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Keep it simple, keep it clean.

Codex: Blood Angels
HQ: Dante
Troop: Sanguinary Guard
Cost: 425-465 (+75 for priest for FNP/FC)
Why: Six Jump Troops all sporting 2+ saves and MC-PWs, they don't scatter on deepstrike, are fearless, have hit-and-run, deathmasks, and Dante gives a enemy IC -1 WS/-1W/-1I/-1A.
Fun Fact: If you take the banner on the squad they produce 27 power weapons attacks on the charge .

Codex: Eldar
HQ: Eldrad Ulthran or any Farseer for that matter
Troop: Go cheap since you take these as mandatory, not as something special. Either 5 Dire Avengers or 3 Jetbikes if you want some speed
Cost Eldrad is 210, Farseer ranges from 75 to 200. Troops go for 76 for 3 jetbikes with a ShuCannon or 60 points for 5 Avengers.
Why: Simple, Psychic Powers. With Eldrad you are buying a Farseer that can cast 3 powers during his turn, 2 of those can be the same should you want to. He can even trade in all his Codex powers and go for 4 from Telepathy or Divination, both very solid choices. With a normal Farseer you can go for codex powers giving your units re-rolls to saves, wounds or to-hit rolls. Farseers aren't powerfull on their own, they just muliply the amount of power your units bring to the table. The troops are there for filling.
Fun Fact: Go for Wraithguard and a Spiritseer as troops. You will buy a unit of T6, 3+, 5++, re-roll to whatever you want with Psychic Powers, Wraithcannon weilding zombie robots that usually give your opponent pause on how to deal with them. They will cost your over 500 points but who cares, right?

Ninja'd, but my take on Eldar is different from the previous.

To me, the reason why one would take a small minimal allied contingent is to fix some sort of general weakness in an army that can't be fixed with units from the main army's codex. I can think of several good examples:

1. Eldar, Farseer with Runes of Warding plus whatever else, Guardian Jetbikes.

Psykers have gotten a lot more threatening in 6th edition, while good psyker defense is now much rarer. Sure, every unit now gets a little against bad stuff directed against it, but the ability to shut down an opponent's buffs is now rare. Runes of Warding were the best psyker defense in 5th, and are now even more valuable. Another change is that one can no longer use vehicles to contest objectives. Thus, the pool of units that can quickly move across the board late in the game to do so is much smaller. While Guardian Jetbikes are flimsy, they are also very cheap and can perform this task. The whole combo can cost as little as 156 points.

2. Orks, Warboss + Nob Bikers or Warboss + Boyz

Some armies suffer badly from the crappiness of their Troops choices. It was bad enough in 5th, and 6th hasn't made Troops any less important. In particular, Tau has no good options for holding objectives. Orks, however, have access to some of the best Troops in the game, who can also come cheap. There are a lot of ways to do this combo, obviously, and you might include a Big Mek with a KFF in the mix. While it isn't able to give 4+ cover to vehicles now, it can help make sure a whole squad is in cover, and that's harder to do in 6th due to focus fire.

3. Imperial Guard, CCS and lots of Guardsmen

Same idea as above, really. Guard blobs aren't very good any more, but plenty of armies could use cheap cannon fodder to bubble wrap and maybe hold a backfield objective. (Like how Orks use Gretchin). Here, instead of a beatstick IC or 5++ cover, you can get some nice reserve manipulation via Astropaths and Fleet Officers.

In addition, if we go out of the HQ + 1 Troop bounds, you can also take a Battle Psyker Squad. Their ability to lower enemy units' Leadership has some nasty combos now. Of course, you can also take Flyers and Flyer defense out of the FA and HS slots too. It's even fluffy for Imperial armies!

Codex: Guard.

HQ: CCS (reserve manipulation, artillery bombardment, or just a bunch of special weapons)

Troop: Platoon, guard squads 1 PCS, in chimeras with autocannons. Armor proliferation, cheap objectives grabbers, light tank hunting, lots of goodness, and also allows you to take HWS if you need additional dakka

I'm rather taken with adding Belial and a squad of CC terminators to my Tau army (or indeed my Guard army)

You can even Terminator Assault in the first turn, if thats likely to get you closer more quickly.

You could even got the other way and add in a Tau commander and bodyguard for some mobile firepower in a deathwing army. A small fire warrior unit can then be taken to use as a backfield objective holder, rather than wasting a more useful (and expensive) terminator unit.

For Blood Angels I would argue that the following is better:
HQ: Astorath
TROOPS: 7/8x Death Company with jump packs, 1x power fist, 1x power sword
That'll cost about the same as Dante and Sang Guard, but with a couple of extra models that already have FNP and Furious Charge (so no need for that killable Priest), 5 attacks that reroll to hit AND to wound on the charge.

This is a pretty nasty combo from Codex Space Marines, for a last minute objective grab:
HQ: Librarian (take Gate of Infinity)
TROOPS: Scouts with camo cloaks, BP+CCW, Telion
Simply eye up an objective with a decent amount of cover nearby. Wait until turn 4 or 5 and use Gate of Infinity to teleport onto the objective. The cover along with the cloaks and Telion's stealth gives you a great cover save, while the combat weapons give you a bit more punch if the unit gets assaulted (not forgetting that the Librarian is still present too). Having Telion on board gives the unit something to do whilst sitting in the distance, using placed shots to pick out special weapons and the like.

Codex: Grey Knights
HQ: Inquisitor
Troop: 5man Strike Squad
Cost: 125 no upgrades.
Reason: You need a flyer and a Stormraven deals a lot of punishment at 255 points. Twinlinked Multi-melts or heavy bolter. Twinlinked Assaultcannon or Lascannon. Hurricane bolter sponsons. +1str psybolt ammo, and mind strike missles.

Flinty wrote:I'm rather taken with adding Belial and a squad of CC terminators to my Tau army (or indeed my Guard army) .

That's a damn good way to shore up a weakness of the codex.

Codex: Necrons
HQ: Destoyer Lord, sempiternal weave, mindshackle scarabs
Troop: 5x Immortals (Tesla)
Dedicated Night Scythe
Cost: 345 (+30 if you want a resurrection orb)
Why: Awesome flyer dumping a really resilient troop unit pretty much anywhere on the field. Troops are effective at damaging most things, and can even glance flyers to death (especially when coupled with the preferred enemy granted by the d'lord). D'lord makes the unit a threat in CC, and due to the new wound allocation rules, can soak up a lot of damage before relying on Look Out Sir. As an ally, the usual downfall of selecting a d'lord instead of an overlord (no crypteks) doesn't bother you too much.

You want something that shore's up your army's weak points. Here are some examples.

Flying Circus allied with IG
Taking a blob squad makes it much harder for the Daemon player to lose due to tabling if he gets his non-preferred wave.

Static gunline allied Deathwing/BA/Daemons
Taking a hard-hitting counter-assault unit that can deepstrike is a nice advantage for a shooting army that does not have them. (IG and Tau)

Eldar allied with Dark Eldar
Eldar troops are horri-bad. Replace them with excellent dark eldar ones.


In other cases you want armies that can be force multipliers
CSM with Fateweaver
Having fateweaver flying over 10 chaos terminators can be a tough nut to crack. That nuts going to get even tougher when the new CSM codex drops.

Eldar with .*
Runes of warding help with any unit for excellent psychic defense.

labmouse42 wrote:

Flinty wrote:I'm rather taken with adding Belial and a squad of CC terminators to my Tau army (or indeed my Guard army) .

That's a damn good way to shore up a weakness of the codex.

With a bit of luck it might also distract some heavy firepower (lascannon and the like) away from IKing the battlesuits.

Flinty wrote:

labmouse42 wrote:

Flinty wrote:I'm rather taken with adding Belial and a squad of CC terminators to my Tau army (or indeed my Guard army) .

That's a damn good way to shore up a weakness of the codex.

With a bit of luck it might also distract some heavy firepower (lascannon and the like) away from IKing the battlesuits.

Belial is also a very easy way to get Fearless into an Imperial Guard army. My 50-man infantry mega blob used to keep getting run down after combat. Now, with Belial at the helm? They're downright unstoppable.

Except to bolters. Bolters stop them.

Tyranids-

Oh wait, no one wants to be the bugs buddies

Agree with the guy who said Crons OL, Immortals, and NS. That flyer is obscenely cheap, and the OL and Immortals aren't something to scoff at.

My general allies choices are:

Xenos army needs fliers? Necron Overlord on CCB, 2 units of Warriors, 2 Night Scythes, and a Doom Scythe.
Xenos army needs resilient objective takers? Ork Big Mek with KFF and Klaw, 2 30-Shoota Boy blobs with Nobz armed with poles and klaws. They ain't being shifted from an objective.
Anyone needs fire support? Tau Crisis Commander with Crisis Body Guard, a Crisis Suit squad, some fire warriors, and a Broadside unit. Spread shield drones liberally.
Imperial army needs resilience? Inquisitor, two 10-man Grey Knight Terminator squads. Combat squad into 4 units.
Imperial army needs more resilience? Imperial guard infantry platoon or two. Add a Vendetta and a Hydra for your anti-flier needs.

Orks

Warboss
30 Shoota Boyz (Overwatch tarpit)

Eldar

Farseer
Jetbikes

If I wanted to include a fast assault element in my IG army I'd include a BA Reclusiarch with JP and a 5 man squad of death company with 2 power weapons, a thunder hammer and jump packs.

GCMandrake wrote:Belial is also a very easy way to get Fearless into an Imperial Guard army. My 50-man infantry mega blob used to keep getting run down after combat. Now, with Belial at the helm? They're downright unstoppable..

I find that ATSKNF is better than fearless.

Lets say your 50 man blob is assaulted by 10 BA jump marines. If you stay in assault with them, they will grind you down into oblivion over a few turns.
If you have ATSKNF, you have a chance to fall back out of assault then shoot them in the face.

So long as your not deploying the blob right next to your board edge, ATSKNF is better.

Tau offer a Shas'el HQ with a wide variety of equipments and a 6-12 man firewarrior squad.

Why would you take this? Because you want broadsides, that's why. Cheap deathrain HQ and a 6 man FW squad so you can access some quick and easy broadsides would be absolutely boss for vehicle popping.

Super Ready wrote:For Blood Angels I would argue that the following is better:
HQ: Astorath
TROOPS: 7/8x Death Company with jump packs, 1x power fist, 1x power sword
That'll cost about the same as Dante and Sang Guard, but with a couple of extra models that already have FNP and Furious Charge (so no need for that killable Priest), 5 attacks that reroll to hit AND to wound on the charge.

It costs the same if I include a priest (505 points), and while it can be argued that Astroath can be a slightly better beatstick (depending if you consider Master crafted a unique vs special power weapon rule), the fact that there unit is not scoring is a huge difference vs Dante/SG. With 4 of the 6 mission types having objectives its something that should be considered. Also hit and run and perfect deep-strike is always good. IMO if you want to run Death Company there is two things you need to work with A) There jumppacks are over costed vs everyone else (15vs10) and they are not scoring, a more cost effective setup for a DC bomb would be 9 deathcompany + 1 pw + 1 pf and a Reclusiarch in a droppod.

HQ: Reclusiarch
Troop: Death Company in a droppod
Cost: 345-430
Why: 9 Deathcompany with Bolters that can rapid fire and charge (relentless), have FNP/FC and reroll all hits (4 on the charge) and wounds on the charge.
Fun fact: they are very very angry

I've used the following as allies for my IG and found it very effective:

Codex: Grey Knights

HQ: Malleus Inq, Terminator, Psyker, Psycannon (Divination Primaris Power)

Troops: 10 Grey Knight Terminators, 2x Psycannon, 2x Hammer, Stave, Psybolt

Cost: 615 points (off the top of my head)

Why: Gives my IG army a solid block of troops that are great at shooting and in close combat. Also helps dilute the shooting that would otherwise be aimed at more vulnerable units.

None because I play. Tyranids

CSM:

Lash Prince

Plague Marines

Obliterators

Staples of any competitive chaos build.

Master of the Forge w/ conversion beamer, bike – 155
5 sniper Scouts – 75
Rifleman Dread – 125
Rifleman Dread – 125
Storm Talon w/ skyhammer missiles – 155
Total: 585 pts.

Kevlar wrote:CSM:

Lash Prince

Plague Marines

Obliterators

Staples of any competitive chaos build.

But that doesn't have anything to do with the allies topic of the thread... Also was the main build of 5th ed not so much 6th. I find either fate weaver with CSM terminators and assisting daemons or Epidimus with an all nurgle force can be pretty brutal.