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I am afraid those are space grade rail cannons. Tau don't actually do what you are meant to do with rail guns in space. rather then having a few massive guns that run from front to back. They have swarms of smaller turret mounted guns that look a lot like the guns on a manta.


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Brother Coa wrote:

nomotog wrote:
It has cannons on it. Twelve from what I counted. That's why I compare the two. Both are heavy drop ships that are also full of guns.

I saw a different craft, this is it? It looks cool.
I wounder why Imperial never used it like Tau Mantas?

Ya I saw three crafts all called the same thing. I image they aren't combat capable seeing as a tau fighters can shoot them down.

Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Burst cannon for scale and heavy Rail gun as well, same as mounted on Tigershark.
Not exactly a Battleship ion cannon..infact same size as a hammerhead can carry.

Thanks for the pic.
Taros Campaign book clearly said that they modified Manta by putting Tau spaceship Railguns to it. That + Tigersharks + seeker missiles bring down Titan.
Maybe it was one time field modification, I don't know...

Yet again, that's a LOT of firepower to bring down 1 Titan, and the smallest one of them all.

Likely the weapons on those Imperial landers are for DZ clearance and space defence, but GW has a tendency to put tons of oversized guns on most anything, since in BFG when they represented invasion ships in the rules they had little to no offesive weapons, but had a single turret stat, self defence I guess, like I said they land , disgorge troops, then go back for more, not a agile fighter,and not designed for atmospheric combat.

Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:Likely the weapons on those Imperial landers are for DZ clearance and space defence, but GW has a tendency to put tons of oversized guns on most anything, since in BFG when they represented invasion ships in the rules they had little to no offesive weapons, but had a single turret stat, self defence I guess, like I said they land , disgorge troops, then go back for more, not a agile fighter,and not designed for atmospheric combat.

well all those guns would add up to one turret stat in spaceship scale. They are not heavy guns. They look to be more defense turrets then actual bombarding weapons. Given that they don't look like they can aim down.

Brother Coa wrote:

Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Burst cannon for scale and heavy Rail gun as well, same as mounted on Tigershark.
Not exactly a Battleship ion cannon..infact same size as a hammerhead can carry.

Thanks for the pic.
Taros Campaign book clearly said that they modified Manta by putting Tau spaceship Railguns to it. That + Tigersharks + seeker missiles bring down Titan.
Maybe it was one time field modification, I don't know...

Yet again, that's a LOT of firepower to bring down 1 Titan, and the smallest one of them all.

I find it hilarious that you won't acknowledge the Tau's most formidable strength; adaptation and strength of its technology. Don't bother bringing up that the rest of the Warhound Titans ran away from the Barracuda's initial attack run, however, because clearly the Titans had the upper hand and were 'regrouping' at Mars for another attack.

And the Manta would never be used against a Titan, they have the Tiger-Shark Patterns to deal with such threats.

But back onto the subject; the Imperium would certainly win against Tau in a 1vs1, however, it would for Space Marines to consider Tau a threat and saying that would bruise their plot-armor pride.

KplKeegan wrote:
I find it hilarious that you won't acknowledge the Tau's most formidable strength; adaptation and strength of its technology.

But I do, the fact that Tau used some of it's most advanced tech and most powerful guns, in a combo, to shot down ONE Warhound disappoint me.
What would they do against Emperor then?
Imperium drop 1 bomb and destroy all life on a planet.

Imperium drop 1 bomb and destroy all life on a planet.

Humorous as this might sound, if the Tau were ever as close minded to create their own Exterminatus, they would develop the one-use bomb, not the Imperium. Fortunately, they are not like mankind and thus require no need for it.

Brother Coa wrote:

KplKeegan wrote:
I find it hilarious that you won't acknowledge the Tau's most formidable strength; adaptation and strength of its technology.

But I do, the fact that Tau used some of it's most advanced tech and most powerful guns, in a combo, to shot down ONE Warhound disappoint me.
What would they do against Emperor then?
Imperium drop 1 bomb and destroy all life on a planet.

The fact that they used the force required to take down their enemy disappoints you? What did you expect them to do, blast the Warhound into a bazillion pieces, then teleport to Terra and do the same to Sol? They strapped a few heavy railguns to a fighter, it's not as if they're stretching their tech to the limit.

Against an Emporer, strap some even bigger railguns on.

That is exactly what I expected TrollPie. And I expect the Tau to have some new toys in new codex.

So, isnt the manticore a aa mount. I think its in one of the apoc books, ill look it up soon.

Dear Coa. It is clear that we all have diffrent views and tastes. You like the Imperium and we like Tau. Noone here will change our oppinions. The Imperium would win a 1vs1 fight. There now this thread doesnt need to continue anymore. Please "nerdrage" at each other by PM. Thank you

Space Crusader

In BFG Mantas are used in the same capacity as Thunderhawks; carrier based fighters.

And just for clarification once again this ...


is what killed this..



as described in the Taros entry as rippling its missles pods and overloading its sheild generator, then the twin Rail guns critically hit it and cause it topple and fall, killing its entire crew.

And as a bonus, its perfectly feasible on TT as well, love it when fluff and gameplay concur.

If it were anything stronger than a scout-titan, I think the Tau would have been forced back to the drawing board.

Nope just make more attack runs....

Actually the main Tau defence plan against titans is for their specially trained Earth Caste stair building teams to go into action.

The fools! Titans have legs they can walk up stairs!

i don't know why we are discussing this that long, as there is an official answer to the original question:

Tau are a big fish in a small pont, that means they are quite competitive in their Eastern fringe, where in case of an attack, because of the relatively small distances, they can gather a big army of all Septs to fight an enemy. This has been documented in the Damocles crusade (see White Scars novel for details) and also other conflicts like Taros.

The Imperium of Man is much greater with a much bigger army. If, in theory, they could gather all their forces to crush Tau, they might succeed, for the price of leaving their back unprotected and being crushed by others during or after that crusade (most likely by Chaos, supported by Tyranids, Orks and Necrons).

It is another topic whether in the long run, the Greater Good philosophy with its free trade and free exchange of cultural and technological achievements is superior to the crumbling oppressive IoM regime with its hate for other races and its lack of technological understanding. But as 40k is a static setting and not an evolving timeline, we will never know.

This is what most 40k players familiar with the 40k background know. I never met a Tau player on Dakka or elsewhere not familiar with this.

So this is the short and official answer to the original question. The rest of the thread is just trying to teach one troll some basic facts about Tau background, which is answered by even more trolling.

Kroothawk got serious, nice to see that.

And he pretty much wrapped it up for us. Thanks, KH.