Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 mrhappyface wrote:
"Bovine" - The Tau have special doctors that put on long gloves and stick their arms up inside the female Tau in order to pull the baby tau out. As well as this the Tau have four nipple protuding out of one breast.

Does this mean we can start calling them Cau?

ha...That made me laugh a little too much

BrianDavion wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
There's also the fact that your genetic lineage doesn't really determine if you will or won't make a good soldier.

depends, some traits would be inherited, physical attributes, for example, also genetics can make you more predisposed to certain types of behavior etc. you'd need to train that yes, but it's certainly possiable to breed soldiers with prefered traits.


as for the inital question... Honestly the inital question seems to indicate a thought that a woman can't possiably have children and a career... human women juggle it just fine.

It's more of numbers problem to me. If they are like humans then the short life span + combat losses can be really bottleneck on growth of the empire. If it's a 50/50 spit then every female fire warrior needs to have more then 2 kids just for replacement not counting combat deaths or other problems

Oldmike wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
There's also the fact that your genetic lineage doesn't really determine if you will or won't make a good soldier.

depends, some traits would be inherited, physical attributes, for example, also genetics can make you more predisposed to certain types of behavior etc. you'd need to train that yes, but it's certainly possiable to breed soldiers with prefered traits.


as for the inital question... Honestly the inital question seems to indicate a thought that a woman can't possiably have children and a career... human women juggle it just fine.

It's more of numbers problem to me. If they are like humans then the short life span + combat losses can be really bottleneck on growth of the empire. If it's a 50/50 spit then every female fire warrior needs to have more then 2 kids just for replacement not counting combat deaths or other problems

that's assuming they all deploy to combat. while chances are the differant castes provide some of it so the ratio is more skewed to combat then in modern militaries, only approximatly 20% of a modern military belongs to the combat arm. many Tau Fire Caste likely never see heavy combat

also keep in mind that idea a woman has to carry children to term is an assumption in and of itself, for all we know Fire Warriors are bred like Clan trueborn in Mechwarrior

 oldravenman3025 wrote:

 EnTyme wrote:
I find the sheer amount of time this forum dedicates to thinking about alien reproductive systems to be . . . disturbing.

We must have a lot of Mass Effect fans here.

Or frequent visitors to /d/


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 mrhappyface wrote:
"Bovine" - The Tau have special doctors that put on long gloves and stick their arms up inside the female Tau in order to pull the baby tau out. As well as this the Tau have four nipple protuding out of one breast.

Does this mean we can start calling them Cau?

Wait, if Tau are cows, and Kroot are chickens, does that mean the Tau Empire is really a giant galactic farm?
My god, it all makes sense. The creation of the Tau, that warp storm, it was all a Tyranid attempt at agriculture.
Next they will organize orks into crops, and genetically engineer them to make wheat. Then the Hive Fleet's great plan of making the perfect sandwich will be complete. A few slices of fried kroot, some slices of roasted tau bit of mayo stuck between a couple of slices of Ork bread. Delicious.

You are now having a mental image of the swarmlord wearing overalls and a straw hat.

Oldmike wrote:


It's more of numbers problem to me. If they are like humans then the short life span + combat losses can be really bottleneck on growth of the empire. If it's a 50/50 spit then every female fire warrior needs to have more then 2 kids just for replacement not counting combat deaths or other problems

I just explained this to you kids. "raising a family" means growing an ovipositor and laying tens of thousands of eggs.

Retire sounds pretty permanent. Maybe Tau are like Salmon and the reproductive process is fatal to them?