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 Gamgee wrote:

Farsight Enclaves supplement. Splinter fleet, but vast. No small scouting fleet though. Actually they destroyed the Tyranid hive fleet so thoroughly nothing was left to adapt to. It's gone completely.

Hive mind isn't gone though...

Jeez, I didn't even consider the new Admech Imperial Armour is going to have Ordinatus in it.

Yeah, the Tau are boned.

locarno24 wrote:
The latest Imperial Armour book is a case in point - the Tau decide to 'test out' their latest creations in a surprise assault on a minor forge world. It does not end well.

That Imperial Armour isn't released yet. How do you know the results of it, if you don't mind my asking? Besides, Imperial Armour campaigns never end well. There's always a lot of back and forth, a few surprises and the winner's victory is almost always terribly costly.

If the end of times had to fall upon WH40K, I think the Taus' days would be numered. That's a very small empire and by now, it's only survived because nobody's paid attention to them. So I see very well orks wiping them, as a first Waaagh has already obtained several victories.

Ohterwise, if Chaos succeeded in his 13th Dark Crusade, they'd just be annihilated by Abaddon as well.

Third solution, if the nids are to have the galaxy bending, then they'll act as meatshield for the Imperium who'd let them desesperatly strive to save their little empire while rounding up his armies.

The fact that no one fields anything close to as good as the troopers from the novel Starship Troopers is the only reason the Tyranids are a thing. Y-rack tac nukes for the win!

Crushed by an Imperial Crusade.

 Generalstoner wrote:
Crushed by an Imperial Crusade.

I wouldn't trust the Imperium to crush an apple. They so stupid. It's frankly embarrassing to play an Imperial faction.

Martel732 wrote:

 Generalstoner wrote:
Crushed by an Imperial Crusade.

I wouldn't trust the Imperium to crush an apple. They so stupid. It's frankly embarrassing to play an Imperial faction.

My favorite part was 'they so stupid' when calling out the faction for being stupid... :p

That was intentional, chief.

The Blood Angels should clearly swoop Ina mad show everyone on the Easetern Fringe how it's done, and kill off the Tau. Dante will solo a trio of Stormsurges, while Mephiston puts a pair of Titan knock off so to a headlock.

At the same time.

Edit: while at the same time finding a way to make Blood Angels worse on the table top, of course.

Emperor dies and resurrects at the head of the tau, (discovering that he was the one who made the ethereal's talk to the tau) in another attempt by the emperor to bring a scientifically based peace to the galaxy. Most space marine factions join him after the surviving primarchs come back to lead them back to the emperor. All other IoM factions are split, some joining tau, some fighting for independence but only finding death, some joining the forces of Chaos. (reducing space marine factions and IoM factions in the game) Combined Tau and IoM deal with massize Tyranid invasion (surviving the main invasion but continued hive fleet invasions still happening). Orks raise a massize Waaaagh led by a new leader and attempt to destroy Chaos and anyone who gets in there way. Chaos triples their converts after the emperor moves to Tau, and engage in pitched battle against the massive Ork waaaagh.

Well, thats roughly what i'd like to happen, you never know lol.

 chalkobob wrote:

That Imperial Armour isn't released yet. How do you know the results of it, if you don't mind my asking? Besides, Imperial Armour campaigns never end well. There's always a lot of back and forth, a few surprises and the winner's victory is almost always terribly costly.

Quite a few friends of mine were at the last Forgeworld do in Nottingham. Unlike 'GW Proper' they tend to be fairly happy to talk about near-term upcoming stuff as long as you're talking general terms about background not rules or release schedule

I wouldn't trust the Imperium to crush an apple. They so stupid. It's frankly embarrassing to play an Imperial faction.

Most of them aren't - they just often don't have a choice in their actions because having enough resources to handle every crisis at once is a luxury.

locarno24 wrote:


Quite a few friends of mine were at the last Forgeworld do in Nottingham. Unlike 'GW Proper' they tend to be fairly happy to talk about near-term upcoming stuff as long as you're talking general terms about background not rules or release schedule

Would you please give me specific detail of what type of questions were asked and what the specific answers were? I don't doubt you, but Imperial Armour campaigns are my favourite fluff pieces in the entire setting. Just curious.

Bear in mind this is 'third party' so I don't know the specific details and specific answers for the most part. Supposedly the background is a development of that big "Tau Versus Mechanicus" diorama in the Warhammer World galleries:



The Tau attack a mechanicus base to 'field test' their new heavy and superheavy units. This doesn't go as well as they hoped because the Mechanicus forge (which isn't huge but is a very old one) responds by digging out heresy-era automata and similar weapons to buy time to commit titan forces.

Also, whilst the Tau have encountered titans before (hence the development of the Ta'Unar), they've never met true battle titans (warlord class). The forge in question is apparently being used as a staging ground to try and retake Gryphonne (the one the orks overran), and with murphy's law apparently dictating the timing the Tau manage to launch their attack whilst there's the bulk of a titan order and its associated knight households on the planet that's just completed its refits and overhaul (a bridge too far, much?).

I don't know any more other than the phrase "does not end well" which you can probably figure out without further explanation.

I'm not sure what the Tau phrase for "what the **** is that and why is it moving?!?!?!?!?!!?" is, but I suspect it may be translated in the footnotes somewhere.

Depends upon the direction, from which the ET's would come. Tau could very well bunker up and soak up the damage from an opponent, who already exhausted itself, killing other factions.

Of course the Tau are Xenos, so in all probability they will go first, when GW decides to commit suicide and make the 40K End Times.

locarno24 wrote:
Bear in mind this is 'third party' so I don't know the specific details and specific answers for the most part. Supposedly the background is a development of that big "Tau Versus Mechanicus" diorama in the Warhammer World galleries:



The Tau attack a mechanicus base to 'field test' their new heavy and superheavy units. This doesn't go as well as they hoped because the Mechanicus forge (which isn't huge but is a very old one) responds by digging out heresy-era automata and similar weapons to buy time to commit titan forces.

Also, whilst the Tau have encountered titans before (hence the development of the Ta'Unar), they've never met true battle titans (warlord class). The forge in question is apparently being used as a staging ground to try and retake Gryphonne (the one the orks overran), and with murphy's law apparently dictating the timing the Tau manage to launch their attack whilst there's the bulk of a titan order and its associated knight households on the planet that's just completed its refits and overhaul (a bridge too far, much?).

I don't know any more other than the phrase "does not end well" which you can probably figure out without further explanation.

I'm not sure what the Tau phrase for "what the **** is that and why is it moving?!?!?!?!?!!?" is, but I suspect it may be translated in the footnotes somewhere.

Fair enough. To be honest I expected Tau to lose this one since they won Taros. Even so, like the Eldar in Doom of Mymeara, despite losing there was a silver lining (Phoenix lord in that case). Maybe the Tau will escape with some useful technology or some such.

It seems very out of character for the Tau not to recon the area first with stealth missions. Especially given the fact that they have sensor technology good enough to detect an Imperial Assassin. The people they send to knock out the rogue Arch Magos and other people who are thought impossible.

Edit
Calling it. Tau are going to develop a Warlord killer armor of their own. Next campaign book after this. Also a super heavy tank with titan scale weaponry to bolster their titan legions on the cheap.

 Gamgee wrote:



Calling it. Tau are going to develop a Warlord killer armor of their own. Next campaign book.

I don't think we will see another Imperial armour campaign book featuring Tau for a long while after this one assuming we get a 3rd at all. Considering this will be the 2nd Imperial Armour featuring Tau, which is more than most xenos can say. Unless of course you mean a basic 40k one like mont'ka or kauyon in which I don't see the main GW studio releasing a Tau Warlord equivalent for those.

They still have to remake Kastrel Novem, Badab, maybe another Necron book, their Horus Heresy stuff, and I'm sure I forgot some stuff!

I wish they had taken Tau more along the lines of Hammerheads and Skyrays than Crisis Suits++.

But we have crossed that bridge.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I wish they had taken Tau more along the lines of Hammerheads and Skyrays than Crisis Suits++.

But we have crossed that bridge.

That said, Tau are a piece in the game, not the player. Their fate decides on what moves either Cegorath or Tzeech deside to make.

(My money is on Cegorath - what would Tzeech want with an Incorruptible Swarm?)

Someone mentioned that the Eldar may have made the Ethereals. I've also read that it's possible that the Warp Storm that originally shielded the Tau homeworld from Imperial Exterminatus, was created by Eldrad himself.
"It's an older fluff, sir, but it checks out"

There has been no reveal as to why the Eldar wanted to Tau to prosper and become a force in the galaxy. I suspect that Eldar are trying to groom the Tau to be their successors to the galaxy. Since Tau are all but immune to the taint of Chaos, Eldar probably see them as the last hope for defeating Chaos.

If the Ends times come, Eldar would probably Allie with Tau

-

With the exception of Biel-Tan, there is no guarantee the endgame of the CWE is Eldar superiority, or even existence.

In my head cannon, one of my Farseers (Lokus) saw a friend die in the Shadow of the Warp, and didn't see Slanesh consume the friend. This has made him believe the Tyranids would stop Slanesh. He now works to ensure Tyranids consume the galaxy (Eldar last, of course).

Some Eldar faction could be trying something similar. By replacing Mankind's ubiquity with the Incorruptible Swarm, Spanish would be at least weakened, and possibly defeatable. It might require a target date of 80k or later to pull off, though.

Well if a "ends times" did happen in 40k either tau would be left standing there going WTF mate? Because i dont even think the Chaos gods know about them other then what gets reported to them since they have no presence in the warp.

Two they agree to join the IoM because we need more cannon fodder.

But that said, an end times will never happen in 40k because of 2 reasons.

1) The models are still selling, this was the largest reason for the end times in fantasy, the models were not selling so they needed to reboot it.

2)We have already had 13 consecutive failed end times because abadon is a worthless piece of gak who can never seem to make it off the first hole on the galactic golf course that is the IoM with out sending the ball right into the drink.

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Well if a "ends times" did happen in 40k either tau would be left standing there going WTF mate? Because i dont even think the Chaos gods know about them other then what gets reported to them since they have no presence in the warp.

Two they agree to join the IoM because we need more cannon fodder.

But that said, an end times will never happen in 40k because of 2 reasons.

1) The models are still selling, this was the largest reason for the end times in fantasy, the models were not selling so they needed to reboot it.

2)We have already had 13 consecutive failed end times because abadon is a worthless piece of gak who can never seem to make it off the first hole on the galactic golf course that is the IoM with out sending the ball right into the drink.

Nah mate, they retconned Abby so who's he totally a good general and succeeded on all his objectives now

Tau are a tiny blip in the Warp, not entirely without Warp presence.

I think GW could do an end times storyline without completely AoSing 40K. They'd just need to apply logical consequences to the outcome. Supposing Abaddon can punch his way through to Terra and kill the Emperor, he'd have his hands pretty full consolidating his gains. The galaxy is a big place, so there'd be quite a bit of IoM out there still, and they're not going to just roll over for Abaddon. They'd probably consolidate, rallied by the leadership of the returned Primarchs, who come back not to try and ward off Abaddon from killing the Emperor, but to protect the reborn Emperor until he can mature.

Meantime, the power vacuum would be good for the Orks, Tyranids, and Necrons, but at the same time their increased freedom to move around without resistance from the IoM means they're going to run into each other more often. So, no one xenos faction would be able to run completely rampant, because it'd be checked by the others.

As for the Tau, they'd probably escape notice. The bulk of the forces of Chaos wouldn't bother trying to get all the way out to their little backwater empire, and IoM forces would be too busy staving off Chaos and the aforementioned other xenos to commit the resources necessary to annihilating them. I don't see the IoM remnants suddenly becoming buddy-buddy with the Tau, but when the reborn Emperor can resume rulership over mankind, he'd probably at least establish nonaggression pacts with them and the Eldar, in the interest of mutual survival. I don't know about a Tau-Mankind technological exchange. I'd expect under the Emperor, the human race would renew its own technological advancement.

If the Emperor dies the Imperium dies with him. They might not want to roll over but they have no choice.

 Gamgee wrote:
It seems very out of character for the Tau not to recon the area first with stealth missions. Especially given the fact that they have sensor technology good enough to detect an Imperial Assassin. The people they send to knock out the rogue Arch Magos and other people who are thought impossible.

Edit
Calling it. Tau are going to develop a Warlord killer armor of their own. Next campaign book after this. Also a super heavy tank with titan scale weaponry to bolster their titan legions on the cheap.

Meh! The AdMec would just dig up some old Imperator Titans and play a game of "What Does This Button Do?" until no more Tau were left to destroy.

Speaking of various shades of ad mech

its also possible the Tau can fall from within due to their AI use.

its possible they can go full men of iron.

if there is any hope for them, it may be the eldar pushing them to do a thing. but i dont trust knife ears.

 Desubot wrote:
Speaking of various shades of ad mech

its also possible the Tau can fall from within due to their AI use.

its possible they can go full men of iron.

if there is any hope for them, it may be the eldar pushing them to do a thing. but i dont trust knife ears.

I don't know. From what I've seen the tau have certain level of ethicacy when dealing with their AIs. I doubt you'd ever see them uprise.