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Given their short life spans, and their ability to only launch short range warp jumps, how do the Tau manage any sort of meaningful space travel? How could you move large troop numbers between systems? Do they use cryostasis or something?

More than likely cryostasis as it is a thing they do use (shadowsun did IIRC)

A Fire Warrior has about 25ish years of useful life, even with the very slow jumps the Tau make, its still plenty of time to do meaningful things. You just don't get many real veterans.

Certainly cryostasis. They could probably stay awake for short travels though.

A Warp-jump across the galaxy for the Imperium can be completed in under a year, assuming no accidents or other complications.

The Tau Empire is, galactically speaking, tiny. It would take an Imperial vessel maybe a day to go from one end of it to the other. The Tau probably spend a week or two doing their "pebble skip" jumps to go from one end of their empire to another, but otherwise it's not that long of a trip, especially when going from one system to another.

 Psienesis wrote:
A Warp-jump across the galaxy for the Imperium can be completed in under a year, assuming no accidents or other complications.

The Tau Empire is, galactically speaking, tiny. It would take an Imperial vessel maybe a day to go from one end of it to the other. The Tau probably spend a week or two doing their "pebble skip" jumps to go from one end of their empire to another, but otherwise it's not that long of a trip, especially when going from one system to another.

This disadvantage seems like it would be crippling against Dark Eldar and Eldar, who use the webway. How can they possibly defend their empire against enemy incursion?

They go into stasis. Before their warships were more like colony ships where several generations of tau would be born, train, and die before they made it to their destination.

Lack of any meaningful long-distance space travel in a galaxy-spanning empires game being one of the many reasons why tau fit in the 40k universe about as well as a world war II game that included the Maldives.

Yeah, basically Tau just don't do long range warp travel.

 TheSilo wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
A Warp-jump across the galaxy for the Imperium can be completed in under a year, assuming no accidents or other complications.

The Tau Empire is, galactically speaking, tiny. It would take an Imperial vessel maybe a day to go from one end of it to the other. The Tau probably spend a week or two doing their "pebble skip" jumps to go from one end of their empire to another, but otherwise it's not that long of a trip, especially when going from one system to another.

This disadvantage seems like it would be crippling against Dark Eldar and Eldar, who use the webway. How can they possibly defend their empire against enemy incursion?

It's a plotshield.

The Tau Empire is one Necron Dynasty away from destruction.

 TheSilo wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
A Warp-jump across the galaxy for the Imperium can be completed in under a year, assuming no accidents or other complications.

The Tau Empire is, galactically speaking, tiny. It would take an Imperial vessel maybe a day to go from one end of it to the other. The Tau probably spend a week or two doing their "pebble skip" jumps to go from one end of their empire to another, but otherwise it's not that long of a trip, especially when going from one system to another.

This disadvantage seems like it would be crippling against Dark Eldar and Eldar, who use the webway. How can they possibly defend their empire against enemy incursion?

They just do well with what they have around. Any serious attack would probably wipe them out unless it was withdrawn due to outside factors.

You also have to remember that Tau space is little more than a tiny collection of several star systems, with at most just a couple lightyears between them. It's kinda why people commonly point out that the Tau technically are just irrelevent in W40K, they're stuck as a literal dot on map of the 40k Galaxy and control less space than some Space Marine Chapters. The only reason why they even survive is plot shields, otherwise one Necron Dynasty, one Tyranid Hive Fleet, or one large Ork WHAAAGH! and they're extinct.

^ Basically that. The reason the Tau are still around is because none of the other, larger factions has committed to wiping them out. Should that happen, the Tau will cease to exist.

Tau FTL, is five times slower than imperial FTL. This mean that a journey that would take an imperial ship say, a week, would take the tau five. It's not as bad for shorter distances. I'm not sure if anyone has the speed of Imp warp travel, than we could get an approximation. The tau do have stasis cahmbers, allowing troops to be battle-ready when they enter the ship, and thus, as soon as they land.

@Grey Templar
Tau actually don't age as dramatically as humans, they tend to stay younger, they just die sooner. This means a FW, with the shorter lifespan of somewhere between 40-60 average from my reckoning (Puretide lived to 80 and had the best care possible, but he was injured), they probably mature sooner, and with from-birth training, means they are ready to fight earlier than humans. FWs can't retire unless they have reached commander level and have had years of distinguished service. (Tau also need much less sleep than humans, and can go longer without it.) 25 years as a tau is more work than 25 tears as a human. 25-30 years seems a good approximation.

Warp travel, the way the Imperium does it, is akin to actually traveling on an ocean. Your vessel is subject to winds, tides, currents and other things within the Immaterium, just as it would be on a regular, aquatic ocean, so it's very hard to say, with certainty, how long it takes to get from Point A to B.

There are "we expect it to take X days", but things can happen (not even including the time-dilation/expansion effects of the Warp) to where a ship that fails to arrive at a destination may not be missed for *months* after its expected arrival date.

Like, back in the day, it normally took 3-4 months to sail a ship from Europe to the New World... but storms and stuff happens, so no one really thought it amiss if you didn't show up until 6 months after you left your port of origin. Stops for repairs happen, and sometimes you gotta stop at an island to forage for food, that sort of thing.

Much the same deal with the Imperium and Warp Travel.

As far as I know, they don't yet, they basically skip along the warp and back into realspace. Their empire is *very* small and they don't have far to go.

 Wyzilla wrote:
You also have to remember that Tau space is little more than a tiny collection of several star systems, with at most just a couple lightyears between them. It's kinda why people commonly point out that the Tau technically are just irrelevent in W40K, they're stuck as a literal dot on map of the 40k Galaxy and control less space than some Space Marine Chapters. The only reason why they even survive is plot shields, otherwise one Necron Dynasty, one Tyranid Hive Fleet, or one large Ork WHAAAGH! and they're extinct.

IOW, they're about as relevant as space marines, chaos marines (even less relevant than normal marines!) and DE. If you want to go by size relative to the size of the whole galaxy only the IG, Orks and Tyranids are really relevant. Everyone else just exists because of plot shields and/or GW fluff authors having no sense of scale.

They do a partial immersion, they lack the psykers to break the barrier. It's slower (five times) but much safer.

And ofc, seeing as the Tau don't really break the Warp their ships usually get where they should. An Imperial ship will get there faster - but that's providing it gets there.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
You also have to remember that Tau space is little more than a tiny collection of several star systems, with at most just a couple lightyears between them. It's kinda why people commonly point out that the Tau technically are just irrelevent in W40K, they're stuck as a literal dot on map of the 40k Galaxy and control less space than some Space Marine Chapters. The only reason why they even survive is plot shields, otherwise one Necron Dynasty, one Tyranid Hive Fleet, or one large Ork WHAAAGH! and they're extinct.

IOW, they're about as relevant as space marines, chaos marines (even less relevant than normal marines!) and DE. If you want to go by size relative to the size of the whole galaxy only the IG, Orks and Tyranids are really relevant. Everyone else just exists because of plot shields and/or GW fluff authors having no sense of scale.

There's likely trillions of Dark Eldar, and Chaos Astartes are probably more numerous than the loyalists are. Plus loyalist Astartes remain relevent because there are only about five locations in the entire galaxy that are critical to ensuring the Imperium doesn't go belly up. And they have the best FTL available to those other than the IOM.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:
You also have to remember that Tau space is little more than a tiny collection of several star systems, with at most just a couple lightyears between them. It's kinda why people commonly point out that the Tau technically are just irrelevent in W40K, they're stuck as a literal dot on map of the 40k Galaxy and control less space than some Space Marine Chapters. The only reason why they even survive is plot shields, otherwise one Necron Dynasty, one Tyranid Hive Fleet, or one large Ork WHAAAGH! and they're extinct.

IOW, they're about as relevant as space marines, chaos marines (even less relevant than normal marines!) and DE. If you want to go by size relative to the size of the whole galaxy only the IG, Orks and Tyranids are really relevant. Everyone else just exists because of plot shields and/or GW fluff authors having no sense of scale.

Except those factions can actually go anywhere in the Galaxy. You can find Chaos Marines at any point in the Galaxy, with a few hot spots. And Marines are spread out to cover any potential threat.

Sure, there might not be very many of them. But they could potentially show up anywhere at any time.

Tau are stuck in one place, and they aren't going anywhere else. I doubt most Cadians even know Tau exist, simply because to a Cadet on Cadia the Tau are just another name on a long list of Xeno threats. And specific training is likely given for only Orks, Eldar, and Nids simply because they're much more common.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
They do a partial immersion, they lack the psykers to break the barrier. It's slower (five times) but much safer.

This. IIRC they do a little "pocket-dimension" jump that isn't the warp. Therefore no daemonic incursion or weird time delay stuff but much slower.

The Warp-skipping etherdrive fluff is from Battlefleet Gothic, and no longer canon.

Codex: Tau Empire 6E wrote:"Technical constraints proved a barrier as well, for the Earth caste have constantly been seeking ways to develop starcraft with faster engines to allow them to bridge the vast gulf of empty space between star systems."
"In order to reach those more distant systems earmarked as desirable by advanced scouts, the vast armadas of Tau starcraft had been outfitted with the latest Earth caste modifications. The ships' propulsion systems were upgraded so that when magnified by impulse reactors, the engines could obtain faster speeds - propelling starcraft forwards at hitherto unthinkable velocities. To further lessen the burden on those space-faring craft with the longest journeys, the Earth caste had outfitted transport craft with large stasis chambers - allowing Hunter Cadres or whole commands to shift to far distant battle zones months or years away without actually aging a day in the process."

 Psienesis wrote:
A Warp-jump across the galaxy for the Imperium can be completed in under a year, assuming no accidents or other complications.

The Tau Empire is, galactically speaking, tiny. It would take an Imperial vessel maybe a day to go from one end of it to the other. The Tau probably spend a week or two doing their "pebble skip" jumps to go from one end of their empire to another, but otherwise it's not that long of a trip, especially when going from one system to another.

Not to mention, they don't range far from their sphere of influence anyway do they?

They don't need to go very far to pursue their goals.

Correct. You won't find the Tau way the hell out in Segmentum Obscurus, which is on the opposite side of the galaxy from the Segmentum Ultima, where the Tau Empire is located.