Help understanding allies rules and the current meta!?

[Tpatchers]

I’m a returning player who hasn't played competitively since 2009, and I’m little confused by the current lists I've see come out of Adepticon. I was looking specifically at Tim Gortham's Space Marine list, and he’s running Space Marines allied with Space Marines, also with allied Inquisition, AND Legion of the Damned. Holy cow whatever happened to Force Org charts?! That’s 5 HQ slots filled, whatever happened to two?

 

Sorry if this seems like a silly question, I am just trying to figure out the meta so I can make an army list. I’m currently deployed right now and am just trying to get a jump start on list building, so I can have boxes of minis waiting for me.

 

[Morollan]

Basically GW threw the FOC out the window in an attempt to sell more models. You can now take any model you want and use it with any other model you want.

 

Or that's what it feels like...

 

On a more serious note, the addition of allies, supplemental codexes, formations, dataslates, Lords of War etc pretty much did what I said above. You are no longer limited to a single codex and the current ruleset pays no more than lip service to the FOC. Some think this is cool. Others don't. Most admit that it has its problems.

[Jolemai]

In the above example;

 

• Space Marines are the primary attachment and use the regular FOC
• Space Marines (with different Chapter Tactics) are the allied detachment and use the ally FOC
• The Inquisitor comes from Codex: Inquisition and and follows the FOC in that Codex. Think of it as a supplemental attachment.
• The Legion of the Damned come from Codex: Legion of the Damned and follows the FoC in that Codex. Think of it as a supplemental attachment.

To further confuse matters, you may take a singular fortification and/or a Lord of War choice (for now though, this one is game dependent) in addition to the above. When the 6.5 edition comes out, this should all be cleared up.

[Eddie Orlock]

This recent blog post over on Apocalypse 40k contains a bit of a work up on most, if not all, of the currently available options. Things are a bit messy right now.

[Kristoff]

In the above example;

• Space Marines are the primary attachment and use the regular FOC
• Space Marines (with different Chapter Tactics) are the allied detachment and use the ally FOC
• The Inquisitor comes from Codex: Inquisition and and follows the FOC in that Codex. Think of it as a supplemental attachment.
• The Legion of the Damned come from Codex: Legion of the Damned and follows the FoC in that Codex. Think of it as a supplemental attachment.

To further confuse matters, you may take a singular fortification and/or a Lord of War choice (for now though, this one is game dependent) in addition to the above. When the 6.5 edition comes out, this should all be cleared up.

 

 

And don't forget the Imperial Knights detachment as well. Also known as, "You wanted how many Super-Heavies in your army?"

[Tpatchers]

Wow thanks for the explanations and breakdown, 40k is turning in D&D it feels like.

[Grey Mage]

Its not quite that bad yet.... though it is alot closer to 2nd edition than ever before.

 

In any case, the rules for Allies are found in the 6th edition core book, and the inquisition, imperial knights, and legion of the damned are all extra detachments of their own sort, governed by rules found in those particular books.

 

There is *also* another attachment, called a 'data-slate' which takes a selection of units, with no wiggle room, that can be slapped onto any army you like. These are not to be confused with the apocalypse-only 'data-sheets'. Not all places allow such.

[Quozzo]

• Primary Detachment
  • 1 HQ
  • 2 Troop
  • 1 HQ
  • 4 Troop
  • 3 Elite
  • 3 Heavy Support
  • 3 Fast Attack
• Allied Detachment
  • 1 HQ
  • 1 Troop
  • 1 Elite
  • 1 Troop
  • 1 Heavy Support
  • 1 Fast Attack
• Fortifications
  • 1 Fortification
• Codex: Inquisition
  • 1 HQ
  • 1 HQ
  • 3 Elite
• Codex: Legion of the Damned
  • 1 Elite
  • 3 Elite
• Codex: Imperial Knights
  • 1 Imperial Knight
  • 2 Imperial Knights
• Escalation dataslate
  • 1 Lords of War

All of these can be included in your army at the same time If you're playing 2000 points or more then you have the option of a dual Force Organisation Chart, you can also include a second primary detachment, allied detachment and Imperial Knight detachment provided you meet the minimum requirements for taking them (in bold). I'm not sure if any of the others can be included with your second detachment as those three are the ones I know can be included.

It makes for a lot of opportunities to take advantage of the loose FOC. 7 Legion of the Damned, 9 inquisitorial warbands, 8 HQ choices with dual FOC (more with SW) and I haven't even mentioned anything from FW!