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I remember reading in the allies matrix that Tau are Battle Brothers with Space Marines and Eldar.

Is there anything in the fluff of the new Tau codex to support this? I am especially interested in the Eldar side of things as they are my army of choice.

I read the whole codex and I don't even remember the mention of Eldar or Dark Eldar.They mention directly Orks, Tyranids and the IoM. Necrons also get some mysterious references.

This is supported in the background during the invasion of hivefleet gorgon. Both Imperial and Tau forces put aside their differences to defeat the Tyranids. The logic behind the allies choice is that Tau, Eldar and humans can make logical decisions and use their words (sometimes) to form temporary alliances.

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
I read the whole codex and I don't even remember the mention of Eldar or Dark Eldar.They mention directly Orks, Tyranids and the IoM. Necrons also get some mysterious references.

Don't forget the veiled Khorne/Chaos reference in the Farsight background.

What veiled reference?

Not saying anything against it - but I'm always fairly poor at 'reading between the lines'.

Would you please elaborate?

Its mainly there for Balancing issues remeber Rules =/= fluff

There's no fluff to show Tau and SM as Battle Brothers. Keep in mind Battle Brothers are close allies, like the SM and Imperial Guard. The only examples so far seen are Space Marines working with Tau under dire circumstances.

It's a gameplay-only mechanic by this point, and thank god it is.

rohansoldier wrote:
I remember reading in the allies matrix that Tau are Battle Brothers with Space Marines and Eldar.

Heresy! No foul xenos are battle-brothers to the Astartes.

This is why I find it odd that Tau are battle brothers to the Eldar as there is no fluff to support it (in fact the inside front and back covers of the new codex show Tau and Eldar fighting each other!).

Oh well, maybe in the next Eldar codex.

 Harriticus wrote:
There's no fluff to show Tau and SM as Battle Brothers. Keep in mind Battle Brothers are close allies, like the SM and Imperial Guard. The only examples so far seen are Space Marines working with Tau under dire circumstances..

The ultras are the Tau's neighborד, they fought side by side against a tyranid invasion (forgot what fleet), and they outright say that the Tau are the most honorable and worthy of all xenos.

Heck, they even warned them and allowed them to evacuate a planet before lunching an exterminatus to get rid of the nids there.

No dont see smurfs acting that way with other xenos.



So, they are battle brothers not because they are BFF and have a peaceful relationship, the two are still in war, but they can put aside their differences temporary in order to face more pressing threats and they don't even backstab each other once the threat is eliminated but go back each to his own, they trust each other enough to be reasonable.


Their relationship falls under the "worthy opponent" and "friendly enemy" tropes.

The alliance with SM is also supported, somewhat, by the book Fire Warrior (though calling them Battle Brothers after that book would be a stretch). The Eldar and Tau are natural allies, even aside from fluff-based facts. On one hand, the Tau will wait decades or even centuries working as merchants with a people (the IoM across the Gulf for example) to get the populace to believe Tau are good. They'd believe the Eldar are worth bringing into the Greater Good. The Eldar, for their part, admire the Tau (Eldrad Ulthuan said so himself) and have a great interest in them. The Eldrad would also realize the Tau are quite open to working together, and quite sincerely so, since betraying the Eldar would undermine any attempt to bring them into the Greater Good.

The Battle Brothers could also represent that these forces have an easy time integrating their command structure to make a joint effort work. They're not best friends but when they work together they are able to do so seamlessly thanks to efficient command systems and disciplined troops that keep their eyes on the mission instead of eyeballing the squad to the left.

I was always under the impression that the allies matrix is based not only on how close two factions are idealogically, but also in terms of battlefield tactics. The Tau and the Astartes both tend to have a similar model for their combat doctrines, focusing on hard, lightning fast surgical strikes to get the job done. This tends to be the Space Marines' dedicated role, and while the Tau do fight in other ways, they understand this fighting style very well, which makes them better able to work with Space Marines than, say, Imperial Guard, who prefer to dig in and fight from an entrenched position, which is anathema to the plains-nomad based fighting style that the Tau employ. Just my own perception on it, of course, take that as you will.

The allies matrix as it stands is a complete abomination of the 40k fluff. I don't put much stock in it as guidelines for fluff backgrounds.

Some parts of the allies matrix make sense to me fluff wise (like the eldar and dark eldar being battle brothers, or the various marine chapters and guard) but some of it, for example grey knights and necrons being able to ally at all or sisters and black templars being desperate allies despite their very similar outlooks towards psykers and the like that make no sense at all.