Tau Protector Cruiser

Similiar to its smaller brethren and siblings. The Tau Protector Cruisers only have one class called the Lar'shi'vre-class Cruiser, but it has a few configurations. Codenamed Protector, it is the Tau's main fighting vessel. Resembling more like a giant flying wing, it is designed and built with the purpose of engaging and destroying the enemy in fleet actions.

Two Protectors formed the core of the Tau fleet during the Taros Campaign, and inflicted heavy losses on the Imperium's transport ships.

Configuration

Basic

T'olku

The slightly more railgun heavy variant.

The Lar'shi'vre T'olku is well-armed with Gravitic Launchers, Heavy Starship Railgun batteries, and a Heavy Ion Cannon, as well as being able to transport up to two squadrons of Barracudas or Mantas. While it lacks the bulk of many Cruisers, this firepower allows it to fight Imperial Navy cruisers on even terms. As the T'Olku is armed wirh a starboard Ion Cannon, this makes it more of a gunship than other Tau cruisers.

The T'Olku is the higher on paper damage and crit dealer of the two Tau Protector Light Cruiser vessels. There actually is very little difference between the two outside of their damage and cpm, as the primary shift is the T'Olku has shorter range Ion Cannons, coming in 4,500 units below their railguns, while the Vior'La extends it to the same range as the rest.

Beyond that, both Cruisers just about tie each other for second most efficient use of points per Launch Bay, costing just under 100 points per bay, while the Custodian Battleship beats out both for 83.67 points per bay. The Protector Light Cruiser Dal'Yth takes 3rd place due to it's high points cost (117.5 points per bay) but if you account for the cost of the two Warden escorts that come along for the ride, courtesy of the Gravitic Hooks, the Dal'Yth actually only costs 161 points or 80.5 points per bay. If you do the same as far as removing the cost of the wardens for the Custodian Battleship, you actually will find it furthers its position of the most efficient carrier with 65.2 points per bay.

It is armed with 5 Missile Launching Gravitic Launchers, 2 Launch Bays carrying Barracudas, Orca Dropships and Mantas, 8 Heavy Starship Railgun Coaxials, 2 Heavy Ion Cannon Coaxials and 2 Double-Barrel Heavy Starship Railgun Artillery.

• Length: 4.3km
• Width: 9km
• Mass: 25.6 megatonnes; approx
• Crew: 64,000 crew, including 16,000 pilots and support personnel; approx
• Acceleration: 3.1 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx

Vior'la

The slightly more ion heavy variant.

The Vior'la variant which also sacrifices some of its attack craft for experimental long-range Heavy Ion Cannons is the more anti-armor variant of the Lar'shi'vre. Whilst not a true lance-boat per se it fills a gap of a lance-mixed warship.

As mentioned above, the Vior'La isn't much different than its companion Cruiser, the one main shift being that it drops 2 points of damage per second and 0.3 critical hits per minute to extend the Ions cannon range to match that of its Railgun Macros. Its worth mentioning that both the dps and cpm lost from the on paper numbers, is lost from the macros and not the Ion Cannon lance weapon, thus the gap between the two cruisers, when you account for practical damage after accuracy modifiers and armor reductions, is actually a fair bit closer than it seems.

It is armed with 5 Missile Launching Gravitic Launchers, 2 Launch Bays carrying Barracudas, Orca Dropships and Mantas, 8 Heavy Starship Railgun Coaxials, 2 Heavy Ion Cannon Coaxials and 2 Heavy Starship Railgun Artillery.

• Length: 4.3km
• Width: 9km
• Mass: 25 megatonnes; approx
• Crew: 60,000 crew, including 16,500 pilots and support personnel; approx
• Acceleration: 3.1 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx

In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 1 & 2

Cruisers of the Tau Protector fleet are the largest line ships before reaching the Custodian Battleship, leaving a wide gap of 300 points until the next largest ship. Because of this, Tau fleets often consist of larger numbers of vessels, using combined focused fire and extreme range and accuracy to burn down targets in quick succession.

Costing less points than the Dal'Yth Light Cruiser and close to the cost of the Bork'an, the Cruisers focus on bringing Launch Bays, Missile Launchers and standard weapons over Gravitic Hooks for additional escort ships. Their on paper dps/cpm numbers do not raise significantly, but again, the power to put all of their guns on a single target at once makes up for this, especially without the need to loose time making strafe attacks or evading as the Eldar do.

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