How can I explain the tau being in other parts of the galaxy aside from the galactic southeast?
>>47024936
How many tau are we talking? A handful? Scouting party investigating other parts of the galaxy by hitching a ride with one of their partner races (Even Kroot ships can use warp travel). One or two ships? Warp storm fuckery. An entire fleet? No good way to explain that.
>>47025085
I was hoping an entire fleet - enough to explain a fairly large military force that wouldn't just get snuffed out as soon as looked at.
>>47025101
The Tau won the Jericho Reach campaign and gained control of the warp gate.
>>47024936
They've been experimenting with FTL and managed to make it work one time, but the warp shenanigans made the greater good so uncomfortable they're not pursueing that avenue of research.
They went the long way around
>>47024936
use of warp-bounce tech and/or auxilia tech for infiltration or surgical strike missions behind enemy lines; mission and tech are kept secret from the normal population for adherence to the "spheres of expansion" type of propaganda.
No reason not to be tactically flexible on top of making your allies believe you're expanding due to sheer superiority on the first lines.
Tau fleet decides to try out this fancy warp tech the Imperium has, shit goes bad and they end up halfway across the galaxy. Possible shunted into the past as well, so you can explain how they got the tech and tease your players with hints about the future.
>>47025101
A powerful Tzeentchian sorcerer or daemon could conceivably suck a sizable fleet (especially one without lots of anti-warp defenses since they don't hang out there) through a portal and dump them somewhere as part of some convoluted plan.
Imagine in a Tau expeditionary force sent out to spread the word to a few border worlds suddenly finds themselves almost on top of an Imperial Shrine world half a galaxy away. That wouldn't end well for ANYONE involved.
>>47024936
The Xenos in this area are not Tau, they're some other Xeno faction that the Tau have a trading and diplomatic arrangement with so most of their battlefield material is bought from Tau suppliers as the Tau slowly bring them around to their own point of view.
>>47027014
That's an interesting way of thinking - Tau tech and culture spreading far beyond the Tau's borders and cropping up in random places.
>>47024936
Some Eldar dickery?
Large scale experiments with human warp technology, or Eldar or Necron or even Tyranid, gone horribly wrong?
>>47027054
that is the easy way of doing it: the Kroot range far beyond the eastern fringe of the galaxy, and as such Tau tech and Tau propaganda have found their way far beyond the Tau empire, just because the Kroot have found the blueskins' boring speeches seem to be good at fragmenting their enemies.
Lost Tau fleet flung far from home in the middle of hostile unknown space sounds like a fun adventure.
>Danger Shas'O danger!
>>47025101
There is no good explanation for THE ENTIRE TAU RACE to not get snuffed out as soon as looked at.
That's why Tau are shit.
>>47024936
the same thing that explains everything in 40k
Warp Fuckery
