Now people have to help me choose

[JoeGuardsman]

So I've been debating with myself over starting a Vraksian Renegade army. I think that the army is a great representation of what a renegade/civilian army would be. I really want to make a renegade army though so that I don't have to keep beating up loyal marines with my loyal guard.
First question: Should I play an army that is tactically great and is virtually identical to my regular Guard army or should I play something more Chaotic and crazy that is fun to lose with?
Second question: If I do the crazy thing I'm going to want a large amount of worker's rabble (conscript platoons that can take add. hand weapons). How will I make these? I want to make them look really ragged and I have to decide if I want them to have gas-masks.
Third question: Should I use the 0-1 squad of alpha legion?

[Ides]

3 - yes, both for extra power and a bit of fluff.

2 - you could always take some picks and things from the dwarf miner sprues and mess with those...

1- I'd go for fun and kick-ass. Go for an army that has a fun chance of winning half the time...

[Inquisitor Rosenadel]

1: Agree with Ides: having two armies that play the same way will be boring. Being crazy is fun!

2: uhh, I'm not that great at coverting/scrounging bitz, and do not have a very extensive knowledge of such. You could go for the Forge World models, but those are expensive... I think I have to agree with Ides again: add extra picks, hatchets, axes, knives, etc. Perhaps make cuts into the uniforms to get a ragged look, and/or green stuff it.

3: Agree with Ides: part of the fun of being crazy, as mentioned earlier, is taking advantage of crazy options. Take the chaos marines.

[experiment 626]

for modeling worker rabbles, you can always troll through your bitz for those shovels & picks that come on the heavy weapon team sprues and the vehicle up-grade sprue... (hopefully you've got enough to build a few test models?!)
also, as pointed out, dwarves are a good source of 'tool' type weapons. you could also bit order the old orky stick grenades from the stikk bombas set... actually, orky weapons in generall are good because they're crude and rather heavy looking!
for the gas masks, green stuff is your friend... you'll likely want a few catachan models as they have the bare arms which are good for rabble type hoards, so just practic a bit on some spare heads. (you get 7-8 heads on the sprue so trust me, you'll end up with plenty of practice bitz!)

for the alpha legion squad, most definately! but don't feel they *must* be alpha legion... word bearers and their off-shoot warbands also foster much discord within the imperium's opressed lower class! or else an emissary of tzeentch could be pulling the strings to further some other unfathomable plan?!

and of corse, go for a radically different play style than what you've already got!

cheers!

[JoeGuardsman]

For the workers rabble I was trying to think of a good base body without using cadians. Really glad for the reminder about the miners though. The forge world models arent for the worker rabble. they are for the regular renegades.

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

you need a really chaos army, to make it not only look and feel but to play differently fro ma normal IG army - you need different choices, different formations, which will make the army more interesting to use and will make youcome up with different tactics to what youre used to

[JoeGuardsman]

Ok, I think I've decided. I'm going to go for a more Nurgle-like theme for the army since the renegades look that way already. I'll use plague marines for my army chaos marine allotment and my workers rabble is going to be plague zombies. I'm going to start working on making fantasy zombies my sci-fi looking or I might look into using the plague zombies from necromunda. I remember really liking those models. The only thing that i have to figure out is how to counter the leadership 4 for that squad so that it's more zombie like. I like the zombies having ws bs 2 because in the latd army list they were too strong and tough and too expensive.

[Inquisitor Rosenadel]

Very good choice on the Chaos patron. Nurgle is awesome.

As for the Ld 4 problem, is there a character you can attach to the unit? A Chaos Aspiring Champoin, or something like that?

While I'm asking, are there rules that can be found online? It would be easier to give advice if I knew the rules for the Vraksians. If not, oh well.

[JoeGuardsman]

It's from the Seige of Vraks forgeworld book. The army is really cool with everyone having randomized leadership to show the instability of a rebellion but this also means that my zombies might be a bunch of scaredy cats. I can't use independent commissars. I could ask my opponents permission and mix up the list a little with doctrines, but not much i can do inside the regular rules.

[sjclem1]

if you want ragtag appearance, I would use catachan soldiers and if you get some of that green clay used to touch up vehicles you can make ponchos and slip them over the heads of the soldiers. You could then fit the clay around the shoulders and stuff then cut slits to appear as holes. just a suggestion...I'm still learning the customizing thing myself.