Would allies improve competitive play? Hell no! Is it an interesting thought experiment, or cool for narrative campaigns? Hell yes! The following is a basic idea for allowing allies. I don't think allies are a great idea for competitive play due to balance and homogeneity concerns, so the focus is on a narrative event. The aim is to allow a meaningful allied 'detachment', while trying to implement limitations that achieve at least rudimental balance. It is intended as a starting point for a discussion and I'm sure there are all sorts of issues in it so hack away! Ally Rules An army list may include 1 Allied Force. There is a 1 SWC tax to be paid for taking an allied detachment, regardless of size. Allied Forces are chosen from any sectorial in the game, with a number of restrictions ALEPH and Nomads cannot ally Combined Army and any human faction cannot ally JSA and Yu Jing cannot ally Tohaa can ally with anyone (representing Sygmaa forces with Combined Army) A sectorial cannot ally with itself. However, it may ally with other in-faction sectorials Any other faction hostilities to account for? All troops from the allied force must be in their own command group. This does not superscede the 2 command group limit or the 15 unit cap. If you take allies, they take up your entire second group. Models may not transfer into or out of an allied group Allies cannot be nominated as Lieutenants If the main army is a sectorial, the allied force may form duo or haris teams as normal, but not core teams. If the main army is a vanilla faction, the allied force may only form duos. There are restrictions on what can be taken in the allied group You must spend between 50 points to 100 points (at 300 point games) on your allies if you take them. There is no corresponding SWC requirement. You must take a model with the Lieutenant skill in the allied group, however that skill is removed at the beginning of the game. Allied units have half AVA, rounded down. Certain skills (namely NCO and Chain of Command) do not work "across factions" - a chain of command in the allied force will not take over for your main LT if they die. Should repeaters work across factions? What do people think? Are there any specific units that would be troublesome? What changes could be made to get these rules into functional shape?
I haven't played Merc rule for a long time. I like your idea. Half round down is fine for sectorial but kills vanilla. You should allow to take a single AVA 1 allied. Also no allied characters, they were for the ally, not for you. Half of AVA T should be set at something... 3? Repeaters/Pitcher should work across the 2 combat group.
I don't mind vanilla being 'killed' as an ally - I restricted it to sectorials so you can get some allied units but not the smorgasbord that is vanilla. I'm not sure what you mean by a "single AVA 1 allied" - do you mean ignore the half AVA rule once? If so, I strongly oppose that, since some of the really dominant units are gatekept behind AVA 1 and I want to avoid every army being "XYZ + allied bear" though I'm sure there are some such combos with AVA 2 units too. Makes sense to cap total at some number. Maybe 5 since AVA 8 exists in the game. Maybe thats too much. I think repeaters across groups makes the most sense, its also where I expect to run into the most unintentional 'synergies' since the game does not have a ton of those Out of interest I went through the factions quickly to look for units that could be brought in, and see what stands out. I mostly focused on solo models, since knowing all the haris details are beyond me. Spoiler Shock Army: 1x Tikbalang, 1x Motorized Knight Military Order: 1x Teuton, 1x Trinitaries, NCA: Tx Auxilia, 1x Swiss Guard, Varuna: 1x Helot, 2x Kamau, 1x Zulu-Cobra, 1x Motorized Knight, 2x Croc Men, Cutter (lol) Winterforce: 2x Karhu, 2x Nisse, 1x Jotum, Imperial Service: 4x Kuang, 1x Su-Jian, 1x Dakini, Imperial Army: 2x Shang Ji, 2x Zencha, 1x Guija, White Banner: 1x Hundun, 1x Tiger Soldier, 1x Daofei, 2x Guilang, 2x Shaolin Caledonia: 1x Cameronian, Tx Galwegian, 2x SAS, 2x Cateran, 2x Scot guard, Tx Volunteer Merovingia: 2x Chausseur, Tx Metro, 3x Paratrooper USA: Tx Grunt, 2x Foxtrot, 3x Desperado, 1x Devil Dog TAK: 2x Spetz, 2x Strelot, 2x Tankhunter, 2x Scout, 1x Antipode, 1x Dog Warrior, 2x Irmandino Kosmo: 1x Paratrooper, 1x Cateran, 2x Rokot, 2x Scot Guard, 1x SAS, 2x Irmandino, 2x Varangian, Hassassin: 1x Fiday, 2x Daylami, 2x Muttawiah, TxGhulams, 1x Asawira, 1x Shakush, 1x Farzan, QK: 2x Bashi, Tx Ghulams, 1x Yuan Yuan, Ramah: Tx Ghulams, 1x Mag Guard, 1x Tuareg Corregidor: 1x Moran, 2x Tomcat, 2x Hellcat, 2x Intruder, 2x Evader, 2x Diablo, 1x Gator, 1x Vostok, 2x Jaguar, Bakunin: 2x Riot Girl, 1x Taskmaster, 1x Zero, 1x Uberfall, Tx Morlock Tunguska: 1x Heckler, 2x Interventor, 2x Grenzer, 1x Zondnautica, 1x Krieza, 1x Sally, 1x Spektr, Morats: 1x Dartok, 1x Tyrok, 1x Kyosot, 1x Rasyat, 2x Yaogat, 2x Rodok, 1x Kaitok, 1x Rindak, 1x Sogarat, 2x Suryat, 1x Bultrak, 1x Raicho, 2x Datz, 1x Oznat, 2x Preta, 1x Ikadron, Shasvasti: 2x Caliban, 1x Noctifier, 1x Ikadron, 1x Malignos, 1x Speculo, 2x Shrouded, 4x Taigha Onyx: 1x Imetron, 1x Nexus, 1x Noctifier, 1x Samaritan, 2x Suryat, 1x Overdron, 2x Xeodron, 1x Ikadron, 1x Grief Tohaa: 2x Chaksa, 2x Kauri, 1x Kaeltar, 1x Kerail, 1x Nikoul, 2x Rasail, 3x Sakiel, 2x Sukuel, 2x Gao Rael, 1x Taquel, 1x Digger, 1x Clipsos, 1x Igao, 3x Makaul, Phalanx: 1x Netrod, 3x Thorakitai, Tx Myrmidon, 1x Myrmidon Officer OSS: 1x Danavas, 1x Netrod, 1x Sophotect, 2x Asura, 1x Marut (lol), Tx Dakini, Druze: 1x Digger, 2x Yuan, 1x Hunzakut, Tx Druze, JSA: 2x Aragato, 1x Ryuken, 1x Tanko, 2x Domaru, 1x O-Yoroi, 1x Ninja, 1x Onibaiwan Ikari: 1x Digger, 1x Tanko, 2x Yuan, 1x Desperado, Starco: 1x Hellcat, 2x Riot Girl, 2x Jaguar, Spiral: 1x Helot, 1x Kriigel, 1x Taagma, 1x Clipsos, 1x Draal, 1x Igao, 1x Kiiutan FoCo: 1x Zero (lol) Dashat: 1x super Libertos, 3x Ghulams, 1x Digger, 1x Hunzakut, 2x Kum, White Company: 1x Tiger, 1x Nisse, 1x Guilang, 1x Varangian Its important to consider some restricted capabilities like T1 alpha, hidden deployment skirmishers, hidden deployment ARO, Turn 0 repeaters, pitchers, strong hackers etc. But honestly between rounding AVA down and gatekeeping AVA 1 models entirely I was surprised at how limited the shenanigans appeared (at least at first glance)
Are you familiar with the old N2 mercenaries / allies rule? You recreated something similar to them, although a little more fleshed out. They featured half AVA with an allowance to take one AVA 1 unit, if memory serves. This was also before sectorials existed, and was never considered valid under tournament play.
It might be something fun for friendly matches, for people with several factions. As a main Tohaa player, I might add that giving Ariadna access to the Kaeltar (and thus to the Symbiobomb and Symbiomate) is a nice boost to the Ratnik or the Blackjack.
Exactly. Half round down, ignoring it once but only for a single AVA 1 pre-division. Not AVA 3 goes to 1 but ignored once. Maybe AVA 1 does serve as a gatekeep. I'm not sure XYZ+Bear is that strong considering the bear is not allowed to change combat groups. Dominant units are usually best when in a full combat group ? The old N2 merc rule allowed a single AVA 1 per 200 Pts of army list. So a single AVA 1 in 150-300 and two allowed in 400Pts. Well, I suppose it was important as both armies where half AVA; with your proposition you can take as many AVA1 models you want in the main faction and then take only AVA2+ from the allied factions (which automatically excludes AVA1 characters as a bonus feature). And as the allied are sectorial (i missed it when I read first time) then AVA is usually 2+ anyway.
just looked up TJC allies, can have a nice little haris of securitate fbach, interventor Lt, tsyklon fbach+pitcher. Plus the two cheerleader REMs (one baggage bot, one flash bot, the first being useful to refill pitchers). A nice allied hackers/ARO package to give to a faction that lacks in hacking.
Yeah there are probably a few really good haris based alliances. IE Makaul based triad with some extra orders floods the table with eclipse smoke.
