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Is there a rule that supports or prevents the use of 1 unit to represent another unit?

For example, using a converted space marine to represent a chaos marine using the number from the chaos marine.

Nope.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/360/513143.page#7854353


Perfect example is here ^^^^



Basically the "rule" is:

WYSIWYG (or) COUNT AS (With consistency). For example, a cyberdog companion on the base of an Imperial Officer COUNTS AS a Powerfist.

In the example above, it is a mixture of both. WYSIWYG equipment for the infantry (lasguns, powerfists, etc) with the Grots being COUNT AS Imperial Guardsmen.

If you follow the basic tournament standard for your models you should be okay, so no Ajax-Can Count-as Defilers!

Just the rules of good Sportsmanship.

Just keep things consistent and model as much WYSIWYG as you can. For example, don't have this block of 10 Space Marines as Chaos Marines and that other block of 10 Space Marines as Noise Marines with Sonic Weapons, even though all 20 carry Bolters and have the exact same color scheme. However, if you were going to temporarily call 10 Space Marines with Bolters as Noise Marines with Sonic Weapons, and those were the only Space Marines with Bolters on the field, it could work.

I should've given the example I wanted to use.

I am planning on using space marines and converting them to look like infested terrans from Starcraft and subbing them in as termagants using the same rules as termagants.

After reading up on the rules and WYSIWYG, I will use the weapon sets from the termagants on the space marines.

Would this still be illegal or would it just depend on the place and/or players?

Also I am new to this hobby.

pharaohroche wrote:

After reading up on the rules and WYSIWYG, I will use the weapon sets from the termagants on the space marines.

And with this, you're golden. In a perfect world, you'd scuff and ding the armor to the point that it is clear it can no longer offer a 3+ save, but I'm not going to complain if you don't.

I am a huge fan of counts as, but the more divergent you are from the norm the harder it will be to persuade people to play against it.

Some golden rules:

-Have the same base size and dimensions as what you are counting as.
-the model must look like it has the same stats/power level as what it is representing.
-you must be consistent across the whole army.


I am a little hesitant about using space marines as termagants.. they have a totally different stat line, and would confuse a lot of people.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
I am a huge fan of counts as, but the more divergent you are from the norm the harder it will be to persuade people to play against it.

Some golden rules:

-Have the same base size and dimensions as what you are counting as.
-the model must look like it has the same stats/power level as what it is representing.
-you must be consistent across the whole army.

I am a little hesitant about using space marines as termagants.. they have a totally different stat line, and would confuse a lot of people.

Agreed. They'd be better off as Warriors or even Genestealers. Heck, Genestealers would actually fit better, fluffwise.

Culitists and Imperial Guard would be more on the level for Termagants and Hormagaunts, as a suggestion.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
I am a huge fan of counts as, but the more divergent you are from the norm the harder it will be to persuade people to play against it.

Some golden rules:

-Have the same base size and dimensions as what you are counting as.
-the model must look like it has the same stats/power level as what it is representing.
-you must be consistent across the whole army.


I am a little hesitant about using space marines as termagants.. they have a totally different stat line, and would confuse a lot of people.

While these are good points I would like to point out a few more:

1) The Rule of Cool: good modelling, painting, or ideas(that you tried your best to model and paint cool) will almost always overshadow what mini represents what unit. Just taking 20 tac marines with bolters, building them stock, and painting them like std marines generally will just be looked at as proxies. Take the same 20 marine models add termagaunt arms and some various nid bits sticking out of the armor then painting them to look dirty and damaged(gouging the armor then painting the insides of the gouges silver/grey is a great way to show damage) is a cool idea, gets your point across, and the better it is done the more your opponent will simply love your "gants".

2) Armylist: if you are not playing unbound, and not adding any marine detachments to your army; then even the proxy of 20 tac marines will usually fly. If you are playing a straight nid force and plop down a bunch of marines while telling me they are gants i will not become confused later on(how could I expect them to be marines when you have no marines in your list?)

On to modelling: I mentioned gouging at the armor and adding nid bits(obv don't just glue them on, try to make it look like they are bursting through); none of this has to do with representing lower saves. It is just to look cool. Cadian and catachan guardsmen have the same save; but catachans are not wearing any visable armor(half are not even wearing shirts) so there is no std representation of save.

I'd like to take my pathfinders as dark reapers, since then they would actually be good at shooting stuff, but I think that is too much of a stretch for most people.

My P&M blog is full of conversions. I can field them because of counts as. On the other hand they all look like what they are supposed to be. Even the more extreme case of my exocrine where I built an entirely new kind of nid to fit the Exocrine rules it still visually reads as what an exocrine is supposed to do and has all weapons WYSIWYG.