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Here's my suggestions:

You already like Eldar as an army, so do that. The Eldar are [i]reknowned[i] for allying with others for their own purposes.

Otherwise, if cost is the primary barrier for you to consider an IG army, think about doing an Abhuman IG army. Use the rules for carapace armored veterans and field squats as your troops. Take some Ratlings or Ogryn (which can be converted from Ogres to save on cost), and take some 'feral human' Rough-Riders. An unsanctioned pysker makes a perfectly good Primaris Pysker for an HQ. It's terribly fluffy (human renegades, abhumans, and human pariahs), even if it isn't too useful. However, you did say, FLUFF-wise, what works best, not RULES-wise.

I like the Eldar cross, and I think in some ways it makes sense, mutually beneficial, older race with no hope trying to help a race that isnt as cursed as they know humans are. Hell all you have to do is make an Eldar have a vision or glimpse into the future, concerning Tau being important in some way. We all know how theyll always get involved (maybe screw things up?) like they always do lol.

LSS I say go for it, cool fluff, interactions between races, and the options for a few specialist units, strengthen the Tau skills base with the precision and ability of certain Eldar Units. I like it, and id love to read the fluff involved, as theres alot of options in there.

CI

Well, thank you for your advice! I'm still on the fence, I'm leaning Eldar... but not sure yet.

Tau and IG have a pretty formal relationship in the latest in the greater good. Not battle-brothers but about as good as any alliance gets in 40k.

Xyrael wrote:
[

Spoiler:

If you'll search on DeviantART where this pic has "born", you'll see that that "Space Marine" is a empty suits with an A.I. in, not a real Marine.
The Ultramarine fought with the Tau against Orks IIRC, and then, after they won the fight, they didn't start to shoot each others again.
IIRC they simply were like: "Yeah, whatever, let's forget this gak. 'Bye".

Or something along that line.

Ork mercenaries aren't picky. Nor are many human mercs, and there's always the human traitors, making IG a good choice.

Any Imperial faction might temporarily team up with Tau to fight a more dangerous enemy, such as Tyranids, an Ork WAAAGH!, or a Chaos invasion.

The first Ciaphas Cain book had a tenuous peace between Tau and the Imperium as its focus.

What about cron and tau? don't or wouldn't have to convert marines to be ground drones. not when you could add some new fluff along the lines of "the earth caste is working on new, unmanned battlesuits to accompany stealth suits of all varieties" they are AOC (which could explain the "unmanned battlesuit" idea. they could migh not have worked out all of the logistics, however it'd be one of the worst combinations of allies, as both armies units are shooty, though necron have some specialists) mainly said necron because of the conversion potential.

If you want the rules for tau Auxila from IA 3 i could get them for you if you wanted ...

 Materia_Master wrote:
Hey yall, with the advent of the new tau codex, my single army is boosted and doing better than it ever has before. That being said, i was saddened to see a lack of new units in the codex, and I was thinking on starting a second army to 1.) create a decent "ally" for my Tau, and 2.) add some variation that my new tau codex lacks, in order to stave off ennui. Luckily for ol' Materia_Master, my two favorite armies after Tau are the Space Marines and Eldar (IG is tied with them, but I don't have THAT kind of money to start up one of them), which happen to be Battle Brothers with my Tau.

With my Tau, I created my own Cadre, and I enjoy having my own fluff behind them, but I was thinking how cool it would be if my second army would be an actual canon army.

That being said, what Space Marine army would work with Tau? Some chapter that could/would be in the same general area of the Tau Empire (Ultima Segmentum, or as far as the Eastern Fringe), and what chapter would actually allow themselves to fight alongside the tau against Orks, Tyranids, Necrons, and Chaos Space Marines. I know the question is two-fold, but I need an army that would actually exist in the same area, and isn't too "PURGE THE XENOS!".

The same question really applies for the Eldar as well, what Eldar would be in the general area, and what Eldar would be ok with working with the intrepid young race?

I've been scouring the lexicanum, and I'm not really coming up with any answers.

At the very least, I figure that the Ultramarines could, perhaps the Mentors, since they're all about studying technology... As for the Eldar, I have no idea.

"I have followed the myriad potential futures of the Tau with great interest. Though barely even striplings compared to us, I feel a strange protectiveness towards them. In time I believe they will exceed even our greatest feats and master the darkness within their souls." -- Eldrad Ulthran, Tau 3E Codex

There you go, bro. All you need to know about which faction has the most fluff reasons for being bros4life with the Tau.

 Kasrkin229 wrote:
If you want the rules for tau Auxila from IA 3 i could get them for you if you wanted ...

Sure, much apperciated!

JWhex wrote:

Actually it is a model selling mechanic, and that's pretty much it.

You know, even your codex is there to sell models. ,)

But yeah, on a more serious note, if you think it's nothing more than just model selling mechanic, then you should really take a break from the game as the community has clearly ruined it for you. Well, that or you never cared about the fluff in the first place.

Thing is - call it rubbish, crap or whatever, it doesn't matter - of course it has it's downsides like ultimate cheese in form of Taudar, but that's just a side effect. Main reason was to give players ability to field forces they'd like to for fluffy(will address later)/gameplay reasons(to plug holes in their army). See, while the latter results in some crap happening because of morally questionable decisions and lack of balance between books which leads to strong Tau allying with even stronger Eldar, it'll end up badly..

But the former is ten times more important! The fluff! Imagine 40k without Allies matrix. Imagine Chaos player who wants an awesome CSM/Daemon army because Chaos is awesome and it marches together as a whole. Imagine Imperial Guard player who wants an Inquisitor to lead his army. Or IG army joined by an allied company of Space Marines fighting shoulder to shoulder(pad). Or, hell, Space Marines led by an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor converted to be Deathwatch. Even more unlikely combos that happen in the fluff - IG with Ork mercenaries. IG paying Dark Eldar pirates to help them. Even the uncomfortable rules-wise but still employed by many people IG/CSM combo because Forge World's renegades aren't allowed everywhere and some people need their traitor fix.

Just because you don't care about having allies or fluffy combined force to represent some creative idea of yours it doesn't mean that others don't want that and you can clearly see more uses for the Chart than just 'selling models' or going for absolute cheese. Of course allied armies are most the times a great way to try and start collecting another one based on your detachment, because you already have some units, but I hardly can call it bad - sure it nets GW more money but buying GW's stuff is not a bad thing, even though lots of people seem to claim that it's the case.


As for OP's question.. Fluff-wise top 3 ideas would be Space Marines, Eldar and Imperial Guard. SM because they usually are reasonable and there haven't been enough bad blood nor backstabbing between IoM and Tau Empire as Tau are mostly peaceful, race that just happens to expand. Eldar on the other hand are the only other Xeno race that has highly developed culture that isn't hell-bent on killing everything else(aside from Biel-Tan, I guess) and as Eldrad said they have strange sympathy towards them. Eldar are also one of the "neutral" races, even though they're massive reproductive organs that would easily doom the whole Tau race if Tyranids threatened a Craftworld. Imperial Guard would make good addition as Gue'vesa the same way that they'd make great addition to Chaos as renegades, but as it is now GW is not giving options for units that have no models at the moment thanks to their little clash with ChapterHouse so unless they make renegade/auxiliary conversion kit for Cadians, there won't be such a thing in either codex. Keep in mind though that -regular- IG is not going to ally itself with Tau because of the indoctrination and some really brutal clashes during the Damocles Crusade where Longstrike left negative impression on the tank companies while suits and fire warriors butchered guardsmen to no end with ease. They'd probably just not forgive them unlike Marines, who are bit more pragmatic.

Could also work with Orks and Dark Eldar pirates as they can be hired by virtually anyone aside from Tyranids and Daemons. Tau had enough contact with them to know that they can be used to achieve own goals. Necrons are much less likely, but then again there are those diplomatic Phaerons that could have some little peace agreement with Tau when their tomb world is vulnerable during it's awakening.

 Klerych wrote:

As for OP's question.. Fluff-wise top 3 ideas would be Space Marines, Eldar and Imperial Guard. SM because they usually are reasonable and there haven't been enough bad blood nor backstabbing between IoM and Tau Empire as Tau are mostly peaceful, race that just happens to expand.

LOL, Shrike wants to disagree . Khan too, but he is more like a "let's taste that sweet blueberry pie" kind of guy instead of "let's just kill 'em all" like Shrike.

Also, I think Chaos Space Marines better fit the MEQ-ally than the SMs. You can have rogue SM mercenaries working for the xenos, tragic chaos slaves seeking redemption (like the Crimson Laughter) or full-on chaos followers who has the wrong idea about the Tau Empire (really, it can be seen as some sort of Tzeentchian/Slaaneshi xeno empire if you look very hard).

 AtoMaki wrote:


LOL, Shrike wants to disagree . Khan too, but he is more like a "let's taste that sweet blueberry pie" kind of guy instead of "let's just kill 'em all" like Shrike.

Haha, that's why I wrote "usually". Some chapters would most likely wage brutal, no pardon war againt them, but most of them are more likely to stick to their pre-heresy mindset. I can see Ultramarines, Fists or Salamanders(out of the first founding ones) being okay with working temporarily with the xenos. Tau are far from the worst that humanity has faced so far and can be reasoned with.

 AtoMaki wrote:
Also, I think Chaos Space Marines better fit the MEQ-ally than the SMs. You can have rogue SM mercenaries working for the xenos, tragic chaos slaves seeking redemption (like the Crimson Laughter) or full-on chaos followers who has the wrong idea about the Tau Empire (really, it can be seen as some sort of Tzeentchian/Slaaneshi xeno empire if you look very hard).

CSM could work too as long as they're just a renegade chapter or one of those non-hardcore Chaos worshippers/cleanish guys like Iron Warriors or Alpha Legion. I think Crimson Slaughter isn't a great example because they have lots of mutations and overall warp influence. I think that after what happened to Tau on first contact with Rakarth successively scared them away from weird looking, warped-fleshy creatures, let alone half-mad, tainted Space Marines with eyes, tentacles and testicles growing from their armour. Especially when they cringe upon hearing about bloodshed. Otherwise a somewhat pure renegade chapter could even be taken into Tau Empire's fold if it was deemed Excommunicate Traitoris when it really did nothing wrong or when just one member did something heretical(like Blood Ravens). For most renegades it's either turning full Chaos maniac or play pirates and build their tiny empires. Joining Tau who will accept them and offer purpose(especially if they were deemed traitors for no reason) seems like a good alternative. Ethereals are great at brainwashing.

Main issue with CSM is that if they're riddled with spikes and adorned with poles covered in skulls and bloodied helmets it's hard to consider them good, dependable allies as they look ultimately cliche evil. Tau don't seem to be too fond of that kind of folk.

 Klerych wrote:

Main issue with CSM is that if they're riddled with spikes and adorned with poles covered in skulls and bloodied helmets it's hard to consider them good, dependable allies as they look ultimately cliche evil. Tau don't seem to be too fond of that kind of folk.

Uhm... Kroots?

And I can totally see the earth caste dwelling into the more esoteric aspects of the CSM like stable mutations ("Our Fire Warriors could sure use some of that!") and daemon engines ("They are like our drones on steroids!"). A CSM Warpsmith binding a Bloodletter into a Riptide battlesuit while earth caste scientists watch and take notes would be surely a hilarious scene .

On a curious note, this isn't exactly allies but how would Farsight's faction work when it comes to Kroot? I vaguely hear them not working together but is that entirely true or not? Looking at it from a fluff manner.

As per allies that work. Eldar seem to show some respect to Tau if treating them like children, IG are good as allies against Chaos or Nids as well as representing Tau sympathizers, SM can work for allying against a greater foe, DE work if you want to play a few games before they betray Tau, and CSM can work if a renegade faction or a subtle chaos faction/not heavily into chaos. That's pretty much the ones that work.

 AtoMaki wrote:

Uhm... Kroots?

Kroot were in dire situation where Tau could've helped them and they didn't have some otherwordly monsters and mutations all around them. xD All the Kroot did 'morally wrong' was eating slain enemies, but that was a genetic condition for them, and even then Tau repeatedly tried to teach them not to do cannibalistic stuff as it's wrong in the Ethereals' eyes.

 AtoMaki wrote:
And I can totally see the earth caste dwelling into the more esoteric aspects of the CSM like stable mutations ("Our Fire Warriors could sure use some of that!") and daemon engines ("They are like our drones on steroids!"). A CSM Warpsmith binding a Bloodletter into a Riptide battlesuit while earth caste scientists watch and take notes would be surely a hilarious scene .

I think that Tau Empire is pure in it's purpose and what I've read leads me to believe that Tau Empire is an atheistic faction that tries to convert everyone to the Greater Good. Chaos would only be a hindrance for them because Chaos worshippers have no higher goal than serving their dark masters and they're most likely to be executed on spot because there's no return from Chaos worship if it gets into your soul. As for Earth Caste.. I am not sure if they'd really love their shiny, futuristic tech to be possessed by some bloodthirsty creature from another dimension..! In general I think Chaos repulses and scares Tau greatly because they're not connected to the warp and they don't understand it.. and when they see non-organic matter turning into warped flesh, growing eyes, appendages and tentacles* or oozing, gaping maws that only want to devour, they're most likely to assume that this gak's worse than anything the Imperium can throw at them. You know, eldritch horror that is beyond their understanding as they have no connection to the Warp and no way to learn about it.

* - I guess that Tau females would appreciate some tentacles, seeing how japanese the Tau are.

does anyone else find it entirely frustrating that guard is not a battle brother with tau but dark eldar are bbs with eldar?

 Scipio Africanus wrote:
does anyone else find it entirely frustrating that guard is not a battle brother with tau but dark eldar are bbs with eldar?

I for one am thankful that IG is not Battle Brothers with Tau. While I understand that you'd want to field them as the Gue'vesa, now imagine the terrible outcry of all those people when they realise that now Tau can ally in Primaris Psykers for prescience and tank commanders in punishers. Chances are high that they'd be just as cheesy as Taudar lists, because Tau would LOVE to get some high AV vehicles, Manticores, blobs and whatnot. Then everyone would just ban Tau players from the community.

I'd rather vote for Auxiliaries supplement/minidex/entry.

As for Eldar/Deldar.. why not? Their relationship is not like that of Chaos and Imperium, they happen to work together when survival of eldarkind is threatened or when the other one is in danger from some other race, it's just that they separated themselves from each other, but they're still cousins, so Battle Brothers are a reasonable interaction for them.

 Klerych wrote:

I think that Tau Empire is pure in it's purpose and what I've read leads me to believe that Tau Empire is an atheistic faction that tries to convert everyone to the Greater Good. Chaos would only be a hindrance for them because Chaos worshippers have no higher goal than serving their dark masters and they're most likely to be executed on spot because there's no return from Chaos worship if it gets into your soul. As for Earth Caste.. I am not sure if they'd really love their shiny, futuristic tech to be possessed by some bloodthirsty creature from another dimension..! In general I think Chaos repulses and scares Tau greatly because they're not connected to the warp and they don't understand it.. and when they see non-organic matter turning into warped flesh, growing eyes, appendages and tentacles* or oozing, gaping maws that only want to devour, they're most likely to assume that this gak's worse than anything the Imperium can throw at them. You know, eldritch horror that is beyond their understanding as they have no connection to the Warp and no way to learn about it.

In fact, Chaos is pretty easy to understand once you see it through an atheist's eyes: it is just a mirror dimension made from emotions. There is nothing too bizarre there, only what people want to be there. You can pretty much apply psychological knowledge on the Warp in the same way you can apply that stuff to mortal emotions. The possible applications are endless if you are willing to abuse the Warp. And if there is a race that can do that, then it is the Tau.

 AtoMaki wrote:
The possible applications are endless if you are willing to abuse the Warp. And if there is a race that can do that, then it is the Tau.

I guess they would.. if they had souls. Tau have absolutely no presence in the Warp and they're immune to mutations other than those that touch inanimate objects and they have no psykers because of that. And without psykers they don't have astropaths to guide their ships through the Warp, so they have to use short range jump engines that aren't even half as effective as warp drives..!

They are less likely to be devoured by demons en-route thouhg. .

 Klerych wrote:

 AtoMaki wrote:
The possible applications are endless if you are willing to abuse the Warp. And if there is a race that can do that, then it is the Tau.

I guess they would.. if they had souls. Tau have absolutely no presence in the Warp and they're immune to mutations other than those that touch inanimate objects and they have no psykers because of that. And without psykers they don't have astropaths to guide their ships through the Warp, so they have to use short range jump engines that aren't even half as effective as warp drives..!

Incorrect. Tau do have a presence. It's just incredibly small.

 Klerych wrote:

 AtoMaki wrote:
The possible applications are endless if you are willing to abuse the Warp. And if there is a race that can do that, then it is the Tau.

I guess they would.. if they had souls. Tau have absolutely no presence in the Warp and they're immune to mutations other than those that touch inanimate objects and they have no psykers because of that. And without psykers they don't have astropaths to guide their ships through the Warp, so they have to use short range jump engines that aren't even half as effective as warp drives..!

And this is where their Chaos Space Marine allies come in...

 AtoMaki wrote:
The possible applications are endless if you are willing to abuse the Warp. And if there is a race that can do that, then it is the Tau.

Did the Tau restart their study into the Warp? I haven't read the latest fluff for Tau, but I thought they basically abandoned all Warp research due to the whole 13th Black Crusade event campaign thing.

There's a theory that the Eldar created the ethereals and the Tau are their plan to regain power.

 streamdragon wrote:

 AtoMaki wrote:
The possible applications are endless if you are willing to abuse the Warp. And if there is a race that can do that, then it is the Tau.

Did the Tau restart their study into the Warp? I haven't read the latest fluff for Tau, but I thought they basically abandoned all Warp research due to the whole 13th Black Crusade event campaign thing.

I think so... let me scour the 6th Ed Tau Codex real quick... Okay, I found no indication either way, really. There is a mention that after the battle at Dal'yth, the Etherials demanded a full study of Human Technology they found and that the Earth Caste was absolutely confounded by the Warp Drive, as they (The Tau) have no understanding of the Warp and worse, the humans only knew how to operate it, through rituals and chanting. I do seem to remember that at the beginning of the 3rd Sphere Expansion, the new 'Warp Hop/ Skip' Drive was based on captured Human Warp Technology (and is somehow safer as it doesn't completely enter the Warp), but I can't remember where I read that, so take that last bit with some salt.

Okay, onto the question at hand: Fluff-based Allies for Tau. I choose Tau to go with my Eldar and I'm going to give you my reasons. Hopefully that will help. But first: thoughts on Tau and Chaos.

I have trouble with the idea of Tau allying with CSM. Anything but the (mentioned) Renegade SM Chapters doesn't make sense to me, as everything I've read for the Tau have them as hardcore atheists. Tau frequently look down their (non-existent) noses at any religious practice, even if said religious practices actually help (Chanting the Instruction Manual and frequent application of Sacred Washes such as oil and lubricants for instance). I can't see any of the "For the Dark Gods!" or "Blood for the Blood God" rants/ chants as being anything but abhorrent, barbaric behavior to the Tau.

When 6th Edition first hit, before either Tau or Eldar got a new codex, I picked up an Tau Ally force for my Altansar Eldar. Now I feel it's important to note that the Eldar don't really consider their physical location all that important, and have access to almost anywhere in the galaxy (that's near a webway gate): one reason I was able to justify using Tau when Craftworld Altansar is in Segmentum Solar. Altansar, having just arrived from the Warp with little clue as to what's been going on in the physical universe for the last 10k years and with Altansar not trusted by our Craftworld Kin, we were forced to look for allies elsewhere. Somehow (I haven't gotten around to fluffing that out, as I rarely play my allies now that I've got a new Eldar Codex) we made contact with the Tau Sept most likely to try and befriend aliens: the Water-Caste Sept... er... Dal'yth.

When pressed by my friends as to 'Why Tau Allies' the answer was to fill the long-range gap, play-wise left over to a 4th Ed Codex. However, I love my Fluff, so fluff-wise, my answer was (and still is): "We've seen it all before. We were around for 500 years after the fall, enough time to see Mankind start to rise to prominence, but by the time we show back up, the mon-keigh are stagnating and falling for many of the same reasons we (The Eldar) did. Let's guide the younger race to not repeat our (or Humanity's) mistakes... and to soak up some of our losses, but we won't tell them that." OOCly, I've joked that (bad high-school references incoming) while the Tau are the School Nerd, the Eldar are the Hot Chick. The Tau see amazing psychic powers, a mode of inter-stellar transport that is a lot faster and safer than anything the Tau have ever encountered, better anti-grav technology than even the Tau can produce and beautiful melee capabilities that (while somewhat barbaric) augment the Tau's ranged discipline... the Tau want the Eldar for their Greater Good and while the Eldar flirt with the Tau (to make them do the Eldars' homework), they'll never join the Greater Good, they're just manipulating a lesser race for their own benefit.

Hopefully that helps some, if you're leaning towards Eldar allies.