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| From Eternity of War |
Oh no! What’s this? Another opinionated fool trying to convince people on one of 40k’s most contentious issues?
*Cut to two small children nodding (one is holding a chocolate-covered teddy bear wearing a red paper hat)*
Hey it’s Widthofacircle here again, TKE asked me to write another article or two to help keep his blog afloat during his holidays and I obliged because I’m nice.
Well, amongst the hated things in 40k, ‘Counts As’ has to be one of the worst offenders, causing FAACers (Fluffy At Any Cost - from Dethtron) to turn into petulant children and many unkind things being said about other gamers. TKE and I are of the same opinion, thinking that counts as allows the hobby to have a very varied and dynamic player base. There are however bad aspects of counts as, with some players adapting their existing marine army to fit each and every codex available - a phenomenon I like to refer to as a ‘MATFAC’ (from Marine Army That Fits All Codexes). When in most cases like this, no effort has been made to customise the army beyond merely incorporating new models that are the lynchpin of the newer codexes painted in the most unimaginative way.
I have seen at a local club a MATFAC which was painted as Ultramarines yet from week to week changed to become Grey Knights, Blood Angels and Vanilla Marines - that my friends is very much the kind of MATFAC I am opposed to. When I challenged the guy jokingly why he hadn’t played them as Space Wolves yet, he said to me looking annoyed:
“Duh, I don’t have enough missile launchers to play Long Fang spam...”
This particular player in the space of one meeting at my now ex-local club played this MATFAC as Blood Angels vs a Tau player with Marneus Calgar acting as Mephistion (poor Tau player), Grey Knights vs a Nid player, adapting his list as he went, tailoring to each game - very poor form if you ask me.
Although potentially consigned to a limited group of people, this is the kind of player that gives the noble artform of counts-as a bad name - I propose we name them MATFAACers (taken from my very own acronym - yes I have a big head, so what? ;) )
I only had the ‘pleasure’ of playing that particular MATFAACer on two occasions when he was sporting a GK army made up of Ultramarines and a Blood Angels army, again disguised as Ultramarines.
Those willing to defend him against my tirade, will probably say:
‘It’s a good way of saving monies I suppose.’ or
‘Width, stop moaning and get on with your life’ or
‘Haha look at that fool who still plays Eldar - he has shit hair lololol’
But, as I do play Eldar and DE, I have limited scope for performing that kind of MATFAACery (again, see what I did there ;) ) and don’t feel that it is fair.
On the other side of counts-as there are some simply fantastically converted armies representing amongst others Chaos Space Marine armies using other codexes - something I’m not surprised about the Chaos codex *is* one of the most bland pieces of writing ever to come out of GW - if you haven’t read it, consider this alternative for significantly less money than buying or borrowing the book.
Buy a packet of cream crackers and eat every single one of them without any garnish, butter or water to comfort you. Honestly, thats the closest I can come to describing the feeling I had when I reread the codex after my 8 year absence from the hobby.
*ahem* sorry for the mini-tirade...
Back to the point, there are some incredibly converted armies out there as case and point - Vinsanity’s Night Lords (Counts as Blood Angels), Goatboy’s Space Goats (Counts as Space Wolves) and the one featured on the GW website not so long ago. Here are some pretties for you to admire from those examples.
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| Vinsanity's Night Lords |
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| Goatboy's Space Goats |
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| Christian Byrne's Blood Wolves |
...and now a short musical break...
I suppose all this boils down to the fact that I am considering joining the ranks of the Counts As Team (CAT - don’t think that works as well as MATFAC or Spelfy...) with a counts-as Blood Angels army.
I recently re-read that particular codex - fantastic book, really well costed with some great stuff around there if used correctly. FNP/FC bubbles and cheap transports for Assault Marines without jump packs? Awesome!
Whilst reading, I couldn’t help but think about how easy it would be to write a decent, yet fluffy list for another army - The World Eaters. I mean think about it, both are armies composed of frothing maniacs obsessed with Close Combat and very rapidly rushing towards the enemy to cut them into tiny pieces (according to fluff anyway). The Blood Angels are practically Khornate anyway.
It appears I am not alone in these thoughts, on this very blog in fact, TKE voiced his interest in building a counts-as World Eaters army in these posts, (1, 1 (point five) & 2 (point five)) but doesn't seem to have said anything on the matter in a while, so I will steal the idea.... *nyahahaha*
It appears I am not alone in these thoughts, on this very blog in fact, TKE voiced his interest in building a counts-as World Eaters army in these posts, (1, 1 (point five) & 2 (point five)) but doesn't seem to have said anything on the matter in a while, so I will steal the idea.... *nyahahaha*
Looking at both the value for points and considering the ease of conversion to make my World Eaters I immediately looked for a HQ. Chapter masters and Captains are out as they don’t give really boost the squad’s combat ability. A Librarian is simply too unfluffy for my tastes, leaving us with Reclusiarchs who with Liturgies of Blood are too good to miss!
HQ done, I turned to Elites. What could be more Khornate than a bunch of guys with Power Weapons inspiring more killyness in the nearby squads? Sanguinary Priests of course! I’ll take 4 please one for each Assault Squad (I try to have 1 troops per 500pts, yes it goes against the 4 + 2 Stelekian design paradigm)
Too beef the list up with Anti-armour I’ll stick a few autolas Predators in (they’re easy to convert lol, the Chaos Predator kit comes with the armament I want anyway... :) ) I also want something to escort my über-choppy Reclusiarch - a few Vanguard veterans methinks.
All that leaves me with this list:
Bringer of Blood (Reclusiarch): 145pts
Combi-melta, melta-bombs
Invocators of Wrath (Sanguinary Priest): 260pts
x 4, Power Weapon each
Khorne Bezerkers (Assault Squad): 211pts
Meltagun, Powerfist, 2 x Additional Marines, infernus pistol
Rhino w/ Storm Bolter
Khorne Bezerkers (Assault Squad): 211pts
Meltagun, Powerfist, 2 x Additional Marines, infernus pistol
Rhino w/ Storm Bolter
Khorne Bezerkers (Assault Squad): 211pts
Meltagun, Powerfist, 2 x Additional Marines, infernus pistol
Rhino w/ Storm Bolter
Khorne Bezerkers (Assault Squad): 211pts
Meltagun, Powerfist, 2 x Additional Marines, infernus pistol
Rhino w/ Storm Bolter
Super Choppy World Eaters Veterans (Vanguard Veterans): 285pts
x 7 w/ 3 x Power Weapons 2 x Power Fist, 2 x Hand Flamer, (Thunder Hammer on Sergeant)
Rhino w/ Storm Bolter
Predator: 135pts
lascannon sponsons
Predator: 135pts
lascannon sponsons
Predator: 135pts
lascannon sponsons
1999pts
So with the list compiled, all I need to is to build it... If the project goes ahead, I’ll let you guys know with a series of modelling posts (yay), but it’s all up in the air at the moment...
Thanks for reading, I'll see you next time!
Super Choppy huh?I like it. {^}
Overall, this article gets the TKE Seal of Approval:
Super Choppy huh?I like it. {^}
Overall, this article gets the TKE Seal of Approval:
As you all know, Counts As is something I firmly advocate, and I believe (evinced by my previous articles on the subject) that the World Eaters Legion can be more than adequately represented by the Blood Angels Codex. Moreover, I feel this is a far better way for GW to proceed, to deliberately write these things in for Codexes to have multiple uses like this than to go down the frankly farcical route advocated by many morons of having individual Legion Codexes or even God-Specific ones. I mean, if GW can't be bothered to update all the Codexes to the present Edition before releasing a new Edition, why the fuck do you think they'd do any better with an extra bunch of books to rewrite every 6 years?
Seriously, the length of time DE had to wait should NOT be normal!
7 comments:
I've got no problem with MATFAC. Your marines, do as you please. As long as they're WYSIWIG (i.e. NOT Calgar as Mephiston), I don't mind.
Kirby is a prime example of a MATFACer, and all his shizzle looks neat.
WRT the list... I liken sang priests to WE chaplains, firing up their men. The libby's powers could easily be given some fluff to make it viable. In the list is the Chappie going with the VVs? If so, that's an obvious, obvious target and gives you a big rock protected by an AV11 hull. Last time I looked... that's not so neat. ;)
It's like the first half was written about me! I've got Stormravens in Salamanders colours and livery, and grey knights, and units of 4 to 5 missiles. 30 bikes that swap fearless for combat tactics sometimes, speeders that score and dont score. All WYSIWYG and spanning five codexs.
I saw this and was expecting someone ragging on counts-as as usual, and was pleasantly suprised.
I love the BA codex as well, and actually have a army half built to use the codex, totally made out of eldar models, keeping the wargear and such as close as possible - my own personal Khaine worshipping exodite army :P.
Scorpions with hawk wings as Assault Marines, and warlocks as sanguinary priests, a farseer as Librarian, etc.
Its on the backburner for now due to the extreme cost of buying 2 boxes of scorpions and two boxes of hawks per assault squad, but the ones that are done came out great.
So good luck with your project and I can't wait to see what you do.
Thanks for the comments guys.
@BroLo The problem was, they weren't all WYSIWIG and he was using generic characters that he'd made himself represent Calgar, Mephy, Belial etc. I do appreciate your views on it though.
The list isn't designed for competitive play, and no, the Reclusiarch is sitting with one of the squads with an Icon bearer sitting in with the Vanguards. Thanks for the pointer though ;).
@Floody Grrr :) *hugs*
@Kris Thanks for the compliments, I'll be sure to keep MWFTW updated as I plough through the assembly of the red marines. Charachos first though. :)
I have to agree, I am annoyed by MATFAC armies. We have a guy in our area that has a blue army that was everythign at some point or another. Vanilla marines, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Space wolves and Salamanders.
A "counts as" is all fine and I love to see how creative people can be. A converted army, painted up to a basic standard at least and shows thought is WAY different from a MATFAC army. These players still bring the fluff and flavor to the table without giving anything away.
MATFAC's to me are like prostitutes they sell their army out like sluts for the next codex to be in the loop. Sure, i can understand wanting to save a few bucks in this economy, but to a point standards should be kept.
Great read!
I have to admit to a degree of MATFAC'ing myself - in that I have been using my varied Marines (mostly Zerks, to be fair) as Blood Angels while refining my list in order to actually purchase the BA models to build it with.
Had I simply not found an appropriate list I liked the feel of, I would have been pretty glad not to have wasted money buying stuff I wouldn't use - but I wouldn't dream of taking them to a game with a stranger or a tournament in this fashion.
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