Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-8881468-20150204091114/@comment-24944355-20150205000905

If the empire brought their full force against the Tau then the Tau would be toast. The empire would win by shear numbers advantage, even if you excluded the astartes the weight of imperial numbers would be far more than even the Tau's tech edge could overcome. What has saved the Tau from that fate is simply that the empire has too many other fires to put out to concentrate enough force against the Tau to destroy them.