The Buddy System

I've been mulling over rules for running an ally contingent for 40k armies, a way to include forces from other codices along with your primary army.  So here's what I have so far (feedback and suggestions appreciated)...

There could be two ways of doing it and both players would have to agree to use one or the other, or that "I'm playing straight Codex Marines but sure, you can use an Ally Contingent, but not a Joint Forces army."

(Camera Hog: this pointy guy just appears in all my pics - the camera loves him)

Ally Contingent:  This is a smaller force to be included in your primary army and doing so has little impact on the game.  If one player used an A.C. (with his opponent's approval) it wouldn't imbalance anything.

• May use up to 25% of total army points. So for a 2000pt force, up to 500pts of it in allies
• No impact on org chart/slot choices.  Use standard number of choices.  For example, if you have 2 Elites in your primary force you could only have 1 Elite in your allies.
• No minimum or maximum slot requirements.  So can have 2 fast attack and 1 heavy, no HQ, etc.
• Allied units cannot count as scoring units, even if they are Troops.  This limits their usefulness and role in the game as simply supporting the main force.

 The Ally Contingent is a handful of units who are there to support.  Examples could be an Imperial guard army with two or three Space Marine units sent in to lend a hand, or a Chaos Marines army with a few units from the Daemons codex (something I'd love to do, say a unit each of fleshhounds, seekers, and daemonettes to go with the models I have?).

One thing I thought of that would be REALLY cool would be to make a Guard/Genestealer Cult army:  I'm envisioning a mostly Imp army, led by a hybrid looking Primaris Psyker (Magus) with command squad, a hybrid Psyker Battle Squad, some rather monstrous looking Ogryns, some stealer-like commissars and ministorum priests that can join various units, random stealer-armed guys here and there, and then an Ally Contingent of 2 or 3 Genestealer broods led by Broodlords, probably infiltrating or outflanking.  THAT would kick ass!  

    

Joint Forces:  This option is more like two armies having come together toward a common goal, one just being slightly bigger than the other (and probably carrying most of the command responsibility for both).

• Must use 20% to 45% of total points.   
• The both forces must have at least 1 HQ and 1 Troop choice.  This covers the standard 2 Troop requirement.  And even though they share that burden, the secondary force must have its own leadership. 
• The army may have +1 slot of any choice.  Therefore, up to 3 HQs total, or 4 Heavies or 7 Troops, etc.  This bonus slot allows for each aspect of the joint force to have their own stuff.  If one player is using this and the other isn't, it'd be only fair to let that player have +1 choice as well. 
• All units' rules act as normal, such as scoring units, etc.  This is because this is a full (if small) force of the represented army in its own right, as opposed to a fractional component like in an ally contingent (AC being just a lone IG tank squadron that's come to lend a hand).  

A natural example of this would be two different Space Marine armies joining forces, or Sisters and Eldar joining to fight off Chaos, stuff like that.

So the pic below (besides showing all the guys I was working on adding dry brushed details to today) shows a nice joint forces component of my Crimson Fists: 1 Captain Maverick (see previous blog entry), sternguard unit with plasma gun, dreadnought, big assault squad with badass sergeant lightning claws, and sniper scout squad.  So.... LET'S PLAY!