The Argument For the Double-FOC

AbusePuppy posted an article on Monday arguing that the Double Force Organisation Chart  (2xFOC) is unnecessary, bad for the game and pushes the game past its breaking point in balance.

It was a controversial post, as you would expect when discussing such a controversial change to the game, and caused quite a few arguments both for and against it. This post is a direct response, because frankly there are a lot of different points of view on this and on 3++ you deserve at least two.

Army Ally Plug-ins & Templates

With our recent metatransition posts and the way Allies work, we've been putting out some army list templates rather than exact army lists. Exact army lists have still been and will still be listed and discussed but with the inclusion of Allies, there are so many more potential options around an army core that a template with space for Allies can cut down on the space we need to use. Each of the metatransition posts has been looking at this so far and I'm sure many will in the future as well. However, and I've had some e-mails about this, we often discuss Allies as though there are pre-set templates for them as well. Deathwing, Necron Flyerwing, etc.

Deathwing (Dark Angels) as Allies within light of new Rumors

Dakka

We've just got a nice new batch of Dark Angel rumors in what is supposed to be a two month old playtest copy. Yes, Games Workshop does playtest and yes they do make changes (I'm sure most people say the 36" range Psycannon Grey Knight test leak - complain about Psyfledreads now!). Anyway, currently one of the best Allies out there is Dark Angels thanks to scoring Thunderhammer/Storm Shield Terminators who can take a Cyclone Missile Launcher. Not only are they durable and very scary in combat but they come with good shooting. What's not to love? Their special character is also a decent challenge man and at 130 points + 235 per Deathwing squad (215 base + 20 for CML), you can get three squads + Belial for a paltry 835 points (600 if you don't want the Elite squad).

Marines Allying with Marines; Xenos allying with Xenos

Smells Like Wargaming

Continuing with the Ally theme... one of the common rules of thumb you'll see out there is to ally Marines with Xenos and Xenos with Marines (where possible) to get the best advantages of both general army types. Marines are generally quite durable and have good scoring options in this regard whilst Xenos generally have greater efficiency of firepower, mobility or that something 'different' which people like to pretend means their army is a finesse and if you don't win with the army you're not using it right. Little jab - couldn't resist! This rule of thumb has led to a lot of frowning at Marines allying with Marines or even Xenos allying with Xenos. I'll be quite clear here - it's a good rule of thumb, but it's not a law. There are many good combinations you can generate by looking to ally similar army types together.

Allies in 6th - Finding the balance

One of the biggest changes for 6th edition is of course allies and the repercussions this has in list design and on the tabletop are huge. The hard part in the fledging stages of 6th edition is the latter is going to be informing the former but you cannot have the latter without some form of the the former. Thus you need to be relying on your understanding of game mechanics and past experiences which you can translate to the new edition before you can actually get a good cycle going. Aka educated trial & error and that's what's been going on. Allies makes this a right pain because there are a lot more combinations to consider so let's look at a few things learned so far.

3++ Nerdcast: Episode 2 - 6th edition Allies & Power weapons

So this week we talk about...stuff. The main points of contact here were Allies (~8:00) & Power Weapons (~23:00) though there is a lot of tangental stuff chucked in there as well I'm afraid! Allies are looked at in why they should be brought as well as some of the best armies in which to take allies from. Power weapon types are looked at with a few specific units picked out and discussed. We also look at tournaments, specifically the North American tournament (~3:00) circuit and how the new edition and popoular opinion could affect this over the coming months. There's some fortification discussion in there as well!

Edit: New one to listen to below - hosted on DivShare and levelled the volumes so my voice isn't so overwhelming compared to the others (it's louder at beginning but levels out quickly). Direct download is here though not sure if you need an account. Please let me know if you do so we can work something else out for later episodes.

Thunderfish - Tau & MEQ Terminator Allies

Escape Theory

Let's start looking at some Ally combinations. We'll start with Tau - an army which has some serious perks but serious weaknesses, too. The goal of the Allies is to obviously cover those weaknesses as best as possible whilst minimising the impact upon the perks. Tau have excellent shooting but lack in two key departments - scoring and close combat. Most Space Marine armies have excellent scoring units - they are all MEQs after all and some excellent combat units (TWC, TH/SS, etc.). Can we combine the two and make a half-way decent list?

Making Friends in 6E

So, you want to bring some allies along and... hold on just a second.

TYRANIDS, GET THE F*** OUT RIGHT NOW. NOBODY LIKES YOU. GO AWAY AND GO TO HELL AND DIE IN A STINKY DITCH. YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND NEVER WILL AND ALSO YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO PLAY WITH OUR TOYS MOM SAID SO.

Okay, there we go. So, you want to bring some allies along and are wondering what to do; do you take special character and try something gimmicky? Is it about psychic defense? Which army do you ally with? Are Desperate Allies ever worth it? Etc. The sheer scope of allies (every codex in print) makes trying to figure out what you want rather tricky, not to mention considering if you even want them- in most cases it is not a small investment.

So let's go over some of the possibilities and see who has what, who wants what, and what sort of things we can be doing with them.