So, I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to 40K.
So here is my question?
Is it possible to play a Tau army with little to no Tau troops or HQs.
Furthermore, how many different factions can Tau ally into a single army (assuming points aren't an issue). Could a Tau army have a unit representing ever factions (minus tyranids)
>Is it possible to play a Tau army with little to no Tau troops or HQs.
You can fill your Troops slots with Kroot and Fast Attack with Vespid, but all the HQ choices are Tau and all of the vehicles and battlesuits are piloted by Tau.
Technically there's no limit to the number of factions Tau can ally in, other than points. But some will work better than others - Orks are Desperate Allies, for example, while Eldar are Allies of Convenience.
You don't need troops or HQs anymore with formations. You can take the Tau formations that are just 3 Riptides like the Riptide Wing, or the 1 Broadside 1 Riptide formation Cadre Fire Support.
If you want to make a traditional army, you can play Farsight Enclaves, which only requires 1 HQ which can be an XV8 Commander, and then the troops can be XV8 suits, meaning you'd only need 3 XV8 for the mandatory requirement unlock, then 1 more XV8 for your second mandatory troop. So with 4 XV8 models, your Farsight Enclaves army minimum requirement is already fulfilled.
There's a formation that it is nothing but Kroots and Vespids. Not a single Tau in sight.
>IG
>Paint em up to look like Tau
>GG you now have Gue'vasa
Tau is not Battle Brothers with anyone, although I believe Eldar can act as AoC.
The only non-Tau HQ was a unique Kroot Shaper Angkhor Prok who is no longer valid. Between that and some of the FW models, you could have a troop, an HQ, a fast attack, and heavy support.
There are also Vespid.
You could easily fluff and model a unit of Guard as gue'vesa, but there aren't any (current) legal rules for fielding them as such, and because of the simplified Allies chart, they make poor Tau Allies.
I there even a way to play an x army without any x units?
>Is it possible to play a Tau army with little to no Tau troops or HQs.
Technically yes, but not recommended for competitive play. If you're serious about this, I would recommend bringing Aun'shi for your HQ and using Kroot/Vespid for everything else. You'd have to specialize your Kroot heavily for this to work (for example, have one group all with Sniper Rounds and Krootox to shoot things, have another group with Hounds to be melee shock troops, etc.) Use Vespid to hunt MEQs and skirmish. As others mentioned, you could also ally with Imperial Guard and use them as gue'vesa, but they're Desperate Allies with Tau, so you'd need to keep them out of 6" of your Tau units.
>Furthermore, how many different factions can Tau ally into a single army (assuming points aren't an issue). Could a Tau army have a unit representing ever factions (minus tyranids)
As above, technically yes, but it wouldn't really work well on the tabletop. You'd have to keep careful track of how each army allies with each other, and make sure they stay out of One Eye Open range and such.
You can take the Allied Advance Cadre formation (latest Codex and Kauyon books). It's comprised of Kroot and Vespid.
There's also a human unit entry in Imperial Armour 3 (2nd ed), but it'll require at least a HQ - and there's only Tau ones.
Eldar and Necrons are AoC with Tau
I'm curious about why you don't want any Tau. I get people complaining about too many battlesuits, and it's possible to make fun lists with minimal/none, but no Tau at all?
i don't get it either, does op just not like tau, and why one of each army, it'd be so confusing hard to keep track of you'd go insane
Tau use axiliaries, i.e. other aliens or human to fight for them.
Strictly speaking you could build a Tau army without using any regular Tau model and instead proxying other aliens as auxiliaries.
You won't be able to play at GW stores using 3rd party miniatures though.
>day 53, the Tau still do not know that I am a Space Marine
Here's some inspiration for you, you double heretic!
Is it possible to make a Tau army based around fire warriors while still being competitive?
Also...
No.
Yes.
OP...there are shit loads of tau allies that fight for them. I will give you a quick list of the most common and then some of the less common. kroot, guela, vespids,...less common are demigurg, tarellian dog soldiers..there are a ton. you could also use a lot of drones if you wanted. do you have a head canon idea why there arint many tau in youre army?
some armies will just murder it.
but in general it should do ok.
Why not?
Because Fire Warriors aren't competitive. Your entire army only contains S5 and a bunch of T3 4+. What the fuck are you going to do?
A supporting element of Fire Warriors isn't bad. When used in tandem with other elements of the Codex.
But did than user mean soley Fire Warriors? Yeah that's retarded.
I remember they had a fandex in the works on 1d4chan where it was all Tau Aux stuff, think it ended up stalling out before they got into formations though.
Wont be allowed in any official games but could potentially do a few games with your friends.