40k Word Association, where we take four opinionated players from the across the country and pick their brains to tackle current 40k topics.

First up is Blackmoor, recent winner of The Wild West Shoot Out in Mesa AZ. You can find Blackmoor on his blog as well playing at Empire Games in Mesa.

Since the death of Kroot Mercs, when you talk allies, you are really only talking about Demonhunters and Witch Hunters.

Here is the problem with taking allies in your army, they are a crutch to use when you are not a very good player and need the additional help. If you wanted to add some Grey Knights or some Sisters of Battle to your force for some variety and some flavor, go ahead. The problem is that I can’t remember when the last time I saw those units on the table top as allies.

What do I see is an Inquisitor with Mystics. Why? Because they are an overpowered/way undercosted combo that cripples several armies. For around 50 points you can buy an option that neutralizes Demons of Chaos, Pods, and several other armies that rely on Deep Striking.

My question is do you really need to have these units? The Space Marine and Imperial Guard codexs are some of the newest around and what you are saying is that you can’t win with what is contained in there without resorting to allies? You have to ask yourself that you are such a bad player that you need them to win? Out of the many codexs out there only a few can take allies and the other codexs manage to find a way to win without them, why can’t the imperial armies just nut it up and learn to play without them as well?

I know what you are saying, they are a tool, and I should be able to take what I want. Sure go ahead, but when you win, know that it is because you used a gimmick, and not because you are a good player.

Allies will be taken out or changed in the next few months/years when they come out with a new codex for them…do yourself a favor and get a jump on learning how to play without them and leave them at home.

Now for Miggidy Mack, host of the great weekly Podcast Dice Like Thunder

Of all the people I know I feel like I SHOULD have a lot to say about allies. But I don’t. As a Daemonhunters player allies can be a lot of fun, they can fill strategic gaps and they allow you to get some new toys when other codex’s are published. It really ends there for me though. It’s “nice” but not crucial. Perhaps because it is clear GW is phasing it out.

When I know something is being phased out I stop wanting to use it. I don’t want to get used to having something in my army that won’t be there in the next edition. This level of uncertainty has made me quite purchasing Daemonhunters all together. I’m not the only one either. The ever dwindling number of Inquisition players often find themselves in stores with money to spend but not willing to risk the model being unplayable in their force in a few years.

Many tournaments have stopped allowing allies NOW, because of the sheer “combo-power” of the Inquisitorial retinue trickery. Nobody wants to see all their drop pods hit by 3 Lemun Russ templates each time they touch down. So out allies go.

So what can fix all these problems? ACTUAL ERRATA! I know I’m going to sound like a broken record here but let me lay out why Errata would make GW money, build a better game for casual and tournament players and of course lead to more fun.

1) Players and tournament organizers do not want to make large changes to the rules. It’s easier to disallow allies than to rule that a unit can only fire once per turn when allowed to by an inquisitors retinue. While the second deals with the real problem it’s errata players don’t feel comfortable making, especially in an “official” capacity. Players (especially in the states) want an impartial rule system. Local tournament organizers are NOT seen as impartial!

2) If you fix it… we will buy it. Got Sisters Repentia sitting on the shelves? Errata their points down to 15 and BAM people are shelling out money for product. Wanna sell 10,000 drop pods in January? Errata them into Chaos Marines, Daemonhunters and Witch Hunters! If a kit is ready to go but the codex won’t be in print for 2 years why not slip it into the errata and sell that model!

3) Power Balancing can be done in smaller increments with errata. Accidentally publish a unit that’s way to powerful? Drop it down a small amount, or raise its point value a little. Then you can re-evaluate in 6 months. This is way better than remaking the unit in a decade when a new codex comes out. We see more variety at tournaments and on casual table tops this way. This keeps the game fresh and fun for everybody! Unit to strong? BAM small tweaks down over time till it’s about right! Unit to weak? BAM small tweaks over till it’s about right!

I guess Errata isn’t needed. Games-Workshop doesn’t want money that requires a single page put into a digital document right? That requires typing out something ALMOST as long as this article. If someone offered me $10,000 any time I updated a pdf I’d turn it down. Wouldn’t you? That’s just good business.

What about omnipresent Jwolf from Bell of Lost Souls and regular at Battleforge Games in Austin TX?

Allies are one of the really great things about Apocalypse games – you just use the minis you have, and come up with some crazy reason that Tyranids and Witch Hunters are working together.

In regular 40K, Allies are almost exclusively the playground of min/maxing jerkomaniacs. The idea was fairly terrible in 3e, worse in 4e, and now it’s just plain silly. Yes, allies are the only way to get psychic defense in an Imperial Guard army – so what? Guard are generally better off letting the powers kill a unit and buy two others instead of a Psychic Hood, anyway.

And let’s talk about Mystics. In 3e, Deep Strike was uncommon, to say the least. With many strong builds (and all Daemons) depending on Deep Strike for deployment, Mystics went from “sometimes interesting and fun” to “wow, I pay less for guys that let me dump my Demolisher Squadron on your head than for Psychic Defense”…

And then there are the cheap Melta Squads of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers – scoring, cheap, and ultimately expendable.

Don’t forget Battle Sisters and the “Book of there used to be almost no modifiers to Leadership tests, but wow, this Book is AWESOME now”. St. Lucius’ book is so common that the Gideons must have decided to leave that in every barracks room or something.

And the Grey Knight Grand Master of Doom. Retinue of guys so you can’t just kill him, and he can one-hit any model in 40K. Abaddon will still give them a try, but Calgar is over in the corner hiding from those guys.

All that is not to say you cannot get some fun units into your army with allies, because there are some fun things to have that aren’t just adding nitroboosters. But do we really see them in play? Not often.

The worst part is people have been playing with Allies for so long now that we’re unlikely to see them removed from future Inquisitorial books, so just grin when the guy trys to explain why his Daemonhunter Inquisitor, Grey Knight Terminators, and Sisters of Battle are all hanging out with Colonel Straken. It’s for the fluff, not the Furious Charging GKTs, Deepstrike prevention, and unbreakable IG gunline. Honest.

Finally, Nathan Fluger blog commentator and Rad Ork player that someone should give money to so he can play in Conquest NW in Jan. Who can be found at the Fire and Sword Gaming Center in Seattle WA.

Maybe it’s because I’ve played Games Workshop games for too long; but I really like the idea of allies; it’s actually one of the aspects of the game that has fallen by the wayside that I really think is a big loss.

The guy that got me into 40k, way back in ’96; had a mostly Ultramarine army with a small contingent of Eldar Swooping hawks. He had made up a cool back story about why this exarch and his unit were siding with the Imperials; and he always tried to integrate it with whatever battle was taking place. The synergy of having a mobile strike force unit like that; coupled with his marines staying in cover and laying down fire was pretty potent and added a fun element to our games. Being that I was Orks, I didn’t really have too many options for allies (IG and Chaos only IIRC), and didn’t think it would make sense anyway, so I never did it. However, I always harbored the idea that someday I’d play guard and have a unit of squats in there as an allied contingent. Obviously, that never came to pass, but it was always a fond idea.

Currently, the only way you can supplement your basic codex is if you are Imperial and you want to bring in something from either the witch hunters or the daemon hunters. This can certainly make for some interesting combos that are cool and fun; like a unit of Grey Knights with a regular marine contingent; or some Sisters of Battle teaming up with IG; or an assassin or Inquisitor joining the fray. Regardless of what it is, these are great ways of adding a unit you normally couldn’t get and change the complexion of your force, while adding an extra dash of flavor.

Unfortunately, you might have heard that Games Workshop doesn’t do the best job of testing things out or writing tight rule-sets; and there are literally tons of gimmicky ways to combine different allies to IG to make them uber deadly. Mystics plus bunches of crap; or cullexus comboed with psychic choir; Grey Knights in Valkyries; etc. Personally, I think those combos are exploitive and silly and would frown on someone using them against me; but they are currently legal. These also happen to be the reason that we will probably see them go away in the future.

Allies are too easy to game and make for ludicrous combos that the devs couldn’t see coming, and its unfair that some races should be able to ally with others and others have no ability to ally at all. Adding allies is a messy system, and while I will pine for the days of yore when you could make fun additions to your army, I will be happy to not have to play against stupid combos like this in the future.

Questions for Comment:

  1. Are Allies a dinosaur of the past or something that should be reborn?
  2. What do you think about Allies in tournaments?
  3. What does GW have against errata for allies?