Of all the forces depicted in Black Library works, few have suffered quite so badly as the Tau Empire. While less prone to losses and massacres than many other factions, no single stories seem to be able to get their identity right. The otherwise great Courage and Honour made many basic mistakes when it came to their society and even some tactics, Shadowsun seemed to have barely researched even basic aspects of their way of war, and even Codex: Farsight Enclaves was obviously written by someone who either thought research was a dirty word or openly hated the tau. Few stories since Fire Warrior have truly nailed every aspect of the race, and The Kauyon unfortunately isn't about to break that trend. While it certainly has good elements, there are flaws aplenty holding back this tale.
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The biggest problem I have with a lot of stories like this, and I've noticed it seems a common thing that it's very hard for author's to show both sides as competent, which, to me, doesn't seem to be too hard to get past, you just need to show your side as equally flawed as theirs (since showing both sides as perfect can't happen), but when writing you've already picked the side that's going to win, so your internally biased towards it, so showing your side as incompetent in an area is really hard to do, unless you want to do something like Imperial Armour 12 where the win is a pyrrhic victory.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of surprising just how many stories you can find where the fight is entirely one sided, before something happens and then it becomes one sided again, but this time favouring the people/person who was initially losing.
It does come up with a depressing frequency in far too many stories. In previous works it was effectively expected for both sides to be evenly presented in big novels and audio dramas, with only a few exceptions due to the plot. The truly damning thing here though is that it would only take a few minor tweaks to really sort it out. Having the Pathfinders' initial attempt be a an infiltration effort followed by a botched sniping operation would not only be far more in character, it would dodge a huge plot hole I didn't even get into with that review. It'd compliment their skills while at the same time avoiding making the Imperial Fists look like morons. It'd be even less for the ambush itself, as the Imperial convoy was visibly outgunned and outmaneuvered. They just needed to display more professionalism rather than suddenly panicking. At least Fire Warrior actually offered a valid excuse for the protagonist's seeming invulnerability and he was hardly escaping fights unscathed.
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