# Are the Tau doomed ?



## Doom wolf (Oct 10, 2014)

Lately I asked myself if the Tau were doomed to extinction...

Because, things aren't looking good for them. I mean, sure, the damocles crusade isn't a walk in the park, but the Tau empire is still almost just a blip in the map of the galaxy. Almost nothing compared to the millions worlds of the imperium.

The imperium has just to really commit himself to destroy the Tau.

But, things are getting worst for the little blue men, when you are considering they are herding human susceptible to chaos, or that they hadn't really crossing a savage species like the Ork on a massive waagh yet.

And the Tyranid are clawing their way closer and closer... 

Personnally, I don't give the Tau two centuries... 

Yours opinions ?


----------



## Over Two Meters Tall! (Nov 1, 2010)

Possible, but you could also compare them to Humanity with their developing technology at the start of the DAOT. They don't pose an existensial threat to any of the big galactic races, so won't draw themselves to destruction... unless they're blessed with a few Necron Tomb Worlds that awaken in their midst.


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Hrm, it could go either way.

The big issue is that the Tau need a means to expand their territory and their influence. Right now they're limited by their shallow warp dips which means they can't go far. There's a few ways they could get around this.

1. Develop new technology that allows them to move faster without a Navigator-like pilot. We've seen the Necrons and the Tyranids do this, so it's possible our tech-savvy Tau can do it, too.

2. Ally with a race both willing and capable of deeper Warp travel. The Imperium is unlikely to lend them Navigators and the Eldar, as a whole, probably haven't heard of the Tau. Still, the galaxy is a wide place, and maybe another psychically gifted race would be willing to accept the Greater Good.

3. Use the Gue'vesa (humans working under the Tau) to navigate the Warp. The Tau have taken over many human worlds--some for significant amounts of time. There's no living memory of life before Tau ownership.

Given these options, I can see the Tau surviving.

If they can't bolster their numbers and industrial capicity, however, they're doomed once a real Hive Fleet heads into their territory or a serious Ork WAAGH hits them.

Isn't there a major Hive Fleet enroute, anyway?


----------



## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

I personally think the tau, if they stand on their own military capabilities, are doomed. They are simply too small of a player to survive on a galactic scale. With the Imperium resenting the losses of their own worlds, the orks simply looking for a big fight and the tyranids encroaching ever deeper into the galactic plane, they are simply outmatched. 

I think their one saving grace may be the intervention of the necrons under the guidance and leadership of the Silent King. The agenda Szarekh is pushing most is the destruction of the tyranid hive fleets, and he has proven adept at manipulating outside forces towards this goal. 

But then again, we don't know just how valuable the tau would be to this cause.


----------



## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

First thing you need to know about 40k fluff: EVERYONE, no matter who there are, is DOOMED. 

Really, 40k can be distilled down to it's most simple level by Gir: 









The universe of 40k is set up so that, at the end of M41 (or whatever the hell it's at) everyone (though this doesn't apply as much to the egypto-bots, the bugs or 40k's somewhat 2D group of daemon hugers) is sitting at the knife's edge and anyone could either be destroyed or, if they've very lucky, manage to claw out a few thousand more years of existence. It's the ultimate 'one second till midnight' scenario. 

That being said, once zero hour finally hits, anything could happen. The Tau may persist though some previously unknown piece of tech. As it stands though, yes, they're fairly far up shit creek, considering that they have neither the numbers nor the breathing room to repel any sort of major assault mounted by any of the major factions. Again, though, there's always something that could sweep in and save them.

Heck, maybe the Emperor is reborn as a god and decrees that every citizen of the Imperium should own their own personal pet Tau. You never know.


----------



## Brobaddon (Jul 14, 2012)

The little blue men will be fine. Underestimation can be a weapon just as any firearm or a cold weapon, something that races like orks benefit from heavily. An empire doesn't necessarily needs to be immense in order to be successful. Imperium's size for example in one way can be considered an advantage and in another a disadvantage, due to logistic, troops, and other problems. A small but compact and well defended Empire can withstand a lot. In tau's case, they are akin to eldar and astartes, brining quality to the table and not quantity. Aside Necrons and IOE, Tau just maybe the finest strategists of all races, given their is no adequate protection against their weapons. Even a few well places plasma shots will melt away an astartes, not to mention heavier battlesuits that rip apart tanks and superheavies as if they were made from paper. 

The big problem isn't about expanding, but rather how fast can they respond to distress signals and send reinforcements to occupied planets.


----------



## Demon of Humanity (Aug 19, 2013)

tau will be fine they upgrade there tech when needed not when given permission by a machine cult. and there open to new ideas fact is there of surviving are higher than the imperium and eldar


----------



## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

Demon of Humanity said:


> tau will be fine they upgrade there tech when needed not when given permission by a machine cult. and there open to new ideas fact is there of surviving are higher than the imperium and eldar


I think their biggest problem is numbers. the Imperium of man has them, the Tyranids have them, the orks have them, hell even the Chaos scum has them. the Tau in comparison have very small numbers.


----------



## Demon of Humanity (Aug 19, 2013)

That means Tau like the eldar will not do anything stupid I wish the imperium didn't have there numbers so they won't idiocies anymore


----------



## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

Demon of Humanity said:


> That means Tau like the eldar will not do anything stupid I wish the imperium didn't have there numbers so they won't idiocies anymore


the Tau fought battles they could not win, and the eldar have as well. 

I dunno "do anything stupid" can be any number of things.


----------



## Demon of Humanity (Aug 19, 2013)

those battles were unavoidable no choice scenarios mostly


----------



## el_machinae (Nov 17, 2014)

They've got some amazing tech, so it's a question of scaling up production. A 40k Terminator is _impressive_, but it's rare. The Tau battlesuits, otoh, seem like they'd do well under mass-production.

Having scalable technology is a huge question mark when it comes to how weak a race is.


----------



## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

The Imperium has bigger problems to deal with than the Tau, like the ongoing 13th Black Crusade, the sheer scale of the nid threat, and the growing shadow of the Necrons.

However, they could still fall foul of a Waaagh or hive fleet themselves, and their strength is divided between the Ethereal controlled home worlds and the enclaves controlled by Farsight, their most capable military leader. A civil war might be what eventually destroys them. What happens within their own society in the coming years is almost more interesting than what might happen to them on a wider galactic scale.


----------



## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

I don't think the Tau are doomed. Its because of the fact they don't pose a direct threat to any race or army. They would benefit greatly with an alliance with another race. 

Unless a race like the Orks or Tyrannids were focussed on annihilating the Tau, I don't think they are about to get exterminated anytime soon. Even the Imperium and any crusades against the Tau will have to be redirected against forces who are annihilating and completely wiping out their interests on other fronts. Though the Tau may pose a threat to some parts of the Imperium's Empire, it would be territory that could be retaken and its structure mostly intact.


----------



## Brobaddon (Jul 14, 2012)

Well altho they are already technically allied with many xenos, I think you meant some greater " minor " xeno race right? Aren't Hrud like the next major race not counting the main races? What I could see happening is Tau establishing a contact with non-imperium human civilization that already accepted xenos in their midst. There's already a substential number of humans in Tau society anyway.


----------



## CotC (Jul 9, 2015)

The Tau should be fine based on how quickly they scale up tech in the fluff; they're sort of the underdogs, late to arrive but with some of the coolest toys, the ability to make more and better toys, and the desire to do so. 

Also, until we have any idea where the Ethereals came from and what they're up to, it'd be hard to count them as utterly doomed -- at least when compared to everyone else. 

Best case scenario? Everyone else destroys one another, and the Tau introduce what's left to the Greater Good.


----------



## Demon of Humanity (Aug 19, 2013)

exactly the tau will be whos left standing in the end due to the fact everyone else will be to busy being idiots


----------



## mayegelt (Mar 18, 2014)

I think like a lot of the people here that Tau will be ok for the moment.

Basically they aren't big enough to offer a huge problem for anyone if they did turn their force on them, but currently there isn't enough of a reason to do it.

The Imperium are far to slow to act, as ordered get passed down a long chain leading back to Terra, and by the time they would reach the front line the orders are of no use as they are out of date or are twisted by all the local bureaucrats to fit their own needs and funds / forces will have been syphoned off to their own pet projects. The ones at the end that are asked to fight the Tau will stall and delay as much as they can to save their own skin as they don't want to be in the firing line. Also things like the Space Marines and Mechanicum are shit scared on even looking at the tech of other races to think that they should conquer them and enslave them to make new stuff for them.
Chaos on the other hand could and probably would go in and steal their battle suit tech to harvest for themselves. Maybe someone like Iron Warriors would love to make new Daemon Battlesuits.
Orks are random, if it happens it happens. But the likely chance is, unless they hit the home world then some Tau will find a way to hide off somewhere till it is gone. Also that greater good thing will likely mean if the Ork force is big enough that they will sacrifice whole planets and systems to limit the damage and repel the Orks.
Necrons are a bit random as well. Not sure of the reaction between them, but in either case they seem to busy piecing their Empires together again, and unless that happens to be the Tau homeworlds as part of one of those Empires they won't go after them.
Tyranids would be a random act of genocide on their part. If it turns out they are in the way then they might be crushed, if it brushes by the side then they will be happy. But as Tau have little to no warp presence, it isn't as if the Tyranids will have a lock-on to them.


----------



## el_machinae (Nov 17, 2014)

Well, the Imperium has to make the 'deliberate decision' to wipe out the Tau, and they're just not worth the effort compared to their other worries.

But for the 'nids and the Orks, I suspect that the Tau are 'worth it' to them the same way an Imperial planet would be. The biomass reward to the 'nids is comparable. The fun brawl aspect is comparable (but maybe less) for the Orks. 

Now, technology vs. 'nids has always been hard to predict. 'Nids seem to have a ceiling in how effecively they can use any piece of biomass. And then you either do or don't have sufficient technology to defeat it. A bear is scary. But if you have IR goggles and a hunting rifle it's way, way less scary. A cloud of bumblebees is terrifying unless you have a bug bomb, etc. 

If you pass a threshold in capacity, the problem becomes ... well, trivial.


----------



## Brawndo (Aug 16, 2015)

The Tau empires saving grace is its size really. Its not so large of a threat that i draws on a large scale attack from any of the major forces. And when a sizable force does get put against them from IOM will be redirected to bigger threats. They just have to pray that the Necrons don't pop up in their neck of the woods.


----------



## Old Man78 (Nov 3, 2011)

The Tau will destroy themselves by building bigger and bigger battlesuits until they build suits soooooo big and sooooo powerful they collapse under their own weight mwah mwah mwah


----------



## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Oldman78 said:


> The Tau will destroy themselves by building bigger and bigger battlesuits until they build suits soooooo big and sooooo powerful they collapse under their own weight mwah mwah mwah


----------



## Mellow_ (Aug 5, 2012)

The Tau use AI. The Eldar used them and they fell. Humanity used them and they fell. The Tau are merely next in line.


----------



## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

Mellow_ said:


> The Tau use AI. The Eldar used them and they fell. Humanity used them and they fell. The Tau are merely next in line.


The eldar fell to the birth Slaanesh.... Humanity did not actualy fell to AIs either. does not mean the Tau won't make a sky net equivalent tho.


----------



## Mellow_ (Aug 5, 2012)

OK, to be fair I knew none of my above was technically accurate. But the common theme of AI is certainly there. 

Plus I'm not 100% but don't Tau use AI?


----------

