EDITORIAL: Whither Allies?
So at last we come to it, that sticky question that lies upon our hobby… allies. Lets take a look at where we’ve been, where we are, and what we really want moving forward:
Once long ago, in the ancient ages of 40k, allies was a rather quaint concept. Back them players had smallish warbands from several races, and with the original Rogue Trader rules were encouraged to throw these together and have a grand old time on the tabletop.
The first army lists came soon thereafter, and with every edition it seems the codices have gotten further and further apart, each designed as a standalone piece of work. In the current world of 5th edition, we have whittled down allies to the Imperial side of things centered around the now long in the tooth Witchhunter/Daemonhunters codices. If the current rumors are correct, we may not have these 2 books with us for much longer any more.
Now lets take a brief gander at allies as represented in Warmachine as a counterpoint. In those systems there is a dedicated Mercenary faction, that can be played as a standalone force, or have various sub-sections sell themselves as options to the other nations in the game under a rigid set of rules.
Fantasy dallied with the Dogs of War supplement several editions ago with a similar take, allowing groups of Tilean mercenaries to be farmed out to other Old World armies, or fielded as a standalone force.
~The question for you guys is both from a fun immersive point of view, and a game balance one, which way seems the best for allies? Do you like the clean-ruled certainty of isolated faction books/codices? Do you think the entire concept of allies just muddies the waters too much and leds itself to rules abuse or is it worth the design time and extra complexity? Do you think the addition of allied or mercenary forces is just additional window dressing to our universes, or truly adds depth and enhances the play and immersive experience of our games? Finally who’s system is most on the right track regarding allies, and represents a way forward for the hobby as a whole?
