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i am thinking of making a small Tau ally detatchement to use with either my ravenwing, or blood angels and here is what i was thinking:

HQ: either a ethereal or the new suitless hq choise (cant remember the name right now)

Troops:
2x 12 fire warriors ( will basically just camp objectives and shoot)

Elite:
Riptide (rule of cool)

I'm also thinking of adding a broadside unit for the heavy slot, but this will bring the detatchement points up vonciderably but add tons of firepower. Would this be a good cookie cutter ally detatchement from the tau list? Any comments and advice are welcome!

Oh and could also use these allied with either my daemons or CSM, but then droping the firewarriors to a minimum as they would not be scoring with the daemons atleast.

The new guy is called Fireblade Cadre.

If you really just want to include a riptide, I would do this...

Fireblade

1 x 12 FWs

Riptide


Ethereals do best when their buffs are helping more than just a few units. Plus they give up that a VP when killed.

If you want to do Broadsides you get to choose between HYMP or Railsides. Pick whichever plugs holes in your main list, that's what allies are for after all!

Fireblade

1 x 12 FWs

Riptide

In fact, this is a good ally detachment. It will depend on the rest of the army if a 2nd FW unit is needed.

So far i have ran Tau allied detachments into my orks 3 times and i used a commander to buff him.

Bad idea.

Fireblade could prove a lot better as i liked the riptide but not the way i was running him (he was total ~380pts including the buffcommander costs). It allows the required 1 firewarrior group to actually do something other than sit on an objective and hope noone shoots at them cuz thats all mine did lol.
In fact w/o making Tau the main detachment its probably the only one that would be viable. Ive thought about missile sides instead of lootas but i wouldnt have the marker light support for them so meh.

On a related question - if you take Tau as allies does your main detahcment benefit from the Taus markerlight hits?

 wuestenfux wrote:

Fireblade

1 x 12 FWs

Riptide

In fact, this is a good ally detachment. It will depend on the rest of the army if a 2nd FW unit is needed.

You could even bring in some Kroot if you just need some disposable bodies.

As far as the ML go, don't have the dex on me, but I believe it specifies units from the Tau Codex. In the last book Kroot couldn't benefit from MLs but now there is no such restriction.

Immediately before a unit from Codex: Tau Empire shoots at a target that has one or more markerlight counters, it can declare it is using one or more of the markerlight abilities ...

All units in the codex, no allies.

Tau can be a great ally detachement. In fact, some Dakkanauts believe the Tau Codex only suits an ally detachement. I don't but that's a whole other story.

Playing one FW team, I'll get the Tau Cadre Fireblade. Cheap HQ, boosting only one unit, can even come with a ML. Not bad for the price and your FW are still gonna shoot twice at 30"
Playing two FW teams, I'll get the Ethereal, even if it grants one more Victory Point. He'll buff both FW units, might give a FnP save (6+ is no big deal but that better than nothing), and allow you to play quite a lot of different style (agressive FW: works wonders > every firewarriors near him shooting 3 times a turn !), fast moving (sprint + shoot at BS1) and long-lasting objective holders thanks to the base rule of Ethereal Leadership.
As Elite slots, I really think a Riptide is gonna be a fire magnet and won't last long. I'd stick with some "cheap" Tau detachement and go "Ethereal + 2x 12 FW (might be less) + Broadies as it suits you)"

In fact, a Riptide will be a fire magnet. But who cares? It will not be scoring and every shot at the Riptide is one shot less at your main detachment. Its clear that the enemy cannot afford to ignore it and thats the good think about it.

I'm thinking a buffed Tau ally could help shorter range armies like necrons or chaos marines. Something like:

Fireblade
Riptide (Ion accelerator, SMS, EWO, Stim injector)
12 Firewarriors, Markerlight shas'ui
Hammerhead, Longstrike (or a skyray depending on your AA needs)

Not super cheap but a very plug and play allied detachment for larger point games which can seriously help a tournament army.

I have been considering tau allies for my necrons to help provide long range firepower and provide AP2.

The fireblade was my initial thought, though now I am considering a commander with dual plasma to help with more ap2. If you give him Iridium armor, 2 plasmas, 2 markerlights, and a drone controller, he will synergize with the riptide while still being tough. Over double the cost of the fireblade but will still be efficient I think.

Riptide with Ion accelerator and early warning of course.

I'd like a hammerhead, but am having trouble justifying it with the current meta and fitting it in at 1850.

 Trozen wrote:
I have been considering tau allies for my necrons to help provide long range firepower and provide AP2.

The fireblade was my initial thought, though now I am considering a commander with dual plasma to help with more ap2. If you give him Iridium armor, 2 plasmas, 2 markerlights, and a drone controller, he will synergize with the riptide while still being tough. Over double the cost of the fireblade but will still be efficient I think.

Riptide with Ion accelerator and early warning of course.

I'd like a hammerhead, but am having trouble justifying it with the current meta and fitting it in at 1850.

Plasma guns wouldn't synergize very well because your goal should be to keep the Riptide as far away as possible. Meleeing with it could be death, since you don't want it to get tarpitted down. Also, the commander doesn't benefit from the 4d6 JSJ, remember that. You could turn him into an AA platform, since the Riptide is going to spend most of its time early game intercepting deep strikers. Alternatively, you could give it a support commander that gives it tank/monster hunter and rerolls. Or, you could give the Riptide Shadowsun, so that you don't need to novacharge the shields and can get 3++ from cover instead. She's cheap and often overlooked. If you really want AP2, field 3x Crisis Suits with dual plasma guns each.

Also, giving the Fire Warriors EMP grenades could give them a mild anti-tank function; which would be surprising to enemy transports, especially Deathwing LR's since PFG was FAQ'd and Furiouso Dreadnoughts and stuff. If you're Necron and you field flyers, the Tau fliers might benefit you - a Barracuda can put down high AP pie plates and the Bomber can drop bombs quite often; the fighter's turrets arcs are undeniably good as well.

Xyrael wrote:

 Trozen wrote:
I have been considering tau allies for my necrons to help provide long range firepower and provide AP2.

The fireblade was my initial thought, though now I am considering a commander with dual plasma to help with more ap2. If you give him Iridium armor, 2 plasmas, 2 markerlights, and a drone controller, he will synergize with the riptide while still being tough. Over double the cost of the fireblade but will still be efficient I think.

Riptide with Ion accelerator and early warning of course.

I'd like a hammerhead, but am having trouble justifying it with the current meta and fitting it in at 1850.

Plasma guns wouldn't synergize very well because your goal should be to keep the Riptide as far away as possible. Meleeing with it could be death, since you don't want it to get tarpitted down. Also, the commander doesn't benefit from the 4d6 JSJ, remember that. You could turn him into an AA platform, since the Riptide is going to spend most of its time early game intercepting deep strikers. Alternatively, you could give it a support commander that gives it tank/monster hunter and rerolls. Or, you could give the Riptide Shadowsun, so that you don't need to novacharge the shields and can get 3++ from cover instead. She's cheap and often overlooked. If you really want AP2, field 3x Crisis Suits with dual plasma guns each.

I meant synergize in that they would be hitting the same targets most of the time allowing the commander to start out and then the riptide finish up using the markerlights that hit. The two would not be joined together. With an allied detachment, that is one of the cheaper ways I can see to allow the riptide to ignore cover while still allowing the markerlight unit to be useful and durable. The commander would be skirting the 12" using terrain and vehicles to block charges as he could. Being near the wraiths helps too.

I know the commander can grant monsterhunter/tankhunter, but I see that more useful in a full squad of crisis suits (MPs imo) and not the riptide. The riptide is more useful to Necrons for the intercept and long range.

Edit: A fireblade, full firewarrior squad, ion accelerator riptide, and railhead with BSF is not bad for under 500.

Definitely looking at running Tau as allies when I want to run a flyer heavy army or if I want to run fast skimmer tanks again as Eldar (when the new book comes out). Good news is you can field a huge range of points with a single Tau detachment, anywhere from 110 to over a thousand.

I faced this on Sunday with my beastpack DE/Eldar

Torks 1500

Warboss - Bike, PK, Cybork, Squig
Fireblade

Riptide - TL Fusion Blaster, Ion Cannon Cannon, Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker

6 Nobs -Bikes - Painboy - Waaagh! Banner, Big Choppa - Bosspole, Big Choppa - 2 Big Choppas - Cybork
22 Shoota - 2 Big Shoota - Nob - 'Eavy Armour, PK, Bosspole
22 Shoota - 2 Big Shoota - Nob - 'Eavy Armour, PK, Bosspole
12 Fire Warriors

2 Broadsides - High Yield Missile Pod, SMS, Velocity Tracker, 2 Missile Drone

I have to say that the Tau were quite effective. Of course he wasted his skyfire/interceptor on me and Tau lose a bit without marker drones. Still it was a nice fire base for his advancing Orks. Not a good match up for him against my list and despite that he did okay ... in the end though beast pack is greater than nob bikers ... close game despite that as he was able to wrap his firebase in orks and FW and assault with his bikes the units he wanted to.

Hey!
I was in the same boat as you, Orks and Taullies. I was going to go with something like this:

Darkstrider

x9 Fire Warriors w/ Devilfish w/ BC, SMS and Decoy Launchers

Longstrike Hammerhead w/ Railgun, SMS, Advanced Targetting, Decoy Launchers, and Automated Repair Systems.

This is around 500pts (I think) and adds a nice set of options my Orks can't bring to the table.

Well, there ya go!
T-

 Trogdor the Burninator wrote:
Hey!
I was in the same boat as you, Orks and Taullies. I was going to go with something like this:

Darkstrider

x9 Fire Warriors w/ Devilfish w/ BC, SMS and Decoy Launchers

Longstrike Hammerhead w/ Railgun, SMS, Advanced Targetting, Decoy Launchers, and Automated Repair Systems.

This is around 500pts (I think) and adds a nice set of options my Orks can't bring to the table.

Well, there ya go!
T-

I'm very interested in taullies for my orks as well, I'm just curious, why are you paying the points for the devilfish? I've never played tau before so I'm unfmiliar with tactics you might be able to use with it, but none of the dudes inside can fire, wouldn't it be better to have them on foot camping an objective?

I was looking at tau to shore up my space marines for the time being

Thinking something like 2x12 fire warriors, commander, and a riptide.

Honestly the problem I see with a riptide specifically as an ally is that.. he's only bs3 and reallly not that great without some ML support. So if you want to include him you need some pathfinders or a ML commander or something to just throw some MLs down so the big guy isnt bs3 always. At which point ur ally is now a lot more expensive just for shots that you could have gotten elsewhere.

Instead I would look to tau for one of the better bang for the buck hordes you can get. The name of the game is scoring, and kroot are pretty useful at it being cheap, hordy and infiltrating.

Thus i would go more with something like this:

aun'va
2x20 kroot with sniper rounds.

40 sniper shots, good for taking out, well, anything big and scary and sniping out key guys in opponent squads.

Replace Aun'va with a regular ethereal to fit in the kroot squads as he's not an IC.

Remember, the sniper rounds are an additional weapon profile. This means the kroot pulse rounds are still there... so the ethereal power can work on them to make their guns rapid fire 3 if you switch to pulse rounds.

Just don't let the ethereal die as it's 2 KPs.

All for just over 300 points.

Or you could go for a support commander with Command node and puretide chip to make them TL and monster hunter/tank hunters. Layer the kroot so one wall is in front of the other so the commander can jump out quick to the next unit.

an etheral is also a decent bet buttt prevents that squad from infiltrating. hence aun'va since his LD abilities are global

 Trogdor the Burninator wrote:
Hey!
I was in the same boat as you, Orks and Taullies. I was going to go with something like this:

Darkstrider

x9 Fire Warriors w/ Devilfish w/ BC, SMS and Decoy Launchers

Longstrike Hammerhead w/ Railgun, SMS, Advanced Targetting, Decoy Launchers, and Automated Repair Systems.

This is around 500pts (I think) and adds a nice set of options my Orks can't bring to the table.

Well, there ya go!
T-

This is what I have been thinking of (although I have IG and CSM, so it won't be any time soon). I would probably lose the devilfish. I think Darkstrider is really good and same as a Hammerhead with Longstrike.