What I really loved about the book is how extensively it covered campaign preparations and all the politics involved when the Imperium assembles a force.
Actually loads of the IA books are like that a good half of the Badab War happens before the actual war really gets going. It's all politics over tithe requirements.
@@ArbitorIan I know, but Taros specifically lays out how exactly a lord commander is appointed, how he selects his stuff and the way non-munitorum forces are petitioned. I like how it goes through all the admin stages of actually initiating the campaign instead of only giving the reasons why it is fought. My memory may be lacking and there's more stuff in the others.
Holy shit holy shit holy shit This is a series I have been PRAYING for. The Great War channel but for a fictional campaign in the 40k universe. Please, please do more!
@@Andy_Sidaris arch is the channel you should run away from as far as possible. not even because he basically reads of the wikipedia page but mostly because he's a fucking neo nazi there's a reason he cannot call himself arch warhammer anymore.
This is why I love Imperium/Tau stuff. The Tau want to expand but can't do so to the point that they'd get the Imperium's full attention so they have to dance on the knife edge of being _just_ strong enough. It makes for great storytelling.
It's always fun to think that the Tau are giving a larger percentage of their resources to their conflicts with the Imperium. The Imperium barely registers the Tau as a threat.
@@1926jqg we'll yea the tau deliver a higher percentage, but in the end the imperium put more of there resources into the battle, which is what makes it work, after all, underdogs are cool, but more importantly the underdog gets to fight his heart his heart out, the guard get to throw numbers at a problem, and everyone's happy
I don’t really see it as a vehicle for good storytelling as it is highlighting how nowadays you can’t wipe out a faction and the ramifications of one faction being unable to suffer any loss of significance makes for boring conflicts on the surface and at a certain deeper problem. The Imperium can’t lose a whole lot, and the Tau can’t lose a whole lot either. It’s a lot of meaningless conflict that is mostly just masturbatory ego stroking for either side. For example, Aun’va’s death means practically nothing in the long and even short run. The Imperium losing planets also means nothing since they come back to take the planets or exterminatus them.
Yeah, it's REAL politics, not just warblargarble CHAOSTYRANIDS. And I don't mind the existential Lovecraftian threat within 40k lore, but it gets old. Real political conflicts remind you that the Imperium and (some of) its enemies are real people. It's a baseline for the crazier elements.
One of the best things about the Imperial Armour series is the battle photos using models from realistic in-universe perspective. Seeing troops fighting from destroyed wrecks of Chimeras in the Desert is so Gulf War - very immersive.
I like how the Tau didn't immediately give up when the ethereal died, but instead did their mourning then basically said "Our mercy died with Aun'vre". As the feint light in the grimdark universe, I don't mind Tau losing at times, being sequestered into a small corner of the galaxy by forces ten times as large and infinitely more ruthless, but it's always nice to see the arrogance of the Empire get humbled by the "filthy xenos freaks" and their "heretical betrayers" who just wanted a better life for themselves.
one of my favourite 40k war stories, mostly because it includes no magical warp beasts and over the top fantasy stuff, just a cool military campaign that reminds me a lot of World War 2 in North Africa with some sci fi and aliens in it...thanks for the images they really drove home the atmosphere and feel of the story and extra cudos for crediting the artists :)
Agreed. I don’t care for any Warp or demons or anything magic. Give me the raw stuff. This book is so good. I got it on PDF but I’ve been looking to buy a physical copy.
Love seeing Tau material! Being 1% of the strength of the imperium but having 0.01% of the territory makes them a small fish on the Galactic stage but a juggernaut in their own neighborhood. Such narrative potential!
Fun fact, the number of titans lost during the campaign has long ago been retconned to two: one during the incident described in the video, and the other one destroyed during the retreat by an Hammerhead's headshot. This was the exceptional debut of Shas'la Shan'g "Longstrike", earning him the respect of the Fire Caste entire and the title "Titan Slayer".
18:40 This is the part where it is impossible for me to say the Imperium are the good guys. Instead of accepting a deal that would benefit both side, the General had to "keep it real" as the kids would say and caused the death of thousands of his men and the loss of the entire campaign... for nothing!
@@ArbitorIan so what you want to say is that Tarokeen is the unofficel child of Tattooine and Arakeen? Ah i love 40k and there must be some bloody magpies from the blood ravens in the GW writing team
I mean, it’s pretty much Arrakis/Arakeen inspiring Tattooine (and it’s many places starting with “Mos”) inspiring Taros/Tarakeen… So many times Dune, SW and 40K feels like the same story told by 3 different point of views it gets funny. If I would think of hypothetical exemples, it’s like you had the Point of View of: A respected and scholarly career journalist and researcher, a former hippie baby boomer who somehow wanted to mix Flash Gordon with Kurosawa and some cynical brits coming up with a setting during the age of The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, stylistic cult hyper violent comics and other counterculture works made to mock the Thatcherite/Tory policies of their times. Totally hypothetical figures of course. Merely illustrative.
I love this version of the Tau, honourable and willing to work with others, I hope they don't change them to be more like the other factions and allow them to keep their difference
@@torinodeguzman4243 As a tau fan it has been brutal lol. Some of the stuff I enjoy, but apparently a rampantly imperialistic caste based nation isn't evil enough for 40k, gotta add some cartoonishly evil shit
If only they were even allowed to be even that. No, now all Tau are good for is being shown as consistently being inferior, scummier and/or stupider than the imperium.
@@jekanyika It has been years. 4th Sphere, Kroot rebellion (4th Sphere), evrn Shadowsun and the 5th went after their allies for a time, mostly destroying tempkes, until she saw use in the new cult.
Now that you’re covering the Imperial Armour narratives, it would be amazing if you’d make a video on the Anphelion Project. Probably the most underrated Imperial Armour book and my favourite of the bunch - Guardsmen trapped in a science facility infested with Tyranids; it’s Aliens in 40K!
The Tigershark AX-10 is just too reasonable for 40K. Putting titan-killer weapons on a mass produced strike fighter completely invalidates Titans. As a Tau enjoyer, I love it.
It's pretty awesome that the "wimpy" T'au have altered official Imperial policy on fielding Titans via rather brutal displays of how jaw-droppingly stupid they are in actual warfare.
So glad you covered this. The Imperial Armor books are fantastic in general, but as a Tau fan Taros is special. As you said, it's the perfect small-scale conflict, and I would love to see more stories like this in 40k.
If you're a Tallarn fan, the Taros Campaign is a pretty significant conflict to explore. One of the elements of Real Life war that fiction often misses is the scramble for resources. War is a hungry beast, and must be fed, lest the army grind to a halt and die. And few resources are more vital, and more crippling to be without, than water. Especially in a desert, where the heat leeches moisture from your body without respite or pity.
If you're a Tallarn fan, that's is THE WORST camping for you, because Tallarns suddenly forgot how to fight in desert and huge part of their equipment is... disappeared
@@Stanislav292 Their equipment didn't really "disappear". It was deliberately taken out by the Tau. There was that whole bit about cutting off supply lines. Just because Tallarn are good at desert fighting, does not make them immune to enemy action. Cut off supplies - especially water - and ANYONE will struggle. (Also, pretty sure part of Tallarn tactics involved use of tanks. Which were destroyed in large numbers. Saying they "forgot how to fight in the desert" is like saying Kriegsmen forgot how to do trench warfare when someone stole all their shovels.)
@@Bluecho4 you just didn't understand what I said, thing is tallarns didn't noticed pathfinders I desert when they were able to detect eldars some time ago, couldn't detect stealth suits when they have to have auspex in each platoon and auspex CAN detect stealth suits, they forgot how to aim while fighting hummerheads and other stuff and of course their commander chose longest distance from their task to have supplie lines too long, etc. I just wanted to that I'm sick of GW making humans look dumb. I understand that IG isn't the strongest force in univers and I'm OK with their losses but I'm tired to see their stupid mistakes and that they lose all the time or win with only tactic of "we have more man than you have bullets" I'm sick of it P.S. they didn't have their equipment from beginning, GW just wanted to make them look worse than tau that's all Have a nice day
I don't think that's a problem unique to the IG, it happens with ALL the factions, suddenly forgetting they have such and such or can use such and such. That said I never was a fan of the auspex, it feels like a contrived plot device that's basically a anti-fun detector, rendering much of the cool tech pointless like cloaking technology. As for the eldar, I chalk that up to yet again making the sopposedly intelligent, powerful eldar who have the freakin best SPACE magic users are made to look like inept fools just to make someone else look badass, and this is nothing new nor unique to just them though it definitely happens to some more than others. (when's the last time loyalist SPACE marines were handed a humiliating defeat?) That all said, just because the tallarans are experts at desert fighting doesn't give them magical powers like not needing water or food to survive, they're still humans and just because they specialize in a certain kind of warfare doesn't mean they automatically should win ever conflict they're involved in that employees their skills, *a faction is allowed to loss at its own game from time to time, they DO NOT have a monopoly on victories in that game.* And besides, who's to say the t'au can't have their own experts at fighting in desert or arid environments, their own home (or cradle) planet is pretty arid and dry itself, funny enough they'd probably have alot in common with the tallarans in regards to knowing alot about the rigors of desert life. (atleast t'au from well...T'au the planet and other dry worlds in their interstellar empire)
@@navilluscire2567 space marines defeat: Everything connected with tau(except Sikarius) I mean white scars, raven guard and etc. Could you tell me last Tau's BIG/humiliating defeat? Answer is: you can't because there NOTHING like this because tau have biggest plot armor in warhammer. And for this phrase: "just to make someone else look badass"... Dude really???? GW making from IG stupid degenerates ALL THE TIME and that's a simple fact. If compare races by this condition IG have biggest problems with this any other race cannot compare with them... unfortunately((( Especially Tau P.S. I don't have problems with IG losses, I just hate when this is SO ONE-SIDED. And warp-spiders are pretty cool though BTW eldar sorcerers know their work and they don't that many losses like IG. Eldars have an outstanding lore with some stable victories. I think there is no reason to say that someone made them look stupid BUT I can feel your pain after talking with eldar fans and he told me that just one chapter(1000 space dudes in bigass armor) destroyed ENTIRE SHIP-WORLD!!!! Even for me, human fan, that's just... too much
Every great campaign for the Tau is a minor operation for the Imperium/Orks/Tyranids. I very much need to read this. I think it'll give me just the right motivation to "finish" my Farsight Enclaves force.
Love the homage to Arrakis/Dune, Tarrokeen is very similar to Arrakeen in the Dune and there is a lot of inspiration in this great book back to the Dune universe
Would love to see more animated videos like this, maybe one on Armageddon or something like that, there's not enough videos like these for 40k, I know Janovich recently did the Siege of Vraks but I think more battle analysis/animated maps videos are definitely a huge content opportunity for 40k content creators
I loved these imperial armour books. I just find the military history style of presentation and focus on limitations from requisition and logistics to be much more immersive and compelling that GW's more usual epic/heroic style. Thanks for the refresher!
The Tau strategy during this campaign is brilliant. Let the Imperials land, then draw them into the desert with hit and run attacks. And once they get bogged down in the desert, finish them off.
One of the attractive points of the Tau is how practical and realistic they feel in comparison to the modern battles in the gulf wars. A lot of real world veterans find familiar ideals and themes in the Tau, despite their more 'anime' artistic style.
The other modern conflict reference in there is the Tiger Shark AX-1-0 is clearly a reference to the Warthog A-10. X is the Roman numeral for ten. The Tiger Shark and Warthog both have massive front firing guns.
Cool story. I like that they put so much backstory into the logistical buildup and all the little complications that real armies have to deal with. It makes it so much more engaging than just "SPACE MARINE SHOOTY PEW PEW!"
Except that the space marines did NOTHING, how do the 300 year old super elite unit not have aircraft? Nor did they secure the water plant which is A CLEAR objective, not to mention these marines are FAR superior marksmen than any tau can dream.
I agree, but I also like that it doesn't completely abandoned the more fantastical elements of 40K! Like they still have Titans stomping around in the desert and space marines being space marines. Not to mention the one man army assassin with a bomb in his chest
I really wish they'd reissue these old books like they've done with the realms of chaos books at Warhammer world. It's great having digital versions but there's something about having the physical versions!
I have physical copies of both editions of The Taros Campaign. I know the long descriptions of logistics and planning around limitations can seem a little dry, but they help the campaign feel "grounded" in a way that the big epics about personal heroics don't always sell as well. I also really appreciate a lot of the pictures made for this book, with models painted and posed for the purpose, done on little dioramas with drawn backgrounds, framed in the book as though they were photos taken by an Imperial war chronicler documenting the front. That also helped to make it feel grounded.
I love this. By killing the Tau Commanding figure, their ranks didnt fall into complete disarray. Instead they just abandoned their adherence to the desire for taking prisoners and hardened their resolve to fight without the intent to capture. At that point, the Imperium sealed its own doom.
Hello good sir, I hope that you are having a wonderful day. I just want to let you know that I am a night shifter here in the states working lots of long hours. I just want to say that I appreciate your content you're very thorough it's very well done. And I cannot wait for more. Thank you again keep up the excellent work.
I wish more 40k stuff was like this. 1.) the imperium are objectively the bad guys here. starting a war because the locals had a peaceful trade deal 2.) the dysfunctional internal politics. love to see the space marines refusing to do shit that's beneath them. 3.) the focus on logistics and maneuvering over 'the good guy punched the evil guy so hard he exploded and all the other evil guys gave up the end' though I have to wonder how the fuck the cadians were one of the available regiments. Isn't Cadia on, like, the far side of the galaxy?
I know I'm a little late to the party here, but Just wanted to point out that the Taros campaign depicted in Auronautica is not the same as the one from this book. It is actually a sequel to Imperial Armour 3 and covers the second attempted reconquest of Taros years latter. It is an interesting read I would recommend for anyone who loved the IA book, and does a decent job linking the Taros campaign up to the wider conflict going on in the 3rd sphere expansion. Anyway loved the Video and all the other IA recaps keep up the good work!
I've owned this book since the original release. Thanks for reignited my interest in my T'au. Now I need to find a guard player to have some narrative games against!😅
There is another World War 2 reference, Operation Comet was the previous plan to Operation Market-Garden, the airborne assault on the Rhine in Holland in 1944.
I've picked up a few of these campaign books as a result of your previous video. They are without a doubt the best Warhammer stuff I've read (WFB 3rd edition army book aside of course, love that book).
As a Tau player I have this book and it was awesome. I managed to get some of the units from forge world as well, I wish GW would do similar ones as playing campaigns are amazing and keep people playing
A series on the various wars and battles of Imperial history would be awesome. You could probably start with the Imperial Armour series but then move onto infamous battles like the Wars for Armageddon or the War of the Beast. You could even do smaller ones on individual battles of the Horus Heresy like Calth or Phall.
really enjoyed this. The moving maps, pictures from the books and the editing was great. I would love for you to do similar with other published battles. Often its the siege of vrakks that gets a lot of detailed analysis while the other imperial armour stories are overshadowed
hearing this story reminds me of the real world Battle of Hattin between the Crusaders and Saladin's forces. The crusaders were baited to make long trek in the desert, while being harrassed by the Saladin troops. eventually, thirst and exhaustion took their toll and the Crusaders were badly defeated there.
I love the imperial armour books they do such a great job on grounding the universe and it’s failings. I wish I could help out on patreon to keep this content coming, you do a wonderful work with these!
all the battles with all the marines and cool tanks are nice but sometimes its good to just get a look at all bits before and after. Logistics and politics and movements. This sort of stuff gives the conflict a real feeling and really outlies the stakes and losses. Thanks for this Ian, would love more!
Love to see this kind of content! I find it hard sometimes to find lore videos that are both informative and entertaining, and don't just read like a slideshow or audio book. Keep up the great work!
This is a really great history, and I especially love your conclusions/analysis at the end! Would love, love, LOVE to see you cover more of the Imperial Armour books. The Anphelion Campaign would be another fun small conflict, and your format would be *great* to cover the Siege of Vraks!
Yeah, the Taros Campaign book is awesome, I really love how it prefectly shows how the Tau prefer to fight. Hit & run with their superior ranged capability, tactical withdrawals rather than trying to hold insignificant ground, ambush supply lines. They know full well the immense manpower and resources of their many opponents would prevail in a head-on brawl, so instead they choose to fight smart and frustrate their opponents until they make mistakes.
@@navilluscire2567 problem is, if you make the tau competent then the guard would also have to be, especially units like the Tallaran. Again the water plant example cannot be understated that they would NEVER fail in capturing that, not to mention that they had 200 astartes that never help on a planet victory capture.
The Taros book is a very bitter-sweet thing for me. On the one hand, it was my first IA book, and it blew my mind. Its a true coffee table book, and just gorgeous to thumb through, and it led to me getting the next few in the series. That change of tone, making the 40K universe more 'modern', really helped to also make it more real, and there was a lack of the traditional 'the Marine strode across the battlefield, bullets bouncing off his armour, and he took out the squad with a swing of his chainsword'. I just spent hours looking through pictures of the armour alone. On the other hand, we were working on the initial force lists for Epic Armageddon at the time, and FW took one of our WIP Tau lists and included it in this book without credit, and as a WIP it clearly was not as balanced as it should have been.
Except that the space marines did NOTHING, how do the 300 year old super elite unit not have aircraft? Nor did they secure the water plant which is A CLEAR objective, not to mention these marines are FAR superior marksmen than any tau can dream.
... I wonder if the ship Lord Ravanor is in any way related to Ravenor, or if it's just a coincidence of similar looking and sound names. It's a galactic empire, after all.
What a great video! Thank you. I've actually read this book, but it was a long time ago ) Do you have other Imperial Armour campaigns reviews? Couldnt find it on the channel.
I have a first edition Taros Campaign book on my shelf; it's a treasured part of my collection and a great read. (I really should get around to finishing my Tau Protection fleet soon... they've been half-finished for an embarrassingly-long time.)
I love hearing about pre-"backlash" T'au lore. Taros, Damocles, Fire Warrior, that's the good stuff. Back when GW knew they had to sell model kits and thus give every faction wins (and losses) in the narrative.
Y'know what's fun but in a really sad way about that backlash stuff. Even after GW caved to the loud, "grimdark" gatekeeping fanboys and made the t'au more obliviously "grimderp" (because fuck subtlety!) I guarantee you that those very same whiners still didn't or won't play the t'au i.e. the t'au got shafted just to please a bunch of self-important jerks and it didn't even significantly boost the sales of the tau's models or books, not with *"the edgy cool kids".* (though GW's horrible pricing MAJORLY doesn't help things at all ) And to top of it of, the t'au even after trying to fit in with the grimdark ""mainstream"" club either gets shit on in the media or portrayed as clueless idiots because GW had to partake in the t'au hate circlejerk themselves as a frankly desperate attempt at pleasing a bunch of edgy fanboys, because it wasn't enough for the t'au to have the audacity to not participate in the most grotesque grimdark practices like other factions, no they should be made to suffer immensely for their sopposed hubris until the galaxy implodes in on itself! (lets ignore the other factions pessimistic hubris or self-righteous hubris right?) But anyway I just think it's sad how in trying to appease someone who hates something by making that thing more like everything else it turned away many others who liked that thing to begin with.
Stories like this are why I wish more wargames incorporated the need for supply lines in their actual rules. So much of wargaming is about "tabling" your opponent while the much more satisfying, and real-to-life victory condition of cutting off an opposing force and surrounding it is left to abstract "objective markers".
This is great. I actually had this book when it originally came out. Tau have always been my favorite 40k faction, so it's fun to see them get some mentions on this channel
Not gonna lie, the imperial armour volumes, to me are a big selling point for wh+. I wonder why they don't promote that they are on there more vocaly. I have a physical copy of the taros campagne but never got around to buying the others. This is legit the first time i even cosidered a wh+ subscription.
I remember this book coming out and the reading of it for the first time. I loved the story and all the intricate parts to it. I still have the original and still enjoy reading it even now. The presentation of the pages is lovely tooo
Totally brilliant video, tight, focused and full of info. I love these little campaign stories and I agree that sometimes 40k does well when it dips into real life. Operation Comet obviously took lots of inspiration from Operation Market Garden in WW2.
The failed Emperial attack on the Hydroplant reminds me of WW2 Operation "Market Garden" And guess what, the real Market Garden was a Revised version of another operation named "Comet" 🤔😊😉
This is one of my most favorite books from warhammer 5th edition, I remember poring over the pages and battle plans and playing the missions with friends, I loved to play the tau side of these engagements, it really felt like playing and reading a historical account, I love hou this recap sparks these memories and brings me back to that time!
[Spoiler] absolutely love it when the imperium gets their ass handed to them. Also this style of video is amazing, I hope you do more of these, these may be my favourite type of warhammer lore videos
I love it, could´ve been 2h long no problem.. I love to paint along. Can´t wait if you would do the Mymeara (Loved the book) or the true nightmare of Vraks!
I loved this story, the entire time though it started off like First Gulf war then the author kind of switched it during the tank battle where the battle of 73 easting etc the Tau had the Abrams and the imperium had the t 72s
What I really loved about the book is how extensively it covered campaign preparations and all the politics involved when the Imperium assembles a force.
Actually loads of the IA books are like that a good half of the Badab War happens before the actual war really gets going. It's all politics over tithe requirements.
@@ArbitorIan I know, but Taros specifically lays out how exactly a lord commander is appointed, how he selects his stuff and the way non-munitorum forces are petitioned. I like how it goes through all the admin stages of actually initiating the campaign instead of only giving the reasons why it is fought.
My memory may be lacking and there's more stuff in the others.
Yup. I am reading it now and it goes through every meticulous detail. It’s crazy.
Yes i love when they do this
Holy shit holy shit holy shit
This is a series I have been PRAYING for. The Great War channel but for a fictional campaign in the 40k universe.
Please, please do more!
If you like this kind of in-depth, tactical examination of 40K conflicts, Janovich has a Siege of Vraks series over on their channel.
I didn't know you were a WH40K fan
Arch is the channel you are looking for
@@Bluecho4Arch has a much better Vraks series
@@Andy_Sidaris arch is the channel you should run away from as far as possible.
not even because he basically reads of the wikipedia page but mostly because he's a fucking neo nazi
there's a reason he cannot call himself arch warhammer anymore.
This is why I love Imperium/Tau stuff. The Tau want to expand but can't do so to the point that they'd get the Imperium's full attention so they have to dance on the knife edge of being _just_ strong enough. It makes for great storytelling.
It's always fun to think that the Tau are giving a larger percentage of their resources to their conflicts with the Imperium. The Imperium barely registers the Tau as a threat.
@@1926jqg we'll yea the tau deliver a higher percentage, but in the end the imperium put more of there resources into the battle, which is what makes it work, after all, underdogs are cool, but more importantly the underdog gets to fight his heart his heart out, the guard get to throw numbers at a problem, and everyone's happy
I don’t really see it as a vehicle for good storytelling as it is highlighting how nowadays you can’t wipe out a faction and the ramifications of one faction being unable to suffer any loss of significance makes for boring conflicts on the surface and at a certain deeper problem. The Imperium can’t lose a whole lot, and the Tau can’t lose a whole lot either. It’s a lot of meaningless conflict that is mostly just masturbatory ego stroking for either side. For example, Aun’va’s death means practically nothing in the long and even short run. The Imperium losing planets also means nothing since they come back to take the planets or exterminatus them.
Yeah, it's REAL politics, not just warblargarble CHAOSTYRANIDS. And I don't mind the existential Lovecraftian threat within 40k lore, but it gets old. Real political conflicts remind you that the Imperium and (some of) its enemies are real people. It's a baseline for the crazier elements.
@@TarotNathers Yeah, almost like warhammer is a SETTING and not a story with a definitive end, unless GW wants to stop making money.
One of the best things about the Imperial Armour series is the battle photos using models from realistic in-universe perspective. Seeing troops fighting from destroyed wrecks of Chimeras in the Desert is so Gulf War - very immersive.
I like how the Tau didn't immediately give up when the ethereal died, but instead did their mourning then basically said "Our mercy died with Aun'vre".
As the feint light in the grimdark universe, I don't mind Tau losing at times, being sequestered into a small corner of the galaxy by forces ten times as large and infinitely more ruthless, but it's always nice to see the arrogance of the Empire get humbled by the "filthy xenos freaks" and their "heretical betrayers" who just wanted a better life for themselves.
Couldn't agree more.
I agree. I don't mind the Imperium loosing at times too. It's something that happens. Same for the Fourth Sphere Expansion.
one of my favourite 40k war stories, mostly because it includes no magical warp beasts and over the top fantasy stuff, just a cool military campaign that reminds me a lot of World War 2 in North Africa with some sci fi and aliens in it...thanks for the images they really drove home the atmosphere and feel of the story and extra cudos for crediting the artists :)
Tau vs. IG is like the scene in legend: “I came here for a proper shootout, with proper gangsters.”
Agreed. I don’t care for any Warp or demons or anything magic. Give me the raw stuff. This book is so good. I got it on PDF but I’ve been looking to buy a physical copy.
Love seeing Tau material! Being 1% of the strength of the imperium but having 0.01% of the territory makes them a small fish on the Galactic stage but a juggernaut in their own neighborhood. Such narrative potential!
Fun fact, the number of titans lost during the campaign has long ago been retconned to two: one during the incident described in the video, and the other one destroyed during the retreat by an Hammerhead's headshot. This was the exceptional debut of Shas'la Shan'g "Longstrike", earning him the respect of the Fire Caste entire and the title "Titan Slayer".
18:40
This is the part where it is impossible for me to say the Imperium are the good guys. Instead of accepting a deal that would benefit both side, the General had to "keep it real" as the kids would say and caused the death of thousands of his men and the loss of the entire campaign... for nothing!
Yes, I couldn’t agree more. The Imperium is so wretched and horrible.
I know the whole setting is in itself a Dune reference but Tarokeen is quite on the nose even still.
I mean if you look at the illustrations of the capital it's also definitely Tattooine!
Pop culture references!? In my Warhammer 40k?!?!?
@@ArbitorIan so what you want to say is that Tarokeen is the unofficel child of Tattooine and Arakeen? Ah i love 40k and there must be some bloody magpies from the blood ravens in the GW writing team
I mean, it’s pretty much Arrakis/Arakeen inspiring Tattooine (and it’s many places starting with “Mos”) inspiring Taros/Tarakeen… So many times Dune, SW and 40K feels like the same story told by 3 different point of views it gets funny.
If I would think of hypothetical exemples, it’s like you had the Point of View of:
A respected and scholarly career journalist and researcher, a former hippie baby boomer who somehow wanted to mix Flash Gordon with Kurosawa and some cynical brits coming up with a setting during the age of The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, stylistic cult hyper violent comics and other counterculture works made to mock the Thatcherite/Tory policies of their times.
Totally hypothetical figures of course. Merely illustrative.
40k is notorious for these shenanigans, there's lots of examples of them "borrowing" from other settings by just changing a letter on the name.
I love this version of the Tau, honourable and willing to work with others, I hope they don't change them to be more like the other factions and allow them to keep their difference
Gw: Yeah, about that........
@@torinodeguzman4243 As a tau fan it has been brutal lol. Some of the stuff I enjoy, but apparently a rampantly imperialistic caste based nation isn't evil enough for 40k, gotta add some cartoonishly evil shit
@@Mario-tj8nu I'm not up to date with the lore, what happened?
If only they were even allowed to be even that. No, now all Tau are good for is being shown as consistently being inferior, scummier and/or stupider than the imperium.
@@jekanyika It has been years. 4th Sphere, Kroot rebellion (4th Sphere), evrn Shadowsun and the 5th went after their allies for a time, mostly destroying tempkes, until she saw use in the new cult.
The way i was waiting for "the taros campaign starts with the unification wars on terra"
This is incredible, Ian's editing is so strong
Now that you’re covering the Imperial Armour narratives, it would be amazing if you’d make a video on the Anphelion Project. Probably the most underrated Imperial Armour book and my favourite of the bunch - Guardsmen trapped in a science facility infested with Tyranids; it’s Aliens in 40K!
Great book
You're not gonna believe this...
The Tigershark AX-10 is just too reasonable for 40K. Putting titan-killer weapons on a mass produced strike fighter completely invalidates Titans. As a Tau enjoyer, I love it.
It's pretty awesome that the "wimpy" T'au have altered official Imperial policy on fielding Titans via rather brutal displays of how jaw-droppingly stupid they are in actual warfare.
So glad you covered this.
The Imperial Armor books are fantastic in general, but as a Tau fan Taros is special. As you said, it's the perfect small-scale conflict, and I would love to see more stories like this in 40k.
Woo! Loved the Badab War video, a series like this would be awesome.
Absolutely!
Agreed
If you're a Tallarn fan, the Taros Campaign is a pretty significant conflict to explore.
One of the elements of Real Life war that fiction often misses is the scramble for resources. War is a hungry beast, and must be fed, lest the army grind to a halt and die. And few resources are more vital, and more crippling to be without, than water. Especially in a desert, where the heat leeches moisture from your body without respite or pity.
If you're a Tallarn fan, that's is THE WORST camping for you, because Tallarns suddenly forgot how to fight in desert and huge part of their equipment is... disappeared
@@Stanislav292 Their equipment didn't really "disappear". It was deliberately taken out by the Tau. There was that whole bit about cutting off supply lines.
Just because Tallarn are good at desert fighting, does not make them immune to enemy action. Cut off supplies - especially water - and ANYONE will struggle.
(Also, pretty sure part of Tallarn tactics involved use of tanks. Which were destroyed in large numbers. Saying they "forgot how to fight in the desert" is like saying Kriegsmen forgot how to do trench warfare when someone stole all their shovels.)
@@Bluecho4 you just didn't understand what I said, thing is tallarns didn't noticed pathfinders I desert when they were able to detect eldars some time ago, couldn't detect stealth suits when they have to have auspex in each platoon and auspex CAN detect stealth suits, they forgot how to aim while fighting hummerheads and other stuff and of course their commander chose longest distance from their task to have supplie lines too long, etc.
I just wanted to that I'm sick of GW making humans look dumb.
I understand that IG isn't the strongest force in univers and I'm OK with their losses but I'm tired to see their stupid mistakes and that they lose all the time or win with only tactic of "we have more man than you have bullets" I'm sick of it
P.S. they didn't have their equipment from beginning, GW just wanted to make them look worse than tau that's all
Have a nice day
I don't think that's a problem unique to the IG, it happens with ALL the factions, suddenly forgetting they have such and such or can use such and such. That said I never was a fan of the auspex, it feels like a contrived plot device that's basically a anti-fun detector, rendering much of the cool tech pointless like cloaking technology. As for the eldar, I chalk that up to yet again making the sopposedly intelligent, powerful eldar who have the freakin best SPACE magic users are made to look like inept fools just to make someone else look badass, and this is nothing new nor unique to just them though it definitely happens to some more than others. (when's the last time loyalist SPACE marines were handed a humiliating defeat?)
That all said, just because the tallarans are experts at desert fighting doesn't give them magical powers like not needing water or food to survive, they're still humans and just because they specialize in a certain kind of warfare doesn't mean they automatically should win ever conflict they're involved in that employees their skills, *a faction is allowed to loss at its own game from time to time, they DO NOT have a monopoly on victories in that game.* And besides, who's to say the t'au can't have their own experts at fighting in desert or arid environments, their own home (or cradle) planet is pretty arid and dry itself, funny enough they'd probably have alot in common with the tallarans in regards to knowing alot about the rigors of desert life. (atleast t'au from well...T'au the planet and other dry worlds in their interstellar empire)
@@navilluscire2567 space marines defeat: Everything connected with tau(except Sikarius) I mean white scars, raven guard and etc. Could you tell me last Tau's BIG/humiliating defeat? Answer is: you can't because there NOTHING like this because tau have biggest plot armor in warhammer. And for this phrase: "just to make someone else look badass"...
Dude really???? GW making from IG stupid degenerates ALL THE TIME and that's a simple fact. If compare races by this condition IG have biggest problems with this any other race cannot compare with them... unfortunately(((
Especially Tau
P.S. I don't have problems with IG losses, I just hate when this is SO ONE-SIDED.
And warp-spiders are pretty cool though
BTW eldar sorcerers know their work and they don't that many losses like IG. Eldars have an outstanding lore with some stable victories. I think there is no reason to say that someone made them look stupid
BUT I can feel your pain after talking with eldar fans and he told me that just one chapter(1000 space dudes in bigass armor) destroyed ENTIRE SHIP-WORLD!!!! Even for me, human fan, that's just... too much
Every great campaign for the Tau is a minor operation for the Imperium/Orks/Tyranids.
I very much need to read this. I think it'll give me just the right motivation to "finish" my Farsight Enclaves force.
Love the homage to Arrakis/Dune, Tarrokeen is very similar to Arrakeen in the Dune and there is a lot of inspiration in this great book back to the Dune universe
This, this has quickly became one of my favourite episodes of 40K lore.
Would love to see more animated videos like this, maybe one on Armageddon or something like that, there's not enough videos like these for 40k, I know Janovich recently did the Siege of Vraks but I think more battle analysis/animated maps videos are definitely a huge content opportunity for 40k content creators
I loved these imperial armour books. I just find the military history style of presentation and focus on limitations from requisition and logistics to be much more immersive and compelling that GW's more usual epic/heroic style. Thanks for the refresher!
The Tau strategy during this campaign is brilliant. Let the Imperials land, then draw them into the desert with hit and run attacks. And once they get bogged down in the desert, finish them off.
One of the attractive points of the Tau is how practical and realistic they feel in comparison to the modern battles in the gulf wars. A lot of real world veterans find familiar ideals and themes in the Tau, despite their more 'anime' artistic style.
In a universe of psychos, it’s the rational ones (Tau) that feel out of place lol
The other modern conflict reference in there is the Tiger Shark AX-1-0 is clearly a reference to the Warthog A-10. X is the Roman numeral for ten. The Tiger Shark and Warthog both have massive front firing guns.
Cool story. I like that they put so much backstory into the logistical buildup and all the little complications that real armies have to deal with. It makes it so much more engaging than just "SPACE MARINE SHOOTY PEW PEW!"
Except that the space marines did NOTHING, how do the 300 year old super elite unit not have aircraft? Nor did they secure the water plant which is A CLEAR objective, not to mention these marines are FAR superior marksmen than any tau can dream.
I agree, but I also like that it doesn't completely abandoned the more fantastical elements of 40K! Like they still have Titans stomping around in the desert and space marines being space marines. Not to mention the one man army assassin with a bomb in his chest
Clear, concise and class. Thank you Ian, I would have never gotten around to reading this so thank you so much for producing this
I really wish they'd reissue these old books like they've done with the realms of chaos books at Warhammer world. It's great having digital versions but there's something about having the physical versions!
This video was irreal, Ian. Absolute banger. For some reason I felt super excited while watching it as if I was watching a movie.
I have physical copies of both editions of The Taros Campaign. I know the long descriptions of logistics and planning around limitations can seem a little dry, but they help the campaign feel "grounded" in a way that the big epics about personal heroics don't always sell as well. I also really appreciate a lot of the pictures made for this book, with models painted and posed for the purpose, done on little dioramas with drawn backgrounds, framed in the book as though they were photos taken by an Imperial war chronicler documenting the front. That also helped to make it feel grounded.
I love this. By killing the Tau Commanding figure, their ranks didnt fall into complete disarray. Instead they just abandoned their adherence to the desire for taking prisoners and hardened their resolve to fight without the intent to capture. At that point, the Imperium sealed its own doom.
Hello good sir, I hope that you are having a wonderful day. I just want to let you know that I am a night shifter here in the states working lots of long hours. I just want to say that I appreciate your content you're very thorough it's very well done. And I cannot wait for more. Thank you again keep up the excellent work.
I love the Tao the more I hear about them. "For the Greater Good!"
The Elysians have always been stuck in my head how there’s no black library books for them blows my mind
I wish more 40k stuff was like this.
1.) the imperium are objectively the bad guys here. starting a war because the locals had a peaceful trade deal
2.) the dysfunctional internal politics. love to see the space marines refusing to do shit that's beneath them.
3.) the focus on logistics and maneuvering over 'the good guy punched the evil guy so hard he exploded and all the other evil guys gave up the end'
though I have to wonder how the fuck the cadians were one of the available regiments. Isn't Cadia on, like, the far side of the galaxy?
Cadians are very numerous. Cadia's main export and contribution to the Imperium was their professional soldiers
I know I'm a little late to the party here, but Just wanted to point out that the Taros campaign depicted in Auronautica is not the same as the one from this book. It is actually a sequel to Imperial Armour 3 and covers the second attempted reconquest of Taros years latter. It is an interesting read I would recommend for anyone who loved the IA book, and does a decent job linking the Taros campaign up to the wider conflict going on in the 3rd sphere expansion. Anyway loved the Video and all the other IA recaps keep up the good work!
I've owned this book since the original release. Thanks for reignited my interest in my T'au. Now I need to find a guard player to have some narrative games against!😅
There is another World War 2 reference, Operation Comet was the previous plan to Operation Market-Garden, the airborne assault on the Rhine in Holland in 1944.
Would love to see the Battle of Beta Garmon (Titandeath) be covered in this fashion! cant find a video covering it for the life of me.
I've picked up a few of these campaign books as a result of your previous video. They are without a doubt the best Warhammer stuff I've read (WFB 3rd edition army book aside of course, love that book).
As a Tau player I have this book and it was awesome. I managed to get some of the units from forge world as well, I wish GW would do similar ones as playing campaigns are amazing and keep people playing
A series on the various wars and battles of Imperial history would be awesome. You could probably start with the Imperial Armour series but then move onto infamous battles like the Wars for Armageddon or the War of the Beast. You could even do smaller ones on individual battles of the Horus Heresy like Calth or Phall.
really enjoyed this. The moving maps, pictures from the books and the editing was great. I would love for you to do similar with other published battles. Often its the siege of vrakks that gets a lot of detailed analysis while the other imperial armour stories are overshadowed
hearing this story reminds me of the real world Battle of Hattin between the Crusaders and Saladin's forces. The crusaders were baited to make long trek in the desert, while being harrassed by the Saladin troops. eventually, thirst and exhaustion took their toll and the Crusaders were badly defeated there.
Tau were my first army back when I played, and this was my first and last forgeworld book.
Excited to see you talk about it.
I love the imperial armour books they do such a great job on grounding the universe and it’s failings.
I wish I could help out on patreon to keep this content coming, you do a wonderful work with these!
Your fast becoming one of my favorite 40k lore story tellers. Great work
all the battles with all the marines and cool tanks are nice but sometimes its good to just get a look at all bits before and after. Logistics and politics and movements. This sort of stuff gives the conflict a real feeling and really outlies the stakes and losses. Thanks for this Ian, would love more!
Been on a deep dive with Ian's content. I LOVE how much these videos feel like legit historical events with the maps and photos of troops/artwork.
Love to see this kind of content! I find it hard sometimes to find lore videos that are both informative and entertaining, and don't just read like a slideshow or audio book. Keep up the great work!
This is a really great history, and I especially love your conclusions/analysis at the end!
Would love, love, LOVE to see you cover more of the Imperial Armour books. The Anphelion Campaign would be another fun small conflict, and your format would be *great* to cover the Siege of Vraks!
Yeah, the Taros Campaign book is awesome, I really love how it prefectly shows how the Tau prefer to fight. Hit & run with their superior ranged capability, tactical withdrawals rather than trying to hold insignificant ground, ambush supply lines. They know full well the immense manpower and resources of their many opponents would prevail in a head-on brawl, so instead they choose to fight smart and frustrate their opponents until they make mistakes.
Bigger isn't always better, infact it makes for a slow, laborious response for such larger forces, being easy pickings for a more mobile opponent.
@@navilluscire2567 problem is, if you make the tau competent then the guard would also have to be, especially units like the Tallaran. Again the water plant example cannot be understated that they would NEVER fail in capturing that, not to mention that they had 200 astartes that never help on a planet victory capture.
The Taros book is a very bitter-sweet thing for me. On the one hand, it was my first IA book, and it blew my mind. Its a true coffee table book, and just gorgeous to thumb through, and it led to me getting the next few in the series. That change of tone, making the 40K universe more 'modern', really helped to also make it more real, and there was a lack of the traditional 'the Marine strode across the battlefield, bullets bouncing off his armour, and he took out the squad with a swing of his chainsword'. I just spent hours looking through pictures of the armour alone.
On the other hand, we were working on the initial force lists for Epic Armageddon at the time, and FW took one of our WIP Tau lists and included it in this book without credit, and as a WIP it clearly was not as balanced as it should have been.
.... The scammers are getting really lazy and not even trying now!
Except that the space marines did NOTHING, how do the 300 year old super elite unit not have aircraft? Nor did they secure the water plant which is A CLEAR objective, not to mention these marines are FAR superior marksmen than any tau can dream.
... I wonder if the ship Lord Ravanor is in any way related to Ravenor, or if it's just a coincidence of similar looking and sound names. It's a galactic empire, after all.
This was your best lore video since the Badab War! Loved it!
What a great video! Thank you. I've actually read this book, but it was a long time ago ) Do you have other Imperial Armour campaigns reviews? Couldnt find it on the channel.
Heck I like Tau now
Imperial Armour lore is some of the best lore in 40k (and 30k).
I have a first edition Taros Campaign book on my shelf; it's a treasured part of my collection and a great read.
(I really should get around to finishing my Tau Protection fleet soon... they've been half-finished for an embarrassingly-long time.)
Getting better with each video, stellar improvement!
God, I love the art in these books. The photographs of dioramas using the minis just feel so cozy.
I love the smell of burning Lemen Russ tanks in the morning. The Tau don't aways get a solid win.
the taros campaign is absolutely fantastic! this video is excellent coverage of easily my favorite canon conflict in 40k
I love hearing about pre-"backlash" T'au lore. Taros, Damocles, Fire Warrior, that's the good stuff. Back when GW knew they had to sell model kits and thus give every faction wins (and losses) in the narrative.
Y'know what's fun but in a really sad way about that backlash stuff. Even after GW caved to the loud, "grimdark" gatekeeping fanboys and made the t'au more obliviously "grimderp" (because fuck subtlety!) I guarantee you that those very same whiners still didn't or won't play the t'au i.e. the t'au got shafted just to please a bunch of self-important jerks and it didn't even significantly boost the sales of the tau's models or books, not with *"the edgy cool kids".* (though GW's horrible pricing MAJORLY doesn't help things at all )
And to top of it of, the t'au even after trying to fit in with the grimdark ""mainstream"" club either gets shit on in the media or portrayed as clueless idiots because GW had to partake in the t'au hate circlejerk themselves as a frankly desperate attempt at pleasing a bunch of edgy fanboys, because it wasn't enough for the t'au to have the audacity to not participate in the most grotesque grimdark practices like other factions, no they should be made to suffer immensely for their sopposed hubris until the galaxy implodes in on itself! (lets ignore the other factions pessimistic hubris or self-righteous hubris right?)
But anyway I just think it's sad how in trying to appease someone who hates something by making that thing more like everything else it turned away many others who liked that thing to begin with.
Most competent imperial invasion
I’d love to see the same for Mymeara campaign
Stories like this are why I wish more wargames incorporated the need for supply lines in their actual rules. So much of wargaming is about "tabling" your opponent while the much more satisfying, and real-to-life victory condition of cutting off an opposing force and surrounding it is left to abstract "objective markers".
Great video Ian. Really enjoy these campaign videos. Great breakdown and editing between pictures and pages of the book, the short excerpts etc.,
This is great.
I actually had this book when it originally came out.
Tau have always been my favorite 40k faction, so it's fun to see them get some mentions on this channel
Not gonna lie, the imperial armour volumes, to me are a big selling point for wh+. I wonder why they don't promote that they are on there more vocaly.
I have a physical copy of the taros campagne but never got around to buying the others. This is legit the first time i even cosidered a wh+ subscription.
I remember this book coming out and the reading of it for the first time. I loved the story and all the intricate parts to it. I still have the original and still enjoy reading it even now.
The presentation of the pages is lovely tooo
The extra little fluff bits like the diagrams and the details were my favorite parts, I love stuff like that
Great Video! I love how all the pictures are done with real models :) I had been meaning to catch up on this book.
Totally brilliant video, tight, focused and full of info. I love these little campaign stories and I agree that sometimes 40k does well when it dips into real life. Operation Comet obviously took lots of inspiration from Operation Market Garden in WW2.
This is really good , great work man !
Great video. The maps were a great touch.
I see that Taros continues the long-standing desert planet tradition of having your capital have the name of the planet with -keen stuck on at the end
Please do more of theeese!
The failed Emperial attack on the Hydroplant reminds me of WW2 Operation "Market Garden"
And guess what, the real Market Garden was a Revised version of another operation named "Comet"
🤔😊😉
This book is why I started playing 40k, and is a proud part of my collection as well as being why I have a Tiger Shark
Love the video and narration on the campaign. Excellent job summarizing the campaign into a digestible video.
This is one of my most favorite books from warhammer 5th edition, I remember poring over the pages and battle plans and playing the missions with friends, I loved to play the tau side of these engagements, it really felt like playing and reading a historical account, I love hou this recap sparks these memories and brings me back to that time!
Pitch meetings are solid, love the short comedy stuff for the community
The other imperial armour books need videos like this one! Nice work.
“The Master of the Administratum signed an edict listing the Planetary Governor’s crimes (over one hundred, most punishable by death)” LOL
I really hope you go into the Damocles Crusade. Hearing about the tau is always great.
This is one of the best pieces of 40k lore. For me personal favourite.
Absolutely loved this video and will devour any more content covering a Campaign like this!
I always like to say: the Astra Militarum represent 20th century warfare, the T'au represent 21st century warfare.
This is why you're one of the best 40k guys on the platform, Ian!
[Spoiler] absolutely love it when the imperium gets their ass handed to them. Also this style of video is amazing, I hope you do more of these, these may be my favourite type of warhammer lore videos
I would love more of these as a series, I would love your take on more of this style of content, perhaps, a Siege of Vraks?
This is really cool! Love the maps used for unit deployment.
I will definitely be giving that Imperial Armour book a read after watching this, great video!
I love it, could´ve been 2h long no problem.. I love to paint along. Can´t wait if you would do the Mymeara (Loved the book) or the true nightmare of Vraks!
AWESOME VIDEO!!! Would love to see the other forgeworld campaigns/books covered in this manner!
These campaign videos are my favorite.
I loved this story, the entire time though it started off like First Gulf war then the author kind of switched it during the tank battle where the battle of 73 easting etc the Tau had the Abrams and the imperium had the t 72s
I bloody love 40K. Great video, I would love to see more of these campaign stories!