When it comes to how I approach the hobby, the actual rules fall low on my level of concern. I enjoy playing the game, but I honestly don’t have every rule memorized nor do I feel compelled to know them all. Simply put, I like to play casually and enjoy opponents who think like me. Sometimes though, I do realize that there are a few rules or scenarios that need to be addressed because they do impact aspects of the hobby that I enjoy, especially army building.
The scenario that I want to address today is how allied units interact with the units in a core army. The fundamental problem with allied units (DH/WH) is that the newer core books, space marines and imperial guard, were not written to account for the older books. This has created the problem of certain combinations of core and allied units being very effective. I have read a few solutions to this problem, but I felt that most of them were more complex than what is really needed. To this end, I am proposing the following house rule that I believe eliminates the majority of abuse while still keeping the ability of allied units to be included within a core army.
“Once the game begins, allied units are only affected by the special rules and abilities of other allied units and not those of the core army. Core army units are not affected by the special rules and abilities of allied units.”
The rule is not perfect, but I believe it goes a long way to remove stuff like Vulcan with SoB and every imperial army including a stripped down inquisitor with 3 mystics just for the free shooting attacks. It does mean that the IG advisor that provides a +1 to reserve rolls would not impact a unit of grey knight terminators, but I feel like that is a small sacrifice. Ultimately, I feel that the rule brings back the original idea of the allied rule, which I believe was two armies sharing a common goal and not a single integrated army.
I agree 100%. I feel that those who use Vulcan with SoB are 'rules lawyering' on ambiguous wording to gain an unfair advantage.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a house rule soon getting implemented in my group. There hadn't been anyone taking that leap until recently for Ard Boyz. I don't mind someone taking an Inquisitor Lord to get the old psychic hood nor Storm Troopers in Chimera for cheap mech Troops.
ReplyDeleteBut I have issue with taking Vulkan and using that to re-roll the Warrior multi-meltas, Storm Trooper meltaguns, and Chimera dual Heavy Flamers.
I faced one of those last night with my fairly competitive mech-Eldar. A bad start and that made it hurt. It was only some lucky mid-game shots that made it only a minor loss for me...
This makes sense, though I would personally have a look at each combination individually as and when they come up (if you're gaming group is small, this can be few and far between). If it's fluffy for the special rule to work, I would probably allow it or, if it's too effective, I'd limit it slightly for example, with the inquisitor, ruling that he may pass his extra shooting turn on to a single infantry or heavy weapons squad/per turn.
ReplyDeleteI also agree whole-heatedly. In this case, it is pretty obvious that this was not the rules as intended, I think.
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