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What stops a Marine Battle Barge from jumping to T'au and shooting it with a viral bomb before they can say "WHAAA-"?

Orbital defenses, uncertainties in navigating unknown and uncontrolled space, the sheer stupidity of engaging the Tau in a genocidal war with the impending threat of Tyranids, Necrons, and Orks on the Eastern Fringes. You know, stuff.

They have bigger fish to fry.

Hehe, Tau/fish joke

The Tau are a tiny, tiny empire and not really worth the effort. Besides, why virus bomb a nice planet when you can wipe out the natives through conventional warfare and claim it as your own?

The Impirium thinks in the long term - the may take thousands of years before they launch another crusade in that section of space but they will get round to it eventually.

Likely because it would be a suicide mission.

Once translated out of the Warp, I assume there are some preperations that have to take place before the device can be used. T'au is probably extremely well-defended(this is an assumption), so the chances of them being able to hold out, drop the bomb, and survive in enough to pieces to flee are slim, IMO.

I had thought that the fluffy answer would be "Oh the Viral bomb is a venerable bomb that requires the utmost respect, incantations are required before launch, it must be covered in holy oils, etc."

But my answer to that would be "Do it in the warp, y'all!"

I chose T'au because I think the Tau are the only race I can think of that has easily accessible homeworlds... I mean, the only other planet-based threat is Chaos...

I don't count the Orks because, well, viral bombing planets on which Orks reside isn't exactly gonna leave you with much of a galaxy...


Let's admit it though, Exterminatus is the coolest concept EVUR:

Henners91 wrote:I chose T'au because I think the Tau are the only race I can think of that has easily accessible homeworlds... I mean, the only other planet-based threat is Chaos...

Because Battle Barges are sucktastic, to put it non-confrontationally. After the HH they were retrofitted specifically so that they couldn't take on another battleship in a stand-up fight. They are forbidden to carry lance batteries and have inferior void shields compared to regular Imperial battleships. They do have superior armor, but lances ignore armor. Yeah.

Almost every Tau ship either has ion cannons (which are lance batteries) or carry Orcas (which carry ion cannons (which are lance batteries)). I guess if the Battle Barge could get a few boarding parties off they'd have a chance but not against however many Tau ships would be guarding T'au... or 2 Tau ships.

I believe there's an instance in the Tau codex of their navy taking on a Tyranid hive fleet splinter in space without suffering a single loss. They're not slackers in that regard.

I'm pretty sure Battle Barges have lance weaponry, and bombardment cannon.

Nurglitch wrote:

Henners91 wrote:I chose T'au because I think the Tau are the only race I can think of that has easily accessible homeworlds... I mean, the only other planet-based threat is Chaos...

Necrons: I'd class their worlds as inacessible in the sense that y'all don't know where they are...
Tau: Sitting right there...
Chaos: Sitting in the Eye of Terror, not exactly accessible...
Dark Eldar: Webway.
Eldar: Craftworlds.
Orks: Planets, but as I said, you can't really count those as being worth exterminatus.
'Nids: Fleets.

Henners91:

Some of the Traitor Legions are bottled up in the Eye of Terror. Several others, according to the background on Chaos Space Marines given in the rulebook, are spread all over the galaxy in fleets, in hidden space-bases, and occupied worlds. That's quite apart from the hordes of the Lost and the Damned gnawing at the fabric of Imperial worlds on the edge of insurrection, and the Chaos that lies in men's hearts and that are an essential part of the human soul.

But yeah, Chaos is a bunch of guys on a planet somewhere... Sweet Slaanesh, are you Tau?

*Grumbles*

I just like to assume that killing the Primarchs on their Daemon worlds will somehow spawn a world of pink fluffy bunnies and tufts of grass :(

Nurglitch wrote:I'm pretty sure Battle Barges have lance weaponry, and bombardment cannon.

Battle Barges don't have lance weaponry. No Space Marine ships do, aside the Nova class frigate, which is mentioned as being exceptional in that regard (and gets flak off the Imperial navy because of it).

As for bombardment cannons, they have one. It's a nice gun, yes, but for comparison an Apocalpyse has almost twice the firepower in it's twin lance batteries, and a Nova cannon, and better shielding, and the same armor from the front. Battle Barges are faster and can nuke planets, but neither of those helps much when you're confronting that kind of firepower.

Rube wrote:Because Battle Barges are sucktastic, to put it non-confrontationally. After the HH they were retrofitted specifically so that they couldn't take on another battleship in a stand-up fight. They are forbidden to carry lance batteries and have inferior void shields compared to regular Imperial battleships. They do have superior armor, but lances ignore armor. Yeah.

Almost every Tau ship either has ion cannons (which are lance batteries) or carry Orcas (which carry ion cannons (which are lance batteries)). I guess if the Battle Barge could get a few boarding parties off they'd have a chance but not against however many Tau ships would be guarding T'au... or 2 Tau ships.

I believe there's an instance in the Tau codex of their navy taking on a Tyranid hive fleet splinter in space without suffering a single loss. They're not slackers in that regard.

you sir are neary 100% wrong.

Battle Barges are actually very VERY heavily armed and armored. Shields are twice as strong as Emperor class battle ships.

their weapons aren't as longranged as Impierial Battle ships(so they can't survive a long ranged firefight), but at close range they are the most powerful ships in the galaxy.

the T'au have no Warp translation interference or detection techniques so a Impierial ship could exit warp space right next to the planet and bomb it away.


One reason the Impierium doesn't go after the T'au is because they are not a huge threat.

the T'au are limited by their inability to harness warp travel completely. the stars around T'au are very close together allowing them to go between them easily, but once they reach the edge of the cluster they will essentially be stuck. so unless the T'au evolve Souls and the navigator gene(in that order) they won't be going anywhere.

besides the T'au are a buffer to the Tyrinid menace and so are beneficial to the impierium.

I'd bet my money on the Battlebarge, particularly given its superior speed. The Apocalypse is too unmaneuverable to make good use of its Nova Cannon in a one-on-one fight, and its broadside is unlikely to crack a Battle Barge's shields and armour.

The Battle Barge, by comparison, is faster and more agile, carries ordnance, and can use its broadside battery fire to strip the Apocalypse's shields so that the Bombardment cannons can go to work pounding it to scrap.

I'd bet on the Battle Barge, even in open space.

Grey Templar wrote:you sir are neary 100% wrong.

Battle Barges are actually very VERY heavily armed and armored. Shields are twice as strong as Emperor class battle ships.

No they aren't. As far as I'm aware, every Imperial battleship (Emperor included) has 4 sets of void shields, Battle Barges have 3.

Grey Templar wrote:their weapons aren't as longranged as Impierial Battle ships(so they can't survive a long ranged firefight), but at close range they are the most powerful ships in the galaxy.

No they aren't, not even close. Their only advantage at close range is that their missiles are less likely to get shot down, which is equally true for their target.

If you want an example of a contender for most powerful ship, look to the Chaos Despoiler. It's basically a Battle Barge before Guilliman got his hands on it. Same speed, better shielding, lance batteries, and of course loaded with CSMs!

Grey Templar wrote:the T'au have no Warp translation interference or detection techniques so a Impierial ship could exit warp space right next to the planet and bomb it away.

If I recall, you can't exit the warp too close to a planet, but I don't remember where I read that. They still couldn't perform a drive-by exterminatus' before getting ventilated by whatever is guarding T'au anyway, so it's a moot point. Torpedoes can be shot down pretty easily, it's what point defence cannons are for.

I'm sure there are quite a few ships around T'au ready to protect it at a moments notice. Since a Tau fleet is nothing to laugh at, that should stop any fly-by-exterminatus. That and surface to space defences (I'm assuming Tau have these, how could they not?).

Sidenote, as the Tau are are willing to incorporate other races, they could easily navigate the warp with human, demiurg or otehr alien means.

There's also the fact that Tau ships echo their land-based warmachines and have incredibly powerful weapons. The ship-borne railguns are very, very potent. Anybody here read the Damocles Gulf Rogue Trader books? A mass of the greatest ships the Imperium can muster are torn to shreds by the first generation Tau spacecraft - their shields can do absolutely nothing to stop the hyper-velocity railgun slugs. Now, they will have tried to work around this - but the Tau are using newer and more powerful ships, too.

The Tau Empire is closely packed - which means they are much more densely populated that most systems. Were a single ship to drop out of the warp in the T'au system (you cannot emerge from or enter into the Warp close to the gravity well of planets, moons or stars) it would be destroyed long before it got within any kind of weapons range of the world.

And add to this that, currently, the Imperium and Tau are in a low state of conflict - border conflicts and nothing much more. Were the Imperium to force a large scale or incisive attack like this then the Tau would respond with a full-scale war. If they were not beset on all sides and facing internal enemies, the Imperium could wake its armies and crush the Tau. But they are not. They cannot pull back from the Eye of Terror, ignore the Hive Fleets, stop harassing the Craftworlds, stop repulsing the Waaaaghs or stop searching for Tomb Worlds.

For now, T'au should be left alone...

They have an entire caste devoted to space flight/combat, and technology miles ahead of Mankind's. Good luck bypassing that.

Zed wrote:They have an entire caste devoted to space flight/combat, and technology miles ahead of Mankind's. Good luck bypassing that.

I have one thing to say to you good sir... THE EMPEROR PROTECTS

Zed wrote:They have an entire caste devoted to space flight/combat, and technology miles ahead of Mankind's. Good luck bypassing that.

Their technology is not more advanced, it is just more widly distributed through their society.

Rube wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:you sir are neary 100% wrong.

Battle Barges are actually very VERY heavily armed and armored. Shields are twice as strong as Emperor class battle ships.

No they aren't. As far as I'm aware, every Imperial battleship (Emperor included) has 4 sets of void shields, Battle Barges have 3.

Grey Templar wrote:their weapons aren't as longranged as Impierial Battle ships(so they can't survive a long ranged firefight), but at close range they are the most powerful ships in the galaxy.

No they aren't, not even close. Their only advantage at close range is that their missiles are less likely to get shot down, which is equally true for their target.

If you want an example of a contender for most powerful ship, look to the Chaos Despoiler. It's basically a Battle Barge before Guilliman got his hands on it. Same speed, better shielding, lance batteries, and of course loaded with CSMs!

Grey Templar wrote:the T'au have no Warp translation interference or detection techniques so a Impierial ship could exit warp space right next to the planet and bomb it away.

If I recall, you can't exit the warp too close to a planet, but I don't remember where I read that. They still couldn't perform a drive-by exterminatus' before getting ventilated by whatever is guarding T'au anyway, so it's a moot point. Torpedoes can be shot down pretty easily, it's what point defence cannons are for.

Battlebarge gets pwned by a Necron Tombship. Everything gets pwned by a Necron Tombship.
Ork hulks would also take out a barge.

Gamewise bombardment cannon have similar effects to lances. Its not that much of an issue.

Look at the HH book with they viral bomb the planet. It takes 1) getting close to the planet; 2) relatively stationary positions; 3) time.
none of these are good if the planet still has defenses.

Rube wrote:If I recall, you can't exit the warp too close to a planet, but I don't remember where I read that. They still couldn't perform a drive-by exterminatus' before getting ventilated by whatever is guarding T'au anyway, so it's a moot point. Torpedoes can be shot down pretty easily, it's what point defence cannons are for.

This is said in the Rynn's World book. The reason you cannot exit warp to close to a Gravity Well (ie Moons, Planets, very very big Asteroids, Black Holes) is because the vessels might (90% of the time) get caught in the gravity and be pulled into a crash. The only race insane enough to do this is the Orks (in Rynn's World they surprised the Crimson Fists because they did this Whereas anyone else would have appeared on the system edge away from gravity wells)

saying all this and taking into account that most space marine chapter masters wouldn't even risk a strike cruiser let alone a battlebarge on a suicide mission like this. Also the fact that despite being a small empire in comparison to the imperium it is still a large area to cover. I don't think the imperium would ever consider it feasible. besides which since the tau are a low threat (Tyranids, Chaos and Necrons being at the top followed by Orks and Eldar followed by single celled amoeba then the Tau) it is a waste of time isn't it

Throwing a grenade into the eastern fringe of the galaxy and hoping that the Tau Empire will explode, only works in Goto novels

Kroothawk wrote:Throwing a grenade into the eastern fringe of the galaxy and hoping that the Tau Empire will explode, only works in Goto novels

Hrmmm, I guess if you fire something in space, it'll hit something eventually...

How about the Imperium just plays "spray and pray" with a bunch of viral bombs *towards* T'au?

You can't activate a warp drive near large gravitational fields

SilverMK2 wrote:

Zed wrote:They have an entire caste devoted to space flight/combat, and technology miles ahead of Mankind's. Good luck bypassing that.

Their technology is not more advanced, it is just more widly distributed through their society.

I don't know about that...
Just the fact that they've got actual AI and don't rely on dead things combined with machine parts is pretty advanced.
Also battlesuits, railguns, plasma guns that don't fry you to a crisp...

I don't know a lot about the tau's home solar system so if they have some crazy ring of suns or something that would keep this from working I'm sure you'll let me know.

What about a large number of ships forming up at positions all around the solar system (but very far out to be out of detection range or at least at a range that would not arouse suspicion) and firing small but very tough capsules filled with deadly viruses. So these would be fired from all directions at extremely high speed and would be very small. Of course many of them would run afoul of mini-meteorites and other space debris but I think plenty would still make it. It wouldn't be the swift death that usually occurs but I don't see it as being impossible.

You mean a torpedo? Yeah, they have those. Presumably 40k tech is pretty good at detecting such things and neutralising them before they can hit their target. If they didn't, the question would quickly become 'How come Terra is still around if any Chaos/Eldar/Two-bit rebel force could snipe it with viral torpedoes from out of sensor range?'

Henners91 wrote:
Let's admit it though, Exterminatus is the coolest concept EVUR:

I don't think we're all ready to admit that, really...

Yeah, fleets of dropships crashing down through a storm of missiles and flak before disgorging waves of infantry lead by bellowing heroes into some needlessly wasteful and loud decade-spanning war is faaaaaar cooler than... launch cyclonic torpedo, blip, planet destroyed. The end.