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I saw some people playing a game the other day and noticed they were playing a friendly game using 30k marines vs 40k marines and had some questions. Can a 30k army take and use normal 40k allies and also use book powers like divination, biomancy and so on?

I think that really depends on who and where you are playing. in friendly games, why not, in tournaments, its up to hte tournament runner. I'd allow it just becuase it's cool.

Right, in friendly games you can really do anything. But is there any rules allowing you to actually ally in 40k armies and use the 40k book powers? or does 30k have its own?

30k is a set of rules by Forgeworld.

Their books contain your answer as to how you can play games of 30k (and using them for 40k)

I'll try to pull the quotes from the books when I get home today, but my understanding is that Horus Heresy (30k) army lists and units aren't intended for regular games of Warhammer 40k in much the same way that Apocalypse datasheets aren't. 30k armies are intended to play against other 30k armies and are balanced a such. Part of this involves things like much more widespread AP3 capability since almost everything is wearing 3+ or better armour.

This is covered in The Horus Heresy Book 1 Errats & FAQ 16.05.13 file, last page. Short answer: with the exception of Lords of War and Primarchs, and taking into account there are 'certain rules anomalies and inconsistencies' between HH and 40K, as long as both sides are using the Age of Darkness FoCs, there shouldn't be an issue.

 Carlson793 wrote:
This is covered in The Horus Heresy Book 1 Errats & FAQ 16.05.13 file, last page. Short answer: with the exception of Lords of War and Primarchs, and taking into account there are 'certain rules anomalies and inconsistencies' between HH and 40K, as long as both sides are using the Age of Darkness FoCs, there shouldn't be an issue.

Q:
Are the armies and units in the Horus Heresy books by Forge World meant to be used in games against regular Codex armies, such as say Grey Knights or Orks?
A:
While Forge World’s on-going range of Horus Heresy books and their game content are all designed to use and be compatible with the Warhammer 40,000 rules, they have been fine-tuned and focused on playing battles in the milieu of the Horus Heresy rather than in conjunction with the Codexes representing warfare in the 41st Millennium, and this will remain the case.

Sounds like you can play games with them, but they were not designed to play 30k with 40k.

Which, ultimately, is just a cop out response. "You can play the two together, maybe, sort of, yes, no, hmm, you decide." It's just FW covering their butt with a vague response to essentially toss the ball back in our corner.

Simple truth is, the legion list is still just marines. Marines without ATSKNF. If you have no problems dealing with 40K marines, then you'll generally have no problems dealing with 30K marines. There are very few, if any, things in 30K that come even close to the shenanigans that 40K armies are capable of.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
There are very few, if any, things in 30K that come even close to the shenanigans that 40K armies are capable of.

The main example against was being able to field all of you marines with as many Special Weapons as you want.

40K Marines have a restriction of 1 Special, 1 Heavy per squad of 10. That difference is often the contention point.

20 dirt cheap Space Marines firing 80 Bolter shots in a single attack is still terrifying
And there's a huge amount of AP3 in there, whole force is made around killing MEQ.

 grendel083 wrote:
20 dirt cheap Space Marines firing 80 Bolter shots in a single attack is still terrifying

Lol how? Legion stuff? Double your shots? Yeah, no wonder people think OP...

People "think OP" because they don't bother to learn the damn rules before leaping to conclusions. There are no dirt cheap marines, they still start at 15 points or more when you buy the initial squad. They do get cheaper as you buy more, but then you're spending even more points. There are no massive amounts of AP3 (and where you do see it, it costs just as much or more than the 40k versions), tactical squads can't even take special or heavy weapons, and the one 10 man squad that can take all plasma costs over 300 points and will kill at least one of its own every time it shoots, and are still just marines without ATSKNF.

Oh, and those 80 shots? They can't move in the turn they use that ability, so if you're dumb enough to walk into rapid fire range, you deserve exactly what you get.

Seriously, people, learn the actual rules and how the game actually plays before you take internet rumor and myth as fact.

Yeah in short the same game mechanics but the 30k tends to be a little under powered compared to the top end 40k stuff, but the mid tier 30k stuff tends to be a little better than midtier 40k stuff.