Explain to me, Why a Deathwatch Kill-ship hasn't been sent to the Tau Homeworld to destroy it? After all the Tau Homeworld was scheduled to be converted into a imperial world before being lost to it.
You can't can you?
>>43561692
Because there's a tau fleet now ?
They could've sent one when the world was first found, but they didn't and seeing as how fucking slow the bureaucracy is in 40k, it probably took them until today to realize that they should send a kill-ship.
But they can't now can they.
>>43561783
>>43561783
Kill-ships are unique weapon relics used by the Deathwatch. They are actually automated drone-ships guided by the most sophisticated of War-spirits, designed with the singular task of conducting Exterminatus operations in the most extreme of circumstances on worlds that are believed to be completely lost to the Imperium.
To aid them on their mission, Kill-ships are equipped with unique examples of long lost cloaking technology that date back to the Dark Age of Technology. This allows the drone-ship to enter into the target system completely undetected where it can manage to slip past any defensive sentries and reach the target world itself. Once there, the Kill-ship drops its lethal payload onto the planet below whereupon it performs a slingshot maneuver to escape the region by using the world's own gravity well. As the vessel escapes, its actions are felt by the apocalyptic devastation it leaves in its wake that serves as a final act of denial and vengeance upon the enemies of Man.[1]
>>43561692
You forgot your "Excuse me, sir."
Kill-ships only exist in FFG books.
>>43561692
Plot armour and model sales say that the Imperium's crusade fleet that will wipe out the tau hasn't arrived yet due to warp shenanigans. As soon as people stop buying tau expect the Exterminus fleet to dewarp blow up the planet followed by the destruction of tge rest of the foul xenos that plague our beautiful Imperium of man
>>43561840
Someone has to file a report to activate them and declare exterminatus.
How many branches of the Imperium does this require; the Administratum, the Inquisition and the Adeputs Mechanicus.
How many of these factions like to talk to one another. None
Now you did say "Lost to the Imperium" and the tau worlds were never colonised. And I'm sure they got more pressing matters like "The Warp bleeding into the Material Plane" to really take the time to wipe out a race that "might eventually" get big.
Which they have not, because the Tau are ridiculously small and have shit long-range travel capabilities.
It's all about logistics.
>>43561692
Have been wondering about the same thing for a while...
If not Kill-Ships, normal fleets just could Warp deep into Tau Territory and wreck shit. Sure their planets would be defended (but for a while) Imperium would have the initiative for a while.
And they could take that initiative to Exterminatus everything.
>>43561783
>They could've sent one when the world was first found, but they didn't
They did.
It was lost under non-explained circumstances.
>>43561966
Tau fags don't understand that they're small fries compared to everything else.
They'll destroy themselves trying to supply the Hive Worlds they conquer.
>>43561994
Was for >>43561935
>>43561840
Because the tau are a defeatable foe who leave worlds salvageable - worlds they capture can be retaken, and most of the time the population even remains mostly intact.
Also the tau inhabit numerous worlds
Kill-ships are for uniquely deadly xenos that are confined (primarily) to one planet, not any random threat that is spread across the stars
>>43561994
Did you stop reading fluff several years ago or something?
The Tau have captured a number of hives and are considered a major threat now.
>b-but not muh 40k
Because Gamesworkshops needs a cannon good guy race for muhdiuversity quotas.
>>43562044
Well, since you're so learned, do share with the rest of the class.
>>43561935
They also had that whole Vandire Apostasy thing that the Imperium had to deal with, by the time the warp storms covering the Tau homeworld had abated.
>>43562044
Did you not read what I said?
I didn't say they couldn't conquer them, I said they can't supply them.
And they're far from being a major threat.
The Imperium is fully capable of crushing the Tau, especially with the split between the Tau Empire.
>>43561840
I once read in a bit of background in the stories about that one Arbites chick that when you're jailed for things like being drunk in public that you have to file for an appeal, and that it would take so utterly long through the 10 thousand years' worth of bureaucracy that has piled up and going through old laws that are no longer valid that you could actually die of old age before you get that appeal in the first place.
I don't even want to know how long it would take to file for a rare Drone Ship to be launched, even at the homeworld of one of the Imperium's most advanced enemies.
I mean, the war with the Tau would probably either be over and they would be dead, or they would have expanded to the point of that being a pointless thing to do by the time you got the go-ahead to file the requisition forms for it. Which would then require you going through the Admech's equally large bureaucratic system.
You would also probably have to do favors for various Admech higher-ups: find this piece of archeo-tech on a xenos held world in this sector, help us fight the nids of long enough to evac stuff over here, etc. It could make for a campaign in and of itself just to get a hold of one of these bad boys.
Then you would have to protect it while its transferred to you: I'm sure Huron Blackheart or any number of other chaos warbands would love to point this thing at Terra, or Orks would enjoy looting it. Then of course you have to set up a rendezvous point for when it completes its mission, pick it up and escort it back.
It could be the plot of a campaign in and of itself: the actual world itself just being the hook needed to draw the characters in.
>>43561888
>You forgot your "Excuse me, sir."
Why are you reminding me that meme exists Anon?
On topic take your pick from not wanting to risk the Tau grabbing it after it take the shot, muh plot (but I do think the loss of the tau homeworld would be something cool to add) or not a high priority.
>>43562005
>>43561994
Oh no I understand that fully. I'm not really into the Tau.
What I like about the Imperium is how everything is utterly fucked, even those institutions governing things.
The Tau are indeed insignificant when you consider the grand scale of things, if I remember right it's stated several time that if the Imperium concentrated it's efforts they could wipe them out. Problem is that the Imperium is fighting countless wars and enemies that this is impossible to achieve.
The best part of the setting is that humanity is alone and getting attacked by everyone.
>>43561692
few people know about Deathwatch. Even fewer know about Kill-Ships.
Also, Imperium is not nearly pissed off enough to actually start wrecking the Tau - they've been busy with Tyranids and Jerkaddon. Once these crusades are over, I think redirecting even a portion of troops involved into 13th buraku kruseido will be the end of blueberries.
although models sell well, so these fagets are here to stay.
>>43563624
>beating the tyranids
uh...
>>43561903
Plot armour and model sales say that the 4th Expansion Sphere that will conquer the Ultima Segmentum hasn't arrived yet due to warp shennanigans. As soon as people stop buying Imperium expect the Tau to discover warp travel followed by the grimdark lawful stupid space nazis being conquered for the greater good.
>>43561840
These things are extremely rare and the technology to make them has been long lost (plus they're tech-heresy in all but name, due to having what si clearly a sophisticated machine-intelligence), so the Imperium can't just throw one at any problem it has. And even if it can enter the target system completely undetected (ie. it doesn't create a huge and very obvious energy signature when transitioning from the Warp), the cloaking technology doesn't make it completely impossible to detect (it may slip past defensive sentries, but that's not necessarily quaranteed). With Tau sept worlds having large amounts of orbital installations, advanced sensor bases and fleet presence, getting close enough to the planet to drop cyclonic torpedoes on it without being detected by anything is not certain, even with the cloak, and i it is caught, a single ship will get destroyed quickly.
Combined with the fact that the Imperium would rather want the Tau worlds left in a condition where they could be settled and the sheer difficulty in simple getting the authorization to use one of these things, risking such a valuable asset for such mission is foolish.
>>43561692
>You can't can you?
because killing off babies-first-cash-cow would be phenomenally stupid on GW's part
>>43561692
Because
>The Tau are barely a threat to the Imperium. They're basically at peace with only minor border skirmishes right now, and even if things escalate the Tau won't be able to damage the Imperium as a whole that much.
>Destroying one Tau planet wouldn't bring down the Empire. They're distributed across hundreds of planets, many of them as or more highly developed as their homeworld. They also have a decentralized command structure due to lacking astropaths.
>There's a very good chance that the Tau's superior technology would allow them to detect, capture and reverse engineer the Kill-ship, and then humanity is fucked.
This satiate your autism, OP?
>>43563400
>if I remember right it's stated several time that if the Imperium concentrated it's efforts they could wipe them out. Problem is that the Imperium is fighting countless wars and enemies that this is impossible to achieve.
That applies to pretty much any force the Imperium is fighting, aside from the Nids (since they're coming from outside the galaxy) and Orks (since they're found pretty much everywhere and pop up like mushrooms after rain). If the Impreium could concentrate its efforts it could easily wipe out the Tau/destroy eveyr Eldar craftworld/bomb every Necron tomb world form the orbit/Invade and cleanse the Eye of Terror, but the proble is that even if the Imperium is several orders of magnitude larger than any single other galactic power, it's also extremely spread out and has most of its resources constantly tied up fighting some wars all over the galaxy. Destroying a single large craftworld would take the combined effort of multiple sector fleets, leaving their home sectors undefended. Completely wiping out the Tau would require large enough military force and take long enough that the area around the Eastern Fringe would be left very vulnerable to Orks, Eldar pirates, Chaos reavers and the like for centuries. And purging the Eye of Terror would probably require sending the entire segmentum fleet on a suicide mission.
>>43563931
>it may slip past defensive sentries, but that's not necessarily quaranteed
Considering these ships are intact examples of purpose-built archeotech, it's highly unlikely they'd be detected. Those cloaking systems may very well operate by shifting the entire ship a half-second into the future, analyzing the incoming pings, and beaming the results to the ship's active countermeasures a second in the past, neutralizing all methods of active detection shortly before they're even activated. DAoT Humanity was fucking bonkers.
>>43563828
Least intelligent thought in the thread, no matter what muhreens will sell. Guard will sell
Humanity will survive
Ave Imperator, xeno filth
>>43564245
Read the post before that one and see if you get the joke.
Fuckin faction wankers. Contain your autism.
>>43564132
There's this.
Also the fact that the tau are just a representation the many small space faring races have encountered and will encountered. They aren't the first, they aren't the last. But they will be felt with as time and resources allow.
>>43562449
The Tau don't just leave hiveworlds be. They treat it like any other disaster zone, because that's what it is. The evacuate as many people as possible to other planets that can support them, while giving what supplies they can.
Gaining control of a hive world isn't much different from gaining control of several normal worlds.
The main difference is a hive world is always on the brink of starvation, which means that a large chunk of the population will die in the transition regardless.
Either way, its not like it will instantly destroy all of their logisitcs just by setting foot on it.
>>43562633
>>43563400
>>43563624
>>43564125
>>43564132
Problem with these is that Inquisition and several persons with sufficient power can and DO just screw with the rules and cut through the tape.
Few Inquisitors (the Tyranid-hating one) and Astartes Chapter Masters for example.
Now that Tau have killed CM of a First Founding Chapter, it would make sense for FEW people who are just TOO pissed off to just cut all the middlemen and exterminate everything for revenge.
True, Death of Raven Guard CM is very new, but I truly hope Tau get some defeats after angering the bees nest of Imperium. Otherwise it is just boring plot armor.
Given the quality of GW writing, I am not suprised by anything though...
>>43564377
Even for a SM Chapter, getting into the orbit of a Tau sept world and launching exterminatus wouldn't be easy. Exterminatus isn't described as something you can just do as a drive-by: you have to get into low orbit, select the targets for the cyclonic torpedoes in order to maximise the damage, perform complex rituals to rouse the machine spirits of the revered warheads, etc. Generally, you need orbital superiority before you can start bombing the planet, as entering low orbit makes you vulnerable both to enemy ships and planet-based defense installations. To do that against the Tau (who have a large amount of stuff in space around any major world considering one of their castes lives exclusively in orbital stations) you'd need a decnet sized crusade fleet, at least post-Damocles when they actually have proper warships instead of the shitty armed trading fleet they used to have.
>>43561692
Now that we're here and talking about ships and such, anyone want to answer a question for me?
How long does travel time through the Warp usually take in 40k? I'm not that big into 40k, but when I was I remember reading something about how some Warp jumps can take decades, even centuries. So a few questions about that.
1) Does it actually take this long, or did I misread it?
2) If it does take this long, is it because relativity? Like, would a 200 year Warp jump to get from one point of the galaxy to another only be a few weeks for the guys aboard the ship? Or does the crew actually experience a 200 year long trip?
3)If relativity applies, why? I thought the Warp existed outside the physics of real space.
4)If relativity applies, then why bother with the Warp at all? Why not just choose a point and gun it since once you go fast enough time starts to dilate for the crew. If 200 years is going to pass on Earth regardless, then why take the option that literally sends you through Hell?
>>43561888
Stop being a faggot.
>>43564662
It depends. You might arrive in a few weeks, you might get flung into the future, you might even get flung into the past.
There's at least one case of a ship responding to a distress signal only to find on their arrival that their own ship sent it in the first place.
Generally though, most trips take weeks or months, depending on the distance
>>43564662
1) Lenght of time warp travel takes varies. I believe the Rogue Trader RPG (which does feature a lot of warp travel) states that travelling across an Imperial sector (a distance of roughly 100 ly) takes 30 - 60 days on average, assuming accurate information and known warp routes. However, depending on well the navigator performs his job, the time can be cut to up to 1/4th, or take 4 times longer.
However, that's before getting into possible complications, like warp storms and unknwon or unstable warp routes.
2) Time passes at different rate in the warp and in realspace, but the rate varies. According to RT again, the average rate is 1 day in the warp to 12 days in realspace, assuming good warp conditions. Bad conditions can cause the time abord the ship move slower than in realspace, with the trip seeming to take months when only a few weeks have passed in realspace, or arrive to its destination only to find much longer time than anticipated has passed. Ships arriving centuries late is rare but can happen, especially when travelling in areas of space with unstable warp routes. There are even some very rare cases of ships arriving before they left.
3) See above. Time does weird things in the warp.
4) It's still considerably faster than trying to get anywhere with relativistic speeds. A warp-capable ship could get from Terra to Alpha Centauri in a day, which is far faster than the fastest ship moving at relativistic speed could, even from the crew's point of view.
>>43564662
>>43564958
Just to be clear, the kind of journeys that end up flung through time by a crazy amount, rather than being off by a day or a week are almost always ones in which the ship was considered completely lost due to running through warp storms, or otherwise had their navigator incapacitated. We would not have hundreds of ships that are centuries or millenia old if warp travel was really that unreliable. The key is to take the calmest paths, which have been mapped out by the navigator houses, and to make frequent stops to get your bearings. This can lead to an extremely circuitous path, but the alternative is not taking the safe path and possibly being ripped to pieces by a warp current flowing the wrong direction.
Pic related. The white lines are relatively stable paths through the warp that have little risk to them. Sure, you could cut across from Tranch to Baraspine directly, or you could spend the extra months stopping off in Scintilla, and probably resupply as well. The latter could probably be done multiple times a year, every year for 500 years before anything of interest happens on the journey. The former will end up with a lost vessel by the second attempt, if not the first.
>>43566121
And I forgot my image.
The point is this is why worlds that may seem completely worthless still have value. They're located on particularly stable warp routes.
>>43561692
Because Tau is the biggest non-issue of the xenos races.
They're reasonably sensible humanoids that mainly try to expand to undefended worlds or defend what they have, rather than being monsters hell-bent on the destruction of mankind.
It'd be like nuking Canada or whatever.
>>43561692
Don't want to risk the Tau capturing it.
>>43568717
Don't compare us to the fucking Tau asshole.
It would be closer to nuking north korea
>>43562633
I can imagine an order for exterminatus being filled, and then 100 yeras later after the war is one and the planet retaken and colonized, it getting nuked from orbit
>>43564699
Then you probably won't mind giving us a source that's not FFG?
>>43568930
Right. Because the Tau are closer to north Korea than members of that other space empire in 40k who are told their leader is a god and live in squalor and starvation.
A single kill-ship wouldn't do jack shit against the Tau Empire. Kill ships are designed for xenos species with no meaningful space capability.
It'd require a significant Crusade to exterminate the Tau. They're not Imeprial-busters but they're not just 1 planet of nobody's either.
>>43571701
Stop bringing up that dead meme whenever someone just asks a question, you fag.
>>43574344
>facts = memes
Just keep telling yourself that, anon.
