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I play multiple armies and one thing I always do is give my characters as much personality as I can – I always convert my HQs and also attempted to give my squad leaders particular attention as well.

Two characters have stood out for me in my gaming experiences. The first being my converted Dark Eldar Lord. He was one of the first models that I practice my converting skill upon aside from the occasion weapon switch. Every time I played him he performed excellently. I have thrown him it to mash pits of orks and tyranids too watch him emerge bloody but victorious. He has never been killed despite facing nearly every hazard in the 40K universe including fighting half a tyranid force (3 TMC, genestealers, and termagaunts) after things went pear shape for my army. When I started mentioning his accomplishments members of my gaming groups made it their personal mission to take him out, even forgoing missions objective to achieve this goal – they were unsuccessful. I ended up retiring him and fielding multiple hormonculus in his place.

The second character, a daemon prince of Slannesh, on the other hand has always been a complete failure. When the last chancers came out I bought them up along with the red terror (a 3rd edition tyranid special character) I painted the terror green and attempt to make a cliché B movie monster. I created a mini-game that played remarkable like a kill team scenario (this was well before kill team rules came out) in which the last chancers were being preyed upon by the monster. As the monster he was fine, but I got it into my head to convert him into a daemon prince of my Slannesh cultists. With a simple slannesh ruin on his head and the later addition of a large tongue (which at one time was a slannesh upgrade) I made him into a DP. The problem was that he couldn’t beat tau in hand to hand. One time I charged an imperial guard heavy weapon crew only to roll 5 ones when rolling to hit, and failed to wound on the one that actually connected. I took a wound from the squad on their return strikes. The guard player didn’t even bother sending in support, he felt the squad could take my Daemon prince out themselves, which is exactly what they did. Sadly this performance was common for the model – it never won a combat IIRC. It was often up to my WS 2 cultist to save the day or at least lessen the defeat when my DP choked. The model had a reputation for being a joke despite his impressive stats – people wouldn’t even shoot at him, targeting my cultist instead. One opponent once remarked that he knew where the true threat was as he fire at my cultists disregarding the DP. I always thought the gaming gods where punishing me for switching the model over with a simple rune to the forehead.

I am quite fond of my Dark Eldar lord due to my history with the model. The DP on the other hand has been close to getting tossed against a wall. Does anyone else have a similar situation with their models.

I actually try not to get too attached to characters.

They always die.

In all seriousness, I play Warmachine and Hordes factions based on looks, feel, and
playstyle. You know, character. Sometimes I play something because the army I field
exudes from the warcaster or warlock leading the force (Hierarch Severius and
Grand Exemplar Kreoss), and sometimes the army I field has its own character
without necessarily needing any one particular character.

I treat my officers like i treat the rest of my guard: expendable. They're just lucky I can't use "Fire on my coordinates!" in regular games!

I'm much like you grunt, when I can sit down and actually work on my orks, all my Warbosses and Big Meks and Zagtruk and Snikrot are all going to be converted to be as dynamic as possible. even the bulk of my army is mix and match, heads, weapons, every thing is inter changeable so the army gets it own unique feel.

As I am converting my Plague Champions, I am, without trying, coming up with stories of battles for them. I can't wait untill I make a proper start on my lord, or get my boxes of terminators...

Making little backstories for characters and models that appear is a lot of fun. My gaming group, the PCRC, often makes little notes on individuals that do particularly interesting things – great successes, or comedy failures!

You can read out Dramatis Personae section here, along with info on the Antona Australis sector PCRC background stuff

I dont believe in characters in my army.

I always take the bare minimum i can for my HQ and try to increase the number of my RnF / units.
(that or i just like waves of minis xD )

*edit , that or i just dont find any character cool enough for me :"P

Characters just aren't as critical to me. I think however its more of a lightweight roleplay thing - some people like a narrative attached to your game rather than a bunch of playing pieces moving about a table.

That said, I'd also rather see a model with some extra personalization and love, rather than the infinitely repeatable special characters that keep showing up. Apparently Abaddon has franchising opportunities available, else is busier than that goofy looking guy and his phone box. Marneus Calgar and Elvis hang out at the same shops. Zagstruk must be orkish for 'cosplayer'

I'd much rather see the Master of Ordinance with a malfunctioning IFF transponder (His people are really trying to shell his position!), a personalized Autarch, Sho'va Hahaha (trying to understand imperial comedy), or the like. Tyranids and Necrons just get to deal with off the rack leaders. Besides, all sandwiches/meat look the same to them too!

Every time my commander takes a wound I cut myself.

Nerf_IG wrote:Every time my commander takes a wound I cut myself.

Yeah, maybe you shouldn't play Warmachine and definitely not Hordes.

Nerf_IG wrote:Every time my commander takes a wound I cut myself.

I should put that in my siggy xD

My Savage Orc Lord is an odd'un.

Stick him in against something rockhard, like a Bloodthirster or Vampire Lord, and he will panel it in next to no time. Seriously, he will *flatten* them in extremely short order. But, stick him in against rank and file, and he is going to get slapped silly!

My marine assult commander ALWAYS looses a fight with a plasma pistol, EVERY time his hand goes!

As far as being strong/weak the standard bearer in Mays WD may have an explanation for you. it talks about lucky players but the same principal could be applied.

As far as modelling story goes it depends on how much i like the model - the more i like the more effort I'll put into it/background, and that ends up with me making more effort to include it in an army list adding to it's deeds even more!

I tooled up my command units but understanding that they're just IG, they're going to die anyway. It's when they survive that they get a character name!

over the course of my gaming career Ragnar Blackmane has been very extreme in his performance, either he mops of stupid amounts of kills, or dies horribly without killing a fly.

one game he and a (full) squad of grey hunters charged into 3 necron destroyers on turn 2, the destroyers were not dead untill turn 5. (and that was from the grey hunters, not Rangar)

one game, he rolled through 3 jump pack (one death company) killed 2 ICs and smashed into a full tact squad and almost wiped them off on the last turn of the game.

another game i had to field him (the model) as a cheaper generic battle leader insted of Ragnar, but even with as cheap a loadout as i could bring myself to give him he still killed fateweaver, a demon prince, 8 blood crushers and a few nurglings by himself. (i rolled 24 out of 25 invulnerable saves, and just kept hacking through his lines) he had gotten into combat on turn 2, and stayed in combat untill the end of the game, but never died.

Demogerg wrote:over the course of my gaming career Ragnar Blackmane has been very extreme in his performance, either he mops of stupid amounts of kills, or dies horribly without killing a fly.

one game he and a (full) squad of grey hunters charged into 3 necron destroyers on turn 2, the destroyers were not dead untill turn 5. (and that was from the grey hunters, not Rangar)

one game, he rolled through 3 jump pack (one death company) killed 2 ICs and smashed into a full tact squad and almost wiped them off on the last turn of the game.

another game i had to field him (the model) as a cheaper generic battle leader insted of Ragnar, but even with as cheap a loadout as i could bring myself to give him he still killed fateweaver, a demon prince, 8 blood crushers and a few nurglings by himself. (i rolled 24 out of 25 invulnerable saves, and just kept hacking through his lines) he had gotten into combat on turn 2, and stayed in combat untill the end of the game, but never died.

Ah yes, I love Ragnar, he is just the dogs bollocks. However, Logan will always have a special place in my heart. I remember back in 3rd edition when I was just a little 11 year n00b, playing Space Wolves against some 30 year old guys SPEZZ MAHRINEZ! (The were blue too!) and he wiped out EVERYTHING of mine by turn 4, except for Logan! Now, Turn 5 Came around, and I found that I was in range of his Commander w/ depleted Command Squad. So, I co "FOR t3H RUSS HURRR!" and charge in, thinking, meh whatever. 2 Rounds of combat later, everything was dead.

When the older High Elf book was out I created two Lord level characters and used them on a regular basis. One was a conversion based on the old Kohril model. Head swap, sword swap, and cape addition. He had the Armor of the Gods (+1 S, 3+ save) and a great weapon for a Strength of 7.

He became known as the FEOD (Flying Elf of Doom). I always threatened a friend of mine to steed of shadows him from a unit into a chariot of his. I could never pull it off, but he became a memorable character.

The other character had the Armor of the Gods, a white lion honor, and two-hand weapons. 5 attacks at S5. Made his unit Stubborn with a Leadership of 10. I forgot what I called him, but he was always the source of much pain.

Elves are still better now though.

I own a Grey Knight Dred who is fondly known a "Timmy" by everybody in our FLGS (in reference to South Park) because that's exactly how he shoots.
He once literally failed to hit the side of a barn with his twin-linked lascannon

I have one Chaplain in Termy armor that everyone at my local FLGS hates,due too the fact that is REALLY lucky. In my first tourney he chewed his way through half a Deathwing army,including the master of the Deathwing and Command Squad! His nickname,as put by the deathwing army owner, is "That F***ing chaplain!"

I have a continuing narrative with my BoC and a friend's Brettonians. I also had a personality in mind for my Orc boss (and namesake).
My lizardmen similarly have a little backstory.

For my orks, my old boss had a long and storied history which involved being beaten up and eaten by a lot of nids, and beating down on a bunch of other people.

My SM commander is named Cynicus but beyond that I don't have anything special about him. I've come to realize the command squad's sole function is to be attacked by the CSM infiltrators in turn 2, get bogged down in a slugging match, and die in turn 4. At this point the Sternguard and / or assault Marines finish off the infiltrators. This has occured every time I play since finishing the SM army.

I have a loose backstory for all my "special" characters in my tau army. basically it's just everything i got in the Battleforce box is part oif the "original" Python cadre, and the Hammerhead, my second Shas'o, 6 drones, and my other crisis suit are from the Boa cadre. The Boa and Python Cadre's were deployed on a planet to do different parts of the same mission, but the Boas got mostly killed so they joined the Pythons to make a bigger, better Python Cadre. O'Boa is a kamikazee crazy guy who never gets to use his failsafe detonator, no matter how hard he tried. O'Pyth likes to stick with my ranged guys.

I gave my Wolf Lord the surname Silverfang thanks to the model coming with a nice wolf tooth necklace that I was able to paint the fangs with boltgun and silver. Both he and my Wolf Priest have proven worthy of their names, as each have had dominating presences in every game I've played, win or lose. The Wolf Lord in particular, his 2+ runic armor coupled with the 4+ invuln Belt of Russ let him lead from the front like a true Wolf and take hits for his men, and the sheer amount of killy that a lightning clawed WL is can be anything from 'How many wounds did you just roll?' to 'Why is half my army dead?!'. Also, he has only ever been slain in battle once out of the nine games in which he has led my list. A pretty good record by any count.

I enjoy giving my characters lots and lots of background. I choose their wargear and magic items based on the rest of my army; I'm not one of the soulless cookie-cutter gamers.

For example, I'm very attached to my Deathskullz warboss. Throughout his career, I've made additions to his model, such as a trophy pole with several different heads after an apocalypse game, a flashy shoota after a hard fight with some Tau, and some bionics and armour after he took a serious thrashing.

I also do this with elite units in my army; my Flash Gitz who once looked like Nobz with big shootas now wear bits of Space Marine and Tau armour and their snazzgunz are made out of pulse rifles and bolters.

I wish they would give Asmodai rules instead of a paragraph in the Codex: DA..and they didn't kill off Sgt. Namaan (sp? it's time for bed)

My Warboss got attacked by a daemonprince and 2 blood thirsters, He survived the combat after his Mega nobs went down in the first turn of combat. After defeating them be became known and th Nut Cracker, because thats how high his claw went.

Not really an officer in my HQ, but I feel connected to my chimera commander. He sits out of the turret holding a chaisword over his head while holding a pair of binoculars to his face.

I don't get attached to my HQ's per se, but I do get attached to particular models based on past performances. My Terminator Chaplain downed a Demon Prince with his Storm Bolter, so I painted up some bling for him to remember it by. My Heavy Bolter Scout often sees his entire squad die awful, horrible deaths, but he manages to hang in there against insurmountable odds, so he's Plucky. But writing fluff for specific models is a good way to get their heads blown off in the next game, I've found.

I've only given a name to one model (my AoBR dread), and do get a bit attached every now and then due to past performances.

For reference, the Dreadnaught is named Jenkins, mostly for his tendency to get into a big CC and get blown up.

Jimi Nemesis wrote:As I am converting my Plague Champions, I am, without trying, coming up with stories of battles for them. I can't wait untill I make a proper start on my lord, or get my boxes of terminators...

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