intotheeyejulaug07 - page 1 of 1

INTO the EYE

An investigation into the deepest and darkest nooks of the GW Universe

By Mike Brandon [July-August 2007]

Welcome to the twelth volume of ‘Into the Eye’, a look into the finer parts of the GW

hobby.

And you are?.....effective use of 'Counts As'

The term 'counts as' has been around for all my gaming life, and can mean very

different things! In general it refers to using particular rules without using the designated or

generally accepted models. This ranges from very creative adaptions of army lists, to early

gaming whereby teacups are dragons and boxes are tanks. This can cause much upset of

course, especially when money is involved. In general, when players start out it can be quite

acceptable to use all manner of objects to represent things in the game, especially when trying

things out. Of course it can be quite insulting to field an entire army of carefully assembled

and painted troops, only to face a cardboard legion. Perhaps it is possible to enter some post-

structural debate as to what exactly the card dreadnought included in the original 2nd edition

box really is, its certainly official but it is arguably worse than just using, well anything.

Indeed that piece of cardboard destroyed a Rhino and full unit of Bezerkers once!

Nevertheless, despite the obvious benefits of early gaming using just about anything to

represent their games, the whole point of this hobby is centred around the models which are uniformed by being part of

the Citadel range, and counts as in the context of interchangeable objects is somewhat unacceptable outside of the

aforementioned contexts. It also saps the life out of the hobby, which is half developed in solitude, the 'building the

army' stage, and half fought on the tabletop, the social 'gaming' stage. And outside of your usual opponents it makes the

game quite impossible. These rather obvious observations however are not the purpose of this article, rather the

intention is to cover how to use 'counts-as' effectively and discuss some generalisations at how counts-as may be

standardised.

I'm fairly sure most people have used Counts As before. My current project for example is for my Empire Nuln

army. To keep in with the theme of blackpowder I am using a unit of Huntsmen, but using handgunner models for two

reasons. My 40 standard handgunners are the old 6th edition set pose style, whereas the ones I am using are made from

the new box set. This makes the unit look unique to similar looking units in the army. The general explanation in terms

of background would be to claim they are light rifles, not as powerful but more mobile to explain away the use of the

longbow rules. This is a simple but effective use of Counts As to fit into an armies theme and use the models that you

like, its also interesting for other players! There are so many examples of using this method, and I'm sure you have your

own somewhere. One project I was interested in was using the Birdmen of Catrazza rules to represent literal birdmen.

There are two core themes that can be taken from this example however. The first is that the models are distinctive and

still in context, the use of handgunners as huntsmen fit the same scale and also mirror a different style to existing

models in the army. The second point is that the Counts As element is entirely rational in a background context. 'They

use a certain rifle type therefore use the longbow rues' is entirely feasible. A final point is that they are using existing

rules. Nothing is added or taken, simply the adaption of the theme (not the rule) is what makes it 'Counts As' something

else. This allows us to draw some sort of standard claim as to what Counts As is and when it is acceptable to use it. In

order for a model to legitimately 'Count As' something else, it must be distinctive from other models in the army so as to

allow for ease of identification, it must use existing rules and fit to the same model scale as intended from the existing

rules, and must also be rational in terms of fitting into the games background. To recap, a model can legitimately be

used as a Counts As if it is distinctive, uses existing rules and is rational.

There are other uses of Counts As, for example forcing pressure on GW when it releases poor models, or when

you prefer the older models to the new. It can also be used to adapt to rules changes, especially important in the 2nd

edition environment and also to resist same of GW's more interesting price hikes. Either way Counts As is a powerful

tool and when used innovately is one of the most participatory and personal ways that we can engage in our hobby.

Strange Visions

Guild Wars cast

This time 3 characters are presented, for hire in games of Mordheim, each one the

one from the box of a Guild Wars game!

Eve - Necromancer

Troop

Type

Save

Eve

Weapons – Accursed Staff. +1 to lore of death casting rolls, counts as Hand

Weapon

Armour – None

Special – Level 4 wizard rolling 3 spells from the Lore of Death. In addition Eve

always has the spell Grenth's Balance. Casting on a 6+, this transfers a single wound

from any visible enemy model within 18” and restoring it to Eve.

Nika - Assassin

Troop Type

Sav

Nika

Weapons – Korambits, count as two hand weapons with magical attacks

Armour – None

Special – Sprint (may move or charge at triple rate), Flashing Blades: Nika has a 3+

unmodified save in combat

Melonni - Dervish

Troop

Type

Save

Melonni

Weapons – Suntouched Scythe, Counts as Great Weapon with magical attacks

Armour – Sunspear Armour (Counts as Heavy)

Special – Arcane Zeal: Melonni ignores the first wound suffered in each combat phase. Reapers

Sweep: Melonni's attacks do D3 damage. Vow of Silence: Melonnia cannot be affected by magic,

Although she will not nullify a spell if in its area of effect, she will also be unharmed.

Eve, Nika and Melonni from NCSoft's Guild Wars