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I love doing themed armies.

Recently ive been wanting to try somthing that seems to be lacking slightly in the 40k universe.

I'd love to do an army thats made up of real characters with personality. An army that feels like a bunch of pirates or rogues going through the galaxy, drinking, stealing and fighting.

Now i know what your thinking, orkz right?

but i didnt want to do an ork one, maybe another race.. Any recomendations? or ideas? im stumped.

Dark Eldar are raiders. That's kinda pirate-y. Except they're sadistic murderers rather than rowdy pirate types.

Red corsairs are kinda pirate-y, read the current CSM codex and you'll see what I mean. They plunder and raid enemy ships. and cause havoc in shipping lanes.

Yeah i was going for a more pirate character feel lol i was going to give them a tarantino style, especially for the leaders. Trying to steer away from seriousness lol
I wanted these guys to basically take any job they can get for cash and booze. Chaos and dark eldar have too much of a serious feel to them.

AtomicEngineer wrote:Yeah i was going for a more pirate character feel lol i was going to give them a tarantino style, especially for the leaders.

For that type of thing It's gotta be the Orks. They have that type of attitude the most.

You do have Craftword Corsairs. Less spike/nasty/grim than theri Commoragh cousins, but still flying around space essentially doing whatever they want.

That could involve them hiring themselves out to unscrupulous Planetary Governors to clear out some competition or what have you. Or you could go with IG rules and say that they're mercernaries or some such.

But from what you're saying, I'd go with Corsairs.

I was hoping there was some way of having a human force but if i use imperial gaurd wouldnt i need alot of troops. Is there anyway to work around the gaurd rules to allow less troops but i dont mind having more vehicles if needed. I just want it to feel like a pirate group than a whole army but i could customise some gaurd to give them real piraty personality lol

The issue with the pirate theme is that I assume your after more of a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' feel, lead by a personality like Jack Sparrow?

As opposed to the Somali pirates in the real world, which would be closer to the DE or Chaos version of pirates.

For a Jack Sparrow feel, might I recommend space wolves? They get saga's, they are armed to the teeth with bolters, pistols and ccw, they already like to drink... Having a pirate band of space wolves isnt even a stretch really, just another friday night haha

For humie pirates, Penal Legion with lots of valks I would wager, and Straken+Marbo for your crazy characters

I was thinking a more vulgur style, so drinking, smoking swearing lots of booze cigars playing football with ork heads with sentinals lol

that kind of thing. If you've ever played a game called bulletstorm too that helps lol

Dark Eldar
Ork Freebootas
Imperial Guard as a Rogue Trader's forces.

There are human pirates a plenty in the imperium- raiders and plunderers on a small scale, some of whom are suprisingly well equipped.
You could use Imperial Guard rules to represent them.

I reckon they'd be light on heavy armour though.
Ogryns and Ratlings might fit the theme, sentinels (as cargo lifters?) maybe one battered old leman russ?
Valks would fit, for void pirates. It's doable, and it might be cool.

I like the sound of those last chancers n Penal Legion, how would i be able to use them? they seem to fit the bill. I suppose they would need to be custom built right?

Guardsmen is your best choice. But you could easily use catachans and make 40k somali pirates pretty easy lmfao

To get past your power blob problem use veterans. Thers alot of stuff to kit them out whit like shotguns, flamer and what-not. Aot of valks and some sentinals(spelling?) ogryns, ratlings, one or two russes tops heavy weapons

catachans and GS all you need to make some badass bording parties.

Grey Knights with Coteaz and henchmobs.

Radical Inquisitors using a GK/Witchhunters codex.

Ork Lootas and Kult of Speed.

Dark Eldar - you model them how you like, but they can field entire Harlequin armies also...

Eldar - modelled using Harlequins or using Harlequin Jetbike army counts as.

CSM - remember, rumours of Legions are around the corner. You dont need to be "chaotic" to be deemed a heretic by the imperium.

AvatarForm wrote:Radical Inquisitors using a Witchhunters codex.

I recommend not doing this. C:WH is a month from becoming obsolete in many peoples' eyes, even though not an insubstantial number of its players will not use the WD codex.

The best pirates would have to be Orks they have the perfect attitude and I think an HQ with a pirate hat or that could just be the genius of one of the guys at my FLGS.

Kaptin Badrukk! hes got a pirate hat and every thing.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/269621

You could easily make some battle wagon boats and trukk boats out of strips of plastic card and cardboard. I remember seeing an army like that but i cant find the blog that had it.

Argh!!!!!!!!

I'll echo others... for a not so serious force that will have a fun and rowdy feel... orks

Space Wolves could also be done... just read the opening of Battle for the Abyss... there's your crew!

Ork Freebootas are essentialy exactly that. Hell, one of the Ork Special Characters looks like a pirate too. And ofcourse the DoW char as well.

Dark Eldar are pirates and their wyches are ninjaery.

I would totally make a SW pirate army if I had the time to paint them properly.

They are vikings anyway, that is an easy transition to pirates.

The viking to pirate parallel is pretty close, so I would probably go with Space Wolves. I think they are pretty easy to paint, honestly. In general, if you want an army with a more individualized style for each model, look into armies that have less models at a higher points cost, such as Grey Knights or Chaos Demons.

The original eldar were depicted as pirates. Might be something interesting to pursue there.

Space Wolves work very well as they are basically vikings in space. Whats the difference?

Space wolves or Orks. I would choose with the wolves.

I always thought the DE vehicles could be converted into a pretty good looking pirate ship. Batter it so it appears old, paint it wood colors and fashion some sails and jolly rogers and you're good to go. Not sure that's what you're going for, but my $.02.

DO WHAT YOU WANT 'CAUSE A PIRATE IS FREE, YOU ARE A PIRATE! seriously though, do whatever you want, it's your army.Also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os5TXyJlEMc&feature=BFa&list=PL36D5A4D1CEBCF70B&index=109