Here's yet another take on the Tau Kor'vattra!

The fluff is written from a mostly knowledgeable Imperial point of view, perhaps a bored analyst in the Jericho Reach.

Feedback is much appreciated.

v0.1 Tau Fleet is here: Google Drive

v0.2 Tau Fleet is here: Google Drive (Oct. 21, 2014)

v0.3 Tau Fleet is here: Google Drive (Oct. 22, 2014)

v0.31 Tau Fleet is here: Google Drive (Oct. 23, 2014)

It's not bad;

The formatting is nice, I particularly like the wire-drawing ships for it - it's unfortunate you don't have one for the Orca as well.

The special rules are fine for themselves (though you list the tracking system effects under turrets but not under railguns) but they're nothing particularly interesting. How big of an issue this is depends on how, and how often, you want to use these in the future. If a couple Tau are going to show up during one arc, it's fine, but if they're going to be regular occurrences you might want to spice them up a bit.

Deflector Shield, for example, could cause a penalty to hit rather than just simply staking more armor (which would be more aligned with the fluff). Tau Gravic Missiles (Which are actually stated to be clusters of 5 per point of strength) could also be given more distinct rules - up to treating them more like attack or void craft during flight, as they are being 'piloted' by a drone network.

A couple others are just kind of odd. Gravic Hooks are always for escorts, for example, Railgun and Ion Cannon don't really tell us anything in a system that already has to stat out every weapon, and the hit and run is somewhat confusingly written. I personally would put "Tau may not initiate boarding or Hit & Run actions. Tau vessels suffer a -30 penalty to resist boarding actions." Then add a component that is "Fire Warrior Barracks" that negates the -30 penalty if present. Also, in the fluff at least, Tau have several instances of performing Hit & Run actions, but never boarding, so a supplemental component for that might also be good, such as "Battlesuit Barracks".

I would put the note about stolen goods in the special rules as "Xeno Gear" Looting a Tau hold only provides half the normal achievement points for trade objectives, but full value for criminal (cold trade) objectives.

For the ships themselves:

Courier:

This one seems fine, though I'm not sure why their cargo holds only carry 100 AP instead of 125 like Imperial Holds. I'd also go ahead and just call them dorsal batteries - in BFG the prow slot was just because of notation hold-over.

Warden:

I could be wrong, but I don't remember the Warden being particularly quick. I'd also consider increasing it's base detection, but that depends on the rules you write for "Sensor Array" Tau sensors generally seem to be more powerful than their Imperial counterpart. The Railguns seem fairly standard. I'd consider having them do a little less damage but having a better crit value, it seems like that'd be appropriate given their nature.

Orca:

I'd replace Stowage Bays with Extended Supply Vaults, given that's what you described.

Castilian:

See above, plus I'd consider mentioning that is the smallest FTL capable voidship. I'm also unclear on what this sentence is supposed to mean " In addition to being able to slow Guided Torpedoes, the Tau can instead increase its Speed by up to 5 VU."

Thanks, Quicksilver. Most of that first pass is a direct translation of the Tau Protection Fleet PDF, though obviously it needs editing. The rules are sadly lackluster for it right now, imposing a to-hit penalty for the Deflector seems cooler than just adding more armour like it does in the BFG book.

I also want to use some of the Special Qualities here .

Implement many of the suggestions, thought not all of it (yet). Figured out how to create PNGs through Gimp, so I redid the ships.

v0.2 Tau Fleet is here: Google Drive

Looks nice!

I'd consider changing the weapon special rules to "Unless otherwise specified..." so you can create more variety of Tau weapons. (unless they're not going to be a major antagonist, in which case it doesn't matter)

I still like the idea of deflectors being a penalty to hit, rather than blocking damage, but maybe that's just me

The dorsal battery rule on the courier seems a little powerful, maybe 1/2 strength to turret instead of full strength? A turret 3 is still better than any other transport can easily get.

There are some minor grammar errors in the Warden (like "have" instead of "has")

Although your Imperial Writer might not know this, the Emissary has actually become a work-horse in Tau space (according to the Taros Fluff), being often re-fitted as a heavy-transport. Exploration and Diplomacy being its original design purpose is correct though.

The Emarry doesn't have grav-hooks or Ion Cannons standard, though I suppose there could be a variant that does. The launch bays are actually Port & Starboard, though as Str. 1 might rule that they only carry 1 fighter and 1/2 a bomber squadron each. Hull integrity should also probably be a little smaller - they're light even for light cruisers. (of course, FFG didn't put as much room between Escorts and Cruisers as BFG did.)

The Protector's weapons configuration is actually 1 Port, 1 Starboard, 2 Prow, 2 Dorsal. Gravic Launcher is Dorsal, as is the (str 2) launch bay. The Ion Cannons are actually fixed to the front arc (Prow str 2 Lance), as well as 1 set of Railguns (Fore-only)

In the original Forge World set, the Gravic Launcher is only str 4, while the launchers are str 4 each. The hooks are also listed as Ventral, though I could understand potentially changing that due to FFG's illogical all-around ventral thing. I also think 90 hull would be more appropriate - Like all the 'new' Tau ships, they have good armor, but less hull integrity than their imperial counterparts (Cruisers with light-cruiser toughness, Battleships with Grand Cruiser toughness etc.).

Anyway, This is a very cool document and I'm glad someone's doing it. I've been tossing around an idea in my head for a Tau based Rogue Trader game for a bit now, and this will be a wonderful thing to have.

In fact, FFG give escorts about 3-4x as much hull integrity as BFG did.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this finished. ^^. keep up the good work!

Edit:

Will you be adding in Demiurg ships by chance? Niccassar Dhows? Etc?

@Cognizar: Thanks. I did plan on including the Tau's allies, but finding appropriate art (at least the stuff I like) has been difficult.

@Quicksilver

For the Deflector I went with the Toughness-style damage reduction for ease of use and balance. I feel that a penalty would have to be large enough to be worth it, and it's effect is a little too wild. A flat damage reduction seems to be the easiest way to do this; of course this is all untested anyway.

I'm also using the 2010 compendium PDF, are there alternative rules elsewhere?

That makes sense some sense, ease of use is something that needs to be considered. I was using the original Forge-World experimental rules. In both cases they're kind of 'washy' anyway, due to the short & wide shape of Tau ships not exactly fitting the normal slot definitions. I'm not sure how much it matters in Rogue Trader anyway - there are very few things that effect weapons in a particular 'slot'.

Yeah, I don't think I have those books. Just the 2010 BFG PDFs.

This version has all of the parts that I wanted, rules, ships, stations, and some experimental stuff as potential hooks which can be safely ignored.

v0.3 Tau Fleet is here: Google Drive

Ah, that makes sense. The rules are here if you want them.

I just see a couple of text edits, like:

"On its own, it is roughly as powerful as many of the light cruisers it will meet in forays..."

" Rogue Traders who have been aboard Emissary-class ships and report an lack of opulence they found rustic but charming."

" well after the the first Castellans and Protectors were..."

Also, this feels odd to me for Custodians:

"though three of the vessels have been destroyed recently in the Canis Salient thanks to..."

In normal lore, Battleships are almost rarely lost, though they are crippled reasonably often (at least when outmatched in engagements). The wording makes it sound like three were lost in a single engagement.

Otherwise, sound like fun!

Thanks for all the checking, Quicksilver!

I've made a "small" update and added the Hero cruiser and the Explorer battleship as well as an experimental Merchant cruiser. If anyone has any suggestions, ideas, feedback, it's quite welcome. I'll let this remain as it is for a bit and circle back to it, it seems "good enough" to keep in the back of my mind as we move along.

v0.31 Tau Fleet is here: Google Drive

If you want to get a good idea for how the Tau fleet fights and what they act like, read this:

http://advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=12420

What I would really, really like to hear about is the Messenger, which to me, is the most unique Tau ship that should be in both Tau battlefleets quite often...