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Speaking of, since when is Krieg a Forgeworld? I thought it was a burned-out Hive World.

By Forgeworld I meant forge of MEN. I think the Vraks book mentioned it being a "War World". Anyway, I'm trying to figure out why everyone dislikes the Tau lol.

Im a greenskin, I hate the Tau because its in my genes. Off the table tho, I personally LOVE the Tau. Youve got to realize that most Imperial fans, are friggin hardcore Imperial fans lol. They stick to the Emperor like their lives really depend on it lol. Us "Xenos" players, usually tend to dislike the Imperium.

hey I play Sm and i dislike the imperium. That being said the fluff of my marines stands that they're renagade and have a vendetta against the inquisition, but hey! that counts, right?

How big is the Tau empire? Not big enough that Mr. T couldn't find you to deliver a stomping if he needed to!

My tyranids love the tau, they're delicious!

Though the crisis suits are a little hard to pass.

Guys, if any of you have the old tau codex, they give population numbers. the Tau empire.... is really small. Lets just say that the population of Krieg is probably greater than the population of the entire Tau Empire... I seem to recall sept worlds having pops in the range of millions, with colonies in the tens to hundreds of thousands...

Hmm, maybe the Taros Campaign book would have some good information on the Tau Empire. I'll have to get that back from my friend and check it out.

IIRC, your off by about a factor of 1000. I'll have to dig up my old codex though. The Taros campain is great for how the tau fight, but not much on the empire itself.

Maybe use the pages 64-65 of the first Tau codex?

colony 1st phase = 100.000+
colony 2nd phase = >10.000

Same map as 2nd Tau codex, just lacking 3rd phase colonys. 2nd Tau dex page 18-19.

Only 8 kroot worlds, in both codices.
Vespids are a 1 world race.
O'shovah has 4 systems under his influence.

Plus BRB page 170-171.
Again the same Map.
No real population numbers. Still good estimate if youre taking the old codex and move the 10k to 3rd phase and 100k to second phase. Makes 1000k at 1st phase possible.


Now relate this to the estimated number of imperial hive worlds ( BRB page 115 ) : 3238 x 100000.
Population = from 1.000.000.000 to 100.000.000.000

I would follow H.B.M.C 's example

Hmmm that must've been the first Tau Codex or something . The New Codex doesn't give anything in terms of population numbers, but this is the information I have.

There are about 17 Sept worlds, and from the Last Chancer's book, we find that there is about 1 billion Tau in each of these sept worlds ( at it's lowest)

That's around 17 billion Tau for the First, Second, and third Phase colonies. Once again, this does not lead into the number of Gue'vesa, Kroot, Vespids, and countless other Alien races that are to pitiful to mention lol.

I'll get going on some research for the Kroot worlds.

And Humanity numbers in the Quadrillions.

Tau are still as insignificant as always

I think the Tau empire's total strength would crush Krieg.

But it won't happen. They're too smart to try that.

1. Gathering their full strength to strike one system/planet halts expansion and leaves then vulnerable along all other fronts.

2. Unless they want to risk an escalation response from the imperium they have to wait for full strength from every corner of their empire with their slower transportation before making a surprise attack.

3. I don't know much about the surveillance/espionage strength the tau have so I'm not sure but the imperium has at least decent odds of findingthe Tau first exclusively via faster transportation and larger on site fleet strength.

So personally I think the most likely scenario will have the tau fighting defensively to hold onto some colony world that the Krieg/DA are ordered to capture. Playing defense I give the Tau slightly below even odds of coming out on top. IMHO

H.B.M.C. wrote:Go to a beach. Look at the sand.

Scoop up some sand into one hand so that none of it can fall out.

That is the Tau Empire.

The beach is the Imperium.

QFT. Based on the limited info given in a few of the older novels, the population of all the Tau Sept worlds added together is approximately the same as a single Imperial Hive World.

The reason the Tau weren't stamped into oblivion is because the Imperium forgot about them for roughly 6,000 years, and then when they started stretching their Sphere expansions, Abby launched the 13th Black Crusade, which coincided approximately with the discovery of Hive Fleet Leviathan.

So against the moral and physical threat of Chaos United and the Great Devourer, the anti-Tau defenses are a couple Rogue Trader flotillas, five Inquisitors, and whatever PDF happens to get involved. I guess you could involve the Damocles Gulf Crusade, but they seem to be fighting Orks more than anything else.

Regardless, one gets the impression that if they weren't so completely unnoticed, any one of the other major factions could stamp them out.

And then there's the little bit of fluff in the Space Marine codex about Calgar and his home boys devastating half a dozen Tau-held worlds "just because". So fluff wise, I think Tau are always going to have a few crappy planets, but as many worlds as are in their empire are probably won or lost by the bigger players on any given day.

sourclams wrote:And then there's the little bit of fluff in the Space Marine codex about Calgar and his home boys devastating half a dozen Tau-held worlds "just because". So fluff wise, I think Tau are always going to have a few crappy planets, but as many worlds as are in their empire are probably won or lost by the bigger players on any given day.

Then again, all GW seem to do is let Calgar Do Stuff "Just because", as his Middle Names are "Mary" and "Sue".

But yeah, I agree. Compared with:
Chaos
The Nids
The Orks
Necrons Waking up left and Right.

The Tau are nothing but a Minor Annoyance.

P.S. Someone get this Moved to 40k Background

Kinda funny you use Orks and Nids comparing them to the Tau, seeing that the Tau destroyed Nids and Orks with ease, barley breaking a swet even.

Avrik_Shasla wrote:Kinda funny you use Orks and Nids comparing them to the Tau, seeing that the Tau destroyed Nids and Orks with ease, barley breaking a swet even.

You do realise:
Nids always lose the first encounters against a prepared foe, because they are testing them. Once they know how the Tau Work, they will Eat them
and
"Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!"

heh, i play orks, but pulse rifles>tyranids lol.

Uhhhhm, they destroyed an entire hive fleet coming to destroy the IMPERIUM, they have TESTED the IMPERIUM MANY times. You just don't like the Tau, admit it.

Avrik_Shasla wrote:Uhhhhm, they destroyed an entire hive fleet coming to destroy the IMPERIUM, they have TESTED the IMPERIUM MANY times. You just don't like the Tau, admit it.

All Xenos Scum Lies and Propaganda of course.

Damn you Orks! Damn your Imperium! The Greater Good shall prevail and your evil Xenocides will halt!

It's not the size of the empire, it's what you do with it...

the tau empire is coz they wanna conquer all the worlds my Death Guards wanna conquer!!!

Then join us, and we shall conquer them together?

you know imo and in game terms tau are weak little annoying with a small ...no offense, man but its true...

Avrik_Shasla wrote:Uhhhhm, they destroyed an entire hive fleet coming to destroy the IMPERIUM, they have TESTED the IMPERIUM MANY times. You just don't like the Tau, admit it.

The Tau never destroyed an entire Hive Fleet. The Imperium is the only known force to stand up to Hive Fleets and break them, and even then they're pyrrhic victories. Tau simply do not have the numbers to take on a Hive Fleet. They may be able to fend off a splinter fleet after the Hive has been broken, but seriously, Tyrano organisms would literally eat their planets alive. Small, elite forces drown in Tyrano-goo.

didn't the eldar KO a hive fleet? Iyanden basically got wiped ou...but they did it.

The tau have destroyed a splinter fleet or two.

Also I think there are more Kroot then Tau in total. Kroot breed faster and live longer...

In the Tau Empire codex, the third sphere expansion colonies are described as being 'so well fortified that only a full Crusade could dislodge the Tau' or something to that effect.
Remember the last Crusade that got launched at the Tau Empire ground to a halt attempting to assault one of the outlying minor Septs that wasn't noted for its Warrior castes. Assaulting a Fire Caste planet like Vior'la would have completely destroyed a Crusade.

The Tau 'population numbers' in the back of the book obviously don't make sense for a space-faring, expanding civilisation. Why would they be constantly expanding to different planets if they only had the equivalent of one small Earth city?
Assuming T'au is about Earth sized (and Earth is a small planet considering some of the others discovered in the galaxy), but knowing that it is a mostly desert environment in which Tau thrive, you could safely estimate the population of the Tau homeworld at >10 billion, possibly even 10 times that depending on size and proportion of water present.

So, one Imperial world vs the tau empire? not a chance. They'd be destroyed on their first contact with a major system. You'd need a few space marine chapters and several IG regiments to make any headway.

Oh no, we got crazy Imperial freaks again.

The Eldar destroyed a Hive Fleet, actually it was mainly just one of the Eldar Armadas that did it commanded by the Prince.

It was actually a tendril of the fleet. Not the full fleet itself. The only force in the galaxy (known for a fact anyway) that has stopped not just splinter fleets but full on hive fleets (at least 2, might even be 3 by now) is the imperium.