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It's recently been pointed out to me how unbelievably incredible warp spiders are in this game. I like their rules and love their fluff. But....I HATE the models. I think they're awful.

I was perusing the forge world website and I stumbled across shadow spectres. I did some research on their rules and I don't really like their rules all that much. But I LOVE the models.

Now I'm relatively new to the tournament scene. So this may be an obvious question. But I will ask anyway. I want to use the shadow spectre models as my warp spiders. They have jet packs, they have single rifles. Theyre mounted on the same size base. But they look so much nicer.

Would this normally be accepted? Does it happen a lot?

So long as you weren't running both Spectres and Spiders in the same list, it wouldn't be an issue with most people. "Counts-as" is all good in most people's books, especially if the model is indeed better (which it is in this case).

As long as you tell people before hand so there's no confusion I don't see why there would be a problem.

One thing I will say is that the Spectres are very top heavy, I intend to get some myself but intend to switch them to 32mm bases sp that they don't fall over so much.

 Imateria wrote:
As long as you tell people before hand so there's no confusion I don't see why there would be a problem.

One thing I will say is that the Spectres are very top heavy, I intend to get some myself but intend to switch them to 32mm bases sp that they don't fall over so much.

Careful with changing base sizes, some people can have a problem with using base sizes other than what they're supplied with. I've got a squad of them and I can confirm the light weight of the resin keeps it from being too huge of a problem. On very uneven terrain they can tip, but ever since I added a little weight into the rocks they come standing on I've never had a problem. Simply hollow an area out and glue some pieces of green stuff, lead, drywall compound, or any other weighty material you can find into the underside of the rocks/crystals they're standing on and there'll be no need to change base sizes

 Imateria wrote:
As long as you tell people before hand so there's no confusion I don't see why there would be a problem.

One thing I will say is that the Spectres are very top heavy, I intend to get some myself but intend to switch them to 32mm bases sp that they don't fall over so much.

Invest in some flat washers, like, the kinds of things used to support screws. Literally any hardware supply store will have them for super cheap. 1/4" size flat washers fit perfectly inside a 25mm base and because they are solid steel, are heavier than using a US Nickle. Unless you're dealing with pewter, it's more than enough to weight down any top-heavy model you've got.

Anyway, because this is the rules section and we're supposed to talk rules:

The issue is you're asking a question that no one here can really answer, OP. If you're doing this for the tournament scene, go find what tournament rules are used for whatever tournament you're trying to get into. Some will require models to be 100% WYSIWYG. Others will let you clarify what a model is for when you go off-brand, as long as it doesn't lead to confusion.

For most friendly games, I'd honestly be surprised if anyone cared you weren't using actual Warp Spiders.

As shadow spectres are an entirely different unit with their own rules it is easy confuse them, i would not allow this in a tournament if i were a t.o. Count-as should be for when you want to use a different, unique model that doesnt have its own rules in the game, such as chaos warhounds as flesh hounds, or fantasy empire models in your IG army for example.

GrafWattenburg wrote:
As shadow spectres are an entirely different unit with their own rules it is easy confuse them,

Out of curiosity how many times have you seen them played?

In any case, verifying with TO in advance may be a good idea.

GrafWattenburg wrote:
As shadow spectres are an entirely different unit with their own rules it is easy confuse them, i would not allow this in a tournament if i were a t.o. Count-as should be for when you want to use a different, unique model that doesnt have its own rules in the game, such as chaos warhounds as flesh hounds, or fantasy empire models in your IG army for example.

I get that, but the thing is their rules are from a completely different book. Surely it'd be quite easy to keep track of the fact that I'm only using the standard codex.

Tournamentwise without conversion I would say that its probably a no-go for me. Simply because its one unit being used as another completely different unit.

With conversion, even something as simple as changing /replacing the gun I'd be cool with it

IF you do a bit of conversion to the Shadow spectres to make the a bit more Spidery, I don't think anyone would have an issue. For example, get some Dark Eldar Shredders for their guns and cut away any cloth dangling from the Spectres.

I've only been to about 5 tournaments, but I play a "counts-as" heavy army. I've been allowed to bring my army every time with little difficulty. The most trouble I've had is a few TOs wanted me to email them pictures of my "counts-as" models.

Having said that, none of the tournaments I attended allowed "proxied" armies: armies where one 40k model was proxied for another. It's considered quite different at most tournaments.

 Melcavuk wrote:
Tournamentwise without conversion I would say that its probably a no-go for me. Simply because its one unit being used as another completely different unit.

With conversion, even something as simple as changing /replacing the gun I'd be cool with it

Don't really see the problem substituting a model for another as long as there is no confusion. It's not like the rules tell us which model to use.