Using 'counts as' to make a great army

Goatboy over at Bell of Lost Souls posted a pretty decent discussion topic on using 'counts as' armies.
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Now, he wasn't talking about proxying, which was something many of the commenters didn't seem to understand. What he meant was using an army of models built specifically to replace the line for his intended codex. In his case, he was talking about converting a Space Goat army to count as Space Wolves. In my opinion, this is a great idea for those of us who like to convert models and like our armies to have a unique feel.

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The idea seperates itself from proxying when the user makes sure the models are armed WYSIWYG, meaning that if the codex calls for the model to have a plasma gun, then it has a plasma gun. That way your opponent is constantly having to think "OK, the model with the green tenticle has the plasma gun and all the others with yellow tentacles are bolters, but what the hell is that one doing with the brown tentacle?"

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Now there are varying degrees of 'counts as'. There is the old Nurgle stand-by of "Zombies count as lesser daemons" which is cool looking and has no WYSIWYG issues and then there are the this army counts as (insert codex).

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I personally feel, like several of the comenters on the BOLS post, that some of the forgotten Legions of the Chaos Space Marines codex can be done well as count as through the Codex Space Marines. Now before you call your local Greater Daemon of choice and have a Warp Storm dispatched to my location, think about how it can be done in a way that makes sense and the ease by which it can be done.

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First off, yes you could use pre-heresy versions of the Legions and it would look quite cool, but not everyone wants to play Warhammer 30,000. So for those people, I would just take your Chaos Marines (they can pretty much be armed as loyalists so this is pretty easy if you already have an army) and set them up the way you want them per the Marines codex. This can be cool as it gives you the chance to Chaosify a Land Speeder or make those scouts into 'Cultists' and as long as you aren't throwing anything strange in there like a Daemon Prince and you stick to the idea of WYSIWYG when making the Chaos themed lists, you and your opponents could have a lot of fun.

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Alpha Legion could easily be represented through the use of a 'counts as Khan' model on foot. He would be a great conversion in the hands of a good modeller and then every model with combat tactics gets to outflank ... sounds pretty Alpha Legiony to me. That would be Terminators in a Land Raider, Tacs, Devs, Assault Marines, Thunderfire Cannons, scouts and the list goes on. I think this would make a strong and quite well-themed Alpha legion list myself.

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Night Lords could use the mounted Khan and a biker army or even a 'counts as Shrike model', which by the way could be outstanding, and a bunch of fleeting assault Marines ect. Not to mention the uber squad you could make out of the squad he rolls with (vet skills). I think this reflects the Night Lords nature better than anything in the Chaos codex.

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The Iron Warriors alas, would still have to go without their Basilisk and now would have to go sans obliterators, but through a Master of the Forge, they could bring up to 6 dreadnoughts! I think a 'Counts as Vulcan' army with a strong mech theme (think three drop pod evil dreads and three evil vindis) could be a cool idea for the old IW.

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Wordbeares might have a problem fitting the translation due to the lack of daemons and all and they can be done pretty well to theme through the Chaos Codex anyway.

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The ideas don't stop there. You could have a Dragon Warriors themed army with a Evil version of Vulcan (check out the photo) or a Tau army made of Kroot Renegades (like Still Frosty's) and the list goes on ... just remember that you have to make it in such a way as not to confuse your opponent. These kind of conversions are right in line with the spirit of the hobby especially when done with a true interest in the fluff and character you are creating, which takes it beyond the "My Black Templars count as Space Wolves because I want to win more" nonsense and into the realm of "This is the best way to represent (my models)" and create something unique and very cool looking!

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In any case, just some food for thought ... and whew, a big rant! Feel free to comment as always!