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Having not been near a tournament for something like 5 or 6 years, I'm what you might call "out of touch". So, I've got a question for y'all:

My wife and I were at the game shop tonight, picking up some stuff that she can paint, and I finally managed to convince our pocketbook to let me pick up one of the new Wraithlords. I had an awesome and thematic conversion all mentally picked out for it, and after assembling some models for the wife I started on the first part of that conversion: a really fun melee weapon build (a Wraithlord-sized tetsubo/kanabo).

Unfortunately, I'd not really spent too much time looking deeply into the Eldar codex (the last games I played were a week in to 4th Edition, so I'd never seen the new codex); the most I've done was check points values and plug stuff into a spreadsheet so I know what I have now. After getting the first part of the build put together, I went to look up some rules on the two ranged weapons I had planned to put onto it. When I did, I finally noticed that the "Wraithsword" is actually a purchasable weapon, not just a frill. This means that building the model with a melee weapon means that, strictly speaking, I would only be able to mount a single ranged weapon.

I'm probably going to magnet it up for ranged weapons, so it's not entirely critical at the moment, but how "hardcore" is the tournament scene these days about pointing to something on a model and saying "that's not functional, it's just for show"? I mean, if someone says "if you've modeled it you have to use it" I can rules-lawyer on back and say "well, technically it's a club, not a wraithSWORD so it's not representing anything" but I just don't want to be that guy. My most common build might be two (twin-linked) Bright Lances, which are pretty freaking obvious weapons, so it's not like someone's going to be fooled by a club, but if the community out there is going to be predisposed to raising a stink every time I set up the Wraithlord, I'll consider doing something a little more flexible with the model.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

AS far as I know, cool converstions arent going to get a hardd time unless you run into one of those guys, you know the type I'm talking about.

Just inform your opponent its not a wraithsword at the beginning and I doubt you'll have any issues. Or whatever its suppose to count as.

Most tournment players love cool conversions.

I try to keep my stuff WYSIWYG since I've got Orks and it's a lot of models on the table and it's just easier to look and see.

That being said, so long as it's clear what a unit has, even down to just putting a little card with the appropriate details with the unit, I'm happy.

Pretty much goes for the tourneys I've been to as well. I can't see anyone marking you down for a cool model, nor should they really be. This hobby is many things and cheap isn't one of them. Not everyone has the money or time for multiple models to reflect loadouts and not everyone has the skill or comfort to use techniques like magneting. To be honest, I'd really rather not play with folks who are going to penalize people for a lack of time, money or skill, but that's just me.

I converted a Striking Scorpion Wraithlord lst year to have a Scorpion's Claw count as a Wraitsword. I'll shamelessly plug my modelling skills:



I thought about the same issue you bring up here and decided to let sleeping dogs lie: I didn't bring it up unless my opponent questioned me about it. Then I clarify, "Yes, it counts as a Wraithsword." or "No, it's just there for decoration." Since I posted the P&M on this guy, I added a bit of brass rod to mount a second heavy weapon and a plug with a bit of plate to cover it when not in use. I've got two more lords to convert to Aspect Warrior style: a Dark Reaper w/ EML and BL and I'm thinking of the last as a DA w/ shuri's, a shuricannon, and scatterlaser for the dakka.

When all else fails, share your army list with your opponent and expect him to do the same. Tourneys require you to do so and unless you're playing a friendly game where list secrecy is part of the theme of the mission, I'd expect it.