Did You Know: The Tau were once an ally of mankind?

[SteviEboY]

um the imperium of man is the imperium not xenos

You do also get IG fighting along side the Tau

GW Online : Warhammer 40,000 : Tau : Tau Human Auxiliaries

GW Online : Warhammer 40,000 : Tau : Cleanse the Xenos

[Boombaye]

The human auxiliaries are humans turned to tau, not the original IG
I was wrong at 1 place: Humans do sometimes fight with Tau.

[SteviEboY]

Read the link again.

They are troops from Imperial forces left behind during the Damocles Crusade. Rather than kill them the Tau gave them the option to join the Tau Empire.

[MaximillianWeisemann]

Originally Posted by Jonny Sly

Y It was only because victory was nearly impossible

Well, Tau can't afford long campaigns and war of attrition, so they were going to break.
And, there's also one very important point one should not forget, during the Damocles crusade, the Tau fleet was just overwhelmed, outgunned and outnumbered by the Imperial Fleet. If the Imperium would have pushed further, they'd have cut the Tau ground forces from their supplies and reinforcements while pouring more and more Imperial forces to the grounds.
Another fact, at this time the Tau had nothing that could actually harm the machines of the Adeptus Mechanicus: the Titans.

But, since then, they've learned the lesson and the Earth Caste has worked a lot to improve the vessels and their weaponry, this has been noticed on Taros (Imperial Armour 3) where they fielded many prototypes or new variants (including the twin linked heavy rail-gun TigerShark bomber which brought a Warhound Titan down)

So, during the Damocles Crusade, the Imperium could have won, it would have taken some time, but that's what Crusades are planned for.
Nowadays the same process would be a lot harder.

[PurpleDrink]

Well i know this is off topic, but then why did the imperium not suceed in the crusade? I looked up some info on wikipedia, but im not sure how reliable it is so im not going off that.

[Palladin47]

The Tau and Imperium declared peace when the Behemoth Tyranids attacked the Eastern Fringes. They still mantain an uneasy neutrality with each other, despite wars they still have.

[Palladin47]

Originally Posted by PurpleDrink

Well i know this is off topic, but then why did the imperium not suceed in the crusade? I looked up some info on wikipedia, but im not sure how reliable it is so im not going off that.

The 'nids needed more attention than the Tau did.

[GoldsteinsBook]

I was just wondering, are the Tau given that Chinese motif (with their music and unit accents) only in the Dark Crusade game, or was it always prevalent in the W40K universe? I ask because I think that fits very well with their whole universal harmony theme. Plus, the Tau word for humans is "gue'la", which sounds a lot like "gwailo", the derogatory Chinese word for the white man (literally "ghost man"). Just a thought.

[Flakor]

Fact: At one time the Imperium and the Tau were in fact "Allies". In fact, one time a Space Marine Commander (I want to say a guy from the Imperial Fists) was invited to see the Fire Warriors training. He wasn't impressed, then again he wasn't very nice to Xenos...

[Glazer]

Ya, I don't think the Tau and the Imperium were ever allied, however, it wouldn't be unheard of if the two allied with eachother in times of great need, like when the Eldar and Imperium allied in DoW and WA. However, both of those alliances ended in bloodshed between the two sides.