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I was fielding an all-Haemonculus Covens army with a small regular DE allied detachment of 1 HQ and 1 Troop (with 2 optional Heavy Support) and one of my opponents claimed that this was illegal and it would be unbound. He said that you could only take other non-Dark Eldar as allied detachment and honestly I didn't really follow. He also had a reputation of being the TFG but I wanted rules clarification here.

So if I'm taking the Covens as my primary force I cannot take DE as a regular allied detachment?? What gives?

from BRB section on allied detachment restrictions
All units chosen must have a different Faction to any of the units in your
Primary Detachment (or no Faction).

The detachment / formation that your warlord is in determines what is your Primary Detachment
"The model you choose as your Warlord also determines your Primary Detachment."

also the allied detachment only has 1 heavy support slot in it.

Ok so to be legal then I should use the realspace detachment of
1HQ, 2 Troops, and 1 Fast Attack?

This also allows me up to 3 heavy support as optional.

or a CAD of 1 HQ and 2 troops. a combined arms detachment does not need to be a primary detachment.

Arthurmw43 wrote:
from BRB section on allied detachment restrictions
All units chosen must have a different Faction to any of the units in your
Primary Detachment (or no Faction).

The detachment / formation that your warlord is in determines what is your Primary Detachment
"The model you choose as your Warlord also determines your Primary Detachment."

Some of the supplements have ways around that.

That being said, I am insufficiently familiar with the Coven to know if this is one.

Unless the Haemonculus Covens supplement (or an FAQ) states you may take a Dark Eldar Allied Detachment then no, you may not. As stated above, an Allied Detachment may not be taken with the same Faction as the Primary Detachment.

With that said you are able to take Dark Eldar as allies (not the same as an Allied Detachment) so for example a Dark Eldar Combined Arms Detachment, if you can spare the points for the additional required Troops choice.

On the flip side, as part of your haemonculius detachment you can take regular dark eldar because they are the same faction.

greytalon666 wrote:
On the flip side, as part of your haemonculius detachment you can take regular dark eldar because they are the same faction.

In order to access the Haemonculus Covens special rules, you have to be using either the Covenite Coterie Detachment or one of the Formations. Whereas a normal Combined Arms Detachment has the restriction "All units chosen must have the same Faction {...}.", the Covenite Detachment doesn't actually have that restriction - instead you get an extremely restrictive list of what units can be taken in it. Simply being the same Faction isn't enough (and a CAD doesn't qualify as a "Haemonculus Covens" detachment).

So yes, you take 'regular' Dark Eldar in the detachment (the Haemonculus Covens book doesn't actually contain any unit datasheets), as long as they are in the list provided (meaning no Kabalite Warriors, no Wyches etc. etc.).