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Hi guys.... I've been looking at the game mechanics and though I know my own small group doesn't care..... I wanted to finally be able to create my own 3rd generation space marine chapter. I already decided which chapter to off shoot from but wanted to use adeptus arbites as scouts instead of the normal space marine scouts.... I have the old metal sculpts and am awaiting the new ones. Never gave much thought to the cyber mastiff and figured this might be a two part question. Run as is... and proxy the arbites for the scouts minus cyber mastiff.... or find a way to fit the arbites according to their new rules incarnation. Keep in mind the bulk of my playing days was 2nd edition with a brief 8th edition stint.

How much other count-as is in your army?

This is one of those odd places where due to 10ths rules, a unit of arbites could legitimately be on the table in a marine army as themselves. But also, a beefy guy in carapace armor with a shotgun could be a scout.

Nobody should have an issue with you using arbites models as arbites. I’ve not dug into the Imperial Agents rules personally, but my understanding is that tacking a squad or two into another army is 100% by the book legal in the current edition.

This actually complicates using them as scouts. If you were doing something like using Necromunda Golliaths, which have no legal 40k rules, they would obviously be a counts-as. So there would not be any confusion

If they are otherwise WYSWYG, I suspect most people wouldn’t mind you using the models as scouts. Just be clear, and be consistent.

There are rules for the Arbites models for 40k in the Agents of the Imperium PDF if you want to use those instead.

As above, using models that have specific rules for their units as another unit can cause confusion. As long as the people you play with are OK with it, it should be fine but it's best to check.

But if you want a background reason, I don't see a reason why a given Chapter wouldn't have a close relationship with the Arbites.
If Chapters can be close with the Mechanicus, Ecclesiarchy, Inquisition, or Navigator Houses then it stands to reason that yours could have an alliance with the Arbites.

Perhaps your Chapter rules a world with an iron fist and enforces the Lex Imperialis to the absolute degree. As such the world is a paragon of Imperial law and order where the local sector Arbites conduct joint operations with your Chapter due to their similar ideologies.

Just a main question: are Arbites and Scouts mixable?

Like - do their bits work together or is there now a bigger size difference?

I use my Arbites as kind of 'Kings Guard' of my own world.

But if he buys like 1 scout Squad and mix them with Arbites, would that work?

Probably not.

I would suggest not. The Phobos range is more suited to that, in my opinion.

Yeah, I wouldn't mix the marine scouts with the Arbites or go full in on Arbites in place of scouts. Given there would be some trade offs if I went as is.... such as marine scouts have a bit more flushed out equipment to use. Such as bikes, landspeeder storm, and a few more options at weaponry.
What I wanted to do was implement the time spent as a marine scout ---> adeptus arbites ----> space marine or primaris marine. What makes sense to me would be which future they would want.... something a bit smaller framed or beefier with different weapons options, etc.
I haven't fully flushed out the background but I wanted to have ties to recruiting from a 40k esque police force to add depth and background to my chapter and it's chapter master.

Considering the Scouts will likely be bigger than the newer Arbites models, and most definitely bigger than the older ones, that path wouldn't really work.
Honestly, the best option for including those models in your army would just be to use them as Arbites.

Do what ever you want. It’s your army. I’d mix heads and the left shoulder pad on them to mix it up just enough to represent something else. That way people can be like oh well they arnt Arbites but maybe field the same type of carapace.

Kael90 wrote:
Just a main question: are Arbites and Scouts mixable?

Like - do their bits work together or is there now a bigger size difference?

I use my Arbites as kind of 'Kings Guard' of my own world.

But if he buys like 1 scout Squad and mix them with Arbites, would that work?

Which Arbites models and which Scout models? That's the important question.

GW held a lot of models to a similar scale for a long, long time. So if you're thinking about swappable parts between sets of models made more than 5ish years ago, it's quite possible you could mix and match.

Not so much worried about swappable parts at this point in the game.... I do have lots of scouts to work with and can see having perhaps a arbites proxy as a scout sergeant ....ala ...a chapter character that's rising through the ranks using his old lucky armor carapace etc. Figured game mechanics wise... have a nice squad as is according to the new rules and see how that works. Fluff wise.... it'll be a signature of my Chapter to have ties with the Arbites and I'll flush out the who, where, what and why as I go. When I saw the larger "primaris initiates" come out with the current Black Templar stuff.... I figured that represented perhaps the final physical growth step as far as choosing regular marine or advancing onto primaris size?

How does that work with space marines being outside of the structure of Lex Imperialis? They don't share recruits with the arbiters, aside for the rare psychics that went through the progenium. Do you have a story hook how it functions within the w40k lore?

Timas09 wrote:
Hi guys.... I've been looking at the game mechanics and though I know my own small group doesn't care..... I wanted to finally be able to create my own 3rd generation space marine chapter. I already decided which chapter to off shoot from but wanted to use adeptus arbites as scouts instead of the normal space marine scouts.... I have the old metal sculpts and am awaiting the new ones. Never gave much thought to the cyber mastiff and figured this might be a two part question. Run as is... and proxy the arbites for the scouts minus cyber mastiff.... or find a way to fit the arbites according to their new rules incarnation. Keep in mind the bulk of my playing days was 2nd edition with a brief 8th edition stint.

Do what you want. They're your models.
I have 50 Palanites and 24 Subjugators (Necromunda Arbites) and I use them in my Guard army. I even use the Subjugators icon on my Bullgryns.
I just wanted as many clubs and shields I could in a guard list. Broke my heart when I realized I couldn't put them all in a Stormlord.
So now I just need some Law-tomatons and a few cyber mastiffs to flesh out a force and finish converting my servo-haulers into riot suppression devices and I can field my Riot Suppression Force.