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i saw that poll (who will be there by the end) and every 1 was bagging the tau... what does every 1 have with the tau?

To be honest it was a meh poll. But if you look at Tau in this way. They are a small empire with limited resources compared to what all the other races have. Thats why they wont last long in a war of attrition. Whilst they can unit for unit outperform a lot of enemies. The numbers are completely against them.

still when you reffer them to a gallactic scale they would be too small to be seen by

They are not that small they will be missed. The Imperium would not forget them after the various battles they have fought. The nids just go everywhere and eat everything, so no safety there. The Necrons are not fans of life, so would have no problems with taking them out. The Orks just like hitting stuff. A large force of them migrating would probably overwhelm the Tau.

The Eldar are probably the only ones would would not really have much of a reason for fighting them. Even then their superior psychic powers and technology would mean they would probably win if a few of their craftworlds took part in the war.

Blood Raven 5th Company wrote:still when you reffer them to a gallactic scale they would be too small to be seen by

But they have been noticed. Especially by orks, nids and the Imperium. Especially since they've been snapping up Imperial frontier planets. To the extent they had a full blown crusade against them. If you can say that's being not noticed then I'd not like to see what being noticed is!

Its probably because there isnt any other faction that they could beat. So how can they be last army standing. Can you imagine them beating the Imperium? or ALL the orks/tyranids? Or etc etc.
I suspect Necrons will be last army standing. because a million years later they will wake up to harvest the new races that have shown up.

The Tau's strength is their technology and innovation. Given time it is POSSIBLE that they will become a major power. But they're in the nid's path to Terra. This means the tau will NOT have time to grow. The nids are regarded as at LEAST a major threat to every other faction. Canon suggests there are more carnifexs than firewarriors.

Lexx wrote:

Blood Raven 5th Company wrote:still when you reffer them to a gallactic scale they would be too small to be seen by

But they have been noticed. Especially by orks, nids and the Imperium. Especially since they've been snapping up Imperial frontier planets. To the extent they had a full blown crusade against them. If you can say that's being not noticed then I'd not like to see what being noticed is!

the Democles Gulf crusade was a small crusade that was called off due to a larger threat. if the IoM had pressed the attack they would have crushed the T'au within a century or so and the T'au are fully aware of that.


the T'au are also pretty much confined to the sector of space they currently occupy as without Psychic navigation they can't fully exploit Warp travel. the range of their ships is only a few dozen light years and these trips take about 6-12 years and T'au only live for about 30-40 years.

In addition, a lot of the sept worlds are under threat from an Ork Waaagh!, started after the T'au intervened to aid a bunch of Kroot who were about to get dragged into war with a Greenskin empire. It's known as the War of Dakka to the orks, I believe.

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:In addition, a lot of the sept worlds are under threat from an Ork Waaagh!, started after the T'au intervened to aid a bunch of Kroot who were about to get dragged into war with a Greenskin empire. It's known as the War of Dakka to the orks, I believe.

indeed it is.

the Orks have also adapted T'au technology to their own use(beware lootas with Railguns)

I actually voted tau. They are rapidly gaining new territory, aren't ignorant, are willing to use new technology/ally with other races, etc.

The Tau definnately have potential, but if GW keep going their course with them they will be nothing more than a speed bump for other races in the fluff.

Unfortunately all they are IMHO is just a cool looking army made by GW specially made to fit a demographic of anime/mecha lovers and for 10 year olds to spend their parents cash on.

I love the race in the fluff because they truly are refreshing, but unless they seriously make absolute war their only priority and bust out their 5th expansion a la rise of the tau fanfic they have no future but mediocrity

While the Tau may be good at improving, they just don't have the strength right now to compete, the only reason they exist is that they are to small for the IoM to spare the time on, and the nids haven't gotten to them yet, but given maybe 2,000 years they might out up a good fight. But for all we know the Necrons haven't even released a fraction of their army, and i agree the Tau have great fluff, and they are ok to play but i dont see a lot of progression that a race that got that far should be doing, espically since they aren't really engaged in anything that would consume all their reasourses

The Tau don't yet have the resources to compete on the galactic stage. However, the fact that they have a codex when most race their size/strength are ignored completely foreshadows greater things to come for the Tau Empire, especially if their evolution and innovation continues at the current rate. And BTW, some of us play Tau for the fluff and tactical feel of the army. I personally dislike anime quite a bit, and also am not a 10 year old.

If the New tau Codex is written like the Blood Angels one, they could definatly be a Contender for last race standing. They'd also no longer be Tau, but "Blueskin SPEZ MAHREENZ!"

Grey Templar wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:In addition, a lot of the sept worlds are under threat from an Ork Waaagh!, started after the T'au intervened to aid a bunch of Kroot who were about to get dragged into war with a Greenskin empire. It's known as the War of Dakka to the orks, I believe.

indeed it is.

the Orks have also adapted T'au technology to their own use(beware lootas with Railguns)

That is where commanders like Farsight come into the equasion (commander farsight trained his men to fight cc and went on a crusade against Orks)

But Farsight isn't a part of the Empire. He is the leader of a Renegade Faction.

I know however I typed "commanders like" and besides Farsight is still alive and killing orks... so he counts

Technically we don't know if the Original Farsight is Still alive and if the Title is just given the the Highest ranked member of the Farsight Enclaves. And only those that Trained Under Farsight would Quailfy for being "like Farsight". Everyone else in the Tau Empire is pretty much against bashing people with chunks of cement attached to rebar (They are also against bashing with other objects, this is just my Fav example).

Well maybe Farsight is the Immortal God-Emperor of Taukind... or maybe he just has an uber lifespan caused by his dawn blade...

And maby he is

warhammer 40k is a free for all like all free for alls who dies first? The smallest...

They are too small to be significant in a universe where, if the emperor dies, will be overun by daemons, and reality ripped apart, and basically, the Tau will die.

prehaps we should reverse the question.


What makes people think that the T'au might win?


technology can only help so much against millions of orks and Billions of tyranids and having no psychic abilities or counters is dangerous when there are psykers capable of opening holes to the warp large enough to swallow a planet.

The thing that would make the tau strong is their will to ally and include other races to their coruse.

The reason why the Tau will never be the last army standing is because the world of 40k is not a Mexican standoff. War in the 41st millenium is indiscriminiate.

Blood Raven 5th Company wrote:The thing that would make the tau strong is their will to ally and include other races to their coruse.

How many of the significant races out there are looking for allys...

The Imperium - If it aint humna kill it!
Orks - They can't even ally with themselves.
Eldar - While they have occasionaly allied with the Imperium in the past, they have there own agenda.
Tyrniads - Nom Nom Nom
Necrons - Destroy all Humans! Destroy all Humans!

In the future no one is looking for allies, they are just doing what they do best.

Blood Raven 5th Company wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:In addition, a lot of the sept worlds are under threat from an Ork Waaagh!, started after the T'au intervened to aid a bunch of Kroot who were about to get dragged into war with a Greenskin empire. It's known as the War of Dakka to the orks, I believe.

indeed it is.

the Orks have also adapted T'au technology to their own use(beware lootas with Railguns)

That is where commanders like Farsight come into the equasion (commander farsight trained his men to fight cc and went on a crusade against Orks)

Actually, Farsight was part of this war, and indeed was heavily beaten after he underestimated the greenskin's kunnin'. The T'au High Command evacuated him just before his command was overrun.

Yeah they don't even stand a chance.... A single chapter could annihilate them.