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Just a thought, what would happen if the Imperium used a force of similar size to that force deployed around the Eye of Terror against the Tau?

Would the Tau stand a chance or would they just be crushed?

It depends. Do the tau get their over the top production capacity? Going by the new fluff for the tau their custodian class ships where designed when tau got ftl. With new tau only getting ftl in m41.996 and the above ships were used In m41.997 (in large number) tau can make a grand cruiser sized vessel in less than a year compared to the imperial time frame of a couple centuries. New tau ( thanks to slips in the fluff) are actually a threat to the imperium.

The Tau Empire is a tiny dot in the SE corner of the Imperium. It is, by scale, comparing the state of Rhode Island to the rest of the total surface area of the Earth.

If the Imperium had the resource to devote a serious Crusade fleet to crushing the Tau, the Tau would be crushed. There's no two ways about it. The Tau simply don't have the population or the weaponry that the Imperium does, and have nothing to defend themselves against Exterminatus-type weapons.

What is keeping the Tau alive is the fact that they are such a small empire and the Imperium has other, larger threats to deal with currently.

 Psienesis wrote:
The Tau Empire is a tiny dot in the SE corner of the Imperium. It is, by scale, comparing the state of Rhode Island to the rest of the total surface area of the Earth.

If the Imperium had the resource to devote a serious Crusade fleet to crushing the Tau, the Tau would be crushed. There's no two ways about it. The Tau simply don't have the population or the weaponry that the Imperium does, and have nothing to defend themselves against Exterminatus-type weapons.

What is keeping the Tau alive is the fact that they are such a small empire and the Imperium has other, larger threats to deal with currently.

I agree. If Imperium could ignore the threats of Chaos around EoT and Nids in the Eastern Segmentum, Tau wouldn't be much of a concern for Imperium. Despite the technological advances of Tau, if Imperium could commit what was committed to 13th Black Crusade, 3rd War for Armageddon or any other large-scale conflict, Tau would be crushed under the sheer mass of Imperium's might.

The Imperium's numbers would simply be too much for even the very advanced Tau to deal with.

I just had an idea, what if the tau allied with alpha legion? With the support of the Legion they would have a lot more forces at their disposal, alot of information from the Alpha Legion's agents, and also a load of rebellions and chaos cults to use against the imperium. Also once word gets out about the tau, a lot of people will prefer a communist government than the oppresion of imperial rule. Beat the Imperium? No. Cause a he'll load of mischief? Yes.

 SilentScreamer wrote:
I just had an idea, what if the tau allied with alpha legion? With the support of the Legion they would have a lot more forces at their disposal, alot of information from the Alpha Legion's agents, and also a load of rebellions and chaos cults to use against the imperium. Also once word gets out about the tau, a lot of people will prefer a communist government than the oppresion of imperial rule. Beat the Imperium? No. Cause a he'll load of mischief? Yes.

The alpha legion don't have the numbers or power to boost the Tau enough to stand up to a full crusade.

The advantage for the Tau right now is their small size and threat. as long as they don't push too hard on the imperium, they won't see a need to devote more resources to the Tau's eradication.

2 entire battlefleets (2 of the largest, I might add, in Solar and Cadia) and change fought against 13th Black Crusade directly in front of the Eye. That's a lolhuge amount of firepower.

They be dead

The Imperium, for diverting so many of its forces away from important conflicts and towards the Tau, would probably collapse within days. Assuming it lasted long enough to actually invade the Tau Empire after organizing its forces, the Tau would be utterly annihilated.

If the Imperium didn't have to worry about Orks, Necrons, Tyranids or Chaos, and could muster a huge force of Guard, Navy, Sororitas, Titans, and Astartes for such a campaign, the Tau wouldn't do too well. It would be a bloody affair, but the Tau couldn't beat the Imperium in a war of attrition.

The Tau would be annihilated, but that's one of the main points about the imperium. They could annihilate any single enemy if they could bring all of their forces against them, but they just have too many enemies.

The Tau would be wiped out before they even understood the sheer scale of what they faced.

No, no. Tau has protection of its customers. As any race in w40k, they get free ride on how cool they are at others expense. If GW would decide to push story to that point, I'm sure that Tau will be pulling out Eldar level technology from nowhere just in order to keep themselves selling to their fans.

Honestly, while Tau are favored and pushed to conflicts there they make little sense (Medusa for example), there are other minor races who poses same or possibly even greater threat to the Imperium than Tau. Insignificance of them and irony of having to rely on Imperium for survival is a sweet one.

The Tau are also "ignored" by the Imperium not just because of their threat level, but because of their relative "niceness". This is not necessarily because the Imperium is being nice, however (at least, not on any official level of the higher ups), but because it means the Imperium can deal with the Tau via other means compared to Tyrannids and Orks, saving precious military resources. In fact, the Tau are actually a cushion against Tyrannids and Orks in the area. Why bother crushing the Tau when the Tau can actually be reasoned with here and there unlike those crazy bugs and savages that are in the same vicinity? It's better to try to keep things as peaceful with them as possible so those bugs and savages next to them can eat them instead of you. There are propaganda reasons too, and even if the Imperium doesn't admit it, I'm sure a lot of commanders and higher-ups morally would want to go after those "obviously evil" guys first (the way the fluff is written, a lot of Imperium commanders DO have at least some conscience)

This is shown with Commander Brightsword, who didn't take prisoners and was a really REALLY brutal Tau commander. Normally Tau do take prisoners, which again, helps keep the Imperium from exercising their full wrath (after all, why crush those guys that you can negotiate with to get your prisoners back when there are bugs next door that will eat you without giving you that chance?). It was so bad that the Imperium and the Tau TEAMED UP TO ASSASSINATE HIM behind the scenes! Officially and publically, the Tau would never assassinate their own commander and the Imperium should wipe these filthy xenos out, brutally merciless or not. Unofficially, however, both realized that to allow the Tau to continue being donkey-caves that don't take prisoners would force the Imperium's hand potentially by sheer hate of a xenos that's so merciless, which neither side wanted, so they teamed up to assassinate the guy. (well, the brutality was half of it. Brightsword possibly being a straw that breaks the Imperium's patience camel's back with constantly attacking them was another, of course)

So while officially, the Imperium couldn't give two gaks about how "nice" a xenos is, unofficially it's clear to both sides that the Tau's relative "niceness" is one reason they don't crush them, to the point where the Imperium helped the Tau out when a Tau commander threatened to remove a good chunk of that "niceness" factor.

But on the other hand, who can claim to be greater threat than the arch-enemy? Even tyranids are being left alone due to Abbadon's 13'th Black crusade.

Nimbosa crusade was a weird one. First Imperium had abandoned sector, later they counter-attacked. It just shows how reluctant they are to give even an inch of ground to their foes. Although, Imperium presence near Tau's space is weak, I don't think that Tau can survive further events. They are already engaged in wars of attrition with orks and that rarely ends well for any race besides orks and looming threat of tyranids are approaching Tau's space. I do not think that GW had left them in a place where they can survive without serious help.

 SilentScreamer wrote:
I just had an idea, what if the tau allied with alpha legion? With the support of the Legion they would have a lot more forces at their disposal, alot of information from the Alpha Legion's agents, and also a load of rebellions and chaos cults to use against the imperium. Also once word gets out about the tau, a lot of people will prefer a communist government than the oppresion of imperial rule. Beat the Imperium? No. Cause a he'll load of mischief? Yes.

The Alpha Legion is a Legion in name only. They are, in actuality, scattered war-bands that commit acts of terrorism and raiding on far-flung Imperial Worlds, and then vanish before Imperial forces can arrive to respond. They lack the strength, the resources and the will to actually get involved in a knock-down battle with Imperial forces. Introducing them to the Tau will really only introduce the Tau to a style of warfare they are ill-equipped (both militarily and philosophically) to deal with, and also introduces their entire culture (not just the Tau, but Kroot, Vespid, Humans, and all the other races that form their collective society) to the influences of the Warp.

In short, this would be the end of the Tau Empire, as the non-Tau begin to fall to corruption, the "Greater Good" riven by rising Chaos Cults and incidents of mutation.