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So, based on camera phone leaks, the new Spindle Drones from Blackstone Fortress have the Unaligned faction keyword along with a more specific one... something about being a BSF system.

Given that they have Unaligned, can I add them to, say, a Necrons Detachment in standard Matched Play?

Necrons Sautekh Battalion
Overlord
Cryptek
Immortals
Immortals
Warriors
Spindle Drones

Is this legal? My understanding is yes, due to the Unaligned keyword, but wanted to make sure.

 Kriswall wrote:
So, based on camera phone leaks, the new Spindle Drones from Blackstone Fortress have the Unaligned faction keyword along with a more specific one... something about being a BSF system.

Given that they have Unaligned, can I add them to, say, a Necrons Detachment in standard Matched Play?

Necrons Sautekh Battalion
Overlord
Cryptek
Immortals
Immortals
Warriors
Spindle Drones

Is this legal? My understanding is yes, due to the Unaligned keyword, but wanted to make sure.

Assuming that UNALIGNED remains a Faction Keyword, you would be partially correct. BRB Page 214, Army Faction. However you would have to include them in their own auxiliary detachment, due to the Battle Brothers rule which has no exception for UNALIGNED. So while you can have them in your army, you can't mix them in a Necrons Battalion (and even if you could, you wouldn't want to due to losing the Dynasty buff).

 BaconCatBug wrote:

 Kriswall wrote:
So, based on camera phone leaks, the new Spindle Drones from Blackstone Fortress have the Unaligned faction keyword along with a more specific one... something about being a BSF system.

Given that they have Unaligned, can I add them to, say, a Necrons Detachment in standard Matched Play?

Necrons Sautekh Battalion
Overlord
Cryptek
Immortals
Immortals
Warriors
Spindle Drones

Is this legal? My understanding is yes, due to the Unaligned keyword, but wanted to make sure.

Assuming that UNALIGNED remains a Faction Keyword, you would be partially correct. BRB Page 214, Army Faction. However you would have to include them in their own auxiliary detachment, due to the Battle Brothers rule which has no exception for UNALIGNED. So while you can have them in your army, you can't mix them in a Necrons Battalion (and even if you could, you wouldn't want to due to losing the Dynasty buff).

Ok, so...

Necrons Sautekh Battalion
Necrons Novokh Outrider
Unaligned Aux <- Unit of Spindle Drones

 Kriswall wrote:
Ok, so...

Necrons Sautekh Battalion
Necrons Novokh Outrider
Unaligned Aux <- Unit of Spindle Drones

Seems perfectly legal as long as I haven't missed a super obvious FAQ that is called "Bob's Special Notes" somewhere.

The Spindle Drones also have the BLACKSTONE CONSTRUCT faction keyword which may complicate things...

AFAIK it doesn't complicate things at all. Detachments only need to be bound by a single keyword. You can legally include Mortarian and Magnus in the same detachment because they both have HERETIC ASTARTES, for example.

The rules for Matched Play state:

Page 214 BRB wrote:All of the units in a matched play army, with the exception of those that are UNALIGNED, must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. IMPERIUM or CHAOS), even though they may be in different Detachments.

It doesn't say "those that are exclusively UNALIGNED", just "those that are UNALIGNED". Since the Spindle Drones have the UNALIGNED faction keyword, they are excepted from the requirement of needing to have a Faction keyword in common.

I actually realise that even pre-Battle Brothers you would have been forced to include it in an Auxiliary Detachment as each basic detachment (other than Fortifications, which is pretty funny when you think about the silly Combos it could cause) states "All units must be from the same Faction." without any exception for UNALIGNED. My mistake.

It does complicate things because it has two faction keywords. Spindle Drones have both UNALIGNED and BLACKSTONE CONSTRUCT and there is no clear indication on how that second faction keyword interacts with the 'Army Faction' rule. It is definitely something worthy of a FAQ

 Ghaz wrote:
It does complicate things because it has two faction keywords. Spindle Drones have both UNALIGNED and BLACKSTONE CONSTRUCT and there is no clear indication on how that second faction keyword interacts with the 'Army Faction' rule. It is definitely something worthy of a FAQ

It has Unaligned, so it is exempt from the Army Faction rule. It could be UNALIGNED, CHOAS, ADEPTUS CUSTODES for all the Army Faction rule cares. "All of the units in a matched play army, with the exception of those that are UNALIGNED, must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. IMPERIUM or CHAOS), even though they may be in different Detachments."

Therefore those that are UNALIGNED do not need to "have at least one Faction keyword in common".

I can see why people might be confused though, despite it being cut and dried. Worth an FAQ to reduce headaches if nothing else.

Again, you're missing that there is no indication how an additional faction keyword interacts with the UNALIGNED faction keyword and the 'Army Faction' rule.

All of the units in a matched play army, with the exception of those that are UNALIGNED, must have at least one Faction keyword in common...

There is no indication if this should be read as "...those that include the UNALIGNED faction keyword,..." or "... those that have only the UNALIGNED faction keyword...". We also don't know if there's any special rules for the BLACKSTONE CONSTRUCT faction keyword in rules we've yet to see. For clarity's sake, it will require a FAQ if there's no more guidance on the matter.

No, it’s clear that they need only have unaligned.

It does not need to be the only one. That’s how English works.

Side question. Can I include a fortification detachment in my Necron army with a void shield generator to give my Necron units a 5+ inv ?

 p5freak wrote:
Side question. Can I include a fortification detachment in my Necron army with a void shield generator to give my Necron units a 5+ inv ?

Yes in an aditional Detachment, all old Fortification datasheets are unaligned so any army can use them.

The answer is no


The new battle bros rule in bfaq 2

All of the units in each Detachment in your Battle-forged army must have at least one Faction keyword in common. In addition, this keyword cannot be Chaos, Imperium, Aeldari, Ynnari or Tyranids, unless the Detachment in question is a Fortification Network. This has no effect on your Army Faction

Your army would therefore not be battle brothers unless you just have spindle drones

U02dah4 wrote:
The answer is no


The new battle bros rule in bfaq 2

All of the units in each Detachment in your Battle-forged army must have at least one Faction keyword in common. In addition, this keyword cannot be Chaos, Imperium, Aeldari, Ynnari or Tyranids, unless the Detachment in question is a Fortification Network. This has no effect on your Army Faction

Your army would therefore not be battle brothers unless you just have spindle drones

That is talking about units INSIDE a detachment, not the overall army faction. It even says "This has no effect on your Army Faction. The rule that exempts UNALIGNED in the BRB is called "Army Faction".

And the OP is, funny that, asking about including them inside detachment...

tneva82 wrote:
And the OP is, funny that, asking about including them inside detachment...

U02dah4's post is implying that the army cannot be legal whatsoever, specifically the line "Your army would therefore not be battle brothers unless you just have spindle drones", which is not true. It's not legal to have the drones in the same detachment as the Necrons, but it is legal to have them in a separate detachment. If you're going to "gotcha", at least do it right.

U02dah4 is answering to the OP. OP is asking inside question. Answer is thus about inside.


text removed.
Reds8n

I got confused and was applying the battle bros rule across detatchments

But no due to battle bros you cant be in the same detatchment

Battle Brothers only cares about units inside a detachment, not across detachments.

tneva82 wrote:
U02dah4 is answering to the OP. OP is asking inside question. Answer is thus about inside.

The OP (me) has also recognized that the answer was no and that the conversation moved on to the second question of whether or not Spindle Drones could be taken in an Aux Detachment.

Asked dumb question. Answered when I got to my books.

Drager wrote:
Could they be taken in a Vanguard with cypher and fallen?

...why would that be possible? Cypher and fallen aren't unaligned.

Drager wrote:
Could they be taken in a Vanguard with cypher and fallen?

No, they cannot be taken in a detachment with anything other than other BLACKSTONE CONSTRUCT or UNALIGNED units. You'd have to take them in an Auxiliary Support Detachment.

Away from books brain fart thought they were unaligned

Does it matter that blackstone fortress is a stand alone game and probably not usable in regular 40k? Wouldn't it be like trying to include a necromunda gang?

Salcomine wrote:
Does it matter that blackstone fortress is a stand alone game and probably not usable in regular 40k? Wouldn't it be like trying to include a necromunda gang?

They have 40k datasheets for all the models in the box. I think they've even previewed them on Warhammer Community, if not, you can definitely find them on the web.

MadSpy wrote:

Salcomine wrote:
Does it matter that blackstone fortress is a stand alone game and probably not usable in regular 40k? Wouldn't it be like trying to include a necromunda gang?

They have 40k datasheets for all the models in the box. I think they've even previewed them on Warhammer Community, if not, you can definitely find them on the web.

It's been officially previewed. It's 100% confirmed that all the Blackstone minis are usable in 40k.