Tau Protector Light Cruiser
The Tau Protector Light Cruiser only has one known class called the Il'Porrui-class Light Cruiser (also known as the Emissary) and is the first vessel created for the renovation of the Tau Fleet.
Looking like an overly enlarged Manta. The Il'Porrui was designed primarily for transport for Water Caste dignitaries, Tau Commanders and Ethereals, and secondly for battle. They are also used as large merchant vessels. Despite its size, the Emissary is well equipped and perfectly capable of looking after itself against all but the largest capital ships. These ships are now becoming common within the Tau Empire. As this class was the first of the renovation program and their versatile role, their number may increase in the Kor'Vattra. The first Il'Porrui were discovered by Imperium in the Dolumar System. The new class of ship was noted amongst the Emperor's Admirals though only a single vessel was destroyed in this encounter.
The size of the Emissary is roughly one-fourth that of an Imperial Emperor-class Battleship although it is much wider. What is unique and exclusive amongst the Space Weeaboos is that while they only have one class of a ship, that ship has multiple configurations which sort of act like sub-classes.
Configuration[edit]
Basic[edit]
Sa'Cea[edit]
A well-rounded configuration. The Sa'Cea, forgoes the heavy points cost of the escort-bringing Grav Hooks to fit some coaxial Heavy Ion Cannons to give it some armour piercing punch. Interestingly the Sa'Cea does not lose any dps for this trade and in reality, really gains dps from a practical perspective considering the 100% accuracy and armour piercing, as long as the slight reduction in range isn't an issue, which it shouldn't be.
Another point of interest is that the Sa'Cea is not only cheaper than both of the other Light Cruisers but still cheaper than them when you remove the costs of the pair of Warden destroyers each vessel brings. You could actually just manually add 2 Warden destroyers to your fleet and still have the cheapest Light Cruiser, or swap in 2 Castellan Frigates to tie for first place with the Bork'an.
Finally the Sa'Cea, for all its benefits, also gets the highest crits per minute of its class.
It is armed with 3 Missile Launching Gravitic Launchers, 2 Heavy Ion Cannon Coaxials and 6 Double-Barrel Heavy Starship Railgun Coaxials.
- Length: 2.5km
- Width: 2.3km
- Mass: 18 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 50,000 crew; approx
- Acceleration: 3.6 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Carrier[edit]
Dal'Yth[edit]
Unlike the Dal'Yth of the Tau Merchant Light Cruisers, the Dal'Yth of the Protector Light Cruisers is a carrier-cruiser with 2 launch bays to launch Barracuda fighters and Manta bombers.
Moreover, when you have a set of 8 coaxial guns, as you do with the Dal'Yth, they come in 2 equal sets mounted on each side of the craft, 4 on the left, 4 on the right. Each set of guns can fire in the 90° front arc and their own 90° side arc. This means the 4 left guns can fire either forward or to the left and the right guns can fire to the front or to the right. Furthermore, it has 2 Gravitic Hooks for you to transport Wardens to catch the bullet apply even more firepower.
This gives the Tau Protector ships with coaxial guns the ability to either focus all their damage on a single target when facing forward or split their damage in half to circle the target and fire broadsides to help it still deal damage while manoeuvring. This makes the Tau fleet incredibly versatile when it comes to applying damage at the range you want, on the target you want.
It is armed with 2 Launch Bays carrying Barracudas, Orca Dropships and Mantas, 2 Gravitic Hooks carrying Kir'la-class Carrier Escorts and Kir'shasvre-class Frigates and 8 Double-Barrel Heavy Starship Railgun Coaxials.
- Length: 2.5km
- Width: 2.3km
- Mass: 19.2 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 42,000 crew, including 9,700 pilots and support personnel; approx
- Acceleration: 3.6 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Ordnance-Boat[edit]
Bork'an[edit]
The Dakka ship of the family. All of the Tau Light Cruisers are very similar as far as their standard weaponry, the Bork'an's speciality being the Grav Hook/Missile Launcher combination, with the full complement of 8 macro weapons.
The Torpedoes of the Tau fleet are highly useful for the tracking abilities that allow them to retain usefulness at longer ranges, though their turn rate isn't fast enough to prevent them from being dodged with properly timed burns or high energy turns. You will also need to consider massing torpedoes or providing interceptor cover to make sure defence turrets don't blow them away as they spend more time travelling through open space if used as such.
Of course, as an ordnance-boat, you want the Bork'an to be as close as possible so that all of its weapon systems are in range to launch a metric shit ton of Dakka at the opposing vessel. Its ability to transport 2 additional Wardens via a Gravitic Hook could extrapolate the already ridiculous firepower up to 11.
It is armed with 3 Missile Launching Gravitic Launchers, 2 Gravitic Hooks carrying Kir'la-class Carrier Escorts and Kir'shasvre-class Frigates and 8 Double-Barrel Heavy Starship Railgun Coaxials.
- Length: 2.5km
- Width: 2.3km
- Mass: 19.5 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: 55,000 crew; approx
- Acceleration: 3.6 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2[edit]
The Light Cruisers of the Tau Protector fleet start to show more of the Tau's unique features, primarily their frontal focusing fire arcs and their special coaxial weaponry that allows them to also split their armaments into broadsides when needing to move and shoot as opposed to staying still to face their targets.
The Light Cruisers also feature another special Tau trait, in the use of their Gravitic Hooks, items that come equipped on your Tau vessels that bring along free escort ships with them into the fight. You will find additional notes on the ship details section, breaking down the points cost of the included escorts and what you are paying for per vessel.
| Vessels of the Tau Kor'Vattra and its Auxillaries. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spaceships | ||
| Space Station | Tau Space Station | |
| Battleships | Battleship (Tau Merchant - Or'Es El'Eleath Stronghold - Warsphere) | |
| Cruisers | Light Cruiser (Tau Merchant - Tau Protector) Cruiser (Tau Merchant - Tau Protector - Bastion) | |
| Escorts | Escort (Tau Merchant - Tau Protector - Nicassar Dhow) | |
| Logistics | Il'Emaar | |
| Dropships | Orca | |
| Landships | ||
| Titans | KX139 Ta'Unar Supremacy Armour | |
| Airships | ||
| Flying Fortress | Tiger Shark | |
| Aerospace Vessels | Manta | |