More than anything, this is really just a heads-up to people I might play.  I’d like to document what I’m doing and why.

What

For pickup games, or pretty much any game that isn’t a tournament (and unless I’m running a Khornate Daemon list that includes both Bloodthirsters and Daemon Princes), I am going to use the Daemon Prince models I’ve converted as Bloodthirsters.

With a tournament, when I’m lugging around my huge display board and all that other stuff, things’ll be different… but on an arbitrary Tuesday, this is how it’s going to be.

Why

Although I rather dislike the Bloodthirster model, that’s really not why I’m doing this.

Practicality drives this.  Bloodthirsters are big, top-heavy and metal.  While I keep the majority of my army magnetized to plastic drawers, I’ve got a separate little foam thing I have to pack my Bloodthirsters in.  This isn’t crippling or anything, but it is annoying.  (Don’t get me started on my Soul Grinders.)

My Daemon Princes are plastic, light, and can be transported in the same drawer as my Bloodcrushers.  By using them instead of the Bloodthirster model, I reduce the amount of space my army consumes during transport by nearly half.

Also, they’re converted.  Not heavily converted or anything, but a little.  Enough to make them personal.  I like the models more, and that’s worth a lot!

How

I think I can justify this.

The Bloodthirster has enormous wings, yes.  Huge wings.  Its wings account for twice of its height.  The wings on the Daemon Prince aren’t very big, but that’s okay.  The wings don’t count..

Line of sight must be traced from the eyes of the firing model to any part of the body of at least one of the models in the target unit (for ‘body’ we mean its head, torso, legs and arms). Sometimes, all that may be visible of a model is a weapon, an antenna, a banner or some other ornament he is wearing or carrying (including its wings and tail, even though they are technically part of its body). In these cases, the model is not visible. These rules are intended to ensure that models don’t get penalised for having impressive standards, blades, guns, majestic wings, etc.

– Warhammer 40K, pg 16

So, wings and such are to be ignored for the purposes of Line of Sight.  We can ignore them.

Look at the bodies.  They’re very close to being the same size.  For game purposes, the Minotaur model and the Bloodthirster model are the same size.  They’re on the same size base (60mm) and are very close in terms of height and width.

So, when I put the Minotaur Princes on the table as Bloodthirsters, I do so because they’re just about the same size.  It’s a hair shorter, but negligibly so.  Besides, I don’t think drawing line-of-sight to a Bloodthirster has ever been a problem for my opponents.

(And I’m talking the current Bloodthirster, not the classic Greater Daemon of Khorne who is, I think, about the size of a terminator.)

Conclusion

Like I said, this’ll just be for pickup games, and for games that I don’t plan on running both Bloodthirsters and Daemon Princes.  And, hell, once I stop agonizing over ordering some Battlefoam, everything’ll be packed in together, and it’ll be a non-issue.  But, until then…