In warhammer, can I legalyl mix and match pices to creat custom soldiers?

Question

can i give my skaven pieces of other armies liek undead arms or goblin catapults and gliders or other army mounts and still abide by the games rules, even with permission from my opponent?

Answer 1

That depends what you're trying to do.

Mixing and matching items from the kits is usually called "converting" and is about making models for your army that are distinctive and unique.  But where you do this - and I absolutely encourage to give it a go! - the resulting model should still abide by the law of WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get.  This means that a skaven with a sword and a shield is a skaven with a sword and a shield.  If one skaven in a regiment is waving a slightly-gnawed bone instead of his sword, that's absolutely fine!  A hand weapon is a hand weapon and whether it's a sword or the sharp end of a thigh-bone doesn't really matter.  You can even be a bit silly.  I've seen a Rat-Ogre wielding an unfortunate skavenslave as a weapon.  A regiment of plague monks could easily have a few skeleton arms to represent the wasting effects of their hideous diseases.

However, you couldn't normally give a regiment of skaven a job-lot of Empire crossbows and declare that they now have crossbows, because *skaven can't use crossbows* - it's not an option available to them.  So, whilst the unit is WYSIWYG-compliant, it's not legal.

That said, "legal" is really only important in tournaments and when playing someone you don't know.  If playing friends, then explaining that you'd like to trial a regiment of skaven with crossbows shouldn't be a problem.  Give them some appropriate special rules (such as "Twang! - Any rolls to hit of 1 indicate that the skaven's poorly-maintained crossbow has misfired.  For each 1, the regiment takes a strength 3 hit") and get on with it!  If they work, send them to Jervis Johnson at White Dwarf.  He loves that sort of thing.

When it comes to WYSIWYG, though, there are limits.  For example, having a Goblin Spear Chukker and saying it "counts as" a Warpfire Thrower is a bit weird.  It's not wrong.  It's just odd.  The two work in completely different ways and you can't really imagine a spear chukker having the same effect or range as a warpfire thrower.  Even when the nature of the weapon has been fully explained at the outset, opponents can still - in the heat of battle - forget what the thing really is and end up avoiding something that wasn't there to be avoided.  Good sportsmanship, if nothing else, would militate against this sort of play.

I hope that helped.

Answer 2

Depending, you can convert your figs any way you like as long you don't change the "official" rules.  Make sure your opponents knows what everything is that can be disputed.

I would say it is okay, but that is me.  I've played against Tau that looks a lot like Catachans.  :)

I play in friendly games so it really doesn't matter to me.  With the cost of the figs and everything, I really don't mind 3-4 games of same proxies if you want to see if a particular Army is for you.  But I have issues after 10 times or so or Chrome army's that Chromed for over a year.  I mean, put some effort into your Hobby.  The first thing is the base coat for Gosh Sakes!

For Official Tournaments or store Tournaments you would need to check with the organizer.

Answer 3

You can, but they have to represent something in that army.

Like I put a goblin in a dwarf cannon and gave it a goblin crew and it was a doom diver battery.

you just can't do stuff like give a goblin a gun and say that is what he is using.

But if you are with your friends then they might not care.

Answer 4

yes and no

with you skaven army say you had clanrat arms instead of say the arms of a steer as long a you can find an item in your army book to justify that part. you could put your skaven stuff on you undead minitures as undead are reanimates remains of any soliders and you  (skaven) dont have cavarly but other armies can ride other mounts if the mount is specified in the army book ie cold one, eagle etc

hope this helps,

John