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Okay so I have an idea for a mercenary crew! with no alliences to Tau, Terra, Space marine or any of the others!
The entire army is made up of alliance without there own civilization! A crime boss or mercenary group perhaps?

The Commander is a Sslyth warboss, cruel and vicious! ( Keep in mind i am completely new and do not know how powerful these units are and if they will work for this )
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Dark-Eldar-Sslyth

Some human mutan big muscles!
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Militarum-Auxilla-Ogryns

Some Ratling Snipers
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Imperial-Guard-Ratlings

Some Kroot infentry for good mercenary fodder.
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Tau-Empire-Kroot-Carnivore-Squad
They bring some Kroot hounds
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-CA/Tau-Empire-Kroot-Hounds
Kroot Rider!
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Tau-Empire-Krootox
And a Kroot Shaper!
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Tau-Empire-Kroot-Shaper

Some Sting Wings for added lethality.
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Tau-Empire-Vespid-Stingwings

-- Maybe List --

A weapon building monkey pet
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Grey-Knights-Jokaero-Weaponsmith

Razor Wings as pets!
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Dark-Eldar-Razorwing-Flock

Fenrisian wolves as pets.
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Space-Wolves-Fenrisian-Wolf-Pack

A rare creature for tracking
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Dark-Eldar-Ur-Ghul

A big scary pet from a death world.
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Dark-Eldar-Clawed-Fiend


ANYWAY could this work? If so what should i add or remove?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A army with no label or allience.

Vespids tend to be bad outside of small, Killteam scale games. (Tau)

The Ur Ghul, Razorsing flocks and Clawed fiend need to be accompanied by a Beast Master. (Dark Eldar)

The Jokaero needs to be in a minimum squad of 3. (Inquisition if it's still a thing)

Sslyths must be taken in a court of the Archon. (Dark Eldar)

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Vespids tend to be bad outside of small, Killteam scale games. (Tau)

The Ur Ghul, Razorsing flocks and Clawed fiend need to be accompanied by a Beast Master. (Dark Eldar)

The Jokaero needs to be in a minimum squad of 3. (Inquisition if it's still a thing)

Sslyths must be taken in a court of the Archon. (Dark Eldar)

So what your saying is its impossible to do this?
Is there no way i can fudge things to keep it balanced while still having what I need to make it?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Dark-Eldar-Beastmaster

How is that guy even the same species as the dark eldar?! It looks like a completely different creature.

You can do it as an unbound army

But you may still need to get a Beast Master

the main issue is a lot of people wont play against unbound and no events let them happen

your going to have a lot of deployment issues, You might want to consider sticking to one faction for the codex you use, but convert and proxy certian models to fit in with what you are trying to do.

GodDamUser wrote:
You can do it as an unbound army

But you may still need to get a Beast Master

the main issue is a lot of people wont play against unbound and no events let them happen

Yeah no worries, i only really plan on playing with my friends, so I am not worried about being allowed to play in events or not.
I am mostly concerned with "Is this a viable army" Like is this useful at all? What are the stats on the Sslyth? I can invest into a beast master ( I was planning on buying the beasts regardless for specialty mission objectives, such as capture or eradicate the wild life, or having them roam the map while a game goes on and killing indiscriminately )

But yeah, so do I need to buy a Eldar Archon to use the Sslyth? Is it as good as a hero unit? Should I invest in any specific vehicals or unit types that i dont have that are a must have? I am as new as could be to this game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Any Suggestions?

My suggestion would be to look at an army that mostly suits you, which seems to be Dark Eldar. My second suggestion would be to look up or ask about what the Dark Eldar do well and specific strategies. Third suggestion would be to pick up or borrow a rulebook for Warhammer 40k 7th edition, or wait till 8th edition drops which won't be for a while. Lastly pick up the Dark Eldar codex and look over all the models and their point costs and read up on their special rules and look for ways to synergize.

Don't be afraid to use "count-as" models (someone else can give a better definition of count-as versus proxy) in place of the actual model GW sells for that unit.

 DizzyStorey wrote:
But yeah, so do I need to buy a Eldar Archon to use the Sslyth? Is it as good as a hero unit? Should I invest in any specific vehicals or unit types that i dont have that are a must have? I am as new as could be to this game.

Any Suggestions?

unfortunately I know I cannot answer these questions as I haven't read the current DE codex... you could in the last one technically.. but I didn't look at these units much myself because they were not in the list I intended to make

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
My suggestion would be to look at an army that mostly suits you, which seems to be Dark Eldar. My second suggestion would be to look up or ask about what the Dark Eldar do well and specific strategies. Third suggestion would be to pick up or borrow a rulebook for Warhammer 40k 7th edition, or wait till 8th edition drops which won't be for a while. Lastly pick up the Dark Eldar codex and look over all the models and their point costs and read up on their special rules and look for ways to synergize.

Don't be afraid to use "count-as" models (someone else can give a better definition of count-as versus proxy) in place of the actual model GW sells for that unit.

I gueeeess.. Part of the fun was going outside the box and doing something unique, a unbound alien mercenary squad of aliens without an official force in the galexy.
I was just hoping somebody could give me a detailed break down of everything id need to invest in to make it viable and give me a run down on the stats involved or rules.
Like i still dont know what an Archon council is.

The Archon Council are a mainly a group of Alien body guards fro the Archon because Dark Eldar cant even trust eachother

I saw your female space marine thread and now this one.

No disrespect intended here, but unless you have a pretty good amount of disposal wealth and time, you might want to focus on something a little less special snowflake.

My first concern is you might be spending a lot money on models (and possibly codices). Assuming you also want to paint them to a decent quality, that is likely going to be a significant investment of time too. Both of these are very good reasons create something that isn't going to frustrate you (or your opponent the point they don't want play you) at every turn when putting them on the tabletop.

Warhammer 40K has a lot of dials, switches, buttons, etc. Going all over the place as your first attempt is going to make learning the ins and outs the game that much more difficult. This can make gaming a bit of pain as you try to figure how the rules work mid game making for very long and tedious games for you and your opponent. Remember, miniatures gaming is a very social hobby and both players should be considerate the other player's enjoyment while gaming.

Additionally, going unbound seemingly at random is more likely to generate very poor lists that few online players want to help with. Because as already mentioned, most players don't actually play unbound. On the other end of end of the spectrum, you might come across different faction units that work very well together. It is not hard, and that is one of the reasons most players don't play unbound.

It is entirely possible the rumors of 8th edition are true and it is coming out soon. Given the unpopularity of unbound armies, that might be eliminated from the rules. Although, unlikely as it seems GW seems to be in favor of merging more and more factions in their games as of recent. But that could leave you with a bunch of models without purpose though.

I agree with the other posts at least starting to a single faction you like. I also think starting small and fairly generic is for the best. I like something like 1 HQ, 2 Troop choice, and 1-2 elite/fast attack suggestion usually given. That way you don't become overwhelmed and you can see what aspects to the game you like and which ones you don't before getting too invested. It will give you focus on how to play as you learn Warhammer 40K and allow you to appreciate the background story from your faction's point of view.

Once you get a handle on how things work, you can see where you want to go from there. It will also give you sometime to absorb some of the lore/backstory (which seems to be an important aspect to you) as which you might have a better idea how you incorporate your own army into the Warhammer 40,000 universe. All of this should save you money, time and frustration. Which I think will give a better chance of enjoying miniatures wargaming.

 Saturmorn Carvilli wrote:
I saw your female space marine thread and now this one.

No disrespect intended here, but unless you have a pretty good amount of disposal wealth and time, you might want to focus on something a little less special snowflake.

My first concern is you might be spending a lot money on models (and possibly codices). Assuming you also want to paint them to a decent quality, that is likely going to be a significant investment of time too. Both of these are very good reasons create something that isn't going to frustrate you (or your opponent the point they don't want play you) at every turn when putting them on the tabletop.

Warhammer 40K has a lot of dials, switches, buttons, etc. Going all over the place as your first attempt is going to make learning the ins and outs the game that much more difficult. This can make gaming a bit of pain as you try to figure how the rules work mid game making for very long and tedious games for you and your opponent. Remember, miniatures gaming is a very social hobby and both players should be considerate the other player's enjoyment while gaming.

Additionally, going unbound seemingly at random is more likely to generate very poor lists that few online players want to help with. Because as already mentioned, most players don't actually play unbound. On the other end of end of the spectrum, you might come across different faction units that work very well together. It is not hard, and that is one of the reasons most players don't play unbound.

It is entirely possible the rumors of 8th edition are true and it is coming out soon. Given the unpopularity of unbound armies, that might be eliminated from the rules. Although, unlikely as it seems GW seems to be in favor of merging more and more factions in their games as of recent. But that could leave you with a bunch of models without purpose though.

I agree with the other posts at least starting to a single faction you like. I also think starting small and fairly generic is for the best. I like something like 1 HQ, 2 Troop choice, and 1-2 elite/fast attack suggestion usually given. That way you don't become overwhelmed and you can see what aspects to the game you like and which ones you don't before getting too invested. It will give you focus on how to play as you learn Warhammer 40K and allow you to appreciate the background story from your faction's point of view.

Once you get a handle on how things work, you can see where you want to go from there. It will also give you sometime to absorb some of the lore/backstory (which seems to be an important aspect to you) as which you might have a better idea how you incorporate your own army into the Warhammer 40,000 universe. All of this should save you money, time and frustration. Which I think will give a better chance of enjoying miniatures wargaming.

ITs not so much out of a desire to be special snowflake but out of contempt for sexism that I desired a female space marine unit. I had actually planned on playing it before i was made aware that it was a mens only club and thus made up my mind i was going to do it and have fun at the same time.
That is the easiest as well as the conversion heads are like 6 bucks and most of them wear helmets anyway.
I get excited and start coming up with lots of ideas but I dont know the rules well enough yet to actually invest into these ideas. The mercenary concept was just something that was floating around in my head and i wanted to see if it was even viable, I have no real intention of buying it until i am well versed and into the game, And may even just buy it in pieces as i see fit ( Cause Kroot are pretty cool, who wouldn't want them in there collection )

I have a few other ideas floating around, I really want to use Ratlings for something and I am fascinated by the Tau ( Naturally I am drawn to good guys and they appear to be the only things close to good in the 40K universe )

The Tau do have several Female leaders, and are not a unisex force

(Technically Imperial Guard are not unisex.. but you wouldn't know from the minis)

But with what you are liking I would say go Tau, then get a small allied detachment of Guard on the side

Also, if you want a female army, why not Sisters of Battle?

 curran12 wrote:
Also, if you want a female army, why not Sisters of Battle?

Well cause they are almost all ironcast, overpriced, underpowered, all look the same, outdated and lore wise they are puritanical angry nuns who get there powers by worshiping the god emperor, so... yeah, boring?
Variety is never a bad thing, and some variety here is pretty exciting to me, the idea of these bad-ass warrior woman in power armour is genuinely intriguing to me. I have little interest in the leather bound high heeled nuns.

The sketchy biology science they use to exclude woman from the space marines is stupid and really serves no purpose other than saving money on model production. Its just silly that the gene seed can turn your spit into acid and turn you into a werewolf but yet apparently couldn't figure out how to make it compatible with woman.

"Underpowered"? Tsk tsk...I'd love to show you what they can do.

GodDamUser wrote:
The Tau do have several Female leaders, and are not a unisex force

(Technically Imperial Guard are not unisex.. but you wouldn't know from the minis)

But with what you are liking I would say go Tau, then get a small allied detachment of Guard on the side

Yep! I adore the Tau, plus they are the closest thing to "Good guys" the 40k universe has to offer.
They seem sort of like the Quinari from dragon age, it doesnt matter if you are male or female, Tau or Human, if you follow the greater good you are a equal.

Not quite, if you're not Tau you'll slowly become unable to procreate and are generally considered below Tau.

 Bobthehero wrote:
Not quite, if you're not Tau you'll slowly become unable to procreate and are generally considered below Tau.

I believe I read that part of the fluff was dubious canonicity and doesn't apply to all planets just the rebellious ones that do not adhere to the greater good or adapt to rule under the Tau.

 DizzyStorey wrote:

 curran12 wrote:
Also, if you want a female army, why not Sisters of Battle?

Well cause they are almost all ironcast, overpriced, underpowered, all look the same, outdated and lore wise they are puritanical angry nuns who get there powers by worshiping the god emperor, so... yeah, boring?
Variety is never a bad thing, and some variety here is pretty exciting to me, the idea of these bad-ass warrior woman in power armour is genuinely intriguing to me. I have little interest in the leather bound high heeled nuns.

The sketchy biology science they use to exclude woman from the space marines is stupid and really serves no purpose other than saving money on model production. Its just silly that the gene seed can turn your spit into acid and turn you into a werewolf but yet apparently couldn't figure out how to make it compatible with woman.

Sisters aren't meant to be leather armoured with high heels, that comes from one bit of crappy art. They're the badass women in power armour, Space Marines being able to be female not only goes against decades of fluff but will ultimately weaken the character of the Sisters (because you will get exactly the same thing minus their ability to draw power from their faith in the emperor) and perhaps see that they truly are never updated.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 DizzyStorey wrote:

GodDamUser wrote:
The Tau do have several Female leaders, and are not a unisex force

(Technically Imperial Guard are not unisex.. but you wouldn't know from the minis)

But with what you are liking I would say go Tau, then get a small allied detachment of Guard on the side

Yep! I adore the Tau, plus they are the closest thing to "Good guys" the 40k universe has to offer.
They seem sort of like the Quinari from dragon age, it doesnt matter if you are male or female, Tau or Human, if you follow the greater good you are a equal.

This is not true, Gue'la their word for humans literally translates to "Lesser beings".The Tau are all happy and pure on the surface but the further you look the closer to being thrown into the crap like the other races you get. They're still I suppose the nicer race, but not quite the shining pure good guys they first appear to be.

In terms of model stats and points, it's verboten to share those, so you'd be better off asking or looking elsewhere on the internet... because internet.

In terms of the army itself, since you'll be playing with friends I say do whatever you like. I've got a number of what I'll politely call "non-canonical" fantasy forces, though some of those are now oddly legitimate(!)

So buy what you like, and then go unbound. If the models appeal to you and you're not worried about tournaments or "official" events of any kind. If you want to "fit" the fluff then it pretty much looks like an Eldar Corsair/Pirate crew, minus the actual Eldar. You may (or may not) find Eldar or Dark Eldar models to your aesthetic taste, but there are certainly a mixed-gender force with some exceptions (Aspect Warriors are mixed in the fluff, but mono-gendered in the models). With 8th coming before too long, I'd build the army and worry about exact rules later on. Basically, the 40k universe was originally created with a real "go do whatever you want" mentality that was narrowed a little later and stripped away almost entirely for the most part until quite recently.

As for Sisters and Space Marines: Sisters kick arse and look fething cool while doing it. They may be "Nuns" but by the same token, Marines are "Monks" and the mindset within that isn't exactly exclusive to this:


Conversely, I'd be quite happy to play against an army of female space marines - regardless of how canonical they were - as long as they weren't created solely to troll - because why sink to the low bar? - and as long as some effort was put in to make them look good. Statuesque miniatures makes heads that would be a good/great start (I've got a bunch for a Chaos Warrior project) but be aware - they come in two sizes - you'll want the "heroic" ones. Armour wouldn't necessarily need changing, though proportions are already not great for male marines. Victoria Miniatures makes some great Imperial Guard in both female and male (not sure if she does mixed yet?) and also sells bits, so that could be another potential source for heads, though they may or may not be correctly sized. BrookM has done some great stuff with the Statuesque heads on Tempestus Scion bodies and they look perfect.

I've seen a diatribe recently where a player was basically demanding a total retcon of all the fluff involving Space Marines including edits to all reprinted material going forth etc etc. While people with no power or sway on the internet are free to "demand" whatever they want (no more fur!) it's a bit special snowflake since it's clearly completely unrealistic and never going to happen. OTOH an army that breaks canonity in a "I'm doing what I want because it's fething cool and the universe is BIG. You can like it or you ignore it or you can feth off." is a much better solution.

There are even lots of ways to "justify" it in the fluff - a "failed" experiement (in that the procedure is harder to perform on female initiates), or that a chapter of female marines is somewhat heretical (the procedure is fine, but someone back in the day spread the misinformation and the Imperium is so mired in dogmatically following the way things have always been that nobody thought to use female subjects for Marine initiates) or even surgically retcon the fluff in your own circle of friends and ignore/change the bits you don't like. Like Highlander 2 or Orcs/Orks being made of fungus. Because feth both of those things.

 n0t_u wrote:

 DizzyStorey wrote:

 curran12 wrote:
Also, if you want a female army, why not Sisters of Battle?

Well cause they are almost all ironcast, overpriced, underpowered, all look the same, outdated and lore wise they are puritanical angry nuns who get there powers by worshiping the god emperor, so... yeah, boring?
Variety is never a bad thing, and some variety here is pretty exciting to me, the idea of these bad-ass warrior woman in power armour is genuinely intriguing to me. I have little interest in the leather bound high heeled nuns.

The sketchy biology science they use to exclude woman from the space marines is stupid and really serves no purpose other than saving money on model production. Its just silly that the gene seed can turn your spit into acid and turn you into a werewolf but yet apparently couldn't figure out how to make it compatible with woman.

Sisters aren't meant to be leather armoured with high heels, that comes from one bit of crappy art. They're the badass women in power armour, Space Marines being able to be female not only goes against decades of fluff but will ultimately weaken the character of the Sisters (because you will get exactly the same thing minus their ability to draw power from their faith in the emperor) and perhaps see that they truly are never updated.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 DizzyStorey wrote:

GodDamUser wrote:
The Tau do have several Female leaders, and are not a unisex force

(Technically Imperial Guard are not unisex.. but you wouldn't know from the minis)

But with what you are liking I would say go Tau, then get a small allied detachment of Guard on the side

Yep! I adore the Tau, plus they are the closest thing to "Good guys" the 40k universe has to offer.
They seem sort of like the Quinari from dragon age, it doesnt matter if you are male or female, Tau or Human, if you follow the greater good you are a equal.

This is not true, Gue'la their word for humans literally translates to "Lesser beings".The Tau are all happy and pure on the surface but the further you look the closer to being thrown into the crap like the other races you get. They're still I suppose the nicer race, but not quite the shining pure good guys they first appear to be.

Firstly, the sisters of battle havent even been updated to 7th edition, They are nearly all metal-caste so no head swapping or conversion or customization, I do not want to play a army of angry puritanical nuns who get there powers by worshiping the emperor all day, I want to be a bad-ass ass kicking warrior woman in heavy unsexy power armor and so i am going to stick a female head on a space marine body and I dont give a rats ass who it offends or if it devalues the sisters of battle.
The dubious "Science" they use to reason why woman cant be space marines is ridiculous and easily ignored and even game workshop reworks and straight up ignores or rewrites there own fluff constantly as they see fit, nothing is set in stone. There is no reason in this high fantasy world with science so powerful its almost magic that a Y chromosome is getting in the way.
The only reason it was done was sexism put simply. Its utter nonesense and it like everything in the warhammer universe can be undone with the next codex in an instant like they have done many many times before.
http://www.pointandclickbait.com/2016/04/female-space-marines-no-way/
Its a good read, highly recommend it.



And on the terms of the Tau, that is incorrect, the word Gue'la means "Tau Helper" not lesser. And in lore there are human commanders and leaders who have attained great accilades in the Tau society.
Yes the Tou have there dark sides, thats why I said "They are the closest thing to good" cause compared to the others they are best, in any other setting they would be the villains. There method of "join us or die" is pretty bad, but there are good aspects too which is more than could be said about many of the other races.

 DizzyStorey wrote:

 n0t_u wrote:

 DizzyStorey wrote:

 curran12 wrote:
Also, if you want a female army, why not Sisters of Battle?

Well cause they are almost all ironcast, overpriced, underpowered, all look the same, outdated and lore wise they are puritanical angry nuns who get there powers by worshiping the god emperor, so... yeah, boring?
Variety is never a bad thing, and some variety here is pretty exciting to me, the idea of these bad-ass warrior woman in power armour is genuinely intriguing to me. I have little interest in the leather bound high heeled nuns.

The sketchy biology science they use to exclude woman from the space marines is stupid and really serves no purpose other than saving money on model production. Its just silly that the gene seed can turn your spit into acid and turn you into a werewolf but yet apparently couldn't figure out how to make it compatible with woman.

Sisters aren't meant to be leather armoured with high heels, that comes from one bit of crappy art. They're the badass women in power armour, Space Marines being able to be female not only goes against decades of fluff but will ultimately weaken the character of the Sisters (because you will get exactly the same thing minus their ability to draw power from their faith in the emperor) and perhaps see that they truly are never updated.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 DizzyStorey wrote:

GodDamUser wrote:
The Tau do have several Female leaders, and are not a unisex force

(Technically Imperial Guard are not unisex.. but you wouldn't know from the minis)

But with what you are liking I would say go Tau, then get a small allied detachment of Guard on the side

Yep! I adore the Tau, plus they are the closest thing to "Good guys" the 40k universe has to offer.
They seem sort of like the Quinari from dragon age, it doesnt matter if you are male or female, Tau or Human, if you follow the greater good you are a equal.

This is not true, Gue'la their word for humans literally translates to "Lesser beings".The Tau are all happy and pure on the surface but the further you look the closer to being thrown into the crap like the other races you get. They're still I suppose the nicer race, but not quite the shining pure good guys they first appear to be.

Firstly, the sisters of battle havent even been updated to 7th edition, They are nearly all metal-caste so no head swapping or conversion or customization, I do not want to play a army of angry puritanical nuns who get there powers by worshiping the emperor all day, I want to be a bad-ass ass kicking warrior woman in heavy unsexy power armor and so i am going to stick a female head on a space marine body and I dont give a rats ass who it offends or if it devalues the sisters of battle.
The dubious "Science" they use to reason why woman cant be space marines is ridiculous and easily ignored and even game workshop reworks and straight up ignores or rewrites there own fluff constantly as they see fit, nothing is set in stone. There is no reason in this high fantasy world with science so powerful its almost magic that a Y chromosome is getting in the way.
The only reason it was done was sexism put simply. Its utter nonesense and it like everything in the warhammer universe can be undone with the next codex in an instant like they have done many many times before.
http://www.pointandclickbait.com/2016/04/female-space-marines-no-way/
Its a good read, highly recommend it.



And on the terms of the Tau, that is incorrect, the word Gue'la means "Tau Helper" not lesser. And in lore there are human commanders and leaders who have attained great accilades in the Tau society.
Yes the Tou have there dark sides, thats why I said "They are the closest thing to good" cause compared to the others they are best, in any other setting they would be the villains. There method of "join us or die" is pretty bad, but there are good aspects too which is more than could be said about many of the other races.

1. I have a sisters army
2. Not everything has to be about sexism and people getting offended (as literally nearly every person who has made a thread about female space marines seems to be) over the idea that the background was established with marines only being male. Get over it, sisters are the bad ass power armoured girls you're after. The only real difference is the sisters aren't modified and have stronger faith in the emperor.
3.
Gue'vesa is "lowest helper". Gue'la, their word for human, is lowest being.

Gue: Meaning; "Human". Also, "Lowest" in reference to social standing. – submeaning alien.
La: Meaning; “being” or “Creature”.
Gue'la: Composite Word; Meaning; "Lowest Beings" or "Humans" – submeaning Imperial humans or non-pro Tau humans.Gue'la'sia: Composite Word; Meaning; "Lowest Beings talk" or "Gothic (speech)".
Gue'la’elro: Composite Word; Meaning; "Human Speaker" or "Human Politician".
Gue'ron'sha: Composite Word; Meaning; lit. "Human Engineered Wind", approx. "Engineered Human Warriors" or "Space Marines".
Gue'vesa: Composite Word; Meaning; "Lowest Helper" or "Human Helpers" – It refers to any human indoctrinated into Tau society or was born as a generations under Tau control.

http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?t=21234

 Azazelx wrote:
In terms of model stats and points, it's verboten to share those, so you'd be better off asking or looking elsewhere on the internet... because internet.

In terms of the army itself, since you'll be playing with friends I say do whatever you like. I've got a number of what I'll politely call "non-canonical" fantasy forces, though some of those are now oddly legitimate(!)

So buy what you like, and then go unbound. If the models appeal to you and you're not worried about tournaments or "official" events of any kind. If you want to "fit" the fluff then it pretty much looks like an Eldar Corsair/Pirate crew, minus the actual Eldar. You may (or may not) find Eldar or Dark Eldar models to your aesthetic taste, but there are certainly a mixed-gender force with some exceptions (Aspect Warriors are mixed in the fluff, but mono-gendered in the models). With 8th coming before too long, I'd build the army and worry about exact rules later on. Basically, the 40k universe was originally created with a real "go do whatever you want" mentality that was narrowed a little later and stripped away almost entirely for the most part until quite recently.

As for Sisters and Space Marines: Sisters kick arse and look fething cool while doing it. They may be "Nuns" but by the same token, Marines are "Monks" and the mindset within that isn't exactly exclusive to this:

Spoiler:

Conversely, I'd be quite happy to play against an army of female space marines - regardless of how canonical they were - as long as they weren't created solely to troll - because why sink to the low bar? - and as long as some effort was put in to make them look good. Statuesque miniatures makes heads that would be a good/great start (I've got a bunch for a Chaos Warrior project) but be aware - they come in two sizes - you'll want the "heroic" ones. Armour wouldn't necessarily need changing, though proportions are already not great for male marines. Victoria Miniatures makes some great Imperial Guard in both female and male (not sure if she does mixed yet?) and also sells bits, so that could be another potential source for heads, though they may or may not be correctly sized. BrookM has done some great stuff with the Statuesque heads on Tempestus Scion bodies and they look perfect.

I've seen a diatribe recently where a player was basically demanding a total retcon of all the fluff involving Space Marines including edits to all reprinted material going forth etc etc. While people with no power or sway on the internet are free to "demand" whatever they want (no more fur!) it's a bit special snowflake since it's clearly completely unrealistic and never going to happen. OTOH an army that breaks canonity in a "I'm doing what I want because it's fething cool and the universe is BIG. You can like it or you ignore it or you can feth off." is a much better solution.

There are even lots of ways to "justify" it in the fluff - a "failed" experiement (in that the procedure is harder to perform on female initiates), or that a chapter of female marines is somewhat heretical (the procedure is fine, but someone back in the day spread the misinformation and the Imperium is so mired in dogmatically following the way things have always been that nobody thought to use female subjects for Marine initiates) or even surgically retcon the fluff in your own circle of friends and ignore/change the bits you don't like. Like Highlander 2 or Orcs/Orks being made of fungus. Because feth both of those things.

Personally I think it would be for the better if they edited the fluff in that small regard, and many people think they may be doing so in the next codex ( Purely rumours mind you, having to do with warhammer expanding into gaming and growing in popularity / exposure )
But it doesnt effect me either way, Cause the poor science involved is easily ignored or snubbed, you can come up with a million ways around it if you know the fluff well enough.
I really really hate the sisters of battle, the way they look everything about them really. Maybe if they had some veriaty or interesting designs or even if they were customizable.

I wouldnt call the space marines monks, they are the backbone of the imperium, the main fleet and essentially the most iconic and important soldiers in the entire lore, so of course making them gender exclusive is silly, hell the sisters of battle are minor and theres like 5 seperate space marine chapters, simply put its just silly. If the sisters of battle were just a female chapter than it wold be cool. but there a legion of Cruella de vil looking clones with incredibly little support or story focus or importance.
It all comes down to the classic "This is the boys club, girls cant have what we have cause its for us"

Personally i just think Space marines are bad-ass so i am choosing to ignore the misogynistic crap that comes with this hobby.

 n0t_u wrote:

 DizzyStorey wrote:

 n0t_u wrote:

 DizzyStorey wrote:

 curran12 wrote:
Also, if you want a female army, why not Sisters of Battle?

Well cause they are almost all ironcast, overpriced, underpowered, all look the same, outdated and lore wise they are puritanical angry nuns who get there powers by worshiping the god emperor, so... yeah, boring?
Variety is never a bad thing, and some variety here is pretty exciting to me, the idea of these bad-ass warrior woman in power armour is genuinely intriguing to me. I have little interest in the leather bound high heeled nuns.

The sketchy biology science they use to exclude woman from the space marines is stupid and really serves no purpose other than saving money on model production. Its just silly that the gene seed can turn your spit into acid and turn you into a werewolf but yet apparently couldn't figure out how to make it compatible with woman.

Sisters aren't meant to be leather armoured with high heels, that comes from one bit of crappy art. They're the badass women in power armour, Space Marines being able to be female not only goes against decades of fluff but will ultimately weaken the character of the Sisters (because you will get exactly the same thing minus their ability to draw power from their faith in the emperor) and perhaps see that they truly are never updated.


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 DizzyStorey wrote:

GodDamUser wrote:
The Tau do have several Female leaders, and are not a unisex force

(Technically Imperial Guard are not unisex.. but you wouldn't know from the minis)

But with what you are liking I would say go Tau, then get a small allied detachment of Guard on the side

Yep! I adore the Tau, plus they are the closest thing to "Good guys" the 40k universe has to offer.
They seem sort of like the Quinari from dragon age, it doesnt matter if you are male or female, Tau or Human, if you follow the greater good you are a equal.

This is not true, Gue'la their word for humans literally translates to "Lesser beings".The Tau are all happy and pure on the surface but the further you look the closer to being thrown into the crap like the other races you get. They're still I suppose the nicer race, but not quite the shining pure good guys they first appear to be.

Firstly, the sisters of battle havent even been updated to 7th edition, They are nearly all metal-caste so no head swapping or conversion or customization, I do not want to play a army of angry puritanical nuns who get there powers by worshiping the emperor all day, I want to be a bad-ass ass kicking warrior woman in heavy unsexy power armor and so i am going to stick a female head on a space marine body and I dont give a rats ass who it offends or if it devalues the sisters of battle.
The dubious "Science" they use to reason why woman cant be space marines is ridiculous and easily ignored and even game workshop reworks and straight up ignores or rewrites there own fluff constantly as they see fit, nothing is set in stone. There is no reason in this high fantasy world with science so powerful its almost magic that a Y chromosome is getting in the way.
The only reason it was done was sexism put simply. Its utter nonesense and it like everything in the warhammer universe can be undone with the next codex in an instant like they have done many many times before.
http://www.pointandclickbait.com/2016/04/female-space-marines-no-way/
Its a good read, highly recommend it.



And on the terms of the Tau, that is incorrect, the word Gue'la means "Tau Helper" not lesser. And in lore there are human commanders and leaders who have attained great accilades in the Tau society.
Yes the Tou have there dark sides, thats why I said "They are the closest thing to good" cause compared to the others they are best, in any other setting they would be the villains. There method of "join us or die" is pretty bad, but there are good aspects too which is more than could be said about many of the other races.

1. I have a sisters army
2. Not everything has to be about sexism and people getting offended (as literally nearly every person who has made a thread about female space marines seems to be) over the idea that the background was established with marines only being male. Get over it, sisters are the bad ass power armoured girls you're after. The only real difference is the sisters aren't modified and have stronger faith in the emperor.
3.
Gue'vesa is "lowest helper". Gue'la, their word for human, is lowest being.

Gue: Meaning; "Human". Also, "Lowest" in reference to social standing. – submeaning alien.
La: Meaning; “being” or “Creature”.
Gue'la: Composite Word; Meaning; "Lowest Beings" or "Humans" – submeaning Imperial humans or non-pro Tau humans.Gue'la'sia: Composite Word; Meaning; "Lowest Beings talk" or "Gothic (speech)".
Gue'la’elro: Composite Word; Meaning; "Human Speaker" or "Human Politician".
Gue'ron'sha: Composite Word; Meaning; lit. "Human Engineered Wind", approx. "Engineered Human Warriors" or "Space Marines".
Gue'vesa: Composite Word; Meaning; "Lowest Helper" or "Human Helpers" – It refers to any human indoctrinated into Tau society or was born as a generations under Tau control.

http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?t=21234

Little hint, when everyone is saying its sexist, its probably sexist.

 DizzyStorey wrote:
I wouldnt call the space marines monks, they are the backbone of the imperium, the main fleet and essentially the most iconic and important soldiers in the entire lore

I think you're forgetting tons of men and women here.

 Bobthehero wrote:

 DizzyStorey wrote:
I wouldnt call the space marines monks, they are the backbone of the imperium, the main fleet and essentially the most iconic and important soldiers in the entire lore

I think you're forgetting tons of men and women here.

We call them Tyranid fodder.

Sisters are my favs. I hate to see them demeaned like this. Maybe if you look at it a little differently:

Manchu wrote:
It's like you take a Space Marine and say "what could make him cooler?" So instead of adding more super-genetic-psycho-organic modification, you take it all away. You have a regular human left in that power armor and all the armies of hell at the gates. And she doesn't even flinch.

Pure. Badass.

That said, whether XYZ is sexist is a topic better left to a thread about that topic rather than this one, which is not. On-topic, OP wants to play femarines rather than Sisters and - as per AzazelX's post - I doubt anyone worth hanging out with for as long as it takes to play a game would object to a nicely converted army. I think that same kind of person would probably object, however, to someone going on a rant about why XYZ is sooo dumb and sooo sexist, etc, etc - just like someone going on and on putting down a nicely converted SM army because the figs use female heads would be pretty gauche.

 DizzyStorey wrote:

 Bobthehero wrote:

 DizzyStorey wrote:
I wouldnt call the space marines monks, they are the backbone of the imperium, the main fleet and essentially the most iconic and important soldiers in the entire lore

I think you're forgetting tons of men and women here.

We call them Tyranid fodder.

I see... uh.

Manchu wrote:
Sisters are my favs. I hate to see them demeaned like this. Maybe if you look at it a little differently:

Manchu wrote:
It's like you take a Space Marine and say "what could make him cooler?" So instead of adding more super-genetic-psycho-organic modification, you take it all away. You have a regular human left in that power armor and all the armies of hell at the gates. And she doesn't even flinch.

Pure. Badass.

That said, whether XYZ is sexist is a topic better left to a thread about that topic rather than this one, which is not. On-topic, OP wants to play femarines rather than Sisters and - as per AzazelX's post - I doubt anyone worth hanging out with for as long as it takes to play a game would object to a nicely converted army. I think that same kind of person would probably object, however, to someone going on a rant about why XYZ is sooo dumb and sooo sexist, etc, etc - just like someone going on and on putting down a nicely converted SM army because the figs use female heads would be pretty gauche.

Okay okay I might be a bit harsh on the sisters of battle, but I just dont want to use them and I believe that they and Fem-Space marines can exist in harmony.
We still need battle nuns in the church and front-line super soldiers, they are not mutually exclusive nor parralls, ( or the sisters would get more focus if they were suppose to be a foil or inverse of the space marines )

Both can exist and personally I think fem space marines sound really cool, especially if you go the amazonian route and draw parallels to warriors from history like the other chapters. link em to the planet olympia or ultramar, its a match made in heaven.

Plus i really really dont like Iron-caste models or snap together models, I like glueing every bit and bob together nicely and swapping parts and adding and removing parts. ya know? So an entire Iron-caste army dont work for me.

( Plus do all sisters of battle have to have such nasty expressions? Like would it be too much to ask for one with relatively nice looking features? I know its nit picky but eh..)


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Honestly I am not trying to cause trouble nor do I want to keep having to defend why I like the idea of a female space marine option. I think its neat, and its a shame that game work shop went out of there way to try and prevent it. Thats the start and end of my feelings on the subject.

That said i really like the idea of a purely unique experience or army, not to be different but just so i have something to call my own and feels unique to me.