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Writing a List for 7th ed 40K and the BAO 2014

Reecius

confused

Feeling confused as to how to write your list for the BAO, or 7th ed in general? Don’t worry, you’re not alone! This article should clear it up.

Before we jump too far into this article, if you want to go to the BAO get your tickets soon! We’re already almost 1/2 full for the main event and tickets have only been up for sale for a day and a half as of this writing!

So first things first: forget everything you knew about writing an army list. It’s all changed now. You can literally do anything you want to put your models on the table in 7th ed. You always could of course, but now the rules tell us to go crazy with it officially.

Let’s go over the basics of list building in 7th ed. 

You have unlimited ways to write a list. You can go unbound and take anything from any source regardless of Faction if you want to. You can use a single CAD with no allies and draw from only a Codex if you want to play as we did in 5th ed, for example. You can have unlimited CADs, allies, etc. and anything in between.

As for using the Combined Arms Detachment specifically, the following applies:

  1. You are no longer restricted by your codex. You have not been for some time, actually, between Formations, Data Slates, Supplements, Forge World, Allies, etc. Now though, any semblance of formal restrictions are essentially gone. What you have now is Factions, Army List Entries and Battlefield Roles.
    1. Your Faction defines which Army List Selections (units) you can choose for your detachment.
    2. Army List Entries are the units that comprise your detachments. They can be found in a wide range of rules sources.
    3. Battlefield Roles instructs you as to where your Army List Entries fit in your army list.
  2. The BRB is very careful in defining a Faction as a nebulous concept. It is not only a Codex anymore but as illustrated on pg.116 of the BRB, a collection of Army List Entries (or units as most of us would call them) that can be found over a wide range of sources. It further goes on to stipulate that a detachment may be formed of only units from a specific source, such as a codex (BRB pg.117) but that that may not necessarily be the case. In fact, you don’t even have to use a points anymore if you don’t want to (BRB pg.116).
  3. Your Faction is spread out over multiple rules sources but essentially defines a race or army in 40K as we used to know it. You have your Faction’s Codex, Data Slates, Formations, Forge World units, Supplements, etc. All of those now are viable places from which to pull units out of and place them into a detachment so long as they are the same Faction.
  4. Your Primary Detachment is defined as that lead by your Warlord (BRB pg.117). This is really important. Your Warlord defines your army in many ways including many special rules. This influences who you can ally with, what LoW your CAD can use, etc. Your Warlord essentially forms the foundation upon which your CAD is built.

To sum it up, you can draw units from anywhere and put them together into a list in any way you want.

It comes down to us to define how we write a list and what rules we will use, if any, when we come together to play. We have total freedom now to define the game we play. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to do this, now. There is only the way we choose to do it. For the BAO specifically we define this as:

Now, there is some confusion on the topic of the Allied Detachment being a different Faction than the CAD that I want to address briefly as it comes up a lot. The BRB explicitly states that the ally faction must be different than the CAD faction and goes on to further specifically define a faction as including any supplements of that faction. It is clear as day. However, many of the Codex Supplements say that they may ally with the parent codex as battle brothers. The BRB also states that the Codex trumps the BRB on specific rules conflicts. Also clear as day. These directly contradict one another in a loop that will drive you crazy if you think about it too long. It becomes a chicken and the egg question of does the BRB override the codex as it is newer and an edition change trumps all else, or do you go with the specific over the general? The answer is: it doesn’t matter.

When taken in the context of 7th ed, it is no longer about what is “right” but about what is preference. If you are playing with multiple CADs you simply take a second CAD for the supplement army. Similarly you could take 2 CADs of the same faction from the same source which the BRB tells us would count as battle bros, too. Or, if you choose to play with a faction being able to ally with them self using the allied detachment format, you can do that, too. Again, it is all about preference. That’s rad! But, it does mean we have to decide in advance how we define all of these things and which set of rules we use in our events.

==So making a list for the BAO, specifically. Let’s do it!==

1 Combined Arms Detachment

  1. All of your army list entries in your CAD for the BAO must be drawn from the same Faction.
  2. All available Factions for the BAO are listed on page 118 of the BRB. (For our purposes, we consider Legion of the Damned to be a supplement of the Space Marines Faction and the Militarum Tempestus to be a supplement of the Astra Militarum Faction for now, we are waiting to hear back from GW as to how to treat these).
  3. You may draw Army List Entries (units) from the following sources for that CAD so long as they are a part of your Faction.
    1. Codex
    2. Codex Supplement
    3. Data Slate
    4. Forge World 40K Approved units (note, in previous years we allowed non 40K approved units but are not now as many of them are drawn from sources that have not been updated for 7th edition, yet).
  4. You are limited to the Force Organization Chart of your CAD for the number of Army List Entries you can field. Usually this will be 1-2 HQ, 2-6 Troops, 0-3 of Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support per the FoC. Some factions’ detachments will be structured differently, such as Space Wolves or Inquisition.
  5. Your Warlord determines your Primary Detachment. Further, for any Faction wide rules use your Primary Detachment to determine which, if any, are in effect. Your Warlord also determines if you gain access to any source specific units, warlord traits or special wargear, etc. If more than one HQ choice has these type of rules, only the Warlord’s are used.
    1. Example: If Lysander is your Warlord, you are using a Space Marines Faction CAD with the Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics and all other units in this CAD must also use Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics and be of the Space Marines Faction as outlined in the Space Marines codex. You could then choose any Space Marines Factions units from Space Marines Factions Data Slates, Forge World 40K Approved Space Marines Faction units, the Space Marines Codex or the Sentinels of Terra Supplement to fill out the rest of your CAD.  Any units chosen from another source would have access to wargear accessible to that model, such as an HQ chosen from the Sentinels of Terra Supplement being able to take Chapter Relics from that Supplement following the normal restrictions.
      1. Note, you could not take units from the Clan Raukaan Supplement in this CAD as they have different Chapter Tactics. They could, however, be taken as an Allied Detachment as the GW FAQ specifically allows the Space Marines Faction to take a Space Marines Allied Detachment so long as they have different Chapter Tactics.
    2. Example: If you were to use an HQ from the Farsight Enclave Supplement as your Warlord, you would be using a Tau Faction CAD. You would have access to the Farsight Enclave Warlord Traits and Signature Systems as well as the Eight (Farsight Enclave special suit units such as O’Vesa). Further, Crisis Suits would be troops in your CAD and you would be required to take a unit of 3 Crisis Suits as a troop unit. You would not be able to take Shadowsun or Aun’Va in that CAD. You would be able to select any eligible units from the Farsight Enclave Supplement, Tau Codex, Tau Faction 40K Approved units or Tau Faction Data Slates. Any unit chosen from another source would have access to wargear accessible to that model, such as an HQ chosen from the Tau Codex being able to take Signature Systems from that Supplement, ie. Buffmander.
    3. Example: If you were to take a Black Legion Supplement Chaos Space Marine HQ as your Warlord you would be playing a Chaos Space Marines Faction CAD. All of your units that can take Veterans of the Long War must do so, and Chosen would be troops as usual for the Black Legion. You would also get access to the Black Legion Warlord Traits and Chaos Artifacts list. You could then choose any Chaos Space Marines Faction 40K Approved Forge World units, Chaos Space Marines Faction Data Slates such as Be’Lakor or Chaos Space Marines Codex or Crimson Slaughter Supplement units. Units taken from a source would have access to wargear accessible to that model, such as a Crimson Slaughter HQ having access to their Chaos Artifact list.

Sounds really confusing, right? It’s actually not. Think of it in these terms: Your Warlord determines the source from which you are working out of. Everything else is being added to that. 

0-1 Allied Detachment

  1. All of your army list entries in your Allied Detachment must be drawn from the same faction.
  2. Your Allied Detachment HQ determines the source from which you are working from.
  3. This must be a different Faction than your CAD, but an eligible ally for your CAD. Come the Apocalypse Allies will not be allowed.
  4. You are limited to the FOC for the Allied Detachment, but can draw the Army List Entries from multiple sources as described above.
  5. If you take an Allied Detachment you cannot take a Formation.
  6. The Inquisition Codex counts as the Allied Detachment if it is taken and is not the CAD.

0-1 Formation

  1. Follow the normal rules for Formations as outlined in the BRB, pg. 121
  2. If you take a Formation, you cannot also take an Allied Detachment.
  3. Your Formaiton can be the same Faction as your CAD.

0-1 Fortification

  1. Please note, no upgrades from Stronghold Assault may be purchased for any Fortifications except for the Comms Relay, Quad Gun or Icarus Las Cannon upgrades, and weapon upgrades for the Fortress of Redemption. We are doing this for the sake of ease of play for the BAO 2014. We are open to adding more Fortifications and upgrades going forward in future events.
  2. You can choose a Fortification for your CAD from the following list:
    1. Aegis Defense Line
    2. Fortress of Redemption
    3. Imperial Bastion
    4. Promethium Relay Pipes
    5. Skyshield Landing Pad
    6. Void Shield Generator
    7. Firestorm Redoubt

0-1 Lord of War

  1. You can take a Lord of War in your CAD from the following list so long as it is the same Faction as your CAD. Note, we omitted a number of them based on our player poll asking for restricted access to LoW and our judgement if a LoW was overpowering and/or if it had a weapon that ignored cover and was bigger than a 5″ blast or used the Hellstorm template that ignored cover.
    1. All of the Baneblade chassis vehicles except for the Hellhammer (and Traitor’s Bane variant) and Stormsword, which are not allowed for the BAO 2014.
    2. Crassus Armored Assault Transport
    3. Gorgon Heavy Transporter
    4. Minotaur Artillery Tank
    5. All Macharius chassis vehicles
    6. All Malcador chassis vehicles except the Malcador Infernus which is not allowed for the BAO 2014
    7. Valdor Tank Hunter
    8. Marauder Bomber (may not take Hellstorm bombs)
    9. Maurader Destroyer
    10. Fellblade
    11. Cereberus Heavy Tank Destroyer
    12. Thunderhawk Transporter
    13. Greater Brass Scorpion of Khorne
    14. Obelisk
    15. Stompa
    16. Gargantuan Squiggoth
    17. Kustom Battle Fortress
    18. Kill Krusha Tank
    19. Kill Blasta
    20. Cobra
    21. Scorpion
    22. Lynx with Pulsar (but not with Sonic Lance)
    23. Tiger Shark (Escalation version)
    24. Orca Dropship
    25. Barbed Hierodule

Example List

(Please note, this is just for illustrative purposes, the points may not add up to 1850pts)

Chaos Space Marines C.A.D.

1-2 HQ

0-3 Elites

2-6 Troops

0-3 Fast Attack

0-3 Heavy Support

0-1 Fortification

0-1 Lord of War

Chaos Daemons Faction Allied Detachment

1 HQ

1-2 Troops

0-1 Elites

0-1 Fast Attack

0-1 Heavy Support

Closing Thoughts

Whew, hopefully that helps to clarify everything. Basically use your Warlord as the foundation from which the rest of your army is built.

In the above list, the Chaos Space Marine CAD could have swapped Be’Lakor for another HQ from the Chaos Space Marine Codex or Black Legion Supplement as the second HQ choice and had access to their respective Chaos Artifacts if they had wanted to do so. As this character is not the Warlord though, any special rules or units associated with the source this HQ came from would not be applicable. For example, if a Black Legion HQ was taken, all of the units able to take VotLW would not have to do so and Chosen would not be Troops choices. In application, this is the only time you will see this kind of swapping around: to grab a cool character from another source. Forge World units will pop up, too, but those tend to be much more straight forward. Most commonly swapping will occur in the HQ section. Players will choose the Primary Detachment source they want to work with through their Warlord, and then add the units they like from there.

What this does is allow every Faction all of their options! Cool, you can build your list from any source available to your Faction which is awesome. This gives you more freedom than ever before in terms of variety. What it does though, is hold everyone to the same limits of the Force Organization Chart. Every CAD will have the same potential number of units (with a few exceptions of course for things like Space Wolves getting 4 HQ, etc.). What you won’t see is Eldar allied with Eldar and 4 Wraithknights. In the above system, everyone gets access to just as much, if not more, options as before, but with the same limitations of the CAD that everyone else abides by.

Is this the only way to do it?

No, of course not. As I stated at the beginning of the article, this is just one way to do it. You could make it much simpler by saying only 1 source could be used for any detachment if you wanted to, such as Black Legion being 1 CAD and Crimson Slaughter being a 2nd CAD. However, you then can end up with something like 6 Heldrakes in a list which tends to turn people off. This way you get all the options without so much opportunity for spam. It also really limits the opportunity to layer USRs though combining lots of Characters which is the root of most Deathstar units that tend to also turn people off.

You can run your event or club night however you want, but we like this as it sticks to the book fairly closely, allows maximum options with reasonable limitations.

Let us know if this helped to clear things up! 7th is a bit confusing to put it mildly, but this will hopefully make it easy to write your list for the BAO and focus on having fun!

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