Both have access to some common vessels like the Demiurg and Kroot ships. Of the two subfactions the Protector Fleet has the original manta-ray shaped ships from BGA1, while the Merchant Fleet is a set of longer but narrower vessels. Seasoned Tau commanders must never be underestimated. Compounding on this, being Carriers the Tau cruisers can also send massed Bomber wings as needed to one or more targets for further bursts of heavy damage. Star Forts are particularly large and well-armed space stations, and.

They can be equipped with support facilities for population, trade, defense, and spacecraft repair and resupply. In a 1200-point 1v1 PvP fleet the Tau can field 6 torpedo cruisers and an escort, and a single fleet-wide volley of torpedoes from them escorted by Interceptors has been seen shattering a Battlecruiser in an instant. A Space Station is a spaceborne construction that usually (but not always) is placed in orbit around a planet, moon, or other such celestial body. On top of this, nearly every Tau ship that holds torpedoes is also a carrier wise Tau commanders frequently send Interceptors along with a mass torpedo volley from multiple ships in order to tie up enemy Interceptors in a dogfight, allowing the massive number of torpedoes to sail past into the target contested only by the defense turrets which simply will not be able to handle that large a number of torpedoes. They can't be fired on a non-identified ship, but on an Identified one that is large and/or slow every single torpedo of a volley is highly guaranteed to hit if they aren't destroyed by defense turrets or interceptors. Like many factions the Tau of both subfactions have extensive access to torpedoes, however one key difference is that their torpedoes, while each is slightly weaker (90 damage vs 110 of others) and the volleys have a smaller number of them (5 or 6 vs 8 of others), are GUIDED. Used correctly they can be even more dangerous at long range than the Chaos faction.

Used incorrectly they can be a bit of a confusing inefficient mess. Instead, they are built to get into (fairly long) range, park themselves in place and incessantly let rip with every gun on the ship. They aren't built to quickly dash around a battlefield in-and-out of combat like the Aeldari, nor kite around at long range like Chaos, nor dash in close to ram and board repeatedly like the Orks. If only a single word could be used to describe the Tau ships it would be 'slugfest'.

Battlefleet gothic tau