Tau brothers with Space Marines?

[Matt1785]

Alright,

I'm not sure what people are speaking of with the lore behind the Tau being reliable allies for the Space Marines.  At my LGS people keep saying there is fluff in the big book about the Emperor talking about them but after having read the entirety of the fluff section I don't know where it is talked about...

Is it really in the book about the Tau being one of the 'protected' races of the Imperium or is that just all the angry speculators speaking about it still?

On another note, has anyone had any success stories with the Tau as Space Marine allies?  I think that my Tau color scheme looks good against the color scheme of my Space Marines and I have been contemplating bringing some Tau allies..

[Cammerz]

I personally haven't found anything that explains it in the book, although before the release there was a rumour which suggested that The Emperor believed that the lack of a psychic signature in Tau might be a way to fight chaos. If it is in the book I'd like someone to direct me to the page number. I'll have another look now anyway.

[Wargamer]

Tau fall into the category of "alien races that are only slightly bat-shit insane." In other words, you can expect them not to betray you if you find yourself fighting alongside them to stop a Hive Fleet, or an Ork Waaagh! or similar.

However, a mistake people make too readily is to assume Tau have human motivations; Tau may act in a manner that seems idiotic to us, but it is perfectly sensible to them. This can be hard to articulate, but an example might be that an Imperial commander would try to dig in at a choke point (which to most people is a good idea), whereas the Tau might see that as suicide and instead opt to force a running battle on open ground.

On that note, the Tau's prefered tactics of mobile warfare do mean that Space Marines complement them nicely; both forces prefer rapid-strike actions and avoid wars of attrition wherever possible. Just don't expect a long term relationship between the forces to last...

[salamut2202]

Maybe it's based on that alliance the Tau'va had with Ultimar for a while during a reccouring necron threat.

[Hadhfang]

I'd buy it more if they were also Battle Brothers with IG-That would actually kind of make sense- as there is fluff to justify IG fighting with/for  the Tau. Although I  feel a little bit like the allies table is all over the shop. (I'd say eldar and dark eldar rofl as an example- but Wargamer might be able to correct me on that one?)

(Also, Hey everyone, I'm back )

[Unusual Suspect]

...How would the Emperor be able to directly talk about the Tau anyway?  My understanding of the fluff was that, 5000 years before the present timeline, Imperium explorator ships found the primitive Tau race.  That would be... 5000 years after the Emperor was left mortally wounded permabound to the Golden Throne.

Are we talking interpreters, or something?

[InsaneTD]

He is/was the most powerful of all Human psykers. I think the idea is that he devined the future. Do we know how Xenophobic the Imperium was before the Heresy?

[salamut2202]

I'd buy it more if they were also Battle Brothers with IG-That would actually kind of make sense- as there is fluff to justify IG fighting with/for  the Tau. Although I  feel a little bit like the allies table is all over the shop. (I'd say eldar and dark eldar rofl as an example- but Wargamer might be able to correct me on that one?)

(Also, Hey everyone, I'm back )

Yeah, the feact that the Tau have a stronger alliance with super xenophobic fridges than with regular people who sometimes aren't afraid to trade with alien races is a little odd. I don't see the eldar thing too odd personally. I mean sure the Kabals and the craftworlds don't see eye to eye but I see them going of raids together, the oldest of them probably both hate the necrons, Beil-tan and Comerites play lulz with lesser races. Like Dark eldar come to the rescure for Iyanden, even if it were for necromantic entertainment reasons, And I'm sure a lot of harliquin troupes and Corsair fleets have ties to both Commoragh and the craft worlds. It really doesn't seem that much of a stretch to me - and my girlfriend is already buying models for a wrack/wraithguard based army wit is going to be a pain in objective games.

[Unusual Suspect]

He is/was the most powerful of all Human psykers. I think the idea is that he devined the future. Do we know how Xenophobic the Imperium was before the Heresy?

Extremely.  But Divination is not what he's particularly known for, is it?  That's more the eldar's schtick.  He didn't forsee far enough in the future to figure out an Empire-wide civil war was on his doorstep... but he can see 10000 years into the future and accurately prognosticate the emergence of a flash-in-the-pan pitiful-by-comparison-to-just-about-every-other-race-in-40k alien empire enough to comment on it?

Does anyone know where this Emperor quote might be?

[InsaneTD]

It was probably just some rumor some whacko made up. It just doesn't any sense.

[Unusual Suspect]

It was part of the 6th edition rumors, that much I've seen from some brief googling.  I can't find any reference to a direct quote from the God-Emperor.  The rumors just mention some "until now hidden correspondence" between the Emperor and Rowboat Girlyman concerning an unnamed alien race that was resistant to Chaos and its taint.  Apparently Ultramarines have interpreted that race as the Tau?  That's about all the rumors seem to say.  I can't find anything like that in my admittedly brief skimming of the fluff in the 6th core rulebook, nor do I remember anything akin to that in my in-depth reading when I first bought the book.   Then again, I wasn't really looking for it.

Anyone have anything tangible?

[Matt1785]

As my original post had stated I have found nothing in the fluff or lore from the book to specifiy that the Emperor ever had anything to say about the Tau or a race that is without Chaos taint...  He definitely never told any chapter to protect them.

My guess is that there will be something in the Tau Codex or persumably the Space Marine Codex whenever that thing gets touched again...

[InsaneTD]

Well unless they have changed Firewarrior to not be cannon, Tau can be tainted. As a whole they are fairly hard to taint but it was possible. And I hope they don't change that. There are already two untaintable races now, Nids and Crons. Still, we shall see.

As for Marine Tau codex update, Early next year for tau would be my guess. Marines, well I'm not sure to be honest.