What If The Death Guard Successfully Invaded The T'au Empire? - 40K Theories

Shortly after the launch of the T’au Empire’s Fifth Sphere of Expansion, the forces of the Death Guard traitor legion threatened to invade the very heart of their domain, only to mysteriously disappear whilst travelling through the Startide Nexus. But what could have happened if the Heretic Astartes had actually managed to make it through to the other side?
Narrated by Naerina
/ 10dice
Intro theme and additional audio editing by Officio Audiorum
/ officioaudiorum
Additional artwork by Eliphusz, Jetstrike, jubjubjedi, Dmitrii Ustinov, Kunkka and Dimitri Bielak
www.deviantart...
www.artstation...
www.deviantart...
www.artstation...
www.deviantart...
www.artstation...
All art property of their respective owners.
Visit Games Workshop's official site here:
www.games-work...
Follow us on Facebook & Twitter & Bluesky
/ 40ktheories
/ 40ktheories
bsky.app/profi...
Support 40K Theories on Patreon or via Ko-fi:
/ 40ktheories
ko-fi.com/remleiz
Or become a channel member to get access to additional perks:
/ @40ktheories
#warhammer
#40K
#warhammer40k
#warhammercommunity
#tauempire
#deathguard
#spacemarines
#chaos

[@rexlumontad5644]

Death Guard: "HEY KIDS WANNA SEE A DEAD BODY?!" Tau: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

[@buenapilapil5513]

Party party party! You've got a party!

[@tomyorke3412]

@@buenapilapil5513 Thats right I just F*cked the fear turkey!

[@magpiekritik3123]

@@buenapilapil5513 Tau: (still screaming) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - The Great Holy God Emperor of Mankind: " STOP SCREAMING !!! ... YOU'RE AS BAD AS THE ULTRA-SMURFS WHEN THEY CHANT !!!!! "

[@DreadedDave]

Kroot : "BITCH I EAT PEOPLE!"

[@brandonaughtman9091]

It would be the most ideal to NOT let any Kroot whatsoever eat any of their enemies in this situation.

[@robertnelson9599]

Unlike the Tau, the Kroot have encountered Chaos and deemed them “inedible” which is apparently a really bad thing in Kroot society.

[@DISTurbedwaffle918]

​@@robertnelson9599 The Kroot probably use that word as an insult, as well.

[@EmpPeng2k7]

Tastes spicy

[@reallybig4868]

The shapers wouldnt let it happen

[@veritasome5965]

I remember an instance where just a single Plague Marine survived to make planet fall & escape into the depths of a Hive, next thing you know the place was crawling with Daemons, plague & millions of zombies. Imagine what would happen if the Death Guard forces managed to create a Daemon World in the midst of the Tau Empire, they’d be at a loss how to deal with it.

[@ridleydidnothingwrong]

I could see it becoming some kind of black site that the tau government quarantines/blockades and pretends to not exist even going as far as to delete records of it so nobody outside of essential personnel knows about it

[@MetalKing1417]

The Tau SHOULD have been invaded by the Death guard only to fight them off at extreme cost. Goddess protecting them from outright invasion seems like plot armor.

[@letmecommentstupidyoutube1338]

The Death Guard invading was never the point, T'au'va was going to be introduced anyway.

[@Subject_Keter]

Well the choas gods are the complete opposite of a mary sue in a plot armor mecha. Deadly scared of losing a thing they supposely won 8 million times with my eyes closed "bro" so it makes sense to me. Doe I would want to see Tzeen or Slap a nest poke and prod the Tau empire over Nurgle.

[@Archon3960]

Tbf, every faction in 40k other than the Eldar has it. x)

[@LutherMahoney]

Tau Va is incredibly thick.

[@PeterButchens]

...I didn't know that the Tau'va was that thicc- I mean properous.

[@inductivegrunt94]

If Nurgle gets his hands on the Kroot and their ability to acquire traits from those they consume, that could lead to Pox Kroot that could adapt and become stronger as they spread plagues far faster than before. The idea of corroded rusty XV-8 Crisis Suit does sound really cool. The modularity in its loadout would make for a very powerful and versatile Nurglite corrupted vehicle.

[@Archon3960]

Okay, now the Tau need to meet with Guilliman to get even more mindscrewed. x) - "A-Are you the Emperor?" - "No. He is my creator. I am the Lord Commander of the Imperium of Man, yet I am merely his son." - *_[Sounds of Tau mental breakdown.]_** D8*

[@Vandelberger]

I need to read Shadow Sun, but I think the firepower of the Tau is the perfect counter to the puffed up slow Death Guard. Having the Tau home world meet the demonic aspect of the Guard would be brilliant drama, but the lack of juicy soul stuff to feast on I doubt the demons would last long.

[@ComradeOgilvy369]

Firepower: an operative term to describe how I've reinterpreted "Dread Talons" to survive my planned encounter with the Death Guard on Saturday (coughs, lots of Havocs)

[@mdsx01]

Problem is that most Tau firepower tends to be energy based, which has proven to be less effective than solid ammunition against warp spawn.

[@MandoSki464]

Definitely recommend the novel. I’m not a big tau person other than liking Farsight and his enclaves quite a bit but shadowsun was a really cool novel and like with humanity’s miracles fighting against chaos, faith in the new tau goddess really helps shadowsun in combating the death guard. Plus the kroot in the novel is awesome lol

[@carlzerris6566]

@@mdsx01 I feel like once the tau commanders notice the energy based weapons arent doing so hot, they would quickly have the soilders pull out the railguns

[@MarvelousJoker.]

People are right to talk about range the tau have, but what I'm really interested in is how well they could counter the numerous diseases and plagues the Death Guard would bring. The Tau are very advanced, yes, but I wonder how much damage a virulent could cause, especially if it somehow got to an Ethereal. When you fight Nurgle leaning enemies, you're fighting more than just marines and demons, you're fighting disease too.

[@Duppyman695]

The Greater -Good- Unclean Ones!

[@Tampenismall]

“Good”

[@samualwatkins]

I am REALLY behind on my Tau lore because there are a lot of developments in this I did not know

[@rustkarl]

It’s often amusing to see the Tau be forced to tangle with the things that go bump in the dark between the stars. And especially that they got off lightly, and more to the point, lucky.

[@darkpit37]

Better question is, why haven't the death guard invaded Tau space, if they haven't? The Tau are the perfect targets for any chaos warband as well as the Drukhari. They have very little intergalactic infrastructure to deal with the overwhelming force of a chaos invasion, and their empire is too small to effectively deal with the hit and run tactics of the drukhari.

[@carlzerris6566]

I would imagine its the same reason no one invades the emapire (speaking as a tau player myself). Any invaders would get literally nothing from it and actually stand to lose alot in the process (though more because they have to divert resources to invading the empire that would otherwise be used to defend somewhere else). Chaos especially really wouldn't get much from attacking the tau. Sure the auxiliries would probably help with numbers but tau souls themselves are fairlyy dim so there just isnt any reason to attack them. Far as i know, Drukari do raid tau worlds though.

[@darkpit37]

@carlzerris6566 well with the death guard specifically, they don't really have anything to defend. The plague planet isn't really a target any more than the death guard itself are a target, plus it's a demon world, so even getting to it at all would be a huge hassle for any other factions. I suppose other traitors, maybe the thousand sons, might see the plague planet as a target, but really the only reason for that is petty squabbles between the gods.

[@carlzerris6566]

@@darkpit37 But then the question is why bother going for a tau world to turn into a plague planet and not literally anywhere else. Sure once the plague world exisits, no one is going to want to bother attacking it because it has no value to anyone beside nurgle. At least if the deathguard went for say a hive world or agri world, there would be plenty of potential converts to come out of it aswell aswell as turning the place into a demon world. The other disadvantage is that the tau dont know how deathguard usually operate so way they may see it is that the may think the plague world will become a staging ground for the deathguard to push further into tau space and just order the planet to be destroyed (not sure if they can or not but seeing as the enclaves managed to shape Tinek'la using sonics and lasers they are probably in with a shout of manageing it even if not nearly as efficiently as what the imperium can do).

[@Hawkens4k]

Ngl i would like to see a tau pox walker

[@ravager2-636]

When you thought the Tau forces couldn’t smell any worse.. The Death Guard show up.. But seriously, As long as the Tau can keep them at range and launch decapitation strikes on the guard’s command elements with their sealed enviro gundam suits they should be able to beat them, might have to sacrifice a MC and lose a world or two, due to its relatively small planetary population & travel time and clean up operations going to be a nightmare.. interested to hear your thought Rem.. 🧐

[@akumaking1]

Could Farsight’s Dawnblade permanently put down Chaos Champions?

[@Vandelberger]

I say so. It seems to be able to destroy or absorb the very lifeforce of it's victims.

[@Matt-md5yt]

It might do the trick since it might be one of those swords that the Eldari are after

[@nicholasdeptola5639]

Since warp entities are ageless.. how many years would be added to his lifespan? Would he become essentially immortal?

[@Vandelberger]

@@nicholasdeptola5639 chaos champions are not warp entries and daemons do not have souls or any lifespans for the sword to latch to.

[@nicholasdeptola5639]

@@Vandelberger good points. So if he kills an astartes, then he’s got a couple thousand years added to his lifespan?

[@helldrake77777]

EXTRA THICCCC

[@Matt-md5yt]

Hey glad you did this my friend

[@venkelos6996]

So, i have a particular image of the Death Guard, from my wants of the FFG 40k RPG lines Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch, and while thy might not be wholly accurate, or even optimized, I feel like they could give even a diminished Plague Marines force a big leg up, and it all comes down to one ship option; torpedoes. While one might think this is where the Death Guard would capitalize on virus warheads, I'm thinking of boarding torpedoes, combined with some Thunderhawks, and/or deep striking. Too me, DG capital ships would be a slog, with their heavy, reinforced hulls, crawling with cancerous power. Whole blisters could just pop, but insulate the core ship from the impact, and render them unharmed, while actual damage might be "healed", as the hull literally metastasized, and closed over holes. The Death Guard, of course, are more merely passengers aboard, and not the crew, so the ship loses little by their leaving, so they launch assaults to the Tau vessels, making the Fire Warriors have to fight up close in the very corridors of their own ships, while some might hide in corners, and summon up Nurglings, and worse. Tau don't like fighting close up, and Death Guard are specifically durable, while the Tau might not have access to their battlesuits aboard ship, so they could frilly sew confusion, and damage, among even a big fleet, in a way the Tau might not expect. Once they can start corrupting planets...it's probably over. I'm not saying the Tau would be helpless, or just get effortlessly trounced, but I don't feel like it would really take THAT MANY Death Guard to really hurt them, and possibly win, or even just leave taints to kill the xenos later.

[@charlesman8722]

You doing ok 40k theories? You sound a bit different

[@10dice]

Not to worry, the voice belongs to me! I usually do the Homebrew series' narration but from time to time I do some other narrating too. ^^

[@tomyorke3412]

It always makes me laugh at just how naive the Tau are even now.

[@StealthNinja4577]

Is this even a question? If the tau had to legitimately fight chaos space marines they would lose. Sure one ship makes planet fall, everyone is caught off guard, then much like blackheart and the astral claws, more ships show up to join in. They'd set up a plague world running with demons that just respawn constantly eventually sneaking more space marines over to the next world, a few runes here and there causing fear and panic as demons slowly start appearing and a warp rift later and there goes another world.

[@xSuperiorManx]

06:40 GOD DAMN

[@andreykuzmin4317]

Honestly, that would be forever war, like Octarius almost was. The both sides are pretty much perfectly counter each other. Tau can deal incredible amounts of punishmment, and Death Guard is all about taking that damage. Tau empire would survive, but would be a reduced, disease-ridden, cultist-overrun husk.

[@oldeskul]

Unless the Tau have something akin to exterminatus, they might not have an answer on how to deal with one of their worlds being turned into a plague world or a daemon world other than blockade.

[@christianbenda6489]

Let the Tau erase all Nurglists and than kill the Tau. (Inquisitor Richalmus, Ordo Xenos).

[@brendanpowell6043]

Chaos needs the momentum of souls and belief. The Tau provide very little of each. It’s not like Chaos has zero foothold it’s that Chaos get very little of what they need, similar to why Tyranids don’t mess around with dead Necron Tomb worlds

[@DarkApostleNoek]

I know there is context and details buuuut @7:56 the Death Guard being faster then someone, that will be the craziest thing I will hear in this. @19:12 the Death Guard will loose a War of Attrition, I guess we can go crazier. Now this is taking it from the whole Death Guard from that point but what about from another? Say after the Plague Wars with Ultramar being close to the Tau Empire the surviving Warbands decided to focus attention there, how well could they do? Anyone think that might be a good story/narrative for GW to do?

[@quahodron2756]

The Tau would probably invent a cure for Nurgle and heal the warp by accident.

[@chrisburton452]

Excellent video

[@Salmon_Rush_Die]

Kroot: Deathguard taste a bit gamey.

[@mastercharlesdiltardino8058]

Ahhhh what happened to the original voice actor?

[@Gab1Bv]

The Death-guard have already encountered the Tau when Commander Far-sight rebelled?

[@40KTheories]

Farsight may have encountered them already, but Shadowsun _hadn't_ up until that point.

[@timnorton1611]

What if the Terminus Est showed up. Pretty well all it takes is for this thing to show up in your system and the horrors begin

[@darthkai3621]

I highly doubt a space marine would be able to kill 9 Tau with ease unless in melee range.

[@chenli9778]

From Out universe perspective GW won't kill of Tau production Line, so the only option is Tau defeat Death Guard anyway……

[@Fyre19]

would be a bad time for all cept the dg

[@Tampenismall]

The earth tau is going to have a field day with this one

[@robertfarr9186]

I think the one make believe empire would take out the other make believe empire

[@Jay-yv3pu]

The Tau are kinda big counter to the death guard. The death guard are slow moving very strong but they are not a rapid or even fast fighting force. While the tau are fast and can hit their enemeys miles away

[@40KTheories]

Slower than the average Astartes, yes, but still able to move fast when needed (underestimating just how fast they can move is what caused Shadowsun to lose one of her feet in her fight with them).

[@zlboyle90]

The tau would slowly die, the tau are on such a low priority for corruption. Their auxiliary races(slave races) are far easier to corrupt. Between disease and chaos rule breaking the tau would have to fall back and slowly lose as they are destroyed. A tragedy that that this never happened.

[@Seeriosa]

"what if" they ask as if this isn't a thing that happens enough to get art made for it

[@40KTheories]

You assume all those artworks take place within the borders of the T'au Empire ;)

[@Ajaxify]

I didn't like the wormhole deus ex machina plotline in Deep Space 9, and I don't like it here. The Tau should have had to take grim dark directly to the face like the rest of the galaxy does.

[@40KTheories]

So would that make T'au'va one of the Prophets then?

[@RyanM92]

So the Tau have a god now? when did that come about?

[@40KTheories]

About 2018 with the novel War of Secrets.

[@djashovel]

What if guilliman Woke up early and was trapped on The primitive planet of the tau Leading guilliman to create the tau empire

[@UGNAvalon]

He’s probably just see them as primitive xenos & singlehandedly conquer them as normal.

[@samhobbs9116]

Vespid are insectoids and insectoid creatures belong to papa Nurgle so they would fall straight away.

[@TheKnivingComplex]

uh Death Gaurd vs space commies......poor kroot lol

[@nicoblake8140]

Miss yo voice

[@djashovel]

What if the tau empire exists in star wars

[@FullCaber]

is this an ai naration

[@40KTheories]

No. The narrator is Finnish. We will never us AI on this channel. You can check Naerina and myself out on our most recent livestream kzbin.info/www/bejne/emOVc2WVe5KMhKs

[@FullCaber]

@@40KTheories oh how stupid of me as a fin i should had reconised her cus all fins share a hivemind maybe its the mic quality being so clear making me thing it was Ai

[@40KTheories]

She just has a good setup due to her narration and voice acting work ^^ I have to specify she's Finnish because so many people say things like "this English accent is fake so its an AI" when she isn't English lol

[@FullCaber]

@@40KTheories ohhh sorry to hear people dish her like that, good to see i was afraid you had turned into one those ai wh40k text channels,since i had been watching your vids since the early lore vids ye might be that she really do has that good good voice acting cause she dosent have that rough firm wording i have when i speak english lel my finn accent is to rough xD

[@Weary_Wizard]

So the technology exists for ftl withlut the warp. Fuck me. Break the entire settinf why dont you. Thus is why people hate tau. Every faction has draw backs and problems but the faction made to market to china just goes"yeah but ehat if that doesnt apply to us". Tau is like that kid that joins a game when we were on the playground and just said "well i have an everything proof shield"

[@40KTheories]

I mean... Aeldari and Necrons also make use of FTL tech that doesn't involve them going through the warp (the Webway Network and Inertialess Drives respectively)

[@Weary_Wizard]

@40KTheories but they do involve risk, firstly yhe webway was invented by the oldones.so is technically irreplacable , additionally is incredibly dangerous to use. Necron ftl isnt even ftl. But necrons are the most advanced faction in the setting. They should have the best tech and have many many downsides in general to compensate for any advancement in tech theybhave. Tau just..get stuff. I know im being a little bitch. But come on. They need more drawbacks.

[@fishpower52]

Dispite being a hard counter to death guard, Tau still get their cheek double clapped. What happens to superior long range fire power? Cant even take out the large slow moving targets? Just how weak are the Tau?

[@40KTheories]

Like we mention in the video, attrition would ultimately take its toll on the Death Guard (i.e. the T'au would eventually whittle them down through sheer firepower and numbers). The biggest question is in regards to how much damage the Death Guard would be able to inflict before being eventually wiped out or forced to withdraw.

[@fishpower52]

@@40KTheories Oh wow, first of all, theories senpai noticed me. But your last point, death gaurd's are one of those that the longer you fight them, the stronger they get. It is not too much to believe that after a few cities, the Tau will be mainly fighting the zombified citizens. And the already small size and centralized nature of Tau will let the disease start eating the Tau empire really quick (unlike Imperium who has the luxory to wait because how much void space there are), and the """humane""" treatment of Tau will be used against them and cause the plague to speared with very little stifling (unlike human who were trained since birth to ignore pain and suffering, they still have a good deal of ""moral reservation""). Also, another important thing is Tau basically REFUSED to let a planet go because how small their empire is, all these, i think will make them particularly weak to massive zombie invasion.

[@StealthNinja4577]

It's like sword art online abridged. My numbers are bigger than yours, I heal faster than you can hit me.

[@coolersnoipah173]

The Tau aren't weak. The writers are tho, lmao.

[@stethespaniard2]

Never liked the tau. Don’t feel they fit in the 40k universe

[@Sethasss]

this is easy ... end of tau .

[@Filthyterm]

Ok small Tau god broke a ship cuz it was a threat got it. So why doesnt any of the chaos gods litterally not break Guilimans ship or Lions ship. Guess emperor protects. Note it d be funny if the soy god of tau tried to destroy the ship and got seen by nurgle and just got blasted to pieces and all humans in tau empire turnes to demon portals and nurglings started skiing on taus planets.