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Would I be correct in saying that any non-Imperium human colonies are probably long dead by M41, having been destroyed by malicious xenos, Chaos, or the Imperium? The homebrew "Kae Moda" codex suggests otherwise - that one such colony escaped the Age of Strife somehow (isolation perhaps?).

Why does no one have a custom army in this game? Counts-as come close, such as Adeptus Mechanicus, but I'm talking true custom. For example, a human colony that is techno-advanced like the Tau and the better parts of the Imperium, possibly even able to glance some minor understanding of Necron technologies. One that are staunch defenders of mankind, but are neither religious nor xenophobic (but neither are they weak).

With regards to the above, I have often thought of creating such an army. For friendly games of course, as I know tourneys would never approve of it. I have played Tau, and I like them, but with their 6ED Codex still TBA (I'm hopeful but not certain of the Q1 2013 theory). I've often tried to refine my homebrew rules to be as fair and non-OP as possible, whether they be for Astartes, Necrons, Tau, or whatever. Also as above, my idea of a custom army would be a majorly advanced one, like DaoT-era humanity, minus the "machine apocalypse" that kick-started the Age of Strife.

All in all, I have the following questions:
- Are custom armies looked down upon with dislike, if any do indeed exist?
- I am currently pursuing Tau as an army; should I keep going or wait until their hopeful-2013 release?

Answers to those, and any constructive comments on custom 40K armies, would be much appreciated.

I'd be very surprised if there weren't lots of human colonies still in existence. Even during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy colonies were being discovered (and generally wiped out by the benevolent crusade if they didn't play ball :-). The universe is a big, very big.

Yes, there were a bunch of colonies that may have been isolated during the Age of Strife or later as enemies cut them off from the rest of the Imperium.

Yes, custom armies do exist, but custom-army players (such as I) usually use a codex that fits rules-wise. It also grants some flexibility as to which codex you want to use. You could have multiple lists for different codices with the one army.

I am using the IG and Tau codices currently for my Red ALert 3 Soviet army. I'd accept your custom army, as it is creative and interesting to play something really unique.

I'm sure some still exist. I believe Macharius found some, and that was only about a 1,000 years ago, I think. The problem with trying to justify an army from a lost colony would simply be the numbers. How can a single world, or the worlds within a solar system, have the numbers and resources to take on the massive forces available to the other galactic powers?

The issue with creating a custom codex is that, to be totally honest, most of your run of the mill players do not write very good codices. Now there are good ones out there, but most that I have seen do one of the following things:

1. Create new rules or combine existing armies into something that is overpowered, either to a slight or ridiculous degree.

2. Create rules that are just mirrors of existing rules and are boring.

I'd go with Decio's advice, create the fluff and appearance you like, then just say "these are X, but they count as Tau" and make sure everything is correct with regards to base size and so on and you're good.

werent the chapters send out up "north" the map past the great ork empires to look for human colonists from the golden age era too ? It is very possible that both the colonist and the marines could return very different from imperial humans .
Imagine a legion time , multi legion explorator mission returning after 10k years with countless colonists in a huge fleet and they get the whole heresy/emps is a god/no more legions thing.

The issue I have with premade codex's is that they by and large lack balance and when read by an outsider are inconsistent, poorly fluffed out and filled with rules that might seem awesome to the writer but just break the game.What I do love seeing however is custom counts as armies that use a pre-existing codex to represent something new and amazing without actually breaking the game. With the introduction of the new allies rules you can fit most concept armies in using one (or two with allies) codices.

Savage Tribal Colonists - Imperial Guard (Ork allies)
Techno Colonists with AI Support - Tau (Necron Allies)

etc.

My idea for a custom army would hopefully not be overpowered. Some ideas I've had are as follows:

- the basic troops would be like "IG Stormtroopers" with "Rapid Fire Pulse Carbines" (so 24" S5 AP5), so they'd be excellent at ranged but not great at melee
- the army would use robots (inspired by the Novus from "Universe at War"), they'd be Fearless and armed with some mini-laser weapon (S4 at most)
- properly cooled plasma technology (so no Gets Hot rule, but with slightly lowered power for balance)
- hover technology (skimmers, jetbikes, etc)
- Tau-like Battlesuits and anime-inspired mech-walkers
- no Psykers, and only a few melee-oriented units

The army wouldn't be super-human like the Space Marines (although "bio-engineered troops" might possibly feature), but they'd essentially be IG plus Tau combined (strengths of both with few weaknesses, such as below-average melee ability).

^ Tau looks like a good choice for most of the listed items above. For Storm Troopers, just tweak the rules without creating an entire codex. Slap on a jump Pack and give 'em the guns. Increase the points cost though, they'd have to be above 16 (IG Storm Trooper) and below 20 (space marine). 18 points plus upgrades? Maybe.

No Gets Hot!, the Tau have plasma rifles. Hover tech: use Eldar allies, but model them like the rest of your army. Battlesuits: Tau. No psykers, few melee: Tau.

Robots: write 'em in as Kroot or Space Marines with lasguns. Dunno about this one.

The Imperium finds lost colonies from time to time. 99% of the time the colony has regressed technologically.

Occasionally they find a colony with space flight capabilities thats made a small little stellar empire

NeoAigaion wrote:
Why does no one have a custom army in this game? Counts-as come close, such as Adeptus Mechanicus, but I'm talking true custom. For example, a human colony that is techno-advanced like the Tau and the better parts of the Imperium, possibly even able to glance some minor understanding of Necron technologies. One that are staunch defenders of mankind, but are neither religious nor xenophobic (but neither are they weak).

Because it's way too 'special snowflake'.

^ Now, before the OP disagrees, I think Kaldor's blunt statement means," Too hard to keep track of rules during games" "Don't recognize units of models and don't know how to deploy during said games" "Fluff might not make sense or is not canon" snowflake. You could still make the above statements false, but it would take some good writing and modelling skills to pull it off. Custom armies usually look great and are a fun challenge to play against or with (as long as the rules aren't overpowered or cheap)

If I typed up some examples, would you guys be willing to comment on them? I have some examples in mind for the "basic troopers" and the "cyber infantry robots". Just let me know if you'd like to see them and I'll post them.

I'd comment for sure Let's have 'em

GUN TROOPER SQUAD (65 Points)
[Gun Trooper] WS3 BS4 S3 T3 W1 I3 A1 LD8 SV4+
[Gun Trooper Sergeant] WS3 BS4 S3 T3 W1 I3 A2 LD8 SV4+
- Unit Composition: 1 Sergeant and 9 Gun Troopers
- Unit Type: Infantry
- Wargear: Pulse Carbine, Pulse Pistol, Krak Grenades, Carapace Armour
- Special Rules: United We Stand
(Pulse Carbine) R24" S5 AP5 Rapid Fire
(Pulse Pistol) R12" S5 AP5 Pistol
(United We Stand): If the Sergeant is alive, the unit may always attempt to regroup regardless of casualties.

CYBER INFANTRY SQUAD (50 Points)
[Cyber Robot] WS2 BS3 S3 T3 W1 I2 A1 LD7 SV3+
- Unit Composition: 6-12 Cyber Robots
- Unit Type: Infantry
- Wargear: Machine Laser
- Special Rules: Fearless
(Machine Laser) R12" S4 AP6 Assault 1


Comments welcome. These are just two examples of what I've come up with.

NeoAigaion wrote:
GUN TROOPER SQUAD (65 Points)
[Gun Trooper] WS3 BS4 S3 T3 W1 I3 A1 LD8 SV4+
[Gun Trooper Sergeant] WS3 BS4 S3 T3 W1 I3 A2 LD8 SV4+
- Unit Composition: 1 Sergeant and 9 Gun Troopers
- Unit Type: Infantry
- Wargear: Pulse Carbine, Pulse Pistol, Krak Grenades, Carapace Armour
- Special Rules: United We Stand
(Pulse Carbine) R24" S5 AP5 Rapid Fire
(Pulse Pistol) R12" S5 AP5 Pistol
(United We Stand): If the Sergeant is alive, the unit may always attempt to regroup regardless of casualties.

Look, I don't want to rain on your parade but you've basically got a Tau firewarrior squad with better BS, pistols, better WS, better LD, better In, and for about half the cost. These should really be looking at about 120 points.

What's with the driving need to be a part of the 40K universe, but have your own unique army? Do none of the factions in the game appeal to you?

Fair point. I am doing up Tau as an army right now. Just finished assembling a squad of Firewarriors earlier too.

Speaking of Tau FWs, why aren't they BS4 default? They are good at shooting things to pieces, but does something about their "depth perception" come into play here, or was making them BS3 simply for balance? Comments welcome.

I just hope the alleged 2013 release for the Tau Codex is true. It's one of the reasons why my mind is wandering off into "custom territory".

Also remember that with the new regroup rules you may already always regroup (although below 25% it's on snakeeyes only).

The way I usually make new rules is to look at equivalents from other codexes and combine/modify them and then _increase_ the cost by at least 10-25% over what it cost in the other codex, to compensate for army wide rules affecting them (or not).