Allies and Artifacts

[ShaneHobbes]

Okay, so I've been getting so many different answers that it's been driving me crazy. Hopefully someone can confirm and maybe even tell my stupid ass where the ruling is in the rule book or make me see heads or tails of the faq. Last time I played was before the GH17 changes so I'm pretty damn rusty. Oh, this is about Matched Play, too.

- First, can Allied Heroes take Artifacts? Like say, an Orruk Warboss in an Ironjawz army. Obviously not Ironjawz Artifacts but what about Destruction and/or the artifacts from the malign sorcery realms? I've been told both that Allies can take artifacts and that they can't. If the rules answer this can someone tell me what book and page?

- Second, Heroes from the Malign Portents. The FAQ makes my head swim when I try to make sense of it thanks to getting conflicting answers from people when I ask about it.  What can they do/can't do when it comes to artifacts/command traits? Like say if I wanted to use the Fungoid Cave Shaman in again an Ironjawz army.

[syph0n]

First bit I'm pretty confident about: they can't take the allegiance ones for the army they're allied to, but they can take grand alliance and realm artefacts.

EG an Assassin taking an Ulgu blade when allied into a Darkling Coven army is OK, him taking a shadowshroud ring isn't. 

[EMMachine]

9 minutes ago, syph0n said:

First bit I'm pretty confident about: they can't take the allegiance ones for the army they're allied to, but they can take grand alliance and realm artefacts.

EG an Assassin taking an Ulgu blade when allied into a Darkling Coven army is OK, him taking a shadowshroud ring isn't. 

The problem is, that the rules actually say, that Allies can't use Allegiance Abilites (and most Artefacts are part of the Allegiance Abilities) and there is no mentioning in the book that you can take Grand Alliance Allegiance Abilites when you use a specific allegiance (as long as the allegiance is different the units are still allies.

Actually I don't know how about the Realm Artefacts.

[syph0n]

Yeah I get that, I've just understood it as grand alliance artefacts / realm artefacts being a different set of artefacts. I know GW referenced an Assassin using the Sword of Judgment from Ulgu... And no one is building a Shadowblades army ?

Of course, that's the Community team, it's not an FAQ thing so very much up for question. I've just always read it as allies can't take artefacts from the specific army allegiance, whether that's joining an army as an ally or allies taking an artefact from and army they join. 

Maybe it's because a lot of games I've personally watched have been Mixed Order. 

(Disclaimer: read the rules lots, not played lots!) 

[Deja vu]

Those are very good questions. I have not run in to that yet (still new).  

[syph0n]

A really easy way to help out with stuff like this is to have Warscroll Builder or Azyr validate the artefacts. So if there's an ally flag, it doesn't allow spell options or in this case, artefacts options (if allies can't take GA or realm artefacts). Warscroll Builder already flags over-used artefacts which is great, but not the former. @scrollbuilderdude do you know about this particular rule?

[EMMachine]

3 hours ago, syph0n said:

A really easy way to help out with stuff like this is to have Warscroll Builder or Azyr validate the artefacts. So if there's an ally flag, it doesn't allow spell options or in this case, artefacts options (if allies can't take GA or realm artefacts). Warscroll Builder already flags over-used artefacts which is great, but not the former. @scrollbuilderdude do you know about this particular rule?

If your army is Grand Alliance faction, they are not allies when having the Grand Alliance Keyword. If this wasn't an error with the Assassine it could simply be a Grand Alliance Order Army.