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So after seeing the third or fourth "Why does everyone hate Tau?" or "This is Why We Hate Tau!" thread, I thought I would take up a little poll to see how many people actually do hate the Tau. Now, this isn't a matter of wondering WHY people hate or don't hate the Tau. The question is, how badly do you hate Tau, based on the totality of their rules, their background, and the people that play them?

I don't mind Tau. In fact they were the first army I started off with! But now they are sitting in my shelf, dusty and neglected...

I don't mind Tau to, they are very interested faction.
I just hate when Tau player represent them stronger then they actually are and deny any explanation to that with: "You hate Tau." and "You are fanboy."
Reality is that Tau are one of the weakest factions in 40k lore, and it seems that this fact bother Tau fans the most.

Cant say i hate tau, i tend to hate the newest codex :-)
So ill hate them soon

I don't hate tau.

I hate spikeyskulleeeeevilmarines more.
I hate tyranids.
I hate orks more.
Hell, I even hate Dark Grey Space Blood Wolf Templar Angels more than the spikeyskulleeeeevilmarines.

But I don't hate the tau.

I find their naivete refreshing. I think it will get them pounded into oblivion, but that's because optimism has no place in grimdarkness.

I hate how every devilish and hammerhead in my friends army has a 4+ cover save from shooting more than 12" and I can't hit in assault either cuz he's moving all the time.

I like the tau to a degree. I both like and hate their communist ways and their conformity. Honestly the only issue I have is how people play them. I have seen them run off the board way to often or just spend so much more time running than shooting or god forbid take a single swing in close combat.
Like the models, like the mech, like the fluff but would love a update.

I don't mind them. Their non-omnicidal ways are pretty refreshing among all the others, but their horse isn't quite as high as they sometimes like to think.

I'm neutral towards Tau, I really like Kroot though. Even made a Kroot Blood Bowl team.

A Kroot Blood Bowl team sounds wicked! Great idea that.

As to the Tau, I think they add something interesting to the game over all and seem like a fun army to have.
However there is a fair amount of irrational fan-girling that goes on about them and their fluff.

These threads come in waves, Tau hating, which Primarch is the best, Who would win etc etc.
One person reads a thread or skims something similar, it gets filed away in their subconsious and then they post about it 3 or 4 days later, meaning it seems in ones mind its a flood of constant threads, but which is in fact, just 2 or 3 over a week or two period. I wouldnt worry about it.

As for the poll, I kinda like the Tau.

I just dislike the debate about them, because they will inevitably feature a Tau-fan who portray them in a good light and overstate their military might only to have a veritable horde of empire fans come in and "correct" the Tau's errors.

I like Tau, they sqush so nice

Hm, only 9% of voters erred to the dislike section of the poll

I don't like the Tau very much, but I don't have a rabid, frothing at the mouth hatred for them like some posters do.

I'm pretty neutral with concerns to which armies I prefer over others, I like them all, almost equally.

There are two reasons why I think Tau receive this kind of hate:
A. It's just because they are "the new kids on the block". They stand out as "new" and are visually quite different than most other armies
B. The Tau were initially marketed towards "anime fans, etc." (I don't want to stereotype here, so it's a little general) This isn't really in the normal style of 40k, it's not gothic or grimdark, so they stand out.

I don't much care for them, but it's the fans and showboating about them I can't stand.

This is the mat ward thing all over again.
You have in this very poll conclusive evidence that there is no such phenominon, but there are still threads clogging up the forums about it.

Of course it isn't scientific at all.

You would have to take a mandatory SRS of ALL Dakka users to get accurate results.

People hate for many reasons, older players don't like tau because they wanted 40k all grimdarkus, others hate tau because those who play them can be annoying (though I still feel ork players waaaghing! at the top of their voice deserves more ire) and others still hate just to do so.

As for me, the tau fluff is what got me into 40k.

At least WAAAAGHing ork players fit into the background better

"I hate the Tau more than any other army" Is kind of relative.

That statement is true for me but thats also because I like all the other armies. (If I count SM as one army).

I would say I dont like them because of their fluff but thats it. A minor change in their fluff (not a huge or 180, just a minor one) and I would welcome them. Until than though...

They are my least favorite codex. To me, armies are all about aesthetics. I hate the look of the boxy crisis suits and fire warrior shoulderpads. Can't build an army without crisis suits. Plus 5 point 4+ saves on their vehicles make me want to slaughter younglings, Anakin style.

Grey Templar wrote:At least WAAAAGHing ork players fit into the background better

Do they? In many ways Orks are a comical army.

I put it to you that they "fit into the background" because they've been there for far longer than the Tau have.


And for the people whose argument is "THEY'RE NOT GRIMDARK. GET OUT MY GRIMDARK", compare them to Eldar for example. Do twinkley space elf hippies fit in? No? Want to throw them out your grimdark, too?

I hate the Tau in character. As for myself, I don't mind them.

Skarwael wrote:And for the people whose argument is "THEY'RE NOT GRIMDARK. GET OUT MY GRIMDARK", compare them to Eldar for example. Do twinkley space elf hippies fit in? No? Want to throw them out your grimdark, too?

Um... Eldar are not twinkley space elf hippies. They're the remnants of a dying race whose souls get absorbed by an evil god if not stored in a stone forever and whose only hope is that when they all die, they'll make a new god to kill Slaanesh, freeing them to be dead in peace. That's about as grimdark as it gets.

The Eldar are far from being space hippies.

They have that whole "Fall" thing that killed 95% of them and drove 4% of them into being hedonistic sadistic and utterly cruel creatures and 1% of them retained their sanity and now have to tread a fine line or their souls with get eaten by a ravenous god.

Very VERY grimdark!



Orks, yeah they are humerous relief, but its dark humor. They take pleasure only in fighting, their society's only purpose is war.

I don't hate any armies, I just find some armies more interesting for me than others. With regard to the Tau, I like their Mech-style battlesuits and the customisation these afford, as well as Kroot. However the army wide inability of fighting hand-to-hand kind of sucks.

Durza wrote:

Skarwael wrote:And for the people whose argument is "THEY'RE NOT GRIMDARK. GET OUT MY GRIMDARK", compare them to Eldar for example. Do twinkley space elf hippies fit in? No? Want to throw them out your grimdark, too?

Um... Eldar are not twinkley space elf hippies. They're the remnants of a dying race whose souls get absorbed by an evil god if not stored in a stone forever and whose only hope is that when they all die, they'll make a new god to kill Slaanesh, freeing them to be dead in peace. That's about as grimdark as it gets.

Ah - but I'm sure that they didn't have that kind of depth initially.

In my opinion the naivete of the Tau was written to show a fresh view of the universe, and their innocence was designed to be "violated" in a later codex with some new fluff.

But they got sidelined...

Personally I like the Tau. I think they are plenty grimdark, just grimdark in an Orwellian, "corrupt behind the scenes" kind of way. That's just my opinion though, I'm not throwing rocks at anyone else's.