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For example, I'm running a squad of 30 Warriors of Chaos and kit them out with an extra hand weapon and shield. Would I have to model both onto the figure?

Do tournies and events hold you to it?

you cant have both options on the samme moddel. And in tournaments your moddels must match what you have them equiped with

Further I would not play against a player who had done such things either

Hmmm I always thought you could have them equipped like that.

Really? Either you gie them sword and shield. or two weapons. As for haleberds you can give them shields, but only against shooting.

I'll double check the my army book and the rulebook but it sounds like I'm going to have to redo my lists haha.

I wouldn't have a problem with it, so long as you made clear what the unit was and didn't try to change it during the game.

marielle wrote:I wouldn't have a problem with it, so long as you made clear what the unit was and didn't try to change it during the game.

I'm just curious how TOs usually handle it. I'd like to have an army I can casually play and at the same time bring to a tournament with no problems. I'd do the whole magnetizing thing but I'm awful at that stuff.

djphranq wrote:

marielle wrote:I wouldn't have a problem with it, so long as you made clear what the unit was and didn't try to change it during the game.

I'm just curious how TOs usually handle it. I'd like to have an army I can casually play and at the same time bring to a tournament with no problems. I'd do the whole magnetizing thing but I'm awful at that stuff.

There's a convention that the majority of the unit should be equipped as WYSIWYG but it isn't hard and fast.

You have to remember that a lot of the issue relates to visuals - this is a hobby with unit fillers. If for instance, the first two ranks all had the same weapons it would pretty much fulfill the purpose of WYSIWYG, no matter how the rest of the unit is armed.

marielle wrote:

djphranq wrote:

marielle wrote:I wouldn't have a problem with it, so long as you made clear what the unit was and didn't try to change it during the game.

I'm just curious how TOs usually handle it. I'd like to have an army I can casually play and at the same time bring to a tournament with no problems. I'd do the whole magnetizing thing but I'm awful at that stuff.

There's a convention that the majority of the unit should be equipped as WYSIWYG but it isn't hard and fast.

You have to remember that a lot of the issue relates to visuals - this is a hobby with unit fillers. If for instance, the first two ranks all had the same weapons it would pretty much fulfill the purpose of WYSIWYG, no matter how the rest of the unit is armed.

This is pretty much how it works. If you model half of your warriors with Shields and half with AHW you can just swap out the front rank to be WYSIWYG.

The Warrior entry does allow you to have both XHW and Shield, but its a big waste of points IMO. XHWs are largely pointless as they only benifit the front rank.

Warriors should either have shields and MoT or Halberds and MoK.

Fantasy is more relaxed about WYSIWYG then 40k is. Most casual games you just need to inform your opponent what they have. Tournies are a different story.

Since whole units tend to be equipped the same, WYSIWYG isn't as important... whereas in 40k it can be fairly critical to know what each guy in a squad has (wouldn't want your vehicles near any magically-appearing meltaguns)

As people mentioned, model half one way and half the other way and just fill your first two ranks with whichever the unit is using.
Fantasy is no where near as stringent on wysiwyg as 40k.

Characters should have equipment that sort of resembles what they're carrying.

If they have a shield, they should have a shield on their person. If they have a magic weapon they should have a particularly ornamental weapon of some kind.

Talismans and other non-weapon magic items usually arn't modeled. They are too small to matter and most characters have an assortment of pendents and other gubbins hanging about their persons. Some even have pockets.

Thank you for the feedback folks. This will help alot.

Grey Templar wrote:Characters should have equipment that sort of resembles what they're carrying.

If they have a shield, they should have a shield on their person. If they have a magic weapon they should have a particularly ornamental weapon of some kind.

That's a personal convention, GT. There's actually no WYSIWYG rules concerning characters in WHFB.

No one has ever questioned me in gameplay or tournaments about wysiwyg. I often substituted the correct model type for wysiwyg model.

For example: I payed for a bsb with heavy armor, shield, magic weapon and talisman. However my bsb isn't modeled with a shield, however it is clear that it's a bsb. No one has ever called this an issue.

As long as you can REASONABLY determine what the unit is, there is no issue. I've seen massive conversions and I'm doing one now. For example I'm converting my entire empire to be undead. My free company are built to look like zombies, often looking disheveled and using zombie bits. They are also painted in a different fashion from the rest of the army (missile troops are verticals halves, trained troops are quarters, free company are horizontal halves). As long as all my free company looks this way I can't foresee anyone raising an issue.

If they do, a TO would most likely look at them like they're crazy.

Grey Templar wrote:Characters should have equipment that sort of resembles what they're carrying.

Sometimes this is literally impossible without conversion or wholesale modelling as GW doesn't offer the proper kits.

True, hence why I said "sort of resembles"

In reality, nobody really cares. As long you can tell which character is who then its fine.

Grey Templar wrote:Characters should have equipment that sort of resembles what they're carrying.

If they have a shield, they should have a shield on their person. If they have a magic weapon they should have a particularly ornamental weapon of some kind.

Talismans and other non-weapon magic items usually arn't modeled. They are too small to matter and most characters have an assortment of pendents and other gubbins hanging about their persons. Some even have pockets.

Pretty sure that it says somewhere in the rulebook that characters need not be WYSIWYG, though that may be referring to magic items... it says that the names given are typical examples and that many items can take multiple shapes.

I am wondering how it would be looked at a GT level if you showed up with half a unit of spears and half with hw+shield? I doubt that people would have issues with the matter at local tournaments and pickup games. But what would people think at a GT level?

Henners91 wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:Characters should have equipment that sort of resembles what they're carrying.

If they have a shield, they should have a shield on their person. If they have a magic weapon they should have a particularly ornamental weapon of some kind.

Talismans and other non-weapon magic items usually arn't modeled. They are too small to matter and most characters have an assortment of pendents and other gubbins hanging about their persons. Some even have pockets.

Pretty sure that it says somewhere in the rulebook that characters need not be WYSIWYG, though that may be referring to magic items... it says that the names given are typical examples and that many items can take multiple shapes.

That is referring to this,


If a guy has one of the weapons thats called the X blade or something, it doesn't need to be a sword. It could be the Biting Axe or the Ogre Club if you wanted.

Now some army books have magic weapons that are a specific type of weapon. Bretts have a couple magic lances. Your guy better have a lance modeled(or something that could be used similerly to one)

HEs have a magic halberd. It could be modeled as a 2 handed sword. Making it a dagger would be kinda silly though(as it requires 2 hands)

I've personally, to avoid WYSIWYG discusions, given my warriors that I use as chosen a combination of hand weapons and shields.
Those with hand weapons have shields on their back. Its easy, and you dont have to worry about all that
But I think it isnt really strict in fantasy, right?

I haven't met anybody who really cared as long as it wasn't modeled for advantage.

Stoupe wrote:I haven't met anybody who really cared as long as it wasn't modeled for advantage.

Ive never had any problem too.
Probably cause I havent seen one modelled for advantage
Lucky me.

It's hard to model for advantage. Most of the time it's done because of mistakes. When converting things like a disc of tzeentch sometimes it's hard to tell if the base it's supplied with is 40 or 50 mm.

Luckily it's rare to find TFG in fantasy round here. There's one or two but usually they leave because no one will play them. It's harder for TFG to play less "popular" games cause the crowd knows them better.

Grix wrote:I am wondering how it would be looked at a GT level if you showed up with half a unit of spears and half with hw+shield? I doubt that people would have issues with the matter at local tournaments and pickup games. But what would people think at a GT level?

This has already been answered.

I don't have my BRB on me but IIRC it said the majority of your unit should be WYSIWYG but you can mix it up for varitey. When in doubt model them correctly but Im okay as long as your front rank is correct and you tell me prior to deployment what units aren't modeled correcty.

Sometimes you want to try a new list prior to buying the models.