The stupid thing about the allies table...

[EDMM]

Is that it brings fluff into the battles.

We can already have Grey Knights fighting against Imperial Guard, Blood Angels, or even other Grey Knights (go to any tournament and that'll be happening on half the tables), so why the hell does GW think it's important that the Grey Knights leave their Tyranid allies at home?

Everything should be able to freely ally with everything. Making allies accessible based on background is the most annoyingly imbalanced thing GW has done in recent years.

The constuction and capabilities of an army should be based entirely on gameplay balance, not fluff. If a player wants to constrain themself due to fluff, that's their prerogative, not the games designer's.

[Damocles8]

Is that it brings fluff into the battles.

We can already have Grey Knights fighting against Imperial Guard, Blood Angels, or even other Grey Knights (go to any tournament and that'll be happening on half the tables), so why the hell does GW think it's important that the Grey Knights leave their Tyranid allies at home?

Everything should be able to freely ally with everything. Making allies accessible based on background is the most annoyingly imbalanced thing GW has done in recent years.

The constuction and capabilities of an army should be based entirely on gameplay balance, not fluff. If a player wants to constrain themself due to fluff, that's their prerogative, not the games designer's.

Uh, isn't that kind of what the game should be about? Fluff should have a fairly important impact on gameplay. Look at Mechwarrior: Dark Age for the first 3 years or so, fluff flew out the window and people simply brought what was strong, no flavor whatsoever. Perhaps you think you should be allowed to build a list out of whatever units you'd like from any Codex?

[IcedAnimals]

See for me it is more that they murdered the fluff to create this stupid table. *mumbles something about tau and marines being battle brothers*

[Misfratz]

The constuction and capabilities of an army should be based entirely on gameplay balance, not fluff. If a player wants to constrain themself due to fluff, that's their prerogative, not the games designer's.

I can't tell you how to play your games and neither can GW.

If you want to ally with Tyranids all you need to do is find an opponent willing to play you. It's your game now. There is no wrong way to play, only the way you want to play, the way your opponent wants to play and the compromises you agree to make.

Personally I would have made the ally table more restrictive overall - its impossible for GW to come up with a perfect rule that pleases everyone.

[Private_SeeD]

It does seem redundant that Tau can be Battle Brothers with vanilla marines but not IG when they're more likely to side with Tau than Space Marines. Also I can't see why GK and marines aren't Battle Brothers tbh

[Haravikk]

I was a little bit disappointed by it personally, especially since Warhammer fantasy's allies allow you to ally with anyone, just on one of three ally tiers to introduce fluffiness without sacrificing choice.
I dunno, since the 40k system is more about allowing you to build an army specifically with some allied forces included then it needed to be limited, but then all the broken combos seem like they're only moments away from being fully realised, so it's not like the fluff restriction helps it work mechanically.

As strange as it may seem to see Sisters of Battle fighting alongside Daemons, it's no sillier than Kaldor Drago and his Grey Knights fighting Kaldor Drago and his Grey Knights

[xerxeshavelock]

As strange as it may seem to see Sisters of Battle fighting alongside Daemons, it's no sillier than Kaldor Drago and his Grey Knights fighting Kaldor Drago and his Grey Knights

I dunno - he is an idiot...

[Grand_Marshal_Kazan]

What would ever make the Grey Knights ally with the Tyranids?

[Lord Damocles]

The Tyranids are being psychicly dominated

The Tyranids just happen to be in the same area as the Grey Knights

Ordo Xenos experiment


Given that the table lets Necrons ally with Sisters of Battle, Tyranids should at least have been able to ally with someone.

[Orion pax]

If what i see is right, then Dark eldar are battle brothers with the Eldar. but in the same allies matrix space marines and chaos space marines cannot ally. i find this weird as the hatred between the eldar has been going in fluff/history wise for many many millenia. This is a lot more deep rooted and a great deal longer than the SM's and the CSM's have been fighting it out for.

[Ace Rimmer]

Well, Sister's of battle are all about purging psykers, heretic's and mutant's. I'd say that dove-tails nicely with the necron agenda.

Black Templar's allying with Eldar though? I'd have said more Desperate allies than Convenience given the black templar's general hatred of witches.

[Schismotive]

I never liked the idea of allies, it defeats the purpose of playing your army... plus GW got the alliances all completely wrong.

[Grot]

No one is upset over the idea that the dark eldar can ally with slaanesh daemons? Or any daemons, for that matter?
How about Cortez and Farsight hanging out with orks?

The Tyranids should have been allies with at the very least the imperial guard. You'd think 'new rules for allies' would be the time to bring back something like genestealer cults. Technically you would have had to include a lot of 'ifs and buts' in the faq to make sure it's mostly genestealers and human troopers, rather than a hive tyrant hanging out with ogryns, or something, but the potential was there.

The allies list really reads as a 'from now on the space marines are all basically the same army', rather than a true fluff diagram of potential allies. It's an obvious band-aid solution to the problem posed by the stormraven and stormtalon - GW introduces a new vehicle in the latest marine codex, and all the older flavors are upset that they don't get it in their own codex. Instead of insisting that 5 (6?) armies are different and that they should stay different, it's now fine to take this month's space marine toys in last month's space marine flavor.

And while they were there, mess with the xenos a little, why not. It's not like people like aliens, right?

[Thanatos_elNyx]

They shouldn't have made the table symmetrical.
i.e. Tau with IG allies, yes; but IG with Tau allies, no. (just an example)

[Excessus]

GW should never have used the word "allies"...people get confused and enraged!

[Grot]

They shouldn't have made the table symmetrical.
i.e. Tau with IG allies, yes; but IG with Tau allies, no. (just an example)

That would actually have been a simple but clever solution. Might have to house-rule my own such chart.

[Asher]

Uh, isn't that kind of what the game should be about? Fluff should have a fairly important impact on gameplay.

Depending on who you ask. I just recently learned on warseer that people who play by background are considered fluff-nazi-spoil-sports who always want to impose their narrowominded views on the crowd.

[Johnmclane]

The most annoying thing as I see it is that all tacticas is going to be "ally with x to help with this" instead of exploring the different tactics within each race.
Is allies allowed under 2000 pts? If not allies will die real soon and will be a bit like apocalypse but from 2000+

[Lord Damocles]

Well, Sister's of battle are all about purging psykers, heretic's and mutant's. I'd say that dove-tails nicely with the necron agenda.

Sisters of Battle are also all about purging aliens. Like those aliens who wrecked up Sanctuary 101 (twice)...


Also, everyone is all about killing anyone who's not them, so by that logic, they should all be able to ally with each other.

[KarlPedder]

Uh, isn't that kind of what the game should be about? Fluff should have a fairly important impact on gameplay. Look at Mechwarrior: Dark Age for the first 3 years or so, fluff flew out the window and people simply brought what was strong, no flavor whatsoever. Perhaps you think you should be allowed to build a list out of whatever units you'd like from any Codex?

Because alot of us are more interested in playing relatively balanced games where armies don't get mechanically gimped by fluff justified alliance levels......

From a mechanical perspective Tyranids get the complete shaft, armies that can only take suspiscious allies are getting a worse deal than those that have access to battle brothers....