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Howdy all, a friend pointed me to the FAQ about allies and reserves and it has me confused. Namely,
Q: Do modifiers that apply to such things as Reserve rolls, apply to units from an allied detachment? (p124)
A: No

Ok, so I have ig as an ally to any of their battle brothers. In my ig hq choice I take an astropath upgrade. I know that the astropath works on all units normally, even non ig ones. However this FAQ mucks everything up. First, it only talks about modifiers, so rerolls granted by the astropath to outflank for example seem exempt. Second, what are things such as reserve rolls besides reserve rolls that would actually apply here? Third, only allied detachments are mentioned, so my allied astropath can modify my primary army reserve rolls but not my allied army reserve rolls despite the allies being the one to grant the modifier?

So for example, I have ig as an ally to space wolves. I outflank wolf scouts, outflank ratlings and have a vendetta which must start in reserve. By my reading it appears that the wolf scouts arrive on a 2+ thanks to the astropath and can reroll their outflank with the astropath (ignore their acute senses for a moment), the vendetta and ratings both arrive on a 3+ because reserve modifiers do nothing for allies, but the outflanking ratings can still reroll their outflank side thanks to the astropath as that is not a modifier based ability. Is that right or is there some other way to resolve this with the FAQ ruling?

Thanks in advance

No modifiers is no modfiers, a re roll modifies the original dice roll into a whole new one,

 Formosa wrote:
No modifiers is no modfiers, a re roll modifies the original dice roll into a whole new one,

This isn't true, page 5 of the rules has a whole section that very clearly defines what modifying a dice roll constitutes and it doesn't include re-rolls, in fact, Re-rolls are entirely separate in the very next section of the rules.

Also, it's not explicitly clear according to the FAQ that rolling for which board edge you enter from falls under the umbrella of "such things as reserve rolls", and in fact I would go as far as to say we really shouldn't apply the FAQ to anything other than reserve rolls, because the only other option is very subjective.

DevianID wrote:only allied detachments are mentioned, so my allied astropath can modify my primary army reserve rolls but not my allied army reserve rolls despite the allies being the one to grant the modifier?

No I don't think this is true, I think it applies in both directions, many of the ally rules are written in such a way that both parts of the army view the other as allies, for example it says that "Allies of Convenience units ... Cannot be joined by allied Independent Characters" If you assume that references to allies only applies to the smaller part of the army, this rule is telling you that ICs in that smaller part can't join units of their own section of the army.

So your example is basically correct, it's just, the Wolf Scouts don't get the modifier, and the Ratlings and Vendetta do get it, rather than the other way around.

What sucks about this is... if your opponent has the warlord trait of -1 to YOUR reserves it counts against your primary det and allies. Silly.

It would balance if it only counted against your primary. Sounds weird, but just as weird as this ruling.

Byte, the enemy warlord trait can only modify a primary detachment reserve roll, that is what the FAQ says. Iirc the warlord trait does not mention allied detachments specifically.

Drunkenspleen, while logically what you are saying seems right, the FAQ clearly changes the rules here. I find no conflict with applying modifiers, positive or negative, to both primary and secondary detachments provided you are battle brothers and the source applies generally, or you roll the warlord trait. However, the FAQ, regardless of the source of the modifier and for reasons unknown, does not modify ally reserve rolls.

DevianID wrote:
Byte, the enemy warlord trait can only modify a primary detachment reserve roll, that is what the FAQ says. Iirc the warlord trait does not mention allied detachments specifically.

Drunkenspleen, while logically what you are saying seems right, the FAQ clearly changes the rules here. I find no conflict with applying modifiers, positive or negative, to both primary and secondary detachments provided you are battle brothers and the source applies generally, or you roll the warlord trait. However, the FAQ, regardless of the source of the modifier and for reasons unknown, does not modify ally reserve rolls.

Understood, not sure why my brain didn't apply it both ways. Thanks for the clarification.

I see what you mean now, I was inferring a reference to a model providing the modifier that isn't there.

Yeah I suppose the way it is written allies are just immune to all reserves roll modifications, but they can still modify your main detachment rolls.