Variant Ur-Ghul and Slyth ideas?

Well, I'm actually going to be including a Court of the Archon in my Dark Eldar army, and I'm taking the chance to actually diversify from simply the stock descriptions of what they are, preferring a much more varied court. As it stands, I've got my 2 Lhamaen models (one stock, one being converted from Isabella von Carstein), two Medusae (one stock, planned conversion for the next), a stock Slyth and now I've just got to plan out the rest.

I plan to have 2 Ur-Ghuls, and 2 more Slyth, but I don't want to use any stock Ur-Ghuls (too anthropomorphic for my tastes, I prefer a "hunting hound" look). At the moment, I'm thinking a converted semi-Grotesque for one of the Slyths, and the vague idea of an Ork mercenary for the second. As for the "Ur-Ghuls", the only ideas I've got is to use a Khymera, with the head removed, converting a new head from a Devourer barrel (actually how I originally imagined the Ur-Ghul head looking, or at least the top of it), with something else for the lower jaw. For the second... I don't really know. Maybe a second of the khymera-conversion, but I'm open to all suggestions, with the same going for the Slyth. I'm all ears, guys!

I also thought about Ork Merc (Around Nob/Boss model, Captain Badrukk is nice "stock" merc, however Flash Git model also would work) for Sslyth.




Of course You can pick bits from Nobz box, there are heckloads fo Shooting weapons, shoulder pads, trophies etc. Bonus points for beeing plastic. Similar with Stormboyz, lots and lots of tech "gubbinz" like pipes, "big red buttons", targeters...
And Burnas, flamers look cool and they have huge tanks on backs, pretty awesome for some sort of "biologic warfare".

Check out Spruepics forum in tutorial section, GW shows only part of parts from plastic boxes.

I though about using Kroot Hounds for Ur-Ghuls, and I'm still trying to figure if I could also incorporate Kroot mercs in the court (I like Kroot). They're a bit too small for Sslyth, though. Ork mercs could work though, as especially the Nobs are beefy enough. I got to ask my friend who plays Orks if he needs any more Nobs, so I could buy a box, convert a few and sell the rest to him. Sslyth are the court member that requires less counts-as to create an unique court, though, as you can personalize them just by swapping their weapons (their hands are compatible with the rest of DE models). I've been thinking of using a Sslyth converted to carry a power weapon, a ccw and the spear from the Succubus or Scourges as a Klaivex (the two weapons counting as separated demiklaives and the spear as the 2 handed form).

While it's true that it's easy to convert the Sslyth model, I want to create a more diverse court. I kinda wish they presented the Court the way they did the old Inquisitor Henchmen for the Daemonhunter/Witchhunter books, where each unit was an archetype, with various examples of what each could represent. Instead of us getting Courtesan, Hunting-beast, Merc bodyguard and creepy parasite thing, we got concrete definitions of Lhamaean, Ur-Ghul, Medusae and Sslyth. No real mention of the other weird and exotic things an Archon might fill his Court with, apparently the only bodyguards any Archon uses are Sslyth...

However, I might look into the Ork Nobz sprue, as I've got an image in my head of an Ork Nob with an Orky-style shotgun. Plus, I just like Orks, so having the other Nobz will just be fun.

Maybe they didn't want to be too vague, so people would use anything, but I'm sure conversions like yours wouldnt hurt. I mean why couldn't there be more type of merc. The galaxy is quite huge, as is the webway, so there would be tons of variation!

Well, what I meant was that, for example, the Daemonhunters codex listed Familiars as one sort of Henchman. A Familiar had a set points cost, equipment and statline, but they gave examples of what a Familiar could be, such as a Servo-skull, psyber-creature or Cherubim. They could have done similar for the Court, listing something like Mercenary Bodyguard (Sslyth, Ork, Haemonculi-creature, etc).

I mean, I understand that conversions and counts-as are perfectly fine, so long as its WYSIWYG. It just feels strange that they didn't open up the Court a little more.

Doesn't the codex entry mention that Archons have all sorts of creatures in their court, with the examples given being the most common ones? So while Ug-ghul might be the most common hunting beast and Sslyth the most common alien mercanary, they could have Kroothounds and Orks or whatever.

I do with the court was more like the Inquisitor's retinue, though, in that you could mix and match them as you saw fit and give them different wargear options (the Sslyth at least should be able to select other weapons thna just the carbine).

Yeah, I just noticed that today. Still, I stand by the fact that it's a little weird to say "there are many different things the Archon can have in his Court, all fitting roughly into these archetypes, such as the strange four-armed snake-creature whose culture devolved into near Slaanesh-worship". They could have been a little less specific.