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I challenge you, fellow dakkanauts, to try an play TOW, AoS, WH40k, or HH without named characters.

I've chatted with some people and we agree that we are tired of seeing Canis Rex in every single Imperial Knight list or Marneus Calgar leading skirmishes for the Ultramarines.

So this is my challenge, build a list without any special characters and try it out. Use your own generals and warlords that you created, and lets see where that takes us.

Man, if you think it's inappropriate to see Marneus Calgar leading so many mere 2k forces this'll cause you some psychic damage:

My SM KILL TEAM is led by Uriel Ventris.
Ok, rules wise I have to use him as a Sgt - because he's not armed correctly to use the Captains card & he's waaay to well painted to mod. But my intent is 100% that this is Ventris. Obviously before he was promoted to his current rank.

I did this because for the longest time I've had a spare Assault Intercessor squad in my KT case that I've been struggling to decide what chapter to make them. Then I built Ventris from my backlog - and wondered what to do with him as I don't play "modern" UM. He'll never be in my 40k force. and he doesn't fit at all in HH. Then it struck me "Well, he IS armed correctly to represent a KT24 Sgt...."
So I commissioned a friend who does very nice UMs work to paint Ventriss & the squad up in his 4th Co colors.


Don't worry though, I've also got plenty of other forces that are not only not led by a Named Character, but use no Named ones at all.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I challenge you, fellow dakkanauts, to try an play TOW, AoS, WH40k, or HH without named characters.

I've been doing that for decades.

I do not know why, but I never liked running special named characters...

Uhhhh, pretty easy? Not sure how this is a challenge.

Last time I used a named character was 2022 I think.

I've never used a named character (I think?), so I have been on board with this from the very beginning. The idea of named characters feels diametrically opposed to the whole spirit of Rogue Trader, with the "whoever you are, youi will not be missed" and that

Not a problem... [/dark eldar]

Yeah totally easy for Heresy. I think I've used one named character about a half dozen times over the last 2 years.


The one GW game where named characters are sort of "mandatory" is MESBG. Considering the whole game kinda revolves around named characters. You can run lists without any named heroes. But..... they're super boring.

I rarely use them.

Most of my games in the last few years have been crusade/path to glory, whete you can build your own. Or combat patrol/spearhead with fixed lists that don’t use them.

But even when I did more matched play with open options, I still steered away from them. And that’s as a Ultramarine player with tons of options.

Eh.... They tend to do cool and unique things because they can't be spammed. I mostly find them fun. No reason not to take them.

I've been playing with and without named characters for mumble mumble years.

As others have said, I wouldn't expect (for example) Mortarion to turn up to a border skirmish or chance encounter (unless there's a much bigger subplot as yet unrevealed).

I like the (in my head) much more common scenario of a small force on mission x and am more than old enough to have enjoyed the characterless anonymity of oldcrons, where unnamed lord was as "good" as you got.

Outside of LOTR, I've not used a named character ever. Maybe I used Typhus once or twice nearly 20 years ago? I own a few, but I always preferred "my dudes" to someone elses.

That said, my most recent 40K project is Tanith First and Only with a bunch of the named characters done with simple kitbashes, but I'm just using generic stats for them.

Bold of you to assume I use named characters.

I started warhams in the 90s, when named characters were considered dirty and you had to ask your opponent if you could field one.

Only exception is if this is the only way to unlock some special army composition (like bikes as Troops)

I use SW Named Character profiles as proxies for my Greymanes' characters, such as in the case of the Cyning, who uses Ragnar's profile.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Bold of you to assume I use named characters.

I started warhams in the 90s, when named characters were considered dirty and you had to ask your opponent if you could field one.

Only exception is if this is the only way to unlock some special army composition (like bikes as Troops)

I like that in 5th, which was peak “If you want to field an army with these rules, you need to include this named character” at least in the SM codex they explicitly encouraged you to file the names off, kitbash your own, and run with it.

I play Tyranids - I technically only have ONE named character hero model and Swarmlord has seen play once so far.

Been a while since I ran Typhus or Cypher.
I have an Epidemius, but he’s custom. And I haven’t run him in a while.

I share many’s distaste in using GW’s characters instead of my own.
No shame if you want to run Guilliman or Abaddon or any other Epic Hero. But ain’t for me.

Today?
I ran my Nurgle Demons with not a single Named/Epic hero.

Tomorrow?
Karhn will lead a x20 hoard of Bezerkers.
I do not guarantee that will an optimal choice, but it'll be fun.

I'm using my 40K minis with OPR rules where there are very few named chars if any.
That being said, having started the hobby with lotr I'd use far more named characters if there were more. But my DG only had Typhus when I started and sofar I haven't finished Mortarion in 5 years, my Snakebites until recently didn't have any.
So, most named characters I've used in 40K were custom made, with their own rules and everything.

Yeah, I have never been a fan of named characters and games that focus on them. Therefore, I tend to use them at all.

I prefer to make my own corners of the 40K universe as that is what fuels my creativity and interest.

Eh, I'm up for whatever. I played an HH event at AdeptiCon that for a few years did not allow named characters in that specific event. It was fine, but it was never clearly stated in the event description, only on the HH AdeptiCon FaceBook page. So there was a bit of scrambling to adjust points at the last minute for a lot of people, myself included.

The event was still fun, but we gave the organizers from feedback on communication.

Hmm... I didn't realize so many people here felt so strongly about the GW branded heroes.

I should've challenged people to use named characters in their army lists.

This is something that has been going on for so long. I still remember someone turning up with an Avatar for a combat/recon patrol, tiny point game 30 years ago in 40k second edition.

The special characters play a bit part of GWs range and people enjoy collecting and painting them, and want to use them in games. So I don't think that is ever going to change really, unless you go outside of sci-fi/fantasy gaming and do historicals (and therefore there is an expectation to represent something that has actually happened).

I've played with and without Named Characters.

The Named Characters are always VERY expensive for what they bring to the table. By and large, taking them is to handicap yourself to some extent, because instead of them you could take a different, cheaper character and more troops.

So... I communicate with my next opponent and ASK them if they want to use Named Characters or not. I can cope either way...

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Hmm... I didn't realize so many people here felt so strongly about the GW branded heroes.

I should've challenged people to use named characters in their army lists.

As a long time Black Templars player (2008), it's hard for me to consider not having Grimaldus, Helbrecht, or The Emperor's Champion in one of my lists. I'm not against playing games without Special Characters, so I wouldn't say it would annoy me. It's just not how I run them, I guess.

 Vulcan wrote:
I've played with and without Named Characters.

The Named Characters are always VERY expensive for what they bring to the table. By and large, taking them is to handicap yourself to some extent, because instead of them you could take a different, cheaper character and more troops.

Please, show this Guard player a cheaper way to hand out orders to 3 "Squadron" units at a time than Lord Solar.
Or to three "Regiments" units other than Lord Marshal Dreir.
Please, explain to me how I'm handicapping myself by spending as few pts for these effects as possible.

ccs wrote:

 Vulcan wrote:
I've played with and without Named Characters.

The Named Characters are always VERY expensive for what they bring to the table. By and large, taking them is to handicap yourself to some extent, because instead of them you could take a different, cheaper character and more troops.

Please, show this Guard player a cheaper way to hand out orders to 3 "Squadron" units at a time than Lord Solar.
Or to three "Regiments" units other than Lord Marshal Dreir.
Please, explain to me how I'm handicapping myself by spending as few pts for these effects as possible.

No idea. I play(ed) WFB, not 40K. I know a lot more about the WFB special characters than the 40K ones, and by and large what I said is true about WFB characters.

Play your own custom chapter and you've named every model, "you're a named character" "you're a named character" "everyone is a named character"

 Rolsheen wrote:
Play your own custom chapter and you've named every model, "you're a named character" "you're a named character" "everyone is a named character"

My favorite named character is Brother Stewart, the Reluctant Plasma Gunner. (on the left) I fit him into every list.

This is awkward for Harlequins as their epic hero is the Solitaire, and they have so very few units to begin with.

Imperial or Chaos Knight-wise I'm thinking of a Dracula-themed Knight - "Monster Squad" colour scheme - to lead my Armigers.

SamusDrake wrote:
This is awkward for Harlequins as their epic hero is the Solitaire, and they have so very few units to begin with.

My issue with the 'Epic Hero' keyword is that it doesn't distinguish between 'named characters' and 'specialized operatives'. For example, there's obviously only one Marneus Calgar (which is one too many, in my view), but there are hundreds - if not thousands - of Vindicare Assassins.