Warhammer 40k

[Draco_Argentum]

They're Communist ripoffs.

[Cielingcat]

And Tyranids are th-OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

[PhoneLobster]

Do tell... AFAIK, Tau are stupid out-of-genre Borg-ripoffs. But I don't really know anything about them so... Enlighten me

OK so who am I describing?

A humanoid but non human race. Kinda elegant, and wise but inhuman and inscrutable with their own strange highly formalized caste based society with different specialised warrior and leader/mystic classes.

They have their own wierd sort of culture suggestive of something sorta socialist or hippy ultimately led by a bunch of dress wearing mystics.

They are basically bad guys as far as the empire is concerned, but really they are probably better guys by many standards than the really rather oppressively insane empire.

But despite that they still fall firmly on the side of "order" in the big order vs crawly angry things wheel.

They have their own advanced technologies, especially crazy shootyness and flying tanks! (I'll leave out the big roboty dudes with heavy weapons on their shoulders EVERYONE has them...)

...

Seriously the Tau ARE Eldar.

Actual eldar, its like the Eldar have REALLY poor baby sitting services and the kids are running amok in hotted up pimped out hover tanks to deal with their frustration for not being allowed to play in the webway.

GW couldn't even think up a 'new' alien race without making so many similarities with one of their prominent existing races that it has now become one of my favourite reccuring game related jokes.

[PhoneLobster]

Oh and might I add...

Bunch of hotted up hover rides named after fish... wave serpent...

Fire Warriors ... Fire Dragons

Path Finders ... and Path Finders?!?

WTF, do they even TRY?

[User3]

From what I had heard around when they were introduced, Tau were actually GW's attempt at breaking into the Japanese market (hence the anime look, with mini-mechs and the body armour, and the group-oriented dynamic). But IMO, it was a quite clumsy attempt. And they essentially made Eldar-lite (as was pointed out earlier). Only instead of being xenophobic and centered on self-preservation like the Eldar, they made the Tau a race that essentially wants to assimilate everyone. Tau are actually my most hated race both fluff-wise and gameplay wise. Pretty much their most effective list (mass units on devil-fish backed up by crisis suits) can pretty much be done better by eldar, because the eldar will have true counter-assault elements, and fast vehicles.

[Username17]

But despite that they still fall firmly on the side of "order" in the big order vs crawly angry things wheel.

That would make them not Eldar. The Eldar worship Khorne, the bloody war god of Chaos.

They call their god "Khaine", which is just the word "Khorne" with an Eldar accent. They have a whole warrior esthetic and a serious mad-on for Slaanesh.

But the big deal is the Avatar. It has molten iron for blood, and you get one by conducting an ancient ritual to the gods around a warrior cult champion who then explodes into an avatar of the god. And of course, the actual model itself has the mark of Khorne on its fvcking head.

Seriously, the Avatar is just a Bloodthirster.

It's actually not possible for them to be more obvious that the Eldar are Khorne worshippers. And if you really want to get into it, there are three other flavors of Eldar who pay homage to different gods. There's the Dark Eldar, who put razors in their cod pieces and spend a lot of time eating skin and raping prisoners. There's the Harlequinnes, who worship a myserious god of magic and trickery and dress themselves in pink and blue. And finally, there's the Exodites, who stay on planets and inhale fungus spores.

Do I have to draw you a diagram?


-Username17

[Crissa]

The Tau don't even play like Eldar... They're more like Imperials that actually can, I dunno, move.

-Crissa

[Judging__Eagle]

And also, shoot.

Imps need massed ranks to shoot well.

Tau can do it with a small collection of firewarriors; sicne they've got more range than anyone else, and a decent firing skill.

And Frank, thanks again for showing the lies in an other game.

That actually could be a very interesting theme for a Chaos army. You use only Eldar minis for your Chaos Space Warrior troops.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Each of the 40K armies is supposed to fight like a particular science-fiction sort of army. The Space Marines exist so you can play like Starship Troopers. The Tyranids exist so you can play as one of the many bug-swarm style aliens. The Necrons are there so you can play as the armies of Skynet, or the Mechanoids, or what have you.

That's the goal; providing the players with the ability to emulate any flavor of science-fiction carnage.

The Tau are there to provide the playstyle of modern-day, 21st century warfare, so you can pretend that you're fighting off aliens that have invaded Earth circa 200X.

Similarly, the IG are there in case you want to fight off invading aliens with the WWII Russian army.

[the_taken]

So what are Space Orks supposed to emulate? I can't get them. WWI French Army? How about SoBs? The rest of the Demon Hunters?

I can get that D-Eldar are supposed to be starving coke-crazed space pirates from Treasure Planet. And Chaos Space marines are so that GW can double their sales of Chaos Demon models.

[User3]

1181364257[/unixtime]]
Similarly, the IG are there in case you want to fight off invading aliens with the WWII Russian army.

If only this was true, it would be fantastic. If we fast forward to 1943, the preferred Russian units were masses of tanks (T-34s), which hard very large high explosive loads, heavy, completely inflexible artillery supported by infantry units with a ludicrous concentration of sub machine guns compared to their contemparies.

You cannot field an army that works anything like that. And it makes me sad.

If you are thinking 1941-2 they had horrible command and control, but a hugely powerful range of various bits and pieces, and lots there of. The command and control was bad though. People actually lost tank divisions in swamps.

Again, you cannot really do that either. I think the problem is that there is no command and control, and real artillery or heavy machine guns in W40k, and tanks blow, which means that an army striving for a WWII feel.. blows? The limitations and strengths of that sort of force are completely missing.

[angelfromanotherpin]

1181978946[/unixtime]]

1181364257[/unixtime]]
Similarly, the IG are there in case you want to fight off invading aliens with the WWII Russian army.

You cannot field an army that works anything like that. And it makes me sad.

Hey, I only said it was their goal. I didn't say they succeeded.

the_taken, I think Orks are supposed to be stereotypical rednecks, of the "Hey, Zeke, Martians landed in the south forty, we're all piling into Jethro's truck and off to shoot 'em" variety.

[cthulhu]

Curse you and your logical response