Put it simply enough, the Tau are nothing more but unmitigated bullocks and an unnessescary piece of trash thrown into a perfect universe just to appeal to the likes of younger gamers. They are completely opposite to the majority of the races in the 40k universe. In 40k the factions are either, highly threatening as they proceed to to kill everybody in wanton bloodshed, or are dying off and being sieged by thier enemies. The Tau are the complete opposite of that, there not dying off, they rant **** about "the greater good" and the likes and they pose no real threat to the galaxy. Simply put there terribly incompatible with the WH40k universe. Anime mechas and chickensaurous rex(knarloc for reference) simply do not belong(and strong emphasis on the anime mechs people, thats just trash to look at,along with thier hovertanks,(hell thier broadsides just simply scream "Oh look at me I fell out of generic anime purgatory!")) in a universe that is supposed to represent the very essence of war and the hell that it creates. But the ranting about the idiocy of Tau within 40k is not what i'm here to complain about. My objective: To merely point out how ****ing inferior the Tau are in the 40k universe.
Where do I start? Oh yes, thus far thier empire only expands a paltry 3 lightyears compared to the monstrous 100 lightyears that the Imperium of Man currently own. Thier race thus far in terms of population are significantly small compared to the amount of humans that live in 40k(If I recall it was something like triple digit billion to single digit trillion. Nothing compared to the quadrillion that the IoM has or the amount of orks, tyranids, and chaos that are running rampant around the galaxy). The Tau also require(or to put it more simply, desperately need) the aid of other alien races, and considering how often we see those foreign races in thier battle doctrine, the Tau are HIGHLY dependent on other species to ensure thier survival. Without them, they would pretty much be so f*cked up the ass their ancestors would feel it. Given thier size, thier Industrial capabilities are mundane as well compared to well..... everything else out there....and especially compared to the IoM. thier numbers in terms of ships would not even come close to the hundreds of thousands of ships floating out there ready to rain down high velocity metal on any stooge stupid enough to get in the way.
Ship for ship, the Tau have just about the worse ships out there in the existence of the entirety of 40k. The majority of thier broadside and turrets put out lower yields then anything that the Imperium ships dish out(continental destroying broadsides baby!, lets see the Tau beat that!) Tau ships also lack the manouverability, the firepower and the shielding, to stock up to any space faring monstrosity out there in 40k. They have extremely poor sublight engine(colonial ships outfitted with guns) which would get them killed in a firefight when being outclassed by a retribution battleship moving at 75% the speed of light as a standard speed. The shielding is just about the worse thing there is out there, they either have a lack of shielding or a negligible amount that one might as well say its not even there. They also lack the approprate gellar fields required to shield them from warp energies thus leaving them highly vulnerable to psyker intrusion. Thier FTL's are pretty bad too. Out of all the races in 40k, they have the worst Warp drive capabilites out of the entire galaxy even being horribly beaten by the likes of the Imperium who can reach any destination alot faster then the Tau drives can. And hell, to travel, they merely skim the edge of the warp to get somewhere, which is absolutely hilarious because even the Tau are somehow reliant on the warp to get somewhere (so much for technological advancements eh?).
The Tau may enjoy a lack of presence in the warp, but for some reason or another people automatically assume the Tau possess immunity from the warp or any of its energies. Thats a complete fallacy right there. There has been an instance where a Tau etherial was entirely annihilated by the crude energies of the warp that a psyker had brought to bear on him. If that can be done to an ethereal then why not anything else. The Tau, are not going to get very far if they dont do anything about the warp, what they require is warp based technology, for the warp has become an integral and important part of the galaxy utilized by many 40k races as a mainstay means of energy (minus necrons of course, but unlike the Tau, they actually rule). On Medusa V, the Tau also had thier chance to make thier FTL's worth a damn but they chickened out and just refrained the hell away from it(they probably saw a demon on the other hand holding a fork and a knife its hand)
In terms of ground capabilities, the only time they are feasible is when they are engaging the smaller battles (Dawn of War scale). The larger the scale of the battle however, the more they become severely outclassed and outgunned(tech wise too). They lack any real artillery or any decent superheavy weapons to begin with. Tau Manta are simply not going to be of any help at all to them either. There guns, while being capable of bringing down a Warhound titan will not be able to bring down anything crazy like oh say....... an Emperor class titan! Warhound titans are just about one of the most lowest tier of titans in the Imperium while Emperor class are something along the lines of OVERKILL (especially when it comes to slaughtering doomed Tau forces.). Emperor class titans possesses thier own set of Void shields capable of withstanding a horde of modern nukes and has weapons capable of dishing out weapons of firepower equivalent to that of a low end battleship broadside. (expect concentric nuclear power to be applied). The Tau also lack any real Long range ballistic missiles (none of those skyray missiles which pack a relatively short range count either). Which appears to be something that most other races appear to have. Space Marines, IG, and hell even Orks have them! When it comes to bigger fights, expect heavier vehicles, and expect them to outclass any vehicles that the Tau possess. Baneblades (if put on Epic 40k scale) come in groups of more then 1 and are also capable of dealing out hell to thier own titans as well. Orks are going to be fielding thier gargants and more squiggoths to trample all over you, and the nids, are going to dish out a world of hurt when the bio titans come trampling down everything in its path.
In conclusion it is suffice to say, that the Tau are the worse and weakest when it comes the battles that actually count. No wait, scrap that. There just the worst race to ever exist in 40k.
In the 40k video games the Tau are actually pretty good if you play them correctly. I have a friend who is amazing with them. His tactics and those annoying ass Kroot monsters can curbstomp my army with ease, whatever race I play with.
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When the darkness comes, keep an eye on the light no matter how far away it seems.
Ingame is completely irrelevant. This is more of a fluff based rant on the absurdity called the Tau. And if you read my blog you will see that I have also pointed out some of the biggest weaknesses of the Tau that you would otherwise not see in the Dawn of War game.
I'm not disagreeing with you. You're obviosuly a die-hard 40k fan, you know what you're talking about. I will take your word for it that the Tau are a absurd addition to the 40k universe.
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When the darkness comes, keep an eye on the light no matter how far away it seems.
They also possess the greatest chances of getting crushed out of all 40k races in existence. The only thing about it is that nobody bothers to pay attention to them. Had the Imperium actually bothered to pay some attention to them, they would have steamrolled their planets ages ago. And no, the Damocles Crusade does not represent what the Imperium would have actually done given the fact that only a small group actually gave a damn and engaged thier asses (and I also blame an act of plot otherwise known as an intervening tyranid fleet)
Based off of what kind of evidence? Fluff wise their magnitudes weaker then any other race in 40k. Even my most disdained race The Tau. Storywise and factionwise thier pretty much emulated heavily straight from 40k.
oh boy... i can see it now, WH40k Vs. Starcraft.... i never thought this day would come.... Now, i must kill you all, and force the thread to die, none shall know about the events that happend here today.
KMC Community Forums
May 3rd, 2007 04:23 AM
