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Edit: taken down for major revision.

Edit: due to some concerns with it being a valid "fandex" i am taking down the dex until i get to v2 and completely rewrite it.

Too good. Everything is buffed out the nose

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Too good. Everything is buffed out the nose

And you be more specific and explain in detail why?

I am totally up to modifying my codex to be more balanced, but a flat statement like that does me no good.

Orvis25 wrote:
And you be more specific and explain in detail why?

The problem is you've just copy/pasted the entire IG codex and buffed a few things. Making your own codex should be about making something different, not just making your army more powerful. For example, consider the FW Elysian drop trops list: you gain deep strike on everything and dedicated transport Valkyries, but you lose access to all of the tanks. So you have an IG variant codex that is still recognizable as IG, but has its own strengths and weaknesses. Yours, on the other hand, has no such differences. It's a strictly better IG codex and if you had to choose between the two there would never be any reason to use the official codex, regardless of what theme you've chosen for your army.

Now, if you just want to re-balance the game then that's fine, it certainly needs a lot of balance changes. But don't dress it up as a customized fandex for your army, be honest and say "my codex is too weak and I'm struggling to compete, let's make some changes to bring it in line with the other armies".

 Peregrine wrote:

Orvis25 wrote:
And you be more specific and explain in detail why?

The problem is you've just copy/pasted the entire IG codex and buffed a few things. Making your own codex should be about making something different, not just making your army more powerful. For example, consider the FW Elysian drop trops list: you gain deep strike on everything and dedicated transport Valkyries, but you lose access to all of the tanks. So you have an IG variant codex that is still recognizable as IG, but has its own strengths and weaknesses. Yours, on the other hand, has no such differences. It's a strictly better IG codex and if you had to choose between the two there would never be any reason to use the official codex, regardless of what theme you've chosen for your army.

Now, if you just want to re-balance the game then that's fine, it certainly needs a lot of balance changes. But don't dress it up as a customized fandex for your army, be honest and say "my codex is too weak and I'm struggling to compete, let's make some changes to bring it in line with the other armies".

I wouldn't go as far as to say i copied the entire codex, i have cut some units completely because i feel they don't fit with the theme of my fandex "fluff", and also created my own units. In addition to adding an entire army trait table from scratch (which in v1.3 will be revised to possibly include some negative effects). That being said, yes it is a "buffed" version of the regular dex, because they are regular guard, and also that i feel it was not competitive (or well balanced at this point when fighting some specific army's). To me fandex is just put a spin on a current dex or improve the original, not create one form scratch (or what your saying in terms of make it play different than its normal dex), i would just call that a regular dex.

so i would certainly think about look into thinking of how to give my dex a week point, and possibly even more of a "unique" feel, but at this point as far as i am concerned i created a sub-dex (?) kinda how like SM have all their craxy different chapters (iron fist, salamanders, yada daya) that give them buffs, in addition to their formation buffs and whatever else.

THANKS for the feedback too
helps me write a better one in the end.

Orvis25 wrote:
I wouldn't go as far as to say i copied the entire codex

You did. You literally copy/pasted the entire codex and made a very small number of changes. TBH I'm surprised the moderators haven't removed your attachment yet, since it's pretty clearly a substantial enough copy to be a violation of GW's IP rights.

i have cut some units completely because i feel they don't fit with the theme of my fandex "fluff"

Which units? The special characters? It sure doesn't look like you've removed anything significant. Whatever it is, it's certainly not enough of a change to be a serious drawback in the way that things like Elysians losing all of the tanks force you to make difficult choices about whether or not you want to use a variant codex.

and also created my own units.

Not any interesting ones. Adding a medic IC is not a very significant change, and it doesn't really show off anything about the character of your army.

In addition to adding an entire army trait table from scratch (which in v1.3 will be revised to possibly include some negative effects).

Sure, but that's just straight buffs. It doesn't say anything about the character of your army, especially since there's no common theme to any of the traits. In fact, adding so many new traits/orders/etc just dilutes the theme of your army. You'd be better off choosing a single buff that represents the concept of your army and getting rid of the rest.

To me fandex is just put a spin on a current dex or improve the original, not create one form scratch (or what your saying in terms of make it play different than its normal dex), i would just call that a regular dex.

But you haven't put a spin on anything, you've just made your army more powerful. Again, consider the Elysian drop troops example as an official "fandex". It has significant army-wide rules (universal deep strike and turn-1 flyers), changes which units are available and which FOC slot they're in (dedicated transport Valkyries, no tanks), adds some different upgrade options (veteran squads can take homing beacons instead of camo cloaks), and generally plays completely differently compared to a codex IG army. It's still clearly IG, but it definitely has its own character and you have to make really difficult choices between the two.

You've done none of that. Your codex is a "spin" on the standard codex in the same way that a codex where I edited lasguns to be STR D AP 1 would be.

Well, the others said it, and I must agree, you haven't pushed this fandex far enough, even though the potential is there.

Basically, this fandex is intended to represent an elite "The Guard is for the Guardsmen!" type of army. They are supposed to have only a few options and be numerically inferior to your bread-and-butter IG/AM army (both because they are "undermanned" and "worn out") but they are making up for this with gimmicks (because they are "elite") and a strong board presence (comradeship). Keeping this in mind, I would change the following:
- No psykers of any kind (Astropath, Primaris, Wyrdvane), no abhumans (Ogryns, Bullgryns, Ratlings), no weirdos (Priests, Enginseers, Rough Riders), no special characters (Pask, Yarrick). Commissars might or might not stay - they don't fit the theme (neither the "undermanned" nor the "comradeship"), but maybe you can circumvent this by replacing their Summary Execution with Fearless/Zealot.
- No special snowflake units: no Taurox/Taurox Prime, no Vendetta, no LR Eradicator/Punisher, no Whywern, no Manticore, no Deathstrike. Possibly no Devil Dog/Bane Wolf. You want to make this army as tight as possible, so cut the flutter and never look back.
- No vehicle squadrons, only single vehicles.
- Cut the codex-fix special rules like Team Manned Gun and Recoil Absorption Equipment. They just make things awkward.
- Ground Stomp (playing too much DoW2 lately, eh? ) should be simpler: just remake it that a single model in the unit may do a Stomp attack (S5, AP5, Large Blast centered on the model, Strikedown) instead of its normal attacks at I1.
- For orders, I think you should just replace the whole bunch with the Tempestus orders (they are much better for this kind of army), exchanging Advance on Target for Run! Run! Run!, and keeping Fire on My Target and Get Back in the Fight as the Senior Officer orders.
- Give the army an army-wide special rule so that units auto-pass Ld tests if their roll is higher than the number of models in the unit. This would represent their increasing determination as they get more and more bloodied.
- The Veterancy Traits (this name gives away what is this rule about a lot better IMHO) shoould be something like:
1. Sharpshooters: +1 BS all across the field (up to a maximum of 4, models with BS4 gain +1 Weapon Skill and +1 Attack).
2. Terraineers: Fleet and Move Through Cover, re-roll Dangerous and Mysterious Terrain (keeping the second result even if it is worse).
3. Fieldcraft: Acute Senses, Scouts, Stealth.
4. Hardened Fighters: Counter Attack, Furious Charge, fire Overwatch at BS2. Vehicles can fire Overwatch with their S3/4/5 weapons.
5. Mech Expertise: Vehicles have an 5+ invulnerable save and an additional Heavy Stubber. Infantry can bail out even if the vehicle moved 6-12", but they must take Dangerous Terrain tests.
6. Evasive Tricks: Fleet, may fire Snap Shots after/before running (no restriction on heavy weapons), may move D6" when targeted by a ranged attack or charge but can't run in its next Shooting phase. Vehicles count as WS6 in close-combat.
- For Warlord Traits, I think you should check out some of the FW tables for IG/AM. Stuff like Old Grudges (Preferred Enemy against a faction) and Uncanny Survivor (Eternal Warrior) would be very thematic for this army.
- Conscripts should be an addition to normal squads, like Novices in the Black Templar Crusader Squads. Like, you can add 0-20 Conscript to every squad. Conscripts as a separate entry doesn't fit the fluff IMHO.
- Lower the maximum number of units a Platoon can take to something like 2-3 Infantry Squads, 0-2 HWS and 0-1 SWS.
- Maybe you can add the Veteran Doctrines as an option for all infantry unit. Also, there should be other Doctrines like Slab Shields, Infiltrate, and +1 special weapon.
- You can make the Assault Chimera the base entry and just have a Fast Chimera for 65 points.
- You might want to rename Scions back to Storm Troopers, just to avoid confusion.
- Probably also include a few FW units like Field Ordnance Batteries, Medusas, and maybe the Krieg Engineers (as a stand-in for Cadian engineers).

I guess that's all for now. Hope it helps !

 Peregrine wrote:

Orvis25 wrote:
I wouldn't go as far as to say i copied the entire codex

You did. You literally copy/pasted the entire codex and made a very small number of changes. TBH I'm surprised the moderators haven't removed your attachment yet, since it's pretty clearly a substantial enough copy to be a violation of GW's IP rights.

i have cut some units completely because i feel they don't fit with the theme of my fandex "fluff"

Which units? The special characters? It sure doesn't look like you've removed anything significant. Whatever it is, it's certainly not enough of a change to be a serious drawback in the way that things like Elysians losing all of the tanks force you to make difficult choices about whether or not you want to use a variant codex.

and also created my own units.

Not any interesting ones. Adding a medic IC is not a very significant change, and it doesn't really show off anything about the character of your army.

In addition to adding an entire army trait table from scratch (which in v1.3 will be revised to possibly include some negative effects).

Sure, but that's just straight buffs. It doesn't say anything about the character of your army, especially since there's no common theme to any of the traits. In fact, adding so many new traits/orders/etc just dilutes the theme of your army. You'd be better off choosing a single buff that represents the concept of your army and getting rid of the rest.

To me fandex is just put a spin on a current dex or improve the original, not create one form scratch (or what your saying in terms of make it play different than its normal dex), i would just call that a regular dex.

But you haven't put a spin on anything, you've just made your army more powerful. Again, consider the Elysian drop troops example as an official "fandex". It has significant army-wide rules (universal deep strike and turn-1 flyers), changes which units are available and which FOC slot they're in (dedicated transport Valkyries, no tanks), adds some different upgrade options (veteran squads can take homing beacons instead of camo cloaks), and generally plays completely differently compared to a codex IG army. It's still clearly IG, but it definitely has its own character and you have to make really difficult choices between the two.

You've done none of that. Your codex is a "spin" on the standard codex in the same way that a codex where I edited lasguns to be STR D AP 1 would be.

I will have to take your input into consideration, i guess as a novice at fandex writing i will have to try again as i apparently did a very poor job at it.

Thanks for input.

I will take it down to avoid any issues.

 AtoMaki wrote:
Well, the others said it, and I must agree, you haven't pushed this fandex far enough, even though the potential is there.

Basically, this fandex is intended to represent an elite "The Guard is for the Guardsmen!" type of army. They are supposed to have only a few options and be numerically inferior to your bread-and-butter IG/AM army (both because they are "undermanned" and "worn out") but they are making up for this with gimmicks (because they are "elite") and a strong board presence (comradeship). Keeping this in mind, I would change the following:
- No psykers of any kind (Astropath, Primaris, Wyrdvane), no abhumans (Ogryns, Bullgryns, Ratlings), no weirdos (Priests, Enginseers, Rough Riders), no special characters (Pask, Yarrick). Commissars might or might not stay - they don't fit the theme (neither the "undermanned" nor the "comradeship"), but maybe you can circumvent this by replacing their Summary Execution with Fearless/Zealot.
- No special snowflake units: no Taurox/Taurox Prime, no Vendetta, no LR Eradicator/Punisher, no Whywern, no Manticore, no Deathstrike. Possibly no Devil Dog/Bane Wolf. You want to make this army as tight as possible, so cut the flutter and never look back.
- No vehicle squadrons, only single vehicles.
- Cut the codex-fix special rules like Team Manned Gun and Recoil Absorption Equipment. They just make things awkward.
- Ground Stomp (playing too much DoW2 lately, eh? ) should be simpler: just remake it that a single model in the unit may do a Stomp attack (S5, AP5, Large Blast centered on the model, Strikedown) instead of its normal attacks at I1.
- For orders, I think you should just replace the whole bunch with the Tempestus orders (they are much better for this kind of army), exchanging Advance on Target for Run! Run! Run!, and keeping Fire on My Target and Get Back in the Fight as the Senior Officer orders.
- Give the army an army-wide special rule so that units auto-pass Ld tests if their roll is higher than the number of models in the unit. This would represent their increasing determination as they get more and more bloodied.
- The Veterancy Traits (this name gives away what is this rule about a lot better IMHO) shoould be something like:
1. Sharpshooters: +1 BS all across the field (up to a maximum of 4, models with BS4 gain +1 Weapon Skill and +1 Attack).
2. Terraineers: Fleet and Move Through Cover, re-roll Dangerous and Mysterious Terrain (keeping the second result even if it is worse).
3. Fieldcraft: Acute Senses, Scouts, Stealth.
4. Hardened Fighters: Counter Attack, Furious Charge, fire Overwatch at BS2. Vehicles can fire Overwatch with their S3/4/5 weapons.
5. Mech Expertise: Vehicles have an 5+ invulnerable save and an additional Heavy Stubber. Infantry can bail out even if the vehicle moved 6-12", but they must take Dangerous Terrain tests.
6. Evasive Tricks: Fleet, may fire Snap Shots after/before running (no restriction on heavy weapons), may move D6" when targeted by a ranged attack or charge but can't run in its next Shooting phase. Vehicles count as WS6 in close-combat.
- For Warlord Traits, I think you should check out some of the FW tables for IG/AM. Stuff like Old Grudges (Preferred Enemy against a faction) and Uncanny Survivor (Eternal Warrior) would be very thematic for this army.
- Conscripts should be an addition to normal squads, like Novices in the Black Templar Crusader Squads. Like, you can add 0-20 Conscript to every squad. Conscripts as a separate entry doesn't fit the fluff IMHO.
- Lower the maximum number of units a Platoon can take to something like 2-3 Infantry Squads, 0-2 HWS and 0-1 SWS.
- Maybe you can add the Veteran Doctrines as an option for all infantry unit. Also, there should be other Doctrines like Slab Shields, Infiltrate, and +1 special weapon.
- You can make the Assault Chimera the base entry and just have a Fast Chimera for 65 points.
- You might want to rename Scions back to Storm Troopers, just to avoid confusion.
- Probably also include a few FW units like Field Ordnance Batteries, Medusas, and maybe the Krieg Engineers (as a stand-in for Cadian engineers).

I guess that's all for now. Hope it helps !

Thanks for input man! I appreciate you making it positive and telling me it has potential, even though its got some major problems! I will definitely need to modify it more extensively to make it even more "unique" compared to regular guard.

Your input will be used for future versions

Edit: woops. accidental double post.