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I have heard of people intentionally making thier troops crouch to take advantage of the los rule. And also speculation of vehichles pruposefully being modelled to provide more cover for friendly units.

What is the worst/best/coolest case of this you have seen/heard of?

Also, do you think it is pedantic and unfair to do so? Or is it a just reward for the extra effort put in by the modeler?

There's a guy at the FLGS whose Devastators are standing on top of a Baneblade flipped on its end.

As in the whole squad is modelled onto the baneblade?
That's a lot of effort, but what would come out of it? Better line of sight? What?

I mean that the Baneblade is flipped so that it's balancing on its front with the rest of it teetering in the air. The Devastators stand on top of it (on the back, see?) and they have infinite LOS unless we use a really tall bit of terrain.

But I've seen worse. One of the guys has a model of Marneus Calgar holding up a Land Raider so that the Termies inside can disembark into tall ruins and it has huge LOS.

I played a guy with some 'cheeze freaks' at a RTT years ago.

His war buggies, were sentinels glued on top of regular war buggies so they were slowed tall.

they had no purpose other than to drive up in front of your army and die- and hence block LOS to his trukks- which were made out of toys and were only barely taller than an ork.

Ive seen anotehr guy model his wraith lords to be prone, like some giant sniper.

And Ive seen a variety of lamer poses on Defilers.

There are no rules whatsoever regarding modeling, except that you play using Citadel Miniatures.

I've seen people with extended gun barrels on tanks (distance is measured from the muzzle of the gun) so that their 'short' range guns reach across the board.

@Cheese: It doesn't exactly confer a bonus or advantage though does it? You can't count the baneblade as a piece of cover as it is thier base.

Yes you can. It's a 'scenic base'.

Yuck.

If that is what they need to win/gain an advantage.....they are somewhat "ethically slowed".

Legal, but lame-o. Just my opinion.

@ Cheese: Bases can't be used as cover (it's in the rulebook). However it does give them exceptional line of site.

No-one at my flgs abuses bases like this. Although in the case of the wraithlords being snipers, that sounds cool (even though it's somewhat unfair).

to clarify: a model can't gain cover from their own base, nor from other models in their unit.

Also there is a clause on pg 3, that says
"Some players like to mount their models on impressive scenic bases. As mounting your models on different sized bases might affect the way they interact with the rules, make sure before the game that your opponent does not mind this"

In this case.. you can say that you don't want to let him use that.

A guy who I play with has a a squad of stealth suits. The leader is modeled on a larger base (terminator sized base) than normal because the guy modeled a dead space marine and some other stuff on the base (decorative base). The base doesn't impact LOS or anything like that but when I was playing a 2v2 with the guy the other day one of our opponents commented that some people might not like the base size. The guy said that it makes no difference because in terms of movement he is not gaining any sort of advantage, ie the model moves the same 6 inches as everything else, does not have an increased LOS, etc.
What actual difference would this make in the game/how could he be thought to be gaining some sort of advantage by this?

It affects how many models in a unit might get hit by a template
it affects how many models can get into combat.

that sort of thing

With the combat rules, it puts the tau player at a disadvantage, allowing more models to be in B2B and therefore more enemy models within the combat zone. Then again, the main reason he is disadvantaged is because he is playing tau.

Elnicko5 wrote:With the combat rules, it puts the tau player at a disadvantage, allowing more models to be in B2B and therefore more enemy models within the combat zone. Then again, the main reason he is disadvantaged is because he is playing tau.

ZING!

Smaller bases would be better for stealth suits. Larger ones make it more likely for them to mishap on a deepstrike.

Marneus Calgar holding up a landraider. Seriously, whats wrong with these bunheads? I'd extensively remodel that particular base with a sledge hammer.

It's a bit superficial, but if the model is on a really good-looking scenic base, or it just looks awesome in the pose the person has constructed then it's okay with me even if it is obviously modeling for advantage.

On the flip side, if it's clearly MFA but looks like a pile of poo or it's just ridiculous (Calgar benching a Landraider... yeah...) then no, I'd probably ask them to tone it down a notch.

But regardless of the situation, the modeler is totally within his rights to tell me "Not a chance" and play against a different shooty guard army. No hard feelings.

When it all boils down I think winning is great, but it's not worth pissing of your friends and fellow gamers.

DoW

There was a guy here who used to put wings on the sides of his transports that went out about 6 inches to give cover to infantry walking next to his tanks... that didn't fly so well with me.

I have nothing against someone modeling something to look cooler, but don't expect a game advantage over it.

... that didn't fly so well with me.

Ah the punnage! Love it.

DoW

I have a model of Abaddon holding up a wounded Marneus Calgar holding up a landraider with a Valkyrie flightstand holding up some Jump Pack marines.


Seriously though.....there's a guy who runs an Egyptian themed Thousand Sons army who uses scarabs as his daemons...which means you cannot see them most of the time for shooting!

The funniest idea I have ever heard was a Wraithlord curled up in a fetus position so it would be about the size of a vyper, seriously funny though.

I can't imagine most people actually thinking that severe conversions are okay to use, they become art more than anything else, use them as terrain if you want to see them on the table.

Most conversions are because people want the model to have a personal touch, and regardless of some minor changes to the hulls of vehicles, appendages on infantry don't count.

In terms of the marneus one I would let the player use it, but marneus and his base counts as the landraider, so both players have a balanced advantage. Every time you measured to marneus you could just put a big cup or a large blast template for hull.

What about modeling stuff on a figure that it doesn't actually have in game terms? For example I painted this nightbringer a few years ago and added green wings to it (to fit with my army color scheme). I think it looks cool, but a nightbringer doesn't actually have wings (I wish it could move 12 inches!). Do you care if people do stuff like this?



I saw a guy the other day who modeled a defiler that was pretty much laying down...that's just lame. At some point you gotta realize you're a tool if you that concerned with winning.

cow that looks very cool. I cannot imagine anyone other that a complete prick having issue with it.

Well, seeing as how wings don't actually matter in terms of LoS or checking range or anything, I'd say that one's fine.

Yeah, that IS a cool conversion. And it hardly gives it an advantage, gamewise.

But there was this story of tanks having walls and cover on thier sides to provide cover to troops. That's just nasty.

funniest model conversion i've seen was chimera driving through a bog ... basically he'd cut down the model and based it to look like it had sunk into the mud. Don't get me wrong it looked great but my god it was easy to get it cover saves

You should just tell them they are a cheater and that you will not play them.

We had a guy who was annoyed that people would shoot over his rhinos at his Penitent Engines in 4th edition. The next tournament his Rhino had a flag, an enormous rectangular flag, running along the entire rhino and extending roughly 9 inches into the sky. It was the most preposterous thing I'd ever seen.

Another funny one, in the 'Ardboyz round 1 I played vs. someone who used the old Ahriman model (roughly dreadnaught size) for his Abaddon. That base coming out of that land raider gave him like 6 extra inches. Ludicrous cheese.

I just view this as cheating its pretty ridiculous that people even allow others to do that.

My favorite was somewhat at our FLGS made his own Droppods w/ paper. The thing is he did not have open doors so you could not draw LOS through them so it was like putting a tall brick on the table.

Pretty ridiculous.