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One of the cain novels has a passing mention to a tau who is infected. I think it's fairly cannon that tau can be infected.

Then just simply use the Kryptman Gambit. Deliberately infect a Tau world with genestealers. Without psykers, the Tau can't detect the psychic beacon of the genestealers, drawing several splinter fleets into the Tau Empire. When the Tyranids infest their worlds, the Deathwatch will perform exterminatus, destroying the several splinter fleets, while the Tau are extremely weakened. And no, even if they're dedicated to the Greater Good, they can't go against the Brood Mind and report themselves.

Tadashi, are you 9 years old? Go read Codex spesh marhen written by your spiritual liege.

tarnish wrote:

iproxtaco wrote:
Doesn't matter. The Tyranids aren't drawn to areas of high psychic activity. Leviathan was redirected because an Ork empire was infested with genestealers, which were there due to the high biomass of the area.

And the last point is complete speculation. Why wouldn't they be able to become genestealer hybrids?

not true. genestealers need species that register in the warp to function, otherwise they have a hard time communicating with the parent fleet. It was the immense beacon of the astronomican that dragged them to your galaxy in the first place. Yes their drawn to biomass, but their long range communication needs psykic activity to work... I agree that genestealer virus vs. tau is not exactly covered, but logic would have it that they make poor hosts...

Your logic is not based on the information we have. It's the genestealers that make the beacon. The larger the biomass, the more genestealers, the larger the beacon, that's how the system works.

Space Crusader wrote:Tadashi, are you 9 years old? Go read Codex spesh marhen written by your spiritual liege.

I'm eighteen. And I've read Codex: SPACE MARINES, thank you very much

Space Crusader wrote:Tadashi, are you 9 years old? Go read Codex spesh marhen written by your spiritual liege.

Go back to your room, child.

How would Imperial forces deliberatley infect a tau population? It doesn't seem impossible, I'd just like an explanation or a citation of another time when this was used.

Squidmanlolz wrote:How would Imperial forces deliberatley infect a tau population? It doesn't seem impossible, I'd just like an explanation or a citation of another time when this was used.

You just have to release the genestealers on the planet's surface. That's all we have to do.

Squidmanlolz wrote:How would Imperial forces deliberatley infect a tau population? It doesn't seem impossible, I'd just like an explanation or a citation of another time when this was used.

Send them a space hulk infested with genestealers, blowing up any planets that get in the way so as to ensure the space hulks trajectory remains on course for target planet. Hopefully, investigation teams will board the hulk, survivors come back infected, and so on. It is what Inquisitor Kryptmann did to divert a a tyranid hive fleet towards the Ork Empire of Octavius/Octarius.

ok, I thought you had something a little more nonchalant in mind

Ronin wrote:

Squidmanlolz wrote:How would Imperial forces deliberatley infect a tau population? It doesn't seem impossible, I'd just like an explanation or a citation of another time when this was used.

Send them a space hulk infested with genestealers, blowing up any planets that get in the way so as to ensure the space hulks trajectory remains on course for target planet. Hopefully, investigation teams will board the hulk, survivors come back infected, and so on. It is what Inquisitor Kryptmann did to divert a a tyranid hive fleet towards the Ork Empire of Octavius/Octarius.

Thanks...that's what I was trying to say.

I find the space marine fan boyism revolting here. And the tau are not that bad. They're a nuisense at best. And we could talk about the Imperium defeating chaos but its kinda hard to fight them in the eye. However the imperiums record is pretty well against chaos. 12-0-1 on the black crusades.

I think that the Tau can take a decent amount of space, but they just don't have enough stride to bring down the Imperium, there are more powerful xenos and they haven't done it.

Well if thats the case then a large tau world getting infected would mean the end of a large part of their empire. They have little to combat such a threat. Unless the ethereals have powers we have yet to witness...

I just realized that this doesn't answer the question, it's really the Tyranids beating the Tau here, not IoM, they would just inhibit it...

If they do, it'll probably confirm the Mechanicus' and the Ordo Xenos fears that the Tau are more sinister than they appear.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Squidmanlolz wrote: I just realized that this doesn't answer the question, it's really the Tyranids beating the Tau here, not IoM, they would just inhibit it...

That's the point. Since we can't fight the Tau ourselves, we just have to manipulate other races to do the hard work for us, while we only deliver the final blow, like the Eldar. If the Eldar (who may or may not be Mankind's cousins) could do it, why not us?

alright, or...I just got an idea, the Imperium could feign a retreat, start abandoning planets near the Tau, wait for them to spread their forces too thin, trying to take advantage of the planets. Then the Imperiun turns around, and uses its manpower to steamroll the Tau back to T'au.

Which is what happened recently...

I was unaware...

Squidmanlolz wrote:alright, or...I just got an idea, the Imperium could feign a retreat, start abandoning planets near the Tau, wait for them to spread their forces too thin, trying to take advantage of the planets. Then the Imperiun turns around, and uses its manpower to steamroll the Tau back to T'au.

Wouldn't that just give them a bunch of worlds to bolster there forces before you attack them like you should have done at the start?

Tadashi wrote:Which is what happened recently...

Really..cite source, pg and paragraph of this statement.

Since what I find concerning the most recent Tau expansion the Third sphere one is the following paragraph from pg19 Tau codex.


Now I am not sure where all your Tau hate comes from, maybe you got your butt handed to you one to many times in table top games against Tau players, or you are just are one of those sad people that just enjoys hating things different from what they like, but what ever, try to base your arguments with actual or at least GW printed facts, and don't extrapolate them just to make your delusional ideas seem less delusional.

Tau forces couldn't bolster their defences in time, that's the essence of a feigned retreat. The enemy gives chase, then the retreaters turn around, before the enemy knows it, they've spread their forces too thin among too many worlds to defend at once. Given the Tau's use of hit and run warfare, this tactic fights fire with fire.

Squidmanlolz wrote:Tau forces couldn't bolster their defences in time, that's the essence of a feigned retreat. The enemy gives chase, then the retreaters turn around, before the enemy knows it, they've spread their forces too thin among too many worlds to defend at once. Given the Tau's use of hit and run warfare, this tactic fights fire with fire.

Is this a suggestion or trying to justify the imperial abandonment of border planets cause I am a bit confused.

The first step in avoiding a trap is identifing that one is there, and in the above cited paragraph, Shadowsun disbursed her forces to make the Imperium either concentrate of disperse to combat them, then she massed them for a concentrated push.

So in theory your idea is sound, but all theories are sound in a vacuum, the Tau do not only use hit-and -run tactics, just in this cited case it was implemented, they are not a slave to any one stratagem, thats what makes their military effective, or any military for that matter.

And even a feigned retreat can turn into a real retreat without incredibly careful planning and discipline, its why in real world tactics its a seldom to never used gambit.

Except in movies of course..where it always seems like the height of brilliance.

I will admit it is an "all-or-nothing" strategy, the risk involved isn't as tremendous as you make it seem though. This tactic was used heavily by the Romans and Macedonians during their expansions, given combat then was mostly hand to hand, it's easily adapted to compensate for the Tau's impressive firepower.

Squidmanlolz wrote:Tau forces couldn't bolster their defences in time, that's the essence of a feigned retreat. The enemy gives chase, then the retreaters turn around, before the enemy knows it, they've spread their forces too thin among too many worlds to defend at once. Given the Tau's use of hit and run warfare, this tactic fights fire with fire.

Isn't that the tactic you use when your out numbered? When you want to brake up a larger army into manageable chunks. The IoM outnumber the tau, it's much sounder to just attack them.

The Tactic I assume you are reffering to is the Cannae one, and was used by Hannibal, and is a feigned retreat of the middle to entice the enemy to pursue, I am well aware of the tactic, and yes it is a very risky gambit, since it gives the impetus of attack to your enemy, which is always a bad place to be, reaction is not a good way to win battles.
At any rate that is a example used on a battlefield where movement and terrain are a constant, and your enemies actions are apparent to observe.

Taken into a 40k enviroment of a galactic battlefield this breaks down in many ways, warp tavel is a hardly reliable constant, ships can take differing amounts of time to transit it or may not even arrive at all, communication is vital and the intel on the enemies actions would be critical to decide the time for the retreating forces to turn and attack, alot of this idea is also hinged on the enemies stupidity and predictability for this to work.

In my opinion in the environs mentioned it would be a high risk manuver that would likely bite the user in the ass, unless they were very fortunate and their enemy fairly clueless.

One additional point is Tau never get bogged down in fighting over land, if the battle seems unwinable, they will withdraw, so trying to get them to spreadout onto multiple planets and then pin them on these planets with a counter attck will likel lead to a mobile battle yet again, but this is all just arm chair generaling, if they ever make a grand strategic game version of 40k I will be glad to play against any here.

Luck is my life-blood, roll the dice.

In all seriousness, I'm pretty much forced to agree with you, I honestly believe that this is a standstill nontheless, I've been defending the Imperium because I have more experience with them and am only just begining a Tau army.

Squidmanlolz wrote:Luck is my life-blood, roll the dice.

In all seriousness, I'm pretty much forced to agree with you, I honestly believe that this is a standstill nontheless, I've been defending the Imperium because I have more experience with them and am only just begining a Tau army.

Spoken like a gentleman ( hands him some port and a cigar )

In my experiance and opinion, the IoM uses predomiantly WW2 era tactics, the big push and all, and not the more fluid battlefield tactics of our own modern military, the Tau do, its one of the reasons I finally decided to make the plunge and start a Tau force.

I actually am in the U.S. Army and have had more than a few deployments, so to keep my demi-OCD military leanings from killing me I had to pick a force that did not offend them.

I grew up playing , Marines, IG, Orks, and even a breif ..very breif stint of Eldar, and still play all those (minus the Eldar ),I just like the intelligent warfighting style of the Tau, and hate CC...its boring for me.

But 2 things never to rely on, luck and the stupidity of your enemy, anytime you do, one or the other will fail you.

A far more enjoyable discussion with you than the rabid space marine fan boys, well done ole chap.

ObliviousBlueCaboose wrote:I find the space marine fan boyism revolting here. And the tau are not that bad. They're a nuisense at best. And we could talk about the Imperium defeating chaos but its kinda hard to fight them in the eye. However the imperiums record is pretty well against chaos. 12-0-1 on the black crusades.

Which one was the loss

forruner_mercy wrote:

ObliviousBlueCaboose wrote:I find the space marine fan boyism revolting here. And the tau are not that bad. They're a nuisense at best. And we could talk about the Imperium defeating chaos but its kinda hard to fight them in the eye. However the imperiums record is pretty well against chaos. 12-0-1 on the black crusades.

Which one was the loss

13th Black Crusade. But that wasn't really a loss for the Imperium. Everybody sorta lost in somewhat equal measures.