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So i've been out of the game for a while (I haven't played since around 2011/2012). I'm thinking about perhaps slowly getting back into it and I've been thinking that I'll probably go with a Space Marines army. However, I don't want to be locked into using one specific codex (or colour scheme). What are the rules around painting my army any colour I want, and then perhaps using Space Marines codex in one game, and then in another game, I would field them as Dark Angels, and then in another game I would field them as Blood Angels?

As long as the models are WYSIWYG, it should be fine right? Could I use a Generic Marine Captain, and field him as Mephiston when fielding the army as Blood Angels, so long the model has all the relevant bits associated with that model? I'm more inclined to actually get the specific models for characters, but a rhino is a rhino, regardless of what codex I'm using.

Yep. It's explicitly allowed in 10th, and was implicitly played that way most places before that anyway.

Mephiston is more a Librarian than a Captain though.

The only restrictions are you can't mix Chapter-specific units (so you can't field Deathwing Knights and Thunderwolf Cavalry together in the same game) and your can't use a Chapter-specific Detachment with units that are specific to another Chapter.

There are many many Chapters that can also represented by the snowflake units

 Mr Morden wrote:
There are many many Chapters that can also represented by the snowflake units

Could you expand on what you mean by snowflake units?

synack wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
There are many many Chapters that can also represented by the snowflake units

Could you expand on what you mean by snowflake units?

Monsterous cavalry, Beast units, Frenzied units, veteran scouts, Extra extra Elite Terminators....Pretty much any of the units that are flagged up as "unique" can be found in another Chapter.

synack wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
There are many many Chapters that can also represented by the snowflake units

Could you expand on what you mean by snowflake units?

A derogatory term used by haters of the game/space Marines. They believe that it's wrong to have individual codex/special rules for specific chapters IESW/BA/DA etc.

ccs wrote:

synack wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
There are many many Chapters that can also represented by the snowflake units

Could you expand on what you mean by snowflake units?

A derogatory term used by haters of the game/space Marines. They believe that it's wrong to have individual codex/special rules for specific chapters IESW/BA/DA etc.

The "Snowflake" Chapters have had vast amounts of special treatment for decades and often their players still demand more....see current discussions on why they should all be Marine +

They seldom want to admit that most if not all of their units are not unqiue but actually could represent those present in the other 997 Chapters that are ignored in favour of more Blood units, Wulf units or Dark units. Thats not even considering all the non-Marine sub factions that could benefit from finite resources being used for non Wulf or Angel subfactions.

As a older Dark Angel and Space Wolf player it deeply saddens me to see the flanderised mess that we have to stomach now.

Honestly it's fine as long as you're clear what you're doing and your opponent is ok with it and understands.

Personally I'd recommend keeping the scheme away from one of the main chapters to prevent misidentification, although that matters less these days. Likewise I'm more of a casual fluffy player so I prefer it to keep to one subset but if you just explained to me you get bored and like to switch it up that'd be fine too.

You might get some more draconian grognards who want you to play whatever chapter your scheme is tied to (see first point), you'll hit some common dislike and mis/conceptions about rules hopping for power gaming as well.

Ultimately do what makes you happy and as long as you and the person on the other side of the table have a good time, you're both winners.

So long as you're clear what rules are being used and what models are, as well as following the appropriate rules, I see no issues with it.

 Mr Morden wrote:

ccs wrote:

synack wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
There are many many Chapters that can also represented by the snowflake units

Could you expand on what you mean by snowflake units?

A derogatory term used by haters of the game/space Marines. They believe that it's wrong to have individual codex/special rules for specific chapters IESW/BA/DA etc.

The "Snowflake" Chapters have had vast amounts of special treatment for decades and often their players still demand more....see current discussions on why they should all be Marine +

They seldom want to admit that most if not all of their units are not unqiue but actually could represent those present in the other 997 Chapters that are ignored in favour of more Blood units, Wulf units or Dark units. Thats not even considering all the non-Marine sub factions that could benefit from finite resources being used for non Wulf or Angel subfactions.

As a older Dark Angel and Space Wolf player it deeply saddens me to see the flanderised mess that we have to stomach now.

Hilariously tone-deaf thing to say when current SW rules are so bad most people are gonna use the SM Index instead.

synack wrote:
So i've been out of the game for a while (I haven't played since around 2011/2012). I'm thinking about perhaps slowly getting back into it and I've been thinking that I'll probably go with a Space Marines army. However, I don't want to be locked into using one specific codex (or colour scheme). What are the rules around painting my army any colour I want, and then perhaps using Space Marines codex in one game, and then in another game, I would field them as Dark Angels, and then in another game I would field them as Blood Angels?

As long as the models are WYSIWYG, it should be fine right? Could I use a Generic Marine Captain, and field him as Mephiston when fielding the army as Blood Angels, so long the model has all the relevant bits associated with that model? I'm more inclined to actually get the specific models for characters, but a rhino is a rhino, regardless of what codex I'm using.

Paint scheme, WYSIWYG, and Special Character models will be the biggest determining factors - if you pain them all Ultramarine Blue and try and use DA rules you'll get some looks from time to time probably - but if it's all custom it'll be better.

And you'll get different results from different people as each person is going to have their own version of "reasonable".

 RaptorusRex wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:

ccs wrote:

synack wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
There are many many Chapters that can also represented by the snowflake units

Could you expand on what you mean by snowflake units?

A derogatory term used by haters of the game/space Marines. They believe that it's wrong to have individual codex/special rules for specific chapters IESW/BA/DA etc.

The "Snowflake" Chapters have had vast amounts of special treatment for decades and often their players still demand more....see current discussions on why they should all be Marine +

They seldom want to admit that most if not all of their units are not unqiue but actually could represent those present in the other 997 Chapters that are ignored in favour of more Blood units, Wulf units or Dark units. Thats not even considering all the non-Marine sub factions that could benefit from finite resources being used for non Wulf or Angel subfactions.

As a older Dark Angel and Space Wolf player it deeply saddens me to see the flanderised mess that we have to stomach now.

Hilariously tone-deaf thing to say when current SW rules are so bad most people are gonna use the SM Index instead.

NO read my first line again.

Now in 10th your minis dont have to be dark angels to use their rules. You use their codex and their "unforgiven task force" detachment. This affects your rules and wich special "dark angels like" units you may choose. It is therefore not even frowned upon to play ultra marines with dark angels rules any more (or it should not be).

Well neither did in 9e

Lost count on blue/red/black white scars/dark angels i saw.

tneva82 wrote:
Well neither did in 9e

Lost count on blue/red/black white scars/dark angels i saw.

Don't forget grey!