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Well, as this topic has shown TC.


Many reasons.

Me personally?

They won't let me nom them when my fleet comes by to say hi.

They won't let me experiment OR torture them when my raid comes on by.


They won't let me wear their faces over my bat winged helmet and scream incoherently, so I sigh...that's why.


I never was bothered by their aesthetics. In fact I like the designs. I like the concept. I like the drones and the suits (but not the really big suits.Not a fan). Never cared for their playstyle.

Also, underneath that juicy red apple is a host of rot and a tangle of worms. People saying they're a shining beacon, the mostest good in the setting...are overlooking the factions shortcomings.

Poor vespid (among other issues, meant for another thread), also, indoctrination is A.O.K folks!

Never really got straight "anime vibe" from them, then again never understood why people rage on anime and fail to realize it's more than just the dime a dozen high school slice of life shtick. Though I myself do tend to stick to older anime (70's to 9early 90's) and couldn't tell you what's new in today's world.

I was always under the impression Tau were rather popular. Never had much of an issue around here with our Tau players or really, any of my local group.


Been beaten plenty of times by Tau players over the years. Also was able to nom'em. I always took the approach, no matter the list I faced. The issue wasn't that player. It wasn't that player's army (in this case Tau), the problem I approached...was how was I going to solve this rubic's cube.


Or more simply, how or what can I personally do better to make sure I don't lose again. What new tactic, do I need to swap models? Do I need to play a model better? Heck, am I even playing said model right?!?

Now I'm ranting though. It's easy enough to do.

But to bring this to a close. Remember people may not like the things you like and that's ok. They may like the things you do, and you know what? That's ok as well.


As they always say, a bird in the hand is biomass so eat it.

For me because they are aesthetically at odds with the rest of the universe. They seem levered in to sell 'manga/anime' styled figures and don't fit well into the background. Jar for me and don't suit 40K.

Damocles!

I'd say they have a good amount of fluff (I'm not sure about Black Library)

My local scene has at least 5-6 Tau players. Orks, DE, and AM are rare in comparison

The real reason why people hate Tau?

They got their asses kicked hard by them and never recovered.

I'm a Khornadian and I speak from experience.

Screw you fishgimps. My Deamon Prince demands vengeance.

Isengard wrote:
For me because they are aesthetically at odds with the rest of the universe. They seem levered in to sell 'manga/anime' styled figures and don't fit well into the background. Jar for me and don't suit 40K.

And I say again, and Eldar don't?

If Tau don't fit the look of 40k then neither do any Eldar Wraith units.

I like how the T'au are a call-out to the Mankind of the Dark Age of Technology. So primitive they still think they can build their way out of things.

 Nurglitch wrote:
I like how the T'au are a call-out to the Mankind of the Dark Age of Technology. So primitive they still think they can build their way out of things.

This, kids, is called "Dramatic Irony" or "the reader knows what the characters do not".

Back when 40k was a 1980s Judge Dredd/Robocop/Starship Troopers/Canticle for Liebowitz etc inspired Grimdark setting, the writing was absolutely lousy with this kind of irony.

in Starship Troopers, when the society created by the book and its endless need for pointless war is played straight and very positively by all the characters, the reader is supposed to recognize what these characters do not - i.e. that this is a fascist, self-defeating ideology and that the conflicts experienced by that society were most likely originally caused by their own aggressive acts. The book doesn't spell this out for you. It doesn't wink at you, or pat you on the head when you figure it out. It just continues to present the world through the lens of the unreliable narrators who are the characters, who see absolutely nothing wrong with their actions, and you're along for the ride.

In a horror movie, when Pennywise the clown is smiling and laughing and goofy holding out a toy boat to a giggling child in a storm drain, you the audience are scared, because you know there is no reason for a clown to be in a storm drain and you're made more uncomfortable by the fact that the little opening he's seen through is too small for him to have crawled down INTO. You as an audience can figure out that he has to have come FROM the sewers, making him even more unsettling. You don't need him to look instantly creepy and sinister for you to be creeped out. It's not necessary. Youve got a brain. WE HAVE BRAINS, REMAKE, DO YOU HEAR ME?

Ahem.

In the context of 40k, The Tau are cast as both the innocent child in the horror scenario (golly gee whillickers this race of space elves wants us to participate in a cultural exchange and they'll help us beat the invaders! Sounds fascinating!) and the society that touts their own superiority while you the audience know they are brainwashed, genocidal, etc.

This is as valid a grimdark concept as a bad guy encrusted with skulls screaming about blood. Both the over-the-top and the subtextual have a place in grimdark fiction.

P.S: plenty of the throwaway subtextual jokes in the original 40k setting have now been rewritten to be played straight and oh boy do they make me giggle even more now that they have ardent, highly serious fanboys behind them. Like how the OT had Han Solo making a stupid brag and mixing up a measure of time and distance, leading to Obi-Wan giving him a "this fething guy is a moron, he's perfect" look, then the braindead new movie had to go waaaaay out of its way to explain how NO, IT REALLY WAS TWELVE PARSECS, you get the same thing with 40k and the HH series. Sanguinius the Winged Blood Angel Primarch and Vulkan He's Tan the Black-skinned primarch and Lion El'Johnson Primarch of the Dark Angels were probably (I'll admit, I don't have proof of this and you'll never get a black library author to admit to it) originally jokes, intended to give lie to the reader the fact that these legendary heroes had probably been largely invented and inflated over 10,000 years of technological stagnation and superstitious ignorance. But nope. Now the imperium's records have been perfect for 10,000 years, and that's exactly how it happened, and the World eaters primarch was really named Angron. Angron the Angry guy.

Vulkan is just Vulkan. Vulkan He'Stan is a 40k Salamander because Vulkan is a title in a way.

It's not confusing at ALL.

But Warhammer's lore isn't silly at all. Like Corvus Corax the raven guy whose last words were nevermore.....

Ferrus Manus takes the cake though.

Calling out Han Solo for his parsec comment...

I always thought that it was taken to mean, in an abstract way, that Han had managed to actually shave down the distance required to make that jump. Seems legit in a world where people can lift rocks with their mind.

Then the movie came out and the parsec thing was... never really explained?

Anyways, the rest of that post was spot on. Grimdark can and should be able to use that sort of humour/irony. I mean, without a few intellectual quips my Zerkers really are just evil jocks screaming about skulls. Grimdark needs that depth in places because it is certainly lacking in others!

The Tau are pretty strongly hinted at as being the deluded, brainwashed pawns of some dark force. They're very grimdark.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Ferrus Manus takes the cake though.

It's a good job he got those shiny metal arms otherwise that name would have been rubbish!

 darkcloak wrote:
Calling out Han Solo for his parsec comment...

I always thought that it was taken to mean, in an abstract way, that Han had managed to actually shave down the distance required to make that jump. Seems legit in a world where people can lift rocks with their mind.

Then the movie came out and the parsec thing was... never really explained?

Anyways, the rest of that post was spot on. Grimdark can and should be able to use that sort of humour/irony. I mean, without a few intellectual quips my Zerkers really are just evil jocks screaming about skulls. Grimdark needs that depth in places because it is certainly lacking in others!

Ben Kenobi: Yes indeed, if it's a fast ship.
Han Solo: Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?
Ben Kenobi: No. Should I have?
Han Solo: It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I've outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?

Watch this scene over. As soon as Han finishes this line, obi-wan gives him the exact same look you see the donkey-cave prince guy in frozen give the girl when he says "isn't it weird how we always finish each others..." and she says "sandwiches?" Oh, you're a moron, you're perfect.

It's the fanboys that come in afterwards and say "Han Solo couldn't possibly have said something stupid, he's a character I love and idolize!" or "Harrison Ford couldn't have possibly just thrown in some technical jargon to spice up a spaceship brag about how fast his ship was and it ended up in the final cut" or "Someone as meticulous and thorough as George Lucas couldn't possibly have heard a word that sounded good and not fully understood it when he wrote it into his script!"

It's a natural instinct that the human brain takes a narrative and makes it both more realistic to them and more relatable to them, but and I really have to stress this it does not make a better story if you just go into an existing story and explain something that would otherwise be a mystery or maybe not make tons of sense. It just makes a stilted, clunky, unoriginal narrative, and a narrative that compresses the setting. Makes it feel like it has less promise, less depths to plumb, while writing an entirely new setting in expands the setting and makes it more interesting.

Theres a natural human tendency to like what's been detailed out, fully explored and pinned down so when it's referenced in a later piece of writing you can point it out and say "I know what that is! It's thing I know!" and a tendency to dismiss what's new, possibly hinted at but not yet fully fleshed out. But the second is why a piece of writing initially captures you, and makes you think. The introduction of the Tau does more to expand 40k's universe than the whole exploration of the Horus Heresy, or the fleshing out and pinning down of exactly what is a custode, why do they custode, what are they custoding, how are they made, what do they like for breakfast, etc.

Because they don't do melee. That's pretty much why I don't like them. They are just techno nerds that like to win wars with gadgets, instead getting into the think of it with a chainsword.

Alcibiades wrote:
The Tau are pretty strongly hinted at as being the deluded, brainwashed pawns of some dark force. They're very grimdark.

Excepting those Farsight folks. They're alright.

the_scotsman wrote:

 darkcloak wrote:
Calling out Han Solo for his parsec comment...

I always thought that it was taken to mean, in an abstract way, that Han had managed to actually shave down the distance required to make that jump. Seems legit in a world where people can lift rocks with their mind.

Then the movie came out and the parsec thing was... never really explained?

Anyways, the rest of that post was spot on. Grimdark can and should be able to use that sort of humour/irony. I mean, without a few intellectual quips my Zerkers really are just evil jocks screaming about skulls. Grimdark needs that depth in places because it is certainly lacking in others!

Ben Kenobi: Yes indeed, if it's a fast ship.
Han Solo: Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?
Ben Kenobi: No. Should I have?
Han Solo: It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I've outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?

Watch this scene over. As soon as Han finishes this line, obi-wan gives him the exact same look you see the donkey-cave prince guy in frozen give the girl when he says "isn't it weird how we always finish each others..." and she says "sandwiches?" Oh, you're a moron, you're perfect.

It's the fanboys that come in afterwards and say "Han Solo couldn't possibly have said something stupid, he's a character I love and idolize!" or "Harrison Ford couldn't have possibly just thrown in some technical jargon to spice up a spaceship brag about how fast his ship was and it ended up in the final cut" or "Someone as meticulous and thorough as George Lucas couldn't possibly have heard a word that sounded good and not fully understood it when he wrote it into his script!"

That's the worst thing about the EU - anything mentioned in the movie must be super-double-awesome and significant.

The Tibanna gas they mine at Bespin is mentioned without any context as to what it is other than they're operating outside of imperial control and Lando won the place gambling so presumably it's nothing special.

The EU decides that this gas is really rare and is used to power guns and hyperdrives making it incredibly valuable and a strategic military resource (not really meshing with the won it gambling or operating outside imperial control).

It couldn't have just been the stuff they put inside lightbulbs or something?

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:

 Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
This idea that the Tau are the only ones inventing new stuff is pretty adorable too. It's not like we just had a new and improved version of Space Marines with new wargear hit the field or anything...

Sure, the Space Marines have started doing so now, but that's a proper change up in the way the factions are. The Tau's shtick was "Innovating", and that's something the Imperium is stepping on now, but it is definitely a Tau trait the Imperium have just started doing.

They've been making new stuff all along. Land Raider patterns, Predator patterns, one out of seventyfive bajilion lasgun patterns and so on. Tau inventing stuff faster doesn't mean the Imperium hasn't been making new things.

The imperium inventing things is rare. It's not something they do normally, because they're supposed to be a backwards place that fear innovation. It happens, but they're generally known for being the opposite of innovative.

One thing to consider is the slew of newblood that came into/back to the game with 8th.

Now go and look on any Battle Report on places like Miniwargaming involving the Tau then read the comments section, or type 'Tau' into a search on Reddit. What you'll get is a sea of people slagging off the Tau in terms of gameplay, it's playerbase and lore. There is a hugely negative atmosphere surrounding every aspect of the Tau, largely propagated by the vast Imperial playerbase. People only play them because they overpowered. People only play them because of Riptides. People only play them to use cowardly gunlines. They're for weeaboos. They're Chinese communists. They're Mary Sues. Their lore is terrible, etc, etc.

All of the LE HERESY BLAM/PURGE LE CHAOS FOR DA EMPRAH XDDD meymeys are annoying, but generally good hearted. Now compare that to how much genuine bile the Tau get. If you were a newbie, would you really pay 'em much attention compared to everyone else? You'd think the entire store would turn and spit on your face the second you put down your models from half the stuff you can read.

 Arbitrator wrote:
One thing to consider is the slew of newblood that came into/back to the game with 8th.

Now go and look on any Battle Report on places like Miniwargaming involving the Tau then read the comments section, or type 'Tau' into a search on Reddit. What you'll get is a sea of people slagging off the Tau in terms of gameplay, it's playerbase and lore. There is a hugely negative atmosphere surrounding every aspect of the Tau, largely propagated by the vast Imperial playerbase. People only play them because they overpowered. People only play them because of Riptides. People only play them to use cowardly gunlines. They're for weeaboos. They're Chinese communists. They're Mary Sues. Their lore is terrible, etc, etc.

All of the LE HERESY BLAM/PURGE LE CHAOS FOR DA EMPRAH XDDD meymeys are annoying, but generally good hearted. Now compare that to how much genuine bile the Tau get. If you were a newbie, would you really pay 'em much attention compared to everyone else? You'd think the entire store would turn and spit on your face the second you put down your models from half the stuff you can read.

That's what happens when people learn the background from gakky youtube series and 1d4chan...

 Arbitrator wrote:
One thing to consider is the slew of newblood that came into/back to the game with 8th.

Now go and look on any Battle Report on places like Miniwargaming involving the Tau then read the comments section, or type 'Tau' into a search on Reddit. What you'll get is a sea of people slagging off the Tau in terms of gameplay, it's playerbase and lore. .

They're kids. What do you expect?

Because GW will always tailor to space marines and the Imperium since it is their main marketing point and there is the fact that the space blueberries are not exactly thought highly of by the majority of the 40k community being the most shooty army and being Xenos scum therefore people brought into 40k by friends probably won't get brought into Tau this is of course assuming that the person is competitive

 Grimtuff wrote:

That's what happens when people learn the background from gakky youtube series and 1d4chan...

That's where people learn everything now. Who reads books?

Maybe it’s because their anime aesthetic doesn’t really fit into the rest of the universe? That’s one criticism of them I’ve heard before.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Maybe it’s because their anime aesthetic doesn’t really fit into the rest of the universe? That’s one criticism of them I’ve heard before.

heck back when I saw my first Tau models I thought someone was using anime models as proxies.

Tau players: "they aren't anime-like at all!"

Also Tau players: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=tau+gundam+conversion

I don't really see Tau as unpopular, they just get overshadowed a bit by the rest of the many factions in the universe. They have pretty good support from GW, in fact in 2016 we had a whole month OcTAUber, where they got updated kits for may of their units including fire warriors, battle suits, and a brand new giant battle suit, as well as GW's first alien terrain fortification.

Support and popularity come in cycles with the release windows; orks last got major updates in 2014 with their 7th ed codex. (New HQ's, supplement, Gorkanaut, Flash Gits, bunch of characters, MANz, mek cannons) but haven's gotten much love in the 4 years since, up until this year. I;m sure after ORKtober greenskinz won't get much love for a few years, but that's just how it goes.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
Because they don't do melee. That's pretty much why I don't like them. They are just techno nerds that like to win wars with gadgets, instead getting into the think of it with a chainsword.

That's how modern wars are won.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Maybe it’s because their anime aesthetic doesn’t really fit into the rest of the universe? That’s one criticism of them I’ve heard before.

heck back when I saw my first Tau models I thought someone was using anime models as proxies.

This. Almost everyone else is ‘crusty’, covered in relics, purity seals, glyphs, spikes and skulls while packing chainswords and power fists, but not the tau. At least the relatively ‘smooth’ Necrons and Tyranids have melee weapons to tie them in.

I don’t know if I’d call the Tau unpopular. I know a dozen people who collect them. I think ‘unfavourite’ is a better term. Nobody likes them because they’re nerdy goody two shoes who aren’t even good.

 Future War Cultist wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Maybe it’s because their anime aesthetic doesn’t really fit into the rest of the universe? That’s one criticism of them I’ve heard before.

heck back when I saw my first Tau models I thought someone was using anime models as proxies.

This. Almost everyone else is ‘crusty’, covered in relics, purity seals, glyphs, spikes and skulls while packing chainswords and power fists, but not the tau. At least the relatively ‘smooth’ Necrons and Tyranids have melee weapons to tie them in.

I don’t know if I’d call the Tau unpopular. I know a dozen people who collect them. I think ‘unfavourite’ is a better term. Nobody likes them because they’re nerdy goody two shoes who aren’t even good.

To grimdarkify the Tau you just have to get rid of their 'greater good' shtick and actually make it dark and depict that to be dark in the novels and stories.

We don't have that instead we have tau who are smarter than everyone (Even more than eldar) or naive as hell. I remember reading one book where this tau had this very complicated plan of... attacking the enemy from behind. Ohhh masterful and the imperium space marine army fell for it, hookline and sinker in the dumbest way possible. My issue is that they have to dumb everyone down to make the Tau seem smart. If it was better written I would forgive the tau and their mary sueness.

I wish they went with the full samurai or Japanese Bushdo theme it would not only be cool and aesthetically pleasing but it would be a unique faction in 40k.

Martel732 wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
Because they don't do melee. That's pretty much why I don't like them. They are just techno nerds that like to win wars with gadgets, instead getting into the think of it with a chainsword.

That's how modern wars are won.

My MPL-50 and I would like to know how you're defining 'modern'.