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Made in us
Free Company Reject





Is there any fluff in books or anything that hints to any kind of pirate factions in 40k? How believable would it be to start a pirate-ish themed army for 40k?

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Made in us
Dakka Veteran






Chicago

Well, the Red Corsairs are pirates. They're basically red and black Chaos Space Marines, but they're pirates in the fluff.

Aside from that, a pirate themed IG force might work. There are Renegade Guard forces in the fluff, and a pirate one would work. It'd take a bit of conversion work though, as there are no real pirate models in GW's range that I know of.
   
Made in gb
Morphing Obliterator





all of the dark eldar are pirates and raiders. some eldar forces also act like pirates (at least to imperial eyes). orks are quite happy to travel about attacking whatever they can find and stealing everything else. certain chaos warbands act like pirates and there are also god knows how many human prirates harassing shipping lanes the galaxy over. basically any army can be pirate flovoured if you like (necrons, tau and nids may be tricky though).

taking up the mission
Polonius wrote:Well, seeing as I literally will die if I ever lose a game of 40k, I find your approach almost heretical. If we were to play each other in a tournament, not only would I table you, I would murder you, your family, every woman you ever loved and burn down your house. I mean, what's the point in winning if you allow people that don't take the game seriously to live?
 
   
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Ragin' Ork Dreadnought




Monarchy of TBD

The Orks even have Kaptin Badrukk, an ork pirate so successful he needs three gretchin to carry around his swag. there's no official model for him, but any of these guys would work.

http://www.solegends.com/citcat911/c2074orkfreebooterz-m.htm

Klawz-Ramming is a subset of citrus fruit?
Gwar- "And everyone wants a bigger Spleen!"
Mercurial wrote:
I admire your aplomb and instate you as Baron of the Seas and Lord Marshall of Privateers.
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[MOD]
Madrak Ironhide







Pirate IG works.

The question is how to make it thematic without making
trash doctrine selections. I guess Veterans would make
sense in a pirate force, as would drop troops.

If you converted chimeras into mini land cutters you
could even go mechanized.

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"...he could never understand the sense of a contest in which the two adversaries agreed upon the rules." Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude 
   
Made in us
Free Company Reject





Yea I should have been more specific whith my question...

I'm thinking along the lines of human pirates...

I've got a lot of ideas for models and such...

Would the imerium ever hire pirates to do stuff for em...I dunno like mercs or somthin?

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Made in us
Scarred Ultramarine Tyrannic War Veteran






Maple Valley, Washington, Holy Terra

Look up "Wolf Packs" for Battlefleet Gothic. They're pirates. Heck, they've got an army list and special scenarios, IIRC.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2008/05/10 06:05:21


"Calgar hates Tyranids."

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Made in us
Scarred Ultramarine Tyrannic War Veteran






Maple Valley, Washington, Holy Terra

Also, one of the very first army lists for 40K was "Crangor's Buccaneers, Pirates from the Crab Nebula."

"Calgar hates Tyranids."

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Made in us
Sslimey Sslyth






Busy somewhere, airin' out the skin jobs.

The human pirates were wiped out by the human Ninjas.

HAI-YA!

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Made in au
Nimble Ellyrian Reaver






Australia, mate

Don't forget Kroot. They've got their own merceneries codex.
http://uk.games-workshop.com/tau/kroot%2Dlist/

If you're set on having humans maybe you could adapt some rules?
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Sounds like a good use for the Witchhunter codex, with allied guard. Lots of weirdness in there to use.

In the dark future, there are skulls for everyone. But only the bad guys get spikes. And rivets for all, apparently welding was lost in the Dark Age of Technology. -from C.Borer 
   
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Anti-Armour Swiss Guard






Newcastle, OZ

"Hired" pirates would make them "Privateers".

Sanctioned piracy during wartime. They got to keep their spoils. When war was over, if they refused to go back to being law-abiding, THEN they were pirates.
There was a pirate army list (humans and renegades) in RT, as well as the FIRST eldar army list (Yriel's Eldritch Raiders).

I'm OVER 50 (and so far over everyone's BS, too).
Old enough to know better, young enough to not give a ****.

That is not dead which can eternal lie ...

... and yet, with strange aeons, even death may die.
 
   
Made in us
Scarred Ultramarine Tyrannic War Veteran






Maple Valley, Washington, Holy Terra

Er, no. Pirates with a letter of marque would be privateers. Hired pirates would be, well, mercenaries.

"Calgar hates Tyranids."

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Made in us
Happy Imperial Citizen




Read up on Rogue Traders. They can range from being the Imperial version of Privateers and Captain Kirk to the Emperor's East Indian Trading Company.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2008/06/27 13:47:18


"The strong are strongest alone" 
   
Made in gb
Stalwart Veteran Guard Sergeant





Scotland, North Ayrshire

Imagine a chimera hull with a galleon built on in. The bow sticking out the front on top like.

Raven Guard W.I.P
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10mm Swiss and Scottish 
   
Made in gb
Oberleutnant





Devon, UK

The Red Corsairs were better in the original fluff. You used the Imperial Marine codex rather than the Chaos one and each unit was made up of renegade Marines from different chapters with all the Imperial markings and icons painted red. I'm putting together an army of them this way now, its great being able to paint one or two figures from all different chapters rather than having to stick to one colour scheme all the time...
Mick

Digitus Impudicus!
Armies-  
   
Made in us
Veteran Inquisitor with Xenos Alliances






Back in 2nd ed. in one of the early "Citadel Journals" there was a pirate army list. It was pretty much close combat IG on foot.
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran







While there are no books that I can recall that directly deals with pirates, I can think of two books that might be helpful to you:

Farseer: This book is about down on his luck trader who is hired by eldar to travel to a world near the eye of terror. While not a pirate per say, he does travel in his own ship and possesses his own crew. It might be a benefit for you to read.

Into the Eye? Eye of Terror?: Forgot the name, basically a buddy story with a trader and a navigator flying around the eye. It is an old book and is no longer sold by GWS.

While nether of the crews are pirates, both books set a precedent of commercially owned warp capable vessels. And if people are flying around in their own ships, they can fly around and plunder in their own ships.

40K pirates would probably come about the same way as real pirates – a group of people pressed ganged into a slavery like service decide to mutiny. Because they are criminals they can’t return to their planet so they survive on raiding.

I also recall exiled Space Marines becoming pirates without joining chaos. It would be fairly fluffy if your pirates where lead by a space marine renegade. – it would also provided you with a decent leader for your army.

Sadly LatD was a codex that would have lent itself well to creating a pirate army. I really don’t understand why GWS doesn’t take 3 or 4 pages out of a White Dwarf and give us back our armies.

hope this was helpful

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2008/08/09 00:16:29


   
Made in us
Veteran Inquisitor with Xenos Alliances






I found it. It was Citadel Journal 13. Human Pirate rules.
Stat line as IG but with laspistols/autopistols and close combat weapons. Could exchange for Lasgun/Autogun.
   
 
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