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Hello all,

Newer player (3 months or so) who is looking to add some allies to my Tau Army. Per the rule book / codex my two options for battle brothers are Space Marines and Eldar. I am leaning heavily towards the SMs as I feel that standard SM troop selection will add a great objective taking/holding supplement to fire warriors and kroots while at the same time a Librarian could provide some psyker / anti psyker ability that the Tau just don't have. Eventually I would like to expand this allied detachment into stand alone Army overtime.

Is there a chapter that you all suggest from the SMs codex that works well with Tau? I was leaning towards Iron Hands or Salamanders or would you all suggest that I look towards the Eldar? Even though i was hoping to start a non-xenos Army. Or should I look for allies elsewhere?

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions!


DOC

I like both Iron Hands and Salamanders.

If your looking for a unit to sit and hold an objective, the Iron Hands would have a slight advantage having a 6+ FNP.

Salamander's on the other hand, will have an advantage on anti-horde, and if you have Vulkan, tank hunting.

The "Strike Force" they put out actually looks like a pretty strong start for a SM force.

Eldar make excellent allies to Tau, honestly perhaps the best. But the Space Marine Strike Force box that Ralis suggested is freaking impressive and an amazing core start to an SM force.

If you're going to do ally up with space marines for Tau, my personal favorite is Iron Hands. Every model having 6 up feel no pain is kinda nice, but the characters and vehicles having It will Not Die is fantastic (note characters get both FNP 6+++ and IWND... which means you can make them stupid hard to kill).

I will say this though, Eldar + Tau is just brutal in its efficiency if you have any inclination towards 'Dar.

Thanks all, I think that i might pull the trigger soon on getting an Iron Hands ally force via the aforementioned Strike Force Box. Not only do I like what the bring to the table but I think from a "fluff" stand point I could see the militant arm of the Adeptus Mechanicus teaming up with the technology dependent Tau force....

Thanks all!

DOC

I am in the same boat. I am thinking of some allies for Tau but don't know who to go with honestly. I was given the idea for White Scars with Stern guard Vets. But I am also looking at Eldar for psykers and what ever else they offer. (No idea honestly) and IG since well I love the models.

I got 1 farseer and 5 rangers...
160p
and Thats all I use for the ally for my tau
(mostly cuz thats all I have for Eldar)
but just having Guide and Prescience with the farseer to buff the tau is unreal
I can't speak for SM cuz I don't play them.. but I assume their psykers could still give a huge benefit to tau

IG can make a very fluffy ally for Tau, just say they are "gue'vesa" human helpers in the tau language. AKA: Its a guard unit thats decided to forsake the emperor for the Greater good.

While I despise them, Eldar work blasphemously good with Tau. Taudar lists are brutally effective in most cases.

Ralis wrote:
IG can make a very fluffy ally for Tau, just say they are "gue'vesa" human helpers in the tau language. AKA: Its a guard unit thats decided to forsake the emperor for the Greater good.

Also this, though they are allies of inconvenience, which is a bit eyebrow raising when one considers SM are Battle Brothers.

I could more much readily see an imperial guard regiment or even whole world going "Uh, yeah, no meatgrinder for us, thanks!" and joining the Greater Good than i could see Tau being homies with SM (despite the ultramarine very cool fluff of working with the Tau vs the Tyranids, and Calgar's "BT-dubbs - might want to get off this rock. Quickly." to the Tau commander).


Here's to hoping 7th ed will have a more intelligent way of approaching allies. I don't mind it, I actually like allies, but some combos are just head scratching on the ally table.

Eldau is well documented, and an extremely powerful combo.

But there's some brutal options available for Tau Marines as well. To toot my own horn, I explored some of them here:

http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2013/10/22/irontau-fun-with-battle-brothers-by-anonymou5/