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From what I understand, if you want to field certain equipment such as a magic sword or banner, they should be represented on your models. My questions are:
What if your painted model comes with a great sword but you want him to use a club instead?
If one of your troop is a banner carrier but you simply don't have points to fill in the banner, can you still field that figure? Will that be too confusing for your opponent?

WYSIWYG works both ways. Equipment selected for the model should be represented on the model, and all equipment shown in the model should be represented in your army list. Anything else is not 'seeing' what you're actually 'getting'...

wildger wrote:What if your painted model comes with a great sword but you want him to use a club instead?

If you want to satisfy WYSIWYG, you would need to remove the sword and give him a club.

Or, as long as you have no other great swords in the army, and it's easily distinguishable from any other swords, simply point it out to your opponent pre-game that the great sword counts as a club, on account of being really, really blunt.

If one of your troop is a banner carrier but you simply don't have points to fill in the banner, can you still field that figure? Will that be too confusing for your opponent?

So far as WYSIWYG is concerned, no. The miniature is not accurately representing what it is supposed to be.

So far as an actual tournament is concerned, that would depend entirely on how closely the tournament is following the idea of WYSIWYG. You would need to check the tournament rules packet, and if necessary check with the TO before the event.

In a tournament setting, I would be much less lenient on WYSIWYG, particularly when it comes to 'counts as' when it is something else that is in an armybook/codex. For example, if you as a Space Marine player wanted to convert all your heavy bolter guys to be carrying HMGs, I would be happy with that if it was consistently applied as it is not confusing with anything else. If on the other hand you said that all models with lascannons actually carried heavy bolters, while I would be more than happy in a club game, in a tournament setting it's open to confusion.

My take is this - if you modeled it a certain way, play it that way. At least in tournaments.

In friendly games, I figure whatever.

As far as I am concerned, I don't care if someone doesn't play WYSIWYG for magic items or if they field models that don't show equipment that they have to take or the opposite (ie. your unit comes with light armour, you have no choice, but you choose to use the models that are just wearing robes or you can only get marauder horsemen in one pose, just let me know when you deploy them).

I wouldn't be particularly happy to see a unit with a big ornate banner, avoid it because of this, and then find out that there wasn't actually a banner in the unit at all.

i have a similar question to the OP, if for example i use a chaos runesword, can it be represnted on the model as an axe? for the armies theme, not to confuse people, and i would tell them before the battle of course. just wondering.

The Warhammer rulebook specifies that for character magic items, full WYSIWYG is not required; it states that a "Sword of Power" can just as easily be an "Axe of Power", for example (can't recall the exact phrasing, but it's at least very close to that).

Regarding unit weapons, the book does say that the majority of the models in the unit are to be armed appropriately. So as long as you're over half, you're okay.

As regards command models like standards and musicians, I definitely think WYSIWYG should always be in effect. Tactical decisions can easily hinge on whether those models are present.

subbing an axe for a sword as long as they have the same stats it doesnt matter.

if the guys has a sword and a pistol, and then you say hes got a power fist not so much.

the the guy has a sword and a pistol and its a power weapon, usually good enough to say its a power weapon before hand.