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Just curious, I mean I've heard excuses from them being too shiny to trying to be the ultimate good guys.

If they are too shiny? What about the Eldar?

If they are too good? Have you not read the books? Their government is pretty corrupt, and there is a total evil *coughchaoscough* why not have a total good?

I think alot of people dislike Tau because they think that they appeal to the anime fans which dosen't really fit with the 40k setting. They also associate them with communism due to their practices, and in the same light the Imperium could be seen as a ignorant tyranical body. But at the same time there are always people who will always hate a certain army for certain reasons. Maybe they don't see any point in the army existing or they think it is useless and not worth even owning. Or maybe they don't like the way the army looks.

I personally like Tau, not for the anime link but purely for 1 the oppurtunity of having a military organisation comprised of multiple alien races. It's the whole Covenant aspect of it that I like and it gives someone like me alot of conversion opportunities. And 2 the simple asian feel to the army, in the DoW game series when Broadsides use their stabilization systems I thought it was genious that they looked like sumo wrestlers.

In the end I think it comes down to personal taste and opinion. Someone who prefers one thing isn't going to like another.

Note: Nothing I said was ment to be offensive to anyone and if it came across as such I apologise. I am a fan of almost every faction in the 40k universe (except Slaanesh and Dark Eldar, sorry just plain out don't like them ).

Because people think Tau drew inspiration from anime.

And such heresy is polluting the epic grim darkness of what is 40K

There are no good guys in the grimdarkness of the far future.

But I don't hate Tau...I just hate alot of the people that they draw into the Hobby. I mean I like Anime as much as the next guy...but when I see kids with Yugioh t-shirts buying a pack of Broadsides, I die a little inside.

I guess it's the whole anime thing.

Apparently a wargamer to is too cool to associate with anything "Anime-kiddy" related. Because obviously our RAR MEAN KILL toy soldiers are so much more mature and seriouz than the anime good guy toy soldiers.

I actually like the Tau, and am considering starting an army of them in the future.

I think they fit in fine. The anime-inspired look is a bit different, but 40k has always drawn (*cough*stolen*cough*) from many different sci-fi and other sources of inspriration.

I think those who dislike them can't reconcile the stylistic difference. Also I think GW was initially a bit subtle about the oppressive/imperialist dimension to the Tau culture, so fans who didn't read closely and/or were unfamiliar with classic fascist/communist (Stalin, Mao, etc.) propaganda thought they were being put forward as good guys.

Moving thread to 40K Discussions.

eNvY wrote:I guess it's the whole anime thing.

Apparently a wargamer to is too cool to associate with anything "Anime-kiddy" related. Because obviously our RAR MEAN KILL toy soldiers are so much more mature and seriouz than the anime good guy toy soldiers.

I think the Tau fit in the universe, but they seem kind of shoved in rather than having a genuine stake or higher purpose in the 40k universe's grand scheme. Again, I'm a wargamer, but I love Anime. (Gurren Lagann? Cowboy Bebop? Naruto? Ghost in the Shell? Yes please.) I'm just not sure the Tau really have much of an impact in the 40k universe other than being there to appeal to Anime fans.

But conversely, you could say the same thing about Necrons appealing to Terminator fans. Or Tyranids appealing to Alien fans. Though I think the Tau fall into a different category as the two latter races actually appear to be genuinely high-stake powers in the universe. Tau just seem kinda...there.

Because they are Xenos scum and because they can outshoot my guard army everytime!

I know a few tau players, and tau can be pretty decent despite being soft.

Jihadnik wrote:Because they are Xenos scum and because they can outshoot my guard army everytime!

Tau? outshoot guard?

Are you running an assault guard army or something?

They're pretentious, and their units are obnoxious to fight against. That and there is a lot of leftover hate from 4th ed when tau suits could always shoot without getting shot back at due to MSM and the old cover rules, and the only way to counter it was with transports, which were always instantly liquefied by the seemingly endless number of railguns they could bring. Even if they didn't bring lots of suits, they could still bring AV13 SMF, which made them invincible if the vehicles so much as batted an eyelash.

They were kind of cheesy back then. People have long memories...

...that and yeah, the mecha is kind of lame.

I do collect Tau, I started collecting them not beacuse I thought they looked like Anime charicters but because I thought they looked like the Art Work of Roger Dean

Exibit A:


Obliterator 1988

Not that close I hear you say. I present exibit B.


Brataccas 1986

Also a possable view of the Planet Vespid? Albeit as slightly more sedated version.





I also like them as they are (im my mind at least) the 40K equivelent of WFB Dogs of War. A main bulk force with some more colourful specialist units thrown in. 40K(Tau with Kroot, Nicassar, Vespid, Demiurg, humans, Hrenian Light Infantry and Morralian Deathsworn) Warhammer fantasy (Humans with Dwarfs, Halflings, elves, ogers hobgoblins etc, etc).

I suppose that most people tend to dislike shooty armies and Tau are the most shooty army out there.

Darth Bob wrote:...Tau just seem kinda...there.

well even in the fluff the Tau are Literally just starting off in the 40000th millenium, if you compared the "occupied sectors" map thats (iirc) within every codex's fluff section, you'll see Tau holding like a faction of a percent of the galaxy, while all the big leaguer's getting like 10% of the pie

Jihadnik wrote:Because they are Xenos scum and because they can outshoot my guard army everytime!

*MARKERLIGHT ACTIVATED. SEEKER MISSILE LAUNCHED*

Ailaros wrote:...They were kind of cheesy back then....

so how are we now? :p

Nah, I just mean thier basic ranges are a bit longer!

Assault guard...there's a scary thought!

Advance, and die together!!!

roflmao, i would love to field an assault Tau army against assault Iggy.

No, i dont use Kroots or Vespids, all Tau in my Army

Oh man, that sounds even more annoying. I learned to play much better by having to fight an army that could shoot as well as I could!

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:I think alot of people dislike Tau because they think that they appeal to the anime fans which dosen't really fit with the 40k setting. They also associate them with communism due to their practices, and in the same light the Imperium could be seen as a ignorant tyranical body. But at the same time there are always people who will always hate a certain army for certain reasons. Maybe they don't see any point in the army existing or they think it is useless and not worth even owning. Or maybe they don't like the way the army looks.

I personally like Tau, not for the anime link but purely for 1 the oppurtunity of having a military organisation comprised of multiple alien races. It's the whole Covenant aspect of it that I like and it gives someone like me alot of conversion opportunities. And 2 the simple asian feel to the army, in the DoW game series when Broadsides use their stabilization systems I thought it was genious that they looked like sumo wrestlers.

In the end I think it comes down to personal taste and opinion. Someone who prefers one thing isn't going to like another.

Note: Nothing I said was ment to be offensive to anyone and if it came across as such I apologise. I am a fan of almost every faction in the 40k universe (except Slaanesh and Dark Eldar, sorry just plain out don't like them ).

Tau were in DoW?

TheBlackVanguard wrote:

Tau were in DoW?

in one, not two

Anime space communists.

/thread

Because the only group player refuses to learn to play them well, so it turns into an arm sweep everytime... or he put no terrain on the board and says 'what'.

because str 10 rail guns make my monolith sad :(. They basically break the meta since they have so much anti tank that they can really put the hurt on mechanized armies.

Everyone says that they're underpowered... but I just don't see it.

I actually like Tau... just not playing against them.

Personally, I also don't get the berserk rage when anything Tau related is mentioned. Esp. why so many people feel the urge to invent, claim and post obvious bull droppings that can't survive any closer scrutiny. It seems like a reflex that anything people hate is projected on this race ("Damn liberal Hindu anime commie nazis led by a pope, curse those peace loving fish-cow-men doing massacres and genocides all the time"). And this reflex is immune to the presentation of facts and reasoning unfortunately. Seems like "Tau" is a secret trigger word from a global mass hypnotisation that I missed somehow.

The Tau are fine, but they have a reputation as a tough army to play so most new players stick to imperial armies or one of the more straight forward xenos options. I like them well enough. There is some good 40k Black Library fiction about the Tau interacting with various imperial factions. I forget the book....

I like them and having borrowed a (admitadly bad build) Tau army for a battle (we swapped ends as it were) I was shown how hard it was to play them well. Or maybe I just can't use Tau /shrug.

Tau don't have any characters in the fluff that pack anything memorable. O'shava rebelled against the Tau Empire, but he's just kind of there not doing anything. The Space Pope hasn't even been mentioned in official fluff outside the codex. Shadowsun just has guns for hands.

In the 40k verse, in the official fluff, the Tau haven't really done anything noteworthy. Conquered worlds sure, but every other race is doing that...

I dislike the Tau because they seem quite weak in fluff and have no real impact on the galaxy at large. Oh sure, their little empire is growing pretty fast, but even after three "major" expansions, they're still squatting in an incredibly tiny chunk of space. There's scattered references and mention of numerous other tiny alien empires of no consequence throughout the background and I just see the Tau on the same level.

I don't hate them as such, I just don't have any interest in them. I suppose it's their lack of particularly interesting fluff.

The Tau aren't grimdark enough. To rectify this error i propose some changes...

Railguns become SKULLGUNS
Farsight becomes a Tau-Daemon hybrid who is made of SKULLS
The Tau no longer incorporate new races into their culture, they just harvest their SKULLS in huge SKULLSHAPED deathcamps
to show everyone how grimdark they are.

Hrm, any other ideas how to turn the Tau into a "proper" 40k race?

KingDeath wrote:The Tau aren't grimdark enough. To rectify this error i propose some changes...

Railguns become SKULLGUNS
Farsight becomes a Tau-Daemon hybrid who is made of SKULLS
The Tau no longer incorporate new races into their culture, they just harvest their SKULLS in huge SKULLSHAPED deathcamps
to show everyone how grimdark they are.

Hrm, any other ideas how to turn the Tau into a "proper" 40k race?

More personality. They tend to blend together, there's no way to have a good chat with any of them.