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In Angels of Death, it states that an Iron Hands detachment may include up to three Techmarines that do not occupy any force org slots for each HQ choice. In a Battle Demi-Company or Stormlance Battle Demi-Company, you must take a Captain or a Chaplain, which has the battlefield role of HQ. So, if you take a Fist of Medusa Strike Force with a BDC or SLBDC as its core choice, can you also include up to three Techmarines as part of the force? If you can, do they count as auxiliary choices and/or part of either the (SL)BDC or the Fist of Medusa detachment (for the purposes of the command benefits that affect "models from this formation")?

I was surprised not to see this addressed one way or the other in the FAQ, and while I'm probably missing something thunderingly obvious, this doesn't seem clear to me. On the one hand, a Captain or Chaplain is obviously an HQ choice, so you should be able to. But on the other, Decurion-type detachments don't actually care about battlefield roles - the slot is not for "an HQ choice", but rather for a mandatory "Captain or Chaplain", which just incidentally happen to be HQ choices. And on the gripping hand, where would those Techmarines fit in the Fist of Medusa Strike Force?

I think they clarified this in the faq (astra militarum I believe) and they said no you cant

They somewhat did, yes. That still looks a little muddy to me (because I don't know the wording of the rule in C:AM that normally permits that), but I'll take that as a tentative no.

Which is kinda what I was thinking: you don't get extra units in a formation, generally. Though Decurion-type dets sometimes have auxiliary choices that are just a given unit with no other shinies, which is why I was confused.

The IG one only clarified that Formations can't take them, because Formations have set units.

They didn't clarify for decurions though, which does use slots (albeit unconventional ones), so it's a muddy area. My advice as always is to ask your opponent.

I'm pretty sure the Scions of the Forge special rule in the Angels of Death book specifies that the techmarines can't be taken as part of Formations - the FAQ even has a clarification for the Raukaan book that says as much.

Ok, that's now officially clear as mud. The FAQ does add that caveat for Clan Raukaan, sure enough, but Angels of Death doesn't mention any such thing nor does the FAQ say anything about Scions of the Forge as it pertains to Angels of Death.

It sounds like it's clear enough for Formations, but not for non-CAD detachments. Argh. It's firmly in my list of "things not to even ask about for tournaments", then.

This is frustrating, of course, since by the fluff, IH seldom if ever use Chaplains, but have Techmarines everywhere. (And honestly, in a Stormlance, I'd rather have a biker Techmarine!)