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Generally 40K doesn't have any real alliances between races with only a few exceptions so I am curious who you think would ally with whom in given situations. Though it would have to be out of necessity. This isn't to say they might not go right back to fighting one another after the more heinous threat was dealt with.

IG and SM obviously get along.
Tau would probably ally with anyone except Chaos/Nid/Cron in order to survive provided it fell within their "greater good" philosophy.
I am thinking Eldar and Dark Eldar would probably align themselves against something like a Chaos force, because even though they are very different, they were both the same at one point.
Tyranids and Chaos I can't see allying for really any reason.
Crons would probably just port out.

If anyone could point out alliances like these in either fluff or novels it would be awesome. I would love to hear some thoughts on the matter. Even if it is something as simple as "Dark Eldar + Eldar = Heck No what are you thinking!"

It would also depend on how grievous the situation is as well I think. Like, would a heavily outnumbered SM Chapter ally themselves with Eldar to stop the impending Chaos Horde from overwhelming them? SM are doing out of survival, Eldar out of the need to cover up certain secrets or to crush a chaos demi-god(or whatever)of old.

Other then that, Necrons/Tyriands wouldn't ally with anything or anyone, other them themselves.

Just my 2 cents... & thats exactly what it's worth.

nids woundn't even ally with themselves, they would eat each other and absorb the biomass into the bigger of the 2 hive fleets.

In the fluff the tau and sm wake necrons on a planet and team up to defeat them. After the conflict is over exerminatus is ordered but the tau are allowed to evacuate.

Well, I can only speak for Orks as that is the only 5th Ed. Codex I have in my possession at the moment...

Ork Codex, page 15, Blood Axes:

"...made the most contact with the Imperium, occasionally fighting as mercenaries and making extensive use of Imperial war material..."

So, in the short term anyway, Blood Axe Orks have had alliances with the Imperium.

I think the Blood Axes would ally with any race (at least the ones that would allow an alliance) for the sake of winning a bigger fight against a more dangerous foe as Blood axes also, "...consider retreating if faced with insurmountable odds...."

Just to clarify for any un-Ork-initiated, . The Blood Axes are considered un-Orky by the other clans because of their willingness to deal with the Imperium. The other clans just like to fight so I don't think any of the other clans would ever ally with any race other than Orks, regardless of odds. Only the Blood Axe clan seems to be the exception to this.

oggers wrote:In the fluff the tau and sm wake necrons on a planet and team up to defeat them. After the conflict is over exerminatus is ordered but the tau are allowed to evacuate.

That's correct, the space marines and the tau fought each other on that planet, unknowingly awaking a necron tomb. While getting attacked by the necrons, the space marines and the tau combinded forces and dealt with the necrons.

The space marine leading was none other than magus calgar or whatever his name is. To let a enemy of the imperium leave unconstested would question his dedication to the emperor.

SM has been known to have a cease fire with other Races in order to defeat the more impending doom. Mainly just to kill Necrons/Chaos/Nids. I think there have been instances where they have had a cease fire with Eldar to destroy chaos forces.

Eldar would never ally with Dark Eldar as Dark Eldar worship a Chaos God.

Tau are fruity nutjobs who would probably ally with anybody, but nobody likes them.

SM and IG always ally unless one of them has been turned by chaos.

Chaos never allies with any other Race.

Nids eat all.

Necrons kill all.

Orks WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! (But they have been known to trade with Humans for weapons)

Orks allied with chaos during the 13th black crusade... In fact they called it the Green crusade, Far off human worlds have been known to hire ork mercs, and orks have even hired humans in the old fluff for thier big guns.

During the last black crusade, The necrons appeared to help space marines fight on the worlds around the eye of terror, The turned thier weapons on the chaos armies and spared the Loyal marines, when the battle was over, they disapeared and didn't attack the Loyal marines.

In the book Dawn of War:Asecension the blood ravens combine with the elder to defeat necrons, in the dawn of war game the elder and SM fight together against Chaos. In a issue of white dwarf there was an article on bile-tan elder. It said that the bile-tan elder would othen save imperial forces from defeat at the hands of other races. they might leave the imperial forces alone or they might slaughter them after the battle. tallarn dessert raiders combined once with the elder to stop a chaos deamon invasion of there homeworld. the elder helped the imperium in the 13th black cursade.
yes blood axes will work for the imperium. Other clans: NO!
tau would work not work with orks because they have been fighting with them a lot in and kroot hate them i think. tau wont work with nids, crons, DE or chaos.
Chaos and DE might work
Nids +anything=FAIL
crons+anything=Bloodbath
yeah thats it but there is fluff out there with forces working together even only for a short while.

dark eldar and eldar? hmmmm would that happen? I mean im not knocking you or anything but please explain

During Abbadon's black crusade the 'crons stopped attacking the imperium 'cos they hate chaos more.

I can't really see the forces of the Imperium allying with any xenos because they've pissed to many of them off, unless they're like Freebooter mercenaries or something. I could see Chaos in an uneasy alliance with the Orks if the enemy was too overwhelming, but it would only end in bloodshed methinks. I could see Tau and Eldar working together, same with Orks and Dark Eldar (maybe).

Eldar will ally with Imperials (they do not ally with the Imperium as a whole, but rather certain persons are deemed to be suitable to forge an alliance with.) should the need arise (if it will save eldar lives).

Ravenor has his pointy eared allies (although the relationship was more like a master/apprentice, and he wasn't the master.). During the Heresy, Eldar forces would appear on the battlefield and assist the Imperials (if their assistance was warranted.).

They don't see it as allying with an enemy. They see it as using another weapon against the "great enemy".

To paraphrase an old WD (Eldar titans in Adeptus Titanicus many years ago).

"Make no mistake, human. We do not fight for your emperor. We fight AGAINST chaos."

EasyE wrote:
I am thinking Eldar and Dark Eldar would probably align themselves against something like a Chaos force, because even though they are very different, they were both the same at one point.

By this logic my man, then Chaos Space Marines and Space Marines could work together because they were once the same...... And then the galaxy would be screwed lol.

ricekake87 wrote:dark eldar and eldar? hmmmm would that happen? I mean im not knocking you or anything but please explain

Wasn't there a piece about this in the Eye of Terror codex(or maybe the campaign fluff) about how the Eldar and dark eldar fought together to defeat chaos and prevent them from getting into the webway (subsequently stop them from getting to the black library i think..) I'll see if i can dig up the relevant source materials.

The only TRUE alliance (That is, 2 Factions formally assisting each other) I can think of in the 40k Universe is actually that of the Empire of Terra and the Empire of Mars. Even 10,000 years after the Heresy, they are separate Empires, and the High Lords have less than zero control on what Mars and it's Vassals do.

However, Eldar will Ally with Humanity if they HAVE to, and maybe with Tau (Though I doubt it, because the Tau would most likely go "Join the Greater Good or we Blow you Up!" before being reduced to dirty smears from Orbit).

As for Dark Eldar and Eldar Allying, are you mad? That's like having Black Templars and Thousand Sons ally, it just will not happen ever. The Dark Eldar are a Living Reminder of everything that was wrong with the Eldar Before the Fall, and are the descendants of them, while the Craftworld and Exodite Eldar are the ones who are the descendants of the Eldar who tried to escape and fix things before She Who Thirsts awoke. The only conceivable time they would even consider allying is if, like Mr. HERO OF THE IMPERIUM said, Chaos was about to eat the Webway.

Tau could ally whith any imperial force in the case of guard it wouldn't even need to be temporary (gue'vesa anyone?) and the eldar iirc the eldar see the tau as a potential ally, but an ignorat one when it comes to chaos.
Any imperial force is already an "ally" of any other imperial force.
The space marines can ally with eldar or tau, and have done on several occasions.
The guard can ally with... anything that isn't nid or cron, the eldar can easily manipulate a commander, as can the dark eldar who could also brainwash them for the same purpose, the tau i have already explained, ork mercenaries are fluff established, and if a guard regiment is corrupted by chaos then they are basically the lost and damned.
Sisters i don't see allying theymselves with any xeno or heretic scum.
Eldar i can see not allying so much as manipulating basically anything, as i can see necrons being drawn to a world to fight eldar, and then another army being lured to the same world to fight them, the same goes to dark eldar.

Quite a few problems here.

iamthecougar wrote:Tau could ally whith any imperial force in the case of guard it wouldn't even need to be temporary (gue'vesa anyone?) and the eldar iirc the eldar see the tau as a potential ally, but an ignorat one when it comes to chaos.

Gue'vesa are not allied, they are conscripted. Gue'vesa are humans who, when given the choice of "Fight for us" or "Die a slow death in the Acid Mines" picked the former.

iamthecougar wrote:Any imperial force is already an "ally" of any other imperial force.

Tell that the the Space Wolves, who are more than Willing to Flip the Bird to several other Imperial factions (Such as the Second War and Third war for Armageddon, after what happened in the First).

iamthecougar wrote:The space marines can ally with eldar or tau, and have done on several occasions.

Eldar yes, but thats only when the Eldar Show up unwanted and unannounced, normally when the Imperials are already busy killing things. The Imperials have allied with the Tau eacactly One (1) Time, when the Idiot Ultramarines Stirred up some Necrons, then LET THE FOUL XENOS EVACUATE so that they can kill more loyal troops in the future, which last I checked, is grounds to be declared Herectus and vaporised itnto ash.

iamthecougar wrote:The guard can ally with... anything that isn't nid or cron, the eldar can easily manipulate a commander, as can the dark eldar who could also brainwash them for the same purpose, the tau i have already explained, ork mercenaries are fluff established, and if a guard regiment is corrupted by chaos then they are basically the lost and damned.

Again, the Guard do not ally with any Xenos, the only time they will fight "with" them as it were is if they are already busy killing something else more killy.

iamthecougar wrote:Sisters i don't see allying theymselves with any xeno or heretic scum.

Just like everyone else. As I said, bar a VERY few increadibly extraordinary circumstances, the Imperials do not ally with anyone.

iamthecougar wrote:Eldar i can see not allying so much as manipulating basically anything, as i can see necrons being drawn to a world to fight eldar, and then another army being lured to the same world to fight them, the same goes to dark eldar.

That's only if the Farseer realises it in time (or is a Dick like Eldrad).

I think that eldar and dark eldar would ally themselves against slaanesh. Dark eldar do not worship "she who thirsts", they merely have chosen another (dirtier) way of preventing her taking their souls (drinking other peoples souls, thus making themselves immortal).

I believe at the moment that Craftworld Iyanden is currently at peace with the imperium, and have even allowed a few inquisitors aboard.

There are no real, "long term" alliances, but there are a few.

Guardsmen, although part of the Imperium, are the lowest of the Imperium's soldiery. They'd probably ally with Tau or Eldar once in a great while and even then only when necessary.

Space Marines will help guard, and will agree with the Inquisition. Done deal. Nearly impossible for alliances with non-imperial contacts, but it's happened.

The Inquisition: Most would say no. I agree, but the Ordo Xenos has worked with the Eldar once or twice (Warrior Coven, I think the book is). The Ordo Malleus would ally with Eldar if absolutely necessary. The Ordo Herectus would probably shriek at the thought of alliances.

Necrons: I think not. The Star Gods hunger, and all out there are fair game.

Tyranids: No. Unless they were doing it unknowningly (i.e. assaulting a base the Imperium wants destroyed)

Eldar: As with all sneaky elves, yes. But, of course, they'll take them back easily. Any good army.

Dark Eldar: Rarely, unless they have some immediate advantages. Only with Chaos or (highly unlikely) Eldar.

Orks: Give 'em enough teef and a good fight, they'll fight an entire army. Yes, though they will betray you very soon.

Tau: Good armies only. They don't really like the Imperium, and the Eldar often keep an arm's length away, but they'll ally occasionally.

Chaos: Only with Dark Eldar and Orks. They view all others as fodder or lesser beings.

Dreadwinter wrote:SM has been known to have a cease fire with other Races in order to defeat the more impending doom. Mainly just to kill Necrons/Chaos/Nids. I think there have been instances where they have had a cease fire with Eldar to destroy chaos forces.

Eldar would never ally with Dark Eldar as Dark Eldar worship a Chaos God.

Tau are fruity nutjobs who would probably ally with anybody, but nobody likes them.

SM and IG always ally unless one of them has been turned by chaos.

Chaos never allies with any other Race.

Nids eat all.

Necrons kill all.

Orks WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! (But they have been known to trade with Humans for weapons)

your keep your mouth shut about the tau lol

Speaking of the Tau, I just read through GW's book, Xenology, and apparently it looks like the Tau were bio-engineered (from the addition DNA of an insectoid race called the Q'Orl, to the primitive tau root species) by the eldar in an effort to create a race that could be used as a corruption-resistant weapon against Chaos. Tau ethereals apparently control the lesser castes via pheromones, much like an insect colony.

Youd think there would be more tau/eldar alliances knowing this.

Just a thought: Given the ignorance of the Tau to the perils of Chaos, wouldn't it make for a possibility for them to work alongside true Chaos Space Marines, or, at the very least, the plain-old renegade marines, provided a charismatic Slaaneshi or Tzeench-aligned Lord?

Cryonicleech wrote:Space Marines will help guard, and will agree with the Inquisition. Done deal. Nearly impossible for alliances with non-imperial contacts, but it's happened.

Not entirely correct, again due to the Space Wolves. They have little love for most Imperial functionaries at best, and if said Inquisition agents begin bandying about terms such as 'potential gene-seed instability' and 'heretical transmutations of body' they are more than likely to wind up as the next entree in the wolf pens within the Fang.

Darkreaver55 wrote:

Cryonicleech wrote:Space Marines will help guard, and will agree with the Inquisition. Done deal. Nearly impossible for alliances with non-imperial contacts, but it's happened.

Not entirely correct, again due to the Space Wolves. They have little love for most Imperial functionaries at best, and if said Inquisition agents begin bandying about terms such as 'potential gene-seed instability' and 'heretical transmutations of body' they are more than likely to wind up as the next entree in the wolf pens within the Fang.

Indeed. Unless you are one of the VERY few Inquisitorial Agents to gain the respect of the wolves (Generally because you went rambo within earshot of them) the wolves are much more likely to flip you the bird than anything else. And Emperor protect if you try and go to Fenris without their blessing. They will intercept you, and fire ONE warning shot (and only if you are lucky).

Chaos Marines and certain other dicks *coughEldradcough* will often 'use' the 'lesser' races to their advantage. In Dawn of War, the Alpha Legion arrange an agreement with the Orks to provide them with technology in exchange for cover.

Falconlance wrote:Speaking of the Tau, I just read through GW's book, Xenology, and apparently it looks like the Tau were bio-engineered (from the addition DNA of an insectoid race called the Q'Orl, to the primitive tau root species) by the eldar in an effort to create a race that could be used as a corruption-resistant weapon against Chaos. Tau ethereals apparently control the lesser castes via pheromones, much like an insect colony.

Youd think there would be more tau/eldar alliances knowing this.

I need to read this book

Everyone except Crons/Nids against chaos.