Tau Population

Population is a fixed budget that structures how large an army you can field and what kind of army you can field.

Tau vary in the way they gain population, otherwise it is similar to the other races.

This article assumes you understand how population works for most races. If not then read the following article.

Tau Infantry
For context, the initial Squad Population of the Tau is 9. When you don't want to incur the costs to increase population further, which can be expensive, consider constructing: In the early game Tau players tend to buy 3x Pathfinder, which cost 3 pop in total. As mentioned earlier, the initial squad pop is 9, so you are left with 6 pop remaining.
 * Ethereal
 * Kroot Shaper

Ethereal costs 140/160, which differs from the cost of other races' secondary commanders (210/65).

Tau Vehicles
Tau's initial support population is 2. This is increased by a further +2 upon construction of the Vehicle Bay.
 * Tau lack a Heavy Vehicle, and are lighter than that of the other races.

Total Population
To put the above costs into perspective, it is worth knowing how much population the Tau have throughout the game.

Researches

 * Teachings of Enlightenment (Tier 1.5, 100/60): +2 Squad Cap, +1 Pathfinder Max Squad Size