Formation Rules

[Gleipnir]

Sadly I keep seeing a misinterpretation of this rule in numerous postings, most recently in Goatboys review of the Tyranid Vanguard dataslate.

He indicates that because Genestealers are part of a formation they are no longer Troops, this is 100% false I will explain why.

The rules for Formations clearly state;

A Formation presents a collection of two or more units that fight alongside one another in a particular way. When you choose an army, you can take a Formation as a special form of Detachment. Unless otherwise stated, you can take any number of Formations in your army, and each is considered to be a completely separate Detachment, regardless of how many units make it up. Each Formation will tell you what units you need to take and what, if any, options or restrictions apply to the units that make up that Formation. The Army List Entries for each unit in the Formation (the units’ profiles, points values, unit types, unit composition, special rules, battlefield role etc.) can either be found in the codex corresponding to the Faction on the datasheet, or elsewhere in the dataslate itself.

The key wording here is battlefield role, the first page of every 6th edition codex Army List defines battlefield role as HQ, Troops, Dedicated Transport, Elites, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support. The Tyranid Codex defines it thusly.

The Tyranids army list is split into five sections: HQ, troops, elites, fast attack and heavy support. All of the broods, monsters and unique creatures in the army are placed into one of these categories depending upon their role on the battlefield.

This wording is consistent thru all the 6th edition codices.

So by definition unless specified otherwise units that were troops in the corresponding codex remain troops. Keep in mind they are still treated as a separate detachment though example follows.

If we were talking about say a formation that included Chosen and you were playing using the rules for Black Legion, no they would not be troops since the Chosen in the formation are a separate detachment and the rule that changes them from Elites to Troops is only conferred to the Black Legion detachment.

I hope this helps to clarify this for any that may have been confused.

[Katharon]

Agreed. Just because a unit of Troops, Elites, Fast Attack, etc, are part of a Formation that exists outside of the normal FoC does not mean that they stop being Troops, Elites, Fast Attack, etc.

Also, a little thing really, I'd change your second sentence to read: "...because Genestealers are part of a formation..." and not how it currently sits. "Apart" means separate -- and I'm sure you just didn't have time to edit that part out. ;)

[Timmytimmy]

Saying the Genestealer formations are not troop is a tad off.... The dataslate(iPad atleast) has the under troops! So they are troops! If they where not to count as troops then they wouldn't be listed as such in the Dateslate.

[Demonus]

so if I play a CSM army with Abaddon as my HQ, and Bring Cypher and a Squad of Chosen with him, are they troops?

[Gleipnir]

so if I play a CSM army with Abaddon as my HQ, and Bring Cypher and a Squad of Chosen with him, are they troops?

No the Chosen that came with Cypher would be considered Elites, but any Chosen you selected as apart of the primary detachment with Abaddon would be Troops

You could however always select Chosen as troops from the primary detachment and select Cypher as an Allied HQ choice and attach him to the squad of Chosen and give them all Outflank, but the Fallen Champions formation would not be available with Chosen for Troops

[Demonus]

Hmm are you sure? Cause the ruling states:

"In a primary detachment that includes abaddon, units of chosen are troops instead of elite"

Well if I have abaddon in my primary attachment, I satisfy the requirements of the statement above. I can see it working either way, I am just stating that it could be read differently.

[Pssyche]

The Formation is not part of your Primary Detachment.
Therefore any Chosen that are part of the Formation are not part of the Primary Detachment that includes Abaddon.

[Blood Shadow]

The Formation is not part of your Primary Detachment.
Therefore any Chosen that are part of the Formation are not part of the Primary Detachment that includes Abaddon.

This is exactly how I read it too.....Cypher's Chosen are not part of your primary detachment....this also means if you take Cypher as a lone ally detachment he can't ride in Primary detachment transports either right?

[Gleipnir]

This is exactly how I read it too.....Cypher's Chosen are not part of your primary detachment....this also means if you take Cypher as a lone ally detachment he can't ride in Primary detachment transports either right?

That would be correct, the allied transports from the same detchament codex book had to even have a special rule added to the Storm Wing Dataslate to permit it to transport units, since RAW would forbid it otherwise

[Gleipnir]

Hmm are you sure? Cause the ruling states:

"In a primary detachment that includes abaddon, units of chosen are troops instead of elite"

Well if I have abaddon in my primary attachment, I satisfy the requirements of the statement above. I can see it working either way, I am just stating that it could be read differently.

Key wording was primary detachment, formations are "separate" detachments if the rule said all Chosen in an Army that included Abaddon then it would change their battlefield role

[inquisitormack]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but can you take a formation as your primary detachment? For example, could I run both Militarius Tempestus formations & nothing else?

[Urtyfang]

Yes they're troops, but how did this come up?

I usually just see that in regards to controlling objectives. It's not that they are no longer troops, but that to be a scoring unit, you need to be a "unit that come from the troops selection of the force organization chart."

[The Emperor]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but can you take a formation as your primary detachment? For example, could I run both Militarius Tempestus formations & nothing else?

Formations can never be Primary Detachments, and you have to have a Primary Detachment.

As for Formations in general, the units in those Formations retain their Battlefield Role. So if you take a Tau Empire Firebase Support Cadre, then those Broadsides still count as Heavy Support, so in Big Guns Never Tire they're both Scoring Units and give up 1 Victory Point when they die. They also follow the general rules for Allies, so they react to the Primary Detachment and other Detachments in the army according to the alliance rules.

[Gleipnir]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but can you take a formation as your primary detachment? For example, could I run both Militarius Tempestus formations & nothing else?

Sadly no, to all your questions, you still require a primary detachment and the minimum required FOC units, usually a HQ unit as your Warlord and 2 Troops. Now you could always be sneaky and circumvent much of that expense by simply selecting an Inquisitor as your Primary Detachment and Warlord as that would only require the single FOC HQ selection that would count as your warlord and then include the 2 Tempestus formations.