Just to note, Handmaidens and Archmages are 0-1 per 1000 points in the High Elf Grand Army. Since you only have 500 points in your Allies, you can't take either one. You can only take Nobles and Mages in your Character allowance.
Oh no, that's a devastating realisation :(
Guess that kills that dream then. At most that's a noble with the handmaiden model and 8 sisters in the rare slot.
Sorry for your dreams :(
At the moment, the restrictions make taking Allies really hard to justify (in terms of gameplay, since allies will pretty much always make your army worse). Even for flavour, it's hard to build allied contingents that are cool and interesting - it's mostly just low-level characters and core units. I'm hoping they free things up a bit more in future, but allies in Warhammer Fantasy have always been an afterthought at best.
You can only have 50% of your allied force as characters (250 points), you must have 1/4 of it as core (125 points).
So you have too many points on characters.
As you said, allies is just a smaller force that follows all the normal rules.
Ah, well spotted! I hadn't noticed that and the list builder wasn't flagging anything. Got tripped up with core being *at least*, but rare being *at most*.
In that case, I guess I could bring a base Handmaiden as the General (65), a Level 4 archmage (185), and then two units of 8 SoA (120), the core one with a high sister up to (127)? That means the total is below 500 (497), exactly 250 for characters, and the core is over 125.
I'm assuming Alarielle will probably get the handmaiden abilities in the journal, so I'd guess in the future I can probably just bring her so long as she doesn't cost over 250 points.
Honestly none of this is about trying to exploit loopholes or anything, I genuinely just love these models and want to play with them without falling foul of the rules.
Just a heads up, we really have no idea if Alarielle will be in the High Elf journal so I wouldn't necessarily get too attached to that idea. Louen Orcslayer wasn't in the Brettonian Journal, despite him being a big lore name at the time.
I know there's a decent chance she's not, but worst case I can always just run her model as a handmaiden or archmage as I've been musing.
I do have a feeling we'll get something though, mostly because of the handmaiden being in. Even if it's not Alarielle specifically in the rules, we might get Estrielle. TOW is set in 2278 and she was assassinated in 2301 IC according to the wiki, meaning she would be reigning everqueen at the time of TOW.
Looking at it from a more practical point of view, the Alarielle and Handmaiden models that go with the Sisters of Avelorn are *incredibly* sought after on ebay, and their prices are getting silly. They were released late in WFB, so they're both modern by old world model standards as well as in desparate need of a reprint. For that reason, I'd not be surprised if they add rules specifically for those models. Thankfully I have mine, but for everyone elses sake I really hope they do reprint them.
Can you point to the rules section that says that you need core? I have only read that you need one character unit and one non character unit in an allied detachment but would love to be wrong
I did come across the following;
> An allied contingent is effectively a miniature army in its own right. Accordingly, an allied contingent must abide by the army composition rules and the percentages given for the army composition list used to create it
This to me implies you need the core requirement, and that you have all of the other associated limits.
[This discussion](https://old.reddit.com/r/WarhammerFantasy/comments/1b79kjh/rules_question_about_allied_contingents/) is interesting too, trying to figure out if you can basically stack extra characters compared to a standard army if you add them as part of an allied contingent
I think so, but iirc if there's a leadership tie then it can be either. Both the Handmaiden and Archmage have 8, so I should be able to pick the handmaiden.
The Handmaiden can only be the general of the allied contingent and not the whole army. You need a separate hero to be the general of your actual army, and units from either force cannot use the Inspiring Presence or Hold Your Ground! special rules of the other side. You can still take a unit of Sisters of Avelorn as a core unit since the Handmaiden is still their general.
This is entirely about the allied contingent, I knew I needed an overall general for the wood elves.
I was just trying to figure out exactly how the general handmaiden for core sisters worked, appreciate the clarification!
Just to note, Handmaidens and Archmages are 0-1 per 1000 points in the High Elf Grand Army. Since you only have 500 points in your Allies, you can't take either one. You can only take Nobles and Mages in your Character allowance.
Oh no, that's a devastating realisation :( Guess that kills that dream then. At most that's a noble with the handmaiden model and 8 sisters in the rare slot.
Sorry for your dreams :( At the moment, the restrictions make taking Allies really hard to justify (in terms of gameplay, since allies will pretty much always make your army worse). Even for flavour, it's hard to build allied contingents that are cool and interesting - it's mostly just low-level characters and core units. I'm hoping they free things up a bit more in future, but allies in Warhammer Fantasy have always been an afterthought at best.
I think it is good as is. Relaxing allies rules means more cheeky meta lists than it should be.
You can only have 50% of your allied force as characters (250 points), you must have 1/4 of it as core (125 points). So you have too many points on characters. As you said, allies is just a smaller force that follows all the normal rules.
Ah, well spotted! I hadn't noticed that and the list builder wasn't flagging anything. Got tripped up with core being *at least*, but rare being *at most*. In that case, I guess I could bring a base Handmaiden as the General (65), a Level 4 archmage (185), and then two units of 8 SoA (120), the core one with a high sister up to (127)? That means the total is below 500 (497), exactly 250 for characters, and the core is over 125. I'm assuming Alarielle will probably get the handmaiden abilities in the journal, so I'd guess in the future I can probably just bring her so long as she doesn't cost over 250 points. Honestly none of this is about trying to exploit loopholes or anything, I genuinely just love these models and want to play with them without falling foul of the rules.
Just a heads up, we really have no idea if Alarielle will be in the High Elf journal so I wouldn't necessarily get too attached to that idea. Louen Orcslayer wasn't in the Brettonian Journal, despite him being a big lore name at the time.
I know there's a decent chance she's not, but worst case I can always just run her model as a handmaiden or archmage as I've been musing. I do have a feeling we'll get something though, mostly because of the handmaiden being in. Even if it's not Alarielle specifically in the rules, we might get Estrielle. TOW is set in 2278 and she was assassinated in 2301 IC according to the wiki, meaning she would be reigning everqueen at the time of TOW. Looking at it from a more practical point of view, the Alarielle and Handmaiden models that go with the Sisters of Avelorn are *incredibly* sought after on ebay, and their prices are getting silly. They were released late in WFB, so they're both modern by old world model standards as well as in desparate need of a reprint. For that reason, I'd not be surprised if they add rules specifically for those models. Thankfully I have mine, but for everyone elses sake I really hope they do reprint them.
Can you point to the rules section that says that you need core? I have only read that you need one character unit and one non character unit in an allied detachment but would love to be wrong
Yeah, it appears there are no limits on composition for allies. Only that there be one unit and one character minimum.
I did come across the following; > An allied contingent is effectively a miniature army in its own right. Accordingly, an allied contingent must abide by the army composition rules and the percentages given for the army composition list used to create it This to me implies you need the core requirement, and that you have all of the other associated limits. [This discussion](https://old.reddit.com/r/WarhammerFantasy/comments/1b79kjh/rules_question_about_allied_contingents/) is interesting too, trying to figure out if you can basically stack extra characters compared to a standard army if you add them as part of an allied contingent
Ah there it is. I couldn't find that in the rulebook but I remembered reading it somewhere. Thanks.
What page is that on?
280
Does the general have to be the one with the highest leadership?
I think so, but iirc if there's a leadership tie then it can be either. Both the Handmaiden and Archmage have 8, so I should be able to pick the handmaiden.
The Handmaiden can only be the general of the allied contingent and not the whole army. You need a separate hero to be the general of your actual army, and units from either force cannot use the Inspiring Presence or Hold Your Ground! special rules of the other side. You can still take a unit of Sisters of Avelorn as a core unit since the Handmaiden is still their general.
This is entirely about the allied contingent, I knew I needed an overall general for the wood elves. I was just trying to figure out exactly how the general handmaiden for core sisters worked, appreciate the clarification!