?), it can be fitted to just about any 27mm wheels you can get a hold of without much pain.

A fourth option is to use a Genestealer Cults Goliath Truck, which has the benefit of identical stats, wargear, and transport capacity for a perfect WYSIWYG count as match.