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asimo77 wrote:

micahaphone wrote:

That's Manga. Anime is actually very serious.

ಠ_ಠ

Sorry, but I just copied and pasted this into my Macro List

Emperors Faithful wrote:

CrazyThang wrote:

Backfire wrote:Asimo hit the nail there. Quit bitching about Tau being 'anime' as one of the major races of 40k is far, far more anime than Tau. That being Eldar, of course. Eldar titans could be pretty much straight from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Heck, one of the designers has even admitted that Eldar are anime influenced.

Lots of people say that Tau have been written in annoying way. It is MEANT to be that way. Lets describe Tau a bit:

-young, upstart race which has progressed enormously over very short timespan

-short-lived, not particularly impressive physically but very ambitious

-technologically advanced and innovative

-keen to preach their naive ideology to everyone whilst being completely ignorant about ancient, dark secrets of the Galaxy

That's right...Tau are humans from Star Trek! Or Babylon 5! Or nearly any other scifi cliche compilation. It's very clever from GW to turn the stereotypes around so that it's the humans who are the old, ancient, slowly declining power being usurped by some talking monkeys who were crawling in the mud whilsts humans were conquering the stars.

When some 12-year old Tau fanboy lectures you about how awesome Greater Good is, you know how the Romulans must feel.

Except humans usually don't have the super advanced best tech evar (at least compared to other races). Other than that you bring up some nice points and maybe that is what bothers people about it, they are humans in their sci-fi niche but they do not look like humans.

You could argue that Eldar and Necron tech is more advanced (at least in some regards).
Frankly I think Backfire has got it. Tau are an upstart race, one that will either be swept away or learn their place in a galaxy of fear. It doesn't bother me in the slightest that they have obviously been influenced by Mecha aspects (Moreso than Eldar), what it does bother me is that people view the Tau idealogy as 'Good' instead of Naive. I'm of the opinion that once they've been around the block a couple of times the Tau will be a lot less cuddly and a whole lot more grimdark.

You mean they'll turn into this

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Except by then everyone'll all be eaten by Tyranids.

Fixed.

It would be cool if they just randomly combinded them with the tyranid codex to make the super race of the TAU-NIDS. Look out its a broadfex!

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:

You mean they'll turn into this

Oh look! Citizens of the Farsight Enclaves. How nice.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

CrazyThang wrote:@EF: What I meant by tech was stereotypical Sci-Fi. At least from everything I have seen.

So...what do you class as 'Stereotypical Sci-Fi Tech'?

Space Travel
Eldar: Have eco-friendly sails in space that soak up the rays of the sun. Enabling them to go pretty much wherever they want, whenever they want. So long as the juice lasts.
Necrons: These guys are just so "WTHFS?!?" in their space tech it's impossible to compare.
Tau: Tau fleets are neato. Lotsa lotsa missile pods, but nothing really approaching definitive warp travel and other cool gizmos similar to the other two. Works well enough for them.

Weapons
Eldar: Basic shuriken weapons shoot crazy ninja...well, shurikens. Nothing too fancy. Wraithguard/Lords/Bone on the other hand, that's way out of the Tau's leauge.
Necrons: Their basic weapons glance Land Raiders.
Tau: Neato shooting, Str 10 Ap 1 single shot lasers. Cool. High-powered, but compared to the Necrons not high tech.

Armour
Eldar: Eh. What can you say?
Necrons: Takes the cake.
Tau: Beats Eldar, not Necrons.

Again to clarify Broadsides aren't lasers, they're weapons that fire solid shot ammunitiion accelerated to incredible speed by linear acceleration .

@ Emperors Faithfull: Yes those are Farsight concept sketches made by Lord Dirk over on ATT. I think if the Tau where to become Grimdark like the rest of the galaxy they would look like that and in essence become more like the Farsight Enclaves

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:Again to clarify Broadsides aren't lasers, they're weapons that fire solid shot ammunitiion accelerated to incredible speed by linear acceleration .

You lie! Next you'll be telling me that Lacannons are really just big lasguns!

@ Emperors Faithfull: Yes those are Farsight concept sketches made by Lord Dirk over on ATT. I think if the Tau where to become Grimdark like the rest of the galaxy they would look like that and in essence become more like the Farsight Enclaves

To be honest I doubt that the Farsight Enclaves have devolved that much already, but their very act of splitting up is proof of the Tau starting to lean towards a 'grimdark' mindset.

I'm chiming in waaaaay late to this, but the thing that really bothers me about the Tau is their inclusion in the game.

OK, that sounds weird.

What I mean is that every other army in 40K has some way of being almost anywhere in the galaxy. The Orks are extremely widespread, and they often use Hulks to move through the warp as well. The necrons have some sort of wacko space zombie/robot technology to appear all over the galaxy (plus they have tomb worlds slumbering all over the place). The eldar use the webway. The Tyranids are insanely numerous and entering the galaxy from all sorts of different directions.Almost everybody else travels through (or manifests out of) the Warp.

Tau are limited to one very small (relatively) area of the galaxy, and don't have/don't utilize the warp technology that would allow them to travel broadly all over the galaxy. Why, then, are they in the game? Aren't there TONS of alien empires scattered around the galaxy, similarly limited in their scope and reach?

I don't have any problems with the Tau background, fluff, history, rules, look, or influences. I really, really like the "combined armies" feel with the Vespids and Kroot. I'd like to see more alien troops, and I'd like to see the human auxiliaries make a return.

It just annoys me that there's no real reason that lots of people should ever encounter a tau force (unless you assume that ALL of your opponents are traveling over to your empire to pick a fight). I mean, would it have been sooooo hard to simply write down that the Tau do have reliable far-range space travel, and can be encountered in many areas of the galaxy? There's just no reason to limit their enclaves to one little area of space.

Take Warhammer Fantasy. It seems odd to have the Lizardmen, who are native to Lustria (South America), included in a game that focuses so heavily on the Old World (Europe). However, the writers simply made a point of noting that the Lizardmen were entrusted with enacting the plans of the Old Ones (which include the whole world) and have access to powerful magic that can transport them across ley lines and mystic portals to other places in the world. They even made a point of talking about the sacred plaques of the Old Ones, which, due to being engraved on big gold tablets, were highly prized by LOTS of people, and so often had to be recovered by force.

If you're going to create a new race to insert into the game, don't write fluff that specifically limits their interaction with the rest of the game world. Write fluff that mandates their interaction with the rest of the game world. If most people aren't supposed to encounter them, leave them as a background race, like the Hrud, or the Demiurge.

The Tau Empire is located in a meeting point of sorts. On one side you have the Imperium to their galactic North and North-West. You have the Tyranids coming in from the East, and the area's that Tau has liberated were heavily infested by Orks. Furthermore, you have the occasional Tomb World that they stumble upon.
So far the factions that the Tau have encountered just by existing are:
-IG
-SM
-Tyranids
-Orks
-Necrons
Then you have the Eldar and Dark Eldar, who can pretty much go anywhere they please.

The only really unexplained race that has come into contact with the Tau is Chaos. The odd renegade faction or Warband is understandable, but the original legions are focused around the Eye of Terror which is almost on the othe side of the Galaxy.

If DoW: DC and DoW:SS are considered fluff, then the Tau have been in Contact with Chaos, Eldar, and Dark Eldar as well, just from the Karuva system and Kronus. Since the Tau as of now do not have any long ranged spacecrafts, that would place Kronus and the Karuva system would be extremely close to the Empire. Karuva drew the Alpha Legion because of the Warp Storm(or they came and caused the Warp Storm) I really didn't get why the Word Bearers were at Kronus, other than CSM were in Vanilla DoW. >.>

It must be kept in mind of course that having every single faction/race on the same planet at the same time makes little sense.

40k fanboys see anime battlesuits and their instincts tell them that there are cat-ears just around the corner. But i would totally watch a tau anime on tv, more like bringing GrimDark to anime itself, Huzzah!

their design is more blockish than many of the newer anime anyway

while the new suits ( XV22, XV9, R'Ymr suit) is gundam/AC look alike

eldar on the other hand has a unit that says NINJA all over it
their wraithguards/lords look as if they have come EVA
and their titan.... is well.....

Fluff can be rewritten at any time. If GW want the Tau to be all over the place, they can simply reveal that the currently understood fluff is several hundred years out of date, owing to an Imperial scribe balls-up, and actually the Tau have rapidly built a Federation of 100,000 systems occupying most of the eastern side of the galaxy.

They are blue space commies with hooves and less fingers than I. :3
Also because the Emperor says so

Iur_tae_mont wrote:If DoW: DC and DoW:SS are considered fluff, then the Tau have been in Contact with Chaos, Eldar, and Dark Eldar as well, just from the Karuva system and Kronus.

If DoW.DC is considered fluff, then we would have 7 different futures for this planet all taking place. Guess that answers it.

Kroothawk wrote:

Iur_tae_mont wrote:If DoW: DC and DoW:SS are considered fluff, then the Tau have been in Contact with Chaos, Eldar, and Dark Eldar as well, just from the Karuva system and Kronus.

If DoW.DC is considered fluff, then we would have 7 different futures for this planet all taking place. Guess that answers it.

Did you notice the way a farseer treats his/her takes on the future?
Nothing is for sure, so all of them can happen, just not at once. Doesn't invalidate any of the 7 as possible outcome.
DOW presents a 'future' not the past. Background in publications present the past.

Contact with anyone except DE is already part of the fluff. If there is contact will rely upon the DE codex to come.

IIRC Tau have faced a Slannesh devoted host once, the Kroot ate a bunch of Noise Marines and in the final battle with the Lord, they mutated and ripped a massive hole in the Tau lines, while the Firewarriors were "euphoric and sloppy" due to the "strange airborne toxins". The Tau don't know what Chaos is, only that any Kroot who eat the bodies of Chaos devotees must be incinerated and any humans worshipping it are freakishly hard to stop. The Tau also think that the Prince Of Excess is just some loony human with too much drugs and sex, that they can eventually kill....

As for the issue about communication back on page 2 or 3, the Tau use Messenger Probes that are slightly faster than their ships, emphasis on slightly.

As for Backfire's description: Yes all those traits are reasons why we hate Tau, like how we all hate Wesley Crusher and offer our condolences to Wil Wheaton.

I remember when the Tau came out, they felt so shoe-horned, no two-facedness, no hidden agenda or ulterior motive, no massed genocides/atrocities committed on an hourly basis and considered par for the course by the basic Earth Caste worker or an Aun'O.

At least their grimdark is beginning now, but they still lack that certain Do-Or-Die principle that motivates every other faction to either kill everything or... KILL EVERYTHING! Sure theres some nasty stuff going on in the Tau empire, but we're not getting the digger machine dumping bodies into massed graves and all those other atrocities we love everyone else for doing. By wanting to "Rule Everyone" instead of "Rule Everything Left After We Kill Everyone" they're not staying true to the "KILL! EVERYTHING!" feel that makes 40k standout amongst tabletop sci-fi wargames.

I'll repeat: Dirty Fish Elves

Has no one made this connection?

I look at them all the time BUT I always get someone behind me yelling dont do it its a trap. Supposedly theyre real bad in game.
I think some of the models are good and some are crap look like toys. Forgeworld's new stuff is awesome.Real high tech look and look like they are real. I hate the the Tau because I hate communism. My stomach turns at the merest thought. i do realize it is a game but its me I just cant do it. Communism is just too real and present.

Lord Dirk had an idea that I like and I think it fits with the Grimdark aspect. He was trying to think of a way that the Tau could have Ork auxiliaries since the Orks are well.....Orks . Anyway what he came up with is that the Tau have labotomised (spelling?) Orks and replaced apart of their brains with simple drone controllers. I actually like the idea, I think it's suitably Grimdark for the Tau.

Kroothawk wrote:

Iur_tae_mont wrote:If DoW: DC and DoW:SS are considered fluff, then the Tau have been in Contact with Chaos, Eldar, and Dark Eldar as well, just from the Karuva system and Kronus.

If DoW.DC is considered fluff, then we would have 7 different futures for this planet all taking place. Guess that answers it.

DoW 2 has given hints that Blood Ravens won Kronus. DoW 2 also had a scout that said they lost on Karuva. Other than Space Marines, the two most Positive (for the Imperium) endings would be IG (They win and everything goes back to normal) or Eldar (Same as IG, but everyone stays away from Karuva 3)

Just like the "official" story to Winter Assault was the Eldar one, it being the only one that Farseer Taldeer lived.

Waagh!Balzsmasha! wrote:. I hate the the Tau because I hate communism. My stomach turns at the merest thought. i do realize it is a game but its me I just cant do it. Communism is just too real and present.

I do hope you're joking here, otherwise I'm even sadder at the state of the educational system in this country.

What do you mean?

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:Lord Dirk had an idea that I like and I think it fits with the Grimdark aspect. He was trying to think of a way that the Tau could have Ork auxiliaries since the Orks are well.....Orks . Anyway what he came up with is that the Tau have labotomised (spelling?) Orks and replaced apart of their brains with simple drone controllers. I actually like the idea, I think it's suitably Grimdark for the Tau.

Why bother turning Orks into drones when you already have drones?

Kilkrazy wrote:

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:Lord Dirk had an idea that I like and I think it fits with the Grimdark aspect. He was trying to think of a way that the Tau could have Ork auxiliaries since the Orks are well.....Orks . Anyway what he came up with is that the Tau have labotomised (spelling?) Orks and replaced apart of their brains with simple drone controllers. I actually like the idea, I think it's suitably Grimdark for the Tau.

Why bother turning Orks into drones when you already have drones?

You can put more C-4 into Orks than drones.

Eyclonus wrote:IIRC Tau have faced a Slannesh devoted host once, the Kroot ate a bunch of Noise Marines and in the final battle with the Lord, they mutated and ripped a massive hole in the Tau lines, while the Firewarriors were "euphoric and sloppy" due to the "strange airborne toxins". The Tau don't know what Chaos is, only that any Kroot who eat the bodies of Chaos devotees must be incinerated and any humans worshipping it are freakishly hard to stop. The Tau also think that the Prince Of Excess is just some loony human with too much drugs and sex, that they can eventually kill....

This sounds interesting, where does this piece of fluff come from?

Iur_tae_mont wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:Lord Dirk had an idea that I like and I think it fits with the Grimdark aspect. He was trying to think of a way that the Tau could have Ork auxiliaries since the Orks are well.....Orks . Anyway what he came up with is that the Tau have labotomised (spelling?) Orks and replaced apart of their brains with simple drone controllers. I actually like the idea, I think it's suitably Grimdark for the Tau.

Why bother turning Orks into drones when you already have drones?

You can put more C-4 into Orks than drones.

Tau use TDX not C4.

I love the army, but I HATE the way they look...withe a passion.

Tau are cool, they only need one thing - a fast-acting long-lasting injection of Skulls.
Their battlesuits must have atleast 15 skulls, every soldier must have 1, kroot need organs in their mouth and many skulls, and The space-Pope needs a throne of... Skulls! Khorne will be pleased.