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I've not played regularly since 5th edition (I think was about 2013) and obviously back when I used to play alot from 3rd to the beginning of 5th allies were never a thing.

So now I have a Deathwatch/Marine army nearly fully painted up and am looking to go to a local club in Norwich and was wondering in casual pick up games of allies are generally frowned upon? I considered a detachment of normal marines to go along with my Deathwatch to bolster numbers but not sure how someone would take that in a normal match.

Gw has made allies pretty much essential. Join the club. Yours is pretty mild combo even

Rogerio134134 wrote:
I've not played regularly since 5th edition (I think was about 2013) and obviously back when I used to play alot from 3rd to the beginning of 5th allies were never a thing.

So now I have a Deathwatch/Marine army nearly fully painted up and am looking to go to a local club in Norwich and was wondering in casual pick up games of allies are generally frowned upon? I considered a detachment of normal marines to go along with my Deathwatch to bolster numbers but not sure how someone would take that in a normal match.

Allies are the de facto standard in 8th. Your Deathwatch + Marines army is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to allies use now.

They're frowned on by factions that can't ally. Otherwise, as the poster above says, they have become the standard for this edition.

GK can potentially ally, although in reality they can't even fit the 32 IG in to their lists. I don't think many GK players like the fact, that to play they either play a weaker version of some other list with ally or that the ally system makes it so their faction is always on the back burner as rules fixs go.

Am also sure that a lot of DE player don't like the fact that they have to start their army, by buying an eldar codex and a farseer.

They've been frowned on since they were first introduced in 6th.

Of course if anyone does complain, just make your "normal" marines Deathwatch. If they complain they aren't painted right, just say they are super under-cover Deathwatch that are actually double-agent Alpha Legion who are actually quintiple agent Dark Angels.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
Of course if anyone does complain, just make your "normal" marines Deathwatch. If they complain they aren't painted right, just say they are super under-cover Deathwatch that are actually double-agent Alpha Legion who are actually quintiple agent Dark Angels.

My whole army is WYSIWYG but painted as Scythes of the emperor, every squad leader has a Deathwatch pad to represent the leader conferring his experience to his squad all the characters also have dethwatch pads to show the company are all ex Deathwatch

You're perfectly within your rights to use models painted as Scythes of the Emperor as DEATHWATCH units. Paint doesn't define rules, you could have your dudes painted as the most lore-accurate Blood Angels for all the rules care, you can still use them as DEATHWATCH. If anything what you describe would be perfectly reasonable "RaI" to use Deathwatch datasheets to represent your units. If anyone does complain about WYSIWYG, just remind them that WYSIWYG hasn't been an actual rule for a very long time and is not a rule in 8th.

I feel that as long as you don't take things "too far", anyone objecting to your army probably wouldn't be fun to play against for some other reason anyway. Now, "too far" is entirely subjective. Personally, I would make any models from different forces clearly distinguishable. Don't have two identical units with different rules.

Allying is fine depending on how far you want to take it. Deathwatch and Codex Marines is a very long way from tournement play so anyone complaining about that is just being a bit of a dick. The loyal 32, some Knights and Smashcaptains would be completely different thing.

This forum is not the place to get a consensus on if something is frowned upon or not. It is only a cesspool of whining about literally everything that is 40k. I would recommend talking to the people you are actually going to play with on a regular basis and see what they like and dislike.

That being said I think allies are fun and fluffy. Even the good "Broken" combos are pretty fluffy in my opinion and make for some neat looking armies.

While the above poster has a valid point, what the internet thinks is a lot less important than the people your playing with.

Some codex's have been rebalanced by GW based on tournament data with allies, so they don't balance well when played mono.

Additionally with the rules 2 big FAQ's codex's and CA2017 in play and shortly to be joined by CA2018 the balance and rules have always been jumping around.

At this point their is a number of different idea's as to how 40k should be played. Some groups won't even blink if you brought a full tournament style multi codex army, while others will throw a fit about you power gaming for wanting to prop up marines etc with some FW units. You esentially need to find out what the local community play and if you can fit in or find another group that plays a style of 40k you will enjoy.

Only way to find out is to go and ask the people that frequent the club in Norwich. I don't think allies in general are frowned upon, but rather those cases in which allied detachments result in an unwarranted power spike.

You shouldn't compromise on what you want to play based on what some random strangers on the internet want to make you believe is acceptable. These things need to be figured out on a smaller scale, namely between you and your opponents.

Like any mechanic in 40k, check with your local group and try to not be a jerk. Allies are not inherently broken, but like any thing you can do in any game, if you want to break things it's an easy way to do so for the three (four sorata) mega factions that can do so.

Yeah well the plan was that I have a 1750 pt mono Deathwatch list painted as Scythes of the emperor all WYSIWYG with Deathwatch pads and painted up with white Aquila's showing they are from the 1st company. I was going to use a small 250 pt detachment of normal marines basically entirely of scouts to sit on objectives and give me some board control but they will be painted as 10th company!

There's constant whining about "soup" on this forum, but this forum isn't a good reflection of the hobby from my experience. Of all the games I've played in 8th, I've had 1 opponent using allies (outside of knights + others lists) and it was consistent with the lore, was a very fluffy list, and was a fun game.

If you like allies, use them. If you're doing it to min/max and stomp your opponent - naturally, people who are just out to have fun won't like that. If you just want to build a flavorful list with some variety, it's unlikely anyone's going to gripe. On the flip side, if you're playing with someone who's competitive, they may be fine with a min/max list and us it as a reason to try their most competitive build.

Basically, just do what you want. When someone else buys your army for you, they can tell you how to play it. Until then, its yours to do with as you please.

Like ALWAYS depends on your local

I don't think anyone is going to get upset about playing against a Deathwatch/Marines army.

Allies are in a weird place right now.

If you play Imperial or Chaos, you probably think the allies rules are fine. If you play Xenos, you're probably salty because allies options are either very limited or non-existent.

There are essentially 7 factions in the game right now.
1. Imperium
2. Chaos
3. Aeldari
4. Tyranids
5. Necrons
6. T'au
7. Orks

The bottom 3 factions don't have access to allies at all. Tyranids can only ally with GSC. Aeldari can only ally with other flavors of Aeldari. Chaos has a lot of ally options. Imperium has a TON of ally options.

Only if you only play with plebs who who only forge the narrative

If I'd arranged a game against you, didn't know you from Adam, and you showed up with this army, I wouldn't bat an eye and would be happy to play against you.

hobojebus wrote:They've been frowned on since they were first introduced in 6th.

Allies in 40k existed in 2nd. Ed..

It also depends on the army you play. Space marines are more competitive with allies but they have a huge amount of units available and they can be played even quite well on their own in any local meta. AM, drukhari, tyranids, SW, DA, BA, Craftworlds, specific chaos factions, ecc are all ok without allies, they have tons of options to toy with anyway.

"Armies" like deathwatch or harlequins have only a few options available instead and if their codex doesn't end up pretty solid, like the clowns' one, they're basically forced to take in some allies.