Tau as Allies

We've talked about how to use allies with a Codex: Tau Empire army.  Now, we'll go into how to use them as an allied contingent for armies of other codices, which units do/don't work, and what rules can be exploited for maximum benefit.

Again, not an image I own.

Tau Wargear, and Allies.

Now, tau have a wide range of wargear available to them, and very distinctive wargear at that.  I am not going to go into the personal wargear (such as targeting arrays and multi-trackers) as those only affect the tau model itself.  That means that this section is mostly tau allies as they relate to their battle brothers, eldar and space marines.

Most of these wargear items you should be attaching to a squad through a cheap shas'el.

-Advanced Stabilization System: It's a support system, rather than a hard-wired option, but grants the shas'el (and, by extension, his squad) Slow and Purposeful for a player turn (NOT a game turn).  What does this mean? Grant any squad relentless, and an inability to run, for your turn, and then since it doesn't apply in your opponent's turn, they can still overwatch.  Pretty awesome, yes? You can choose whether or not to activate it too, so you can still run if you need to.  Since you don't need to run while you're shooting, and you can still overwatch, it effectively just grants relentless.

-Blacksun Filter: A real gem, it costs almost nothing, can be hardwired (or not, if you want a really cheap suit) and grants nightfighting to the entire unit.  Not much else to say about it, use it.  There are always points for this, especially since it, like the Adv.S.S, is transferred over to whole the squad.  Works well with Devastators and Eldar heavy weapon squads.

-Positional Relay: Source of the ninja tau tactic, and would apply to allies as well.  One unit comes in from reserves on a 2+, the rest don't come in at all.  Gives you great control over your reserves.  Also, the way it is worded means it is not your reserve roll becoming a 2+, it is simply you rolling a d6 and them coming in on a 2.  This means people with wargear/rules that mess with your reserves can't do anything to modify it.

-Target Lock: This one IS a personal item for a battlesuit, but can benefit the squad by firing the emplaced weapon at a different target, since they have split-fire.  Can be hard-wired.

-Vectored Retro Thrusters: Gives the squad Hit-and-run.  Can be very helpful for more assault-y squads, especially since you would be using their I4 to HaR.

-Failsafe Detonator: Not sure whether or not this would pan out super well, but it let's you disengage from combat automatically (helpful for eldar who don't have ATSKNF and can be swept), works well with VRT. The S8 LBT that doesn't scatter is just icing.

Units That Do/Don't Work

While this would need to be examined in the context of the particular allied list you are using, it should hold true in most instances.  Also, you don't need to be battle-brothers to benefit from this section.

Crisis Battlesuit Commander: You really should use him.  Why? Because on top of him being awesome, it's mandatory.  So there's that.  Anyways, Crisis commanders are fairly cheap (cheaper than SM Captains, and by a fair ways, usually), can pack serious fire power and can be made into unkillable beasts (4W T4 2+/4++ FNP w/2 Shield Drones and thrust moves, and heavy weapons? Yes.)

Named Tau Characters: They count as your mandatory Commander, except Aun'va, who I suppose you couldn't take as an ally below 2000pts. Generally, don't do it.  None of them can confer Stealth/shrouded to your units (unless shadowsun's drones ALL die).  The exception is if you're already not battle-brothers, since you can't benefit from tau wargear, in which case taking either of the FW characters would be awesome, since they're monstrous.  Maybe Farsight in an assault-y army, since his special rules wouldn't affect you too harshly, and his weapon is still S5 AP2 armourbane.

Crisis Bodyguard unit: Bodyguard for the commander, again don't do it.  It stops you from helping out your main force with tau wargear shenanigans.  The exception, again, is when you are not battlebrothers, in which case they are not a terrible option.

Crisis suits: Yes.  Amazing 2W jet pack infantry would can take, and use, two heavy/special weapon equivalents a turn.  Some classic configurations are Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker (firing a plasma weapon and an autocannon a turn? x3 per unit? Sick. Turns monstrous creatures and terminators to mush) Missile Pod, Burst Cannon, Multi-tracker (allows for an autocannon and half-range heavy bolter to be fired per turn/suit) and TL Missile pod, flamer/BSF (Allows a TL autocannon per turn/suit, and either night vision or a flamer as a backup.).  Just watch out for S8 and assaults.

Stealth Suits: The other Yes.  1 W each, and T3, but they have 3+ armour, half range heavy bolters, jetpacks, stealth and shrouded.  4+ cover save in the open? 2+ cover save in just about any cover? Stick an eldar farseer with them if you want your farseer to live forever, SM might find this tactic less useful as their HQs are by and large shooty.

Firewarriors: The other mandatory choice.  30" S5 AP5 rapid fire guns is nice.  So is 4+ armour.  The rest of their stats are pretty much guardsman or worse though, and they're double the price of one.  Either way, not a terrible unit, take them in medium size squads, as a high volume of shots will do a lot for them.  They do suffer from lack of special/heavy weapons, but it doesn't matter much since their guns are already so strong.

Devilfish: Great transport, but make sure you keep it from getting TOO expensive. They come stock more expensive then predators, but don't throw on points as quickly, get 3+ cover saves in the open for 5 points and they are 12/11/10 skimmer, tank 12 model transports with some cool wargear available, some gun drones for screening and a burst cannon.  Probably not worth it for allies as they are expensive enough to take up a fair piece of the army list, without benefiting from saturation of targets.

Skipping kroot, they're not worth mentioning anymore.

The whole fast attack selection, barring the piranha and variants and the tetra aren't worth mentioning either, either due to sucking (vespid;gun drone squadron etc.) not being practical for an allied contingent (i.e. pathfinders) or being too many points for just an allied contingent (XV9 hazard suits).

Piranha: 11/10/10 fast open-topped skimmer, has access to 3+ cover saves and BS4, as well as the rest of the tau vehicle armoury.  Comes in squadrons of 1-5, which is hilarious when you have 5 flechette dischargers and someone decides to charge you. Consider them the tau answer to the Land Speeder.  They get either burst cannons or fusion blasters.  Yeah, a somewhat more lightly armed, but considerably tougher land speeder.

Piranha TX-42: A more heavily armoured piranha, 11/11/10 putting it on par with a rhino for armour.  It also gets better weapons than the piranha, all for a marginal price increase.  It gets a TL fusion blaster instead of a regular one, but can take a TL Railrifle or Missile pod for more long-ranged supprt, or a TL Plasma rifle for more mid-ranged, anti-TEQ fire.  Has access to all the tau vehicle goodies.

Tetra: A very lightly armoured, 10/10/10 fast skimmer with a heavy 4 markerlight (!!!) and a TL pulse Rifle.  Has access to the tau vehicle upgrades, including flechettes, disruption pods and targeting arrays/locks.  Not so useful for tau allies, as it only tau units benefit from markerlights, and nothing sucks more than markerlight overkill.

These fast attack vehicles are all fairly useful, in large part because they come in (potentially very large) squadrons, meaning you can saturate them even in an allied contingent.

Broadside Battlesuit: There's about a 2/3 chance that if you're taking allies for tau, it's for these guys.  They can pack an entire army's worth of long range anti-tank (especially in 6th) into one unit, and they can be made very, very hard to kill.  Take two, give them targeting arrays, make one a team leader with 2 shield drones.  You now have 6 T4 2+ wounds, two of which are expendable and have 4++ saves.  The two broadsides then have a TL BS4 S10 AP1 72" shot each.  They can also be made mobile with Adv.S.S. Don't forget their SMS (S5 AP5 24" Heavy 4 doesn't need line of sight, ignores nightfighting) each, which they can swap for TL PR for very few points.  For lulz, attach your librarian to them, and cast endurance. FnP IWND relentless broadsides with a defensive close combat character is terrifying.

Hammerhead: One of the best tanks in the game, 13/12/10 armour, it is a skimmer tank with BS4 by default, which must select either 2 burst cannons, 1 SMS or 2 drones as a secondary weapon, and either a Railgun, Ion Cannon, Plasma Cannon, Fusion Cannon, Missile Pods or Long Barreled burst cannons.  The latter four can be seen here, and are awesome (especially the Plasma cannon).  It really comes down between the Plasma cannon and the Railgun for main weapon.  The railgun can either fire like the broadside version, or use a S6 AP4 LBT.  The plasma is considerably cheaper, and just as good, but for different things.  Either way, this thing is like a predator, with upgraded weapons and armour, skimmer, 3+ cover saves and access to tau goodies.  The one problem with using it in an allied list is that, only being able to use one, it is one hell of a target.  3+ Av13 does mitigate that, however.

Skyray: Don't.  Not that good even in tau lists, this is terrible in allied lists.  It relies on other units getting markerlight hits to fire.  See why that sucks in a small allied contingent? It also has limited ammo, and no other primary weapon options.  Contrary to the name, this is probably the worst anti-air unit in ANY codex.

How to Use Tau as Allies

Now the big question: How do you actually apply all that, and use the tau as your allies?  Well, it depends on what your army list is and what your allied contingent is, is the answer.  Generally though, tau units have pretty clear-cut purposes.  If you take broadsides, keep them in the backfield with long sight lines (unless it's Big Guns Never Tire and you have a gate librarian, in which case teleport them onto an objective and laugh maniacally), crisis suits jump in and out of cover etc.  If you take a cheap Crisis suit commander with some wargear to help your force, make sure you put him where his wargear and playstyle will do well (i.e. put an Adv.SS commander with squads like devastators and tac squads, not assault squads or termies where he'll actually be a detriment to the unit).  Generally though, units which have my gold star of approval for use in allied contingents (see below) are anything in a battlesuit, piranha TX-42, hammerheads and firewarriors.  Pretty much all the units I bothered to write up about are good, both for mono-tau and tau allies, but some are just better suited than others.

Remember: allied tau don't bring markerlights.  Enjoy the golden star