The Case for Allies

[DrBored]

Chapter 1: The Summary

It's not news or rumor any more. Allies are in. How exactly it works is yet to be seen, but it's clear that Tyranids won't get any and Necron and Imperial Guard will be able to ally with just about everyone.

[url]http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=&section=&pIndex=0&a Id=22400024a&start=1&multiPageMode=true[/url]

Check out that link for what looks to be as official of a list we're going to get until the rulebook actually drops into our hands. Don't worry that the images aren't links, just use the nav bar on the left side to go between armies.

Before I go any farther, I'm going to talk about some interesting combos within the allies page...

Grey Knights can ally with Dark Eldar, Orks, all the Space Marines, Necron, Imperial Guard and Eldar. Throw a Librarian and Terminator squad in as your troops and fill the rest out as you please. Sound juicy?

Out of all the armies, Chaos Marines seem to follow fluff the most. Daemons, Imperial (Traitor) Guard, Necron, Orks, Tau, and Dark Eldar. No Eldar, no Space Marines. In some old fluff, Necron were described as being the antithesis to Chaos Marines, who would go crazy with fear at the idea of being disintegrated into lifeless order. Obviously, things have changed since then.

The least fluffy allies? Black Templar. Not only are they able to ally with all Imperium forces (including Grey Knights and Sisters of Battle) but also Necron, Tau, Eldar, and Dark Eldar. The only ones they aren't able to ally with are Chaos Marines, Daemons, and Orks! How heretical can you get BT? Allying with Eldar witches? I don't think so.

All in all however, it's clear that GW thought long and hard about how they wanted to do allies. They stretched the limits of fluff as far as conceivably possible in order to fit as many allies into each army as possible. If you condense all of the Space Marine Codices (minus Chaos) into one 'Space Marine Ally Block' then no army really gets a great advantage over any other in terms of who they can ally with (except Tyranids, of course). Even Sisters of Battle get a decent list of allies.

Games Workshop didn't want everyone to ally with everyone. It's clear that they did this for fluff reasons and not balance reasons. The balanced approach would be to let anyone ally with anyone, including Tyranids, but I feel that this would have simply promoted the worst of min-maxing. Within the constraints that we have, players should still be able to explore a very large number of ally combinations and enjoy all that allies have to bring to the table (except Tyranids, of course).

Since I've mentioned them already, let's mention them again. Tyranids. They don't get any allies. Some Tyranid players could surely come up with some fluffy reason why Tyranids would be able to at LEAST ally with Imperial Guard, via Genestealer Cults and the like. The rumor is that the Force Organization Chart may be more malleable in the new edition than in the past, and that Tyranids may be able to, effectively, 'ally' with themselves. This would allow them to take extra models in more slots at lower point value games to help Tyranids compete with the other allied armies. It is interesting, however, that Tyranids are left alone. What I want Tyranid players to do is to test the bounds of their army within the new edition. If there truly is no hope for the army, I'm sure we'll discover that quickly, but don't discount that until you've tried. Keep in mind all of the extra rules for Monstrous Creatures, and that Tyranids have the largest block of MC's out of any army.

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Chapter 2: Viability

The biggest worry out there on the internet right now is the viability of allies, or how it might break the game.

If only one army was receiving allies, then yes, that would be a fair assessment, but EVERYONE (let's just assume from here on out that Tyranids aren't included in instances of 'everyone') gets allies. Some of the allies make more sense than others, and it's clear that there will be different levels of allies (from trusted to 'Allies of Convenience'). This level will dictate how 'broken' any one thing can get. Let's also remember that all of the Space Marine armies are, more or less, the same. They share vehicles, weapons, and the same power armor. The only difference comes in some HQ's, psychic powers, and other special rules. All in all, a Space Marine is a Space Marine is a Space Marine, and they all die like Space Marines, so kill them like Space Marines and any combo of Space Marines should not be threatening to you.

In short, I'm not worried about allies breaking the game. It is clear to me already that Games Workshop has put a lot of thought into the ally system. Beyond the obvious (being able to take small ally detachments will sell more models), this opens up a lot of new strategy for games of 40k, even within TOURNAMENTS.

There's what a large number of people really care about. Will allies be allowed in Tournaments? I surely hope so, because not allowing them will only satisfy the needs of the current min-maxers who don't want their enemies to have an edge over the net-list they copied off of the internet with their count-as 'Space Dark Templar Blood Wolves of Chaos Knights'.

If you're a Tournament Organizer, and you're reading this, ALLOW ALLIES. The rules will be just as all other 40k rules have been, it won't complicate things as long as your players have their Codices and rulebooks, and it will make for a much more interesting scene, much more interesting armies, much more interesting comp (or lack thereof) and much more FUN time for the players themselves. The only people that loose out are the Win At All Costs (WAAC) gamers that want to keep spamming up a storm.

The thing that allies is going to reduce are exactly what WAAC gamers don't want to lose: net-lists. Net lists do a wonderful thing for WAAC gamers. Once a net-list becomes solidified in the realm of the Internet, gamers that want to start an army or get an 'easy win' follow the frame of the net-list and bring that list to a tournament, expecting great things. WAAC gamers know the net lists well and will either follow the frame or build their army to combat those net lists, making it easier for them to win.

With allies, you delete the possibility for net lists. With allies, there are simply too many combinations, possibilities, and new strategies. Allies are the trump card. Within the realm of a single codex, it's easy to make a net list once you understand what is effective and what isn't, but when you throw the monkey wrench that is an 'allied detachment' into the mix, net lists take a back seat. Only the truly moronic will continue to follow net lists, simply because it's all that they know to do. Once allies drop, players will experiment with more army builds and play styles than we've ever seen before, and it will open up the realm of strategy and army building far beyond the current meta.

Speaking of meta, say goodbye to it. Sure, if the Space Marine Ally Block remains strictly Space Marines, you'll still be able to kill them with Space Marine Meta Tactics, but once you throw a detachment of Tau, Grey Knights, Dark Eldar, Necron, or Orks into the mix, the meta flies out the window. How can you prepare for an army that can have incredible range and also an effective assault block? How can you prepare for an army that has incredible Power Armor saves as well as a horde of flashlight infantry? The long and short of it is that you can't, so your best bet is to simply build a list that you can work with and go into the tournament with all your wits and skills about you and hope for the best. Your measure as a general will be decided on the table as it happens, not on the Internet with a net list.

I say again, Tournament Organizers, allow allies. It may be more work at the beginning when everyone is learning how they interact and how to build lists with them, but once the birthing pains of 6th edition are over, I predict that we'll find ourselves in a golden age of list building, where the combinations cannot be listed, and the 'best of the best net-list' cannot be decided simply because there are too many new strategies to contemplate and a much broader meta to consider.

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Chapter 3: TL;DR

Allies are going to be awesome.

They aren't going to break the game, they're going to expand it.

Tournaments should allow allies because they get rid of any pretense of 'meta' and 'spam'.

Net-lists are a thing of the past.

Thanks for reading!

[hammer hades]

I think this is pretty broken
[URL="http://natfka.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/allies-in-6th-edition-imperial-guard.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&u tm_campaign=Feed:+Faeit212+(Faeit+212)"]http://natfka.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/allies-in-6th-edition-imperial-guard.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&u tm_campaign=Feed:+Faeit212+(Faeit+212)[/URL]

[DarkLink]

BT codex specifically states that they trust the GKs, from the old ally rules.

[mysterex]

While I agree with the concept of allies in the game I don't like the execution. Some of this contradicts the established background too much to make real sense.

The other thing is that I think the net list situation will get a lot worse as particularly broken combinations get identified.

[eldargal]

We don't actually have the full picture of how it hasb een executed to make that kind of judgement yet. We have a bit of a write up from the summary in WD.

Another thing to remember is that just because someone will abuse a new feature doesn't mean it should be included. GW are all about narrative games not competitive play, Allies a huge boon for narrative gamers (who GW believe make up the majority of their playerbase, and they should know).

[hammer hades]

I personally love allies, as i have always wanted to have a blood angels/ dark angels force, and have always wanted to play guard with my marines (I can't see why i shouldn't already be able to do so) so this is a huge boon for me.

[Corvus-Master-of-The-4th]

Tau Dark Eldar here I come... May have to create that story from the fluff where Urien Rakrath allies with Tau against nids :P

[Houghten]

Sisters can ally with Grey Knights!

The Witch Hunters are back, baby!

*cue utterly talentless dancing with much hip-thrusting*

[isotope99]

With sensible restrictions on FOC, separation of abilities and transport use, and a few disdavantages for less fluffy alliances, I can see this working.

In smaller games the 2 HQ 3 Troop minimum will limit the impact (there isn't much army left after you've dumped in your standard choices and some grey knights HQ and troops and in larger games the FOC will come into effect.

In the short term I can see plenty of 'utility' alliances to get solar pulses and runes of warding for example. It should also be a much bigger boost to older armies like Tau than to newer armies with better options and costings.

[gcsmith]

BTW, for The Black Templar, Codex trumps rule book, Only armies they can ally with that contain any psykers are Grey Knights.

Any eldar army they ally with cannot have any pyskers.

Also BT are still marines, and they are very anti witch, not anti xenos. Sure they hate orks, but the Imperium made use of Xenos, especially during the crusade. "SQUATS" cough cough. Personally, I'm glad my two armies can ally. Or at very least, I can take a storm talon in my black templar army through allies.