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I've always wanted to make a pony army for Warhammer 40k since I became a brony (as I’m an avid Warhammer 40k player, and I love the blending of passions), and after watching "Ponyville Confidential" and seeing Twilight's forcefield, the final pieces of said army began to click into place. So, I took it upon myself to write the codex for the pony army (as I haven’t seen one before), and finally finished it.

In writing the codex, I wanted to create an army for MLP that is both balanced and could be used competitively (in friendly games obviously), without making it just "LOL THEYRE PONIES THEY MSUT WIN EVERY GAME EVER LOLOLOLOLOL". But, as there is a shortage of people here at my college that play Warhammer 40k, and a further shortage among those that do of bronies (there’s only 1 besides me), I have decided to give up playtesting the codex by myself. Therefore, I have set up my dropbox and this email address to allow other people to download the codex, submit questions, suggestions, etc. and be able to see the FAQ and updates (as well as continue to download updated versions of the codex as they come out)

you can download or view the codex HERE (BETA v1.5)
you can view the FAQ HERE (theres nothing there yet though)
you can view the codex updates document HERE (<--- check here to see whats changed in the new version)


some notes about the v1.5, I did my best to simplify as many rules as i could without totally removing some things (although i did remove the unicorn conclave, it was just too complex), but there are still a few units (parasprites) that I dont want to remove but cant think of way to smplify. I am still working on these units and hopefully will be simplified in the future


questions and suggestions are to be submitted to: ponyhammer40k@yahoo.com (most questions should be answered depending on volume)


email us if you want to be on the list for update notification! (we'll send you an email when the codex is updated, not every time we add something to the updates document)


Hope to have more people enjoying using MLP in Warhammer soon!
~Nicaetinismo


Main creator: Nicaetinismo
helpers: Praetors, Tivarox

Just a small tip, you don't need a separate box for invulnerable saves if the model only has one. You just need a * next to the save to indicate what save it is. If the model has multiple saves, the Sv part is usually armor save and if the model has an invulnerable save, its either mentioned as a wargear or as a special rule.

Painful to read, format-wise. I'll check back when some form of order has been employed.

chrisrawr wrote:Painful to read, format-wise. I'll check back when some form of order has been employed.

pehaps you could suggest a better way to format it? I tried to format it as best i could, but obviously the best way I see it is not necessarily going to be the best way to do it

Take a good, long read through a number of a) regular codices, and b) the good fan dexes around here. I would recommend you read through JustDave's codices, as well as AtoMaki's BlueStar Alliance codex for a look at formatting.

There are some missing details (unicorn conclave has no listing for number of unicorns), and it feels OP at first glance. I might go back and take another read through, but it is hard to read and seems burdened down by excessive special rules. The conclave is the best example of this, I just feel its far too complicated to be fun or enjoyable for your opponent.

When designing this codex, always imagine you playing it with someone who may or may not be your best friend. It should be simple; less is more. Don't try and make it remotely overpowered at first, in fact, its better to make it a little underwhelming at first for a number of reasons. Your opponents that will help play test will be more willing to play you and provide the right feedback to make something better, and small tweaks and adjustments to bring it up to snuff are easier to do than trying to tone something down.

I will say that the first two units (princesses of some sort) are broken, plain and simple. Flat out ignoring night fighting is terrible, and flat-out always having is equally terrible. Take a look at the Necron book and try something similar (and worse) than them.

Do not try and make this codex compete with the likes of Grey Knights and Space Wolves. You should be aiming to make it on par with C:SM and Tyranids; good armies who sit in the middle of the pack, but are outclassed by newer codices and are superior to the older ones.

*Edit* I'm compelled to state that its painful for me to read a MLP codex as I personally find it a touch absurd and grates against my rather strict view of the 40k fluff and game, but I'll still take a look if you'd like.

Just random points to make; I agree the formatting and amount of special rules needs help, but that'll come over successive generations of this thing
I'm only half reading it so I will only be commenting on things that stand out, I'm too slack to go through every bit of Celestia's entry and see how balanced she is. so...

Celestia; If she is so sunny or bright that she makes night fighting disappear (I think thats how you mean it to work) then perhaps she and any friendly unit within 6" should always be shot at as if no night fighting too? Make it not all one way traffic?

And shouldn't they be beasts? Not JI or I, but beasts? I mean, they are ponies...I know that it could unbalance things a bit, but it is the most glaring thing about it. They are ponies. Not infantry, ponies.

And why would pegasi count as jump infantry (or jetbikes)? You gotta pick one man. I'd go with beasts.

And the mane 6 rule needs to die. Its as close to unlimited HQ choices as you can get, which is bad. Perhaps take 2 of them as one HQ choice.

And lightning shouldn't be a Tesla weapon which is easier to arc. It should be a 6+ if you want to keep that mechanic, or make up your own.

I dunno thats all I'm doing at the moment, too much wordses (made this codex a bad choice to try and comment on seeing as I'm trying to escape from an essay here...). Perhaps find a way to break up that mass wall of text at the start, maybe have unit descriptions like the GW codexes do to break up the wall of special rules, that way it won't seem like so much. Alternately, use existing weapons and just change the name (e.g. Tesla weapons count as Lightning weapons, stops you having a huge wall of text, instead small lighting = smallest tesla, large lighting=largest tesla or whatever).

I'm a brony myself, but the special rules do need to be tonned down. If one special rule takes several paragraphs to describe, then you know it is too much. Also, weapons don't have to have lots of complicated gimmicks to be unique. Just find something close to what you are looking for, and adjust it a little. For one weapon, you could take, say heavy bolters, make it ap 3 and lower the range to 24" with a small price increase. Or take a multi laser and make it rapid fire with a points jump. Try to stick to maybe one army-wide rule, and some small rule buffs for HQ's, with the occasional special rule for a unit. Rmember, it is an army of ponies, it's fairly unique already.