help a new tau player please!

[Kyle Steven Lamb]

SO i just got into warhammer recently and i built an army but i am habing problems understanding formations and how they apply with my army.

I got the infiltration cadre and purchased a broadside, devilfish, xv8 crissis team, and a fire warrior squad. As I understand it i have the infiltration cadre formation rules applied to the pieces from the box set and not the others i added to my army. I am looking to purchase the retaliation cadre box set and I read some where that they have their own formation rules. I was wondering if I was able to use both sets of formation rules at the same time or not and if I am not understanding a core concept here at all.

Thank you Very much.

[Kirsten]

to be honest I have been playing nearly twenty years and I find all this formations stuff weird too :p

you can have multiple formations in an army, and each formation will benefit from its' own rules and bonuses, but not those of other formations.

[Jewelfox]

What Kirsten said. Just keep in mind, in order to get any formation bonuses all of your models have to be part of one formation / detachment or another. So that means the loose models you have there need to be organized in some way, like by making one of the XV8s your commander and forming a Combined Arms Detachment out of them (see 40k: The Rules).

[grimmas]

SO i just got into warhammer recently and i built an army but i am habing problems understanding formations and how they apply with my army.

I got the infiltration cadre and purchased a broadside, devilfish, xv8 crissis team, and a fire warrior squad. As I understand it i have the infiltration cadre formation rules applied to the pieces from the box set and not the others i added to my army. I am looking to purchase the retaliation cadre box set and I read some where that they have their own formation rules. I was wondering if I was able to use both sets of formation rules at the same time or not and if I am not understanding a core concept here at all.

Thank you Very much.

A unit can only be in one formation at time. You can use more than one formation at a time or multiples of the same formation but you can't share units between formations. So if each box set gives all the units for each of their respective formations you are good to go. The formation special rules only apply to the units in the formation.

[Katharon]

Welcome to 40K!

That said, I believe it's better to stick to the standard Combined Arms Detachment, which is created by using the Army Force Organization Chart that you find in your army codex and in the rulebook.

[Jewelfox]

Welcome to 40K!

That said, I believe it's better to stick to the standard Combined Arms Detachment, which is created by using the Army Force Organization Chart that you find in your army codex and in the rulebook.

The CAD's usually a good place to start, but if you're already buying models in formation-specific boxes why not use them that way? Especially since they might not contain an HQ model.

[Mike X]

to be honest I have been playing nearly twenty years and I find all this formations stuff weird too :p

Same here except I've only been in the hobby for 10 years.


That said, I believe it's better to stick to the standard Combined Arms Detachment, which is created by using the Army Force Organization Chart that you find in your army codex and in the rulebook.

Also note that by choosing a formation's special rules, you're trading away the Combined Arms Detachment (CAD) special rules: Ideal Mission Commander and Objective Secured.

[sebi81]

It is a little complicated at the moment...

A battle forged army consists of detachments. The number of detachments is not limited, bit at least one is necessary.

Detachments can be:

1 Combined arms or allied detachments (rulebook)

2 special detachments in a codex (for example Masque detachment in codex harlequins)

3 a formation

4 a detachment of formations (for example decurion detachment in codex necrons)

The detachments in 1 and 2 consist of a certain amount of units from certain slots of the force organisation chart mostly with minimum and maximum restrictions. For example minimum 1 HQ and 2 troops/ maximum 2 HQ, 6 troops, 3 elites, heavy and assault. In this detachments you can choose the units you use for every slot

A formation consists of certain units which are stated in the formation rules. Some fotmations allow to choose for example 0-1 or 2-5 of certain units but others restrict even the number of models in one unit. Some formations consist of other formations (for example the new genestealer cult formation)

The newer decurion style detachments vonsist of formations which are divided in usually core, auxiliary and command choices. To form such a detachment you have to choose certain amounts of such choices. Mostly one core, at least one auxiliary and 0-1 command

Every formation is its own detachment as long it is not part of another formation or detachment. Rules of a detachment only apply to the units of this detachment (detachments of formations give their rules to the units of the formations they consist of). Rules of a formation only apply to the units of this formation.

With your units you could build a army of three detachments: a infiltration cadre formation as its own detachment, a retaliation cadre formation as its own detachment and a combined arms detachment as its own detachment consisting of the rest of your models (needing at least one HQ and 2 troops ). Every unit can only use the rules of its own detachment/formation.

[Charistoph]

The newer decurion style detachments consist of formations which are divided in usually core, auxiliary and command choices. To form such a detachment you have to choose certain amounts of such choices. Mostly one core, at least one auxiliary and 0-1 command

One caveat, not all of the Choices in the Decurion-style detachments are actually Formations, just most. In fact, there is usually at least one or two Choices that are just a list of units that will fill the Choice slot and cannot operate as a detachment independently.

I do not have the Tau campaign books to list off the specific Choices that fall under this category, though. In the case of the Necrons, this is the Star God, Deathmarks, and Flayed Ones Choices. In the case of Codex Marines' Gladius Strike Force, the Strike Force Command Choice is not a Formation. And so on.