The Sunday Rant

Ive decided to add a regular discussion piece to the blog, which would be a little different from what I post normally.

Hopefully this will happen weekly anyway on with the rant.

The Sunday Rant

Codex hopping!

So there has been of late discussion around this topic, more or less spurred on by Goatboys counts as lists from BOLS with his space goats and the recent drama over the word bearers army he made using the space wolf codex.

Of late also down here in OZ my mate has recently decided to use the Blood Angels codex to run his Khorne Army, and in a recent tournament a player used Dark Angels codex to run a Night Lords Bike army using I think the ravening character  as a counts as.

For the most part no-one complained and the night lords player even got an accolade for the imaginative use and brilliant conversion work.

Yet in the lands of the internetz and blogs there has been allot of chatter about it and allot of it against the idea.

Now myself when I came back to the hobby my decision to create a DIY chapter was based on the fact that while I liked the Cannon chapters I wanted to be able to do something imaginative with time and not follow some standard approach.  Don't get me wrong there are some wonderful codex armies out there with lots of great conversions etc. But something inside me said be different.

So the Arctic Templars where born, originally they where going to be codex marines but then codex space wolves came out, and the nature of how you could build your army appealed to me.  Strong individual characters,  small heroic units etc.  So I went to work on Wolf Company and the bulk of the bog you see today covers that journey of making that 1st army.

SO it was a counts as, it was not a true space wolf list per say, yet all the models where wysiwyg and I always took time to explain to people what everything was and in 2 years have never met anyone who has issue with this.

Now I'm working through Codex Blood Angels for 2nd Company of the chapter. Over the course of the period Ive also developed  style of play that Codex Space wolves influenced but was also derived from the style of army I wanted to play, which in this case was Armored Column of DOOM!
After consideration around what I wanted to do next I decided on something very different, essentially a drop pod assault or more specifically a planet assault force, so blood angels codex allowed me to explore that with free drop pods, gunships and etc.

This then led to a careful review of my collection.  As such I've decided to retire some of my original models and redo the wolf company troop choices to able to swap them in for troop choices in a BA codex list for larger games.

So whats the point thus far? well the recent chatter has made me step back for a moment and consider if I'm doing this because the codex is the newest badest biggest boy on the block? or is it that I'm exploring a different approach to the game?

Now yes true its not me going out and making a guard army and trying something very different but its still different. 

So then the question I have to ask is why so many people take issue with this on the Internetz?

The more I read about it there seems to be a culture of gamers that Ive read about that would not stay true to the rule of wysiwig and at times would even use a tampon found in their sisters sock draw as the new Stormraven on the table if it allowed them to gain the advantage in a game.

Against that there are also those who have an issue with the idea of using one set of rules to represent another set models who have rules already, and seem to use very emotive words about the very idea to the  point that you would be convinced that at one time or another such a choice would be on the same level as selling their 80 year old mother into slave labor just to continue to fund their home loan repayments.

So if we break the two groups down and I'm sure there are other subsets of these groups, (possibly hiding with the lost tribe of pygmies in the Indonesian archipelago) I really have two responses to both.

To the tampon using, unimaginative nitwit who has clearly failed to grasp in my opinion the spirit of the hobby,  If you cant afford the model and cant seem to win with your current army of laundry pegs and used coke cans, don't expect me to be sympathetic just because I also have a counts as army.  My army actually looks like one, and more so to those who take issue with this don't try and use people like myself as a fall guy for these people. It makes no sense on one side you have people who spend the money, pay attention to conventions such as wysiwyg and continue to enhance the rich world of this hobby.  The other really has no place in the hobby in my opinion as they would not even be allowed in tournaments.

To the puritans out there who, cry that the sky is falling in and that the emperor will strike you down where you stand for even considering the idea of Using Codex Space wolves to represent renegades or one of the Traitor Legions.  Take hold of a hand rail or even glue your feet to the concrete and get a grip.  At the end of the day the rules are stat lines, I could call the assault marines in my army the fluffy hippo feet tactical response unit- and they would still move six hit on 4's- its the stat line that is important.  I think there really needs to be less of this agnst against people who are looking to expand their hobby are willing to take the time to model convert and paint those armies.  At the end of the day you have a choice around this and you don't have to play them, but I really don't think you have a right to force your view on them either.

I doubt even GW would take issue with it, so long as the hobby continues to grow.

So with that I'm siding with Goatboy on this I think what he did with the word bearers was fantastic and myself The Arctic Templar's are going to embrace the BA codex for their rebirth at 3000 points and beyond. 





Rant complete!