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I've seen, dotted about all over the threads of Dakka, people suggesting allies for armies eg Crons for Orks. So I wondered, which alliance combos are the nastiest/best to use? I don't know the allies matrix all that well (keep saying I'll buy the BRB one day...) so what do people think?

I've seen some sweet combos.

I play a Drop Pod army, and have some dynamite options. A unit of Blood Angel scouts can take locator beacons that no other scouts can, which means my first turn pods can have the option of not scattering. A Farsight deathstar can be pretty sweet, especially if he joins with a jump packing Librarian with dome/gate. The Tau/libby unit can even benefit from my pods' beacons when they come back in! (If I do it the other way around, with the Tau as the primary and the allies being marines in pods, then Farsight doesn't even need the beacons.) At events, people expecting me to come with a pod list can sometimes be surprised to find that in addition to raining men, it's also raining Bjorn.

When it comes to non battle brothers, there are some pretty sweet tactics you can use. I've borrowed the units before to run a group of ork biker nobs as a screen for one of my tanks. I've also considered using the Stormlord in a Tau army. Although you'd risk blasting your own guys, you'd be gambling on the Night Fighting to give you more in defense than the lightning takes away.

Frequently, with allies, taking a sub-optimal pairing can actually be a benefit, especially if it's a surprise revelation; say, something you work on in secret and then break out for a tourney. Everyone expects battle brothers alliances, but very few people take desperate allies, so few people expect them. Armies that are VERY specialized (such as Khorne daemons, or Tau) can really benefit from having allies, regardless of class, in a different battlefield position, shoring up their armies' weak points.

Alliance combos are my favorite tactical part of this new edition. I am ALWAYS up to discuss them. If you have a great idea down the line, feel free to PM me and discuss it in greater detail.

Tau and dark elder make a nasty combo. was destroyed by turn two!


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not good

I like "realistic" pairings, so I go with CSMs & Daemons.

Feels better to me, which is important since it's my army and my $$.

I Personally go with Tau + minimum eldar ( Farseer + 3 jet bikes whatevertheyarecallednow )

Or Tyranids....with....erm....tyranids?....genestealer cult IG?...other tyranids?....*sob*...anyone?

Would Necrons do anything good for Tau? I've been noticing that my army is really short on offense (i.e. going out to claim objectives). Necrons inside aircraft might help that. I don't really want to do Eldar because everyone allies Tau with Eldar, but if it's really the best option I'll go with it.

Demented I love that mix, especially when you are thinking of a Farsight style army since it fits 100% with the fluff of Farsight. And hell yes a group of those necron warriors in a flyer would just be all sorts of not fun for the enemy considering how good they are at taking end-game objectives. The flyer certainly doesn't hurt either, and no one expects fliers out of Tau anyway (unless you have the newly revamped Barracuda.. in which case hell yes that thing is nasty)

GreyDragoon wrote:
Demented I love that mix, especially when you are thinking of a Farsight style army since it fits 100% with the fluff of Farsight. And hell yes a group of those necron warriors in a flyer would just be all sorts of not fun for the enemy considering how good they are at taking end-game objectives. The flyer certainly doesn't hurt either, and no one expects fliers out of Tau anyway (unless you have the newly revamped Barracuda.. in which case hell yes that thing is nasty)

Heck, take both the `cuda and the necron flier.

I am strongly thinking about buying the IA book just so I can pick up a Barracuda and be the first person in my local playgroup to field a flier (love that model).

Man... 3 Riptides, 3 Cudas, Necron Flier with troop + cheapest HQ you can get.. then what a commander with Markerdrone support, 2 minimal pathfinder squads..

Ok now you've got me trying to add this all up. Need to figure out how this would work. Sounds friggin awesome though and enough to make people that hate air forces go through the roof.

I think that IG + some form of Battle Brother Space Marines is as good as it gets really.

I'll still stick to my D/Eldar combo though

Iranna.

Necrons are great allies for any army as the bring resiliant scoring troops and flyers.

The new Tau add great anti-air for most any army.

A cool combo is adding space-wolves in pods, even for desperate allies as you can bring them in an enemies backfield for jus devastating effect. Nothing like surprising an opponent while I'm playing necrons then droping a pair of drop pods with grey hunters and rune priests on their backfield.

IG/SW powerblob is excellent as ever.

Nothing says "Feth You" like 50 T3 wounds with 4++ invulns and FNP

Im going to say tau and anyone else. If you can get good assault out of one army, you can ally with tau and get all the AA and shooting you would ever need. They are going to be the death of the croissant air force. Mark my words.


I feel like everyone at the top tournaments are going to be allying with tau for the anti-air and the sheer firepower they can bring to the table.

I am trying to build a Homebrew Army that takes advantage of allies. My thought is this Space Marines in Transports and a teleport homer as my sword/assault force and Allied Imperial Guard in a Fortfication guarding two Basilisks as both my hammer and my shield. So attacking Space marines and entrenched guard.

I've actually got a Cron army so I may look into Tau, but I had a suggestion of Nob Bikers from JimSolo as well for some assault power. On the topic of Orks, no-one has any opinions on them as yet, nor for CSM besides Daemons and vice versa.

Orks and CSM work well together.
CSM as the main army with a SAG mek and lootas hiding behind an ADL with a couple of units of boyz in trukks to rush up with the CSMs in rhinos to assult the turn the CSMs are bailing out (or to rush up with ork bikes, marine bikes, maulerfiends, spawns etc and go silly quick assaulty on the emeny). Going to the orks for help on the main push and to get some good heavy support really frees up the HS and FA slots in the CSM army for taking those goodies.

It's also much easier to go for a very shooty chaos army if you pop in ork allies, providing you don't mind the randomness of the SAG.

On a different subject:

Am I right in thinking that Necrons can ally with Grey Knights? Hmmm....

I hope to make an Inquisition Alliance for my crons but I don't think it works. GK though... Dreadknight Draigo and Paladins anyone?

Deldar springs to mind

BoLS just had an article that went into winning WargamesCon Armies. The winner was a Necron Army with Ork Allies. The Necron Detachment was a fairly standard netlist, but it made some room for a Mega-Armored Warboss and Seven Meganobz in a Battlewagon, which apparently threw enough opponents off guard/were effective enough to win the tournament.

Necron/Ork has other options than just that -- Going full Speedy with Nob Bikers and Wraiths, Going full shooty with Shoota boyz, Lootaz and Annihilation Barges. Orks can give you board presence with 60 Shoota boyz while Necrons give airborne fire support with Nightscythes.

Necron/Tau has some nasty combinations -- here the Necrons once again can use their aerial supremacy to their advantage. With Necron Allies, one can still take 2 Nightscythes and a Doomscythe, a great air force that leaves the ground free for Tau shooting to blow stuff up.

Tau/Ork -- Tau are shooty, orks are choppy/sticky. Once again, a 60 man bubble wrap around your firebase is nothing to sneeze at.

Tau/Eldar -- Double TL on a stick anyone?

Dark Eldar/Eldar -- This is the army I'm slowly starting. There's so much here it's insane, even with some of the old hotness (guaranteed Fortune ) gone. Wraithguard, Nightspinners, Wave Serpents, Farseers, Spiritseers, Warp Spiders, all good with DE. DE have of course Venom-Spam and Raider-Spam and Ravagers and whatever.

Any Space Marine That Isn't a Grey Knight/Imperial Guard -- Put a ATSKNF or Fearless guy in a Guard Blob (preferably a Librarian), and you're done. With DA, you can add Azrael for a 4++ on the whole blob, as well as 5+ FnP near objectives if you want it. An additional Librarian doesn't hurt. With SW, you've got Rune Priests up the wazoo.

GK/Necron -- Put the old cheese with the new! It's honestly not that cheesy, there's some strong but not broken combos in there. Necrons once again can provide the Airforce, while GK can provide the ground troop presence.

Honestly, there are too many potential options. Instead, it's best to pick a combination that sounds cool, and then look afterwards at what works in it, because it's almost certain that there's something interesting there.

What about using an IG psyker battle squad's weaken resolve followed by psychic shriek from (a plethora of things.) Could push through wounds on some otherwise VERY hard to wound things.