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I haven't really been able to find a solution to this question but as the subject states, how does the rule of 3 affect a unit that can be taken as both a Troop but also an elite?
The units in question specifically are CSM Plague Marines and Rubric Marines.

Could an army list have a vanilla CSM detachment with 3 Plague/Rubric units in the elites slot, but then also have a detachment of Death Guard or Thousand Sons respectively with more Plague/Rubric marines as Troops? (As they would be exempt from the Rule of 3 due to being troops?)

You can have them 3 times as elite, and as many times as you can choose them as troop choice.

I agree with p5freak. However, I think the situations where you would actually want to do this are extremely rare.

I would say you can have them as many times as you want in a troop slot but the data sheet can't feature in your list more than 3 times if it features in an elite slot

In this case, if you took 3 of such units as troops you would no longer be able to take any as elites.

So no thousand sounds detachment with 3 squads and a red corsairs detachment with them in the elite slot.

 Eihnlazer wrote:
In this case, if you took 3 of such units as troops you would no longer be able to take any as elites.

So no thousand sounds detachment with 3 squads and a red corsairs detachment with them in the elite slot.

No?

BRB, Page 280 wrote:With the exception of units with the Troops or Dedicated Transport Battlefield Roles, or units that are added to your army during the battle that cost Reinforcement points, each player can only include the same datasheet in their army three times.

Troops are literally exempted.

Troops are exempted from Rule of 3, but that doesnt mean their datasheets arent part of your army.


You still have 3 datasheets worth of Rubric marines in your army already.

 Eihnlazer wrote:
Troops are exempted from Rule of 3, but that doesnt mean their datasheets arent part of your army.


You still have 3 datasheets worth of Rubric marines in your army already.

If the units are exempted, that means their datasheets for those in the troops section don't count. There has to be a unit to go with the datasheet, so datasheets for exempted units would also be ignored.

Exempted doesnt mean its not there, it just means it doesnt have to follow the rule.

Well, im outnumbered so im not gonna argue too much more on it. Thats just my take.

 BaconCatBug wrote:

 Eihnlazer wrote:
In this case, if you took 3 of such units as troops you would no longer be able to take any as elites.

So no thousand sounds detachment with 3 squads and a red corsairs detachment with them in the elite slot.

No?

BRB, Page 280 wrote:With the exception of units with the Troops or Dedicated Transport Battlefield Roles, or units that are added to your army during the battle that cost Reinforcement points, each player can only include the same datasheet in their army three times.

Troops are literally exempted.

Yes that proves if you have three troops you can't take an elite.

If you have 3 troops and the elite the troops are not breaking the rule but the elite is as the datasheet can't be included in your army more than three times unless it is a troop slot and the elite makes it 4 times including a non troop slot

The check occurs for the non exempted units and measures only the number of times the datasheet is in the army not on the number of times the datasheet is in non troop slots

The three troops don't check their exempted the elite checks and finds 4 - beyond the 3 limits

So 6 troops would be fine their all exempted and so no checks

U02dah4 wrote:

 BaconCatBug wrote:

 Eihnlazer wrote:
In this case, if you took 3 of such units as troops you would no longer be able to take any as elites.

So no thousand sounds detachment with 3 squads and a red corsairs detachment with them in the elite slot.

No?

BRB, Page 280 wrote:With the exception of units with the Troops or Dedicated Transport Battlefield Roles, or units that are added to your army during the battle that cost Reinforcement points, each player can only include the same datasheet in their army three times.

Troops are literally exempted.

Yes that proves if you have three three troops you can't take an elite.

If you have 3 troops and the elite the troops are not breaking the rule but the elite is as the datasheet can't be included in your army more than three times unless it is a troop slot and the elite makes it 4 times including a non troop slot

The check occurs for the non exempted units and measures only the number of times the datasheet is in the army not on the number of times the datasheet is in non troop slots

The three troops don't check their exempted the elite checks and finds 4 - beyond the 3 limits

If the troop units are exempted, you treat them like they're not there. If the units aren't there, then for the purpose of this rule there is no datasheet there either to represent (from the rules standpoint) a non-existant unit. For the rules purpose you have only 1 datasheet, the one for the elite unit.

Technically, Troops and Dedicated Transports are not exempted. The rule doesn't apply to them. You don't even look at how many of them there are in the army because there is no limit.

Essentially, if your army has more than 3 of any datasheet that are HQ, Elite, Fast Attack, Heavy Support, Flyer, Lord of War, Fortification or slotless, your army is illegal.

Another point - a CSM Plague Marine or Rubric Marine in an elite slot is not the same datasheet as one in a troop slot. The Battlefield Role is part of the datasheet, and a difference in Battlefield role makes it a different datasheet.