Payne121 said:
Legendsmith said:
Payne121 said:
tau have been around for only 6000) their technology is far superior to any other race.
It's actually not. I'm saying that and I love tau too.
I read the codex some time way back, the story was from imperial files that stated that they had discovered an alien race in early development that they were going to "cleanse" but was postponed due to a 6000 year warp storm. when the tau emerged they came walking about with high tech weapons and whatnot. Also considering they have better rifles, jet packs that increase mobility rather than let you jump higher in the air, and plasma weapons that DON'T over heat. They've made advancements that the Imperium has yet to master.
Tau don't have warp travel, imperium does.
As for the overheating thing... tau caure about their soldiers, so their plasma guns don't overheat blow up. How? because they are less powerful and so produce less heat. The Imperium doesn't care as much about the individual soldier, so their plasma guns can overheat and blow up, but they provide more power.
Quote the 40k wiki:
"In addition to their skill with pulse weapons, the Tau have developed plasma rifles that do not suffer from the fatal overheating problems of plasma-based weaponry used by other races (save for the Eldar Starcannon). The only drawback is reduced weapon power level."
Edit: Apparently master-crafted imperial plasma weaponry doesn't overheat at all. So they do have the tech.
Edit 2: Apparently also the tau pulse rifle isn't a 'true' plasma weapon, but the imperium infantry plasma gun is.
So, it's not a case of better tech, it's just that the Imperium prefers more dakka and who cares if another guardsmen gets fried? There are plenty more.
The jetpack thing, I'm pretty sure the space marines use the high jumping packs because the ability to land on your enemy's head at high speed in full power armour is very cool (and deadly). The imperial guard do have a pack that increases mobility (not found in the tabletop game, but in novels). So it's not a case of better tech there either.