Okay, so you might've read some malarkey I posted prior about having the Tau appear in my story. Whether you change the Expanse, or RT in the Reach, I suppose doesn't really matter, but when doing stuff in space, opposing the Tau's expansion, who would be the face of your enemy? I'll elaborate.

The Tau are trying to get a foothold in your territory, and your fiscal future doesn't stand to appreciate that, so you, and possibly a portion of the sector battlegroup, declare war on the Tau, in the name of the Emperor! (and your money ) Maybe they've snuck into the expanse, or maybe Ebongrave is paying you well to actually attack his preferred foe. I see the Tau as a more talkative race, however, willing to try to get to know you, willing to try and talk you into their way of behavior, rather than just popping in, and killing you, like the Eldar might (and you aren't worthy of discourse), or fight you just to fight, and have nothing interesting to say, like the Orks, so I can imagine gaining a rival with a face, you might say; sort of in the way you might keep fighting the assets of a rival RT, and banter with them, in combat, but then they manage to escape. They also have compatible comm tech, and may speak Gothic. With the Tau, however, who would that be? Would it be the highest-ranked Fire Warrior, as they are the primary military (and the primary product of GW, for Tau), or would it be an admiral, since Air Caste are the masters of their ships? Might it be the Ethereal, who is sort of in charge of all of them? I'm trying to flesh out the antagonists of my current chapter, and don't know which high-ranking Tau will be the one to oppose my RT. I'm hoping it will be an Air Caste Kor'O, especially as an excuse to use this rarest of the tau castes, from an outside perspective. Also, if you have ever done Tau in space, if boarded, what sort of opposition might the Tau mount? Some Fire Warriors are great, but the Air Caste are never shown in suits, or armor, so I don't know if the highest-ranking officer there will be killed in one hit, or if they might have some sort of armor, but GW focuses almost exclusively on the Fire Caste, so we haven't seen it?

Curious, and seeking input. Thank you.

I listen attentively as well.

my current game is non-Koronus, so Tau will play huge part.

Water Caste negotiator, surely.

Stupid page ate my post

Anyway, since my work is more a story that could, someday, be adapted to a game, I needed to come up with something, and so I decided to use the tried and true GW method; I just wrote what I wanted, and tried to make it seem hopefully close enough to something that people wouldn't immediately call BS on. It might seem silly, but if you've read other stuff I've ever posted, this won't be the first silly you've run into. Thus, here goes. The leadership for the "Hidden Truth" Tau Koronus Incursion:

• Aun'O T'olku Li'n Da'ya Shan (it actually does mean something, approximately the New Light in the Benighted Sphere; not simply an excuse to use more apostrophes than anyone else ) is the "Master of the Hidden Truth", and overseer of the Koronus Incursion. A rather reserved, hands-off administrator who watches everything, but pushes his subordinates to use their best skills for the Greater Good. Usually aboard the Hidden Truth , a Tau space station, hidden way out in the depths of the Expanse, where they first arrived, above a planet they've been colonizing for about a year, he'd be a rare sight.
• Kor'O Bork'an Eld Ar Shi Kais, which means something along the lines of Admiral Victory From Above, is the overall military commander, in so far as the space assets go. An elder, learned Tau, he is a bit slow, seemingly, and very analytical/methodical, but a true master of space combat, renowned for his low casualty rates; in the Expanse, the Tau cannot afford to lose many of their limited space assets.
• Shas'O Bork'an Kai'Xar Nem Wern, effectively Commander Smashfist, is the head of ground forces, and, in the event the good guys actually managed to board the Tau command ship, he'd possibly also lead the defense of that vessel, if not already dealt with. Possibly the biggest personal threat, because he has a Crisis Suit, and CS backup. I actually invented him for DW, along with a couple others, just in case I was ever going to do that, and needed some Tau Masters variety. A nice excuse to put him in something.
• An as of yet unnamed Eldar Seer. She's very important, but next to no one knows how the Eldar are aiding the Tau, yet, so I have some time to figure out another "Eldary" name for her, later. Think Serennon, and call it good. She, and a few others give the Tau their ability to travel vast spans, such as to the Expanse, at all, and also can allow for the Tau to use some of the Astropath options for space combat, if appropriate.

They each have some in-depth backstory, mostly stats, but I won't bore anyone more with it. Backstory is half of my thing, with these games, but not further relevant, here.

Here's a little, possibly dumb quandary to go with this; it's a bit wordy, and redundant. In space, what's a good way to ensure you don't need to write up a new enemy every "episode"? On the ground, you might get into a firefight, but the enemy might be "miraculously"/munchkinly/plot devicilly teleported to safety, or their Valkyrie/lighter analogue might swoop in, and bail them out to safety, hopefully back to their ship, and this might even be viable for the players, if they are in over their heads, but in space, you can't usually just "jump to the warp" to escape. If you aren't the faster ship, you also might not be able to run. Space combat will be a thing, but other than having convenient back-up appear every time, which will eventually piss the players off, what's a good way to ever have the enemy limp away, alive, if not so well off? If you get into a space battle with Bastille, he has a powerful cruiser, in the form of Colossus , but it can be defeated, with or without Mathhammer. If you don't want every encounter to be an only one, or mean he needs to find another ship, again , how do you maintain a recurring villain, if you will, in the space arena? I ask because I wouldn't mind the above Tau being a more than once battle, but whether his Protector/Custodian could stomp the Exalted Wyrm , or get stomped by it, the "winner" would need a reason not to polish off the loser, while the loser needs to not need a whole new ship, after every battle. (repair time is fine, comparatively, but you need to live, and escape, to get to repairs.) How have other groups dealt with it? Has every fight with BBEG been a "we fought them once, and then X got wiped out", or is there a simple way to have both survive, and one hobble away, to have both fight again, another day? Some of these ships have been around for millennia, and fought in countless altercations, not winning all of them, but I'm not sure how 40K allows for it, as other settings, where you might just "emergency bail" to hyperspace, or what have you, do allow. What's a good, believable way to allow for foes to duke it out, in space, and not be "I can only do this trick once", without always needing one side to use "disposable intermediaries"?

Thanks for reading the huge blocks of stuff. Any ideas would be great, and otherwise, please keep having a good one.

well its a constant RPG dilemma. PCs feel they must kill every opponent every session.

Well, that aspect I can live with, but in other games, the GM might pull something out of his/her bag of tricks, and save the day, the same as they might have the party not get aced, but without just having the BBEG look so arrogant, and foolish, that they don't need to kill the players. Like I said, though, in space, I'm not so sure what the best answer, in 40K, is. Oh well, I'll just have to come up with something, I guess. If I can, at least I won't have to put up with devious players trying to break it, so that their nemesis dies, once and for all.

I forget the name of the Talent, but major NPCs get Fate Points. They burn one and a bit of flotsam goes spinning off in space (a la a star fighter with a darkly-clad heavy breather in it) with our favorite antagonist. Really, I don't need an excuse to keep a baddy alive in space. "Did you see him die? Did you see the body? No? Then he/she/it is alive."

I try to keep some things from devolving to that point. Can't the Tau go into silent running? Don't they have competent unlderlings equal to the RTs wonder-buddies?

And yes, my BBEG always get a a monologue. It's a rule, a law of physics.

Oh yeah, I know Touched by Fate gives my BBEG Fate points, but like I said, if every battle ends with one ship, or the other, totally fragged, that makes multiple encounters sort of unlikely, unless they both have a factory that mass-produces their ship, which we know 40K does NOT. I suppose what I'll have to do is look into Silent Running. Like I said someplace else, I see many voidships in 40K as very window-laden affairs, with visa ports aplenty, but with Void Units potentially being as large as they are, "looking out the window" probably won't work as well as my simple mind made it seem, to me. Yeah, I suppose whatever a ship does to "go silent", and then begin to withdraw, should work, more often than not. They'll certainly have competence, as the RT forces they're fighting are just that, RT, and while they both might have acquired a militarily-trained asset, and own military vessels, neither of them are "true" military, while the encountered Tau are battle-tested in the Jericho Reach, before coming to the Expanse. Thank you. I will do some little number-crunching, and see what's what.