Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Otto Weston wrote:
I understand that the Tau have gakky FTL because they merely skim the warp instead of entering it but here's my question -
Why haven't they been able to reverse-engineer Imperial FTL technology?

They have trouble reverse-engineering Ork technology, so give them a break. The Tau is a progressive and rapidly developing race, but their technological understanding is limited, and they are pretty-darn low-tech by the standards of the truly advanced factions. Gellar Fields don't grow on bushes, after all .

TBF, anyone would have trouble reverse engineering ork tech. I mean, they mostly run on spit and wishes, with no unifed design. When you have 50 things that apparently do the same thing, but are all completely different, it's hard to figure out how they work.

 EngulfedObject wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
I assume they have Gellar fields and Warp Drive - unless their ships are actually propelled and protected by psychic power ?? If the latter might explain the small size of their ships, their rarity and the difficultly integrating them into the Tau navy. No source on the latter - just a speculation..............

Well the lexicanum entry (from Battlefield Gothic, seems outdated) says they "lack any real interstellar capability." The wikia uses the same source and elaborates a bit:

"As subjects of the Tau Empire the Nicassar must serve the Greater Good and do so by providing fleets of Dhows to scout and explore star systems on the fringes of the Tau Empire. They are transported to their station by Tau vessels using gravitic hooks that are capable of interstellar travel through the Warp and commence a leisurely circuit reporting anything they find."

The "capable of interstellar travel through the Warp" part seems to imply the Nicassar can't. Seems like they rely on the Tau for interstellar travel and the Tau use them for sub-light scouting.
There's more:

"This led to the original exploration of their home system, as they are only truly content when travelling. Because they can survive for long periods in virtual hibernation as a result of their alien physiologies, they have travelled far from their homeworld, albeit slowly."

"First contact between the Nicassar and the Tau Empire came when a Tau Gal'leath-class vessel was setting up a Waystation in interstellar space and sighted a Nicassar flotilla that had been in space for centuries."

"Nicassar starships are primarily sleeper ships, in which the majority of the crew enter a state of hibernation that the Nicassar's alien physiology makes possible as the flotilla, consisting of multiple Dhows docked together, drifts between the stars, directed by the efforts of a few non-hibernating Nicassar crewmen."

Yea, their ships are probably slow as feth compared to Imperial or even Tau vessels.

Thanks - good find!

Didn't they briefly do stats for them somewhere - I'll have to have a look round my books!!!

Its interesting that the Tau have not given (or they can't use) FTL drives - in the same way as the Kroot have not shared their Warp travel tech and abilities.

You would have thought they would have been perfect Navigator Proxies and /or Astropaths for the Tau navy.....

 Mr Morden wrote:
Thanks - good find!

Didn't they briefly do stats for them somewhere - I'll have to have a look round my books!!!

Its interesting that the Tau have not given (or they can't use) FTL drives - in the same way as the Kroot have not shared their Warp travel tech and abilities.

You would have thought they would have been perfect Navigator Proxies and /or Astropaths for the Tau navy.....

Hm, I think it's partly because they use the other races as auxiliaries - much like the Romans did with barbarians early on. So they let them keep their customs, equipment, and fighting styles for the most part (to complement their own abilities) as long as they were willing to fight for Rome. So yea, Kroot and the like don't seem to be fully incorporated into the Tau military structure and operate more in support. They also mostly use their own equipment but with upgrades from the Tau.

The Tau might have other reasons for this too, not least because of their rigid caste system - which seems pretty exclusive (only Fire caste become Fire Warriors, Air Caste become pilots, Earth Caste scientists, and so on).

RL answer: Because it would be extremely boring if the Tau had the same way of travelling as the Imperium. To make the Tau interesting they have to be unique, not like a xenos copy of the Imperium.

fluff answer: Because the Tau have no psychic abilities, they are not able to develop Warp-related technologies because they quite simply can't comprehend it. This leads them to reject the Warp as unscientific (which it is ) and look for other explanations.

 Baldeagle91 wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

You can't do research into something that you cannot access. Not having psykers is a big deal.
One needs psykers to access the warp. This is non negotiable, there is no work around.
One could try to jury rig the warp drive to start, but chances are they won't be coming home to give their findings.

I was under the impression that humans during the Dark age of technology didn't really rely on pyskers to travel the warp? That was more something that was required during and after the age of strife? Also don't ork and some other xeno races not really rely massivley on pyskers for warp travel?

Basically I know psykers do help massively in regards to warp travel, but it's not truly the be all end all is it?

Humans in the DAoT could travel through the Warp freely because back then the Warp was a nice, quiet place that was easy to navigate. The birth of Slaanesh messed everything up.
Orks usually travel the galaxy on space hulks or roks. They just float around at sublight speeds or through the Warp at random until they get near a planet. Orks do not need protection from daemons. They much prefer to fight them instead.
Eldar use the Webway, not the Warp.
Necrons use a different technology that is not understood by any of the galaxy's lesser races.
Tyranids also travel at sublight speeds, they hibernate between planets.

So the only race that uses the Warp besides the Humans are the Orks, the other races have developed different ways of travel. Unlike Humans, Orks do not use dedicated psykers to navigate through the Warp, instead they just make random jumps. It is not necessary to have psykers to enter the Warp (just a Warp drive is enough), but it is necessary to have a specially trained psyker in order to be able to navigate its currents. The Warp is like a dangerous, stormy sea filled with monsters and other hazards. If you have a seaworthy ship, you can access it, but unless you have someone with you who knows the waters and the course to take, you are not going to end up where you wanted to.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
This is kind of unrelated but I've always wondered...

in 2nd edition there were mentions of psychic servitors that linked all of the forgeworlds so that the lesser worlds could quickly and easily upload all of their information to the Temple of All Knowledge (kind of like a galactic internet).

Provided that fluff is still valid, do you think Navigator-Servitors are possible, who can be wired directly into the mechanisms of the ship and therefore become a sort of "nav-cogitator"?

That has been ret-conned in some places to be what is basically a quantum computer.

Central Forgeworld (biggest & best in Sector) gets data-feed from all its subordinates, and then sends that data back to Mars, without use of Astropaths.

There is a device called a Warp Abacus that can be used to calculate short-range Warp Jumps... but, without a Gellar Field, entering the Warp is suicide.

 Psienesis wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
This is kind of unrelated but I've always wondered...

in 2nd edition there were mentions of psychic servitors that linked all of the forgeworlds so that the lesser worlds could quickly and easily upload all of their information to the Temple of All Knowledge (kind of like a galactic internet).

Provided that fluff is still valid, do you think Navigator-Servitors are possible, who can be wired directly into the mechanisms of the ship and therefore become a sort of "nav-cogitator"?

That has been ret-conned in some places to be what is basically a quantum computer.

Central Forgeworld (biggest & best in Sector) gets data-feed from all its subordinates, and then sends that data back to Mars, without use of Astropaths.

There is a device called a Warp Abacus that can be used to calculate short-range Warp Jumps... but, without a Gellar Field, entering the Warp is suicide.

A quantum computer is way more badass than psychic servitors; can you cite that for me so I can hit my friends over the head when they claim there is no galactic internet? I've been hanging on to WD143 where it has the psychic servitor bit.

Set aside the building their own ships, shouldn't they at least have access to some imperial ships? I mean they trade with rouge traders in some of the old fluff and they have to have a few ships from the imperial worlds they took. I wonder why we never hear of them using them. They might not have enough for a full fleet, but one or two at least be enough for them to get out there and into some fun places.

(Only example I can recall of something close to this would be the twilight crusade, but the cannon of that would very very questionable.)

nomotog wrote:
Set aside the building their own ships, shouldn't they at least have access to some imperial ships? I mean they trade with rouge traders in some of the old fluff and they have to have a few ships from the imperial worlds they took. I wonder why we never hear of them using them. They might not have enough for a full fleet, but one or two at least be enough for them to get out there and into some fun places.

(Only example I can recall of something close to this would be the twilight crusade, but the cannon of that would very very questionable.)

The Tau have at least one Imperial warship (using its old human crew) but they are unlikely to crew such vessels themselves but are likely to have some advisors etc on board. (this is per BFG Armada)

You can't just "use" a ship of a completely different technology with ease. They still can't effectively use the thing.

There would also be ridiculously few ships captured in that way.

 Otto Weston wrote:
I understand that the Tau have gakky FTL because they merely skim the warp instead of entering it but here's my question -
Why haven't they been able to reverse-engineer Imperial FTL technology?

Because Warp Drives have psychic interface components, and require a specialized psyker called a Navigator to properly function. The Tau are a non-psychic race, and they aren't even aware of psychic abilities existing(they just think they are unexplained technology or something). Thus they cannot fully reverse engineer the drive. Its literally beyond their comprehension.

nomotog wrote:
Set aside the building their own ships, shouldn't they at least have access to some imperial ships? I wonder why we never hear of them using them. They might not have enough for a full fleet, but one or two at least be enough for them to get out there and into some fun places.

It would probably take a lot of work to make Imperial ships acceptable to the Tau philosophy. That whole thing with officers living in opulence while slave crews drag ammo to the guns might not be their idea of how to run a ship, and refitting it all with drones and automation is likely both expensive and time-consuming. It might not be worth it or even possible.

War Kitten wrote:
The Tau don't use the warp because they don't have psykers amongst their own race, that's a bit of an issue for warp travel on their ships. They could use Imperial ships, with ex-Imperial crews, but those are Imperial ships. Plus the Tau pretty much don't really think that the warp is real, they view it as superstition

How could the tau consider the warp to be a superstition? They've surely witnessed enemy ships coming out of the warp, and damn sure seen enemies on the battlefield doing things like shooting lightning bolts or demons stepping out of holes in reality, or other unexplainable warp-phenonoma.

That being said, my impression the reason they can't use the warp is they don't have psykers, and I doubt they could convince or coerce enough psykers from other races to do the piloting for them. I imagine they could reverse engineer warp drives, but wouldn't know where to go.

AFAIK, they don't view it's existence as superstition, they just think that the belief in stuff like gods are. It's just a separate dimension to them.

 Kap'n Krump wrote:

War Kitten wrote:
The Tau don't use the warp because they don't have psykers amongst their own race, that's a bit of an issue for warp travel on their ships. They could use Imperial ships, with ex-Imperial crews, but those are Imperial ships. Plus the Tau pretty much don't really think that the warp is real, they view it as superstition

How could the tau consider the warp to be a superstition? They've surely witnessed enemy ships coming out of the warp, and damn sure seen enemies on the battlefield doing things like shooting lightning bolts or demons stepping out of holes in reality, or other unexplainable warp-phenonoma.

That being said, my impression the reason they can't use the warp is they don't have psykers, and I doubt they could convince or coerce enough psykers from other races to do the piloting for them. I imagine they could reverse engineer warp drives, but wouldn't know where to go.

The Tau haven't had a ton of experience with psykers. They live in the galactic equivalent of West Virginia.

They know that there is some alternate dimension, but they can't fully comprehend it. Nor do they know the connection between it and psykers, which they will brush off as some sort of unknown technology.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Tyranids also travel at sublight speeds, they hibernate between planets.

Actually they use something appears to be the biological equivalent of an alcubierre drive, which really just makes their role as GWs go to 'easily defeated make others look good' villain even more sad considering with that kind of tech you can store a galaxy in a marble sized space with no ill effects and even contain universe ending events (e.g. you could have an explosion that is literally infinite in power and still contain it with this kind of tech)

Its probably what the necrons use too considering it allows ftl travel without the warp and the construction of devices such as the tesseract labyrinth.

I think what the necrons use are called "inertialess drives".

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
I think what the necrons use are called "inertialess drives".

Yup, and webway for fast travel.

Necrons don't need the Webway for long-distances, lol. That was only a thing implied by the WardDex that was then clarified out within months by Fall of Orpheus.

Inertialess Drives allow near-instantaneous travel by temporarily ignoring relativity and conservation of momentum.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Necrons don't need the Webway for long-distances, lol. That was only a thing implied by the WardDex that was then clarified out within months by Fall of Orpheus.

Inertialess Drives allow near-instantaneous travel by temporarily ignoring relativity and conservation of momentum.

The Webway allows for much quicker transport (especially to locations which are do not already have a Necron presence). Necron normal FTL may still be faster than most forms but it's still significantly slower than using the Webway.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
This is kind of unrelated but I've always wondered...

in 2nd edition there were mentions of psychic servitors that linked all of the forgeworlds so that the lesser worlds could quickly and easily upload all of their information to the Temple of All Knowledge (kind of like a galactic internet).

Provided that fluff is still valid, do you think Navigator-Servitors are possible, who can be wired directly into the mechanisms of the ship and therefore become a sort of "nav-cogitator"?

That has been ret-conned in some places to be what is basically a quantum computer.

Central Forgeworld (biggest & best in Sector) gets data-feed from all its subordinates, and then sends that data back to Mars, without use of Astropaths.

There is a device called a Warp Abacus that can be used to calculate short-range Warp Jumps... but, without a Gellar Field, entering the Warp is suicide.

A quantum computer is way more badass than psychic servitors; can you cite that for me so I can hit my friends over the head when they claim there is no galactic internet? I've been hanging on to WD143 where it has the psychic servitor bit.

I'll dig it up, as it's in one of the many physical books that I own, just not sure which one.

Keep in mind though that a quantum computer is not an internet. It's a two-way system. A single quantum terminal can communicate with only 1 other quantum terminal, the one that has the other entangled quantum particle in it. It might be considered an intranet, but even then is extremely limited. After all, you've only got 2 terminals able to communicate with one another. If you want to expand that network, you need 2 terminals per additional user.

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Necrons don't need the Webway for long-distances, lol. That was only a thing implied by the WardDex that was then clarified out within months by Fall of Orpheus.

Inertialess Drives allow near-instantaneous travel by temporarily ignoring relativity and conservation of momentum.

The Webway allows for much quicker transport (especially to locations which are do not already have a Necron presence). Necron normal FTL may still be faster than most forms but it's still significantly slower than using the Webway.

Uh, the webway is not actually that fast a method of travel. Using the webway is like always getting the average result when rolling to see how many days your warp journey takes, because unlike the warp, the webway can't push you back (or push you forward) along your track.

It's the difference between navigating the north sea and navigating an indoor swimming pool. Your hull speed is the same, but in the north sea, there's currents and waves.

And do what with it exactly? The Tau only survive their FTL to begin with because they only skim the warp. But with no sorcerers or astropaths to guide them through the warp, a full jump would have them popping up at random locations severely displaced in time or nommed by Daemons.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

Tyranids also travel at sublight speeds, they hibernate between planets.
.

Actually, Tyranid travel is ftl, it just doesn't use the warp. Also, they have to switch to conventional travel when they get close to the System (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Narvhal)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kap'n Krump wrote:

War Kitten wrote:
The Tau don't use the warp because they don't have psykers amongst their own race, that's a bit of an issue for warp travel on their ships. They could use Imperial ships, with ex-Imperial crews, but those are Imperial ships. Plus the Tau pretty much don't really think that the warp is real, they view it as superstition

How could the tau consider the warp to be a superstition? They've surely witnessed enemy ships coming out of the warp, and damn sure seen enemies on the battlefield doing things like shooting lightning bolts or demons stepping out of holes in reality, or other unexplainable warp-phenonoma.

That being said, my impression the reason they can't use the warp is they don't have psykers, and I doubt they could convince or coerce enough psykers from other races to do the piloting for them. I imagine they could reverse engineer warp drives, but wouldn't know where to go.

40k Tau beliefs regarding the Warp are the same as 30k IoM's beliefs regarding the Warp, except that the Tau don't have a virtual God who knows virtually everything about it or a bunch of sorcerers and Navigators who can see into it. Basically, take GC-era IoM, and take away everything about it that let it conquer the Galaxy; that's the Tau right now.

I would think a lot of the hesitation to develop greater warp tech is more a cultural problem than a scientific one. The Taus expansion has been to make the galaxy more Tau like, to accept "The Greater Good". Not to become more human. Acceptance of warp theory would mean acceptance of warp ideologys.

Is the warp hell? Do we have souls? Is there a god? The Etherals don't want a polution of the Greater Good from IoM pagan religiosity. Could you imagine the entirety of the Air caste wrestling with every voyage being a flight through the afterlife? Is the Tau Empire ready for that?

Well, the only sources of Tau Space Fleets I have access to are the various BFG Fleet lists, the Tau Codexes from 3rd through 6th, and the first edition of the IA 3: Taros Campaign book.

From those sources, there appears to have been at least somewhat incompatible stories told, especially that between a vast majority of the oldest fluff and the 6th edition Codex: Tau Empire information.

The oldest source I'm aware of for the Tau Fleet itself comes from the Armada BFG book. In telling the history of the FTL development, it notes that the Tau indeed encountered and effectively reverse-engineered a Warp Drive, though they were unable to effectively breach dimensional barriers into the Warp.

They experimented and engineered a solution that at the time of its conception and initial mass-producible form was limited compared to a traditional warp drive in the following ways:

1 - The drives were bulky (limiting smaller and earlier frigates from independent warp travel) and "considerable recharge time was needed between dives."
2 - The pace of travel overall compared to the average for imperial warp drives was approximately 1/5 the speed.

In exchange, this warp-skimming FTL technique had several important advantages over the Imperium at the time.

1 - Tau vessels didn't risk [a vast majority of the time such that it would be practically zero] the traditional perils that the warp brings to open travel, Gellar field or no gellar field.
2 - Tau travel speeds are consistent. Olden days warp-travel levels of consistent.

The fact of the matter is that these were merely the initial tradeoffs made when Tau FTL travel was developed, and were sufficient for Tau purposes at the time (in which they believed they would have far greater need of commerce interstellar vessels than warships).

But all of that? That's ancient history for the Tau Fleet, and while many ships from the old fleet are still probably serviceable enough not to fully decommission, I wouldn't be surprised if the ancient ships of the line for the Tau aren't better-equipped today (through retrofits of newer weapon, shielding and drive technologies) than they were a few hundred years ago.

Still not enough to compete fully with the Imperium of Man, I'd wager, but better than they were. Still, as limited as they were, what they had was enough to at least meaningfully engage the Imperium and Orks. Learning everything they could from their losses and failures, the beginnings of new Fleet designs began.

One notable improvement in the new fleet came in the form of more power-efficient warpskimming drives, "able to make interstellar dives nearly five times farther than conventional designs." (BFG 2010 Compendium, pg 157)

Nothing is mentioned of a decrease in the recharge time, so presumably the Tau are still limited by the incredible levels of mundane power to skim the dimensional void between the material and warp realms. However, the effective overall travel speed of the Tau Fleet has increased significantly. How significant that change was is not clear, in that it depends on how much effectively idle travel time is eaten up by recharging and whether the warpskimming technique itself is being improved.

If the ratio of charging time to travelling time used to be 1:1 and using simplified units of measure (warpskim speed of 1 unit of distance per 1 unit of time), for example, You'd travel 1 distance every 2 time (1 time to charge, 1 time to travel a distance). If using the newer engines, You'd travel 5 distance over 6 time (1 time to charge, 5 time to travel 5 distance). In that scenario, the Tau Fleet would end up somewhere close to 33% average Imperium Speeds (if 3 distance/6 time = .2 Imperium, 5 distance/6 time = 1/3 Imperium). This increase in comparative speed to the Imperium is higher if the recharge takes longer than the travel time itself (i.e. a ratio of higher than 1) and lower if the travel time already lasted longer than the time it took to recharge (ratio of <1).

If the Tau have in any way refined a) their ship's structural design or components and/or b) the fine points in the mechanics of their warpskimming to enable a faster baseline warpskimming speed (that is, the FTL speed attained while actively warpskimming) before or during the process of this radical fleet redesign (of which the Il'Oorrui was only the first of the complete redesigns, later designs no dbout integrating lessons from entirely new failures as well as the latest engineering breakthroughs in drive efficiency and/or warpskimming speed.

Between both factors, then, the oldest Tau Fleet fluff strongly suggests that the Kor'or'vesh (warship redesign) vessels dominating the Tau Fleets more and more as the timeline marches on will likely have advanced fairly significantly beyond the laughable 1/5 FTL speeds of the 2nd Expansion's Tau Fleet. Personally, I'd place their modernized Fleet's FTL travel speed at somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 the average of Imperium vessel speeds.

I think it would be foolish to presume that the Tau have reached the end of their technological advancement in Warpskimming speed and effeciency, though I'm equally certain that the technology itself has hard limits making even a perfected form of the technology slower than an average Imperium vessel. So long as warpskimming is the technology the Tau utilize and focus their engineering towards, the Tau will recieve diminishing returns on increases to their FTL speed and engine efficiency.

BUT THEN A CHANGE IN THE WIND

But then the 6th edition Tau Empire Codex came into the game, and suddenly we're learning about a ZFR Horizon Accelerator Engine for sublight speeds (yet somehow is the breakthrough that allows the 2nd Sphere Expansion...) and an unexplained mechanic by which the Tau crossed the Damocles Gulf.

Suddenly its from the capture of Imperium ships that a Warp Drive is finally examined, unfathomable to the Tau. It seems a bit odd, for while Tau have very little warp presence, they do have at least a non-zero presence. They are unlikely to ever see what warpstuff looks like in the same way a Navigator can through sheer technology, but they're certainly capable of manipulating their technology to account for their relative lack of sensitivity. A nearly-blind man with the right prescription on his glasses can see the sunlight as well as you or I (though probably not as well as one of those extra-type-of-cones-in-your-eye mutants in real life).

That would, at least, conform somewhat with the conclusion of that supposedly player-based campaign result, in which the Tau conducted experiments with and about the warp, ultimately concluding that it wasn't a worthwhile subject of study (hinted to be the result of Ethereals wanting to pull the Emperor's old "no, no, there's no demons, don't be silly" routine),

Nevertheless, the 6th edition finally admits that FTL travel was a necessity for at least the 3rd Sphere Expansion, noting that "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." They also developed stasis technology to prevent aging, hinting more towards slower speeds than faster.

This leaves us looking at the present Tau in modern fluff: continual and unrelenting technological progression and refinement of existing technologies, of which at least the sublight engine was designed by Tau for Tau. As Necrons awaken, the Tau Empire expands, and the Tyranids begin to adapt to the current Tau fleet, I think it would be a very poor bet in universe to presume the Earth Caste isn't hard at work 24/7, refining Tau FTL technology and reverse-engineering any superior tech they inevitably encounter.


To real question is this: What source does one prioritize? The only source that gives even a modicum of direct comparison comes from older fluff that is for almost all purposes contradicted by newer fluff. If one accepts the speed comparison as remaining in effect as representing Tau capabilities (even if misrepresenting the underlying mechanics of those capabilities), it would seem odd not to also include the comparative increase in speed, efficiency, agility, and overall technological advancement that the newest Tau vessels demonstrated in the fluff (again, using what new fluff reveals to be the wrong mechanics).


TL;DR: Tau only began their FTL travel at 1/5 average Imperium travel speeds. The newest Tau Fleet is probably closer to 1/3, or maybe even 1/2, average Imperium travel speeds by implication and reasonable guesswork. Due to the nature of the old fluff's mechanics, any further advances would probably have show diminishing returns leading towards a speed cap lower than the average Imperium travel speed. Because the fluff changed, the mechanics of Tau FTL speed is no longer limited by the "logic" of warp travel, in that their FTL travel no longer appears to utilize the warp in any way, shape, or form, and is instead limited to the Earth Caste's [consistently advancing] engineering capabilities.

Thank you Unusual Suspect.
Was always a little annoyed with how vague the changes to Tau space travel actually where, just some 'new technology' that allowed 'unimagined speeds' and no more details then that.

What the Tau really want is to find an inactive Shroud or Harvest class cruiser and start reverse-engineering that.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
What the Tau really want is to find an inactive Shroud or Harvest class cruiser and start reverse-engineering that.

Necron Ships, I presume?

Frankly, the new fluff and its "Impulse" drive providing FTL travel suggests they're already along that technological path, given Impulses in physics, as far as I can tell as a layman, relates to Momentum in some fundamental way.

The more I think about it, the old fluff made Tau exceptional at refining technologies, but rarely the progenitor of the original invention. The newest fluff gives Tau credit for both their FTL and Sublight drives, after all...

Tau in the older fluff

 Unusual Suspect wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
What the Tau really want is to find an inactive Shroud or Harvest class cruiser and start reverse-engineering that.

Necron Ships, I presume?

Frankly, the new fluff and its "Impulse" drive providing FTL travel suggests they're already along that technological path, given Impulses in physics, as far as I can tell as a layman, relates to Momentum in some fundamental way.

The more I think about it, the old fluff made Tau exceptional at refining technologies, but rarely the progenitor of the original invention. The newest fluff gives Tau credit for both their FTL and Sublight drives, after all...

Tau in the older fluff

Yep, that's necron tech.