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Does anybody else feel that the rules around allied factions this edition are pretty arbitrary and inconsistent?

I'm a Chaos player, who has traditionally played Tzeentch soups. That option is still pretty open to me this edition; alliances in Chaos are insanely easy. I could theoretically choose Chaos Space Marines as my Army Faction, running Lucius the Eternal with 6 Noise Marine units, then ally in 6 Khorne Berzerkers from World Eaters, 6 Rubric Marines from Thousand Sons, and 6 Plague Marines from Death Guard, followed by an allied Chaos Knight, and then 25% of my points in allied Daemons, for a total of 5 different codices in one Army.

My brother, however, being a longtime Blood Angels player who was just starting to consider expanding into another Chapter, cannot run a Furioso Dreadnought in the same Army as a squad of Deathwing Terminators, because apparently, Space Marines with different paintjobs find it harder to get along than famous rivals in the Great Game like Nurgle and Tzeentch.

Excepting the Ynnari options for the Ældari, and one rule in Genestealer Cults, xenos players are almost completely cut off from alliances altogether.

I understand the desire to cut back on the "run my army, but also take that one overpowered unit that's dominating the meta from another army," problem, but I think it's been dealt with pretty poorly. I'm not sure what I'd suggest instead; does anyone agree and have any ideas?

The rules for Chaos and Imperium are pretty equal:

Chaos has Daemons while Imperium has Agents of the Imperium

Chaos has Chaos Knights while Imperium has Imperial Knights

Chaos's access to the Cult Battleline units is a holdover from days of yore. They don't want to produce the units twice, one for CSM and one for the Legion, so you end up with slightly nerfed versions as an add-on to your CSM army. But it is literally 1 datasheet out of a Codex of units and options you get access to.

Yeah I would not consider being able to take cult troops allying; they're CSM elites that have only been moved to their own books very recently. A CSM army is still completely incapable of allying in an Exalted Sorcerer as a Thousand Sons army is incapable of allying in a Chaos Lord.

Berzerkers, Rubrics, Noise Marines, and Plague Marines are not "Allies" for CSM. They're just members of [INSERT LEGION/RENEGADE WARBAND] that have sworn allegiance to the appropriate Chaos God, and received the "full benefits".

And as we all know, the Imperium's strict "no-innovations" policy and slow, hidebound decline in the absence of the Primarchs means that "murdery dreadnoughts with claws that go brr" are Blood Angels only.

I mean, to start building those, a Chapter forge would have to either steal a closely-held secret STC fragment or INNOVATE.

I mean, you might as well create some whole new class of Marine complete with a full line of innovative new technologies if you are just going to throw out the old lor- wait a minute

My brother, however, being a longtime Blood Angels player who was just starting to consider expanding into another Chapter, cannot run a Furioso Dreadnought in the same Army as a squad of Deathwing Terminators, because apparently, Space Marines with different paintjobs find it harder to get along than famous rivals in the Great Game like Nurgle and Tzeentch.

All Marine players already have access to a vast bloated range PLUS other Imperial forces...such as Knights and Agents.

If we are going to pretend that certain Chapters are super special and unique compared to the other 990 Chapters and say the 1000s of Imperial Guard regiments then they have to have some downsides...

On the plus side for marines, unless you are using the chapter specific units, you can mix freely.

For example if my deathwatch kill teams found a xenos issues they needed extra support, they could borrow some tanks from my Ultras as backup. Just as long as the named characters stay home, legal on the tabletop.

Scion of Fate wrote:

My brother, however, being a longtime Blood Angels player who was just starting to consider expanding into another Chapter, cannot run a Furioso Dreadnought in the same Army as a squad of Deathwing Terminators, because apparently, Space Marines with different paintjobs find it harder to get along than famous rivals in the Great Game like Nurgle and Tzeentch.

That's a problem with GW creating several Terminator datasheets instead of using the Deathwing one as the standard. No, Assault Terminators and Tactical Terminators do not need different entries. Deathwing entry proved you can fit everything just fine.

EviscerationPlague wrote:

Scion of Fate wrote:

My brother, however, being a longtime Blood Angels player who was just starting to consider expanding into another Chapter, cannot run a Furioso Dreadnought in the same Army as a squad of Deathwing Terminators, because apparently, Space Marines with different paintjobs find it harder to get along than famous rivals in the Great Game like Nurgle and Tzeentch.

That's a problem with GW creating several Terminator datasheets instead of using the Deathwing one as the standard. No, Assault Terminators and Tactical Terminators do not need different entries. Deathwing entry proved you can fit everything just fine.

Nah, I think Terminator and Assault Terminator works as two seperate datasheets (assuming based on history) they don't want generic Terminators to be able to mix and match assult and shootinantor loadouts. That's what has made the Deathwing Terminators "special". We don't need a Primaris Ancient and a BGV Ancient though.