Tau

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The Tau are a playable race in Warhammer 40k. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Then their planet was trapped in a Warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the mysterious Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "Greater Good". The Tau were originally developed because Games Workshop felt their setting needed an optimistic race, making the Tau the least grimdark faction in the game. Recent fluff (or at least Dawn of War fluff, which is of dubious canonicity, given Khornate Sorcerers) has them gleefully arbitrarily sterilizing the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire, while their Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite this they're still the friendliest race in the setting.

Tau are a classic case of successful design-based trolling on the part of Games Workshop. As stated, they were intended to be a more dynamic and uplifting race in spite of the dark and disturbing nature of the setting; the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies, when all the others are either too psychotic, religious, hubristic, plain murderous, or any combination of the above to offer such niceties.

The thing is, Games Workshop knows that this makes the Tau out to be hopelessly naive in their optimism - and dear god do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millenium, the Tau come across as more than a little naive to the other races; the Imperium see any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with Bolter slugs as soon as look at them; the Orks just want to kick the shit out of things, and the Eldar see the Tau as children, powerful because of their technology but a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of sharks - a prospect that amuses them greatly, since the Eldar are the most hubristic fucks in the galaxy.

This naivete seems at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but is intentionally played straight by Games Workshop specifically FOR the Grimdark, meaning that in spite of the sheer balls-out unusualness of the Tau mindset in the 41st millenium, their dynamism and idealism is specifically played up as a weakness; there's dozens of stories in the codexes alone of the Tau shitting photon grenades because god help them - an Ethereal choked on a bagel and died, causing their entire formation to collapse in a shower of weeaboo tears. Putting it simply, there's an ongoing joke that the Tau are some of the most successful trolling performed in the history of mankind just by existing; a case of the company installing them just to mix things up whilst at the same time keeping them surprisingly on-level.

The combination of the above fluff, however, paired with their high technology, generally "Asian" feel (their Fire Caste's combat doctrine is fairly openly based on Sun Tzu's "Art of War"), use of battlesuits, heavy firepower, and one of the most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later has conspired to make them very much hated by a reasonable-sized population of the 40K fan populace, and /tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau Weeaboo (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result. An ongoing meme regarding the Tau is how their collectivist empire and belief in the so-called Greater Good makes them Communists, and this has resulted in much hilarity from many a fa/tg/uy.

The Tau disdain melee combat in favor of ranged combat (in fact, they are worse than the Imperial Guard at it, and wouldn't have anything that could melee worth a damn were it not for their auxillaries), which renders them instantaneously less manly in the eyes of most /tg/'s playerbase (which thusly favors Orks, Tyranids, SPESS MEHREENS, and Spiky Marines. Whilst considered not as gay as the faggot space elf defenders of the status quo and loathed a lot less as a result, the Tau have a notably smaller fanbase than the "Big Five" (aforementioned Orks, Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Chaos Space Marines, Tyranids).

Military Doctrine

They tend to rely less on mass warfare and more on sophisticated technical support (drones, stealth technology, railguns) and emphasis on mobility and initiative of individual squads of units. Their military doctrine is not based on absorbing and dishing out heavy shocks like the Imperials and Orks. Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear, cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hot-spots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to deal with the situation. This has, however, backfired on numerous occasions, since it does mean that the Tau are a bit vulnerable on defense.

The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exception of the Imperial Guard. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the Kroot, Vespid, and even some Humans left behind by the Damocles Crusade) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau fireteams and their heavy long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The perhaps most-infamous part of the Tau is their battlesuits, which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility. They also have an extremely powerful navy, though not quite as formidable as the Imperium's. Tau air units are among the best in the game, with aircraft superior to or equal to Imperial Guard equivalents, including a stealth fighter, multipurpose heavy fighter, a superheavy fighter with guns that can one-shot a Titan, and their own Titan-equivalent (which is a small starship).

In a Nutshell

The Stated Reason Why People Hate Tau

Weeaboo space communists - not grimdark enough.

The Real Reason Why People Hate Tau

Fish of Fury. Fuck, even most Tau players felt this was bullshit.

A Real Reason Why People Like Tau

There's few races that give the Status Quo Guardians of the 41st millenium a bigger middle finger than the one race that isn't being a wall of dicks. If the Tau are trolling done by GW, then the target of said trolling was the Eldar. And whoever loses, we all win.

The Real Reason Why People Play Tau

Have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. Also markerlights.

Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants?

An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Given that recent murmurs have suggested that something absolutely massive is in the works at GW, anything could be possible, though past experience has led us to believe that it will simply be a Tau wearing a silly hat.

Fire Warrior

THQ released a mediocre FPS called Fire Warrior soonafter the initial Tau Codex's release. Taking the role of Kais, a Shas'la about to undertake his first trial by fire in an attempt to rescue an Ethereal, it was a novel idea though a thoroughly unremarkable FPS in many regards. Highlights include Bolters working as they're supposed to, some bad-ass dialogue, and some really interesting level design. Not-so-good highlights include shitty hit detection, Shooting down a Valkyrie with Pulse Rifle fire, being a Tau Fire Warrior when close-combat is a factor (with all the "fun" close combat as one implies as Imperial Guard Sergeants and Space Marines run up to chainsword your shit) and Stormtroopers armed with Autoguns.

TL;DR

High-tech Space communist Asian minotaurs who are the least grimdark of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the butthurt.

Notable Tau

• Faptau
• Shadowsun
• Shlicktau

See Also

• O'ren I'shi'ii
• Gue'vesa
• Tau Quest
• Tau Dark Heresy

External Link

Typical Tau-Human conversation.

Gallery

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A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit. And a smaller one. Tau are not above negotiations with humanity. At those ranges, those fire warriors are all dead men walking. Somehow, the Tau are apparently winning this fight even though they're an inch away from the tyranids at best. Stealth suits are :3 Indeed, many humans have already embraced th- *BLAM* Sweet weeaboo heresy.

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Some recruitment methodologies work better than others. Ohhh GW. Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter. Fire Warriors are :3 too This is what weeaboos actually believe. This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of Weeaboo Fightan Magic. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY! The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players. Surrender...never shall the Tau. Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than Space Marines! Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than Space Marines! Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good". MARKERLIGHTS! In spite of being filthy heretical xeno scum, the Tau can really break it down. Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies. An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal. DAT ASS A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS. In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea. In /tg/, tau are the evil guys. Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Faggotry) What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?