Opinion of best allies for Tau?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**HeraldofDisease**

I'm thinking of starting Tau, but unsure which race to use as allies when I get to that point level. I want an allie that will make up for the Tau's lack of CC. But would Orcs be best? Or possibly Space wolves? Or een Blood angels? lol. So many choices but which does anyone here think would be best?

**Satan's Little Helper**

Blood Angels would work well what with death company/assault squads as troops. Have you considered Deathwing detachment with TH/SS? That would mean that they would have to be the primary detachment however.

**HeraldofDisease**

Deathwing didn't even cross my mind +Face palm+ lol. I'll do some playtesting and see how it goes!

**PrinceRaven**

At the moment I'd say either Space Marines or Orks, I'm leaning towards Space Marines due to psychic powers and hammernators, though big squads of shoota boys make great bubble wrapping and you can still use supporting fire when they get charged.

**Jancoran**

My favorite allies are Lysander and 5 Terminators, plus scouts.

Gives Tau serious punch. Riptides are definitely not meant for close combat...nor is anything else Tau have really. So...

Lysander for the win if you NEED an ally. So far I am winning withint any allies in the new codex.

**lambsandlions**

Three allies really stand out in my mind. And it is my personal opinion that tau should take the minimal possible allies as to not water down tau's ability to alpha strike.
Those three allies are:

Necrones- They have two things really going for them, ability to bring a night fight and wraiths. Night fight is huge for tau because it basically denies your opponent a turn of shooting. It is so easy to set up a night fight where your opponent's heavy guns can't hurt you and you pick out what ever worries you the most. Wraiths are just a great unit who can stop assaults or tear apart the enemies flanks.

Eldar- The need for powers has decreased and now with a command and control nod and multi-spectrum suit you can have some of the better divination powers at your fingertips without a farseer. But defense against enemy psychers is a powerful tool and can make a hard match-up like demons seems rather easy. Besides the farseer eldar really don't bring anything amazing to the battle field. Jetbikes are nice for last minute objective grabbing though.

Orks- seems like an odd pair for tau but they are actually pretty good as you can make a cheap mini hoard. They offer very cheap close combat fighters who can use strength of numbers to kill or at least tie down a unit.

**PrinceRaven**

Oh wow, Eldar and Tau are Battle Brothers... doesn't make much sense but let's run with it. Divination support and OP psychic defence from a Farseer with Runes of Warding, and a min unit of Guardian jetbikes for capturing objectives late game could be pretty good and very cheap, even if Eldar don't have the combat staying power of Hammernators or Ork Boyz.

**Kain**

PrinceRaven wrote:
Oh wow, Eldar and Tau are Battle Brothers... doesn't make much sense but let's run with it. Divination support and OP psychic defence from a Farseer with Runes of Warding, and a min unit of Guardian jetbikes for capturing objectives late game could be pretty good and very cheap, even if Eldar don't have the combat staying power of Hammernators or Ork Boyz.

Well, the Eldar and Tau are the two factions most likely to listen to reason and join forces, although the Eldar will as always have an ulterior motive but given that the Tau don't represent a threat to their civilization and are quite happy to accept help without too much second guessing the Eldar's motives are almost certainly not hostile to the Tau. For their part the Tau seem to greatly admire the Eldar and are very eager to learn more about them, likely born out of a pipe dream of the Eldar joining the Tau empire.

**Messy0**

Isnt there that whole possibility that the Eldar created the Ethereals? Maybe i just heard that somewhere.

**Kain**

Messy0 wrote:
Isnt there that whole possibility that the Eldar created the Ethereals? Maybe i just heard that somewhere.

The origin of the Tau empire is very nebulous. Anyone from the Emperor, to Cegorach, to Eldrad, to Trazyn, to the deceiver may be responsible for the arrival of the ethereals. Given that the Eldar, who were created by the old ones to fight he Necrons and later designated by the Old Ones to be the heirs to all they left behind would probably try to throttle any creation of their old enemy in the crib ruling out the Necrons seems reasonable.

**The Lost Autarch**

Sorry to derail the conversation and make a point re: the original post, but:

I'd hold off on buying any Eldar as the new codex is on the horizon (finally). Currently they make great allies, but will only exist in their current form for another month-and-a-half.

If you want, play test using proxy models.

**Kain**

The Lost Autarch wrote:
Sorry to derail the conversation and make a point re: the original post, but:

I'd hold off on buying any Eldar as the new codex is on the horizon (finally). Currently they make great allies, but will only exist in their current form for another month-and-a-half.

If you want, play test using proxy models.

You can probably still buy the models that are garaunteed to largely remain legal like Guardians or the aspect warriors. Some minor details about them may change but the overall gist is likely to remain the same, so Dark Reapers will probably still be MEQ killing shooters and Banshees MEQ killing stabbers.

**The Lost Autarch**

Oh, I don't doubt that the current models will still be legal.

But the new Eldar rules may change some things that could make them less attractive of an ally, hence my "wait to buy."

**juraigamer**

Currently, either eldar for a farseer with runes of warding and guide, who simply twin links a pathfinder unit, or a space marine librarian with null zone in a drop pod.

**Kain**

The Lost Autarch wrote:
Oh, I don't doubt that the current models will still be legal.

But the new Eldar rules may change some things that could make them less attractive of an ally, hence my "wait to buy."

Well, given that the aspect warriors are almost garaunteed to remain largely the same in functionality save for some price point juggling and maybe a new rule here or there I think things like striking scorpions would still be a wise investment to chop up those hordes of poor save gribblies better than the Kroot ever could.

**LValx**

IMO best is easily Orks. Fearless bodies is huge, it gives you some counter cc and a nice bubblewrap without LD problems. I love Orks and Tau.