[Archive] Are Chaos Dwarfs a "Proxied Army"? (Am I unfair? - long read.)

Tarrakk Blackhand:

Sorry for this long rant, but I need to know if I’m being unfair.

Ok, my good friend who is currently playing Lizardmen…and who is probably reading this fourm on his home computer to spy on me, (Hi Dude!:hat off) keeps insisting that the CD’s are a proxied army because GW doesn’t have any official CD models and that all my converting of regular Dwarfs into CD’s don’t count and that I should invest $1000’s in tracking down original 1990’s OOP CD releases just to be 100% official…otherwise I can’t play against his Lizardmen, or any of the other models that any other opponient owns.

The reason why he’s saying this is because I want to have a “No Proxie” house rule at my store that I want to enforce out of fairness to all the players who want to play the game.

The reason WHY is simple. It’s so that the other players will play fair and not say that their “X” character is really this beefy “Y” character and the Y is some kind of super Lord that gets major dammage, 500 spells or something. (I don’t care about the details of the figs, just the concept of how unfair it is.)  

Instead of this, I’d rather that the players build that paticular model of said “Beefy “Y” Figure” and bring it to the game so that we’re actually playing against it instead of some little insignifigant Warrior model that’s pretending to be the bigger model.

I would also like stats of the figure/army and all it’s spells/armour/equipment written down ahead of time to make sure that players don’t “accidently forget” who the character is suppose to be and then be like “Oh yeah…I forgot that my model gets +11ty thousand hit points, 25 Uber Spells with 35 power dice AND 0+ armour!..and I should have killed your entire units of CD Warriors, Sorcerers, Bull Centaurs, etc in turn 1.” as we’re all 1/2 way through turn 5. (Not saying that LM player does that, but just to get the concept across that proxie=loosing track of what’s actually suppose to be happening=suppoed unfair/cheating player=upset other players=no one wants to ever play Warhammer again and we all go back to a boring life in the basement with no one to play against and wishing we didn’t screw up:hat off.)

My mentality for playing Warhammer is this : Now, if the player doesn’t have the right ammount of figures, say an entire 430 P army of Skinks and Saurus Warriors, then I try and match his army with my army out of fairness. Therefore, I’d rather field 1 hero, 2 Warrior core and possibly Hobgoblin Wolfriders equil to 430 to balance this out.

I try to play for fun, not for “Powergaming” an absolute win. (Same reason why I won’t make a turn 1 kill deck in Magic : The Gathering = no fun!) I want my army to win on their own merits so that I can see how they react under combat and learn how to honestly improve them, like building 16 more warriors to strengthen ranks, for example.

In gameplay, I end up loosing a lot and I get that “Sinking Feeling” in my stomach when my CD’s, which I would have hoped would win or at least tie the game, end up getting their guts smeared all over the field by other players at the end of turn 1 because I didn’t take a paticular unit into the battle and the opponent had some Sorcerer who keeps rolling 6’s with all the powerdice, or whatever. Losing isn’t fun and repetative loosing is worse, but I take it and then re-examine my stratagy and models and attempt to build more or different units to fix the loosing streak…which currently doesn’t work against powergamers…but that’s another story.

Back to topic…IMO, my army is converted from “offical” existing GW mini’s but not proxied ~ if I field a sorcerer, I have a model for it. If I field a Warrior, I also have a model for it. I’m not “pretending” that a warrior model is now a sorcerer model because I didn’t build one. It’s 1 for 1. The model is there and on the table.

The reason why I came up with the “No Proxie” rule in the first place is that in previous games, when I played another player using Wood Elves, that the WE player would proxie Orion into every game. Orion was killing my Good Dwarfs left, right, and center like a hot knife slicing through butter so I brought out this “No Proxie” rule and the WE player obided by it, realizing that it wasn’t fair or fun to be winning 100% of the time. However, the following week, he bought Orion, built it, and I was pretty much getting killed “officially” anyway…but at least we both knew it was fair. I just had to build bigger and better  Dwarf models.

I’m not being unfair about customizing game pieces. If I don’t have Sneaky Gits, I’m not proxying my Hobgoblin Warriors to be Sneaky Gits…they’re still HG warriors. I’d rather build Sneaky Gits and then play them. Also, my HG warriors will always be played as built, with axes and shields. I won’t proxie them to have spears, bows or sub-machineguns or riding on nuclear missels, subing in 40K rules. It’s not fair!

Also, if a player brings in a model that’s customized to be the “Y” model, then it’s ok that the model is “Y” because it was built to be “Y”.

Case in point :  My Tomb King player conbined a Warmachine figure and a Tomb King head to build a Liche Priest. According to the LM player, the Tomb King player couldn’t play that figure…therefore Tomb King wouldn’t have a Lyche Priest and Tomb King couldn’t play because Tomb King needs the Lyche Priest and Tomb King figure to play. However, I’ll let it slide for Tomb King because the model IS built to be the Lyche Priest and it’s not “Proxied” to be anything else, like a Skull Catapult, for instance. I still want to play the TK player and not have to send him home because of a “Non-official” model. That’s no fun for anyone.

I can’t see how my converted CD’s are “Illegal”. In the case of my CD army, the Night Goblins are converted to be Hobgoblins, Dwarf Warriors into CD Warriors, Thunderers into Blunderbusses, etc…all following the Official Ravening Hordes list and all errata and FAQ rules updated according to the official GW Grand Tournament rules. I can also back up their stats in the back of the 7th edition rule book. Also, I have the Canadian Suppliment of White Dwarf (ThanX Wallacer!) to show him that GW converted some Good Dwarfs into Chaos Dwarfs and insisted that the White Dwarf customers do the same. Also in the same magazine, they print off the RH stats, thus conferming that they are official. … if he wants to read it. I can’t help that GW isn’t pumping CD’s out. But they have the rules, so they still want us to play CD’s, right?

Anyway, I can’t see why he’s so bitter about my CD’s. I have to personally convert every one of them, coming up with the design and then adding in the Greenstuff. If he wants a Triceridon for his army, he can buy one. If I want a Great Tarurs, I have to go hunt down a model or toy of a bull, make sure it’s in the right scale, fabricate some kind of base for the model, buy some GW Balrog wings, drill them into the model, Greenstuff the model together, build a mount out of plastic sheet, convert a Good Dwarf model into a CD, find a way to mount converted CD model onto perch, then paint the whole thing and hope it doesn’t look like a PILE. And for what? So that I can spend 5 months perfecting out 1 model and he can shelf buy his and build 5 in the same time?

Also, what about our 6th edition rules that were altered to hammer them into 7th? A whopping 1 page RH list and a 1/3 page GT suppliment with the potential promise of a new rule book and figures in hopefully the next 5-10 years vs an entire book’s worth of specially written 7th edition Lizardmen army with 10+ special characters, 5+ core units with fluff attached, etc, etc, etc. All he needs to do is read some of our tactica/CD discussion posts on this fourm to see that CD’s are an outdated and difficult to play army (Because of rules mis-clarification ~ Bull Centaurs, for example) and that a large enough unit of Skinks with blow pipes could probably kill us all in turn 3.

Personally, I think he’s afraid to fight my 10 blunderbuss crew. This is rediculous because, as we’ve pretty much confirmed in the past with playing them, there’s such a slight chance of them actually hitting anything, or enough of anything, to really hurt his units. How would a Blunderbuss crew of 10 models be able to kill enough Saurus Warriors armed with spears if his unit of 16 SW’s charged the CD’s? Don’t forget the LM’s armour saves, etc. I have a 1 in 6 percent per dice chance of actually hitting something, a lesser chance of wounding anything and then an even more remote chance of getting through the LM armour save. Stand and shoot will only work once and then it’s close combat melee with the LM having higher initative and 2 rank spear kill bonuses.  The BB’s don’t even have a shield, so they have to rely on heavy armour only. Movement is also a factor for all Dwarfs and 90% of the time, my Dwarfs can’t even get to combat first because of the 3" movement rule or flee without being overrun and slaughtered. (Flee on a 2D6-1) Roll a 2 and all of them flee 1 WHOPPING inch! Yeah…I think they have a chance…NOT!

Anyway, he’s only hurting himself. All it takes is a few phone calls and I can convince my other players that we can’t play him if I agree with him that the CD army is proxied and that I can’t “Officially” play him. So there’s 1 less player.

What about my other customer who’s an Ogre player who ended up gluing 6 arms per Ogre on his models? He plays them as the standard 2 arm Ogres, but still…in all “Officialness”, his models are 100% dead wrong! Player #2…I guess he’s out!

Then the Tomb King player also can’t play because of his customized Lyche Priest…so there’s # 3 player gone.  

Guess that leaves only the Orc + Goblin player…but then he’s from out of town and is the player that plays the least ammount of times.

I’m also not going to field my Dwarfs, so I’m out as an optional player.

And we just had someone come in the store and buy the DE book…but it might take that guy 5-10 months to build his army and a 50%+ chance that even if he does build the army that he might not come in to play the game…so another opponent that’s possibly not even going to show.

Oh…then there’s the other player that bought a BFSP set and was going to build a “Midget Version” of pure Chaos Warriors…also an illegal “Proxie Army”.  So I guess if winning on a technicality is all he cares about, then it’s an automatic win for him! Oh, but please don’t tell him I’m painting his models with Testor’s paints and using Testor’s glue, which is not “official” GW product and therefore negates his “Official” theory.

Guess I’ll just phone up all the “Illegal” players and invite them to my place to play Warhammer. “Official boy” can play in his basement alone.

What he doesn’t realize by acting this way is that I feel like I made a mistake in getting the Warhammer stuff and I feel like closing off that portion of the store. It would be a shame if it got that far though.

Actually, in all fairness to “Official Boy”, he has the basis for a great army. I should know, I’m building it. So when I finish building this army, he’ll have the largest point army next to the TK player and be pretty much indestructable to my CD’s. If only he’d learn to use it without just sitting in the corner and hoping that all other players will charge him.

And I know that everyone wants to gang up on me because it’s some kind of thrill for the kids to defeat the hobby store owner because they figure I have unlimited knowledge about the game, or something. Actually, I’m an idiot when it comes to stratagy and rules, so right off in turn 1, I’m a target for every other player on the board and by turn 3 I’m getting attacked from 3 sides. It’s hopeless and I often wonder why I even bother.

So anyway, am I being unfair in making these house rules and playing to be fair to everyone?

Da Crusha:

oh man that was a lot of reading, Ill answer tomorrow because Im really rather tired now… x.x j/k

well I think “official boy” is just being unreasonable. besides, you are the store owner and you can make house rules for anything you want… including allowing conversions.

Baggronor:

proxied army because GW doesn't have any official CD models and that all my converting of regular Dwarfs into CD's don't count and that I should invest $1000's in tracking down original 1990's OOP CD releases just to be 100% official....otherwise I can't play against his Lizardmen, or any of the other models that any other opponient owns.
Ridiculous, it isn't a GW store, there is no reason to abide by their GW-only figs policy. You can use what you want, as long as its reasonable (a Dwarf is a Dwarf, a monster is a monster, etc).

Thommy H:

Converted is not the same thing as proxied.

Perturabo:

Exactly. It sounds like this bloke needs to learn the difference between a custom-built figure and an empty base repesenting some over the top killy character. You’re being perfectly fair, if I’ve got the poll the right way round.

Also, if you don’t mind mind me asking, why are you building his army for him? Does he get the other players to move his units during a game, too?

Grimstonefire:

Wait… An ogre with 6 arms?  Is it a spawn or something?

I agree with the above sentiments.  A proxy model imo is when people use another model that bears no resemblance to what it’s supposed to be because they can’t afford it etc.  An unpainted model would be better than nothing.  It would be like using an orc chariot as a HE lion one (I’ve seen this).

A converted model is different I think, because the model is intended to look like what it’s supposed to be.  

I can understand your reasoning on this tarrakk, as you own a store. You don’t really want people playing every fantasy army with a generic load of proxy models, you want to sell stuff.

IMO you made a mistake by going down the ‘official’ route, as it’s the one area CD will always fall short.  A much better way would have been WYSIWYG.  That way people know if they are playing against an army they know what everything is.  So what if somebody has a converted liche, or a load of CD, if they look like what they are supposed to be the opponent will understand.

It sounds to me like that player is not bothered by the ‘official/ no proxy’ rule, he just hates playing against CD and is using it to get rid of them/ you.

I would have voted ‘change the rule’ if it was an option. :wink:

BilboBaggins:

As long as the model represents (and looks like) the model you are using then there can be no problem (Check out the Grateful Undead army on Carpe Noctem.) Your friend is being unreasonable. If you have converted models to represent accurately the models in the unit then he doesn’t have anything to complain about. I’ve seen Empire Spearment made into Pikes, Empire Militia into Duellists, Militia into Zombies, Etc…

Thommy H:

Right. Converting models is part of the hobby and there really isn’t any other way to play when you’re collecting Chaos Dwarfs - even with an army of the 4th Edition big hats, most players will probably want to tweak them a bit to bring them into line with modern miniatures. The GW studio Chaos Dwarf army contained a converted Bull Centaur Lord, for goodness sake…

There is no rule saying you have to use the official figures that GW sells to represent a given troop type. Indeed, it would be impossible to field many things if there was - there’s no Warshrine model for WoC, and many special characters don’t have actual figures to represent them. Dark Angels players would never be able to field Deathwing armies by your opponent’s logic.

Banning conversions is about on the same level as banning paint schemes that don’t match the GW studio armies. You’re expected to customise your figures - that’s why they sell most of them as multi-part plastic kits.

Border Reiver:

Agree with the lads above - converted figs are not the same as “proxied”.

A proxied fig is any fig on the appropriate base size used to represent a troop type. ie. This ogre is really an inferno golem. This is alright to get people started in the hobby, as they may not have the minis bought or made, or if say you’re playtesting and need to have something to represent the new troop type.

A converted fig obviously started life as something else, but through the magic that is mix and matching kit parts, GS and paint is now something else.

I agree that the best thing to do is to have the models WYSIWYG - I try to so that there are absolutely no reasons for me to get confused.

You might try pointing out that a converted mini is not the same as a proxied one, and see if that changes his mind.

Khan!:

Proxy is a pretty vague category imo, but as above, there’s a big difference between a proxy and a conversion. Obviously the purpose of your ‘no proxy’ rule (aka WYSIWYG) is so that no one comes in with a toy dinosaur and calls it a bloodthirster, or what have you. When I worked at GW someone came in with a (very ugly) ‘scratchbuild’ composed of five pieces of white styrofoam glued together and coloured with felt pen - they wanted to use it as a Tyrand Bio-Titan!!!

Your Lizardman player is being unreasonable. His argument has no legs to stand on - hasn’t he read a WD to see ‘proxy’ (converted) theme armies go on to win grand tournaments?? Sounds to me like he’s causing trouble because he feels like he can.

Tarrakk Blackhand:

ThanX for the support guys!

Please describe WYSIWYG. I haven’t actually seen what this acryonym really means.

@ Perturabo ~ He’s paying me to paint them because I built the Tomb King figures to an excellent level.

grupax:

stuff i picked up from you-r ant-riging story:

-you get killed over and over (by orion), and he still is afraid of your army

-you can’t win from an army with a proxy so you added a “no proxy rule”

so far 2 things that don’t make sense :stuck_out_tongue:

-“All it takes is a few phone calls and I can convince my other players that we can’t play him if I agree with him that the CD army is proxied and that I can’t “Officially” play him. So there’s 1 less player …” …what a sportmanship.

-“keeps insisting that the CD’s are a proxied army” - dude, it’s your shop :p, don’t be a pushover, let him show you where in the rulebook it sais you can’t convert your models… in painting scores you actually get rewarded for conversions.

-there are things you can let slide, like one proxied orion :stuck_out_tongue: but other then that your house rule isen’t bad.

a good examle of proxying is using a beer bottle for tower, A4 sheet for woods, books for hills :stuck_out_tongue: … omg we do that!

serious, as long as they aren’t taking the proxying too far i see no need in “restraining” it. It’s normal they want to test an army before fully buying it (it’s not like the models come that cheep :s)

BilboBaggins:

What

You

See

Is

What

You

Get

Thommy H:

And what it means is: a model should look like what it’s supposed to be. If your unit has great weapons, the models should be holding big axes or swords that require two hands.

Tarrakk Blackhand:

IMO you made a mistake by going down the 'official' route, as it's the one area CD will always fall short.  A much better way would have been WYSIWYG.  That way people know if they are playing against an army they know what everything is.  So what if somebody has a converted liche, or a load of CD, if they look like what they are supposed to be the opponent will understand.

Grimstone
I'm not going down an "Official Route", it's the other player that's claiming that I have to be official and that I can't field my CD army. I'm trying to push the WYSIWIG idea.
-you get killed over and over (by orion), and he still is afraid of your army
-you can't win from an army with a proxy so you added a "no proxy rule"

grupax
1.The Orion player is a totally different guy...and no, he isn't afraid of my army. He's a fair player and I like to fight him even if I can't win. Like I said, he went from "Proxied Orion", which I let him have to test out a coulpe off times to "Actual Orion".

2. I went for a "No Proxy" rule to play "What is vs what is" and not "What is vs what isn't", not because I can't win against a proxied army.
If I want, I could be just fine proxing in all my Dwarf Warriors into Great Tauruses but I know where that would lead. Also, when it gets to 4 player games and each player is proxing 4+ characters, then it just becomes a big ball of confusion, especially when no one has written anything down as to who's model is what figure.

3. The other players are comfortable with the house rule.
-"All it takes is a few phone calls and I can convince my other players that we can't play him if I agree with him that the CD army is proxied and that I can't "Officially" play him. So there's 1 less player  ..." ...what a sportmanship.

me
Yes, it's bad sportsmanship and I hope it doesn't come down to it...but when a guy gets tired from the constant ranting of this guy, he just doesn't want to play anymore.

ThanX Billbo for the breakdown. That's exactly how I want to play it, as well ast the other players who have already bought their figures.

BilboBaggins:

I have no problem with proxies to test out new units you are thinking of buying. But after a game or two build the rel unit. :smiley:

Where I play there are a few people who see my armies and go THEY AREN’T LEGAL. My response is either “They aren’t legal in GW grand tournaments and GW is not sponsoring grand tournaments this year” or “Are we playing in a tournament?”. Indy trounraments allow Chaos Dwarfs and some even allow SOC armies. :smiley: There are only 1-2 big mouths, most people have no problem playing my Chaos Dwarfs and Slayers (I do have all GW models) and I usually get people requesting to play them.

grupax:

“And I know that everyone wants to gang up on me because it’s some kind of thrill for the kids to defeat the hobby store owner because they figure I have unlimited knowledge about the game, or something…”

I blame the simpsons…

as to wysiwyg, my O&g have participated many tournaments;

my snotlings are tiny squigs,

my wyvern a gaint flying squig

my gaint a humongous squig,

all my night goblins have squigs as unit fillers

my pump wagons are squig chariots,

my doomdiver is a squiglauncher

my savage orc BB are gaint squig rider warbosses on 25x50mm bases



converting is ok, Have fun with your chaos dwarves.

Your store your rules :stuck_out_tongue: print them on a page and hang them in the gaming area, :stuck_out_tongue:

SteveM:

Simple, define the meaning of “proxy” for games played within your store.  Make whatever rules and definitions that you like to keep the play fun and fair, just make sure the rules are clear and equally enforced.

I encourage you to not be too strict on playing proxies, it is a great way to test out a new unit before buying.  If both players agree to allow one or both of them to run a proxy then why not allow it for that game?

Tarrakk Blackhand:

Actually, LM player would find himself in a lot of trouble if i played my Good Dwarfs against him. He’d probably be begging me to play my CD army after a run in with the Good Dwarfs.

I have 10 Thunderers with a 24" max range, 16 Rangers with 30" max range, 16 Pistoleers, (A unit armed with pistols for an 8" range) 2 Dwarf Cannons, 1 Organ Gun, 16 Warriors, 12 BFSP warriors, 12 Longbeards, 16 GW Warriors, 8 miners, 5 different lords/heroes to choose from…and if I really wanted to finish building the Good Dwarf Army, I have a Flame Thrower Cannon, a 10+slayer unit, not counting Borri Graniteskin, another 16 miners, and Thorek’s Anvil of Doom.

For CD’s, I have 3 heroes, 2 sorcerers, 10 BB’s, 10 warriors, 10 GW warriors, 1 death rocket, 10 HG Wolfriders, 60 HG warriors, 2 Bull Centaurs which I can only use as heroes and not as a unit of 5+, 20 HG archers, and a non-playable DOW unit of 5 Ogre Bulls - non playable because I sold my OK book to a customer and I no longer have their rules. If i build up the rest of my figures, I’ll have an additional 16 BB’s and 16 Sneaky Gits. I’m still 100 miles away from building anything that could stomp out Lord Croak, so what’s the worry?

Tarrakk Blackhand:

Good idea for the posting of house rules!

“And I know that everyone wants to gang up on me because it’s some kind of thrill for the kids to defeat the hobby store owner because they figure I have unlimited knowledge about the game, or something…”

me
It sux at the begining of the game when 3 out of 4 players make an alliance to “All get Trevor”. I should make the first ever rules for a CD machine gun crew…and then build 10 models of it…point cost 10 per model! Hits on 1+ for 3D6 dammage…armour piercing. :smiley: Oh yeah…and 100% “House Rules” legal.

BRING IT!