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My friend and I cane into little argue so I thought that you guys can help us.
So the question is: who has the grater chance in winning - Grey Knight or Tau Firewarrior?

We realized that these 2 never meet in battle ( except in DoW, but that doesn't count ). And we can't get to agreement who is better.
Of course this covers equipment, training, ranged and melle combat.

After that he said that if 1 Fire Warrior can't kill him 1000 can. And I said that he just use his psychic power ( like psychic Inquisition or slam ) and he kills all of them. He than said that that would be useless because Tau are no psychic race.

So what do you guys think?

I'm pretty sure that for even points value, Grey Knights would wipe the table with Firewarriors. Not too sure about the mathammer, but my regular boyz wipe out Firewarriors pretty regularly.

If the Grey Knights can teleport into striking range, Tau are screwed.
To be a non-psychic race means Tau have no defense against GK' abilities and can't stop them except killing them.
Thus a major disadvantage.
And the GK fight were they are needed, so something bad would already go on there and the Tau better hope they can flee when the GK arrive.

A Tau Fire Warrior has Stats worse than a regular human and absolutely no psychic defense.
They have alright armor and long range stung non armor-penetrating gun.

Grey knight wins everytime.


In narrative (i.e. non table top) the Grey knight would kill tens if not hundreds of Fire warriors.

A Standard Firewarrior is about the equal to a Cadian Guardsman in lore.

A Grey Knight is someone so amazing at warfare he could easily fight hundreds of times his number. They are as far above Space Marines as Space Marines are above regular humans.

While I love and play Enclave (viva la Farsight!) there is no way a Firewarrior would be able to go toe-to-toe with a Grey Knight unless he was sporting a Battlesuit and even then, lorewise, a Grey Knight would most likely walk through him unless it was Farsight or a member of his honor guard.

BeefCakeSoup wrote:A Standard Firewarrior is about the equal to a Cadian Guardsman in lore.

Bahahahaha. A "standard" Fire Warrior is about equal to a member of the Cadian Youth Armies, yeah.
A veteran Cadian, who's served for most of his life since his time in the Youth Armies?
Hell no, nowhere near a match. At least not if we're going off lore.

Most Fire Warriors have nowhere near the kind of fighting expertise the Cadians amass in their lifetimes. Maybe the Farsight Enclave's Fire Warriors might, but they'd likely 'fight dirty' and even out the score.

A Grey Knight is someone so amazing at warfare he could easily fight hundreds of times his number. They are as far above Space Marines as Space Marines are above regular humans.

While I love and play Enclave (viva la Farsight!) there is no way a Firewarrior would be able to go toe-to-toe with a Grey Knight unless he was sporting a Battlesuit and even then, lorewise, a Grey Knight would most likely walk through him unless it was Farsight or a member of his honor guard.

Would most likely walk through him even if it was Farsight or a member of his Honor Guard, even.

Kanluwen wrote:

BeefCakeSoup wrote:A Standard Firewarrior is about the equal to a Cadian Guardsman in lore.

Bahahahaha. A "standard" Fire Warrior is about equal to a member of the Cadian Youth Armies, yeah.
A veteran Cadian, who's served for most of his life since his time in the Youth Armies?
Hell no, nowhere near a match. At least not if we're going off lore.

Most Fire Warriors have nowhere near the kind of fighting expertise the Cadians amass in their lifetimes. Maybe the Farsight Enclave's Fire Warriors might, but they'd likely 'fight dirty' and even out the score.

A Grey Knight is someone so amazing at warfare he could easily fight hundreds of times his number. They are as far above Space Marines as Space Marines are above regular humans.

While I love and play Enclave (viva la Farsight!) there is no way a Firewarrior would be able to go toe-to-toe with a Grey Knight unless he was sporting a Battlesuit and even then, lorewise, a Grey Knight would most likely walk through him unless it was Farsight or a member of his honor guard.

Would most likely walk through him even if it was Farsight or a member of his Honor Guard, even.

A Firewarrior is enlisted at birth for service. He is born into warfare in a caste system. He is trained to use weapons as soon as he can use them. He is then mandated to serve in a Firewarrior squad for the first part of his life. After serving time as a Firewarrior and gaining the rank of Shas'Ui he is given an option to wear a Battlesuit.

Firewarriors are not Tau but rather a "species" of the Tau that are called the Fire Caste. They live, breathe, and love war and wanted to straight up invade the entire Imperium when they discovered it was an Empire. Remember that while they are no match for a Grey Knight in single combat, the Fire Caste halted an entire CRUSADE into their Empire.

Firewarriors are not as strong as humans, but in terms of warfare they are capable of wiping the floor with Cadians all day long and did when Brightsword, a pupil of Farsight surrounded and wiped out a Cadian Regiment and a Company of Space Marines in the Koloth Gorge Massacre without taking any sizable damage to is unit.

Edit: It was two Cadian Regiments. ;D

BeefCakeSoup wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:

BeefCakeSoup wrote:A Standard Firewarrior is about the equal to a Cadian Guardsman in lore.

Bahahahaha. A "standard" Fire Warrior is about equal to a member of the Cadian Youth Armies, yeah.
A veteran Cadian, who's served for most of his life since his time in the Youth Armies?
Hell no, nowhere near a match. At least not if we're going off lore.

Most Fire Warriors have nowhere near the kind of fighting expertise the Cadians amass in their lifetimes. Maybe the Farsight Enclave's Fire Warriors might, but they'd likely 'fight dirty' and even out the score.

A Grey Knight is someone so amazing at warfare he could easily fight hundreds of times his number. They are as far above Space Marines as Space Marines are above regular humans.

While I love and play Enclave (viva la Farsight!) there is no way a Firewarrior would be able to go toe-to-toe with a Grey Knight unless he was sporting a Battlesuit and even then, lorewise, a Grey Knight would most likely walk through him unless it was Farsight or a member of his honor guard.

Would most likely walk through him even if it was Farsight or a member of his Honor Guard, even.

A Firewarrior is enlisted at birth for service. He is born into warfare in a caste system. He is trained to use weapons as soon as he can use them. He is then mandated to serve in a Firewarrior squad for the first part of his life. After serving time as a Firewarrior and gaining the rank of Shas'Ui he is given an option to wear a Battlesuit.

We must be reading different fluff. They aren't "born into warfare in a caste system".
They "start life as a young line trooper", and it takes four years of line combat before they're promoted to Battlesuits.

Cadians are engaged in actual, live-fire situations from the age of 8 and onwards.
The Cadian Youth Armies are the "training regime"(starting at around age 8 and going until they're 14) before a Cadian is inducted into the Whiteshields. To get into the Whiteshields, they're going through six years of grueling training enduring live-fire situations, survival training in extreme climates, and drills organized by Cadian Shock veterans.
From the Whiteshields(earliest age that I can find talking about a Whiteshield is around 13 years old), they can't become full "eagled"(Guardsmen are required to 'take the eagle') until they're 18 years old. So that's another 5 years right there, in which they'll have spent it all in active warzones fighting alongside the Cadian Shock proper.
Your average Cadian Guardsman has around 16+ years of combat experience under his belt. Sergeants will generally have more, as would the Kasrkin. Most of their experience would also be fighting against the forces of the Traitor Astartes Legions around the Cadian Gate---which let's face it, make the Tau look like the fluffy kittens they are.

Firewarriors are not Tau but rather a "species" of the Tau that are called the Fire Caste.

Er, no. They're Tau. The only difference is that they've been "selectively bred to be the strongest and biggest of the Tau".
It even says that in the little description about the Fire Caste on page 9 of the Tau Empire book.

They live, breathe, and love war and wanted to straight up invade the entire Imperium when they discovered it was an Empire.

...What? The closest thing I can find to the Fire Caste "wanting to straight up invade the 'entire Imperium'." is that the Fire Caste led a Reclamation, taking back worlds they'd lost after the Crusade fleet withdrew to regroup and redeploy against Hive Fleet Kraken(Ichar IV should ring a bell.)

Remember that while they are no match for a Grey Knight in single combat, the Fire Caste halted an entire CRUSADE into their Empire.

They didn't "halt an entire Crusade", first off. They halted a small Crusade force, which up until that point, had been crushing the Tau until they reached a Tau Inner Sphere world(Dal'yth, which is relatively close to the Fire Warrior garrison world of Sa'cea).
The only reason the Imperium didn't flatout crush the Tau was because a Tyranid Hive Fleet was beginning an advance into actual, important territory and they opted to withdraw and redeploy assets that would be needed to crush the splinters from Kraken.

Firewarriors are not as strong as humans, but in terms of warfare they are capable of wiping the floor with Cadians all day long and did when Brightsword, a pupil of Farsight surrounded and wiped out a Cadian Regiment and a Company of Space Marines in the Koloth Gorge Massacre without taking any sizable damage to is unit.

I'm seeing nothing about a "Cadian Regiment" or a "company of Space Marines" at Koloth Gorge. It was more likely a Brimlock Dragoon regiment, however.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also:

There seems to be some discrepancy in the timeline for the Nimbosa campaign. Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition) places the date for the attack as 790.M412. Cities of Death states, however, that the reason for Nimbosa being lightly guarded was a result of Hive Fleet Kraken1, a Hive Fleet whose earliest signs were not seen until 250 years after the destruction of Hive Fleet Behemoth in 745.M41. To add further confusion, Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition) states that the Imperial response only took four months to enact3, while the short story "Assault on Nimbosa" places the counterattack post-999.M41

What?
Why the F would Cadians be fighting Tau, who are on the other side of the Galaxy and don't have faster than light travel?

Where did you read this?

"many of the more passionate leaders called for a war of conquest against the imperium" Page 11, Tau Codex

Page 20 details the difference in Tau. Fire Warriors though not called by name (Imperial Report) Are detailed as, "for all intents and purposes a sub species of Tau."


The lore is botched upon looking into it. Apparently this is in the Nid 5th edition dex.

It is in regards to Hive Fleet Gorgon. http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Gorgon_(Hive_Fleet) Sourced from the dex.

A summary at the bottom, or if you have an off-hand nid 5th dex it should detail it in Hive Fleet Gorgon, it explains the Cadians arrival.

As for the Firewarriors and their comparison to Cadians, Tau train in a constant state of warfare aswell battling orkz endlessly, Nids, the Imperium and learn far faster given short life spans. Considering the Tau surpassed the Imperium on a technological level in many ways, it is expected a Tau doesn't need to spend almost half his life learning to fight. By that point he is leading conflicts.

As for the Crusade, it was only by ancient Emperor times small. It was sanctioned the use of titans and only crushed isolated outposts, when it came in contact with a sep't world on the fringe of the actual Empire it stopped dead in it's tracks. The war stalemated and the imperium found itself stretched as the battles raged. That and this can be found in the dex: "Space Marines learned to respect the skill and courage of the Fire Caste." P14 Tau Dex

Had they wanted too, they could of blockade the spent crusade, but they opted not to and allowed them to leave. Again thats in the dex P14.


Tau are not as strong on a pyshical level, but in warfare if a Space Marine is respecting you on a battlefield you aren't a pushover and are certainly capable of dealing with the Guard even if they are Cadians which incidently, Tau allied with later on to fight the nids during the Gorgon fleets arrival in Nid 5th.

Sorry for derail.

Tau training doesn't result in deaths, however.

Cadian training does.

Kanluwen wrote:Tau training doesn't result in deaths, however.

Cadian training does.

Thats the risk of First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire during a training exercise! xD

Uh, actually no.

Cadian Youth Armies practice using live ammunition. By the time they've gone into the Whiteshields, many of them have killed another being.

Why the heck did you need to make a thread for this? Even a lobotomized cripple would tell you the obvious answer; A grey knight.

Grey Knight>Space Marine>Guardsman (cadian, steel legion, kreig...Any of the, really)> Fire warrior

Fire warriors are about as 'ard as an average human. Sure, they can shoot their little guns well, but in a fist/knife fight, a guardsmen would win. No doubt in my mind. Like kan is saying, even the most lowly of guardsmen is in actuality a better soldier than anything we have on earth.

Soldiers on par with fire warriors don't even get to join a regiment. They end up in a PDF regiment, which is more or less, a conscript army.

Samus_aran115 wrote:Why the heck did you need to make a thread for this? Even a lobotomized cripple would tell you the obvious answer; A grey knight.

Grey Knight>Space Marine>Guardsman (cadian, steel legion, kreig...Any of the, really)> Fire warrior

Fire warriors are about as 'ard as an average human. Sure, they can shoot their little guns well, but in a fist/knife fight, a guardsmen would win. No doubt in my mind. Like kan is saying, even the most lowly of guardsmen is in actuality a better soldier than anything we have on earth.

Soldiers on par with fire warriors don't even get to join a regiment. They end up in a PDF regiment, which is more or less, a conscript army.

Last I read, Imperial Armor V. 3, Taros was a whole lot of Guard, that did a whole lot of dying, then a whole lot of running..

But on the bright side, the survivors got to put those strong muscles to work as slave labor in the mines for the rest of their "long" lives, as they impressed the Tau with their uncanny hand-to-hand with a pick axe, mining resources!

BeefCakeSoup wrote:

Samus_aran115 wrote:Why the heck did you need to make a thread for this? Even a lobotomized cripple would tell you the obvious answer; A grey knight.

Grey Knight>Space Marine>Guardsman (cadian, steel legion, kreig...Any of the, really)> Fire warrior

Fire warriors are about as 'ard as an average human. Sure, they can shoot their little guns well, but in a fist/knife fight, a guardsmen would win. No doubt in my mind. Like kan is saying, even the most lowly of guardsmen is in actuality a better soldier than anything we have on earth.

Soldiers on par with fire warriors don't even get to join a regiment. They end up in a PDF regiment, which is more or less, a conscript army.

Last I read, Imperial Armor V. 3, Taros was a whole lot of Guard, that did a whole lot of dying, then a whole lot of running..

But on the bright side, the survivors got to put those strong muscles to work as slave labor in the mines for the rest of their "long" lives, as they impressed the Tau with their uncanny hand-to-hand with a pick axe, mining resources!

We all know too well thats what Guards men Do best... They Die, ALot, and in huge Numbers ITs the guards way if at first you dont succeed, throw more troops at it,

Also In EVERY CODEX they make there army out to be THE best, So of course the tau dex IS going to say WE THE BEST, the IG dex is going to say WE THE BEST, (even though they realy are ).

And as far as The Stoping an Crusade in its track Thats only half of it, They had to pull back for a hive fleet, Also If The Imperiul was serius about destroying the tou they would, But its not the greater threat When there In the Middle FIGHTING EVERYTHING, you can stop what you doing and Focus on thing... The tau are only gaining a empier becouse the Imperium Is besiged on all sides and from with end.

So in conclusion, a Firewarrior would not be able to kill a Grey Knight 1 v 1.

I hope Dakka helped settle the dispute in question.

After reading these forums for a while I relized that many people jump onto the Imperial Bandwagon, just because "They are the Imperium, and they are the bestest".

For the question regarding the Grey Knight, the Firewarrior has no chance. If Grey Knights can kill whole armies of daemons, there isnt much that can hurt them.
As for this whole Guard vs Firewarrior thing. If you had a squad of each(with the same number of men) im sorry, but the Firewarriors will mop the floor with the Guards, regardless of what regiment they are from. I don't recall Firewarriors ever losing millions of men in conflicts.

A Firewarrior is enlisted at birth for service.

Pah, by the time a fire warrior dies of old age, a cadian is just entering the prime of their lives. A Cadian regular has more combat experience than a Fire Warrior veteran.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Hazard30 wrote:I don't recall Firewarriors ever losing millions of men in conflicts.

I don't recall there ever being a conflict where there WERE millions of fire warriors. They aren't that numerous, they've never been involved in any major battles, etc.

Hazard30 wrote:After reading these forums for a while I relized that many people jump onto the Imperial Bandwagon, just because "They are the Imperium, and they are the bestest".

For the question regarding the Grey Knight, the Firewarrior has no chance. If Grey Knights can kill whole armies of daemons, there isnt much that can hurt them.
As for this whole Guard vs Firewarrior thing. If you had a squad of each(with the same number of men) im sorry, but the Firewarriors will mop the floor with the Guards, regardless of what regiment they are from. I don't recall Firewarriors ever losing millions of men in conflicts.

I play IG so Of course im going to defend my army, But fluff Wise, Cadians are the bad of the bads,

Table wise there meat sheild like every other IG army, Back when each army had its own codex things were difrent for each army,

ITs hard to transfer fluff to table top,

But of you took points wise for guard to Tau,

( table terms)
for the price of a 10 man Ig sq, 50pts you can get 5 fire warriors for the same amount, the fire warriors that the adavatage at range but once combat comes around its a diffrent story,

Melissia wrote:

A Firewarrior is enlisted at birth for service.

Pah, by the time a fire warrior dies of old age, a cadian is just entering the prime of their lives. A Cadian regular has more combat experience than a Fire Warrior veteran.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Hazard30 wrote:I don't recall Firewarriors ever losing millions of men in conflicts.

I don't recall there ever being a conflict where there WERE millions of fire warriors. They aren't that numerous, they've never been involved in any major battles, etc.

So by that logic Eldar Guardians > Cadians?

Age means nothing imo, Elite Cadian training did little when Gorgon arrived, but superior Tau tactics out-adapted a friggin Hive Fleet...

And that's not even a Tau fluffy pants thing thats in the Nid dex.

BeefCakeSoup wrote:So by that logic Eldar Guardians > Cadians?

Actually, yes, most Eldar are insanely skilled at what they do, though oftentimes the Guardians are out of practice because they haven't been to war much compared to the aspect warriors.

As for the tau thing with gorgon, that was still naught but a minor border skirmish to the Imperium, not a major conflict.

BeefCakeSoup wrote:

Melissia wrote:

A Firewarrior is enlisted at birth for service.

Pah, by the time a fire warrior dies of old age, a cadian is just entering the prime of their lives. A Cadian regular has more combat experience than a Fire Warrior veteran.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Hazard30 wrote:I don't recall Firewarriors ever losing millions of men in conflicts.

I don't recall there ever being a conflict where there WERE millions of fire warriors. They aren't that numerous, they've never been involved in any major battles, etc.

So by that logic Eldar Guardians > Cadians?

Age means nothing imo, Elite Cadian training did little when Gorgon arrived, but superior Tau tactics out-adapted a friggin Hive Fleet...

And that's not even a Tau fluffy pants thing thats in the Nid dex.

The one True infinite resource the IG has its, men

Tau don’t have the numbers for that, so they have to have fancy tactics,

IF the imperium truly wish the tau destroyed it could be done, But that would have to take Resoures from someplace were they are truly needed.


Back on topic, Gray knight would probaly take on a team of fire warriors....With his mind and never have to move and inch or brake a sweat

Well, I just read the Hive fleet Gorgon Story in the Tyranid codex, I've got it right in front of me. And I have still have no clue why Cadians were sent across the Galaxy to"exterminate the Tau," I would think the Cadians have enough to do in their own Segmentum, let alone their own sector.

But anyway, after reading this story, I don't see anywhere in there that the Cadians in anyway get beaten by Tyranids. In fact all it says is that the Cadians and Tau join forces and finish off the last of Hive Fleet Gorgon, which the imperium only considered a minor threat.
And after they got done destroying hive fleet Gorgon

Codex: Tyranids 5th ed wrote:The Tyranid forces encountered by the Cadian XVIlith army on the surface of Kel'shan were but a tiny fragment of the Hive Fleet'sformer
strength. Castellan Crask wasted no time in declaring the Tau to be weaklings for their apparent inability to scour such a minor Tyranid threat.

So... I'm not seeing anything about Cadians being out shone by the Tau during Hive fleet Gorgon.

They stopped killing the Tau long enough to whoop the Tyranids, then turned their attention back to the Tau.

I'm not crazy Gung Ho Imperium... I'm just stating the facts of that story your referencing.

The only imperial casualties i see at all are referred to here:

Codex: Tyranids 5th ed wrote:Faced with a common enemy, Castellan Crask and Kor'o Valroth agree upon an uneasy truce. Acting in concert,the Imperial and Tau fleets cut deep into Hive Fleet Gorgon. Casualties are heavy, but almost all the bio-vessels are destroyed. In the confusion, three Hive Shipsflee the system. Kor'O'Vanan's fleet pursues.

Hazard30 wrote:After reading these forums for a while I relized that many people jump onto the Imperial Bandwagon, just because "They are the Imperium, and they are the bestest".

For the question regarding the Grey Knight, the Firewarrior has no chance. If Grey Knights can kill whole armies of daemons, there isnt much that can hurt them.
As for this whole Guard vs Firewarrior thing. If you had a squad of each(with the same number of men) im sorry, but the Firewarriors will mop the floor with the Guards, regardless of what regiment they are from. I don't recall Firewarriors ever losing millions of men in conflicts.

Did you read "Fire an Honor"? One Cadian Regiment there stomped entire Tau armed force and exposed the corrupt governor. In 1 on 1 fight Guard team would win simply because there are lot of them ( 12-14 man in a squad ) and at least 3 man in squad have plasma guns that can severely damage Space Marine.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

BeefCakeSoup wrote:Elite Cadian training did little when Gorgon arrived, but superior Tau tactics out-adapted a friggin Hive Fleet...

Tau don't have freaking Eye of Terror full of daemon legions and traitor legion right at their doorstep. And that Hive Fleet is nothing compared to 13 black crusades.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

BeefCakeSoup wrote:"many of the more passionate leaders called for a war of conquest against the imperium" Page 11, Tau Codex

As for the Firewarriors and their comparison to Cadians, Tau train in a constant state of warfare aswell battling orkz endlessly, Nids, the Imperium and learn far faster given short life spans. Considering the Tau surpassed the Imperium on a technological level in many ways, it is expected a Tau doesn't need to spend almost half his life learning to fight. By that point he is leading conflicts.

As for the Crusade, it was only by ancient Emperor times small. It was sanctioned the use of titans and only crushed isolated outposts, when it came in contact with a sep't world on the fringe of the actual Empire it stopped dead in it's tracks. The war stalemated and the imperium found itself stretched as the battles raged. That and this can be found in the dex: "Space Marines learned to respect the skill and courage of the Fire Caste." P14 Tau Dex

Had they wanted too, they could of blockade the spent crusade, but they opted not to and allowed them to leave. Again thats in the dex P14.

Tau are not as strong on a pyshical level, but in warfare if a Space Marine is respecting you on a battlefield you aren't a pushover and are certainly capable of dealing with the Guard even if they are Cadians which incidently, Tau allied with later on to fight the nids during the Gorgon fleets arrival in Nid 5th.

Sorry for derail.

Tau are smart I give them that much, but I need to explain something to you.
Those man who "called for a war of conquest against the Imperium" where quickly silenced when they learned that their entire empire is not even 1% of Imperial territory.
And the only thing that kept Tau alive so far where the Tyranid hive fleets entering the galaxy and attacking several sub-sectors. And of course the Tau allowed crusade force to leave, would they attack and destroy them they would only grew as a threat in the eyes of the Imperium and the next crusade would be x times larger with Titans this time.
And for Taros there was none Tau victory over the Imperium's forces. And Taros campaign was run by idiots. They have 1 Titan, Space Marine chapter and several regiments of the Guard. Space Marines didn't fight at all and Guard was quicly outnumbered by Tau and Gue'vesa forces.

In conclusion, the Tau still exist because they are not even a "threat" to the Imperium. And they know that very well, and because of that they are trying to stay hidden because that is their only chance to survive. And that is going very well for them, most of the Imperium's population don't believe they even exist.

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: just play!

I guess we could all argue this in circles, but I feel for the time being it's been beaten to death.

I'll just agree to disagree.

There is another reason T'au can NEVER match the skill of a human.


T'au are a short lived race, 40 years is "grampa's about to kick the bucket" old for a T'au.

that, combined with the slow method of FTL travel the T'au use means that a firewarrior will be lucky to fight on more then a couple of planets against 1 foe before he dies of old age.



Humans can expect to live to at least 80-90 and still be kicking enough to fight. much much longer if they have access to even the cheapest Juvnat treatments.

Grey Templar wrote:There is another reason T'au can NEVER match the skill of a human.


T'au are a short lived race, 40 years is "grampa's about to kick the bucket" old for a T'au.

that, combined with the slow method of FTL travel the T'au use means that a firewarrior will be lucky to fight on more then a couple of planets against 1 foe before he dies of old age.



Humans can expect to live to at least 80-90 and still be kicking enough to fight. much much longer if they have access to even the cheapest Juvnat treatments.

Ah well I guess I'll bite haha!

I think too many people think of Tau as humanesque in nature. When the mere fact they have outpaced the entire Imperium technologically in 6k years starting from cavemen speaks for itself. When a Tau lives as long as a human he would in theory be akin to Farsight.


The Crusade sanctioned against the Tau as already mentioned included Titans. The size of the Crusade then can be assumed relatively large and if I'm not mistaken there is fluff about Hydrass, Firios, etc..

Seeing as how that Crusade stalled out against one Planet, the force needed to destroy the Tau would be vast. While I do not doubt the Imperium given time could accomplish this, their Empire would lose far more on other fronts than they would gain conquering something the size of 1% of their Empire.

Not to mention it would be risky putting that many Space Marines somewhere, for if even one Chapter is lost the Imperium would fall. As said by GW they are ALL that stands between the Imperium and utter destruction. Which doesn't make a ton of sense given the vast amounts of Guard imo.

The T'au are also limited by their method of FTL travel.


they quite literally, cannot go past what they currently hold already. they run out of fuel and food before they can reemerge.


Humans had to travel in multi-generational colony ships to spread accross the Galaxy(prior to the Warp Drive) which were HUGE. they could grow food on these ships.


this is something the T'au haven't done yet and it could prove extreamly hazerdous. the Galaxy is alot fuller then it was when mankind began to spread.



if the T'au don't evolve a psyker caste they will be stuck.