Tau Titans/Superheavies (or lack thereof)

[ThePov]

Okay, first off, I admit I am no way up on Tau fluff in any incarnation, so there probably will be in-universe answers to all my questions, which I'd be quite interested to hear.

Anyway, am I the only one who finds it wierd that the Tau do not have any sort of titans or superheavy tanks? I mean look, Imperials, Chaos, and Orks all have them, and the Tau come up against them all pretty regularly, so I find it hard to believe that the Tau, a race which has a love of cutting-edge technology, constanty uses single-person battlesuits, and fields the largest single flyer (for which there are rules) in the 40K universe, is either unaware of the concept or have not decided to pursue the concept for a version of their own. Even the Eldar, who are a dying race, and the Tyranids, who have no technology AT ALL, have titans! It seems to me this would be a major tactical and strategic hole in the Tau armory, as all the Imperials/Orks/Chaos/what have you would have to do is bring a few Titans on-world and the Tau would have nothing to counter with. Seriously, unless there is a VERY good fluff reason, I think it's only logical that the Tau should have some Titan or Super-heavy equivalent. Maybe they'd take the concept in an entirely new and unique direction, fine by me, but they should at least have SOMETHING superheavy short of massive dropships.

[eldanesh4]

well ,with orbital bombardment and the like, titans are generally obsolete. (imho)
imperials generally use them 'cause they can't bear to throw anything out.
orks use them 'cause they're... well, orks.
tyranids use them becuase they see other races using them (and they don't have orbital bombardment as far as i know)
eldar have them because they have to be better at everything than everyone else. (don't get me wrong, i love elder, but... it's true, haha)
necrons don't have one becuase their monolith is badass enough
etc, etc

[ThePov]

well ,with orbital bombardment and the like, titans are generally obsolete. (imho)
imperials generally use them 'cause they can't bear to throw anything out.
orks use them 'cause they're... well, orks.
tyranids use them becuase they see other races using them (and they don't have orbital bombardment as far as i know)
eldar have them because they have to be better at everything than everyone else. (don't get me wrong, i love elder, but... it's true, haha)
necrons don't have one becuase their monolith is badass enough
etc, etc

Well that's kind of my point. All the other races either have them (with a relatively good reason), or have a reason not to have them, in the case of Necrons and Dark Eldar. Tau, meanwhile, are ripe for having them, but inexplexably don't. And it's not just Titans (though I don't think they're obsolete, as you say, but thats a topic for another thread), Tau have no Superhavies AT ALL except for the Orca and Manta (and possibly one of their other flyers, I don't have the rules), and the success of the Baneblade, as well as the prevalnce of superheavies in other races, would suggest they are still very strategically viable, and thus the Tau are lacking strategic depth without them. They don't even have anything that's even very good at TAKING OUT superheavies.

[Nabterayl]

Well that's kind of my point. All the other races either have them (with a relatively good reason), or have a reason not to have them, in the case of Necrons and Dark Eldar. Tau, meanwhile, are ripe for having them, but inexplexably don't. And it's not just Titans (though I don't think they're obsolete, as you say, but thats a topic for another thread), Tau have no Superhavies AT ALL except for the Orca and Manta (and possibly one of their other flyers, I don't have the rules), and the success of the Baneblade, as well as the prevalnce of superheavies in other races, would suggest they are still very strategically viable, and thus the Tau are lacking strategic depth without them. They don't even have anything that's even very good at TAKING OUT superheavies.

It's definitely a weakness in their armory. Remember that as late as 998.M41 (the Taros campaign) the Imperium was under the impression that the Tau had nothing to match their superheavies, so the mismatch you're describing is definitely based in the fluff. And it was during Taros (i.e., very late in M41) that we start to see the Tau upgrading some of their hardware, such as new models of starship, and the superheavy-hunting variant of the Tiger Shark. As of late M41 the Tau response to superheavies seems to be air power; they just don't have a big enough inventory of their planned solution.

I do have to say that the lack of superheavies seems like a very Tau thing to me. It doesn't seem to me like their style; superheavies trade efficiency for density. Faced with the choice between a Baneblade and three Hammerheads with disruption pods, railguns, and multi-trackers, I would definitely put my money on the Hammerheads, and I'm pretty sure that's how the Tau see it too.

[TSINI]

my understanding, as an overall summary is that the imperium has been around for 40 millenia. Titans are the largest vehicles (aside from starships) that the STC technology allows the forgeworlds to make. many of the largest titans are "one-offs" the last of their kind, or just plain rare. most existing titans are simply what was left over from the old days when the imperium was truly great and powerfull.

the Tau race, on the other hand, have only recently emerged from their tiny galaxy tucked away to the east of the eye. they havent had the time or sheer manpower, let alone the resources to construct such collossal machinery.

although the lack of superheavies, is actually the opposite. the TAU spend much of their time travelling, as an expanding invasion would. this is where Forgeworld have represented it with their aircraft, in particular the manta (its heuuuuuuuugggggeeeeeee!!!!)

so they spend all their time making large transports, rather than slow weapon platforms.


or at least thats pretty much how I see it.

[Emperorsmercy]

yeah, they have the manta (bigger, about three times bigger than a THUNDERHAWK!) but otherwise they have nothing.

[Rafe_131]

I'd say they don't have super-heavies in tank form because they aren't a static army. They are more a hit-and-run gunline, with one rank covering the next, overlapping fields of fire, so on....From a strategic standpoint, S-H tanks would slow them down far to much for the rest of the army to work effectivley. (that's fluff btw, not tabletop)

But what they lack in armor they make up for in armor killing. Since you can field...i don't know...like..8 railcannons in a 1500 pt army, they make a lot of boom. Let alone an apoc game where superheavies get to play....That's a lot of railcannon fire. They aren't destroyer hits.....but S10 AP1 is pretty good.

[ChaosLord127]

I always played with the idea of a giant crisis suit, probably about the size of a warhound titan. I never really thought of a way to make it work though. I was thinking the head would be a command center with a crew of 3 or 4 and use the body to hold more crisis suits... have a few railguns and maybe some sort of uber death guns on the arms.

[ThePov]

I'd say they don't have super-heavies in tank form because they aren't a static army. They are more a hit-and-run gunline, with one rank covering the next, overlapping fields of fire, so on....From a strategic standpoint, S-H tanks would slow them down far to much for the rest of the army to work effectivley. (that's fluff btw, not tabletop)

But what they lack in armor they make up for in armor killing. Since you can field...i don't know...like..8 railcannons in a 1500 pt army, they make a lot of boom. Let alone an apoc game where superheavies get to play....That's a lot of railcannon fire. They aren't destroyer hits.....but S10 AP1 is pretty good.

Well, the Eldar have superheavy skimmer tanks. They're not exactly the MOST mobile things in the world, but still, with a little Tau ingenuity, the concept might work.

[Gotthammer]

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