With Eldar and Tau just being released we have a unique opportunity (so far) to look at two battle brother armies for 6th edition. Yaya, Daemons and Chaos Marines are Battle Bros as well but that’s pretty simple, right (and all that instability stuff)? Heldrake and go! Tau are perhaps the most complete army we’ve seen from Games Workshop in a long, long time and certainly the best in 6th edition and Eldar have hopefully brought stronger mech lists back where transports are actually a common sight. But what do they do for each other…?

First, Eldar and Tau have some fantastic characters and a fantastic list of USRs which can transfer from squad to squad. Off the top of my head we have Stealth, Shrouded, 3D6″ JSJ moves, Hit & Run, Skilled Rider, Tank Hunters, Monster Hunters, Stubborn, Night Vision, Fearless, Move Through Cover and Infiltrate (take your arguments elsewhere, we know them all) not to mention psychic powers. That’s a lot of damn rules which characters or units can start handing around to other units from other books.

So, what does this mean for each army? Each combination is likely going to be quite common but there are generally an area each of the books significantly suffers which the other book could assist with. For Tau, it’s mobile and durable scoring – hello Jetbikes or full units in Wave Serpents. For Eldar, it’s anti-air (and a more varied unit usage) – hello Broadsides, Skyray, Crisis Suits, Riptide, Commander, etc. That’s the basics and it’s pretty simple really. A Farseer on a Jetbike plus 2x6x Jetbikes w/2x Shuriken Cannons is cheap (374 points), mobile, Marine durable and brings good support and shooting to the Tau army. A Commander with some bells and whistles plus Kroot and Broadsides is still quite cheap (405 pts) with a lot more options to build around and brings very good shooting/anti-air with lots of utility for the Commander. That PENchip works for all Eldar units, too. So does Night Vision from a BSF. As does Hit & Run from vectored-retro thrusters. Oh and the Eldar powers work for all friendly models now. Guide, Fortune, Doom, Prescience, Misfortune and Perfect Timing all work here. Do you get where I’m going with this?

Tau and Eldar already have solid army builds by themselves so it’s not about trying to take the best of both and shoving them together but getting one of the Allies to help the rest of your force. Neither army’s top notch stuff is exactly cheap so trying to make an army with masses of Jetbikes, Crisis Suits, Riptides, Broadsides, Wave Serpents, Hammerheads, etc. is going to fall on its face or be 3000+ points. As ever you need to pick and choose what you want to build your army around and this is again where understanding what each army can bring is going to be important particularly given the changes of Eldar firepower. There’s a whole lot of S7 stuff in there now – Wave Serpents, Night Spinners, Warp Spiders for example – and oh look, you can get them in every single FoC slot.

The easiest examples are two we just discussed – a Farseer or a Commander. The Farseer just brings buffs galore and if you want to run two Riptides, your next stop is a Farseer – it lessens your reliance on Markerlights whilst still providing benefit to the rest of your army. The Commander is just a plethora of USRs – name a unit which couldn’t take advantage of Tank Hunter or Monster Hunter at any given point in the game. Grots?

So, here’s a few things I’d be looking for as a Tau army when seeking Eldar allies:

Farseer; we said it above. Twice. They are force multipliers galore and are a good choice no matter what. I’d never really run two Tides without a Farseer unless not running Eldar allies. Best run as always on a Jetbike and with Runes.

Autarch; yes the Farseer is an insanely good buffer but if you have tons and tons of markerlights in your army, an aggressive Autarch can be very useful. Remember though, a Solitaire an aggressive force, does not make.

Wave Serpents; if you’re not using Crisis Suits and maybe want to limit your Broadsides or run with Rail Rifles, Wave Serpents bring S7 (and S6) and ignores cover and armor saturation. Again, this limits your reliance on Markerlights if your S7 shooting is ignoring cover already and you’re bringing in some mobility for scoring units. Max of three of these unfortunately (four if you really want to take Dark Reapers).

Jetbikes; if you’re not taking Guardians/Avengers in Serpents, you’re taking Jetbikes. Squads of six can be active, squads of three hide for late-game objectives. Mobile, durable, good anti-infantry shooting and scoring.

Fire Prism or Night Spinner; both make good ranged choices and bring anti-tank and anti-infantry. I feel the Prism is the better option here as Wave Serpents or Markerlights are better Ignores Cover options and the Prism has extra utility against heavy vehicles (and is better against AV14).

Warp Spiders, Shining Spears or Swooping Hawks; o.O right? All three of these provide a good harassment option – I prefer Spiders as it’s another essential S7 choice against vehicles allowing Tau firepower to focus elsewhere but Spears are a good clearing unit or can help the Autarch be more scary (and they work with a Jetbike ally theme; cinematics are important).

It’s not an exhaustive list but those are generally the things I am reaching for first. Notice I didn’t mention the infantry for the Wave Serpents – Fire Dragons are obviously a great choice to bring some reliable anti-tank and Guardians/Avengers are infantry shredders who hide in the Serpents until necessary, etc.

I find Eldar allies for Tau are pretty straight forward – you’re either going for utility or straight up nasty (i.e. more firepower) but when adding Tau to Eldar, there’s a lot more which could be done to slightly change an Eldar list.

Velocity Trackers; whether you’re a Commander, Riptide, Crisis Squad or Broadsides – a direct anti-flyer option is great and something Eldar don’t have.

These same units bring massive weaponry options as well – Fusion, Plasma, Missiles, etc.; pick what you need.

Commanders; again – it’s USRs galore. Tau units are still the prime recipients for many of these but imagine Shuriken weaponry with Monster Hunter or all that S6/S7 some of the units can put out against vehicles. Remember as well, Commander can join Jetbike units and they can both still jump around, just trail some units back to the Commander to maintain coherency.

Shadowsun; the real Stealth and Shrouded (unlike Karandras) and she brings Infiltrate (again; arguments elsewhere). Large Jetbike squads not needing Warlocks and getting 3D6″ jumps is great.

Riptides; I didn’t really mention this with Tau but another MC to add to Wraithlords/Wraithknights can be an annoying proposition and brings a large blast which gets lost without Prisms/Spinners.

Piranhas; they’re better than Vypers in every way so if you’re looking for a blocking unit – bang. Oh look, they have Fusion Blasts. Now where did I put my Guide…

Although its the usual suspects (Commanders, Riptides, Crisis, Broadsides) which are seeing playing time as Tau allies for Eldar, the flexibility of those units to handle many threats (do we really need to go through the identified unit flexibility?) allows Eldar to build several types of list and plug holes as needed and the Commander utility again comes to the fore where there are a lot of units he can advantage. Not needing a small markerlight squad really helps Tau as Eldar allies as well due to the Farseer support generally included in the list already and this means the allies can be more focused and cheaper.

Hopefully this gives you an idea of what to look for with your allies in these type of armies. Remember, it’s not necessary to take them and often not necessary to take much to get a significant benefit and forgetting these can often see this combination not be as potent as it could be. As ever – KISS. Now get discussing on what you’re using as I know that’s all you guys really care about…