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One of the things that are hurting tau and necrons in 8th ed is the lack of allies, so creating a xenos faction would be a way to make both factions better. Given the state of things I can't really see them teaming up with anyone else than each other, eldar already have too much going on with the whole Ynarri thing, neither of them will work with the IoM or Tyranids, and the orks are too decentralized to enter a relationship longer than a mercenary contract.

The Tau seem to have a lot to gain, with the help of the Necrons they could travel far beyond their borders, and even if it's a single dynasty the power of a Necron and Tau team up could have make a mockery of the forces the IoM brought to the damocles gulf.

The questions is what would the Necrons get out of it? Fluff wise it seems the Tau have little to offer the Necrons, The Tau's technology is better than the IoMs (mostly) but pretty primitive compared to even the least of the necron dynasties. Maybe the Tau could offer assistance in reversing transference but I don't think we've seen any indication of the Taus abilities in that area.

What do you guys think, could it work, what would be the motivations for the two working together?

1) The Necron lord emerged from statis insane, and has been converted to the Greater Good.

2) The Necron lord thinks Tau might be lost Necrontyr and wants to unravel the mystery

3) There is no lord, the Tau just figured out how to activate the robots and use them

As allies? No.

Tau as pawns for the Necrons? Perhaps.

Could the religious right and the social Justus warriors team up and listen to each other? Over a glass of Jones Aid preferred.

From a fluff perspective I feel that any Tau/Necron alliance would be extremely tenuous and short lived, but go for it if you want in open/narrative play.

I'd probably say Necrons using mindshackle scarabs on an ethereal for that sweet "No questions asked" command of the forces. after all, a fire warrior would fall upon his sword at the word of an ethereal. Although the lost necrontyr would be an interesting bit of head canon, I think this would actually lead to more research into the T'au to find a way to reverse the process of transference using a T'au proxy.

I think this could be really cool personally.

It would allow GW to inject a little of the grim dark into Tau, I've never felt that they fitted particularly well into the universe (although some people might find their deplorable egalitarianism pretty nightmarish!).

You don't necessarily need to give a definitive explanation for this alliance, 40K fiction is best when using the unreliable narrator style.

A few Imperial reports about lightly defended Tau colony ships detected heading toward known tomb worlds and long range scans detecting ruins bearing resemblance to Necron architecture on Tau itself could imply a couple explanations;

• - Have the Ethereal always been slaves to Necron mind scarabs? That might explain the caste's mysterious rise and the rapid advancement of Tau technology.
• - Have the Tau found a way of subverting Necron command protocols by studying Necron ruins and now use the Necrons to do their dirty work and pressure other races into joining the greater good?
• - Have the Ethereals made a Faustian bargain to divide the Eastern fringe between themselves and the Necrons in exchange for a steady supply of test subjects for the Necrons to practice bio-transference on?

Wasn't the dawn blade implied to be a necrontyr artifact? Or did they finally make it into yet another demon weapon?



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kroem wrote:

• - Have the Ethereals made a Faustian bargain to divide the Eastern fringe between themselves and the Necrons in exchange for a steady supply of test subjects for the Necrons to practice bio-transference on?

Probably the most likely case. I would imagine biotransference would be quite difficult to test on humans, due to the presence of a soul / moderate warp signature, something the necrons lack or are unfamiliar with dealing with.
As Tau have a minimal warp presence, they should be more compatible with a necron psyche / component.

Maybe we'll get Pariah inspired Tau Hybrids, idk.

You always have the "temporary alliance to fight off a bigger threat, then we carry on fighting each other afterwards" line to justify almost any unlikely allying.

 EmpNortonII wrote:
1) The Necron lord emerged from statis insane, and has been converted to the Greater Good.

2) The Necron lord thinks Tau might be lost Necrontyr and wants to unravel the mystery

3) There is no lord, the Tau just figured out how to activate the robots and use them

This. 40k is a fairly open ended setting. Pretty much any pairing can be justified using a bit of imagination. The Necrons don't have a particular reason to hate the Tau, so that's an easy pairing. Something like a Chaos Marine/Space Marine pairing is tougher, but still doable...

1. Renegade Chapter who turned yesterday. (Mostly SM units with a handful of CSM units allied in)
2. Renegade Chapter who turned a hundred years ago. (About 50/50 SM/CSM units)
3. Renegade Chapter who turned a thousand years ago. (Mostly CSM with a handful of SM units allied in)

When people say that a pairing isn't possible, I sort of feel like they aren't trying hard enough to come up with a reason.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Wasn't the dawn blade implied to be a necrontyr artifact? Or did they finally make it into yet another demon weapon?

Changes depending on the flavour of the month, I've seen it referenced as a Necrontyr artefact (because it was apparently founded on a tomb world) suggestions it's a demon weapon (Which is why Farsight seceded, realising chaos was a thing and the ethereals were denying all knowledge of it) And I think the current flavour points to it possibly being the 5th Crone sword of the Eldar. (Aelderi/ Farsight Enclave allies, anyone?)

Most necrons want to exterminate all this filthy life in the galaxy. So they likely won't team up with fleshbags. Trazyn possibly could for his own eclectic reasons, like why he helped IoM on Cadia.
Getting Tau intertialess drives would help them get around the galaxy faster, Neat! +1 to the idea
Would need to get more mind shackle scarabs to enslave tau, the "Lost fleet" that is as large as plot convenient could make 1 "rouge" tau group and 1 "rouge" necron group ally, but can't really make it last at large. -1
S5 gauss and ap-1 Pulse rifles, Dooms-Hammerheads, and Devil-arks.

 Kroem wrote:
It would allow GW to inject a little of the grim dark into Tau, I've never felt that they fitted particularly well into the universe (although some people might find their deplorable egalitarianism pretty nightmarish!).

What egalitarianism?

Caste system is pretty much as far away as you can get from 'egalitarianism', no matter how you slice it. Triply so if it's based on birth and taking interest in 'wrong' caste stuff can get you lobotomized.

Necrons Are quite shattered too. A local tomb king perhaps could see it as benefitial to team up with Tau forces to subdue nearby tomb worlds. Before he turns on his former Tau friends with his increased power. The sudden but inevitable betrayal!

 Irbis wrote:

 Kroem wrote:
It would allow GW to inject a little of the grim dark into Tau, I've never felt that they fitted particularly well into the universe (although some people might find their deplorable egalitarianism pretty nightmarish!).

What egalitarianism?

Caste system is pretty much as far away as you can get from 'egalitarianism', no matter how you slice it. Triply so if it's based on birth and taking interest in 'wrong' caste stuff can get you lobotomized.

That's a fair point, I hadn't thought of it that way, I wonder if any Tau would want to switch caste as their bodies are so suited to their role in society and castes are not ranked in any order of prestige as far as I can tell.

What I was getting at was that within the castes there is no nobility or even family as I understand it. All children are taken at birth and given the same training and upbringing in the great communes.

So even though everyone is treated equally and given the same opportunity to excel, albeit within their caste as you pointed out, it sounds pretty nightmarish by our modern standards to rip children away from their families and indoctrinate them from a young age or make them disappear if they prove incapable of contributing to society!

 EmpNortonII wrote:
1) The Necron lord emerged from statis insane, and has been converted to the Greater Good.

This is both an cool opportunity for some conversions and pretty hilarious. There’s the problem of working out how the Tau-ification happened, as a Necron Lord would have to be a very specific degree of insane to allow himself to join the Greater Good, but I’m sure someone can work that out.

I mean before it was basically never going to happen but gw gave them lords a wee bit of personality so it is possible if not excessively unlikely.

If there's a Necron general who's so insane that he constantly thinks he's replaying ancient battle from history, surely it's within reason that there's one (a) insane or (b) savvy enough to team up with another race to achieve their own gains.

In lieu of 'recent' events in 40k with the return of Guilliman the alliance I'd like to see, and which I think would be the most likely scenario, would be an alliance brokered by Guilliman with Commander Farsight.

The way Guilliman is being shown at present is in the form of an incredibly pragmatic leader who is more than willing to act in ways which he views as being in the best interests of the Imperium, even if it means upsetting various factions within the power structure.

My reasoning for expressly mentioning Farsight is due to the events relating to the Damocles Crusade, prior to the creation of the Farsight Enclaves, and ensuing events.

I can't see the Tau Empire itself brokering an alliance given that they rigidly follow the ideals of "the greater good" and seek to integrate others into their way of thinking, failing this they put them to the sword.

The other issues with this would be related to the Imperium. These issues range from sociological ideals, institutions within the Imperium (Ordo Xenos for example) and the hypnotherapy used to programme Space Marines. These are just off the top of my head.

I realise this is a bit tangential but given the discussion is in relation to alliances I thought I'd throw in my 2 pence.

I really can't see the Necrons allying themselves with anyone, although they did attempt to aid the Imperium. Perhaps given the escalation in threat posed by Chaos the ruling caste within Necron society, or at least some of the Dynasties, might be more open to cooperating with local forces but I can only see these as temporary truces of convenience.

HuskyWarhammer wrote:
If there's a Necron general who's so insane that he constantly thinks he's replaying ancient battle from history, surely it's within reason that there's one (a) insane or (b) savvy enough to team up with another race to achieve their own gains.

It could be that he is so deluded he thinks the Tau are actually ancient Necrontyr allies of his.

At this point in fluff, I'd say there's definitely reason for Necrons to join up. Not even going with the easy outs of just trying to survive dealing with a more powerful mutual enemy, mindshackled scarabs being used to brainwash T'au or some Tau tech being used to take control of some Necrons. With the new fluff, there's endless scenarios where Tau and Necrons team up. The Tau species holds a great deal of similarity to the Necrontyr, what with the short lifespans, lack of Warp connection and high tech rate. It's not at all hard to picture that a Necron Lord might gain enough of a fondness for them that he'd make allies of them. Necron Lords are far from the Eldritch, genocidal villains they were originally. Sure, there's a fair few of those types left, but still, there's a fair few ones that are still sane enough to make use of allies.

Hell, thinking about it, there could easily be Necrons more willing to fight alongside Tau than other Necrons. It's clear that many of the dynasties weren't exactly big fans of the biotransference and had it forced upon them, such as the Khansu Dynasty. Necrons like them would easily see the rest of their race as fools and cowards who cursed their entire species, while having more respect for Tau who were like they once were. Additionally, the Tau are pretty much the only species who would foreseeably allow a more isolationist Dynasty alone, as they've been shown to do with allied races like the Demiurge, so if an isolationist dynasty was looking for allies, they'd avoid most other species, including their own, as Necron Lords are often eager to take control of their "allies" forces if they get the chance. Plus, of course, as others have said, Tau wouldn't be bad candidates for Necron experiments to regain their fleshy bodies, and if an Ethereal has to sacrifice some Tau lives to save far more with the help of their new allies, well, the Greater Good demands it.

The Tau, obviously, would jump at the chance. They'd be eager to find new allies in the grimdark world of 40k, whoever they be. Plus, a Necron Cryptek would only need to throw a few trinkets to the Tau Empire to get their Earth Caste on their knees with gratitude. Really, there's a huge number of reasons for a Tau and Necron team-up, although that's pretty much the same for pretty much every pairing you can think of. 40k's a big universe made for this kind of thing, after all.

 Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:
Really, there's a huge number of reasons for a Tau and Necron team-up, although that's pretty much the same for pretty much every pairing you can think of. 40k's a big universe made for this kind of thing, after all.

An additional reason is ofc that out of all the big factions the Tau are the least threatening to Necrons. They're an "Empire" but still a very small one, they have few reservations about working with anyone who seems reasonable, they usually keep their word when a deal has been made and they'd be reliant on their Necron allies for fast travel around the galaxy. And they have one other thing - they're still developing science and technology. The other factions have either reached their peak or fallen from it and in any case are too stiff and dogmatic to easily change their course. The Tau might just be able to bend their minds to working on the biotransference thing with fresh ideas.

 Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:
The Tau, obviously, would jump at the chance. They'd be eager to find new allies in the grimdark world of 40k, whoever they be.

I don't know. I would think their "cultural exchance" with the Dark Eldar has left them a bit more wary of ancient, creepy-looking aliens.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:
The Tau, obviously, would jump at the chance. They'd be eager to find new allies in the grimdark world of 40k, whoever they be.

I don't know. I would think their "cultural exchance" with the Dark Eldar has left them a bit more wary of ancient, creepy-looking aliens.

Weary, sure. I doubt they'd be trusting them to send over a few civilians on a cultural exchange, but as far as their whole doctrine goes, they're the major faction most likely to want to make allies. Major faction in terms of focus, of course, not power or size.