Editing Tau (section)

==In a Nutshell==
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;'''The Stated Reasons Why People Hate Tau'''
Weeaboo space confucianists — not grimdark enough.
;'''The ''Real'' Reason Why People Hate Tau'''
{{Powergamer}}
Long ago, the single thing that people hated most about the Tau was undoubtedly the [[Fish of Fury]] tactic. Years later people are STILL bitching about it. Fuck, even most Tau players felt it was bullshit. (The flames have been stoked again due to 9E accidentally reviving it.) That and T'au are consistently considered [[Cheese]] by casual players who bitch and moan about how their army got blown off a featureless table by a Tau'Dar list in 6E and how you are [[That Guy]] for using them. Never mind that the Tau have been nerfed into oblivion in the last three editions and as of 9E they are strictly bottom-tier.

Still, back in the heady days of 6th Edition codex, the Tau were one of the shootiest armies in the shootiest edition of 40k ever. On top of that they had powerful abilities to bitchslap cheesemongers, having hard counters against any of the Wardex bullshit. More generally, the Tau battle philosophy even to this day is, "Deny your opponent the chance to interact with you," which is a good philosophy for real soldiers but can make for frustrating or uninteresting gameplay.

Of course there's also the fluff side of things, and as mentioned above the Tau are given massive amounts of plot armour compared to everyone else in the setting.

Listing the rest of the insane lore armor and other [[skub|interminable list of other assorted stupidities]] that would require their own separate page just to cover them all. Suffice to say for those who are more interested in the fluff their blatant titan grade plot armour can become somewhat infuriating. 

;'''A Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
They are the one race that aren't complete dicks. Of course, their mind-influencing pheromones, psycho-indoctrination, and mass re-education facilities will just have to be ignored if you don't want destroy your wishful thinking for a half-way decent faction to exist in 40k. Even with the warts, it's saying something that they're ''still'' the nicest faction in 40k; they're just a regular oppressive empire, instead of a hyper-ultra terribad megadeath awful xenocidally oppressive empire, or some flavor of insane, omnicidal dystopia.
;'''Another Real Reason Why People Like Tau'''
Most races in 40k (''especially'' the humans) are themed around "feudalism in the future" with a big dose of societal and doctrinal regression. In other words, "we might be in space, but we have peasantry like medieval serfdoms and fight like crusaders with guns." By contrast, the Tau are themed around a real sense of futuristic progress. The Tau aim to create a proper post-scarcity economy (that's why they use robots for manual labor while the Imperium uses literal slaves) and theme their tactics around the modern US Military (the Tau would rather spend bullets than lives, while the Imperium is the opposite). Although, everyone else began like the Tau and learned the hard way. And to be fair, the Imperial Guard was never designed to be used aggressively and has very much been a fish out of water for ten thousand years. The Tau have not yet encountered that. As an interesting side effect, the Tau are capable of fitting into many other sci-fi universes without much trouble, such as ''[[Star Trek]]'' where they would be at home alongside other Factions like the Dominion. Compare that to the Necrons or Eldar which would be both Roflstomps and completely different from all other groups in that Universe (though they might fit in ''[[Doctor Who]]'').

In short: unlike the Imperium, the Tau are the best faction for scratching the future-tech itch of your favorite speculative fiction escapism. The Tau push for innovation and better technology also leads into our next point:
;'''The Real Reason Why People Play Tau'''
Arguably they have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. [[meme|Also markerlights]]. Also [[Riptide|RAPETIDE]]. Tau players may also have a tendency towards sadism (or, as of 8th/9th, masochism).
;'''A Solid Reason People Don't Play Tau'''
They're fucking expensive. Seriously. On a points-per-pound level, they cost more than any other (plastic) army (we haven't even mentioned the financial aspect). This is doubly true if you like battlesuits, but of course you do because you're playing Tau.
;'''A Solid Reason People Do Play Tau Despite that Solid Reason Why They Wouldn't'''
Tau armies are one of the easier choices to paint. They're not quite on the level of the Custodes, but the generally "clean" appearance of Tau miniatures means it's not difficult to make their minis look good with novice painting skills.