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Sorry for the hammy title but it says everything.

I am currently working on Tau and want to pick up allies. I have seen the many tau and eldar allies lists and am now trying to narrow down who to buy next.

Currently for tau I have about 900 points. They will be my primary unless the community can help this nubby mcgee decide otherwise.

I will be trying to get them all painted and begin practicing for tournaments.

For tau I have (so far, open to "you should buy this next comments")

Tau

HQ: Fireblade
Troop: 12 FW
Troop: 12 FW
Fast: 10 Pathfinders
Elite: Riptide
Heavy: 2x Broadsides
Devilfish(not sure what to do with it)

(Was going to buy this)
Shadowsun
Aegis (from Mr.Dandy)

For allies I have only briefly read the new marines codex but have always loved White Scars. One allies list looks like

Eldar Iyanden

HQ: 2 Spiritseers
Troop: Wraithguard Dscythe
Wave Serp
Troop: Wraithguard
Wave Serp
Fast: Warp Spiders
Heavy: Wraithknigt

General strat is FW sit behind wall. Spiders go with Shadowsun
Rip and Knight attract firepower. Wraithguard go for objectives. 1 seer w/Wraithguard 1 seer back w knigt and Rip
Broadsides with missle loadout for AA?

For marines (pardon my idiocracy here)

Kor Khan (The char guy)
Troops: Bikes w/ grav thingers (not sure how many)
Troops: Bikes w/ grav thingers
Heavy or Fast?? Gunraven

Also can they have a Librarian on a bike?

Cheers and thanks for the help. I had just started getting a grasp on 5th when 6th came out. Ive been researching but felt I should just reach out.
If Scars seems viable I plan on getting some of those sweet FW bikes.

I think you should look at what people are running in the tau and taudar lists, your either going to be tau heavy or eldar heavy and mixing certain units.

If going tau primary I would look into buying a tau commander, another broadside, and than look into the other lists and play a few games to figure out what you like either an ethereal with alot of fire warriors, or more broadsides and riptides.

If your going with the eldar list you have put here your at around 1000ish in eldar so your tau allies would have to be around 750-1000 points.

I have always felt the best tau allies for eldar are as follows

Buff Commander with full buff systems armor stims hit and run

Riptide upgrade as points allow always take EWO take skyfire if you have extra points

kroot x10 dog

( possibly another kroot x10 dog if list is troops light)

3x broadside 6x missile drone

For the Space marine allies i don't think you need khan in the list take a captain on bike with shield eternal for a few more points scouting 2 bike units isn't super effective.

Than take a command squad with bikes either 4x grav gun and apothecary or 5x grav gun

Troops 2x either 5x bikes with grav grav combi grav or full bike squad with grav grav combi grav with mm attack bike

and a thunderfire cannon

Also you could add a stormraven, but bringing one really doesn't add anything.

If you took the full bike squad commander squad and commander you would be at around 800 of space marine with 2-4 scoring units due to combat squads and 6-7 grav guns 2 combi gravs and possible 2 mm attack bikes.

Which allows for around 1000 points of tau or so

I would go something like

buff commander
etheral

fire warriors x12
fire warriors x12

riptide
riptide

broadside unit x3 with missile drones

Which allows for a very good fire base and mobile scoring in the space marine bikes.

Awesome info thank you tiber55.

The eldar lists all run a jetseer and lots of jet bikes. They also seem to use tons of wave serpents.

I was really leaning the way of the White Scars.

The tournaments judge list comp as well and from what I have seen there will be a lot of nearly identical lists.

So going from your advice (thanks again), I will want to proceed with buying...

Tau Comnander
1x Broadside
1x Riptide
Ethereal

A buncha marines on bikes. ( Will look into model counts )

Would you recomment an Aegis with quad for the Tau firebase?

Also would pathfinders fit? (If not I can take the box back to GW and swap it for something else needed).

It depends on how many points your going to run, and how many points you have left for things like an aegis and pathfinders.

The space marines allies can get fairly pricey if you take full squads which will hamstring what you get with tau, but it does allow for combat squadding.

Space marines with grav guns are so new that not very many competative players have had time to mod up the army and extensively play it.

The bare minimum i would take would be captain on bike (stay light on upgrades), 2x5 man squads of bikes with grav grav combi grav

That would give you alot of points to add pathfinders / forgeworld tetras/skyrays for markerlights, an Aegis with quadgun.

If you go full bore with the grav gun command squad, possible upgrade the captain to a chaper master and take large space marine bike squads it doesn't leave alot of room for anything else, in the tau list.

Markerlights are something you don't need when you ally the simple ally list with eldar, but when you go pure tau, or tau space marines they are something you need to consider. How many and in what configuration is up to you, a couple tetra's and a couple 6 man pathfinder squads would normally be enough, but you have to have enough points to field them and enough units to utilize the buffs.

If you go for the Command Squad w/ Scars ALWAYS bring an Apothecary. The FNP is too valuable to overlook.

And if the tournies you will be attending and your FLGS are cool with forgeworld, I'd definitely go with tetras for your markerlights. When equipped with disruption pods (as every Tau vehicle should be) they are alot harder to take down than Pathfinders. They are also wayyyy more mobile so it will be harder for your opponent to hide his valuable units from your cruel, nasty and generally evil marker lights.

4 Marker drones attached to a commander is another option a lot of Tau players are going for these days. Relatively inexpensive (I think most of them just add markerlights to the buffmander) and 4 BS5 markerlights is nothing to sneeze at.

I'm a big fan of the Spiritseer, Wraithguard in Serpent, Wraithscyth in Serpent, Wraithknight Allies which isn't far off from your proposed allies.

As to your Tau Primary, you need some work. 10 Pathfinders is too much in a single squad, at least split them up. A Buffmander is always a good bet and an Ethereal may be a better fit for a home contingent or Pulse Bomb in the Devilfish(Ethereal for 3shot rapidfire). Broadsides are great and made better by an Iridium Buffmander. Supported Riptides are great, but without markerlights, Farseer, or Buffmander support don't expect them to work miracles.

If you are going Whitescars I would bring a Captain(Bike, Artificer Armor, Thunderhammer, Shield Eternal), Command Squad(Apothecary, 4xGrav), two Bike Squads(2xGrav), and consider something else, possible a StormTalon and Stormraven but now we've gotten a bit pricey. That brings a melee Beatstick and three elite and MC killing squads, and your AA. Leaves your Tau primary to fill in the rest and be versatile, ie Buffmander, Markerlights, and Infantry killing.

Alright. Got the codexs out. Here is a potential list. Aiming for 1750 but will make around 2k then trim.

Tau w/ White Scar allies

Tau

HQ: Tau Commander 155pts
* Irid Armor
* CnC Node
* PEN chip
* MultiSweep
* V-Thrusters

HQ: Ethereal 50pts

Troop: 2x FW teams of 12 216pts

Elite: 2x Riptides 380pts
* Ion Cannon
* EWO

Fast: 2x Pathfinders at 6x 137

Heavy: 3x Broadsides 291pts
* HYMP
* 6x Missle Drones

Total Points for Primary 1,229

White Scars

HQ: Captain 185pts (needs adjusting cant find artificer cost)
* Bike
* Shield Eternal
* Thunder Hammer
* Artificer

Command Squad 210 points
* Apoth
* 4x Grav Gun
* Bikes

Troops: 5x Bikes x2 290
*2x Grav
* Combi-Grav

Total Allies Points 685

Leaves me with 86 points and only half a clue.
I do need to adjust some from that for the artificer armor.


Can I take bikes as troops with White Scars?

Thanks again!

The Bike Captain makes your Bike squads troops. Artificer Armor is under the Captain Entry.

I would add one more scoring unit.

Also, Early Warning Override should be on your Riptides.

Also, you are light on AA besides the Broasides. If you can trim down the list I'd add a Skyray. Maybe drop a squad of Pathfinders, the Skyrat has Skyfire Markerlight Support to help counter the loss.

Honestly to get to 1750 and maintain the list your probably going to have to drop the command squad,

The other option to note is to not take the ethereal and fire warriors and just cut down to 2 10 man kroot squad with hounds would save you a chunck of points.

The skyray is a good option but your starting to hit the problem in that to provide a good shooting base with markerlight support and good AA options just dosen't leave alot of room for large allies.

I would definitely look into tetra's for ML support if forgeworld is ok.

Also if you keep the command squad you want to actually think about the apothecary in the command squad I know alot of people just knee jerk that the apothecary is better than a 5th grav gun, but your going to have to really think hard if it is. How many wounds is FNP going to save v.s. how important is it for that first volley to cripple what it shoots.

They do allow FW. Just found out. I will do a new list when im done with work and add some. Kroot are cool looking. I just am not familiar with them tactics/loadout/ussage wise.

I will do a list as well with points cost for eldar. Eventually I want all 3 forces anyways.

Thanks again!