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Due to the change from the frankly dumb old Battle Brothers ally status with SM to Desperate Allies with Imperials in the new edition, I started thinking about the actual amount of times they've fought together, ala the Necrons+Blood Angels vs Nids thing (don't kill me) or the Eldar+IG vs Necrons thing going on in DOW Winter Assault, just off the top of my head.

I can actually literally just about think of two small occasions:

1) Small group of Firewarriors in that Ciaphas Cain book, "The Greater Good" team up with Cain and his dudes

2) There's a Deathwatch collection short story in which a Tau research team with a single Firewarrior accompanying investigate an abandoned Ordo Xenos facility (iirc) and find a mostly dead team of Deathwatch, bar one who manages to wake up and kill some mutants attacking them.

That said, the story was a bit iffy. The Marine in question was an Iron Hand and they're known for being pretty puritan.

Gue'vessa.
That and they did fight together against a common enemy, namely the tyranids. It is also said that many imperials have a respect for tau after fighting them because tau are truly honorable, they will let you retreat even if they can slaughter you. Of all the alien races, I see the imperium allying with tau as the most probable.

Given how dark things are. They are well proven in combat, there tech and precision abilities + impirial bulk and sheer manpower could be powerful.

Tau are on the " to purge list " of the IoM..


Actual fights alongside Imperials in core books ( BRB, codex, etc ) are rare. I remember the single event of Tau allowed to leave pre-exterminatus ( UM ) and maybe short periods of temporary alliances vs Tyranids. But generally they seem very anti-"imperial"..

Haven't found a fluff explanation for the changes in 7th edition, but I got just 6 hours to read the new stuff.
What I can say : the later part of the timeline isn't altered. Something is added between M32 and M41. Mostly IK, ork and necron related things.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Gue'vessa.
That and they did fight together against a common enemy, namely the tyranids. It is also said that many imperials have a respect for tau after fighting them because tau are truly honorable, they will let you retreat even if they can slaughter you. Of all the alien races, I see the imperium allying with tau as the most probable.

Gue'vesa aren't Imperials, though, they're human members of the Tau Empire (like Kroot).

There's this story where the Ultramarines are fighting the Tau on a dormant Necron Tomb World. When the planet's original inhabitants awake, both armies join forces to battle the Necrons. In the end, Marneus Calgar chivalrously allows the Tau to evacuate their forces before calling Exterminatus on the planet.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think that story alone was the basis for their rather odd "Battle Brothers" status with Space Marines in 6th.

There is also the videogame "firewarrior", when a single fire warrior butchers his way through thousands of chaos marines with a knife. And they have a complicated relation with Ultramarines, swapping from enemies to sort of friends.

Here is the final fight and the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCINJXB_76w
An ultramarine is there to help the main character


(I was told it was fun though, and the exterminatus looks sexy)

 da001 wrote:
There is also the videogame "firewarrior", when a single fire warrior butchers his way through thousands of chaos marines with a knife. And they have a complicated relation with Ultramarines, swapping from enemies to sort of friends.

Here is the final fight and the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCINJXB_76w
An ultramarine is there to help the main character


(I was told it was fun though, and the exterminatus looks sexy)

If that game is canon, the idea that a single Firewarrior Shas'la can conceivably kill hundreds of Guardsmen, quite a few Storm Troopers, several Space Marines, even more Chaos Space Marines, before killing a Lord of Change all by himself whilst wielding bolters, Crisis Suit burst cannons and various other absurd weapons is canon

So no I doubt the legitimacy of that one, though its a fair pointer of history of portrayed alliances

There is a story, I believe in the Tau codex, of an Imperial general engaged with a Tau force when Tyranids show up for dinner. The Imperium and Tau decide to focus on the mutual threat, and then back off of one another at the end. Though there is a quote (I believe) from the Imperial general saying something to the effect of "make sure that they (the Tau) are beetween us and the Tyranids."

 Frozen Ocean wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Gue'vessa.
That and they did fight together against a common enemy, namely the tyranids. It is also said that many imperials have a respect for tau after fighting them because tau are truly honorable, they will let you retreat even if they can slaughter you. Of all the alien races, I see the imperium allying with tau as the most probable.

Gue'vesa aren't Imperials, though, they're human members of the Tau Empire (like Kroot).

I know, it's just that they tend to be IG who have defected which leads to the same thing.

Ciaphas Cain in For the Emperor - he helps STOP a war from starting between Tau and IoM over Gravalax. Both sides team up to hunt genestealers. Seems like Sandy Mitchell is a Tau lover.

I recall one incident where an Imperial Guard regiment from the Damocles crusade transitioned out of the warp 100+ years past schedule. By then, the crusade was long over. They didn't know that and fought the Tau a little at first but then Tyrannids came along so they teamed up together and afterwards, the Tau let them leave.

Everyone's friends when it comes to zapping bugs!

 Mr.Omega wrote:

 da001 wrote:
There is also the videogame "firewarrior", when a single fire warrior butchers his way through thousands of chaos marines with a knife. And they have a complicated relation with Ultramarines, swapping from enemies to sort of friends.

Here is the final fight and the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCINJXB_76w
An ultramarine is there to help the main character


(I was told it was fun though, and the exterminatus looks sexy)

If that game is canon, the idea that a single Firewarrior Shas'la can conceivably kill hundreds of Guardsmen, quite a few Storm Troopers, several Space Marines, even more Chaos Space Marines, before killing a Lord of Change all by himself whilst wielding bolters, Crisis Suit burst cannons and various other absurd weapons is canon

So no I doubt the legitimacy of that one, though its a fair pointer of history of portrayed alliances

It's better to go by the novelization of the game, which is a bit more realistic. The main character has a squad, and most of the kills are via team work instead of the main character alone. It's also revealed that Khorne was helping him as an experiment of sorts since it's normally hard for Chaos to corrupt Tau.

Personally I wish Games Workshop would just go and declare the novel to be the canon version and the game to be a Tau propaganda video game, which would be really neat, but GW never does cool stuff like that and instead just says "lalala there is no canon lalala"

Many , but the imperium end up killing the Tau at last

 Mr.Omega wrote:

 da001 wrote:
There is also the videogame "firewarrior", when a single fire warrior butchers his way through thousands of chaos marines with a knife. And they have a complicated relation with Ultramarines, swapping from enemies to sort of friends.

Here is the final fight and the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCINJXB_76w
An ultramarine is there to help the main character


(I was told it was fun though, and the exterminatus looks sexy)

If that game is canon, the idea that a single Firewarrior Shas'la can conceivably kill hundreds of Guardsmen, quite a few Storm Troopers, several Space Marines, even more Chaos Space Marines, before killing a Lord of Change all by himself whilst wielding bolters, Crisis Suit burst cannons and various other absurd weapons is canon

So no I doubt the legitimacy of that one, though its a fair pointer of history of portrayed alliances

IIRC in the tie-in novel I believe it was hinted that the Firewarrior was majorly boosted by Khorne in order to spite Tzeentch's forces he was fighting.

 Mr.Omega wrote:

 da001 wrote:
There is also the videogame "firewarrior", when a single fire warrior butchers his way through thousands of chaos marines with a knife. And they have a complicated relation with Ultramarines, swapping from enemies to sort of friends.

Here is the final fight and the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCINJXB_76w
An ultramarine is there to help the main character


(I was told it was fun though, and the exterminatus looks sexy)

If that game is canon, the idea that a single Firewarrior Shas'la can conceivably kill hundreds of Guardsmen, quite a few Storm Troopers, several Space Marines, even more Chaos Space Marines, before killing a Lord of Change all by himself whilst wielding bolters, Crisis Suit burst cannons and various other absurd weapons is canon

So no I doubt the legitimacy of that one, though its a fair pointer of history of portrayed alliances

Don't forget the Chaos dreadnought that he killed.
There is canon which is vague enough to leave it up to the reader, whether the Kais in Firewarrior is the same Kais that studied under Puretide with Farsight and Shadowsun, then later lead the Tau in the Kronus campaign in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade.
I tend to think the events in Firewarrior were extreme and impressive enough to earn Kais the opportunity to study under Puretide. I don't think it's a coincidence that Kais in Firewarrior performed alone most of the time, and the Kais who studied with Puretide focused on the way of the Monat.

The book is a bit better. It has the lord of change killed by a team of crisis suits IIRC.