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Precisely as the topic of the thread says. If one looks through the BRB, the allies matrix lists the Necrons as "Allies of convenience" (which is one step below "Battle brothers") for the Tau - ranking better than the likes of Dark Eldar and the Imperium. Is there any specific rationale for this within the fluff, or is this something that's likelier a product of gameplay balance > fluff situations?

mr. peasant wrote:
Precisely as the topic of the thread says. If one looks through the BRB, the allies matrix lists the Necrons as "Allies of convenience" (which is one step below "Battle brothers") for the Tau - ranking better than the likes of Dark Eldar and the Imperium. Is there any specific rationale for this within the fluff, or is this something that's likelier a product of gameplay balance > fluff situations?

Relative to the other factions, the Tau have not encountered the Necrons as often so probably aren't aware of how hostile they are yet. Also the Dark Eldar and Imperium have caused far more damage to the Tau Empire than the Necrons have as of this moment.

Necrons are one of the most diverse factions in terms of personality nowadays... Well, at least the sentient ones are.

There are some genocidal, malfunctioning, arrogantly sure of their supremacy or even C'tan-loyal Phaerons out there certainly, but there's also more reasonable members of the race. And amongst those more reasonable ones, I imagine seeing a race of scientifically literate non-psykers would be a pleasant change of pace. Less sure about the whole "Manifest destiny of the Tau'va" thing, but nobody's perfect.

Which is exactly why I intend for my Dynasty to be bordering on Tau space when I find the time and energy to arrange the fluff properly beyond vague ideas.

changemod wrote:
Necrons are one of the most diverse factions in terms of personality nowadays... Well, at least the sentient ones are.

There are some genocidal, malfunctioning, arrogantly sure of their supremacy or even C'tan-loyal Phaerons out there certainly, but there's also more reasonable members of the race. And amongst those more reasonable ones, I imagine seeing a race of scientifically literate non-psykers would be a pleasant change of pace. Less sure about the whole "Manifest destiny of the Tau'va" thing, but nobody's perfect.

Which is exactly why I intend for my Dynasty to be bordering on Tau space when I find the time and energy to arrange the fluff properly beyond vague ideas.

Sounds about right. My justification was "the Tau were actually naive enough to let us hook up their spaceship's power core up to jump start our malfunctioning tomb world, so we'll help them fight and have fun exterminating lesser lifeforms until we get bored". A lot of Necrons these days are downright charming and reasonable, once you get past the whole "robot" thing.

That being said, Tau have shut down the Necrons at least on Gal'yth (Tau Codex, Darkstrider)

 EmpNortonII wrote:
That being said, Tau have shut down the Necrons at least on Gal'yth (Tau Codex, Darkstrider)

Likewise, I think the Necrons have also wiped out an entire planet of Tau, after the former stopped a Tyranid invasion of said planet.

The Tau are probably "smart" enough to see the Necrons as a non-unified entity and take them on an individual basis.

That said, there's always the theory that the Tau were uplifted by the Necrons.

I don't think the tau have much interactions with the necrons. It seems to me that while you can have your battles in the tabletop, in the fluff there aren't really any encounters between the necrons and Tau, except those listed above.

mr. peasant wrote:

 EmpNortonII wrote:
That being said, Tau have shut down the Necrons at least on Gal'yth (Tau Codex, Darkstrider)

Likewise, I think the Necrons have also wiped out an entire planet of Tau, after the former stopped a Tyranid invasion of said planet.

Youre thinking Dark Eldar. Urien Rakarth stole away with an entire planet of tau friends after saving them from the Tyranids.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
The Tau are probably "smart" enough to see the Necrons as a non-unified entity and take them on an individual basis.

That said, there's always the theory that the Tau were uplifted by the Necrons.

These are the same guys that think they killed Slaanesh because they once killed a Greater Daemon.

They almost certainly think the Necrons are unified.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
The Tau are probably "smart" enough to see the Necrons as a non-unified entity and take them on an individual basis.

That said, there's always the theory that the Tau were uplifted by the Necrons.

These are the same guys that think they killed Slaanesh because they once killed a Greater Daemon.

They almost certainly think the Necrons are unified.

Umm, they thought that because, being a non- psychic race, they have no idea of chaos gods.

And I hardly think that has anything to do with whether they think necrons are unified or not.

mr. peasant wrote:

 EmpNortonII wrote:
That being said, Tau have shut down the Necrons at least on Gal'yth (Tau Codex, Darkstrider)

Likewise, I think the Necrons have also wiped out an entire planet of Tau, after the former stopped a Tyranid invasion of said planet.

Correct. The Tyranid invasion woke up the Necrons on the planets' moon, the Necrons obliterated the Hive Fleet and were welcomed on the Tau world as heroes. After the ceremonies ended, the Necrons harvested the world.

 Exalted Pariah wrote:

mr. peasant wrote:

 EmpNortonII wrote:
That being said, Tau have shut down the Necrons at least on Gal'yth (Tau Codex, Darkstrider)

Likewise, I think the Necrons have also wiped out an entire planet of Tau, after the former stopped a Tyranid invasion of said planet.

Correct. The Tyranid invasion woke up the Necrons on the planets' moon, the Necrons obliterated the Hive Fleet and were welcomed on the Tau world as heroes. After the ceremonies ended, the Necrons harvested the world.

Hum, well I stand corrected. Seems like the Tau need help pretty often in the bug department.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
The Tau are probably "smart" enough to see the Necrons as a non-unified entity and take them on an individual basis.

That said, there's always the theory that the Tau were uplifted by the Necrons.

These are the same guys that think they killed Slaanesh because they once killed a Greater Daemon.

They almost certainly think the Necrons are unified.

Umm, they thought that because, being a non- psychic race, they have no idea of chaos gods.

And I hardly think that has anything to do with whether they think necrons are unified or not.

It doesn't matter if the Tau have zero understanding of the Immaterium, they should have still had the mental capability to put two and two together and realize that the "alien" was simply a commander of a much greater force.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
The Tau are probably "smart" enough to see the Necrons as a non-unified entity and take them on an individual basis.

That said, there's always the theory that the Tau were uplifted by the Necrons.

These are the same guys that think they killed Slaanesh because they once killed a Greater Daemon.

They almost certainly think the Necrons are unified.

Umm, they thought that because, being a non- psychic race, they have no idea of chaos gods.

And I hardly think that has anything to do with whether they think necrons are unified or not.

It doesn't matter if the Tau have zero understanding of the Immaterium, they should have still had the mental capability to put two and two together and realize that the "alien" was simply a commander of a much greater force.

Why? They had no reason to believe otherwise.

 Wyzilla wrote:


These are the same guys that think they killed Slaanesh because they once killed a Greater Daemon.

They almost certainly think the Necrons are unified.

That wasn't even a greater daemon. That was just a chaos lord.

The main factions Tau deal with are the Imperium(every codex related to these), Tyranids, and Dark Eldar. And lesser non playable factions like the Arachnid people they exterminated and the occasional Hrud migration.

Theirs also mention in, I think its the Demons codex, that mentions a warp rift or something near Kel'Shan that the Sept patrols. Dark Eldar and Necrons have both helped Tau just to turn around and stab them in the back killing off entire planets. Both of these event's happened to Kel'shan. The Dark Eldar Haemonculus' discovered the Kroot and their, according to the Covens, unacceptable ability to rapidly evolve and opened webway portals on Pech so that they can raid them every once in awhile.

Most of it is old fluff that's in the offenders codex rather than the Tau codex itself. Also, Aun'shi as of the latest mention of him is captured in Commorragh used in the Wych Cult Arenas interestingly enough. He just never came back from his expedition to the Enclaves.

NauticalKendall wrote:
The main factions Tau deal with are the Imperium(every codex related to these), Tyranids, and Dark Eldar. And lesser non playable factions like the Arachnid people they exterminated and the occasional Hrud migration.

Theirs also mention in, I think its the Demons codex, that mentions a warp rift or something near Kel'Shan that the Sept patrols. Dark Eldar and Necrons have both helped Tau just to turn around and stab them in the back killing off entire planets. Both of these event's happened to Kel'shan. The Dark Eldar Haemonculus' discovered the Kroot and their, according to the Covens, unacceptable ability to rapidly evolve and opened webway portals on Pech so that they can raid them every once in awhile.

Most of it is old fluff that's in the offenders codex rather than the Tau codex itself. Also, Aun'shi as of the latest mention of him is captured in Commorragh used in the Wych Cult Arenas interestingly enough. He just never came back from his expedition to the Enclaves.

This is one reason I love the Kel'shan. They seem to be the most angry and jaded of all the Septs because of all that crap... They are the 'no-nonsense' Sept.
And they're the ones making the most of Battlesuit innovation. I think all the Forgeworld Battlesuits are Kel'shan.

P.S. The Perdus Rift Anomaly is the name of the mini Eye of Terror near Kel'shan.