Imperial Armor Book' units in a tournament

[Blackcloud6]

I'm hosting a small three round 900 point/army tournament where players win by overall total points scored in all their games.

The Army must be a Combined Arms Detachment from current codices/supplements. I am not allowing Lords of War, Apocalypse, Horus Heresy, 30K units/models.

What are thoughts on allowing Forgeworld Imperial Armor armies? I'm not too familiar with these and there are so many IA books that my head spins.

I have one player requesting to use Renegades from Volume 13.

So, what do you guys think; should I allow it? Are there potential issues others may bring up? Or am I worried about nothing?

Thanks for your help.

[Lord Manton]

The Renegades and Heretics list is a simple, Chaos version of a guard army. They are a little bit cheaper, but only because they are generally a little bit worse.

They can easily make a CAD army. The only issue that could come up is "Covenants' (i think they're called). These are basically Combat Tactics (ala Space Marines). They give a few unit buffs and allow a couple of different choices such as a Decimator or the option to bring Spawns. AFAIK they aren't broken. They seem to me to be a fun and flavourful army with some interesting options like Plague Ogryns etc.

Be careful, though. There are a few army list options in IA:13 (eg. CSM, Renegades). Ask them to show you their list and the book so you can cross-reference it and make sure they haven't snuck a CSM unit into the Renegades list. This shouldn't be much of an issue as the R&H list is its own, contained section. But as it's all contained in the one book, they may get confused and think it's all one army (this is assuming you're not allowing allies).

I'd let them bring it, as long as they have a suitably Chaotic looking army.

[Path Walker]

Point of clarification if you're running the tournament, a Combined Arms Detachment is the specific Detachment in the Rule book, the codex Detachments are not Combined Arms Detachments.

Imperial Armour books include a lot of cool looking models and fun rules, generally, nothing is too powerful and certainly nothing is as powerful as some of the stuff you can get in a codex these days, so, from a "balance" point of view, nothing much will change, especially at a low points value where you need to cover the basics. A lot of the resistance to IA seems to be people jealous they can't use the toys because they don't have them,but that leaves people that do unable to use their models, which never seems fair to me.

[Blackcloud6]

Thanks much, this is very helpful.

[Mr Mystery]

The Renegades and Heretics list is a simple, Chaos version of a guard army. They are a little bit cheaper, but only because they are generally a little bit worse.

They can easily make a CAD army. The only issue that could come up is "Covenants' (i think they're called). These are basically Combat Tactics (ala Space Marines). They give a few unit buffs and allow a couple of different choices such as a Decimator or the option to bring Spawns. AFAIK they aren't broken. They seem to me to be a fun and flavourful army with some interesting options like Plague Ogryns etc.

Be careful, though. There are a few army list options in IA:13 (eg. CSM, Renegades). Ask them to show you their list and the book so you can cross-reference it and make sure they haven't snuck a CSM unit into the Renegades list. This shouldn't be much of an issue as the R&H list is its own, contained section. But as it's all contained in the one book, they may get confused and think it's all one army (this is assuming you're not allowing allies).

I'd let them bring it, as long as they have a suitably Chaotic looking army.

Not sure I agree with that.

The Renegades list in IA:13 is very, very complicated. Lots of different options, not just for army composition (it can change depending on the general) but within a given unit as well.

The biggest risk here of course, is that then leaves it open to cheating/abuse, plus most opponent's won't have the foggiest what's what, especially as so much of it relies on conversion work, making WYSIWYG a potential nightmare.

I don't think I'd have any issue with someone using a unit from IA, but a full army? Perhaps not so much.

[Blackcloud6]

The biggest risk here of course, is that then leaves it open to cheating/abuse, plus most opponent's won't have the foggiest what's what, especially as so much of it relies on conversion work, making WYSIWYG a potential nightmare.

This is exactly what my concern is. But it is a small invitational tournament so this may not be a problem. Hmmm....

- - - Updated - - -

(this is assuming you're not allowing allies).

Now you have me wondering if I should allow Allies. Is there a downside to allowing Allies? I have no problem saying "no" and that the armies need to be "pure." After all, they are only 900 points.

[Mr Mystery]

I think it's the WYSIWYG issue that bugs me the most.

For non-tournament play, amongst friends, not a problem.

But given the plethora of choices it offers (seriously, the only way to maintain sanity with that list is to decide what sort of Cult you want, then go about selecting units) it might be a bit confusing for others.

Especially with oddities like units of up to 5 Wyverns, compared to AM's cap of three per Battery...

[Defenestratus]

CAD?

*hackspit*

So boring.

[Blackcloud6]

CAD?

*hackspit*

So boring.

Thank you for helping me with my question.

[Katharon]

Considering the amount of stupid and cheese you can now find *outside* of Forgeworld, most of those IA books are fairly tame in comparison. So yes, go for it.