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So as a newcomer to playing 40k I see that you can take allies in your army list. I think for some armies it makes sense (space marines w/ imperial guard) but think it is silly to have stuff like space marines and tau or whatever. I feel like it's a cheap way of taking strong units from other armies and adding it to your own, which is probably the intention.

But see, if I made a themed army with emblems and color schemes I think it will drive me crazy to have different units of a different race using different rules with different colors. I am currently planning out my first army and I don't think I will plan on using allies at all. Just doesn't feel right.
What are your thoughts on this?

Start with one army. Learn how to play it. Have fun. Then after a few games if you still want to take allies, go for it.

If you don't want to use them then don't. From a lore perspective you can justify just about anything against the right enemy.

Yay. Yay so hard...

I love allies. If your primary force is Necrons, Nids, or Orks, it might not be as easy to master, but otherwise I think you can only benefit from allies, and would encourage new players to start incorporated forces from the get-go.

Generally I think I'd prefer not to. The army I have currently is Orks, so there's not many options I can take without huge penalties.

The second army I'm considering is Dark Eldar. While they can take Eldar allies, I very much doubt I will. I pretty much hate Eldar, not for gameplay reasons, but because I'm actually pretty racist against Elves. The only reason I like DE is because they avoid everything I hate about standard fantasy elves, and the fact that their models look kickass.

Granted, if someone else takes allies, a lot of it depends on why. If they think it'll make their army look cooler, or maybe fill a few holes, then fine, but if it's purely to be for the win, and makes no sense fluff-wise whatsoever, then I see it as cheesey.

I have a love/hate relationship with allies.

Love:
1: My Sisters of Battle really have some gaps in their lineup (NO fliers, NO skyfire, limited options in all slots, that kind of stuff.) and being able to have some Imperial Guard allies helps fill the gaps and it is not too unreasonable to think that the church could request some backup on important missions.

2: It lets you phase in a new army. Lets say you have play army A, but you want to get into army B. You can't afford to rush out and buy a whole army B at once, but with Ally rules you could play your army A and ally some army B in at first. Then play army B and ally some A in later, then when you have enough, you could play only army B if you want.

Hate:
Allies allow all sorts of crazy broken stuff that is not fun to play against. You know the kind of stuff I am talking about. Taking stuff from here and there that on their own are not too bad, but when put together you end up with ultimate broken combo of un-fun.

Personally I would probably advise a new player to start with one army, but have an eye out for what kind of allies/second army they would like to expand into once they get the game down.

I love my Inquisitor, and his small band of bolter boys in my marine army.

To me it's like any other part of the game, if you intend to push it to it's logical extreme and want to be hyper competitive then it's going to make people hate you. If you use it to add some fun and fluff to an army it can really make the game more interesting.

HoundsofDemos wrote:
I love my Inquisitor, and his small band of bolter boys in my marine army.

To me it's like any other part of the game, if you intend to push it to it's logical extreme and want to be hyper competitive then it's going to make people hate you. If you use it to add some fun and fluff to an army it can really make the game more interesting.

Blood Angels and Necrons being Battle Brothers?

Shield of Baal legitimised that one I'm afraid...

quite annoyingly, I find that the some of the broken allied combos are those that make the most fluff sense.

For example, the GravCentStar is a complete abomination, but the Drop Pod Skitarii is a perfectly viable thing to explain. AdMech make the pods, so why cant they use some? (ok fine the tax troopers are a bit more difficult, but it's just one squad)

A bit sketchy but valid is the Aspect-Supported Realspace Raiders. Makes sense logically for a couple groups of warp spiders and some swooping hawks to just tag along with a passing Archon for a bit, right? Just to make sure he isnt going to cause problems

Things like TauDar are a little bit neither here nor there, as there have been times where they've cooperated, and others where they fought. Down to personal taste I guess.

I only use allies to fill some gaps in my army.

- Farsight Enclaves to bring more Crisis to my Tau Empire forces
- Necrons for melee
- Eldar for psykery

The moment an allied detachment is so important (barring from same faction) you have half your list with them, it's time to question if the main army is really functional in your meta

Like many things GW does; Decent idea with crappy implementation.

I use allies from time to time so I'm not against the concept but I don't really like it either. I feel armies have identities that are the reasons you/I decide to play said army. Taking the better ally choices detracts from that, IMO and units get sold short. And just as important people quit using their brains as much. Rather than delving a book as deep as you can it's just easier to take the better option from someone else.

That said it does allow you to expand a force and create more themed lists and also importantly it allows you to increase the power level.. arms races are good and bad.

Bottom line I wouldn't rule them out until you've tried them. However I highly suggest getting some table time with the parent codex units before looking past them or next leveling a unit. At least in most instances.