Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is probably stupid, but say i wanted to create my own codex, how would I do it? Now, before you say 'noo, GW's bloated unbalanced, Slaneesh'd', this is just something I want to do for fun. I've already read this awesome guide, but does anyone know of any more tips? My idea is that a bunch of Marines decided to abandon the EMPRAH to become mercenaries. The plan is to let them have less heavily armoured vehicles (Land Raiders) and less high-tech stuff (Land SPeeders) and instead use other races, such as Renegade Tau, or Space Skaven. Any ideas?

The big point is that there isn't and cannot be a hard-and-fast rule for how to price things given the combinations that are possible. Pick something in the official rules that's similar to your unit and give them a comparable price.

Beyond that make sure you've got a reasonable selection; there can't be a single staple unit that absolutely must be in every list, in a good internally-balanced Codex you should be able to take out any three units and play effectively with the rest. Make sure you've got answers to everything in the Codex (If your Codex has no AA you're (if you'll pardon my French) utterly fethed when the other guy sits down across from you with Elysians), make sure you don't have stuff that nobody else can come close to replicating (I don't care how well you justify it in your rules or how fairly you price it, an AV14-14-14 Fast Skimmer with an assault ramp is not okay), and make sure your answers aren't one all-powerful super-unit that does everything.

If you can keep those rules in mind you should be able to come up with something at least halfway sensible and then we'll help hash out the details.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, 2+ Invul? No.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
The big point is that there isn't and cannot be a hard-and-fast rule for how to price things given the combinations that are possible. Pick something in the official rules that's similar to your unit and give them a comparable price.

Beyond that make sure you've got a reasonable selection; there can't be a single staple unit that absolutely must be in every list, in a good internally-balanced Codex you should be able to take out any three units and play effectively with the rest. Make sure you've got answers to everything in the Codex (If your Codex has no AA you're (if you'll pardon my French) utterly fethed when the other guy sits down across from you with Elysians), make sure you don't have stuff that nobody else can come close to replicating (I don't care how well you justify it in your rules or how fairly you price it, an AV14-14-14 Fast Skimmer with an assault ramp is not okay), and make sure your answers aren't one all-powerful super-unit that does everything.

If you can keep those rules in mind you should be able to come up with something at least halfway sensible and then we'll help hash out the details.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, 2+ Invul? No.

No AA? Cough, Chaos, cough cough

 Matthew wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
The big point is that there isn't and cannot be a hard-and-fast rule for how to price things given the combinations that are possible. Pick something in the official rules that's similar to your unit and give them a comparable price.

Beyond that make sure you've got a reasonable selection; there can't be a single staple unit that absolutely must be in every list, in a good internally-balanced Codex you should be able to take out any three units and play effectively with the rest. Make sure you've got answers to everything in the Codex (If your Codex has no AA you're (if you'll pardon my French) utterly fethed when the other guy sits down across from you with Elysians), make sure you don't have stuff that nobody else can come close to replicating (I don't care how well you justify it in your rules or how fairly you price it, an AV14-14-14 Fast Skimmer with an assault ramp is not okay), and make sure your answers aren't one all-powerful super-unit that does everything.

If you can keep those rules in mind you should be able to come up with something at least halfway sensible and then we'll help hash out the details.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, 2+ Invul? No.

No AA? Cough, Chaos, cough cough

Hellchickens. Ground-based AA is pretty bad unless it's something that can turn Skyfire on and off so these days AA takes the form of air-to-air planes on most books, a Hellchicken can bring four S8 shots on a Flyer platform plus Vector Strike.

I recommend figuring out what the main playstyles of your book will be and then keeping those playstyles in mind as you stat things out. For instance, dark eldar armies can be broadly broken up into coven, kabal, and cult armies. If I"m playing a kabal, I've got lots of shooting. If I"m playing a cult, I've got lots of melee. If I'm playing a coven, I've got lots of toughness. Coven units make each other more durable. Cult units are fast and numerous (even moreso than normal dark eldar), and kabals have lots of special weapons to pop tanks before sprinkling them with splinter fire.

Another example might be the marines book which lets you do a drop pod assault, a gunline, a bike army, etc. Figure out what thematic/mechanical builds you want your codex to include and make sure they're supported by the rules.

Want to play the mercenary marines without their imperial support? Maybe they have looted gear that's been jurry-rigged to be more effective but less reliable. Maybe they even have access to a few looted xenos vehicles! Want to play up the alien allies? Give each allied faction a unique trick or two, and make those tricks work well in concert.