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Just have some questions about the Tau. How large is the Tau Empire? In respects to the Imperium? ANd who are the Tau's biggest threat? I thought it to believe the incoming Tyranids but I've recently read that the Orks are trying to take over conquered Tau land. Thats where Commander Farsight is fighting supposedly trying to stop them.

In terms of size, comparing the Tau Empire to the Imperium of Man is like comparing a raindrop to an ocean.

The Imperium of man is composed of a million worlds covering most of the galaxy. The Tau Empire is one hundred worlds in a densely packed are of space.

coolyo294 wrote:In terms of size, comparing the Tau Empire to the Imperium of Man is like comparing a raindrop to an ocean.

Thats what I thought. I just wasn't sure because in all the fluf I've read it seems like the Tau Empire is growing FAST. So quickly and fast that some of the Eldar ae impressed with them.


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Thanks for the imge that was absolutely perfect.

The Tau Empires consists, at least during the Taros war, of about 100 planets and colonies. This number seems to have grown during the 13. Black Crusade but exact numbers are hard to come by.
The Tau Empire is threatened by the Tyranids ( which threaten pretty much everything at the Eastern Fringe ) and of course the Orks ( The War of Dakka...).
The Imperium of Man seems to be uninterested in large scale warfare with the Tau Empire, at least for the moment.

It's tiny. about 100 worlds. It's actually only one very dense cluster. Orks are the biggest threat right now. You would think it would be the Tyranids, but last I checked that fleet only took 1 and a half worlds. Orks are more common.

coolyo294 wrote:In terms of size, comparing the Tau Empire to the Imperium of Man is like comparing a raindrop to an ocean.

This was just to sweet not to laugh at

But in all seriousness, Tau have 100+ worlds. But only 20+ or more have population of a Hive city ( the rest have population from few million to few billion probably ). Tau Empire is now ok, but constant Ork raids is starting to amuse them and there is some Tyranids out there, lurking in the dark...

The biggest threat to the Tau now is Humanity. Aldo Humans don't see Tau as a threat ( they are after all in peace, and Imperium is fighting hard to keep that peace ) but Tau may only see Humans as an obstacle to their domain. Since Tau still thinks that Humans are not that big, and have no knowledge of the Chaos whatsoever ( they killed one Grater Daemon and they thought that they kill Tzenetz ).

Before traitor Beff and others arrive, let me say that any other Tau-Imperium conflicts will be resolved in Iron Hammer and 6'th editions of Black Templars and Tau codex. Until then I will say not a word on the subject anymore...

Tau don't have Hive cities, they are not numerous enough.

Kroothawk wrote:Tau don't have Hive cities, they are not numerous enough.

He was talking population size

the Tau were expanding rapidly, but have hit a wall so to speak.


their method of Warp Travel limits the distance they can reach with their jumps.

the worlds they now control are in a very tightly packed cluster of stars. all the nearest stars beyond their cluster are too far to reach, with the exception of the Democles gulf(which is still a massive jump)


the Tau are basically stuck where they are at the moment. Many of the races they have subjugated have the ability for true warp travel but have managed to keep it from the Tau.

The Tau, being a race of psychic neutrals, have no Psykers and as such can't use true warp travel. they would require a subjugated rac with psykers to be able to do this(and the psychic races they have taken over have managed to keep this from the Tau)

Farsight is removed from the Tau, but he did and still does fight many orks. It is hard to what their biggest threat is, but personnally I would say nids.

There's not any mention of the Tau expansions coming to a grinding halt, if anything they seem to be expanding without even stopping for breaks.

The 5th Edition Tyranid codex hints at the largest conflict between the two races to date, which will most likely be fleshed out in Tau 5th Ed. I highly doubt a massive reclamation effort was sent to wipe the Tau out for being stagnant.

Given that the Tau are constantly running into new races, it is highly unlikley their campaign has slowed down at all. Given the Imperium's sheer size, I doubt anyone even cares outside of local PDF and PGs.

Brother Coa wrote:Aldo Humans don't see Tau as a threat ( they are after all in peace, and Imperium is fighting hard to keep that peace ) but Tau may only see Humans as an obstacle to their domain.

Not so sure on that - the Imperium had already planned the destruction of the Tau when they were still at stone age tech-level. But when the Imperial ship arrived a couple millennia later (talkin 'bout red tape!) the Tau had suddenly developed into a spacefaring race capable of resisting that attack. The IoM grumbled a bit but thought the Tau weren't worth the hassle, so they delayed an armed response ... only to realize this was a mistake when the Tau Empire suddenly began making contact to human colonies near their Septs and making them switch sides. So they sent an all-out Crusade fleet. But after some initial success that one was repelled, too, the Imperials forced to negotiate peace as their advance grinded to a halt and they were losing more and more troops to the advanced weaponry of the Tau.

I'm sure the Imperium sees something that keeps resisting its attacks and continueing to be a border nuisance as a threat. It's just that there are bigger threats right now that deserve more attention, and the massive forces that would be required to break the Tau cannot be redeployed from elsewhere without serious destabilization and the potential loss of many worlds to another enemy that would exploit this weakness in the Imperium's defence.

In short, the Tau are to the Imperium what a stain on your shirt is whilst your house is on fire. But they do not ignore them because they don't care.

(I guess this might even be what you were trying to say, but it came off as a bit misleading, so this here is just meant for clarification)

BeefCakeSoup wrote:The 5th Edition Tyranid codex hints at the largest conflict between the two races to date, which will most likely be fleshed out in Tau 5th Ed. I highly doubt a massive reclamation effort was sent to wipe the Tau out for being stagnant.

Hive Fleet Gorgon attacked/was attacked by the Tau, but they've had numerous wars with the Orks.

The way that the Tau codex waffles on about them, I'm going to say Orks are the biggest threat to them at the moment. As soon as the Tyranids are dealt with and the Imperium comes back for the Damacoles Gulf, then I'd say it would be the Imperium.

The Tau have had conflicts with pretty much all the major players. Like everyone else - the Tau are fighting on multiple fronts but in a small area so can focuss their defences better.

Tryanid fleets remain a threat
Orks keep attacking
the Imperium has an increasingly fortified border but has bigger things to worry about
The Necrons "saved" a Tau world only to devour the population
The Dark Eldar enjoyed a major raid into Tau space taking many many captives. They had first folled the tau into thinking they were there to help against the Tryanids.
Chaos has had minor incursions but the Tau have thus far been spared the worst

Eldar have had little contact I can see but think they are important

Tau expansion has come to a halt, because the timeline has come to a halt: 40k is a setting, not an ongoing storyline.

Nicholas wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:Tau don't have Hive cities, they are not numerous enough.

He was talking population size

And so is Kroothawk, 'they are not numerous enough' is directly talking about how the Tau do not have any world with a level of population coming close to the population of an imperial hive city.

BluntmanDC wrote:

Nicholas wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:Tau don't have Hive cities, they are not numerous enough.

He was talking population size

And so is Kroothawk, 'they are not numerous enough' is directly talking about how the Tau do not have any world with a level of population coming close to the population of an imperial hive city.

I didn't even said anything about that. I only compared them to the most familiar thing with Humanity.

BluntmanDC wrote:

Nicholas wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:Tau don't have Hive cities, they are not numerous enough.

He was talking population size

And so is Kroothawk, 'they are not numerous enough' is directly talking about how the Tau do not have any world with a level of population coming close to the population of an imperial hive city.

Kroothawk was saying they don't have hive cities because they aren't numerous enough. Coa said that 20+ planets have the popluation of hive cities. He never said they would have hive cities if they did have the numbers which is what Kroothawk implied.

what he meant was that theu Tau have 20ish planets with population comparative to a single Hive city in the Imperium. Hive Cities are usually found in their dozens on Hive Worlds.


so the Tau have a tiny population with only a few planets having anywhere close to a few billion people.

Alright from doing a little bit of research on the Tau. (By the way I do have a sizeable Tau army but I really never got into their fluff like my other amies) I have seen online that the Eldar actually admire the Tau and how they have expanded so far. Im not sure which leader of the Eldar said it, but they had stated that they were "imopressed" by the Tau and their culture. Could that be a future thing for 40k fluff do you think? In all senses it seems more then possible.

Eldrad mentioned that he felt protective of them. He saw that they could do good in the galaxy in their future.

iproxtaco wrote:Eldrad mentioned that he felt protective of them. He saw that they could do good in the galaxy in their future.

Possible plot twist when the new Tau codex comes out? Me thinks yes

Spartan 117 wrote:

iproxtaco wrote:Eldrad mentioned that he felt protective of them. He saw that they could do good in the galaxy in their future.

Possible plot twist when the new Tau codex comes out? Me thinks yes

Plot twist would be if Greater Good was a sham. If they actually did something for the sake of the universe it would just be continuing with the Tau actually being goody goody and ruining the Grimdarkness we all love

I hope they don't change the background. Something like this would be lame and disappointin:
"Oops, sorry folks. Forget everything you know about Tau. They are now like everyone else and mindlessly killing everything in sight."
Matt "Chaos Grey Knights" Ward wouldn't hesitate to do that, Phil Kelly and Robin Cruddace would.

Lynata wrote:

Brother Coa wrote:Aldo Humans don't see Tau as a threat ( they are after all in peace, and Imperium is fighting hard to keep that peace ) but Tau may only see Humans as an obstacle to their domain.

Not so sure on that - the Imperium had already planned the destruction of the Tau when they were still at stone age tech-level. But when the Imperial ship arrived a couple millennia later (talkin 'bout red tape!) the Tau had suddenly developed into a spacefaring race capable of resisting that attack. The IoM grumbled a bit but thought the Tau weren't worth the hassle, so they delayed an armed response ... only to realize this was a mistake when the Tau Empire suddenly began making contact to human colonies near their Septs and making them switch sides. So they sent an all-out Crusade fleet. But after some initial success that one was repelled, too, the Imperials forced to negotiate peace as their advance grinded to a halt and they were losing more and more troops to the advanced weaponry of the Tau.

I'm sure the Imperium sees something that keeps resisting its attacks and continueing to be a border nuisance as a threat. It's just that there are bigger threats right now that deserve more attention, and the massive forces that would be required to break the Tau cannot be redeployed from elsewhere without serious destabilization and the potential loss of many worlds to another enemy that would exploit this weakness in the Imperium's defence.

In short, the Tau are to the Imperium what a stain on your shirt is whilst your house is on fire. But they do not ignore them because they don't care.

(I guess this might even be what you were trying to say, but it came off as a bit misleading, so this here is just meant for clarification)

Savage Scars goes into deeper detail about this. The Damocles Gulf Crusade did not end because the Tau defeated the Imperium(quite the contrary, while the Tau put up a stoic resistance, the Imperium was well on its way to taking the world of Dal'yth), it ended because Inquisitor Kryptman recalled the crusade fleet to the defense of Macragge. Its pretty much stated that the terms of the ceasefire/sort-of alliance of the two would last only as long as the Tyranid threat continued to exist, the Imperium having the resources to eliminate the entirety of the Tau Empire if it put the effort into it, but rather choosing to let the Tau continue because they are acting as a rearguard against Tyranid incursions on the Eastern Fringe, allowing the Imperium to divert its resources elsewhere.

Also, what I found hilarious is that several Imperials tried to convince the Tau that the Imperium has lasted for 10 millenia and encompasses something like two-thirds of the known galaxy, and the Tau wrote it off as posturing and exaggeration, refusing to believe that the Imperium could be so large and powerful.

As for current expansion, there is none. The Third Sphere expansion is over, and the Tau did not launch a fourth sphere. This was the result of the Medusa V campaign where the Tau were forced to abandon research into warp technology by order of the Ethereals, and were thus forced to call of the Fourth Sphere expansion. It even mentions something about that in the current codex, IIRC.

To sum it up, GW really didn't think things through when coming up with the size, composition, and role in the 40K universe when describing the Tau Empire.

Maybe, in the next Tau codex, they'll bite the bullet and massively retcon most of the Tau fluff.

chaos0xomega wrote:

Lynata wrote:

Brother Coa wrote:Aldo Humans don't see Tau as a threat ( they are after all in peace, and Imperium is fighting hard to keep that peace ) but Tau may only see Humans as an obstacle to their domain.

Not so sure on that - the Imperium had already planned the destruction of the Tau when they were still at stone age tech-level. But when the Imperial ship arrived a couple millennia later (talkin 'bout red tape!) the Tau had suddenly developed into a spacefaring race capable of resisting that attack. The IoM grumbled a bit but thought the Tau weren't worth the hassle, so they delayed an armed response ... only to realize this was a mistake when the Tau Empire suddenly began making contact to human colonies near their Septs and making them switch sides. So they sent an all-out Crusade fleet. But after some initial success that one was repelled, too, the Imperials forced to negotiate peace as their advance grinded to a halt and they were losing more and more troops to the advanced weaponry of the Tau.

I'm sure the Imperium sees something that keeps resisting its attacks and continueing to be a border nuisance as a threat. It's just that there are bigger threats right now that deserve more attention, and the massive forces that would be required to break the Tau cannot be redeployed from elsewhere without serious destabilization and the potential loss of many worlds to another enemy that would exploit this weakness in the Imperium's defence.

In short, the Tau are to the Imperium what a stain on your shirt is whilst your house is on fire. But they do not ignore them because they don't care.

(I guess this might even be what you were trying to say, but it came off as a bit misleading, so this here is just meant for clarification)

Savage Scars goes into deeper detail about this. The Damocles Gulf Crusade did not end because the Tau defeated the Imperium(quite the contrary, while the Tau put up a stoic resistance, the Imperium was well on its way to taking the world of Dal'yth), it ended because Inquisitor Kryptman recalled the crusade fleet to the defense of Macragge. Its pretty much stated that the terms of the ceasefire/sort-of alliance of the two would last only as long as the Tyranid threat continued to exist, the Imperium having the resources to eliminate the entirety of the Tau Empire if it put the effort into it, but rather choosing to let the Tau continue because they are acting as a rearguard against Tyranid incursions on the Eastern Fringe, allowing the Imperium to divert its resources elsewhere.

Also, what I found hilarious is that several Imperials tried to convince the Tau that the Imperium has lasted for 10 millenia and encompasses something like two-thirds of the known galaxy, and the Tau wrote it off as posturing and exaggeration, refusing to believe that the Imperium could be so large and powerful.

As for current expansion, there is none. The Third Sphere expansion is over, and the Tau did not launch a fourth sphere. This was the result of the Medusa V campaign where the Tau were forced to abandon research into warp technology by order of the Ethereals, and were thus forced to call of the Fourth Sphere expansion. It even mentions something about that in the current codex, IIRC.

Dal'yth Prime wasn't a sure win. The IoM was waging a solid ground war that got halted by stretching supply lines thin. In a desperate attempt to gain control of the situation, a daring Guard Commander ordered an all out push with every asset available to make a break for a star port. The push was so unexpected it nearly routed 15,000 Firewarriors into an ocean. Once the star port was seized, the Imperial ground forces had a means to get troops off the surface. A wise choice given they had zero idea how many Tau fleets or forces were en route to the planet. Given their situation in orbit, they were anything but prepared for another fleet battle against the Tau. It was during this time they negotiated a peaceful exit off the world. Both sides learned a lot about each other in combat, and both walked away from the fight in a pretty civil manner for 40K.

I think the largest thing protecting the Tau is that they are a civilized race, that doesn't blindly pillage and murder their way into Imperial space, they wandered into it and people join them. On occasion they get into fights and annexations, but they have a very solid track record of winning.

I like the excellent mental image of them being a stain on your t-shirt while your house is burning down. But the Tau are more lethal and subtle than that, they are more akin to a cancer, slowly growing inside of you that you aren't aware of. If left unchecked, the Tau could pose a major threat to Imperial control on the Eastern Fringe. While it may not seem major at first glance, a large or even small but highly organized portion of any space can pose a significant threat by simply existing. Requiring substantial resources to subdue that could be far better spent in any number of endless shorthanded fronts.


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Mercadian Masque wrote:To sum it up, GW really didn't think things through when coming up with the size, composition, and role in the 40K universe when describing the Tau Empire.

Maybe, in the next Tau codex, they'll bite the bullet and massively retcon most of the Tau fluff.

A lot of Tau players would favor this. While I enjoy the Tau background, it really is poorly thought out in many ways. Timelines don't match up, Cadians being sent to the Damocles Gulf isn't practical, The lack of FTL is also just so awkward, in a setting where races fight on a galactic front...

I hope for a ton of additions to the fluff with "magical" fixes and "huge" gains in empire size. I hope they do something substantial, because I personally think the Tau vs Imperium conflicts have some of the best potential at great fluff and imo some of the most fun fights on TT.

There werent any Cadians in the Damocles Gulf according to savage scars. It was mostly Brimlock Dragoons and Rakarshan Rifles or something like that. Not a single mention of cadians anywhere in the book.

So does the Imperium pretty much allow for the Tau Empire to exist because they can be a buffer against the nids? Because from my understandig thus far thats what it seems to be.