Don't know how many people look at BOLS regularly, but I know most of the writers are part of the Austin club. I don't know when the last time I saw so many people ranting about a single list was. It made for an interesting discussion, and I wanted to see what the people in this particular club thought about it.

Basically, I didn't realize how much people out there hated people using weird armies counting as something from a new codex. I thought Goatboy's army looked cool (although I agreed with people who said it really wasn't fluffy as a word bearers army) and I would have no problem with playing against it as a space wolf codex.

Partly this comes from me being from a much chiller gaming community though. I was surprised when I came here how many very competitive people seemed to live in austin. my old club was very hobby-oriented with almost everyone playing something off the wall. if you used a standard codex army you were in the minority. when you put down an army to play on Wednesday night, the first thing the other guy asked wasn't to see your list, but what craftworld/clan/chapter/etc you had today.

you didn't just play eldar, you played aliatoc eldar, or altansar eldar or you made up your own. it was just how people liked to play. no one cared if it was a bad codex, if they liked the models they played with the army. we had a kroot army, we had old 13th company, we had an all-flying nid army, a VERY nicely converted speed freaks army, etc, etc. very different than here where you never see a necron or tau player and every time a new codex drops, two months later that army has the lion's share of armies on the table at the tourney. Back home, count-as was almost assumed. here it doesn't seem to be too rare, but it not very common either.

What is this community's views on making a count-as army? have you played against any count-as armies that made you really feel like you got a bad game?

partly I just want to see what the conversation would look like in the smaller confines of our club where people know each other as opposed to the angry mob of BOLS readers. but of course the main reason I ask is the rapidly progressing count-as army on my dining room table. I would hate to finish this army and bring it in only to have people whine and complain about it online after I bring it to a tournament. some people here have already seen or played against my harlequins, and if you have what is your opinion of it in the context of this argument? does it make for an easy-to-follow count as army, or does it need some changes to make it opponent-friendly?

I went through the army from a fluff perspective like I would in my old club, giving new names to every unit, and new names for wargear and even justifications for how a DE item might work in a different army. but for a tournament, I am starting to think that I might be better off just telling my opponent, "this is a halrequin themed DE codex. here's my archon, my haemonculi, incubi, etc" instead of using the fluff too much. what's the best way to do that here?