Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I would like to make a Codex for the Zoats but, (Here's a damn big problem) I actually have never played 40K before and have absoloutely no experience on this stuff. I might make it as a PDF though. So I need some tips and general fluff knowledge.

Read up on 40k.
Play a few games of 40K.
Read some more 40k.
Play more 40k.

Or be C.S. Goto (Read more about 40k to understand).

But seriously, play a some games to get an idea of the mechanics.

Here is some info for you.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Zoat

There would not be many Zoats left, if any at all, in the current time of 40k.

You could possibly have them as a mercenary unit used by Xenos races.

Make like Mr.Burning says and get some experience dude, you'll find it a lot easier to formulate ideas with a sound knowledge of the game mechanics.

Gee, thanks a bunch you guys.

You could make a Zoat codex, but it'd be pretty tough for multiple reasons. First of all, the models are from Rogue Trader and are really expensive to have a lot of.

Next, you're gonna have to make up a lot of their fluff. What happened when the Zoats ran away from the Tyranid hive-ships? Do they have Psykers? ad nauseam.

It's a great idea, you're gonna have to rack your brain though. : )

ANNOUNCEMENT:
I'm Done with the basic HQ unit. Here....

Zoat Chieftain
Zoats(Much Like Orks) tend to get bigger when
they become important, this chieftain is a good
demonstration.
Unit Type:
Beast
Special Rules:
Fearless: The Zoat Chieftain is fearless and this carries
on to his assigned squad.
Independent Character:The Zoat Chieftain is an independent
character.
Eternal Warrior:The Zoat Chieftain is immune
to instant death.
Fleet of Claw:This unit may assault after it has run.
Relentless:This unit is Relentless.
Stats
T W S WS I A LD SV BS
6 3 6 5 4 4 8 5+ 2

Haven't figured out the wargear yet. I was thinking... 60 points?

that looks alright to me, gotta admit though i know next to nil about the Zoats....

Vladsimpaler wrote: "What happened when the Zoats ran away from the Tyranid hive-ships? Do they have psykers? ad nauseam.(sry i can't figure out how to use the quote function)

I'm not sure what happened, pretty much most of them died but a single escape pod containing a group of 3 Zoats escaped, and the rest is
history. They DO have psykers though, and they can communicate telepathically. I'm thinking about adding a few new rules because of this.


PS: What does "ad nauseam" mean??

The Zoat wrote:Vladsimpaler wrote: "What happened when the Zoats ran away from the Tyranid hive-ships? Do they have psykers? ad nauseam.(sry i can't figure out how to use the quote function)

I'm not sure what happened, pretty much most of them died but a single escape pod containing a group of 3 Zoats escaped, and the rest is
history. They DO have psykers though, and they can communicate telepathically. I'm thinking about adding a few new rules because of this.


PS: What does "ad nauseam" mean??

im guessing somethign along the lines of "and so on..."

In rogue trader, zoats often hired themselves as bodyguards to the other races and eldar corsair princes often made use of them as such. I couldn’t find the source on this but I believed that I read that back in rogue trader the tyranids actually used them as ambassadors as they could telepathically communicate with any race no matter how alien they were.

I can predict two problems for you, the first being the shortage of, and price of, the zoat models. Even if you just won the lottery and could find and buy a 100 of the old models there is only about 5 different zoat models for 40K; not enough variety for a codex. You are going to have to do a lot of conversions. I suggest buying ogres, tyranid warriors, and cold ones and a lot of green stuff. Mount the ogres’ torsos on the cold ones legs and use the warriors’ weapons. These conversions are going to be expensive as you’re buying three box sets to create one unit.

The other problem is that the zoats; when they existed, never really possessed a lot of variety. You are going to have to think of all the different units that the zoats could actually produce that would be needed to flesh out an army. It’s hard to imagine them using vehicles for example. A havok-like squad with anti-tank guns could be a heavy option, but I don’t have any idea on what else you could do to provide the 6 or so units generally needed to build a competitive army.

I am actually working on creating an eldar corsair codex that references back to the rogue trader eldar mercenary army; I wrote my own rules for a zoat unit that you can find here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Eldar_Corsair_Codex#Zoats:

I've been thinking, what about instead of a Zoat codex, I did one with the dead races as a whole, Zoats,Jokaero and the rare others.

Well, Jokaero aren't dead, just a lesser race.

You could do a Codex: Xenos that covers a lot of the minor races.

You could have

Zoat Mercenaries
Demiurg Miners
Scythian warriors
Tarellian Dog-soldiers

etc etc

Grunt13 wrote:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Eldar_Corsair_Codex#Zoats:

What's a scythiian?

The Zoat wrote:What's a scythiian?

Scythians are a race of warrior monks who use venom based weaponry . They were encountered on HR8518 by the Crimsons Fists and managed to assassinate their Chapter Master.

hmmmmm....



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Zoat Chieftain [/u
]Zoats(Much Like Orks) tend to get bigger when
they become important, this chieftain is a good
demonstration.
Unit Type:
Beast
Special Rules:
Fearless: The Zoat Chieftain is fearless and this carries
on to his assigned squad.
Independent Character:The Zoat Chieftain is an independent
character.
Eternal Warrior:The Zoat Chieftain is immune
to instant death.
Fleet of Claw:This unit may assault after it has run.
Relentless:This unit is Relentless.
Stats
T W S WS I A LD SV BS
6 3 6 5 4 4 8 5+ 2
[u]
WARGEAR
The Zoat Chieftain has a Spiner Pistol he/she can replace this with....
a)A High-Powered Spiner Pistol for +5 points
b)A Double Barreled Spiner Pistol for +8 points
c)A Double High-Powered Spiner Pistol for +12 points.

A Zoat Chieftain normally has a Spinesword but you can give him a...
a)Dual bladed spinesword for +7 points
b)Poisoned spinesword for +10 points

A Zoat Chieftain may take any number of Biogrowths except when it is specifically stated he may not.
a) Exoskeleton, gives +1 to toughness for +5 points but it cannot be taken with Wings.
b) Wings, makes the Zoat Chieftain Jump Infantry with a Jet Pack for +10 points
c) Enhanced Muscle, gives +1 to Strength for +5 points
d) Superresilient Metabolism, gives a 5+ Invulnerable Save for +10 points
e) Hardened Scales gives a 4+ armor save for +7 points

How is this?

I don’t think wings work. It is kinda like putting wings on a hippo - the zoats themselves probably shouldn’t possess tyranid adaptability; like warriors turning into flying warriors. That is not to say that they can’t have bio-organisms that achieve much the same function – like a living armor creature instead of a thickened hide. Zoats were a slave species the tyranids used. They were not tyranids themselves, so it might be out of place to allow them to be as customizable as tyranids are.

People are accustomed to seeing stats portrayed in a certain order:
WS: 5 BS: 2 S: 6 T 6 W: 3 I: 4 A: 4 Ld: 8 Save: 5+
Or even:
5 2 6 6 3 4 4 8 5+

This would be a better way of portraying the stats of your Chief or at least this is how people are accustomed to reading stats. You might want to post stats on the spiner pistol so we know what it is. Also it might be better to create normal zoats first and then just consider adding 1 to its WS, BS, and I and 2 to its Wounds and leadership to create a chieftain. That is a pretty standard procedure for creating HQs.

The most recent mention of the zoats was in the tyranid forth edition codex. They flew stone organic looking vessels and arrived looking for protection against their slavers. In rogue trader free zoats were escaped slaves. This was before the hive mind and the tyranids used pheromones to control the slave zoats. Probably the first thing you should do is focus on making out the zoat troop unit and then worry about all the other stuff. Maybe make an alien mercenary codex. The mercs codex can fight on their own, or armies can purchase units from it. A 40K version of dogs of war of sorts, 40K is full of sell swords with the kroot and sslyth who already have rules and many other races that exist in the fluff.

Back when Black Gobbo was going they did an article with a few conversions one of which was a creature clearly akin to a zoat and made from the body of a plastic cold one.

I thought I could find the picture somewhere on line but there's no sign anywhere. GW did a very good job of deleting Black Gobbo and all its archives in case someone wanted to read some actual hobby content for once. I saved the webpage once but it was a long time ago now.

The Spiner pistol has the following profile,
Range:24" Strength:3 AP:4 Special: Pistol

There was this on their old site, although not dubbed a Zoat, it it certainly looks like an up to date (ish) attempt at one.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080411104249/http://uk.games-workshop.com/tyranids/forgotten-fleets/6/#colossus

Pilau Rice wrote:There was this on their old site, although not dubbed a Zoat, it it certainly looks like an up to date (ish) attempt at one.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080411104249/http://uk.games-workshop.com/tyranids/forgotten-fleets/6/#colossus

Zoats they are.
"Hive Fleet Colossus" is just another name for them.

Nice model, didn´t know it

Thats a (insert expletive here)ing Zoat!

Indeed it is, it looks more Tyranidy although I do prefer the original Zoat models.

I've been thinking, how about if I included the Zoats in the mercenary codex, but still gave them thei own?

Some body came by and snapped up this project, i am only slightly involved now.

Wow, zoats, i had some of those back in the day... I'd forgotten that they even existed!

Daedricbob wrote:Wow, zoats, i had some of those back in the day... I'd forgotten that they even existed!

wow.. that's kinda bad, even i remembered them. i hope this project sees the light of day

I know a good place for the zoats to find a home, in the Tau empire, they would make a great aux. alien troop choice maybe even giving some much needed CC staying power...hmmm who knows I may kick around the idea a bit. I always liked the Zoats and thought they had potential.

Btw I found a half-done codex of them with only 1 choice for everything, search Codex:Zoats and you'll find it.