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I know they are desperate allies so no indeppendent characters in units, no psychic buffs (not that either team has any psykers) no scoring for the de and if they're within 6" they have a high risk of doing nothing but dark eldar are fast enough that it would not be hard to keep them away and they bring great fire power (not that tau need help with that), good cc power and flyers all at fairly low costs for what they are. Certain units would not suffer at all such as a voidraven or a razorwing and it could also be nice to have terminators get close to your gunline expecting easy melee kills, only to get charged by a squad of incubi. What are your thoughts? Are they still a viable option for Tau as allies?

Why not just take Eldar instead?

I feel that regular Eldar offer more synergy, but, if you're going to do it, here's the things I'd focus on getting:

1. Wyches with Haywire Grenades, on Venoms. This gives you cheap, amazing AT power that's more reliable and more mobile than our Railgun platforms. Venoms add good anti-infantry power as well, again on a highly mobile skimmer.

2. Razorwing or Voidraven. Gives you better anti-air - stick with the Dark Lances to hammer down flyers, and use the missiles for anti-infantry on the ground. If you go Voidraven, don't add the extra missiles, and just rely on the lances and bomb to do the anti-armor work.

3. Reaver Jet Bikes. These little bastids are so versatile and annoying, they'll open up a whole lot of options for you. Add some heat lances to the mix for some anti-armor capability.

For HQs, go cheap IMO. You won't be able to build a big Deathstar style unit with an ally force org chart, so don't stress it. The biggest advantage with DE is that they're fast and any unit worth taking is good against both infantry and armor - something that is hard to find in the Tau codex.

Yeah, DE do not offer much for your Tau army. I'd consider Eldar since they are brothers in arms.

Dark eldar don't bring anything tau cant do better sans assault.

Tau shooting-S5 spam and Railguns. Dark eldar spam poison and dark lances. Tau easily win out in dakka, so then you would only be bringing DE as assault units.

Desperate allies can't score, so no need for any troop support. Most DE assault took a huge hit in 6th; incubi are too expensive and tau can plasma down tough targets. Wytches are too fragile, wracks are subpar if not scoring, mandrakes...well mandrakes suck. The only assault unit I can see benefiting tau would be beastpacks. Beastpacks are awesome, and with the baron in front you have a highly mobile assault unit to rip apart anything that gets too close. A squad of haywitches in a venom for scoring, and a razorwing for air support.

Dark eldar don't provide cheap meatshields, unless you wanted to spam wrack blobs, but again, no scoring. Ork boys are cheaper and can score.

If you did go with DE, getting a flier is a must. Razorwing or voidraven, something to shoot down other fliers. Keep the razorwing stock with missiles and dark lances. Flickerfield.


Either way, space marines(jack of all trades support), eldar(psychic buffs and defense, S6 spam), orks(cheap fearless scoring meatshields) and IG(cheap scoring meatshields and more dakka) make far better allies than dark eldar for tau. All but eldar can also provide flier support as well.

Ok, I suppose it was wishful thinking, I just wanted to use them because I have the models, I think I'll just have to get some eldar but still I can never justify getting an entire codex just for like 3 units

Well you could always run them anyway, just make sure the DE are kitted for melee. That works well for the tau, who lack it.

that's true, what really makes the DE shine is their I5, I've had normal kabalites kill death company before they even get a chance to strike