Wait a fucking minute. There were 20'000 guardsman at most. Three warhounds. Up to 300 marines. 30-50 spaceships. There is no way Imperial casaulties reached a single million during THAT.
@@kronos661 Got any hard proof for that? Even then, that’s dumb. There’s no way only 20,000 guardsmen could be used to invade and purge multiple worlds. 40k is good at many things, but troop numbers that are realistic is not one of them. You know the eastern front of WW2? Well over ten million dead, right? Yeah, THAT WAS JUST ONE FRONT. Of a VERY, VERY primitive and average-in-destruction by the standards of 40k. If invasions to take even a single planet don’t have a couple million dying, then some story writer seriously fucked up when considering the millions of worlds and likely tens to hundreds of trillions of humans there are in the Imperium.
@@theinquisitor8112 Okay, mistake on my part. I was sure regiment is up to a thousand men. It is up to tens of thousands. So there might be millions of casaulties on part of the Imperium if we include seamen... or perhaps spacemen. As for titans my knowledge on that topic was "slightly" outdated. Since "Savage Scars" we know there were some more than three warhounds (six from what internet people said) and even warlords. I would need to get it in my hands to count how many of them were there though. Thanks for questioning my knowledge. Thanks to you i could see that i was wrong and i know what goddamned book i will try to get next :) And yes. GW isn't good with numbers.
@@kronos661 you see, when we speak of 40k you have to add more numbers to any fighting force, 'cause apparently GW can't count for shit, so to a force of 20,000 guardsmen you add a couple of zeros making it 20 million guardsmen, I'd do the same for space marines chapters but the Codex Astartes prohibits the use of more than a thousand battle brothers unless it's a semi or non Codex compliant chapter
Reminder that the Tau at first thought that the size of the titans depicted in Imperial images were just pure propaganda. Oh how quickly they learned of their mistake...
_"So the Commander has never seen a Titan before, right? So I tell him 'Look! There's a Titan right there over by that mountain way off in the distance.' He squints and says 'Where? I don't see anything besides that large Gue'la building on top of the mountain.' So I tell him to look REALLY hard at the cathedral poking from behind the mountain. Then the Titan decides to take a step, and his eyes widened so much I thought they were about to pop clear out of the sockets. And then he started sweating. And sweating, and sweating. I swear, it looked like he was starting to melt like a block of ice. Then all the color ran out of his face as his eyes rolled back into his head. He hit the ground and, God-Emperor as my witness, he started foaming at the mouth. Funniest thing I have ever seen in my life..."_
My favourite thing about the tau is that every faction gets to sshow off their personallity by kicking them in the nuts with that factions unique "boot".
To be fair I think this was the lore writers way of bomping the Tau on the head and saying "Hey Blue Commies! That shit don't work here!" as the Tau have drastically changed the way they engage other races at this point in the lore. Pretty much the only major factions they'll deal with are the Eldar and the Imperium, and when it's the Imperium it's usually some border world that the Imperium is severely neglecting to whom the Tau don't sound so bad. In short yeah the blue hippies have had their asses handed to them multiple times but they HAVE learned which is more than I can say for some.
Like when they exchanged "diplomats" with the Dark Eldar and later saw those same Tau diplomats on the field as chaos spawn and fused together monstrosities
A warm thank you to the many members of the rogue traders guild, generously funding AND bankrolling this crusades. You're all, truly wonderful. Have a good one
@@alexanderharris577 Commander Puretide was the best strategic commander of the Tau and he shared his wisdom with 3 disciples: O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) the commanding general while the Damocles Crusade happened representing the way of Mont'ka. O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun) representing the way of Kauyon and Shas'O Kais representing the way of Monat (but Farsight himself said that he is very good in Kauyon and Mont'ka and was the Commander in the Kronus Crusade of the Dawn of War Games). Puretide was only a teacher and the Tau were desperate and used an invention to "download" the mind of Commander Puretide and create a super strategic A.I. and than be duplicated and inplanted in every drone or battlesuit. Farsight was forced to do this to his old master and killed him in the process of downloading his vast knowledge. When the Puretide A.I. was enabled the Imperium of man was struggling on every frontline and getting outsmarted by the A.I. but when the Imperium of man found out, that the Tau dont know about the existence of the Warp and Psyker and still dont believe in it, they used psychics on crucial frontlines and "broke" the A.I calculations since it does now know how to handle such an impossible factor.
@@Pdudi In which case they will never truly understand the warp because they are not one with it. Its a point of contention I always wonder about, do they not suffer from rampages of psykers of the human worlds they take over? The imperium routinely takes those who are worthwhile and kill those who are not, whilst this is done organically by the arbites many a imperial citizen may not want to kill their new born child and when they're gone (arbites) do the citizenry say hey can you hunt down these dangerous mutants and kill them? Every standard cycle thousands of psykers are born on any single imperial planet if not tens or hundreds of thousands for hive worlds and the blue berries don't ever suffer from their rampages as they through their own inexperience tear rents in the immaterium allowing demons to come forth? If this hasn't been already addressed I feel like its a huge plot hole.
Guardsman: *arguing in the afterlife about how he should get to be revived.* Emperor of Man: “Hold up, hold up, why should you get special privileges while every other guardsman, space marine, commander, and even primarchs stayed dead?” Guardsman: “I got killed by a fucking Tau.” Emperor of Man: *understandable, that’s some serious bullshit*
When people argue that the Imperium lost millions of soldiers during the Damocles Gulf Crusade, people should start replying that the Tau lost billions of civilians.
On land? There were at most 20'000 guardsman there. And fights in space were... less than impressive on Tau part. I doubt Imperial casaulties reached a single million.
@@samiwanski5000 Colombia alone on our Eart has around 5'800'000. Loosing (even tens or hundreds of) billions civies in interstellar genocidal war is realistic outcome.
@@kronos661 realistic numbers for men lost in 40k doesn't really happen. In WW1 you could lose 20000 in a day in a single big push. Most the British lost was 57000 in a single push not counting the enemy numbers. I would say to have realistic numbers just add like 00 to the end of the guards numbers
I'm pretty sure most major sci-fi wars are bloodier than anything star trek can send to bat, but that's what you get from a sci-fi universe where the hippies won.
@@Nostroman_Praetor Imagine how horrified they would be if they encountered the Daemons of The Warp. Something that according to their beliefs would be illogical and couldn't possibly exist, but yet they would be there, face to face with beings far beyond their comprehension.
Literally how the necrons feel. “We have the ability to snuff out stars and remove their very presence from reality, and they wipe out our tomb worlds with chemically propelled weapons!?”
Meanwhile the Tau were at it again. The second sphere of expansion was taking place and they were annexing countless systems in the eastern fringes. When the imperium found out they went mad. They made for the Damocles Gulf backed by a crusade sized force and started killing every single tau they found. No mercy was shown. No quarter given. The imperium would settle for nothing less than the complete destruction of the Tau.
@@4958Hammie because of the fucking Tyranids which ranks a bit higher in the priority of Xenos needing killing. In fact the Nids are probably the most dangerous Xenos given their sheer numbers.
This video is misleading, the Tau did very well in the Damocles crusade and had many victories ! Normally, the imperium came there to exterminate them, but the tau were much more powerful than they anticipated, so they retreated, rather than continue the fight.Basically, it was a draw, but a big win for the tau, because the initial idea of the crusade was to exterminate them, but they survived.
@@lexlex44 “you survived the gun fight, but you got shot three times, you will have permanent damage, and you lost a finger. But it’s a win for you because you survived! The other guy definitely won’t show up again at some point!”
@@lexlex44 Near the end of the crusade, the Empire SMALL force send to the Damocles Gulf was unable to advance and asking for reinforcements. Then they were asked to abandon it to fight the tyranids. The T'AU where basically trying to build new ships and arm new troops praying to their greater good the empire doesn't make another push, because they were left with basically nothing but half a fleet and a 1/3 of a standart defense army to defend their core worlds. If the Empire will not had the tyranids invasion and receveid the reinforcement they asked for, which was another SMALL force, the T'AU will have been anhilitated. Basically they were saved because GW didn't want them destroyed. So no, it wasn't a victory and make the T'AU a trauma so deep and their "empire" so damaged that took several centuries to recover, and someone like Farsight to make the T'AU finally engage the Empire again. And even then, that victory cost Farsight his sanity and his loyalty to the T'AU. Hardly what I call "a victory".
@@ludovicrondy936 actualy, at that time, the tau have not even evolved as a species properly, they started going out of caves about 6k years before current canon (explained when a tau encountered a dreadnought)
"The day the Imperium of Man fought you in the Damocles Gulf, it was the most destructive year for your species. For them, it was just another Tuesday" -some rando from the Ordos Xenos
Also the Tau during the imperial invasion of Dal'yth: - Copy the brain of legendary commander Puretide - Have the copies override the minds of some of their best commanders. - All the commanders turn into robotic Puretide clones that execute the same tactics in a counter attack against the imperial forces. - Psychers are deployed by the imperial forces. - Since Puretide had never encountered weaponized psychers all the "clones" have a meltdown because they could not handle this unpredictable situation. - The Imperium retakes ll lost ground and defeats the Tau forces easily. - The Ethereals withdraw all the "clones" and act as if it wasn't a massive fuck-up.
What makes this even funnier is that Tau don't think imperial titans are real at least the big ones that they are just propaganda and am guessing at least 1 was deployed or at least I hope because that would have been hilarious
You need to stop getting your lore from memes. Multiple titans were deployed during Damocles. The instant one was destroyed they refused to operate without air cover. In one of the Farsight books it’s outright stated that the Tau consider Marines more dangerous because Titans are slow and predictable whereas Marines are much more mobile.
@joshwenn989 but it wasn't a meme. Tau legitimately thought the imperium was lying about the sizes of the Titans they had, and thought it was pure propaganda.
Ah.. the best part about Warhammer, im so tired of Aliens invading and destroying our planet and shit and we have to barely fight back. Why can't WE be the bloodthirsty aliens and invade shit.
@@Aconspiracyofravens1 By "punished hard" you mean, have the only thing that works taken from them. From first in tournaments to nowhere, does that sound like a faction with many options? Triptides was shit, but it should have been replaced by combined arms game-play. Something fun for both the player and the opponent. Instead they've been euthanized. To the giddy squealing of autistic 15 years olds still seething years after being tabled on turn 2 by a guy with 3 riptides and approximately 9,000 drones. The irrational hatred of one very particular faction is just retarded. "They don't fit the themes of the setting" is a dogshit excuse for the sheer quantity of vitriol people seem to have for the Tau.
@@metaljugger They don't tho, they don't suffer from the warp, even the orks suffer from the warp as they travel through it. The tau have their OP tech that just nopes around that. They don't do any bad shit at all besides kill non compliant worlds until they comply, even minimal stuff like force sterilizations of worlds they take they don't do. They don't have any internal strife from the worlds they capture, rebellions, psykers going ape shit and causing demons to flood their worlds, corruption leading to any sort of conflict amongst themselves. Its all happiness, rainbows and puppies in tau commie space. Nothing ever goes wrong, which in the setting where if everything is going good you have to ask the fuck is tzeentch planning? The answer is nothing, nothing happens to the tau and occasionally you get them updated on the imperial hit list. Don't tell me you wouldn't look at fluttershy from my little pony being in Dragon Ball Z and ask yourself, why?
The funny thing, is that the Tau don't believe the warp exists at all, meaning that worlds without imperial protection are defenseless against Chaos. The imperium is doing a good thing.
You can't even make a biased history of the Imperium, what with so many things being lost during Old Night and all the Edicts of Obliteration that have been ordered, not to mention everything censored by Inquisitorial order.
@@breadmoment7018 Nuh uh, itz da orks wif da most un-bye-assed uhpinion in da galaxy. Diz cuz we gets ta krump evry git the WAAAAAAAAAAGH!!! passes by.
@Neb plasma weapons, void shields, gellar fields and supersoldiers are quite advanced tech, the inperium has simply been forced to dumb most of this advanced tech down to be as simple as possible, both out of nescessity and because the mechanicus takes progress for heresy
@@tomasmisek5598 i enjoyed it because i watched it on the cinema and the CGI and effects we're top tier But correct me if years later You didn't think "Damn son, this was literally a copycat of Pocahontas with weird aliens and a legless simp"
@@aethewulf4787 chaos marines got a lot more backing then their imperial counterparts daemons it will be even worse if the thousand sons pay the tau a visit
In Gothic armada I usualy lose a ship or two and all fire escort vesels. Yea, knowing lore wise how many are on those ships and the crusers and this is through all sectors under attack, they still manege to replenish no prob, well the bodies that is.
@@jekabsojarsulskis9740 Literally every Imperial navy ship vessel have probably Milion of people or metropolitan city size people aboard aside with the official crew, Some stated that the Battleship of Imperial Navy can aboard the entire population of Brazil or Indonesia at once
@@rahadityap2375 not sure most part of the crews are human, let's not forget most task are executed by servitors. Most of them arn't conting as human anymore.
I forget is this also where the Dark Eldar step in while the Tyranids were still about and said "how about an alliance and exchange?" Which the tau sent several "ambassadors" only for those several to return as horrible monstrosities thrown to go fight the bugs, which then the Tau learned after the battle and the Dark Eldar super-ravaged their own planet while the Tau weren't looking?
@@aethewulf4787 In an empire the size of the tau, billions of casualties and any worlds lost, is a pretty critical loss, especially when considering that this "crusade" was basically a minor expedition force. The only reason the Tau are still a thing, is because they're too insignificant for the Imperials to dedicate the required resources to take them out, while they've got other problems like a tyranid hive fleet or a massive chaos incursion to deal with. Speaking of hive fleets, how are the tau doing with that tiny tyranid splinter that's nomming on their worlds? :P
Correct me if i am wrong, but where not most of those civilians former imperials? Converts that the Imperium lost first? And the Imperials still don't have a foothold on the Tau side of the gulf while the Tau has on the Imperial side?
@@antonscott1585 Aye, but A: the imperium doesn't really care about expanding into Tau territory as it has better things to do. B: The Imperium has about as positive an opinion of the Tau as they are capable, considering they're still xenos. Which is also why none of the Tau planets got exterminatused. C: The Tau and the the Imperium have been at war for less than 300 years, which to the Imperium is nothing. Look, if the Imperium actually decided to take the Tau seriously and eradicate them they could.
It is, to be fair, a technologicaly backwards, overstretched ans crumbling galactic empire that is 100% geared for war and has been for the last 10000 years and is also the size of an entire galaxy
@@TheHandofDestiny At this rate, it’s not the Imperium the Tau have to worry about. They were just about to shave that last little bit off of the razor’s edge they were walking and be worth a full-blown extermination campaign when Abbadon showed Cadia the power of flex tape. Now, the Imperium is even less of a bulwark against the dangers of the galaxy for the Tau. Where once the forces of Chaos, Orkz, and Tyranids had to slog through (or, get distracted by more likely) dozens of imperial worlds, each armed with PDF, naval detachments, and astropaths to scream for help before they could threaten Tau space. But now? The number of Imperial worlds around them is dropping faster than ever, and the chances that a planet their grooming falls to chaos or gets nommed by ‘nids is growing exponentially. It’s only a matter of time until Tau worlds start looking worthwhile compared to the remaining imperial scraps along the Eastern Fringe.
@@pretzelbomb6105 The Tau exist outside of imperium space on the eastern fringe, nearly every war the Tau have faced has come from the east, with no Imperial influence. Ork WAAAGH!'s, Necron Tomb awakenings, a whole Tyranid hive fleet, the Tau have survived them all with no help from the Imperium. They'll do just fine.
@@lilgeezums The average apocalypse is going to hit the Imperium before it hits the Tau. With the Imperium unable to rebuild it’s outermost territories, this leaves fewer and fewer distractions. Raids, splinter fleets, and partial awakenings are one thing, but once Hive Fleets, Waaaghs, and Chaos Incursions start becoming the norm, the Tau will have to rethink their entire way of warfare.
My favourite moment was when the Imperials saw the Ice world as a negligible gain, they bombarded the ice fields around the cities and caused them to sink into the infinite ocean underneath
In all seriousness though, after Taros and Damocles are there any other major engagements between Imperium against Tau? Feels like after the whole Tyranid threat thing the imperials just forgot about the Taus.
There's the currently ongoing war in the Nem'yar Atoll (The Tau's lastest expansion into the dark Imperium) Tau are winning but the Imperium is making them hurt for it.
There was a conflict with the Farsight Enclaves in which a Tau fleet led by Commander Farsight was to recapture all the lost worlds that the imperials decked on. From what I read it was a costly endeavor but the Tau did win and the Enclaves were secured….for abit before the orks decided to do some fuckery there.
Aaagh after reading the other comments, to this day basically, yeah. I mean between that and the Imperium getting assblasted by Abaddon, Tau expansion would seem pretty negligible 🤷
It's called a Stormsurge, and despite the fact that they suck on the tabletop, they were invented entirely to obliterate Titans and Titan-scale Tyranids. They almost always succeed.
All the virgin Tau players get up in their ass when anyone mentions Damocles, chad Tau players promptly ignore and talk about the micro Hive Fleet that was “beaten” instead.
@@comradekenobi6908 idk if “more interesting” is entirely accurate. The Tau at Dal’yth had managed to grind the (albeit small) crusade to a standstill, something that rarely happens, even with “smaller” forces of the Imperium.
Lots of arguing in this, but its a good example of the sheer power of the imperium, what was a small fighting force was able to massively devastate the Tau forces, say what you will, but both the Tau and Imperium were adapting to each other in this conflict, figuring out each other weaknesses and strengths. The Tau were unprepared and caught off guard but fought bravely, the Imperium was not equipped to wage a war of conquest but of destruction their goal was to destroy the Tau not conquer them. Then the Hive fleet arrived and more important things happened. This crusade highlighted to the Tau that the imperium was a serious threat and could no long be ignored as it was before and so they adapted and changed their tactics. This is good story telling, the Tau like the Federation of star trek NEEDED to get Kicked in the ass HARD, so they would realize what the galaxy is really like and allow them to be a continuing faction that evolves with the story and has a reason to stick around and not be wiped out by some major faction, Because now they can see what they will go up against!
The way the imperium fights is basically how the romans fought. It doesn't matter how many battles they lose eventually they will win the war with sheer numbers.
I always wonder what the Taus allies told them about Mankind (as several of their allied races have prior contact with humans) and how that would have effected things. It seems to me the Tau thought the Imperial Frontier worlds were all they could expect from Humanity. My guess is the Kroot thought it would be funny.
Look, imagine some overreligious dude tells you thag somewhere far away there are Giant god machines and angels of death You wouldnt believe Of course Tau were informed They just didnt believe
Even now the tau has nothing in their arsenal that can stand toe to toe against a battle titan. The Tau may have one thing that can stand against a Warhound but not anything bigger
why stand toe to toe against it when you can bomb them to shit with mantas and tiger sharks? the concept of titans is stupid as shit when you take space warfare into consideration.
Tau: adapts Imperial Simps: PLOT ARMOR !!!!!!!! Imperium : survive whole fucking hive fleet because Indomitus Crusade arrives just in time to save the day Imperial Simps: no problem 🤓
@@artusyeddou5792 They really do be clowning. The amount of Tau hate from simperials is just boring at this point. Don't they have a "totally dangerous and insurmountable" hivefleet/waaagh/tombworld to go beat without any problems?
@@danielgarza1209 BRO I’m so excited because I’m waiting on a R’varna I managed to snag on EBay and a commander R’alai from FW, but it’s gonna be a month at least for them to get here because the coof and UK government don’t like reasonable shipping times. I have a crippling addiction, I am Ash Ketchum for Tau, I gotta have at least one of everything.
> deploy a fuckton of troops > nuke a bunch of planets > get stalled > have to run because oh shit something else happened > leave behind a bunch of soldiers who get recruited > they also learn your tactics and steal technology > fail to wipe out a tiny empire with a vastly larger and more experienced force haha yeah totally
Gotta lose resources and underestimate the opponent to fight to a stalemate, then act like the winner because you could totally beat them if you cared enough but you don't haha totally seriously we could do it.... ...To own the noobs.
Within decades, the tau had recovered and then some. I like the idea that in a corner of a galaxy where everything suffers from gigantism and nonsense numbers with no stakes, there is a "little engine that could" story of a empire on the rise, where shit like this actually matters. Its a breath of fresh air from the spiky space cathedral edginess that everything else has stained all over it like its an aesthetic prerequisite. The truth is the Imperium doesn't care at all, that the whole point. They are too massive, backwards and stupid to notice that the tau really do need to be completely destroyed. But they won't be, and that will cost the imperium in the long run.
@@metaljugger A wise man once said, you can do everything with a bayonet, except sitting on it. And that's exactly what the Imperium is doing. All those worlds turned against the Emperor just because they understood that life in the Imperium is meaningless, and the human impulse to grow, heal and thrive cannot exist within Humanity. How sad it is that humans have to assimilate into an alien empire to even feel like they are truly alive. Eventually, either the Imperium crubles, or it transforms itself into a more T'au-like society. Chaos runs rampant in the Imperium precisely because of the violence and repression that Humanity operates with. It'll be their own downfall.
@@metaljugger You think Tau works ? They are enslaved. They didnt face anything the Imperium has.. if the Imperium falls then you are next. You think you will survive a hive fleet ?a full hive fleet ? How about the orks ? Or chaos ?? Tau is not a good empire that works.. its just young and it will get fucked sooner or later. They are also grimdark as fuck in many ways. If the God Emperor actually is revived or if Guilliman wants you guys dead you will die. No technology will save you from mankinds wrath.
Fairly sure that the tide was starting to turn by the time the imperium pulled out. Heck it’s called the Damocles gulf crusade, not the Tau crusade, the imperium didn’t even make it to the well defended stuff.
Imperium: It was a small expeditionary fleet Tau: tHeY hAd 8 LeGiOnS oF mArInEs AnD tItAnS! Imperium: don't worry, it was some warhounds and Raven Guard successors
Imperium: Tau weak. big bugs scary Farsight enclave: *nearly wipes out an entire hive fleet then shows up to kick the teeth out of imperium forces at Mu’galath Bay*
The Tau should invest in Bolos, a dozen of them would have sufficed to wipe out this small crusade. Not that I can expect them to imitate one of mankind's strongest weapons.
The T'AU: Remember Damocles war as one of their most important moment of their history, and remembers the sacrifice of their people to hold against the all mighty empire and won the day despite... The Empire: Damocles, you say? With a capital D? Wait, I will search in the lower levels of the archives... ... ... Ah yes, here it is. *small encounter and skirmish with an unkown xenos force*
Dude that is a small force, Vraks had more forces on it, and it was a city with a population smaller than Britton. Notice there were no Sororitas, no Skitarii Cohorts, no Knight Houses, a pathetically small fleet even by the standards of the Battle Fleet gothic video game. No Rogue Traders profiteering off supplying the "Crucade", and a grand total of 900 marines despite 8 chapters being involved. And per the lore the Commander kept asking "where the hell are my forces? The Breaching force has secured the foothold, we need my Crucade force so we can finish this." And his answer was just "nom nom nom".
@@Khobotov NP, Mechwarrior's a cool universe. Tho I with to GOD they'd done something a little better than the paper cards thing. (that and a game with 40k scaled infantry + battlemechs for glorious true table top warfare.)
To put this in perspective: 19 IG Regiments were deployed for this crusade There were 34 regiments deployed for the Siege of Vraks More Guard regiments were deployed for a siege of a single planet than this offensive into Tau space
Yeah but also Imperium had extra a colective numbers of Space Marines from the begining, including the whole chapter of the Scar Lords (Chaptermaster was imprisoned by the Tau) and several other chapters, supported by the Ultramarines 8th Company (Thier capitan got KIA), while on Vraks Space Marines were less numerous and came in later stages of the Siege. Vraks was also a fortress planet - designed to hold the attackers, while the Tau worlds the Imperium captured during the Damocles Crusade were just a small border planets not prepared for the invasion, and yet still many times the attackers were almost anahilated by the defending Tau Fire and Air Cast, making the victories even less worth the price, especialy if we concider the time that Imperium put in both campaigns (Damocles Crusade lasted for just a 3 years, Vraks was almost several decades long siege) On the planet of Gel'bryn during the Operation Pluto T'au were not only able to hold the Imperium but also destroyed several Titans, Kroot mercs were able to get rid of the veteran guard units, and the Crisis Battlesuits managed to hold off Ultramarines, Iron Hands and the Scythes of the Emperor. And this was only a small part of the T'au forces. Even infamous Hydra operation was comparable to the phyrric victory in WW1, with Imperium throwing everything they had on the Tau, and all they get was extra 5 miles of front. And what the Imperium done with that extra land ? Started to evacuate themselfs as fast as possible, due to the Lord Commander realization that the forces he had were to weak to bring the world down, even despite the presence of the Titans, Space Marines, and the Inquisition, who started bitching about the retreat. But then Fidius Kryptman called for the fight against Behemoth, so they had to shut up.
Wait, I was under the impression that the crusade was a stalemate. By the time the crusade was called off, the imperium had been ground to a halt. Even if that’s not the case, the Tau weren’t even close to annihilation, which was the primary goal. Even if it was going in that direction, which I’m fairly sure it wasn’t, it would have still taken decades of work.
Because the bugs started to appear more numerously, and the Crusade forces were nearby. Either way, the Tau learned in very short order why you do not fuck with mankind.
0:26 When master of melee comes in Strongest chapter and my favorite is Black templars Thank’s to God emperor we don’t have librarians so we can’t be corrupted by chaos Actually melee / run n gun combo will f*ck any alien race and heretics Khe khe
The astartes drop-podding onto Dal'yth would've been a glorious sight...not to mention the mountain-sized, cathedral-decorated planetary murder-bots stomping in. Did the Death Korp show up on that one?
Aaaaaand yet the Tau still slowed the Imperium down long enough for it’s attention to be drawn by a bigger threat and give it room to recover, breathe, and adapt. (Hint: the Damocles Crusade is why the Tau specifically developed weapons to kill titans) Say what you will, but not going extinct or suffering total collapse is still a victory in itself.
@@stephendorantes4167 You don’t need a special super duper shooter to kill a world. Just drag a large enough asteroid into one, or spread enough nuclear missiles to saturate the world in radiation. You know, easily kill all life on a world without having to build expensive super bombs.
Its more that the Imperium just had more pressing things to do. The Tau are nothing compared to the Tyranids, Chaos and the Orcs. For the moment at least.
@@AdeptKing one could even argue EVER. Maybe they might be able to just sideswipe the orkz at some point, but, I don't think they'll ever be able to touch the forces of chaos or the nyds.
This is still my favorite meme, despite the actual events maybe not being so one sided as the video would suggest, because it demonstrates quite beautifully how ridiculously bloated the power scaling in 40k is
I remember a Tau player arguing how devastating the Damocles Gulf was for the Imperium, on account of the millions of casualties.
*Rookie numbers.*
So he tried to use the number the Imperium loses on an average Tuesday, to say it was a "Devastating Battle for the Imperium"?
Wait a fucking minute. There were 20'000 guardsman at most. Three warhounds. Up to 300 marines. 30-50 spaceships. There is no way Imperial casaulties reached a single million during THAT.
@@kronos661 Got any hard proof for that? Even then, that’s dumb. There’s no way only 20,000 guardsmen could be used to invade and purge multiple worlds. 40k is good at many things, but troop numbers that are realistic is not one of them.
You know the eastern front of WW2? Well over ten million dead, right? Yeah, THAT WAS JUST ONE FRONT. Of a VERY, VERY primitive and average-in-destruction by the standards of 40k. If invasions to take even a single planet don’t have a couple million dying, then some story writer seriously fucked up when considering the millions of worlds and likely tens to hundreds of trillions of humans there are in the Imperium.
@@theinquisitor8112
Okay, mistake on my part. I was sure regiment is up to a thousand men. It is up to tens of thousands. So there might be millions of casaulties on part of the Imperium if we include seamen... or perhaps spacemen.
As for titans my knowledge on that topic was "slightly" outdated. Since "Savage Scars" we know there were some more than three warhounds (six from what internet people said) and even warlords. I would need to get it in my hands to count how many of them were there though.
Thanks for questioning my knowledge. Thanks to you i could see that i was wrong and i know what goddamned book i will try to get next :)
And yes. GW isn't good with numbers.
@@kronos661 you see, when we speak of 40k you have to add more numbers to any fighting force, 'cause apparently GW can't count for shit, so to a force of 20,000 guardsmen you add a couple of zeros making it 20 million guardsmen, I'd do the same for space marines chapters but the Codex Astartes prohibits the use of more than a thousand battle brothers unless it's a semi or non Codex compliant chapter
Tau: Our war resulted in at least a million casualty on your side
Imperium: Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?
"We get that amount from just refuelling our ships, observe how it is done" - Imperium
Actually, I’d think that’s narrow it down a great deal.
Usually, the casualties are in the billions.
That’s considered a win
Imperium after war of tyranids : yeah you said something?
Imperium: WOW it was such a bloodless campaign
The secret to the Imperium's victory?
*They just engaged every unit and vehicle in melee*
Let see them shoot ALL OF US!
@@amirhaikal8304 cant shoot me, if im closer than the barrel of your gun eh?
If each man takes 1 bullet, eventually, they’ll run out of bullets!
@@zachjohnson8944 GUNIOUS
when you switch all of your Guardsmen into "Melee mode" in Soulstorm Ultimate Apocalypse
Reminder that the Tau at first thought that the size of the titans depicted in Imperial images were just pure propaganda. Oh how quickly they learned of their mistake...
Its all fun and games until an imperium fortress stands up and starts walking towards you
@@darkkira1332 come to church before church come to you
then they made the AX-1-0 Tiger Shark
@@sebastiangralian527 Haha Hydras go BRRRT.
In which book is that? I wanna read it
_"So the Commander has never seen a Titan before, right? So I tell him 'Look! There's a Titan right there over by that mountain way off in the distance.' He squints and says 'Where? I don't see anything besides that large Gue'la building on top of the mountain.' So I tell him to look REALLY hard at the cathedral poking from behind the mountain. Then the Titan decides to take a step, and his eyes widened so much I thought they were about to pop clear out of the sockets. And then he started sweating. And sweating, and sweating. I swear, it looked like he was starting to melt like a block of ice. Then all the color ran out of his face as his eyes rolled back into his head. He hit the ground and, God-Emperor as my witness, he started foaming at the mouth. Funniest thing I have ever seen in my life..."_
What's this from?
@@kevski_021 His imagination.
@@kevski_021 it was revealed to him in a dream
The tau empire: AAAAAAAAAAH THE PAIN IT HURTS GOODBYE CRUEL GALAXY!
The imperium: dude that was literally the smallest crusade in imperial existence.
The Imperium: **yawning**
It was a vibe check.
@@brok56 By vibe check you mean weapons test fire for one of the Warhounds?
@@voin5371 if warhound was the small titan with almost terminator helmet looking cockpit, than yes.
@@brok56 I think you mean the Imperial Knights which are even smaller.
My favourite thing about the tau is that every faction gets to sshow off their personallity by kicking them in the nuts with that factions unique "boot".
It's time for 'cultural exchange' my dudes
Based
To be fair I think this was the lore writers way of bomping the Tau on the head and saying "Hey Blue Commies! That shit don't work here!" as the Tau have drastically changed the way they engage other races at this point in the lore. Pretty much the only major factions they'll deal with are the Eldar and the Imperium, and when it's the Imperium it's usually some border world that the Imperium is severely neglecting to whom the Tau don't sound so bad. In short yeah the blue hippies have had their asses handed to them multiple times but they HAVE learned which is more than I can say for some.
Visible Tau is the lost Tau.
Like when they exchanged "diplomats" with the Dark Eldar and later saw those same Tau diplomats on the field as chaos spawn and fused together monstrosities
A warm thank you to the many members of the rogue traders guild, generously funding AND bankrolling this crusades. You're all, truly wonderful. Have a good one
This rogue trader thanks you for your words of support
@@ChvdMaximvs link
@@ChvdMaximvs That's 3rd millenium for you, punk!
Hey hey, people, Inquisitor Sseth here.
@@ChvdMaximvs Begging an Arbite for mercy is an offense *PUNISCHABLE BY DEATH!*
You forgot the Part where their super A.I. got fucking glitched by psykers.
what? tell me more about it!
@@alexanderharris577 Commander Puretide was the best strategic commander of the Tau and he shared his wisdom with 3 disciples: O'Shovah (Commander Farsight) the commanding general while the Damocles Crusade happened representing the way of Mont'ka. O'Shaserra (Commander Shadowsun) representing the way of Kauyon and Shas'O Kais representing the way of Monat (but Farsight himself said that he is very good in Kauyon and Mont'ka and was the Commander in the Kronus Crusade of the Dawn of War Games). Puretide was only a teacher and the Tau were desperate and used an invention to "download" the mind of Commander Puretide and create a super strategic A.I. and than be duplicated and inplanted in every drone or battlesuit. Farsight was forced to do this to his old master and killed him in the process of downloading his vast knowledge. When the Puretide A.I. was enabled the Imperium of man was struggling on every frontline and getting outsmarted by the A.I. but when the Imperium of man found out, that the Tau dont know about the existence of the Warp and Psyker and still dont believe in it, they used psychics on crucial frontlines and "broke" the A.I calculations since it does now know how to handle such an impossible factor.
@@Pdudi Psykers. The word your looking for is Psykers
@@Pdudi In which case they will never truly understand the warp because they are not one with it. Its a point of contention I always wonder about, do they not suffer from rampages of psykers of the human worlds they take over? The imperium routinely takes those who are worthwhile and kill those who are not, whilst this is done organically by the arbites many a imperial citizen may not want to kill their new born child and when they're gone (arbites) do the citizenry say hey can you hunt down these dangerous mutants and kill them? Every standard cycle thousands of psykers are born on any single imperial planet if not tens or hundreds of thousands for hive worlds and the blue berries don't ever suffer from their rampages as they through their own inexperience tear rents in the immaterium allowing demons to come forth? If this hasn't been already addressed I feel like its a huge plot hole.
@@KillerOrca Yes thank you
Guardsman: *arguing in the afterlife about how he should get to be revived.*
Emperor of Man: “Hold up, hold up, why should you get special privileges while every other guardsman, space marine, commander, and even primarchs stayed dead?”
Guardsman: “I got killed by a fucking Tau.”
Emperor of Man: *understandable, that’s some serious bullshit*
milions of casualties...
kriegs: pathetic
Absolutely lost my sides when it said “With titans at the spearhead”
"A small force"
@@jackcrossems A small *IMPERIAL* force
A small imperial force
@@Himars_Oclock really sums up how big the imperium is if that’s considered a small force
we need one for the Tyranid invasions
🤔🤔🤔
@@danielgarza1209 I would like to have one for the Damnos Necrons who fucked up the ultramarines
@@Pdudi that’d be great honestly 🤣
Yes
You mean like the time that the Blood Angels had a Pyrrhic victory against the Tyranids invading Baal?
When people argue that the Imperium lost millions of soldiers during the Damocles Gulf Crusade, people should start replying that the Tau lost billions of civilians.
On land? There were at most 20'000 guardsman there. And fights in space were... less than impressive on Tau part. I doubt Imperial casaulties reached a single million.
@@kronos661 and even then in a couple of years they could have triple the number of guardsmen lost in the crusade
The Tau casualties are completely wrong it shouldn’t be anything more than like 50million.
@@samiwanski5000
Colombia alone on our Eart has around 5'800'000. Loosing (even tens or hundreds of) billions civies in interstellar genocidal war is realistic outcome.
@@kronos661 realistic numbers for men lost in 40k doesn't really happen.
In WW1 you could lose 20000 in a day in a single big push.
Most the British lost was 57000 in a single push not counting the enemy numbers.
I would say to have realistic numbers just add like 00 to the end of the guards numbers
Me friend the Trekkie: The Dominin War is one of the bloodiest sci-fi wars
Me:
Even the small wars in 40k dwarf most other sci-fi wars in terms of death count, but especially Star Trek.
I'm pretty sure most major sci-fi wars are bloodier than anything star trek can send to bat, but that's what you get from a sci-fi universe where the hippies won.
If Star Trek and Warhammer met most factions would be blips on the map compared to the imperium.
I can't even imagine how bad it would be if the Federation was forced up against the Imperium.
@@Nostroman_Praetor Imagine how horrified they would be if they encountered the Daemons of The Warp. Something that according to their beliefs would be illogical and couldn't possibly exist, but yet they would be there, face to face with beings far beyond their comprehension.
the imperium is like a pissed gorilla
no amount of fancy gadgets cant be out done with brute force
Literally how the necrons feel. “We have the ability to snuff out stars and remove their very presence from reality, and they wipe out our tomb worlds with chemically propelled weapons!?”
And then, several centuries later, the Tau's new neighbors the Death Guard drop by for house warming presents.
Nurgle is truly a caring and loving neighbor.
@@yuriski1 Gifts for all the good little Tau boys and girls.
Admittedly Nurgle is the best suited to fighting the Tau after Khorne due to their combat doctrines
@@Rageknight901 Iron Warriors or Alpha Legion would EZ played Tau in their own game (ranged combat and Stealth stuff)
Papa Nurgle's pox box
Millions of guard lost for CC’ing every tau around. Fear the flashlight, the shovel, and the bayonet
the holy trifecta of the guard
the shovel
the flashlight
and the bayonet
Fear the wall of guns!
Meanwhile the Tau were at it again. The second sphere of expansion was taking place and they were annexing countless systems in the eastern fringes. When the imperium found out they went mad. They made for the Damocles Gulf backed by a crusade sized force and started killing every single tau they found. No mercy was shown. No quarter given. The imperium would settle for nothing less than the complete destruction of the Tau.
A man of culture
Back to the source!
Fish face federation builders... *shudders*
"The imperium would settle for nothing less than the complete destruction of the Tau."
they failed at that though.
@@4958Hammie because of the fucking Tyranids which ranks a bit higher in the priority of Xenos needing killing. In fact the Nids are probably the most dangerous Xenos given their sheer numbers.
I love how the Imperium only stopped because they had better things to do
This video is misleading, the Tau did very well in the Damocles crusade and had many victories ! Normally, the imperium came there to exterminate them, but the tau were much more powerful than they anticipated, so they retreated, rather than continue the fight.Basically, it was a draw, but a big win for the tau, because the initial idea of the crusade was to exterminate them, but they survived.
Billions of dead T'au versus millions of dead guardsman is hardly what I would call a draw.
@@lexlex44 it was hardly a crusade, more a well equipped scouting party 🤣
@@lexlex44 “you survived the gun fight, but you got shot three times, you will have permanent damage, and you lost a finger. But it’s a win for you because you survived! The other guy definitely won’t show up again at some point!”
@@lexlex44 Near the end of the crusade, the Empire SMALL force send to the Damocles Gulf was unable to advance and asking for reinforcements. Then they were asked to abandon it to fight the tyranids.
The T'AU where basically trying to build new ships and arm new troops praying to their greater good the empire doesn't make another push, because they were left with basically nothing but half a fleet and a 1/3 of a standart defense army to defend their core worlds. If the Empire will not had the tyranids invasion and receveid the reinforcement they asked for, which was another SMALL force, the T'AU will have been anhilitated. Basically they were saved because GW didn't want them destroyed. So no, it wasn't a victory and make the T'AU a trauma so deep and their "empire" so damaged that took several centuries to recover, and someone like Farsight to make the T'AU finally engage the Empire again. And even then, that victory cost Farsight his sanity and his loyalty to the T'AU.
Hardly what I call "a victory".
Now, imagine the tau tried to talk shit pre heresy and the emperor wasn’t having any of it.
They were literally banging rocks together to make fire back then.
They were like 15 on the planet trying to find food lol
@@ludovicrondy936 actualy, at that time, the tau have not even evolved as a species properly, they started going out of caves about 6k years before current canon (explained when a tau encountered a dreadnought)
I love this comment and the one under it
THE EMPEROR WENT MAD
"The day the Imperium of Man fought you in the Damocles Gulf, it was the most destructive year for your species. For them, it was just another Tuesday"
-some rando from the Ordos Xenos
Tau:We have scary mechs
Imperium:*War horns that shatter the lenses on the high tech tau equipment*
*Imperator titan approaches.*
Mechanicus: “You where saying”
Also the Tau during the imperial invasion of Dal'yth:
- Copy the brain of legendary commander Puretide
- Have the copies override the minds of some of their best commanders.
- All the commanders turn into robotic Puretide clones that execute the same tactics in a counter attack against the imperial forces.
- Psychers are deployed by the imperial forces.
- Since Puretide had never encountered weaponized psychers all the "clones" have a meltdown because they could not handle this unpredictable situation.
- The Imperium retakes ll lost ground and defeats the Tau forces easily.
- The Ethereals withdraw all the "clones" and act as if it wasn't a massive fuck-up.
Imperium deploy psycic-titans
@@orange8420 That didn't happen.
What makes this even funnier is that Tau don't think imperial titans are real at least the big ones that they are just propaganda and am guessing at least 1 was deployed or at least I hope because that would have been hilarious
You need to stop getting your lore from memes. Multiple titans were deployed during Damocles.
The instant one was destroyed they refused to operate without air cover. In one of the Farsight books it’s outright stated that the Tau consider Marines more dangerous because Titans are slow and predictable whereas Marines are much more mobile.
@joshwenn989 but it wasn't a meme. Tau legitimately thought the imperium was lying about the sizes of the Titans they had, and thought it was pure propaganda.
With a force that small, I seldom call it a Crusade.
It was a reconnaisance force at best.
🤣🤣🤣 This reminds me of the steiner scout assault lance.
It was only named a crusade at the insistence of the Space Marines commanders.
Tau players: tHeY hAd TiTaNs AnD aStArTeS
Imperium players: No no, don't worry they were warhounds and Raven Guard successors
@@jackcrossems Wasn't even a chapters worth. Let's throw what the Imperium fielded during the 3rd war for Armageddon at the Tau and see what happens.
@@seandlax9 The Tau would have no chance lol
Tell when he realized that mountains a giant War machine "well fuck I guess we all die now"
I was using speaker tell is Tau
Ah.. the best part about Warhammer, im so tired of Aliens invading and destroying our planet and shit and we have to barely fight back. Why can't WE be the bloodthirsty aliens and invade shit.
I do not know why but whenever I hear about Tau losing battle/war/campagin I laugh really hard.
They were some of the most bullshit OP faction in the game so seeing them taken down a peg is satisfying.
@@gluever54 not anymore, small board sizes and more terrain punish them hard
>when your armed forces get outsmarted by Orks
@@Aconspiracyofravens1 By "punished hard" you mean, have the only thing that works taken from them. From first in tournaments to nowhere, does that sound like a faction with many options? Triptides was shit, but it should have been replaced by combined arms game-play. Something fun for both the player and the opponent. Instead they've been euthanized.
To the giddy squealing of autistic 15 years olds still seething years after being tabled on turn 2 by a guy with 3 riptides and approximately 9,000 drones. The irrational hatred of one very particular faction is just retarded. "They don't fit the themes of the setting" is a dogshit excuse for the sheer quantity of vitriol people seem to have for the Tau.
@@metaljugger They don't tho, they don't suffer from the warp, even the orks suffer from the warp as they travel through it. The tau have their OP tech that just nopes around that. They don't do any bad shit at all besides kill non compliant worlds until they comply, even minimal stuff like force sterilizations of worlds they take they don't do. They don't have any internal strife from the worlds they capture, rebellions, psykers going ape shit and causing demons to flood their worlds, corruption leading to any sort of conflict amongst themselves. Its all happiness, rainbows and puppies in tau commie space. Nothing ever goes wrong, which in the setting where if everything is going good you have to ask the fuck is tzeentch planning? The answer is nothing, nothing happens to the tau and occasionally you get them updated on the imperial hit list.
Don't tell me you wouldn't look at fluttershy from my little pony being in Dragon Ball Z and ask yourself, why?
The funny thing, is that the Tau don't believe the warp exists at all, meaning that worlds without imperial protection are defenseless against Chaos. The imperium is doing a good thing.
Yeah Imaging the tau seeing chaos space marines exit from a warp portal
They know it exists, but since they don’t have psykers, they view it simply as a sidelong dimension filled with weird destructive aliens.
@@chilling4533 they did, morty passed their space to reach ultramar
The tau's protection from the warp is whats going to make them xenophobic in the long run
someone should make an unbiased history of the imperium.
You can't even make a biased history of the Imperium, what with so many things being lost during Old Night and all the Edicts of Obliteration that have been ordered, not to mention everything censored by Inquisitorial order.
It kinda already is biased af in the lore and many stories which are written from Imperium's perspective.
@@henrykkeszenowicz4664 Write it from the point of view of Chaos.
@@katamariroller2837 To be completely unbiased, honestly, write it from the Harlequins’ perspective.
@@breadmoment7018 Nuh uh, itz da orks wif da most un-bye-assed uhpinion in da galaxy. Diz cuz we gets ta krump evry git the WAAAAAAAAAAGH!!! passes by.
i love how the empire saw bugs as more of a threat than the space weebs
They are by a huge margin tbf.
@@Tom_Cruise_Missile they absolutely are probably up there with the Ruinous Powers for the biggest threat to the Imperium.
Space trex with sharp sword kind of arms and acid blood no shit ma'am
I always love these types of fiction where human is technologically advanced aggressor as opposite to those alien invasion movies.
@Neb plasma weapons, void shields, gellar fields and supersoldiers are quite advanced tech, the inperium has simply been forced to dumb most of this advanced tech down to be as simple as possible, both out of nescessity and because the mechanicus takes progress for heresy
Except Avatar
Avatar fucking sucks
@@Fulcrox i enjoyed it personally, was just kinda cringe ať a few points
@@tomasmisek5598 i enjoyed it because i watched it on the cinema and the CGI and effects we're top tier
But correct me if years later You didn't think "Damn son, this was literally a copycat of Pocahontas with weird aliens and a legless simp"
@@Fulcrox ya
Tau is so bad in CQC they literally have to hire parakeets/chicken mutants to do it for them.
You mean their ancestors?
@@taOGrimace nah he’s talking about the kroot
It's gotten worse with the death guard and world Eaters
@@khahinmetameta7826 i mean now they got breachers and their pulse shootgun can blast space marine
@@aethewulf4787 chaos marines got a lot more backing then their imperial counterparts daemons it will be even worse if the thousand sons pay the tau a visit
People arguing that the Imperium lost heavy casualties obviously don't understand how the Imperium usually fights anyways.
In Gothic armada I usualy lose a ship or two and all fire escort vesels. Yea, knowing lore wise how many are on those ships and the crusers and this is through all sectors under attack, they still manege to replenish no prob, well the bodies that is.
@@jekabsojarsulskis9740
Literally every Imperial navy ship
vessel have probably Milion
of people or metropolitan city size
people aboard aside with the official crew, Some stated
that the Battleship of Imperial Navy can aboard the entire population
of Brazil or Indonesia at once
@@rahadityap2375 not sure most part of the crews are human, let's not forget most task are executed by servitors. Most of them arn't conting as human anymore.
I forget is this also where the Dark Eldar step in while the Tyranids were still about and said "how about an alliance and exchange?" Which the tau sent several "ambassadors" only for those several to return as horrible monstrosities thrown to go fight the bugs, which then the Tau learned after the battle and the Dark Eldar super-ravaged their own planet while the Tau weren't looking?
The War of Dark Revelation, love when the Dark Eldar fuck with the T'au and when they invaded the Kroot homeworld and made art out of the dead.
Tau lament in The billions lost.
Imperiu-no everyone else: *first time?*
The Tau are almost wiped out, with billions of civilian casualties.
To the Imperium, that's Tuesday.
Almost wiped out? Last time I checked, we lost a few minor worlds and stalled the Imperium at the one major world they came across.
@@confusedperson9723 true when they got to Dal'yth it was stalemate but yeah they "smashed" tau
@@aethewulf4787 In an empire the size of the tau, billions of casualties and any worlds lost, is a pretty critical loss, especially when considering that this "crusade" was basically a minor expedition force. The only reason the Tau are still a thing, is because they're too insignificant for the Imperials to dedicate the required resources to take them out, while they've got other problems like a tyranid hive fleet or a massive chaos incursion to deal with.
Speaking of hive fleets, how are the tau doing with that tiny tyranid splinter that's nomming on their worlds? :P
Correct me if i am wrong, but where not most of those civilians former imperials?
Converts that the Imperium lost first?
And the Imperials still don't have a foothold on the Tau side of the gulf while the Tau has on the Imperial side?
@@antonscott1585 Aye, but A: the imperium doesn't really care about expanding into Tau territory as it has better things to do. B: The Imperium has about as positive an opinion of the Tau as they are capable, considering they're still xenos. Which is also why none of the Tau planets got exterminatused. C: The Tau and the the Imperium have been at war for less than 300 years, which to the Imperium is nothing.
Look, if the Imperium actually decided to take the Tau seriously and eradicate them they could.
Instant classic
Tau: "Our expansion was calculated.......
And boy are we bad at math"
He sailed for Judea with TWELVE LEGI-oh wait, wrong story.
EDIT: I require more unbiased Warhammer parodies
when your defeated by a technologically backwards, overstretched, and crumbling galactic empire
It is, to be fair, a technologicaly backwards, overstretched ans crumbling galactic empire that is 100% geared for war and has been for the last 10000 years and is also the size of an entire galaxy
@@tomasmisek5598 fair
Best fucking video about the damocles crusade, nice job
For some reason one of my father's guards showed me this and was laughing uncontrollable
As a T'au Commander, I can say that this is exactly what happened. Dozens of Gue'la mfs dabbing while closing the distance beetwin them, and our lines
Gonna send this to any Tau player who tells me their faction could actually win a war with the Imperium.
Well since the Cicatrix maledictum formation, Tau have been doing pretty well against imperial shit 😄
@@artusyeddou5792 Wait until the imperium actually starts caring
@@TheHandofDestiny At this rate, it’s not the Imperium the Tau have to worry about. They were just about to shave that last little bit off of the razor’s edge they were walking and be worth a full-blown extermination campaign when Abbadon showed Cadia the power of flex tape. Now, the Imperium is even less of a bulwark against the dangers of the galaxy for the Tau. Where once the forces of Chaos, Orkz, and Tyranids had to slog through (or, get distracted by more likely) dozens of imperial worlds, each armed with PDF, naval detachments, and astropaths to scream for help before they could threaten Tau space.
But now? The number of Imperial worlds around them is dropping faster than ever, and the chances that a planet their grooming falls to chaos or gets nommed by ‘nids is growing exponentially. It’s only a matter of time until Tau worlds start looking worthwhile compared to the remaining imperial scraps along the Eastern Fringe.
@@pretzelbomb6105 The Tau exist outside of imperium space on the eastern fringe, nearly every war the Tau have faced has come from the east, with no Imperial influence. Ork WAAAGH!'s, Necron Tomb awakenings, a whole Tyranid hive fleet, the Tau have survived them all with no help from the Imperium. They'll do just fine.
@@lilgeezums The average apocalypse is going to hit the Imperium before it hits the Tau. With the Imperium unable to rebuild it’s outermost territories, this leaves fewer and fewer distractions. Raids, splinter fleets, and partial awakenings are one thing, but once Hive Fleets, Waaaghs, and Chaos Incursions start becoming the norm, the Tau will have to rethink their entire way of warfare.
Nothing like spilling Tau and traitor blood in the morning
My favourite moment was when the Imperials saw the Ice world as a negligible gain, they bombarded the ice fields around the cities and caused them to sink into the infinite ocean underneath
In all seriousness though, after Taros and Damocles are there any other major engagements between Imperium against Tau? Feels like after the whole Tyranid threat thing the imperials just forgot about the Taus.
Shit, wouldn't you? The Space Bugs of Death are much scarier than a bunch of weird NazBol blueberries.
There's the currently ongoing war in the Nem'yar Atoll (The Tau's lastest expansion into the dark Imperium) Tau are winning but the Imperium is making them hurt for it.
There was a conflict with the Farsight Enclaves in which a Tau fleet led by Commander Farsight was to recapture all the lost worlds that the imperials decked on. From what I read it was a costly endeavor but the Tau did win and the Enclaves were secured….for abit before the orks decided to do some fuckery there.
Aaagh after reading the other comments, to this day basically, yeah. I mean between that and the Imperium getting assblasted by Abaddon, Tau expansion would seem pretty negligible 🤷
They might very well have, lol.
Imagine unironically being an alien civilization in a Mankind vs. Chaos setting
Orks are pretty cool though but not sure they count as "civilization"
@@Nordique777 they don't
I would like to live in a WH40k universe just to see Tau reaction to Titan walking towards them... :-D
It's called a Stormsurge, and despite the fact that they suck on the tabletop, they were invented entirely to obliterate Titans and Titan-scale Tyranids. They almost always succeed.
@@SarajevoKyoto He meant the first time the T'au saw a Titan.
@@11Survivor Oh I'm sure that would've been interesting, "why is that building moving? Aw crap, this is gonna suck."
small imperial force, Y E S
My favorite 40k video
Everybody spam “SUFFER NOT THE ALIEN TO LIVE” in chat
Imagine a single battlefleet from Indomitus coming across the Tau. They'd be gone in a week. Pfftt..
All the virgin Tau players get up in their ass when anyone mentions Damocles, chad Tau players promptly ignore and talk about the micro Hive Fleet that was “beaten” instead.
When someone mentions Damocles I just laugh because yeah, we got fucking curb stomped into the ground
@@dutchdoggo the Imperium regularly abandons wars when it doesn’t their interests. Now, beating even a splinter Tyranid fleet is a mark of prestige.
@@Archer-1453 they want more interesting enemies
@@comradekenobi6908 idk if “more interesting” is entirely accurate. The Tau at Dal’yth had managed to grind the (albeit small) crusade to a standstill, something that rarely happens, even with “smaller” forces of the Imperium.
@@Archer-1453 so? In military All offensives manuvers eventually lose their momentum at some point
Lots of arguing in this, but its a good example of the sheer power of the imperium, what was a small fighting force was able to massively devastate the Tau forces, say what you will, but both the Tau and Imperium were adapting to each other in this conflict, figuring out each other weaknesses and strengths. The Tau were unprepared and caught off guard but fought bravely, the Imperium was not equipped to wage a war of conquest but of destruction their goal was to destroy the Tau not conquer them. Then the Hive fleet arrived and more important things happened. This crusade highlighted to the Tau that the imperium was a serious threat and could no long be ignored as it was before and so they adapted and changed their tactics. This is good story telling, the Tau like the Federation of star trek NEEDED to get Kicked in the ass HARD, so they would realize what the galaxy is really like and allow them to be a continuing faction that evolves with the story and has a reason to stick around and not be wiped out by some major faction, Because now they can see what they will go up against!
The way the imperium fights is basically how the romans fought. It doesn't matter how many battles they lose eventually they will win the war with sheer numbers.
All that from what the Imperium thought was a SMALL force. Bruh.
I always wonder what the Taus allies told them about Mankind (as several of their allied races have prior contact with humans) and how that would have effected things. It seems to me the Tau thought the Imperial Frontier worlds were all they could expect from Humanity.
My guess is the Kroot thought it would be funny.
Look, imagine some overreligious dude tells you thag somewhere far away there are Giant god machines and angels of death
You wouldnt believe
Of course Tau were informed
They just didnt believe
Supposedly they were informed of Titans by human defectors, but didn't actually believe them.
I wonder what they thought about them when the Titans actually showed up
Even now the tau has nothing in their arsenal that can stand toe to toe against a battle titan.
The Tau may have one thing that can stand against a Warhound but not anything bigger
why stand toe to toe against it when you can bomb them to shit with mantas and tiger sharks? the concept of titans is stupid as shit when you take space warfare into consideration.
**Laughs in Manta Bombardment** No
Then the Imperium realized the Tau were developing fast to encounter the Imperium in the Taros Campaign.
That's more plot armor than anything else.
@@kingjonstarkgeryan8573 Literally straps Naval Railguns onto Aircraft, Adeptus Titanicus: Oh shit
That whole campaign is tiny compared to the grand scale of things, I'm hoping typhus comes back and kicks the tau's ass again
Tau: adapts
Imperial Simps: PLOT ARMOR !!!!!!!!
Imperium : survive whole fucking hive fleet because Indomitus Crusade arrives just in time to save the day
Imperial Simps: no problem 🤓
@@artusyeddou5792 They really do be clowning. The amount of Tau hate from simperials is just boring at this point. Don't they have a "totally dangerous and insurmountable" hivefleet/waaagh/tombworld to go beat without any problems?
i somehow read gulf as golf and only saw it was gulf after the video, i deadass thought this was gonna be a golf joke at first
My god, that was just THAT much of a slaughter!?
Feels bad man.
Sadly builds new battle suits
What'd'cha get? I just picked up a Coldstar myself
@@danielgarza1209 BRO I’m so excited because I’m waiting on a R’varna I managed to snag on EBay and a commander R’alai from FW, but it’s gonna be a month at least for them to get here because the coof and UK government don’t like reasonable shipping times.
I have a crippling addiction, I am Ash Ketchum for Tau, I gotta have at least one of everything.
Tbf the Tau DID force the Imperium into a stalemate on Dal'yth Prime, but boy oh BOY was the Damocles Crusade a wake-up call for the Tau.
When your existence is so pitiful that the Imperium doesn't even need to wipe you out with large numbers
Honestly that thumbnail is amazing
You talk or your greater good while I have a CHAINSWORD!
That’s what you get when you don’t engage in glorious melee battle
more please :>
Now this kids is why you don't mess with the Imperium.
> deploy a fuckton of troops
> nuke a bunch of planets
> get stalled
> have to run because oh shit something else happened
> leave behind a bunch of soldiers who get recruited
> they also learn your tactics and steal technology
> fail to wipe out a tiny empire with a vastly larger and more experienced force
haha yeah totally
Gotta lose resources and underestimate the opponent to fight to a stalemate, then act like the winner because you could totally beat them if you cared enough but you don't haha totally seriously we could do it....
...To own the noobs.
Mean while on the other side of the galaxy, hungry bugs go chew chew.
“He’s already dead!”
No one mentions this is the least effective and most wasteful "crusade" (that wasnt even really a crusading force in the first place)
@@BleedingProxy00713 in two days the number of people lost could easily be replaced by planets such as Terra or Necromunda
@Ban this youtube Tell that to the imperium who clearly don't see it that way
Within decades, the tau had recovered and then some. I like the idea that in a corner of a galaxy where everything suffers from gigantism and nonsense numbers with no stakes, there is a "little engine that could" story of a empire on the rise, where shit like this actually matters. Its a breath of fresh air from the spiky space cathedral edginess that everything else has stained all over it like its an aesthetic prerequisite.
The truth is the Imperium doesn't care at all, that the whole point. They are too massive, backwards and stupid to notice that the tau really do need to be completely destroyed. But they won't be, and that will cost the imperium in the long run.
@@metaljugger A wise man once said, you can do everything with a bayonet, except sitting on it. And that's exactly what the Imperium is doing. All those worlds turned against the Emperor just because they understood that life in the Imperium is meaningless, and the human impulse to grow, heal and thrive cannot exist within Humanity. How sad it is that humans have to assimilate into an alien empire to even feel like they are truly alive. Eventually, either the Imperium crubles, or it transforms itself into a more T'au-like society. Chaos runs rampant in the Imperium precisely because of the violence and repression that Humanity operates with. It'll be their own downfall.
@@metaljugger You think Tau works ? They are enslaved. They didnt face anything the Imperium has.. if the Imperium falls then you are next. You think you will survive a hive fleet ?a full hive fleet ? How about the orks ? Or chaos ??
Tau is not a good empire that works.. its just young and it will get fucked sooner or later.
They are also grimdark as fuck in many ways.
If the God Emperor actually is revived or if Guilliman wants you guys dead you will die. No technology will save you from mankinds wrath.
This is a certified hood classic
I would imagine taking a xenos player, this would be pretty depressing. But I mean, my guardsmen aren’t complaining.
Fairly sure that the tide was starting to turn by the time the imperium pulled out. Heck it’s called the Damocles gulf crusade, not the Tau crusade, the imperium didn’t even make it to the well defended stuff.
Oh Tau, they better shouldn't existence at all...
Sound of sawblade slicing through flesh...
Imperium: It was a small expeditionary fleet
Tau: tHeY hAd 8 LeGiOnS oF mArInEs AnD tItAnS!
Imperium: don't worry, it was some warhounds and Raven Guard successors
If the inperium had 8 fucking legions, the tau would be long gone before the threat of the tyranids could save them
Imperium: Tau weak. big bugs scary
Farsight enclave: *nearly wipes out an entire hive fleet then shows up to kick the teeth out of imperium forces at Mu’galath Bay*
Yes coz plot armor and the fact that gw want to sell tau model
Gotta have 1 cool Tau. And even then, it's pretty much only because of his spooky vampire sword.
Its only because Farsight engages in *G L O R I U S* melee combat
Smallest hive splinter ever recorded, is called a hive fleet because tau.
@@janehrahan5116 cope
That art at the end....i like it sorta looks like a mix of the ncr ranger from fallout and 40k
"Operation Hydra"
uh oh
U H O H
@@goctexas1444 Hell no, I AM Alpharius
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
or maybe not
this is pure gold, thank you for this
The Tau should invest in Bolos, a dozen of them would have sufficed to wipe out this small crusade. Not that I can expect them to imitate one of mankind's strongest weapons.
The T'AU: Remember Damocles war as one of their most important moment of their history, and remembers the sacrifice of their people to hold against the all mighty empire and won the day despite...
The Empire: Damocles, you say? With a capital D? Wait, I will search in the lower levels of the archives... ... ... Ah yes, here it is. *small encounter and skirmish with an unkown xenos force*
I feel like there was at least one Inquisitor from the order Xenos that did the blob fish "augh!" Sound by the end of the crusade XD
Bruh calling 19 IG regiments, 8 SM chapters, and A TITAN LEGION a "small force" is the Steiner Scout Lance meme all over again
Glad I'm an Imperial
To be fair It's small on Crusade size
The only reason this was called a crusade was because the "elements" not full chapters of space marines demanded it be called one.
Dude that is a small force, Vraks had more forces on it, and it was a city with a population smaller than Britton.
Notice there were no Sororitas, no Skitarii Cohorts, no Knight Houses, a pathetically small fleet even by the standards of the Battle Fleet gothic video game. No Rogue Traders profiteering off supplying the "Crucade", and a grand total of 900 marines despite 8 chapters being involved.
And per the lore the Commander kept asking "where the hell are my forces? The Breaching force has secured the foothold, we need my Crucade force so we can finish this." And his answer was just "nom nom nom".
One year later and your comment made me check out the Steiner memes.
Thank you good sir for leading me to much joy.
@@Khobotov NP, Mechwarrior's a cool universe. Tho I with to GOD they'd done something a little better than the paper cards thing.
(that and a game with 40k scaled infantry + battlemechs for glorious true table top warfare.)
To put this in perspective: 19 IG Regiments were deployed for this crusade
There were 34 regiments deployed for the Siege of Vraks
More Guard regiments were deployed for a siege of a single planet than this offensive into Tau space
Yeah but also Imperium had extra a colective numbers of Space Marines from the begining, including the whole chapter of the Scar Lords (Chaptermaster was imprisoned by the Tau) and several other chapters, supported by the Ultramarines 8th Company (Thier capitan got KIA), while on Vraks Space Marines were less numerous and came in later stages of the Siege.
Vraks was also a fortress planet - designed to hold the attackers, while the Tau worlds the Imperium captured during the Damocles Crusade were just a small border planets not prepared for the invasion, and yet still many times the attackers were almost anahilated by the defending Tau Fire and Air Cast, making the victories even less worth the price, especialy if we concider the time that Imperium put in both campaigns (Damocles Crusade lasted for just a 3 years, Vraks was almost several decades long siege)
On the planet of Gel'bryn during the Operation Pluto T'au were not only able to hold the Imperium but also destroyed several Titans, Kroot mercs were able to get rid of the veteran guard units, and the Crisis Battlesuits managed to hold off Ultramarines, Iron Hands and the Scythes of the Emperor. And this was only a small part of the T'au forces.
Even infamous Hydra operation was comparable to the phyrric victory in WW1, with Imperium throwing everything they had on the Tau, and all they get was extra 5 miles of front. And what the Imperium done with that extra land ? Started to evacuate themselfs as fast as possible, due to the Lord Commander realization that the forces he had were to weak to bring the world down, even despite the presence of the Titans, Space Marines, and the Inquisition, who started bitching about the retreat. But then Fidius Kryptman called for the fight against Behemoth, so they had to shut up.
Yes this is about right, but i think they had too few troops tbh.
Damn, scooter did a hawa nagila cover...
I missed that...
That’s what you get for being lawful good in warhammer
Who will win?
Advanced and cybernetically enhanced smurfs?
Or
Wall of bois with flashlights
Wait, I was under the impression that the crusade was a stalemate. By the time the crusade was called off, the imperium had been ground to a halt. Even if that’s not the case, the Tau weren’t even close to annihilation, which was the primary goal. Even if it was going in that direction, which I’m fairly sure it wasn’t, it would have still taken decades of work.
Because the bugs started to appear more numerously, and the Crusade forces were nearby. Either way, the Tau learned in very short order why you do not fuck with mankind.
0:26
When master of melee comes in
Strongest chapter and my favorite is Black templars Thank’s to God emperor we don’t have librarians so we can’t be corrupted by chaos
Actually melee / run n gun combo will f*ck any alien race and heretics
Khe khe
Hey u can have librarians and not be corrupted. From the grey knights tomany other chapters too.
Love how the Imperium thought fighting bunch of bugs was much more important than fighting space weebs and just left
To be fair it actually was. Tau are a joke while the bugs are a problem
The astartes drop-podding onto Dal'yth would've been a glorious sight...not to mention the mountain-sized, cathedral-decorated planetary murder-bots stomping in. Did the Death Korp show up on that one?
Are the Tau still alive? Yes? Then you can be sure there were no Kriegers involved
Aaaaaand yet the Tau still slowed the Imperium down long enough for it’s attention to be drawn by a bigger threat and give it room to recover, breathe, and adapt. (Hint: the Damocles Crusade is why the Tau specifically developed weapons to kill titans)
Say what you will, but not going extinct or suffering total collapse is still a victory in itself.
They still got saved by the Nids
Considering almost every faction has a world killer armament besides the Tau, I don't think that'll last long
@@stephendorantes4167 You don’t need a special super duper shooter to kill a world. Just drag a large enough asteroid into one, or spread enough nuclear missiles to saturate the world in radiation. You know, easily kill all life on a world without having to build expensive super bombs.
Its more that the Imperium just had more pressing things to do. The Tau are nothing compared to the Tyranids, Chaos and the Orcs. For the moment at least.
@@AdeptKing one could even argue EVER. Maybe they might be able to just sideswipe the orkz at some point, but, I don't think they'll ever be able to touch the forces of chaos or the nyds.
Someone need to make this into a series
This is still my favorite meme, despite the actual events maybe not being so one sided as the video would suggest, because it demonstrates quite beautifully how ridiculously bloated the power scaling in 40k is