>>95895706
>dark age humans
Had essentially mini astronomican lighthouses all over and the warp was far more stable thus easier to deal with.
>How can the Tau reach anything but the tiniest fraction of neighboring stars without it?
They can't. Notice their empire is a tiny hexagon.
Anything else is just using warp travel of some form in a similar method to the Imperium(and might be piggy backing off of the astronomican).