Allied forces etiquette?

[Katharon]

My local store just had one "golden rule" that we tended to follow: "Don't be a douche."

[madlants]

Chaos by its very nature makes allies very difficult.

Waaaaah? (not to be confused with WAAAAAAGH!) Chaos is one of the MOST ally friendly armies, because so many races can be corrupted by Chaos, and Chaos takes so many forms. Just look at Ork allies. They could be corrupted orks (which are canon), they could be "counts as" mutants using Ork rules, or they could be hired ork mercenaries. Chaos ain't picky!

As for the bigger question, I love the IDEA of allies, but the execution is a bit dodgy. As it is, the allies list seems to be more concerned with catering to power gamers than fluff gamers. Some armies ('rines of all flavors) get a crapton of options, even when it's not really fluff justified, while others (nids, SoBs) got the shaft. Since GW is about whatever sells the most models, I guess c'est la vie. I really don't see why they couldn't let Tyranids take IG allies in some form, to throw a bone to the Genestealer Cultist fans. And having Black Templar be chummy with Eldar and Tau while not having Sisters as Battle Brothers is ridiculous. They're emprah lovin' fanatics!

That said, I'm approaching 1850 pts. with a Daemon/IG army, so I can't complain too much. As a big Lost and the Damned fan, the allies list has been good to me. I'm just happy to be able field a legal army again! But I still feel the 'stealer cultists pain, cause I've been there.

[dirkspair]

I like the idea of allies but like anything it will be abused, and that is something we just have to deal with. I think it is great to finally field proper demons with a CSM army and there are a few cool things in the SM codex that I incorporated into my BA army, like a scout squad led by Telion. It is nice to see people make an effort to fit allies into their army though instead of just slapping stuff together for maximal pwnage.

[chicop76]

It depends. I have problems with Tau and Marines allied together or a Farsight army allied with Orcs. However I have no problems with DA allying with Space Marines. DA seemed to be screwed and taking marine allies fixes their codex up.

All in all I haven't really seen really devestating over the top allainces, CSM and Daemons is rather good alliance. However when using allies some armies really suffer like Tau and Eldar. Tau losses shooting for something else for example. It makes the army more rounded, but it takes away from it's shooting. Like a guard an Ig alliance would seem good, but you are watering down one army with the other.

Which people start takint alliances for key units. Besides Inquisition you don't have many allied elements where the key units would really help out unless it is an HQ and Troop. The restrictions of 1 of each other choice for troop really tone down potential op alliances, like only one Riptide.

That being said joining your faction as a ally is rather bad. For example with Tau they can ally with OShova which can be rather overbearing, or marines with marines for example. I haven't heard too many complaints about eldar with eldar. I think allying with yourself is where it becomes over bearing.

All that being said I wouldn't hesitate to ally, even though I rarely do besides with guard and sisters.