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So I have heard a lot of people are butt hurt about the Tau having Space Marines as allies. I think the reason GW did that is to represent a marine force that has surrendered to the tau and are now working for the Tau. Elaborate.

ya i think it was the space sharks or something like that. it had a shark in it's name. i saw it in a WD and on the GW website long time ago(2-3 years ago)

No, that doesn't make much sense at all.

From a fluff standpoint, the Tau are about the least ethically offensive and most trustworthy of the threats that the Imperium is facing. No psykers or warp users with their own empyrean agenda skulking around behind your back, like the Eldar, or 'we've killed all them other guys, and now it's boring, so we're going to krump you!' like the orks. If Tau and space marines are facing the common threat, then out of all the other potential xenos allies, they are the least likely to betray or sell out their allies in the end.

DiRTWaL wrote:So I have heard a lot of people are butt hurt about the Tau having Space Marines as allies. I think the reason GW did that is to represent a marine force that has surrendered to the tau and are now working for the Tau. Elaborate.

Then why wouldn't they put IG as Battle Brothers? You've basically got your reasoning backwards. Tau are immune to the Warp, and therefore Chaos corruption. The Ultramarines are protecting them to utilize them as a weapon against Chaos.

DiRTWaL wrote:So I have heard a lot of people are butt hurt about the Tau having Space Marines as allies. I think the reason GW did that is to represent a marine force that has surrendered to the tau and are now working for the Tau. Elaborate.

Explain it the other way around then, when SM are the primary force. This is why the allies matrix should not have been symmetrical.

I would have thought it was because the Tau are more trustworthy than their IG relations.

IG have a long list of corruption, chaotic adventures etc..

Tau eradicated a whole regiment of Kroot that ate chaos bodies. They have no time for it just like Marines don't.

Out of all the Xenos in the game. Eldar and Tau are def the most non invasive. So it had to be one of those 2.

DiRTWaL wrote:So I have heard a lot of people are butt hurt about the Tau having Space Marines as allies. I think the reason GW did that is to represent a marine force that has surrendered to the tau and are now working for the Tau. Elaborate.

Allies matrix generally represents "best case" imaginable alliance. Space Marines and Tau probably have fought against Tyranids as a very solid alliance, even if most of the time their relationship is much more hostile. By contrast, no race would accept help from Dark Eldar except in most dire circumstances, except other Eldar of course.

However, it's kinda strange that IG and Tau are "allies of convenience" as "best case alliance" is Gue'Vesa, humans actually integrated within Tau Empire.

Space marines and tau joined forces to defeat chaos in the fire warrior game...so it makes plenty of sense to me

Forgive me if this just sounds way too complicated, but I think the rules for allies should change depending on who they're fighting against. Basically the need for co-operation and willingness to work together would vary depending on whether they were fighting Chaos/Tyranids/Eldar etc

What do you think?