I think it's great if you and your friends want to do a fun game with some themed allies, but I can't think of anything but broke. As far as I know, the codex were written in isolation of each other. Never did they think about how an allied retinue would help. In my mind, outside of Grey Knights each codex has its benefits and drawbacks. Allies basically trump that.
Visually it bothers me as well. Very rarely will we see themed up allies that match the parent list, it's just going to be borrowing from each others armies to get new combos. It's a sad way to get cross army sales from GW.
I really hope I'm wrong in my extreme distaste of allies and it will only be used as "with opponent's permission" or something to that degree. Otherwise if it gets too over the top, I'm sure most tournaments will end up having no-allies only tournaments.
We'll see one way or another in less then a week. Until then, I need to get started painting on my beastmen!
I think in general tournaments, especially the national ones, will disallow allies just to simplify things.
ReplyDeleteAllies will be awesome!
ReplyDeleteMost games played are NOT tournament games ; )
Dave, I do agree about the types of games being played, for the pure visual effect I have a hard time seeing some of the combos on the table but hopefully I'll be surprised with people's conversion and painting potential.
DeleteWere there a lot of problems with it in 4th?
ReplyDeleteI had just started the hobby way back then, but I was in the process of painting IG as Inquisition allied shock troops when 5th ed came out. I'm rather looking forward to trying a combined Grey Knights or Marines list with my black and red Cadians.
I understand most games are not tournament games but I still want competitive games. Why even bother having codices if you are going to have allies just have one big source book and everyone can take what they want. I sure hope allies are just for narrative or opponents permission
ReplyDeleteAs with so many things, I think that the level at which allies are either awesome or broken will depend on who you play with. Personally, I look forward to doing Lost and the Damned type forces, or IG forces with a little space marine boost from time to time. While I could anyways with flexible game partners, it does make it easier for casual games.
ReplyDeletePersonally I'm excited for allies. My first reaction was, "wow, people are going to do some broken mismatched crap." but then I thought more about it and it hit me, "Wow, I can add Chapter Serfs to my Angels of Absolution if I want. This opens up so many modeling possibilities!"
ReplyDeleteSo bring it on. I come in the bottom 25% of every tournament I go to anyway so if my army has cool thematic stuff that I'm stoked on in it, then that's all that matters to me. Maybe I might even win a few games before the internet unlocks all the uber-combinations.
Nick, the more I've calmed down, the more I'm coming around to the great modeling and theme potential. I really hope I get to see some great stuff and not just people slapping armies together for power gaming. I can only hope!
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