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As the title says, what do you guys think of counts as?

Really depends on the application. So long as it's clear what's what, it's generally not a problem.

I will list several ideas I have had or have seen will looking on various forums.

1. Orks- Dressed as space marines, using space marine torso, backpack, weapons and pauldrons, but ork arms, legs, and heads. Using space marine rules.

2. Gue'vesa- Tau FW shoulder pads, helmets, weapons, and chests, with Astra Militarum legs, arms, and sometimes heads, using Tau or AM, depending on weapons.

3. Female Power Armor/Sisters of battle- Converted space marines using custom female heads, custom power armor miniatures in 28-30mm scale, space marine/sister weapons, custom female heads, using C:SM, DA, BA, or SOB.


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4. Custom Imperial Guard- Non-GW models to make custom types of IG, using weapons and equipment of IG, but look different. (I've seen this in the form of long coat dress uniform soldiers, and so on.)

Usually when I have a "counts as" model, it's armed exactly like the real model, or an otherwise appropriate stand-in for the load-out. Usually I do it for the rule of cool.

Like how until Chaos possibly (ever) gets access to the Cataphractii Terminator armor, those same models obviously will be the perfect stand-ins for "Pre-Heresy" terminators, as long as they have the same loadouts.

Or how I have always had a kitbashed Farseer on a Jetbike, using a combination of Dire Avenger parts and Guardian parts. The Dire Avenger Exarch spear is close enough to count as a Singing Spear, but the rest of the model gets to be uniquely mine, rather than the same model everyone else uses.

In an Imperial guard army, any troopers from other model companies with an Autogun-style rifle has always generally been able to "count as" a guardsman with a lasgun.

My rule is that if you only need to describe what it counts as once at the beginning of the game, it's perfectly fine.

"Counts as" works very well if the following points are observed:
- Be consistent: If you have some special looking plasma gun PLEASE do not have each one with a custom look.
- WYSIWYG is a big rule: try to make it look like what it represents: the days of the Dr. Pepper Carnifex should be behind us.
- Rule of Cool: Do your best, if it is well presented and obvious work went into the models, few would have any complaint.
Remember: anything that looks like no work got put into it is "proxy" not "counts as".

honestly it's not US you should be asking. it';s the people you play against. if your local group is intensely WYSIWYG theyre not gonna care if you show up with a proxy army and say "BUT HTOSE GUYS ON THE INTERNET SAID IT WAS OK"

Depends. I've played multiple games against "I saw your army list and decided drop pods would be better so this soda can, this soda bottle, this one half-built real pod and this solo cup are all drop pods" and basically as soon as someone pulls that I'm out. but I've also seen cool conversions.

The drop pod/soda can thing is typically seen as a proxy. A better example would be a marine chapter that has a penchant for digging or underground ops and deploys subterranean assault vehicles, which would count as drop pods.

As far as I'm concerned, counts as should meet two simple criteria.

Rule of cool
WYSIWYG

Meet those two, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who'd turn you down. Well, maybe a proper GW store would turn you away if most of the army is not made by GW, but that should be obvious.

I'm fine with counts as, if you're using actual miniatures. And the weaponry should represent what you're replacing.

There would be some condition:

No cheese.
You really need to do it to get your list completed, because it's a campaign, because you forgot the real miniature...
You have to use another miniature.
You ask me for agreement before doing it.

Then it's fine. Ohterwise I woud accept count as for somebody willing to try a new unit out before spending money in it.

 HCMistborn wrote:
I will list several ideas I have had or have seen will looking on various forums.

1. Orks- Dressed as space marines, using space marine torso, backpack, weapons and pauldrons, but ork arms, legs, and heads. Using space marine rules.

2. Gue'vesa- Tau FW shoulder pads, helmets, weapons, and chests, with Astra Militarum legs, arms, and sometimes heads, using Tau or AM, depending on weapons.

3. Female Power Armor/Sisters of battle- Converted space marines using custom female heads, custom power armor miniatures in 28-30mm scale, space marine/sister weapons, custom female heads, using C:SM, DA, BA, or SOB.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
4. Custom Imperial Guard- Non-GW models to make custom types of IG, using weapons and equipment of IG, but look different. (I've seen this in the form of long coat dress uniform soldiers, and so on.)

1. If the weapons are the correct space marine weapons so I don't have to keep asking "What's that gun?", fine. I don't care for it, though. Play orks or play space marines.

2. Sounds cool.

3. I have always, and will continue to roll my eyes at female space marines. Play SOB. Use SOB equivalent models.

4. No problem. Use the correct heavy and special weapons so I don't keep asking "what's that gun?"

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:
There would be some condition:

No cheese.
You really need to do it to get your list completed, because it's a campaign, because you forgot the real miniature...
You have to use another miniature.
You ask me for agreement before doing it.

Then it's fine. Ohterwise I woud accept count as for somebody willing to try a new unit out before spending money in it.

Are you thinking more along the lines of proxying? Because if someone puts work into converting a "counts as" model, it's generally not a quick fix just to get something on the table. I was thrown off by the "no cheese" statement, but then I read the rest and started thinking you mean something like "Oh I didn't have time to finish my wraithknight so here's an action figure I had lying around." I could be wrong, I confuse proxy with "counts as" still so I'm trying to get things right myself.

Then again, I feel like the OP is asking something more like "Are you okay with kitbashing" as that seems like what those ideas are. Kitbashing is the same as converting right? These terms are so similar to me

Anyway, OP, your hobby your models, as long as I know what's what, sounds good.

 kronk wrote:

 HCMistborn wrote:
I will list several ideas I have had or have seen will looking on various forums.

1. Orks- Dressed as space marines, using space marine torso, backpack, weapons and pauldrons, but ork arms, legs, and heads. Using space marine rules.

2. Gue'vesa- Tau FW shoulder pads, helmets, weapons, and chests, with Astra Militarum legs, arms, and sometimes heads, using Tau or AM, depending on weapons.

3. Female Power Armor/Sisters of battle- Converted space marines using custom female heads, custom power armor miniatures in 28-30mm scale, space marine/sister weapons, custom female heads, using C:SM, DA, BA, or SOB.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
4. Custom Imperial Guard- Non-GW models to make custom types of IG, using weapons and equipment of IG, but look different. (I've seen this in the form of long coat dress uniform soldiers, and so on.)

1. If the weapons are the correct space marine weapons so I don't have to keep asking "What's that gun?", fine. I don't care for it, though. Play orks or play space marines.

2. Sounds cool.

3. I have always, and will continue to roll my eyes at female space marines. Play SOB. Use SOB equivalent models.

4. No problem. Use the correct heavy and special weapons so I don't keep asking "what's that gun?"

Agreed on all fronts.

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:
There would be some condition:

No cheese.
You really need to do it to get your list completed, because it's a campaign, because you forgot the real miniature...
You have to use another miniature.
You ask me for agreement before doing it.

Then it's fine. Ohterwise I woud accept count as for somebody willing to try a new unit out before spending money in it.

You're confusing "proxy" with "counts as".

A proxy is something used to represent a certain model because said model is not available. Example: a soda bottle instead of a drop pod because there is no pod available (for whatever reason).

A counts as is a different model than the "official", but which inteds to accurately represent what it's standing for. Example: a drop pod model from a different company.