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Hello Dakka,

I'm returning to 40K after a looong break (5th?).

I've got the rules, multiple army books and a great collection of models.

With all the different army variations, I'm a bit confused and could use some clarity. I understand Battle Forged vs. Unbound, but the FOC, formations and alternate formations are throwing me off.

So a CAD is standard FOC 2,3,6,3,3 + Allies, Fort and LoW for a standard army.

Then there are alternate formations such as demi-companies and the FoC in the Eldar book consisting of multiple formations.

Assuming it's within the agreed upon points value for the game, am I correctly understanding that I may field an Eldar army composed of a standard FOC with Allies, building, LoW AND the additional Eldar book formations?

OR,

I can field a CAD and its attachments as a single army.
I can field the Eldar codex alternate builds as a single army.

OR,

Some variation?


Have Forgeworld army lists, such as the Eldar Corsair list, become more "acceptable" within the community?

Thanks for any clarity you can provide.

An army consists of any number of 'detachments', at least one of which must be designated as a 'Primary Detachment'.

A 'detachment' can be the bog-standard CAD you know and love, (2,3,6,3,3 + Fort + LOW), it may be an Allied Detachment (1,1,2,1,1), it may be a Formation (which has specific units in specific quantities but gives more significant benefits). Some armies have their own detachments, some armies have meta-formations (called 'Decurions' by the community after the first one released) that are effectively a detachment composed of formations.

Forge World rules have become more acceptable since 5th, I think, not in the least because the balance in the core game has been thrown off far enough and consistency across armies has been tightened enough that they're not out-of-context problems in the same way they used to be.

As an Eldar player (I'm assuming from your post) you will find that this is either a fantastic time to have pointy ears since we're top of the meta, or a terrible time to have pointy ears since you will be rapidly labeled a cheese-monkeying *bleep* for using your Codex by the unfriendly, casual, or bitter. Generally you should avoid full scatterbike squads and Wraithknights, and severely limit Wraithguard in a casual setting, I can't give more detailed comments without knowing your local environment.

When playing Eldar you can build a classic CAD army the way you're used to, and add formations from the Codex on top of the normal CAD limits. Allied detachments (whether the generic 'Allied detachment' in the rulebook or a special detachment or formation from that army) are another entity taken on top of any CADs or formations you've already taken from the Craftworld book. You could theoretically take the meta-formation and units from outside it, that's usually impractical given the cost of the core requirements for the meta-formation.

If you want to play Corsairs be aware that the Fleet Raiding Company detachment is a complicated and difficult tool and you should probably start off playing them as a CAD until you've adjusted to this edition.

Other things to keep in mind are that vehicles have hull points now (three glances will destroy a Wave Serpent without ever touching the damage table), psychic powers are more random and massively more OP (an Invisible unit is only ever hit on 6s by anything and can't be targeted by blast or template weapons), and superheavies have hit the table alongside the rest of the game (if your opponent pulls out the Hellstorm template he isn't technically cheating, he's just being a munchkin).

All in all it's a bigger and wackier game, but the spirit is still there and it's a good time to be an elf. Welcome back.

Thanks much for the response.

I haven't dipped my toes in the local meta yet, so not sure what they're doing.

From a friendly perspective, I'm assuming rangers and guardians bring smiles. Scatterbikes, Spides and Wraithknights bring frowns. What about Jet Seer Councils and Reapers?

At this point, I don't really give a care about winning. Just want to reliably get games in with as little frownsies as possible.

JDAM wrote:
Thanks much for the response.

I haven't dipped my toes in the local meta yet, so not sure what they're doing.

From a friendly perspective, I'm assuming rangers and guardians bring smiles. Scatterbikes, Spides and Wraithknights bring frowns. What about Jet Seer Councils and Reapers?

Seer Council formation is a bizzare one, I've tried to run it and it never quite seems to work. Some mixture of not having quite enough points of other stuff to buff and terrible, terrible rolling.

The unit in the regular book won't raise too many eyebrows and Dark Reapers are pretty par-for-the-course unless you're fighting Dark Eldar (whom they hardcounter into oblivion).