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Ledabot wrote:I saw who made the thread and my heart sank. No ghesses what coa voted for. I looked here because I've never played starcraft, but I an interested to know how protoss work. I'll save my vote depending on the arguement.

Woah, you've never played Starcraft? Leave now and don't come back until you've played through the original, Brood War, and SC2 Wings of Liberty.

If you don't decide to play them all, the protoss are an incredibly ancient race that is comprised entirely of psychic beings (psychic to the point that they all communicate purely through telepathy). They ALL have incredibly advanced shield technology. They have ships that spawn smaller ships, all of which have a crapton of shielding, in addition to their armor. They have the capacity to teleport units anywhere on the battlefield (basically using a flying teleport homer). They have air fighters that can stasis any vehicle. They have giant war walker things that have sweet laser cannons that sweep across the field and can walk over cliffs. They also have smaller walkers that can teleport. Not to mention Templar (psychic lightning storm on an enemy squad), Dark Templar (permanently invisible dudes with power weapons), and Archons (super-shielded energy beings that shoot pure energy). Then there's the Void Rays, which get stronger the longer they shoot things. Then there's the small ground units that create more shields and can block bottlenecks with solid forcefields. Oh, and the war walker that has shields are incredibly effective against powerful weapons, but are vulnerable to weaker ones. Last, but not least, their motherships that can spawn black holes, sucking your units in for a minute or so before they are spat back out. And the mothership cloaks everything around it.

The point is that this would be the only case of a race from 40k losing to a non-40k race. The Tau have advanced tech, sure, but the Protoss beat them out any day.

I've alread voted for Protoss, and I would like starcraft, but it cost money, money I would want to spend on something else. Thanks for the background though.

What some of you may be forgeting is the time difference between the Terran marines and our 40K Marines.
that being said Protoss would take it they are very war based. the Tau could not haddle a full scale war for very long.
my vote goes to protoss.
On a side note:
'Nids=Zerg
Terran=Space Marines
Protoss=Eldar
hmmmm.........

Hmm.. I'll let you know when I come across a Tau player

Asherian Command wrote:Protoss repel them. Because the Protoss owned 1/3 of their galaxy.

the Protoss do not own 1/3 of the Galaxy.... They are limited to Under 10 planets in the Koprulu sector, with only 1 planet as a major settlement (Shakuras).

The Tau Empire may be small in 40K scale, but they dwarf the protoss with 28 confimed septs (some of these systems containing mulitple worlds), plus those of thier allies. Many of those worlds heavily populated already.

I'd match them up as such.

Protoss are superior single Combatants
Technologically they are Even
Tau have a logistical advantage, more resources, population, growth rate.

Simply put Protoss would probably fair quite well in smaller engagements, but i dont believe they would be able to match the sheer scale of the Tau empire.

Tau win.

Karnac wrote:

the Protoss do not own 1/3 of the Galaxy.... They are limited to Under 10 planets in the Koprulu sector, with only 1 planet as a major settlement (Shakuras).

The Tau Empire may be small in 40K scale, but they dwarf the protoss with 28 confimed septs (some of these systems containing mulitple worlds), plus those of thier allies. Many of those worlds heavily populated already.

I'd match them up as such.

Protoss are superior single Combatants
Technologically they are Even
Tau have a logistical advantage, more resources, population, growth rate.

Simply put Protoss would probably fair quite well in smaller engagements, but i dont believe they would be able to match the sheer scale of the Tau empire.

Tau win.

Uh. Wrong.

StarCraft Wiki, citing the game manual and an interview with the game designers wrote:
Expansion and Discovery

The protoss conquered hundreds of worlds within their corner of the galaxy, spreading civilization to many of the more advanced races that they encountered. The protoss inadvertently succeeded in reclaiming an eighth of the worlds once presided over by the xel’naga. The protoss followed the Dae'uhl, aka Stewardship, of the planets once claimed by the xel'naga. They started supervising and protecting the lesser life forms, but rarely interfered.

When the terrans arrived in the Koprulu Sector, colonizing over a dozen worlds within protoss space, the protoss observed silently. They put the humans under their Stewardship and were shocked to see the terrans strip multiple worlds of resources. The protoss refused to interfere in the terran civil wars.

So, it kinda depends on WHEN the Tau and the Protoss collide. If the Tau meet the Protoss at the height of their power, during the Golden Age, they're royally screwed. If they meet them after the Brood War, then the Protoss have already lost their homeworld and some (probably large) fraction of their population and industrial base, so the war would likely be longer and more inconclusive. . . but even then, they're still a pretty damn big empire.

http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Protoss
My vote is for the protoss

Reasoning that a war against the protoss is something the tau have little experience against; mass teleportation, mind reading, invisible troops are something the tau are going to have a lot of problems with - whereas the protoss have experience fighting tau-like opponents in the form of terrans. The ethereals and commanders would be assassinated in every encounter by teleporting, invisible, psychic warriors who are able to tear apart battle tanks. The tau would could be out maneuvered and out stealthed - they would not be able to protect their HQs which they require for morale support and as directors of coordinated military actions. Maybe in time anti-protoss tactics could be developed; but in an initial conflict, protoss all the way IMHO.

Don’t know how canon this is but way back in WD there was an eldar verse tau city fight campaign were a craftworld sailed into the tau space. The tau asked the eldar to join the Greater Good, the eldar declined and were invaded by the tau. There was only a paragraph or so explaining the fluff. IIRC there was also map showing tau expansion efforts around the time of the Eye of Terror campaign that showed the tau engaging exodite worlds - no information about what was going on just that they were fighting. Also in the the eye of terror campaign the tau responded to the depletion of imperial forces by seizing many of human worlds knowing the imperium was too busy to properly defend them.

The evidence isn’t really there one way or the other on how tau handle a rejection. They have alien buddies, but that really doesn’t say anything regarding their conduct when dealing when an isolated alien community ripe for conquest, rejects them. The Dark Eldar also have alien allies working along side them; hanging around an assortment of xenos doesn’t make you and an automatic good guy. I personally think they would handle it the same way the imperium handles a newly discovered human world that is not interested in serving the emperor. Given that the ethereals use chemical means to control the other tau caste (Xenology) I have a hard time believing the tau can pass as the good guys in any other environment save 40K. I really think games workshop just ripped off Brave New World when they created the Tau; ethereals equal Alphas, chemically controlled masses, and an eugenic caste system with people born into their jobs. I don’t really have any difficulty believing that if the tau empire found a protoss world that they would use any means necessary to attempt to claim their people and technology. The greater good requires that they access the protess tech to further their own goals - the end justifies the means and all that:

Water Caste: “Lord Aun these protoss have the means to transverse the galaxy in a manner that is vastly superior to our current method, as well as other forms of technology that would be a tremendous boon to our endeavors to save the galaxy from destruction”
Ethereal: “Invite them to join us in the greater good at once”
Water Caste: “They refused, stating their desire for neutrality and racial solitude”
Ethereal: ”The greater good requires we possess their technological abilities- their lives are a regrettable sacrifice”

BeRzErKeR wrote:

Karnac wrote:

the Protoss do not own 1/3 of the Galaxy.... They are limited to Under 10 planets in the Koprulu sector, with only 1 planet as a major settlement (Shakuras).

The Tau Empire may be small in 40K scale, but they dwarf the protoss with 28 confimed septs (some of these systems containing mulitple worlds), plus those of thier allies. Many of those worlds heavily populated already.

I'd match them up as such.

Protoss are superior single Combatants
Technologically they are Even
Tau have a logistical advantage, more resources, population, growth rate.

Simply put Protoss would probably fair quite well in smaller engagements, but i dont believe they would be able to match the sheer scale of the Tau empire.

Tau win.

Uh. Wrong.

StarCraft Wiki, citing the game manual and an interview with the game designers wrote:
Expansion and Discovery

The protoss conquered hundreds of worlds within their corner of the galaxy, spreading civilization to many of the more advanced races that they encountered. The protoss inadvertently succeeded in reclaiming an eighth of the worlds once presided over by the xel’naga. The protoss followed the Dae'uhl, aka Stewardship, of the planets once claimed by the xel'naga. They started supervising and protecting the lesser life forms, but rarely interfered.

When the terrans arrived in the Koprulu Sector, colonizing over a dozen worlds within protoss space, the protoss observed silently. They put the humans under their Stewardship and were shocked to see the terrans strip multiple worlds of resources. The protoss refused to interfere in the terran civil wars.

So, it kinda depends on WHEN the Tau and the Protoss collide. If the Tau meet the Protoss at the height of their power, during the Golden Age, they're royally screwed. If they meet them after the Brood War, then the Protoss have already lost their homeworld and some (probably large) fraction of their population and industrial base, so the war would likely be longer and more inconclusive. . . but even then, they're still a pretty damn big empire.

The only way to compare it is the two is thier "current" status in Lore. So Tau 3rd phase Expansion Versus protoss in Wings of Liberty, Basically down to a few planets with the majority of what's left of the race on Shakuras

And the Tau would still get the gak kicked out of them.

Didn't the vision of the future that Tassadar's ethereal form showed to Zeratul reveal that there were way more Protoss out there than depicted in game? I'm pretty sure even Raynor was amazed at the number of protoss though saddened that even they united wouldn't be enough to stop the forces following the Dark Voice