I actually enjoy the (lore of the) Tau...

I actually enjoy the (lore of the) Tau. I really chuckled when I read of their first encounters with chaos and the dark eldar, as well as their first meeting with the necrons.

But what happened when they first saw a space marine? what about when they first ran into orks? I would like it if they sent some diplomats to the orks.

Oh, and I read that Caiphas book with the Tau, and liked when he tells a tau ambassador about hive worlds... have the Tau ever seen a hive world? and did they pee themselves when they saw it?

I love how the Tau just can't understand how big is the Imperium of Men.

Naivety only applies to the general population. The Ethereals are fully aware, and their puppetmasters even more.

Tau are probably intimidated by Hive Cities(the ones that actually see it), or don't believe it(if they never saw one).


>In Gaunt's Ghosts, when Gaunt tells a soldier about Hive cities, he is visibly shaken asking if there really can be so many gue'la on just one planet

The Tau probably were deadened by the time they saw Space Marines. Odds are they were already expecting that after they saw the size of the Imperial counterattack during their initial incursion into Imperial Space

And as for Orks, I doubt they tried diplomacy seeing as how Orks usually do the first greeting by flattening a city with a Rok.

who are these puppetmasters you speak of

I recall reading in their original codes tau try diplomacy with Orks but learn quickly to just kill them all.

Same thing happen when they meet the oldcrons, but the tau got their ass handed that time.

Tau warp travel is basically imperium tech they found on their moon.

The Eldar, probably.

Not familiar with any lore, what happened with the Deldar and crons?

>Tau warp travel is basically imperium tech they found on their moon.

I thought they didn't had warp travel at all?

So, anyway, no cute and fun quote about the tau meeting space marines for the first time? it looks like chaos, eldars and necrons are the only ones who got funny stories to tell about it?

...

Closest thing was their reaction to the Imperium's first crusade against them
>That's a lot of tanks...

6th edition set the pivotal battle of the Third Sphere Expansion on Agrellan, a hive world (also the first deployment of the Rapetide). And the footage of the Tau victories there was empire-wide mandatory viewing to boot.

>True to his word, during the initial stages of the Third Sphere Expansion, Aun’Va was constantly at the front, heedless of personal danger in his zeal. His presence instilled courage, helping to drive the Fire Warriors ever forward. The other Ethereals of the High Council attempted to dissuade Aun’Va from such risks; however, they realised the futility of their admonishments when the saw the holo-vid clips that were beamed back to the Empire. Every Tau, whether a worker in a factory complex on the busiest sept world, or an atmosphere engineer converting the air on a barren moon base of a future colony, was required to view such materials. There, they saw the battles of the front line, including Aun’Va on his hover-throne entering a breach in a battered Imperial fortress wall, Aun’Va directing the devastating volleys of a Fire Warrior line, and Aun’Va standing next to the new technological marvel of the XV104 Riptide – piles of recently destroyed enemy tanks in the background. None who saw Aun’Va’s noble attempts to persuade the last Human defenders to lay down their arms could help but be impressed. Although the barbarians refused and in the end had to be eradicated, it was still a sight that stirred something in every Tau, triggering a reaction of pride and determination.

Yeah, the situation with the Orks has always been that the Tau tried to assimilate them but every attempt just resulted in war, so now their policy is to exterminate them, ideally ASAP, or if that's not possible, place warning beacons around Ork territories.

For DE, pic related.

Their warp travel isn't like the Imperium. It's more like a mouse crawling between a couple of blankets instead of dick punching reality to force your way into a realm of every possibility and nightmares.

Really? not even a "wow thats a big city" or "thats a lot of humans"?

They make very brief jumps, apparently not unlike how humanity started it before navigators popped up and could help guide ships into the warp.

It's similar to how the Chartists still do things: make a short, blind jump, preferably along a well-established travel route. Pop back into realspace, reorient, and repeat until at your destination. Faster than light, slower than Astronomican-assisted Navigator travel.

Tau FTL was, last I checked, a murky subject since their 6e codex. The discovery of the crashed ship on the moon was retconned out, and at the time of the Second Sphere Expansion at least, they had only just attained near-light speed. Their first look at a warp drive was during/after the Damocles Gulf Crusade, and they were unable to make sense of it, though their own ships' propulsion systems were further upgraded for the Third Sphere.

A later White Dwarf trivia section described them using the old warp-skimming method, but it's unclear how valid that is - unless there's been some solid confirmation of it in an actual GW sourcebook that I've missed.

They've had contact with the Imperium for over 200 years, plenty of time to pick things up.

I contend that the WD un-re-double-retcon was necessary and intentional. No FTL, no interstellar empire, full stop. It fails even 40k's flimsy internal logic.

So lets say the Tau aquaire warp-speed. How do they protect their ships? Don´t think I´ve heard of Tau Gellar fields.

The local tau lore aficionado at my store compares their FTL travel to skipping rocks where they don't enter the warp just skip off the surface.

Take with sufficient salt as this is second hand information.

That was in the first tau codex.


Also newcron not having FTL and using hacked webway; but they can make pocket dimensions and can destroy stars by pressing a button, but don't do it due to much paper work. Is silly even by 40k

Weren't Nids STL for like a good 20 years?

They had warp travel since Rogue Trader (originally warp engines even, albeit biological ones) and until 5th edition, which replaced it with the gravity-bending Narvhal.

Didn't the nids had the shadow on the warp? Basically cutting of the target system from the outside.

The 5E+ description of them as psykers that don't use the warp has caused a lot of confusion, but yes, the psychic presence of the Hive Mind messes up all warp travel, communication, and users in the vicinity, as well as filling even normies with existential terror (none of which I feel has ever really translated to the game particularly well, though that's just out of necessity due to its fluff OPness).

I'm not sure if GW have covered the effect of the Shadow in the Warp on the Tau; particularly the interaction with their old warp travel, since they didn't truly enter the warp. The 5th edition Gorgon fluff would have been an ideal opportunity to explore that, but it didn't.