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DEFINITELY needs more work, but I've got what is technically a complete army.

Points costs are very much open to being adjusted-I think I might have lowballed them.

What? Thunder hammers? Why the hell do Arbites have thunder hammers? Same with phosphor weapons? None of these options make sense at all for what the Arbites are. You really need to review their fluff.

 curran12 wrote:
What? Thunder hammers? Why the hell do Arbites have thunder hammers? Same with phosphor weapons? None of these options make sense at all for what the Arbites are. You really need to review their fluff.

Most of the (well, all) the melee weapons are straight from Codex: Space Marines. But yeah, agreed on Thunder Hammers. I'll drop those.

Why shouldn't they have Phosphor, though? Fluff-wise, I wasn't aware it was a closely kept secret, and mechanics-wise, it combines well with On My Target! to reduce cover saves for other units.

Because Phosphor weapons are rare and a closely-held secret by the Mechanicum. The same Mechanicum that has no trust for any other imperial factions. Why would they just let police forces have those?

As I said before, you really need to review what the Arbites actually do. Giving them access to Space Marine weapons is pretty insane, and really tells to a lack of research and interest in their lore.

Yeah Phosphor is a ridiculous idea. They're the Arbites, they're not going to have expensive or powerful wargear, rather they'd be packing light equipment such as Power Mauls, Riot Shields and some sort of smoke-grenade equivalent.

I agree that a lot of these weapons don't feel quite right. As you're probably aware, the Arbites are basically Judge Dredd-inspired law enforcement. The weapons you've listed are an odd blend of marine/Guardsman gear that makes the army feel vaguely like scions or inquisitorial henchmen. What I'd personally like to see from Arbites are weapons that are unique in that they aren't exactly made for open warfare the way bolters or chainswords are, but are ridiculously over the top "peace keeping" weapons. Instead of power mauls, why not shock mauls (tazer batons)? How about some tear gas or large-spread tazer weapons or even grimdark versions of rubber bullet projecting weapons? I think you're sort of along the right track with the webbers. Think gene-stealer cults, but with actual official support and funding.

As written, the Arbites horse entry and the wording on a couple other units suggests that you can take both a horse and a bike, granting +1 W and +1 T (but not +2T). A minor wording tweak fixes that.

Arbites Cover Training is interesting. I feel like it would be reaosnable for several other factions to have it, but I can see it being their special thing representing constantly moving through buildings and alleyways and so forth.

Arbites Gun Training feels a bit unpolished. For starters, I question why cops (even super cops) are better at singling out key targets than most space marines. Ignoring cover just because of training also feels awfully darn impressive considering all the other imperial forces that can't seem to manage that without psychic powers. The pinning option doesn't clarify whether it applies to all weapons or only to weapons that already have pinning. I assume the former. You also don't clarify whether this special rule is chosen once per game, once per turn, each time they shoot, etc.

I suggest removing this as a special rule and turning it into a piece of wargear. It's a bit sternguard-ish, but it also represents Judge Dredd style guns with special ammo types. Call them "programmed ammo, piercing rounds, and crowd calmers" or something.

I like the incendine flares. As others have pointed out, phosphor weapons aren't really a weapon for non-mechanicus forces. Otherwise, you'd probably see guardsmen wielding them. I'd also point out that bolt weapons are supposed to be awfully rare. I'd favor lasguns, stubbers, etc. over such supposedly rare weapons. A bolt pistol would be a mark of honor for a character, for instnace.

Overall, I think the main thing to work on with these guys is to give them an identity. Between sisters, guardsmen, scions, and skitarii, we already have a lot of factions representing "humans with decent gear." What are the core things that make these guys different from those other factions?

I think it would be neat to give them gear and rules that reinforces the idea that they're an urban army. They fight in streets and through houses. Every day, they go on multiple swat missions to take down gang leaders and mutants. Building them with something like zone mortalis in mind might be a cool way to go.

Got it. V2 will be up soon.

And as for horses AND motorcycles... As awesome as horses riding motorcycles would be (See Attitude City) I'm afraid you can't actually do that. How should I make that more clear?

 JNAProductions wrote:
Got it. V2 will be up soon.

And as for horses AND motorcycles... As awesome as horses riding motorcycles would be (See Attitude City) I'm afraid you can't actually do that. How should I make that more clear?

Instead of phrasing it as, "May take up to one of each of the following," phrase it as something like this:

"The (blank) may be equipped with any one of the following options:
Bike.... X points/model
Horse...Y points/model
Jetski...Z points/model"

So it breaks up the wargear into groups and says, "Hey pal. See these 3 things? You can have one of those if you want. One. See those 5 things? You can have up to two of any of those."

Look at how marine HQs and their jump pack/bike/T-cav/terminator armor options are presented.

Added an Asterisk marking them as mutually exclusive.

Removed most bolt weaponry and power weapons.

Added Tear Gas weapons.

Why no shotguns? Last I checked the Arbites' stock armament (as befits their role as Judge Dredd expies) was a shotgun with a variety of specialized ammunition, not a lasgun. For that matter I see no riot shields, heavy stubbers, Rhinos, or anything else I've ever seen associated with the Arbites except for bikes. Are you sure this is an Adeptus Arbites Codex?

I'm skeptical about the price of your HQ unit, he's quite a bit weaker (-1 W, -1 I, -1 A, no Stubborn) than an Inquisitor who's fifteen points cheaper. If you're going to keep the 2W character option I might suggest considering using him as a squad leader (the way Troupe Masters, Skitarii Alphas, et cetera are these days).

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Why no shotguns? Last I checked the Arbites' stock armament (as befits their role as Judge Dredd expies) was a shotgun with a variety of specialized ammunition, not a lasgun.

I'm skeptical about the price of your HQ unit, he's quite a bit weaker (-1 W, -1 I, -1 A, no Stubborn) than an Inquisitor who's fifteen points cheaper. If you're going to keep the 2W character option I might suggest considering using him as a squad leader (the way Troupe Masters, Skitarii Alphas, et cetera are these days).

...

Because I'm a dumb? Adding shotguns now.

Edit: Added. What sorts of SIA would be good for them?

 JNAProductions wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Why no shotguns? Last I checked the Arbites' stock armament (as befits their role as Judge Dredd expies) was a shotgun with a variety of specialized ammunition, not a lasgun.

I'm skeptical about the price of your HQ unit, he's quite a bit weaker (-1 W, -1 I, -1 A, no Stubborn) than an Inquisitor who's fifteen points cheaper. If you're going to keep the 2W character option I might suggest considering using him as a squad leader (the way Troupe Masters, Skitarii Alphas, et cetera are these days).

...

Because I'm a dumb? Adding shotguns now.

You might want to swap the Chimeras for Rhinos, find a place to include riot shields, and stick some heavy stubbers in while you're at it.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Why no shotguns? Last I checked the Arbites' stock armament (as befits their role as Judge Dredd expies) was a shotgun with a variety of specialized ammunition, not a lasgun.

I'm skeptical about the price of your HQ unit, he's quite a bit weaker (-1 W, -1 I, -1 A, no Stubborn) than an Inquisitor who's fifteen points cheaper. If you're going to keep the 2W character option I might suggest considering using him as a squad leader (the way Troupe Masters, Skitarii Alphas, et cetera are these days).

...

Because I'm a dumb? Adding shotguns now.

You might want to swap the Chimeras for Rhinos, find a place to include riot shields, and stick some heavy stubbers in while you're at it.

Why Rhinos instead?

 JNAProductions wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Why no shotguns? Last I checked the Arbites' stock armament (as befits their role as Judge Dredd expies) was a shotgun with a variety of specialized ammunition, not a lasgun.

I'm skeptical about the price of your HQ unit, he's quite a bit weaker (-1 W, -1 I, -1 A, no Stubborn) than an Inquisitor who's fifteen points cheaper. If you're going to keep the 2W character option I might suggest considering using him as a squad leader (the way Troupe Masters, Skitarii Alphas, et cetera are these days).

...

Because I'm a dumb? Adding shotguns now.

Edit: Added. What sorts of SIA would be good for them?

The iconic one is the Executioner round (18", S4, AP4-5, Assault 1, Twin-Linked), I'll get back to you on other ideas.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 JNAProductions wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 JNAProductions wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Why no shotguns? Last I checked the Arbites' stock armament (as befits their role as Judge Dredd expies) was a shotgun with a variety of specialized ammunition, not a lasgun.

I'm skeptical about the price of your HQ unit, he's quite a bit weaker (-1 W, -1 I, -1 A, no Stubborn) than an Inquisitor who's fifteen points cheaper. If you're going to keep the 2W character option I might suggest considering using him as a squad leader (the way Troupe Masters, Skitarii Alphas, et cetera are these days).

...

Because I'm a dumb? Adding shotguns now.

You might want to swap the Chimeras for Rhinos, find a place to include riot shields, and stick some heavy stubbers in while you're at it.

Why Rhinos instead?

Every fluff source I've seen on the Arbites suggests Rhinos are their most commonly-used transport; Chimeras and Repressors are mentioned, but they don't represent the iconic image of the faction the way the Rhino squad car does.

Updated with Rhinos, Riot Shields, and Slab Shields.

Have you thought of any warlord traits to add to this?

 TrenchCoatCreep wrote:
Have you thought of any warlord traits to add to this?

Not yet, no.