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Made a codex about a species introduced in Xenology. Comments welcomed.

lexicanum species link:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Thyrrus#.UDT1pkKevpQ

Edit - updated with soliloquy and shuttle transport units, clarifications
Edit - added survivors and crab naught, some new fluff
Edit - Version 2.4 FOC changes
Edit - Version 2.5 Added luminous tank weapon options and rules, and special roles.
Edit - Version 2.6 Updated codex for 6th edition
Edit - Version 2.7 - rule tweaks

I am not sure how to feel about this army. I like the Thyrrus, they are an interesting army, the army is certainly unique as far as play style goes. To list the oddities

1. No cover saves at all.
2. Very few armour saves.
3. Almost universal slow and purposeful.
4. Almost universal FnP.

Now, this would make it seem like a terrible army, but the weaponry of the Thyrrus is some of the best in the game.

1. Basic weapon is Str 5 AP 4 and forces enemies to reroll cover saves.
2. Cressendo Cannon can tear through tanks and infantry in and out of cover thanks to its blast, melta, and plasma splash rule.
3. Stagehands are pretty cool, especially light casters

Now, this leads to an army that looks like it would play strangely. It looks like you are going for a very slow moving firepower centered army. In a way, you would constantly advance towards the enemy shooting at them with high strength, high AP weapons, while avoiding hand to hand. While this is unique I feel that it may be OP or not diverse force.

For example, lets say you wanted to build a somewhat competitive army, you might like channelers, but they are SnP, which sucks for an assault unit, likewise you may like Thespians, but a Thespian probably isn't worth as much as four warriors, simply because the latter put out so much firepower (four assault 1 str 5 AP 4 shots that force one to reroll cover saves). In the end I can see such an army being a pretty bland (compared to what one expects) force.

Now, here are some things I noticed skimming through, minor errors, or confusing wording.

1. Thyrrus Spotlight, the wording is confusing, I assume it means anything the enemy shoots at gets a cover save, but the way it is worded implies that anything the tank shoots at gets a cover save.

2. For the channeler roll, I am confused, it says the number of channelers in one column and WS in another column, the latter has numbers between 2+ and 6+. Does this mean that the channelers count as having a lower WS as they add more or that they hit on a lower roll? Eg. with 9 channelers do they hit on a 2+?

Also, checking in the BRB SnP makes one relentless, so I suggest you give the warriors and whatnot a special rule to disregard that part unless you intend them to fire light casters and gas canisters on the move.

Thanks for the interest, my goal was to create a unique army for 40K that deviated from the other armies in game play. I originally had the thyrrus warrior priced at 12 points, but dropped them down after the first wave of playtesting. I am working on adding the Soliloquns which will be a deep strike unit to the codex.
Here are two battle reports to give some idea on how the army plays:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Thyrrus_Codex_Playtesting:_two_battle_reports

Thanks for the catches:
For the channelers it was supposed to be hits on. The next version will Replace the “WS” with “hits on” for the table. And I will reword the spotlight to make it clearer. It wasn’t my intention to give the thyrrus the relentless ability; I will make a note on the stagehands that they act as if they are firing heavy weapons despite being SnP. Or, I will just make it an army wide rule that no thyrrus are relentless despite being SnP.

Either rule sounds good regarding relentless, also, I am not 100% sure, but when skimming your fluff I saw references to Segmentum Pacificus and the Tau Empire, which are on opposite sides of the galaxy. Also, can you make a guide on how to make those models (the troops and whatnot, the tank looks easy enough)? What did you use as a base?

Segmentum Pacificus is where the main concentration of thyrrus are located according to Xenology, or at least where they are causing the imperium the most grief. My story with the thyrrus/ork conflict might have taken place in Segmentum Pacificus - the story didn’t specify where the planet actually was placed, but did mention the rising level of thyrrus aggression in Segmentum Pacificus. The tau conflict was fought on one of their septs, Ksi’m’yen. The tau story dealt with a first contact situation with the thyrrus - they were not established enemies. Warp storms or other spacial phenomenon could have dropped a thyrrus ship on the other side of the galaxy, or the thyrrus could be just be that spread out. I didn’t think I really needed to get into the it, but a warp rift would be an easy explanation.

The thyrrus warriors are pretty easy and cheap to make - I only spent about 30 dollars in epoxy putty for my 1200 point army. I actually was only planning on making a small squad of thyrrus, but ended up making an entire army; thus the codex. The trick is using cheap dollar store beads. I get a flatten strip of epoxy about 1 by 1 inch if not a little less. I place the bead on the base and lay the strip over creating a bump that is mostly bead and an air pocket. I then rolled a bunch of tentacles and attach them. The back ridges are just three layers of thin epoxy laid on top of the model raised and shaped with a tool.

I used beading wire for support and the gun handles. The guns are epoxy made, for the pryo cannon and spiker I made a mold. The plasma projector are just cubes with a hole in one side. For them I attach four wire handles and a wire at the back of the gun so it is a cube with one side having a hole and the other 5 sides having wire sticking out of it. Put a little hole in the chest of the thyrrus and place the gun so its non-handle wire is in that hole; glue and the gun will be supported.

Then roll a bunch of thyrrus arms out of epoxy, these are bent into shape and allowed to harden a bit. Then attach/glue the arms to the handles and thyrrus body - the gun is actually supporting the arms not he other way round. The thin supporting wire is obscured by the arms. Head is just made out of epoxy - four eyes and a filter like mouth. I rolled the head and created the mouth by flattening an area and ribbing it with a knife. Once the head hardens place the eyes. I then do detail work on the models making sure the arms meet with the body smoothly, create hands, and so on.

Channelers - their arms are the beading wire with an epoxy coating. They are drilled into the body for support as they are actually supporting the rod which is a nail topped with a different kind of bead. The two wires are used, one for the upper arms and one for the lower. The wire is shaped and jointed as an arm and wraps around the nail and then continues as the other arm back into the body. So a single piece of wire has one end in the torso forms the right arm, wraps around the nail continues as the left arm and connects to the torso as the left arm. I made a mold of a 3rd edition dark eldar wyches bladed armor for the backpack.

Thespians - the walker is body is a furniture cap from a hardware store - the things you put on the the top and bottom of the cap were brass buttons or something like that, I got them from the craft section in walmart. Legs are epoxy - I made a mold. Metal tentacles are a piece of beading wire with epoxy rolled around it so it tappers. Thyrrus pilot is made like the warriors but actually built right into the top brass.

The tank is a block of wood, the turret is a piece of wood nailed into the body allowing it to rotate. The bottom of the tank has a bunch of marbles attached. The tank is supposed to be carried by a series of spheres. The board is just a cut of plywood.

Other elements of the army are basically made on variations of what I have mentioned above. The battle report images show my army in vary stages of construction. Also this old article I made before the PDF has pictures of unprimered models which might be helpful:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Grunt13’s%20Thyrrus%20Codex%20%28proposed%20codex%29

The army could do with some more units, especially of the fast attack variety. I would personally suggest some sort of manta ray shaped skimmer and a small bodied but long legged tripod. Also, seeing as how all of five armies don't have at least one unit with AV 14 somewhere (and of those five, four can get something to make their vehicles about as hard to destroy, or in the Tyranid's case have a T6 W6 2+ save beastie in the Tyrannofex) perhaps an additional, heavier tank wouldn't hurt? Though perhaps some sort of massive walker would be more in keeping with their theme of showiness?

Also, fluff with them fighting the Necrons, Tyranids, and either variety of the Eldar would be very interesting. Perhaps you could show that even the craftworld eldar are baffled by the bizarre actions of the Thyrrus and have a blurb with one Eldar philosopher theorizing about what would drive them to such odd actions?

Updated the codex. Made clarifications on issues pointed out by Buttons. Also added two new units; soliloquns and shuttle transports.

I have several more fluff stories I conceptualized, but didn’t put in the codex. Here are the summaries:

1) Thyrrus getting involved in a conflict involving an imperial world and tyranids. Thyruss ships landed in the oceans and engaged the tyranids in the seas while the imperium fights them on land.

2) A war world. Thyrrus invade an ork world creating a Valhalla-like coexistence with the orks. With both sides “peacefully” massing forces for a year until the thyrrus burst from the oceans and engage the orks and a world wide war.

3) A dark eldar archon who has had her raids interfered with by thyrrus sets up to get her pound of flesh from them. The archon ponders the thyrrus mindset in order to inflict the most dreadful of punishments on them. Ends up placing thyrrus prisoners in iron cages throughout her kabal with their nervous system hacked so she controls their bio luminous - which is set to a dim steady glow to light her palace. She stole their light and denied them their patterns.

4) Back when I was only planning to do a squad of them and use them as a dog of war ally I was going to have some fluff about them working with eldar corsairs. The rules for them would have been something along the lines that they would turn on they allies and switch control to the other player if they ever loss line of sight to the opponent’s units.

I am not crazy with them having access to fast skimmers, but I added in some more units to help them close on their enemies and mitigate their mobility weakness. Technological speaking, I don’t think the thyrrus should be able to use skimmers; I am trying not to drift too far away from what is already established for them in Xenology. I think the newly added shuttle transport fills the role of heavy tank that was brought up by Kain.

Perhaps an idea for fast attack should be some kind of melee oriented walked, perhaps aesthetically like the war of the worlds tripods. Also, maybe you could make the deepstrike cannons in the fluff (that shoot them into the battlefield when they deepstrike) could be a fast attack unit, any infantry unit that is within 2 inches can embark, and if they haven't moved during the turn they can be fired anywhere on the board as though they are deepstriking. Could allow for some cool ideas, fire warriors away as the enemy closes in, keep some channelers in the back and fire them at the enemy when you are ready to strike rather than relying on reserves.

Obviously the unit should be expensive, perhaps 80+ points, maybe immobile.

Updated codex again. Added two more units, survivors and crabnaught. Also some new fluff; thyrrus versus necrons, and I expanded the war world story. Now the codex numbers 14 units counting the drop pod and water feature.

I am hesitant in giving the thyrrus too much when mitigating their mobility issue as it is supposed to be a defining weakness for them. Right now the thyrrus infantry have several means of enhance mobility; the drop pods, water features, and the shuttle transports. With the soliloquns ability to enter the battlefield anywhere on the board and the thespians and crabnaught fleet movement I think the thyrrus are getting to the point were they are fast enough for land squids.

The cannon Button describes sounds like it might be a good warmachine in an apocalypse game. I am visualizing a giant crab like machine with a mounted cannon that would suck up a clutch of thyrrus and launch them at the enemy so they deepstike the turn they board.

Right now I think the Thyrrus are actually quite balanced, having the Crescendo Cannon, Crabnaught, and Light Caster to deal with AV 14 and their basic guns being able to make transports think twice about trying to drive near them, which is nice. So far the codex doesn't seem to be overly lacking in any category, but I think the lightcaster would do well to have the lance rule to make it better suited for it's role as the Thyrrus' ultimate say in the realm of long ranged anti-tank. The crabnaught could also do with more attacks for dealing with other MCs and Infantry (though it is great for cutting open vehicles), I'd suggest something like the old tyranid scythe tail, weapons that grant d3 attacks at half strength, purchasable as an upgrade that can be swapped out for weapons that grant 1 extra attack at full strength each. I'm not sure about the points cost but I'd suggest that they be in the 20-30 point range.

But other than that, I think you an actually begin to start creating special characters, which IMO should be the last units added to a codex generally. Special characters generally can be sorted into a few categories, the Hard as nails guy (Gazghkull, Imotekh, Typhus, Lysander, Deddog/Yarrick, Draigo, Ku'Gath, Old One eye (were he not complete garbage) etc), The Close combat rape machine (Mephiston, Skulltaker, Skarbrand, Vect, Kharne, Yriel, Karandras, Logan Grimnar, Abaddon, Obyron, Swarmlord, Calgar, Straken, Farsight, Draigo again, Gazghkull again etc), the shooty guy (Wazdakka, Zogwort, DoM, Maugan-Ra, Shas'O'Ra'Lai, Szeras, Eldrad, Ahriman, Irrlyth, Fateweaver, Sammael and his flying land raider, etc), the Weird rules guy (Orikan, Mordak, Anrakyr, Parasite of Mortex, Grotsnik CREEEED, Corteaz, Deathleaper etc), the army buffer (Nemesor, CREEED, Crowe, Sliscus, Chenkov etc), the tarpit breaker (Stern, Trazyn, Karamazov, etc) and the HQ killer (Lucius, Valeria, Kheradrukah etc.)

While not all codexes represent these seven broad categories, all have at least one covered. Which categories you cover is completely up to you, but pretty much every codex has a close combat rape machine. Though obviously not all such units are equal.

Maybe some sort of vehicle that's essentially a cross between a stage and a tank?
Something elaborate like the celestial hurricanum from WHFB comes to mind, painted in bring clashing colors and varnished so its shiny.

Updated Again - Force Organization Changes; Channelers moved to troops, Thyrrus Warriors now 1+, Survivors moved to elite with 0-1 limitation removed. Added fluff story to soliloqun unit entry.

Future Plans:

Crescendo Tanks might be getting the option of changing their main gun to another weapon. These would be versions of already existing thyrrus weaponry like a gatling spiker cannon for example. The crabnaught is open to some changes especially its name; purchasable upgrades are likely. I am not sure that the lightcasters need the lance rule as they are already strength 9; the crescendo tank might be able to replace its crescendo cannon for a beefed up main gun version of the light caster - something that would be their end all in anti-tank ballistics.

The thyrrus are going to have their own unique version of special characters that deal heavily in adjusting the FOC of the thyrrus army and the performance roll. They will all be propmasters and instead of being individuals they will exist as “roles”. By that I mean, that occasionally a propmaster will take up a certain role or persona in which they act the part of an independent character - so there could be multiple “Darting Eels” running around the galaxy. Stats and specialized weaponry are a secondary concern for me at the moment; I am more concerned about how they effect the thyrrus force for the time being, but expect them to exceed the other generic characters in their specialized fields of combat.

Thoughts so far:

“Darting Eel”: A propmaster in a thespian walker. Taking him turns thespians into troops and removes drop pods and stagehands from the army. Units of infantry must purchase shuttles. Any performance roll result can be substituted for the fleet/rage roll.

“Flying Fish” A propmaster that gives all infantry units drop pods which must be used. Thespians, Vehicles, and Water Features cannot be taken. Any performance roll result can be substituted for the shoot twice/can’t move result.

“Breaking Wave” Deals heavily with the thyrrus as suicidal lemmings aspect of their fluff. A propmaster carried on a litter by two thyrrus. Units of warriors and channelers must purchase the without number rule. This would be conditional, as long as Breaking Wave was still alive they could respawn. Shuttles, drop pods, and water features cannot be taken. Any performance roll result can be substituted for the fearless result.

Update to version 2.5
Added special characters in the form of special roles. There are six characters each tied to a performance result that they promote for the army. They also modify army layout and unit selection.

The crescendo tank is now renamed the luminous tank and has the "Strength in Number" rule to encourage vehicle squadrons as featured in Xenology. There are now 5 different main gun options available to the luminous tank.

Update codex for 6th edition.

Slow and purposeful is out, Aquatic Physiology rule now causes the thyrrus to treat open terrain as if it was difficult terrain and water based terrain as if it was open.

Added in allies.

luminous tanks now benefit from increased hull points for being in squadrons instead of increased front armour.

Some pricing changes and fnp adjustments to thespian suit units.

I've suggested this for a Harliquin codex and I'll suggest it here... Have you considered making Water Features Fortifications? Maybe 1-3 Water Features in one slot. Makes more sense than among the units

Shas'o_Longshot wrote:
I've suggested this for a Harliquin codex and I'll suggest it here... Have you considered making Water Features Fortifications? Maybe 1-3 Water Features in one slot. Makes more sense than among the units

No, I haven’t consider using them as fortifications; good suggestion.

Updated codex with that change and some other minor adjustments. I decided to split the difference and give the thyrrus player the option of taking water features as either a fast selection or as a fortification. I also clarified how the features are placed on the table. They would be fortifications in name only as the thyrrus player places them on the table as normal terrain not being confined to their own deployment zone as with fortifications.