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Rather out of the blue, the new Support Formation Rules , starting with Legio Cybernetica Support Formations for Astartes, Solar and Titan/Knight primary armies, were released on WarCom.

Basically they are a new type of Formation, that you can take one of, for each normal Primary Army List Formation you take. They are from another faction bit do not count as Allies, meaning you can take these AND Allies. Each one is locked to one Main Faction being able to take it, e.g. Astartes csn take Brethren of Iron.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/kxdnixtt/heresy-thursday-enlist-the-support-of-mighty-battle-automata-with-free-legions-imperialis-cybernetica-rules/

Did not see this coming, another way to circumvent the max 30% allies rule.

But the ones released look interesting and mainly very thematic, and will bring variation to army composition.

My fav is the really thematic Brethren of Iron formation, also allowing scope to convert a Forge Lord or Praevian. ?

Generally they are a bit weaker than taking Mech as Allies for the other factions, as most of them can't take a Magos/Tech Priest (they lack Cybernetica Cortex) for that juicy Battlesmith 5++ extra damage mitigation roll.

The Knight Primary one that allows Knights to Outflank together with Vulturax looks good. Forward deployment with Vorax too, but Knight Primaries can get that now anyway with one of the Formations in Rose of Dark Mech. Knights, being extremely overcosted, need all the help they can get until they get Errata'ed so I think this is good.

What do you think we'll see for future Support Formations?

I am hoping a thematic Imperial Navy AA/Air Company comes for Mechanicum (who lack AA/Air). With some limitations and slightly worse off than taking them via Solar Allies.

I’m liking the concept.

The Marine one gives you a taste of the Mechanicum and its limitations, though with Tactical Marines and that I can get a decent number of Cortex Controllers in play.

Certainly it’s motivation enough for me to pick up a box or three of the Automata when they come out. And just like their big brothers? A way to get some in-game experience of using Mechanicum, without having to buy an entire army first.

According to crablezworths comments in a thread on reddit support formations arent limited or restricted at all



I think its a great concept, good way of imlementing cross-faction units. Hopefully mechanicum gets access to Avengers through one in the future.

Also helps fix AT armies

chaos0xomega wrote:
According to crablezworths comments in a thread on reddit support formations arent limited or restricted at all



I think its a great concept, good way of imlementing cross-faction units. Hopefully mechanicum gets access to Avengers through one in the future.

Also helps fix AT armies

Can't comment on what c wrote or didn't, but I can comment on what it says in their rules. (Read them) They are unlimited in theoretical total number, but it's one per ordinary Formation you take. So 1:1 max.

What you can and can't take in each is restricted by slots and further limitations e.g. Supportunits with Cybernetica Cortex only (ie Automata) in some.

Agree about the rest of your post.

These look really interesting. Am I reading this right that I can now include titans in any army without using up allied allowances? If I use one of the Titan support formations, ditto Knights.

Knight and Titan ones appear to be for Mechanicum only.

@General Kroll: No, some of them they consist of Mechanicum mixed w Knights/Titans but are FOR and can only be taken by Titan/Knight Primary Army lists. I.e Collegia Titanica & Knight Household armies from RotDM.

The Knight/Titan Army lists are in Rise of the Dark Mechanicum, and there you can take them as Primary not as Allies. So that's why their Support Formations can also include Knights or Titans.

Lots of Mechanicum (Non Support) Army List Formations also allows you to take Knights & Titans as part of that formation rather than as Allies though.


@Mad Doc: see above. One Support formation for each Primary Faction. Only one is for Mechanicum Army List.

They are named
Support Formation:<Primary Army List that can take it>


Everyone needs to read the Support Formation Rules on P1 of the PDF..

Ah cool!

Thanks for the clarifications guys.

I really like these rules, this makes Mechanicum armies distinct from the other factions as they can pile on them titans over the 30% allocation limit. Sounds fluffy to me

They’ve definitely opened up the game somewhat.

Of course. As with any New Thing added to a game, even one as young as Legions Imperialis, the risk is used and issued without care, they could break the game.

Thankfully no sign of that thus far, as it’s all fairly modest and primarily there for flavour over power.

I see a low risk of additional Titans breaking the game, when they are overcosted and die rather easily to much cheaper units. They're thematic and cool AF so bring them on.

It’s not so much Titans, as Support Detachments as a concept which could break things.

Having mucked about building a few theoretical lists, army selection of LI is surprisingly restrictive. Not just limited slots, but to get the most out of a Formation, your picks do need to lean into its special rules.

For instance, Mechanicum Automata bring a lot of Light AT to the table, at the cost of limited Orders and the ongoing need to manage your Cortex Controllers to offset said limited Orders. So if I want to benefit for the smorgasbord of Light AT (and pretty impressive CAF) I normally need to go for Allies, and build in a Cortex network.

With the Support Detachment? I get pretty handy further Astartes Infantry which come with a Cortex Controller, and as many Automata as I can shoehorn in.

So that one I’d say is fairly well balanced. But there is the risk that hypothetical future Support Detachments could bring benefit, and no downside.

I hope that doesn’t happen like, but it is a concern.

I really like the idea but the lack of transports really kills them for me, going to really struggle to get those 8" guns in range without.

 ingtaer wrote:
I really like the idea but the lack of transports really kills them for me, going to really struggle to get those 8" guns in range without.

I'd say that's good that they are a bit limited when taken as support formations compared to taking Mech Formations as Allies. If you want the full goodies incl Tech Priests & Transports you have to take them from your Allies allocation. Could have been a bit unlimited and broken otherwise.

Fully agreed, they are so much fun and fluffy but I wonder how much use they are going to be seeing. I have a spare 300pts in my list and sadly taking the support formation is just such a handicap, maybe if they were allowed a single SM support detachment it might change things or be given tarantulas etc.

That said though the Knight and Legio ones are just pure win, they should have been in the book.

Nothing but kind words for them.

It was very disappointing, on lauch, to see Legions Imperialis be reduced to just another game of "pick your faction, and a bit of soup.", as Epic is the one game which is capable to zoom out to see a whole potpourri of forces complenting each other in a battle of epic proportions. This is a big step towards that as we can now comfortably show at least three different factions in a single, grand army. Even better if the other side of the table shows even more factions taking part!

I honestly cannot think of anything more...well, epic! Well, maybe JB Fletcher and Cagney & Lacy would be the most epic team up of all time, but we can't expect miracles from Games Workshop now, can we!

They could expand the game with sister of silence, custodus and the chaos powers (demons).

Chaos Demons...the wait is long. So very long...

To echo SamusDrake’s post? These, along with shiny brand new units debuting in epic scale first are a positive sign that GW “gets it”.

Epic wasn’t popular because Tiny Models, Big Battles alone. Instead, it was the scale where 40K was properly populated with tanks and vehicles of all sizes at a time when 28mm costs and sales volumes were impractical for many vehicles.

With these? I can now blend three of the four factions into a single army.

Main army, Support Detachment, Allies. And I’d end up with a force which not only looks, but plays, quite differently to a purist approach.

And due to how Marines, Solar Auxilia and Mechanicum deal with the issuing of Orders, such a blended army might well have access to potent combos, but they can be a sod to properly manage on the field, which mitigates any nasty combos. Spesh if I can Kill Your Command to heavily neuter Solar Auxilia and Mechanicum units.

Not to mention this is a positive thing for collectors who play on the side.

I just find it funny thaty it took them so long to reach the starting point of Epic 40k

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
To echo SamusDrake’s post?
With these? I can now blend three of the four factions into a single army.

Main army, Support Detachment, Allies. And I’d end up with a force which not only looks, but plays, quite differently to a purist approach.

And due to how Marines, Solar Auxilia and Mechanicum deal with the issuing of Orders, such a blended army might well have access to potent combos, but they can be a sod to properly manage on the field, which mitigates any nasty combos. Spesh if I can Kill Your Command to heavily neuter Solar Auxilia and Mechanicum units.

Not to mention this is a positive thing for collectors who play on the side.

Quoted for truth.