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Right so in Sigmar 40K, or whatever the hell game 40K is turning into, we're supposed to have 3 ways to play a structure system for tournaments, open play for idiots, and narative for people who want to try to scrape out some semblance of enjoyment out of the abominable mess that is 8th edition.

I will be trying to play with a combination of structured and narative. So you have to have an army as close as possible to equal points value to you opponent/opponents army, while having a boost or three for keeping it fluffy.

But then the new rules for Independant characters got farted into existance and any hope for fluffy gaming went out the window.

I'm sure to your despair and disbelief that "Ok if I write this down I have to accept that it's reall, and I feel a little dirty even thinking about it. Right here goes" Independant characters cannot join units.

What the ? What kind of dog's bull is this?

OK this does not make the game more streamlind or more balanced. ICUs were not a probllem in games where the comblned iq ofthe participants exceeded 20.

What this does meen however is that you can't play narative games. I shall now exit rant mode and enter examination and explanation mode.

In the novels from the black library, the army Codex: and the many video games one thing is abundantly clear, the importantance and near necessity of command squads. Archons always have their court, imperial guard feld a near infinite number of platoon or battalion comand sections and the imperial space have their company and chapter command squads. Even the more disorganised and unruly fations group their leaders with some sort of support unit. A hive tyrant has it's tyrant guard, a warboss has his nobs. It is a common practice in every faction in the 40K universe and more importantly it has always been so.

Now that seems to be a pretty major problem if you want to play fluffy right? Whell it gets worse.

One of the other promises that GW made was that every single model currently in the game would be relevant and usable with the new rules system,that is not possible with the restrictions against ICs joining units. The only way you are allowed to take Sslyth, Lhamaea, Medusae or Ur-Ghuls in a dark eldar force is as part of the court of the archon unit which can only be taken as a retinue for the army's archon. The Tyranids can't use their tyrant guard and hive guard as they are attached to a hive tyrant. although The Changeling and Karanak from the Chaos Daemons faction no longer have to be attached to a unit of horrors or a unit of flesh hounds respectively, they are just to week to be effective or survivable on their own.

The Ultramarines are probably the most glaringly obvious example of where this rule is utter crap especially from anarative perspective.

The codex astartes requires that when an entire battle company goes to war their command contingent "all ICs" be fielded as a sigle company command squad. Now there are different degrees to which each chapter of adeptus astartes follow the codex: but most follow it very closely.

The Ultramarines and their successors however follow it to the letter. For them the codex is more than a collective of military doctrine, it is their bible. To deviate from its format even remotely is considered by the chaplains and war priests of Ultramar to be heresy. This is becouse the codex was not penned by some scribe tactician of the astra militarum. It is the spiritual and militarary law as written by Roboute Guilliman the supreme lord commander and primarch of the Ultramarines and to disobey his righteous teachings is a crime most heinous.

So you see it is impossible to play a narative game as Ultramarines and not include ICUs. I mean GW are really blowing their own balls off here. So dumb.

What about Gaunt's Ghosts or Colonel Schaefer's Last Chancers?

Can someone please call exterminatus on the asinine morons in the GW rules bunker and replace them with creative intelligent human beings?

Okay, was there a rule proposal in that anywhere, or is this just a rant?

I really have no idea what you're on about. ICs are still there, and if anything it's more fluffy since they're not cowering behind their own troops. They're marching valiantly alone, in the midst of a raging battle. I am hype about having my Warboss just wading through enemy lines, swarms of orks on his sides.

There doesn't seem to anything here to discuss - and there's probably no way this thread stays on track and with the rules of the site...