Tau Allies

[Eigen]

Hi guys! I was talking to a few people at the Ogaki Showdown about Tau allies and came up with some ideas.

I was wondering about the opinions from veteran players to let me know if it makes sense.

My core Tau army will involve a piranha fast attack team to harass, 10-12 man firewarrior squads in fishies, and suits...lots of suits. Teams of MP/Plasma suits in the elite slots and HQ slots, and a pair of XV-88's in the background.

This leaves the army pretty mobile and shooty, but I was thinking two options to go from here.

Option 1: Getting Dark Vengeance and auxilerating either the DA or Chaos army there for a cheaper/fast allies base. The starter has some good resilient units included.

Option 2: Necrons. Probably something like a huge Necron Warrior squad to get in the way and slow the enemy from getting to all my cannons, an overlord, and some kind of heavy/resilient choice for anti-tank/good save enemies. I was also reading the rules and thinking about an Aegis Defence line to drop the warriors behind just to put up an even more intimidating wall. if the opposing army is mobile, I could unload the firewarriors and move the fish in to provide a wider coverage alongside the defense line.

I'm definitely leaning Necrons, but I would love input!

[Spevna]

I can't really speak as to the effectiveness of those allies, but as far as fluff is concerned they don't really fit in my opinion.

I reckon that units from the Imperial Guard list (converted to look a bit more Tau-ish) would be a great way of representing Gue'vesa. Use Cadian guys with Tau shoulder pads and such to make them fit the look of the army.

Of course, if fluff is secondary to effectiveness feel free to ignore the above

[Primarch]

Necrons don't really offer a lot to the Tau. Tau are already good at shooting and weak in combat, so adding more of the same doesn't really help them. Plus, you would find it difficult to find better anti-tank units that broadsides. For allies, Tau need something that can dish out some pain in assault more than anything else. If you have your heart set on Necrons, Wraiths are a reasonable assault choice and a Necron Lord is quite good for his points, but warriors and immortals only good point in assault is trying to live long enough for the heavy hitters to come and bail them out.

[me_in_japan]

For allies, Tau need something that can dish out some pain in assault more than anything else.

*Mij hangs head and shakes it slowly in disappointment.*

Is this really the point of the allies rules? Is this really what 40k has turned into? How to win? What on earth is the point of a game of 40k where you just try to win? I mean, we have chess already, don't we? I thought the appeal of 40k was the background, the epic sweep of the universe, the aesthetic, the fun.

I have faith that our gaming group has not lost the plot so much that we have lost our sense of what's important in 40k, and with that in mind surely the only answer to the OP's question is: whatever allies match the Tau background. Basically, that means gue'la guardsmen. You could perhaps stretch it to include SM or eldar, but if you did you should really have a proper reason for it, not just "it will make my army win more games."

Apart from anything else, having allies makes army selection fething complicated. I was tinkering in army builder the other day, and I found that if I play Corsairs (which I might) I have to choose from all the corsairs, all the craftworld elites (and that's a lot) and all the dark eldar in one list. I have a hard enough time dealing with one codex. Having 3 in one list just turns list building into a headache.

Personally, unless you have a good creative reason to include allies, I firmly believe you should just leave them alone.

[Spevna]

For allies, Tau need something that can dish out some pain in assault more than anything else.

*Mij hangs head and shakes it slowly in disappointment.*

Is this really the point of the allies rules? Is this really what 40k has turned into? How to win? What on earth is the point of a game of 40k where you just try to win? I mean, we have chess already, don't we? I thought the appeal of 40k was the background, the epic sweep of the universe, the aesthetic, the fun.

I have faith that our gaming group has not lost the plot so much that we have lost our sense of what's important in 40k, and with that in mind surely the only answer to the OP's question is: whatever allies match the Tau background. Basically, that means gue'la guardsmen. You could perhaps stretch it to include SM or eldar, but if you did you should really have a proper reason for it, not just "it will make my army win more games."

Apart from anything else, having allies makes army selection fething complicated. I was tinkering in army builder the other day, and I found that if I play Corsairs (which I might) I have to choose from all the corsairs, all the craftworld elites (and that's a lot) and all the dark eldar in one list. I have a hard enough time dealing with one codex. Having 3 in one list just turns list building into a headache.

Personally, unless you have a good creative reason to include allies, I firmly believe you should just leave them alone.

Amen.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Actually Gue'va are chapter approved and as such are already part of the army.

Tau will allie with any race that will join the greater good.. They will use Mercs ork like ork pirates grotv revolutionaries . So some of the dark Eldar units and Eldar units could be used in a tau army. I am making a counts as storm talon and some tarilian dog troops that will count as Marin scouts. For the Hq I will be taking a dimurge engineer counts as a tech marine.

It all fits my fluff of an alien coalition army.

The best non fluff units would be Orks. Because you could take a war boss and 20 boyz for less than 200 points.

[The Other Dave]

The best non fluff units would be Orks. Because you could take a war boss and 20 boyz for less than 200 points.

I reckon Orks could be extremely fluffy for Tau. Blood Axes or Freebooters will work for anyone, Tau will work with anyone.

[Primarch]

#Unnecessarily confrontational post deleted#

[me_in_japan]

#possibly confrontational rebuttal also deleted#



*actually, it wasn't particularly confrontational at all. It was however completely extraneous after Prim deleted his post, so it too has gone the way of the big "X" in the sky. Tis a shame, really, as it took me near an hour to write...

[Tenorikuma]

Nice to see cooler heads prevailing.