Allies - Are they here to stay?

[Creamster]

Hi Guys,

It's been a while since I have touched my 40k stuff but the allies rule sure looks like a good way to bring me back. I loved it in 2nd edition and having more options is always good (no longer have to wait 3-4 years before something is "released" for your army!). Sure the silly combo's will come but I think this is a great move for the players and game (people would have to purchase another codex that they could branch out with). To me having chaos actually using the "correct" daemons again is most welcome.

So with this in mind I fancy getting some of the chaos IG from forgeworld to use with my chaos marine force. Only issue is I don't want a full IG force mainly die to storage space. I couple of cult squads is the aim to paint up and build a nice theme force with.

So my questions -

Who thinks allies are here to stay?
Will we see cross over units impacting allies? Looking at cultists and daemons hoping for a summoning ability
Will tournaments have a straight ally ban to prevent the combos?

[Zinch]

Hi Guys,

It's been a while since I have touched my 40k stuff but the allies rule sure looks like a good way to bring me back. I loved it in 2nd edition and having more options is always good (no longer have to wait 3-4 years before something is "released" for your army!). Sure the silly combo's will come but I think this is a great move for the players and game (people would have to purchase another codex that they could branch out with). To me having chaos actually using the "correct" daemons again is most welcome.

So with this in mind I fancy getting some of the chaos IG from forgeworld to use with my chaos marine force. Only issue is I don't want a full IG force mainly die to storage space. I couple of cult squads is the aim to paint up and build a nice theme force with.

So my questions -

Who thinks allies are here to stay?
Will we see cross over units impacting allies? Looking at cultists and daemons hoping for a summoning ability
Will tournaments have a straight ally ban to prevent the combos?

I think (and hope) that they are here to stay.

Maybe not in tournaments (I rarely play tournaments and when I do is in my LGS), but I'm pretty sure they'll be in the main rules.

The reason being the one you are exposing: is a lot of fun in casual games and makes GW a lot of money.

"Cross over impacting units" ? I don't think so in codex. Maybe in WD.

[Charax]

I think they'll stick around for at least one more edition, and we'll almost certainly have units designed specifically to affect the allies rule.
Tournaments can make up whatever rules they like, they can ban Space Marines or give a 50pt discount to anything painted blue, it's not worth worrying about what tournaments will ban.

Ultimately the Allies rules will go away at some point, but the way they're constructed, it takes at most one extra troops choice to make an allied contingent into a whole new army anyway.

[Retrospectus]

Thankfully they FAQ'd the most obviously broken combos (I.E. sanguinary priests in guard blob squads)

[dangerboyjim]

My guess is it's here to stay. If the rumoured 'Storm of Allies' suplliment drops, and has some unique forces in it, you know it's here to stay.

I'm hoping for some kind of Squat artillery peice for use with imperial armies.

[Xerkics]

You should add a poll would be easier to see. I personally dont like allies but mostly because some of them seem v silly like Tau having space marines chums or Tyranids not having cults etc.

[Killgore]

People are looking at allies based on the rather limited allies chart in the rulebook.

I expect in a years time GW will have released several smaller forces, covering races/ fractions that wouldnt warrent a codex in their own right, for example Mechanicus warbands, Kroot mercs, hell even Squats could do with a few units to act as allies.

Only after GW and the 40K community have had the time to fully explore the allies concept can we pass judgement.

I personnaly hope they are here to stay for the long term.

[Aurelius 12]

I can see allies being around for a while. I'm not sure how I feel about them though, as you say there are some really dubious combos people will inevitably take to overcome the inherent weaknesses of their regular force. It's tactically sound but just feels rather dirty.

On a separate note, might I recommend using penal legion or veteran squads to represent cultists. At least until the next chaos codex includes them!

[wanderingblade]

I can see allies being around for a while. I'm not sure how I feel about them though, as you say there are some really dubious combos people will inevitably take to overcome the inherent weaknesses of their regular force. It's tactically sound but just feels rather dirty.

On a separate note, might I recommend using penal legion or veteran squads to represent cultists. At least until the next chaos codex includes them!

You echo my sentiments - then again, some of the weaknesses are quite crippling, and its quite nice for them to have a way to counter it. A lot of the funner tricks have been stopped stone cold by the FAQs which is part shame and part good.

... tbh, for all my worries about the balance, given that GW won't make an entirely balanced playing field regardless of what happens, what's one more way to tip the apple cart? We might as well just enjoy them.

[tibbyvc]

I personally love the allies rule, but i have no intention of exploiting it to make cheesy armies, unfortunately many will do that. And honestly I see most tournaments simply not allowing allied armies at all.

Working on combining space wolves and catachan myself, not for any huge tactical advantage, but just because i think it would be pretty cool

[yabbadabba]

Who thinks allies are here to stay?

You can have Allies whenever you want, you didn't need GW to tell you that you could.. Their addition in this edition is just to give the naysayers something to disagree with. As long as your opoonent agrees, then go for it.

Will we see cross over units impacting allies? Looking at cultists and daemons hoping for a summoning ability

Wait for the first codex to come out, it should set some precedents in this case.

Will tournaments have a straight ally ban to prevent the combos?

Tournaments house rule all the time. What's more important is if your local TO is not running the tournament you want to play in, how will you solve that? Chances are GWHQ tournaments will allow allies because it is in the BRB.

[nlive]

Love the allies rule! Now I can play daemons and chaos marines like they are supposed to be played rather than the next to useless "summoned" daemons.

--When in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout.

[MajorWesJanson]

Love the allies rule! Now I can play daemons and chaos marines like they are supposed to be played rather than the next to useless "summoned" daemons.

--When in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout.

"When in deadly danger, when beset by doubt, run around in circles, wave your arms and shout!"

As for allies, the rules and sales benefits are too useful to go away, honestly.

Rules-wise, they allow for both sides to have a consistent means to add supplementary forces (and foc slots) to a list (unless you are nids) and also allow for a potential return of mini-lists like genestealer cult as allied only units.
Sales wise, they both encourage sales of more forces- no need to buy a whole army when the new book comes out (so why bother?) when you can get a HQ, a troop choice, and a couple of other units that look cool and add them as allies. Then you already have a start to a force, so add a few more units to swap out options. Soon, you have a force of say necrons, and you may as well expand them to a full army.

[DivineVisitor]

I would like to see it taken further. I.e. Just let anyone ally with anyone, there is always some way it could be explained.

[TheDoctor]

I love Allies. With my 2 armies being old codexes (Eldar and Dark Angels), allies is the "official" (ie, not forgeworld) way to breath some life into them.

I've already got some lists that I need to test that represents all 5 Eldar factions in one force (Craftworld, Exodites, Corsairs, Harlequins, and Dark). Taste the rainbow.

Edit: and they are all represented just by having Eldar as main force with Dark Eldar allies.

[carldooley]

I would like to see it taken further. I.e. Just let anyone ally with anyone, there is always some way it could be explained.

and explain it in the same way that the Harlequin mini-dex explained it? Personally, I love allies - the ability to Prescience my Leman Russ squadrons just makes me rub my hands together with glee!

In the future though, I foresee some special characters in the upcoming codecii that will limit what allies you can take or forbid having them as allies. It opens up a whole can of worms with the rumors that the next Tau codex will have all the castes represented in it. I can just foresee Water Caste diplomats (as 0-1 Elites) able to shift ally rules by one, eg battle brothers to allies of convenience (or vice versa) in their own list or in their opponent's (making my above favored tactic useless).

[Beppo1234]

you just know that they'll take it away in the future, forcing you to either permanently shelve your allied contingents, or expand them and build a whole new army.... that's what I would do as an evil capitalist

but yes, I think they are here to stay. And as others have posted, I hope that they release smaller factions that can serve as allies only factions, each with maybe only a single box of models... a mercenaries list.

[yabbadabba]

I would like to see it taken further. I.e. Just let anyone ally with anyone, there is always some way it could be explained.

Do it anyway, why wait for GW to confuse the issue?


And for those saying GW will take it away in the future; they can't. They might remove it from the BRB but that doesn't mean you still can't have Allies.

[Radium]

My guess is allies are here to stay. They might get refined in future editions, but the rule itself will stay.

For what it's worth, most major Dutch tournaments are going to allow allies now. And I believe GW allows them as well in ToS. It's part of the game now, no reason to not allow them.

[Glen_Savet]

My biggest complaint about the allies rule is that sisters don't get along with the black templar, but the grey knights do. How dumb is that?