Discussion Tuesday - Conversions and Privateer Press

Hello everyone and welcome to another Tuesday discussion.  If you remember correctly, we've lost GMort to the vortex of real life - hopefully temporarily.  So, in place of the his usual brand of take-no-prisoners blogging, we're gonna have these little discussion threads while we romp through another HoP Idol.  Incidentally, where the hell is your entry?  For shame.

I'm new to this whole "write basic premise and then get people to comment thing' so bear with me.  Today's topic, for those of you who didn't read the title of this post, is all about Privateer Press and their tournament rules concerning conversions.

I recently started making my way back to the page five-y bosom of Privateer Press and with any jump into a new game system, there's always a fair bit of research.  One thing I immediately picked up on was that Privateer Press's markedly different attitude towards tournaments and competitive gaming colors it's vision of the painting and modeling side of the hobby.  Or, at least that's the sense I get from this bit of text from the Steamroller rules:

"A converted model must contain a majority of parts from the WARMACHINE or HORDES model for which the rules were written. For example, a Testament of Menoth conversion must be composed mostly of parts from the Testament of Menoth model. The end result of any conversion must be clearly identifiable as the intended miniature and accurately represent its weapons and equipment as listed in its rules. Any conversions must be clearly pointed out to your opponent before the game to avoid confusion.  

On warrior models, converting and swapping weapons is acceptable provided the new weapon represents the same type of weapon replaced (like swapping one sword for another). Anything relating to a weapon’s specific rules must be maintained to avoid confusion on the tabletop. For example, a weapon with Chain Weapon must still be modeled as a chain-style weapon, and a weapon’s length must be considered when converting weapons with Reach.  

Weapons cannot be swapped on warjack and warbeast models. Since many of the ’jacks and beasts utilize the same chassis or torso, the weapons are the most identifiable part of the model when looking across the tabletop. Converting warjacks and warbeasts is still encouraged, but the aesthetics of the weapons must be maintained. Modifying weapons is permitted, as long as the end result is easily identifiable as the intended warjack or warbeast’s proper weapon."

I think it's worth mentioning that the steamroller rules are very important to how HoMachine is played.  It's the default format for tournaments on all levels and people tend to use the scenarios even if they aren't gearing up for an event.  I know that the many of the guys I was playing with and many of the people out there in forum/blog land take a lot of their cues from the steamroller rules packet.

Now, I am by no means saying that this is a bad or good approach to the whole idea of conversions and counts as, but I do feel it merits discussion since it is a huge departure from the ideas embraced by the Games Workshop player base.

So, discussion time.  What's your stance on this?  Do the steamroller rules do something to stifle the creativity that drew many of us to the wargaming hobby in the first place, is it a necessary and even desired convention that goes a long way towards making a complicated game as playable as possible?  Those aren't your only two choices, obviously, so if you have your own take, we want to hear about it.

See you in the comments!