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So I was thinking of this idea of armies being made entirely from conversions, and was wondering what other people thought. Things like a Tyranid army made out of converted Tau robot models or a Space Marine army made of super converted Orks. What does Dakka think of this and would you play against them? Or any other cool armies you guys could think of

Would always be happy to play against them, however they could grind my very particular lore gears if they don't make any sense.

I have a completely converted Grey knights army. They are all WYSIWYG, but they are normal marines with stormbolters (not wrist mounted) with Halberds, swords, and thunderhammers. My Landraiders are WWI Bristish Tanks.

There was a blog a few years ago, where someone was converting a intire Tryanids army, to look like Necromorphs. Most of the models were about 80% green stuff sometimes.
I'm not sure if he ever finished, but I'd love to see that army on TT

A unit in my Deathwatch force (that is apart of my Inq army) is made up of Orks pretending to be "Deffwotch Beakiez". Conversions are always fun to play against as it adds variety and a bit of fun to the game but its important to put a proper amount of effort into to pull it off.

 Vankraken wrote:
A unit in my Deathwatch force (that is apart of my Inq army) is made up of Orks pretending to be "Deffwotch Beakiez". Conversions are always fun to play against as it adds variety and a bit of fun to the game but its important to put a proper amount of effort into to pull it off.

Oh of course. You can't just throw a random mini on the board and say it's something else

I have a Skaven army I use for 40k, either as Inquisition (they're mutants, you see, and the Inquisitor is quite the radical) or, hopefully soon, as Genestealer Cults.

I've also been working for a while to get the parts together to convert a Stargate themed force. I have a great Goa'uld model, and hopefully I can get some Jaffa together out of Kabalite warrior and Catachan bits. I'll probably run them as Necrons.

I say as long as each unit is identifiable some way and makes even a tiny bit of sense go for it but the more radical the paradime shift the better looking the army has to look. Using shaven as GSC is a great idea and works in all senses. Using green plastic army men and some transformer toys as a tau army ... well it had better be super cool looking and painted top notch. (BTW this is for store/tournament play bring cardboard cut outs for all I care to a casual/fun/test game.)

Done well: Heck yeah!

Done poorly: Heck no!

In my experience, the vast, vast majority of the time the conversions of one army to another are done poorly, and even with the few that are done well, there are still not enough clues to clearly distinguish which models are meant to be what in a game.

As a modelling and / or painting exercise, go for it! As an army to play against, especially in a tournament setting, no thanks.

 Vankraken wrote:
A unit in my Deathwatch force (that is apart of my Inq army) is made up of Orks pretending to be "Deffwotch Beakiez". Conversions are always fun to play against as it adds variety and a bit of fun to the game but its important to put a proper amount of effort into to pull it off.

I know someone who has 100 Orks all dressed up as the Ultramarines 2nd Company (added shoulder pads, put helmets on their heads like little hats) that he runs interchangeably as Space Marines and Orks. It's quite functional because it's easy to identify his Devastators/Lootas and Boyz/Tactical Marines so everyone is happy.

So you see, the reason Cato Sicarius is so successful is because all his boyz believe in him.

One I ran across was grots that had stolen IG equipment. So, flying Valkeries, manning heavy weapons, marching in cadian uniforms and such.

The guy played it as IG, was a lot of fun to watch.

I've got a counts-as Orks Diggamob army.


As long as everything is reasonably WYSIWYG and consistent I have no problem with entirely counts-as armies.

I also prefer counts-as armies to actually stick to their underlying theme - don't try to cram in thematically inappropriate units: 'This is my converted Kroot Mercenary army with three counts-as Riptides!'

General principles:

If I can tell, at a glance, what models correspond to what rules, I'm reasonably content.

If I can't, I'm not.

YMMV.

As a few have said, you need to put in the work for it. You can't just paint an 'Ard boy blue and say it's an Ultramarine.
But if you add some power armour and a bolter to that Ork, now we're talking.
Almost every army I have every own has been heavily converted. Take a like at these:

Eldar Wraith-construct army that 'counts as' Grey Knights:
http://glennsgwmodels.blogspot.com/2016/01/eldar-terminators.html

Eldar Wraith-constructs that 'count as' Tau allies:
http://glennsgwmodels.blogspot.com/2014/02/wraith-construct-tau-allies.html

Obviously I have a thing for turning stuff into Eldar, but you get the point. There was a lot of planning and work done to get these models to look Wysiwyg yet match the aesthetics of the concept army.

-

 Galef wrote:
As a few have said, you need to put in the work for it. You can't just paint an 'Ard boy blue and say it's an Ultramarine.
But if you add some power armour and a bolter to that Ork, now we're talking.
Almost every army I have every own has been heavily converted. Take a like at these:

Eldar Wraith-construct army that 'counts as' Grey Knights:
http://glennsgwmodels.blogspot.com/2016/01/eldar-terminators.html

Eldar Wraith-constructs that 'count as' Tau allies:
http://glennsgwmodels.blogspot.com/2014/02/wraith-construct-tau-allies.html

Obviously I have a thing for turning stuff into Eldar, but you get the point. There was a lot of planning and work done to get these models to look Wysiwyg yet match the aesthetics of the concept army.

-

Nice armies man! And yeah I totally agree you really have to put in work and not just paint something a color

Rule of Cool completely dominates here. My willingness to accept, and desire to play is a direct function of the quality of the conversion. If everything is beautifully, clearly, well-converted, then yes, I will be happy with it and want to play it. If it is janky and lazy and confusing, then, no thanks. Most conversions tend toward the latter, though...

 Galef wrote:
As a few have said, you need to put in the work for it. You can't just paint an 'Ard boy blue and say it's an Ultramarine.
But if you add some power armour and a bolter to that Ork, now we're talking.
Almost every army I have every own has been heavily converted. Take a like at these:

Eldar Wraith-construct army that 'counts as' Grey Knights:
http://glennsgwmodels.blogspot.com/2016/01/eldar-terminators.html

Eldar Wraith-constructs that 'count as' Tau allies:
http://glennsgwmodels.blogspot.com/2014/02/wraith-construct-tau-allies.html

Obviously I have a thing for turning stuff into Eldar, but you get the point. There was a lot of planning and work done to get these models to look Wysiwyg yet match the aesthetics of the concept army.

-

This is a fantastic example. You have perhaps an obvious advantage (debatable), but is clear the effort you put on the models. The "inquisitor" is particularly elegant, love the owls/skulls.

In general, people will see if you are modelling for advantage or not. Is a game after all, and if your army is part of the fun just for existing, people will be lenient.

The responses in this thread are quite reassuring if I ever decide to make a converted army of advanced humans.

Bad Conversion or no real attempt = No

I played a game in a tournament a year or so ago, was the worst most confusing game of 40k in my life. He had an entire army of khorn Juggernauts, other small deamon dog looking things and just basecoated red with a wash. No weapon conversions nothing.

his 1850 point army was apparently representing 3 codecies, Space Marines, Dark Angels and Space Wolves as the core.

He had to spend 15mins before the game trying to explain what everything was, and every time I wanted to shoot something I had to stop and ask, important models seemed to teleport around the board if I managed to wound someone as well, invisible thunder hammer/storm shields, invisible fists, not one model had the correct load out if it had a load out at all.

He won that game 20-0 for his cheese list, somehow combining those 3 dexes to make a 2+ re rollable cover save on the entire force which combined to one unit, and a 2 or 3+ re rollable FNP. Was rubbish to play against, should have conceded and had a long lunch instead that day. Nothing I did was doing anything, just going through the motions so he could get his precious win.

No point in arguing with the TO, as he wrote that list for his friend and surprise he won that Tournament.

Good Conversion = go for gold son!

Played a bloke playing necrons that were all dailek models for his warriors, even his vehicle crews and pilots were dailek models, was an awesome looking army and allot of time had been spent on it from the looks.

Put serious effort into it.

WYSIWYG w/ regard to weapons (identifiable).

And hopefully some kind of lore to back it up.

bloodzy wrote:
Bad Conversion or no real attempt = No

I played a game in a tournament a year or so ago, was the worst most confusing game of 40k in my life. He had an entire army of khorn Juggernauts, other small deamon dog looking things and just basecoated red with a wash. No weapon conversions nothing.

his 1850 point army was apparently representing 3 codecies, Space Marines, Dark Angels and Space Wolves as the core.

He had to spend 15mins before the game trying to explain what everything was, and every time I wanted to shoot something I had to stop and ask, important models seemed to teleport around the board if I managed to wound someone as well, invisible thunder hammer/storm shields, invisible fists, not one model had the correct load out if it had a load out at all.

He won that game 20-0 for his cheese list, somehow combining those 3 dexes to make a 2+ re rollable cover save on the entire force which combined to one unit, and a 2 or 3+ re rollable FNP. Was rubbish to play against, should have conceded and had a long lunch instead that day. Nothing I did was doing anything, just going through the motions so he could get his precious win.

No point in arguing with the TO, as he wrote that list for his friend and surprise he won that Tournament.

Good Conversion = go for gold son!

Played a bloke playing necrons that were all dailek models for his warriors, even his vehicle crews and pilots were dailek models, was an awesome looking army and allot of time had been spent on it from the looks.

Why was this allowed in a tournament setting?

he says in the post, the guy was the friend of the TO

My personal favorite conversion army is my Slaaneshi white scars army based off of the Dorian Heresy lore. I just wish I could make it a true Slaanshi bike force...with DOOMRIDER!