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i have a question regarding the use of allies. i am new to wh40k and play the space marines. i have overheard people at my local games workshop discussing appropriate allies to use in battle. what does this mean? if i play space marines can i use allied units from other armies in battle? i checked the rulebook but was unable to find anything. did i just misunderstand? or what/how can i find out more about allies? any help is much appreciated and thanks for putting up with a noob

The whole allies thing is a bit complicated. Some chapter traits, f.ex the Have Faith in Suspicion trait disallows all psykers, also in allied contingents. Black Templars and psykers are also a bad match. Appropriate allies can also be reffering to fluffwise matches, Space Marines would rather decapitate the Emperor than team up with Chaos or Tau.

More specifically, there are no general rules in 40k for allies.

That means the only ally rules tend to be found in the particular codices that have them.


Both the Daemonhunter and Witch Hunter codices have fairly extensive rules for both using (and allowing themselves to be used as) allies.

Deathwatch Kill Teams (available as a PDF from the GW site) are also available as allies to some armies (which ones are listed in their rules).


A few other old Chapter Approved army lists that aren't 100% legal anymore, most notably the Kroot Mercenary army list also contained ally rules.

Also, in the Apocalypse expansion (optional rules for how to play really big games of 40k), because the army lists can be so large, it's not uncommon for sides to be made up of teams, or for people to field more than one army (i.e. SM and IG units together), and allies are frequently mentioned in these contexts.

great, thank you guys all so much for ur help

On that note, what are your guys' take on allied teams, where two players put their troops together to form a larger army?

Skaskull wrote:On that note, what are your guys' take on allied teams, where two players put their troops together to form a larger army?

Well, I don't view that to be a problem at all. In fact, I view it as more of a challenge for me. Worst enemy combo I fought was with my Ultramarines. I had 3,000 points, while each person used 1,500. The enemy armies were siege heavy Iron Warriors a'nd Rus'h Tyranids. Fething tough cookies....

But then again, Ive been on my fair side of odd allainces. It was pretty wierd to watch Hive Fleet Behemoth and the Tyrannic War Veterans team up against Necrons, Ill say that much. So, I'd say Im totally fine with it all, but dont do it if you don't feel comfortable playing against it. That always ruins a good game.

Yeah I think they mean allies from the inquisition. Witch Hunters and Daemon Hunters.

Skaskull wrote:On that note, what are your guys' take on allied teams, where two players put their troops together to form a larger army?

It can be a lot of fun. You just have to make sure a couple of things are done properly.

1) Make sure both sides have equal points
2) Make sure both sides have equal force organization charts (2 players with 1000 points and a whole force org chart each are not a proper match for 1 player with 2000 points and only one force org chart to put them into)
3) Decide on rules for how interaction amoungst team mates works. Can my team mate's units board my non-dedicated transports? Do my leadership bubble affects effect my team mate's units. How about my psy powers or other things like that. Can my independent characters join my team mate's units. Things of that nature need to be worked out before the game starts (and are even better if they are worked out before army lists are written).