Rumor 1
The Eldar created the Ethereal Caste: For those of you that keep up with the fluff, you know that Ethereals secrete pheromones from the gaping hole in their forehead. This is said to be the way they are able to control the other castes. This would also explain Commander Farsight getting over his obedience, as he has had enough time to figure out that he will no longer be controlled by the pheromone secreting hole. It's rumored that the Eldar got the idea (and DNA) from an arachnoid race whose queens controlled their subjects using pheromones. Unfortunately these spiders were purged around the same time the Ethereals supposedly entered the fray.
Rumor 2
The Eldar created the Tau: Being natural enemies to the warpbased entities and having a vast knowledge of the warp, the Eldar created the Tau to have little or no signature in the warp to be a natural deterrent against Chaos. With the Farseers seeing their inevitable doom in the last battle with Chaos they needed a new race to optimistically rule the galaxy after they dissapear.
Rumor 3
Freak Warp Storm, or Violent Mother protecting her baby?: Those of you that read the Fluff section of their codices realize that the imperium originally ear marked the home world of Tau for cleansing when the Tau were still no more than plains dwelling nomads. This was suddenly halted by the random sudden appearance of freakishly ciolent Warp Storms cutting off the Imperium from having any access to Tau. The rumor states that the Eldar foresaw the potential good coming from the Tau Empire and used an immense level of psychic energy to protect the four fingered gray humanoids with hooves.
No matter how you look at it you can always rationalize the two armies banding together. My personal idea comes from the two armies banding together after years of hopeless losses (5th edition) and the old guy has now come to mentor the young whipper snapper.
Tactica
I have often heard people refer to 6th edition as the edition of psykers. Unfortunately us Tau have absolutely no psychic powers available to us in our codex. The eldar provide us with the option of not only having potent psykers, but a greater array of units that can JSJ just like our Crisis Battle Suits.
Farseer
This might simply be the most awesome addition to a Tau Army. This psyker can throw out up to Two psychic powers each turn, that add a great deal of support to our Tau. This has the potentail of adding a 4+ deny the which roll to any unit of Tau he joins and can further serve to deny enemy psychic powers by forcing them to take psychic tests with 3D6.
Like an Ethereal but better: Whereas the Ethereals try to give off the impression of having some sort of mystical powers, the Farseers actually have mystical powers, like the Ethereal who can grant a unit of fire warriors a Ld value of 10 by joining them, the Farseer trades being able to re-roll leadership tests with not having the Tau run away when he dies.
DOOM!!!: The Eldar have the option of allowing you to purchase specific psychic powers from a list of extraordinary spells. Unfortunately the Tau don't benefit from "Fortune" or "Guide", but there is a wonderful spell called Doom. I have heard this debated over and over that Doom should last forever since it states "lasts until next Eldar turn" and you are playing Tau. This is not only corrupt, but easily countered, you have Eldar in your army so the Tau turn is also the Eldar turn that is unless you want to never be able to allow the Eldar units to do anything. Also, if you are playing against Eldar, technically when your opponent starts his or her turn the spell ends thus having no effect. Play it the way the rule was intended and just let it end at the beginning of your turn. Doom is a curse that targets a single unit allowing ALL units that target it to re-reroll failed rolls to wound. This means pule rifles will wound over half the time when firing at a Doomed Tyranid Monstrous creature. And when you hit almost anything that is doomed with a rail gun, your opponent isn't hoping for a 1, he is hoping for a double 1.
Eldritch Storm. Strength 3 Large Blast with no AP value, that turn tanks in random direction. The points here can be invested somewhere else.
Mind War: Its like an awesome precision shot that ignores "Look out Sir" and armor saves. It forces your oppenent to roll off against you adding the model's leadership value to his roll against your roll +10. The model automatically suffers a number of wounds equal to the amount he lost by.
Divination psychic powers are awesome, although you can also choose to go telepathy, the sheer amount of beneficial spells that only take up 1 warp charge can't be beat.
Prescience: This is a spell that you can always take (you don't have to roll for it). This allows the Farseer to grant one of your units the oppurtunity to re-roll all failed "To Hit" rolls until your next turn. This means that if you markerlight a target and fire at it with a unit with Prescience you have the potential to fire at BS 10 and ignore cover saves. Not to mention the unit can re-roll all failed to hits in both you and your opponent's assault phase while counting as counting re-rolling all snap shots until your next turn.
Roll a 1, Foreboding: Your Farseer allows the unit he is in to fire at full BS while overwatching and countercharge. Not bad but you might as well take prescience.
Roll a 2, Forewarning gives a single unit a 4+ invulnerable save until your next turn. Pretty Good if you expect a unit to come under heavy weapons fire while out in the open.
Roll a 3, Misfortune: Causes a unit to re-roll successful saving throws until your next turn. Cover Saves, Invulnerable Saves, and armor saves. Simply put this is awesome. Couple this with Doom and you have one really dead unit.
Roll a 4, Perfect Timing: The psyker and his unit have "Ignores Cover". Pretty much the same as using two marker light shots. You should probably go with prescience
Roll a 5, Precognition: The Psyker re-rolls all failed to hits, to wounds, and his failed saves. If you are in close combat this makes the Psyker pretty beastly, unfortunately you are still in close combat with a Tau army.
Roll a 6, Scrier's gaze: Searching the internet this is probably the most under appreciated psychic power available to the Tau. The power only lasts until your next turn. It allows you to roll 3 dice and choose 1 for all your reserves, Outflank, and Mysterious Terrain. I like to refer to this Psychic power as the Kroot Carnivores best friend. This power not only grants the Kroot who are outflanking the ability to arrive on the table edge you want over 96% of the time, but gives the mysterious forest a better chance at benefiting the kroot.
If your best roll is a 1: you still get a 4+ save
You only have a 3.7% chance of rolling only 2's and 3's: Your Kroot will almost never be hurt by mysterious jungle's
If your best roll is a 4: Your kroot now have a cover save of 2+ while in Jungle
If your best roll is a 5: Your Kroot are now all but impervious to grenades while in jungle
If your best roll is a 6: Walk don't run. Your Kroot don't roll dangerous terrain tests, meaning they are unaffected by the razorwing Nest, but if an opponent charges the Kroot while they are bunkered down in the forest, if any of the dice while he is charging are 4+ the unit automatically suffers D6 strength 3 hits with rending.
Scrier's gaze also allows you to almost choose whether or not your reserves arrive. So if you want them to arrive you go from having a 67% chance of your desired result to a 96% chance. If you want them to stay in reserves you go from having a 33% chance of your desired result to over 70%. Combine this with a tetra and you have a Deep Strike that is both timely and precise.
Pathfinders
Although the Tau already have pathfinder's of their own, they don't have Pathfinders, that can infiltrate, hold an objective, use Precision Shots, add 1 or 2 to cover saves and both wound and Rend on a 6+ or 5+.
Jetbikes
They can JSJ a shruiken cannon or their twinliked catapults, and are mobile so if you want to contest or hold an objective they can turbo-boost 36 inches, unless you're using shining spears. If you're using shining spears you can assault or counter charge an enemy with strength 5 power weapons.
Guardians
Sorry I just had to mention them.
Dire Avengers
We already have really shooty units.
Warp Spiders
They can JSJ but have a 1/6 chance of losing a model. Strength 6 makes for sub-par transport hunting, Even though they wound almost all infantry on 2+, I would still prefer putting out more fire warriors.
All Eldar Vehicles
One thing I noticed about the Eldar is their ability to make Armor 14 look pathetic and that they utilize lots of Skimmers for vehicles. This of course doesn't do much to affect my game play.
War-Walkers
They are really shooty which appeals to me as a Tau player. They are aslo extremely flexible, going from anti-horde, to anti-elite, to anti-tank. Personally putting a pair of Scatter Lasers to deal with Horde Armies Fliers, and Light to medium Transports is a plus. Not to mention using them to hit rear/side armor while outflanking is always a surprise your opponent won't see coming. But be careful they are extremely sensitive despite having the option to take spirit stones.
Vypers
Fast Skimmers that can pump out 6 Strength 6 shots is pretty decent.
Falcon or Fire Prism
Your Basically taking another Hammerhead that isnt as good.
The Avatar
It's nice to give the Tau a Monstrous Creature that says "F.U." to melta guns and the inevitable increase of flamers we are bound to see with the wall of flame special rule. This beast calls out heroes in close combat and wrecks takes like a beast. Unfortunately if you want to rules the close combat phase you are playing the wrong army, and you need to say goodbye to the Farseer if you do.
Autarch
If you are planning on playing someone who doesn't really use a lot of psykers You can always opt to go with the Autarch. the Autarch allows you to call in the reserves on a roll of 2+. Not to mention he can be outfitted to add Close combat survivability to crisis suits (warp jump generator), or vespid (Wings). He can also add some armor killing power to infiltratiting Kroot in addition to boosting the kroot Ld value.
The Wraithlord
Toughness 8 makes him all but impervious to small arms fire, and S10 ignoring armor saves is something we as Tau can regularly expect from a Heavy Support Slot. Being equipped with a Wraith Sword is a pretty good way to spend 10 points not to mention he gets the option of selecting another ranged weapon that can be outfitted to blend better with your army.
It's kind of like the Prom's after party
The Eldar are new to me and I feel like i'm just chipping away at an iceberg. If you see any nasty combinations that i'm missing please feel free to let me know. Unfortunately I don't have much as far as conversions, so if you find anything on conversions or Tau related fluff I would love to hear from you.
Thought for the Day
Howling Banshees have been nerfed.
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