Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

How do you perceive named characters in the TT that makes them fit your army? Like having Yarrick tagging along with the Cadian 8th, or Typhus leading a mixed warband?

As an example, here's my headcanon for Be'lakor, as he's only got a small amount of fluff, and most people seem to ignore him:

For me, it’s real easy. I play a pure Ultramarine army, so any of the UM characters fit. Well, not Sicarius, but I don’t field him; he’s 2nd company, I’m 3rd.

I generally only field Calgar in large games. If you have that much of the chapter present, it makes sense for the CM to show up.

Cassius has shown up a few times in my lists. Once was in a drop pod of Sternguard in a fight against ‘nids. Obviously fighting with his Tyrannic war vets an his personal crusade. The other time recently was when my loyalty to Macragge was questioned. He fought a few battles with my company, found no trace of heresy, and went on with his business.

Talion frequently takes squads of scouts out on training missions.

While I do own a Sgt. Cronos, and my librarian could count-as Tigrus, I’ve not included them in any lists. But it’s not hard to imagine them showing up to help. I field a battle company, which while 1/10th of the chapters marines, it represents 1/4th of the primary fighting force of the chapter. If a battle company is being committed to a fight, it’s going to be supported by all sorts of chapter resources, included special characters.

You can play special characters one of 2 ways in my opinion. Using the official model in the right army, and therefeore actually using the special character. Alternatively you can use a counts-as in any tabletop legal force for that character and call the character what you like, but using the special character codex rules. Throughout the history of 40k, there must be many individuals who have been able to do the same things as the named special characters, so why not let your modelling instincts loose and do your own conversion

I often play big games, so Ghazzy making appearances pakes a fair bit o' sense. The only problem being I play Bad Moonz and Ghazzy being a Goff doesn't mix well.

I headcanon the Tyranids as essentially being able to photocopy any useful "personalities" from a pool. So OOE and the Deathleaper can appear anywhere. Meanwhile the Swarmlord is one to a hive fleet tendril, but is only released under special circumstances.

I never use SC models since most of my armies are home brewed. I just make up models and fluff to use with the rules.

My Chaos Warriors occasionally hire Typhus and his Plague Marine bodyguards in exchange for knowledge on Daemonic diseases. Huron occasionally shows up providing men in exchange for technology and weaponry.

 Kain wrote:
I headcanon the Tyranids as essentially being able to photocopy any useful "personalities" from a pool. So OOE and the Deathleaper can appear anywhere. Meanwhile the Swarmlord is one to a hive fleet tendril, but is only released under special circumstances.

Eh, most of them sure, but before the 6th ed, Doom really couldn't be photocopied by the Hive Mind. Given the whole "he gained strength through eating Eldar souls" bit.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Kain wrote:
I headcanon the Tyranids as essentially being able to photocopy any useful "personalities" from a pool. So OOE and the Deathleaper can appear anywhere. Meanwhile the Swarmlord is one to a hive fleet tendril, but is only released under special circumstances.

Eh, most of them sure, but before the 6th ed, Doom really couldn't be photocopied by the Hive Mind. Given the whole "he gained strength through eating Eldar souls" bit.

The Doom of Malan'tai was special before it ate from the infinity circuit.

It's specific mutation was the ability to power up by draining souls after all. So the Dooms that got dropped into the battlefield were base vampire strain zoanthropes, hence why they needed to power up.

Of course, the Doom's habit of getting splatted by any decent number of big guns before he does anything of importance is at complete odds with him being able to nom an entire craftworld; which probably has enough missile launchers, wraithcannons, bright lances, fire prisms, and other S8+ weapons to instagib him.

So I also assume that the power attained by the Vampire strain Zoanthrope that landed on malan'tai is something that could only be replicated if one happened upon a similar heap of souls in one sitting.

Dropping a base one into the battlefield can't replicate those conditions as there just isn't the same concentration of souls to be found.

 TheCustomLime wrote:
I never use SC models since most of my armies are home brewed. I just make up models and fluff to use with the rules.

Yeeppp.

I usually use the rules for my own characters that don't fit the generic ones. It's the same as using a Warpsmith to represent a renegade Tech-Priest in artificer armour.

One of my characters is a renegade Apothecary (actually a Sanguinary Priest). As the Chaos book has no Apothecaries, I have no means of representing him well. While it's probably the biggest cliché for a renegade Apothecary, he's more like a Radical Inquisitor than a Chaos Marine, attempting to use Chaos (not necessarily the Warp itself, but the opportunities, resources, and freedom that he would not get if he'd stayed) to cure The Flaw, seeing it as a necessary evil. The mad, flesh-changed results of these attempts he assembles into a sort of Death Company. There's not an awful lot to represent this accurately in the CSM book, so I just use a melee Chaos Lord and attach him to some Raptors or Berserkers.

If I wanted to bring Abaddon (for his rules), I would characterise him as an exceptionally powerful Chaos Lord/Champion/etc rather than come up with an explanation for why Abaddon the Despoiler - bereft of any Black Legionnaires - is running with my strange Alpha Legion-esque warband. Although I like Kharn and Ahriman as characters, I would do the same for them.

The Phoenix Lords follow the call of war, and where my Craftworld Shelwe goes war is certain to follow

 Frozen Ocean wrote:
I usually use the rules for my own characters that don't fit the generic ones. It's the same as using a Warpsmith to represent a renegade Tech-Priest in artificer armour.

One of my characters is a renegade Apothecary (actually a Sanguinary Priest). As the Chaos book has no Apothecaries, I have no means of representing him well. While it's probably the biggest cliché for a renegade Apothecary, he's more like a Radical Inquisitor than a Chaos Marine, attempting to use Chaos (not necessarily the Warp itself, but the opportunities, resources, and freedom that he would not get if he'd stayed) to cure The Flaw, seeing it as a necessary evil. The mad, flesh-changed results of these attempts he assembles into a sort of Death Company. There's not an awful lot to represent this accurately in the CSM book, so I just use a melee Chaos Lord and attach him to some Raptors or Berserkers.

If I wanted to bring Abaddon (for his rules), I would characterise him as an exceptionally powerful Chaos Lord/Champion/etc rather than come up with an explanation for why Abaddon the Despoiler - bereft of any Black Legionnaires - is running with my strange Alpha Legion-esque warband. Although I like Kharn and Ahriman as characters, I would do the same for them.

You should make a Count-as Fabius Bile and attach to a squad of CC kitted out Enhanced Marines with MoS and a Banner
Int and Str 5, feel no pain, fearless monsters

I think that'd work out well for a renegade apothecary and warp death company

A living saint is a living saint is a living saint. It just get even less customization options that a Canoness .

I have a detachment of Blood Angels painted like Black Dragons. The leader of them is a horribly mutated dragon-marine that uses the Sanguinor's rules. He's like an avenging spirit that comes to aid them in times of need. (You know, like the Sanguinor. But reptilian. )

I use Salamanders primarily, but I have some marines painted up as Tomb Sentinels to use as whatever chapter strikes my fancy. (Usually Ultramarines.) Ur-Khep, their Master of the Sepulchre, Chief Librarian, and oldest living member of the chapter, frequently makes guest appearances. The fact that his model is built up from (and he uses the rules for) Tigurius is of no consequence. Neither is the case of Khalil Suur'yuni, their eagle eyed scout sergeant, the role of whom is ably played by a Telion figure with all the Ultramarine logos filed off.

Same here. In my guard army, I am using my favorite Necromunda Gang leader, (who recently died in campaign) as Creed. But to be fair most of this army is conversions and counts as. I'm building two vet squads out of my lizardmen necromunda gang. Even got a lizard "Harker"

Ahriman, what an incredible life for a mortal to live. Far beyond psychic power that any human should be able to wield, he is considered by many to be a hole in reality.

He has changed.

The warp changes everything it touches, and, once touched, nothing is pure again. Not a world, not the stars above it, not holy Terra herself.

He has changed.

His mind, always sharp as a whetstone, now seems to transcend past logic and change reality surrounding it like a ball of wet clay. His purpose has found an echo in the warp, the warrior-scholar's desire answered with means to obtaining enlightenment.

He has changed.

He is tainted and he knows he always will be. His sins are uncounted and his fate is sealed by the Ruinous Powers, but he scours the galaxy with pure intent and a desire for free will and that is good enough for him.

The prodigal Sons find themselves once again being dragged by Ahriman from one planet to another. Read a chapter of an ancient tomb on one world, a single word etched into a brass skull on another, interrogate a bound daemon on a space hulk. Each bit of knowledge is but a piece of the puzzle that only Ahriman and Tzeentch himself know how will fit together. Hoping to earn his favor or his service, daemons and sorcerers alike pledge themselves and their followers to him in hopes of obtaining some of the power Ahriman wields so naturally....


If he were to die in a game (He hasn't in the 7 or 8 games I have played) I'd justify that in the following way: he could possess a body for sure. He possessed Amon's body, and less powerful sorcerers than him like Madox have done this. Also, once again, Ahriman is actually a tear in reality, he can do just about anything. If he gets into the black library and gets all that knowledge, he will become a 5th chaos god.

 changerofways wrote:

Spoiler:

Ahriman, what an incredible life for a mortal to live. Far beyond psychic power that any human should be able to wield, he is considered by many to be a hole in reality.

He has changed.

The warp changes everything it touches, and, once touched, nothing is pure again. Not a world, not the stars above it, not holy Terra herself.

He has changed.

His mind, always sharp as a whetstone, now seems to transcend past logic and change reality surrounding it like a ball of wet clay. His purpose has found an echo in the warp, the warrior-scholar's desire answered with means to obtaining enlightenment.

He has changed.

He is tainted and he knows he always will be. His sins are uncounted and his fate is sealed by the Ruinous Powers, but he scours the galaxy with pure intent and a desire for free will and that is good enough for him.

The prodigal Sons find themselves once again being dragged by Ahriman from one planet to another. Read a chapter of an ancient tomb on one world, a single word etched into a brass skull on another, interrogate a bound daemon on a space hulk. Each bit of knowledge is but a piece of the puzzle that only Ahriman and Tzeentch himself know how will fit together. Hoping to earn his favor or his service, daemons and sorcerers alike pledge themselves and their followers to him in hopes of obtaining some of the power Ahriman wields so naturally....


If he were to die in a game (He hasn't in the 7 or 8 games I have played) I'd justify that in the following way: he could possess a body for sure. He possessed Amon's body, and less powerful sorcerers than him like Madox have done this. Also, once again, Ahriman is actually a tear in reality, he can do just about anything. If he gets into the black library and gets all that knowledge, he will become a 5th chaos god.

Now I want to use Ahriman in a game

Well, yes, he is awesome.

fufufu, my not-really-ahriman and her kill list...

I play AM IG and love the fluff of a vast machine of thr Imperium making small mistakes that can forsake regiments and level innocent planets.
So Colonel Commissar Chesty Puller of the Mortem Regiment:
Colonel began his career as part of the 7th, a foot slogger of the fifteenth platoon. He worked his way up the ranks, until he was the Lieutenant. He had an eye for strategy and he lead his fifteenth into battle, inspiring them with bawdy jeers and roars of defiance. But he became the hero within the trenches of Fortis Binary. Told to charge the enemy emplacement, Vandergrift, colonel of the 7th at the time, led his forces to battle, but was slaughtered along with an entire 3 platoons from the hails of mortar and plasma fire. Hefting the ancient and reverred power sword Martyr, he roared with the heart of a Commissar, bawling at the Marines the Pacific Creed and the Marines oath. Because of his inspiring leadership, they gained twenty metres of ground. Thirteen hours later, during the dusk, a black ship came down, and with a swift strike, the Storm Troopers cuffed the dazed and wounded Colonel Puller and dragged him onto the ship. The men despaired, for whoever is taken to one of those ships never returns. 
Three weeks later, they climbed aboard their ship and standing before them was the new Colonel Commissar that they had been assigned, but under the swaying black cape and the cap, was the figure of none other than Colonel Puller. During the siege, he was mistaken by one of the onboard staff as a Commissar who had forgotten his gear. Now named as Commissar-Colonel of the Marines, Colonel Puller was given full battlegear and papers of the Lord Commissar. 
But how he has survived to this day remains a mystery, although some say during the siege of Balhaut, he was separated from the Marines and ended up in the same broken ruin as a dying apocathary of the Silver Guard Space Marines, who in a desperate attempt to not let the sacred gene seed fall into enemy hands, implanted it into the Colonel. 
However he's managed to survive this long it doesn't matter, for he is a tenacious and bawdy Colonel that leads the Mortem Regiment by example, always being the first to run into the oncoming storm head held high and defying xenos and chaos at every turn. Armed with the ancient sword that dates before the Heresy Martyr, his old bolt pistol Darling and the thick tomb known simply as the Mortem handbook which contains a piece of knowledge that every soldier in the regiment has to give about their homeworld and their experience within other regiments. 
Colonel is named the Hero of the Mortem soldiers and rightfully so, for he unites so many different cultures and races into one single fighting force for the Imperium, and yet protects every single one of them against their enemies. 

am playing AM atm, and wanted to make a character that emboldened how small details can get lost within the machine of the Imperium:
Colonel-Commissar Chesty Puller:

 baxter123 wrote:
I play AM IG and love the fluff of a vast machine of thr Imperium making small mistakes that can forsake regiments and level innocent planets.
So Colonel Commissar Chesty Puller of the Mortem Regiment:
Colonel began his career as part of the 7th, a foot slogger of the fifteenth platoon. He worked his way up the ranks, until he was the Lieutenant. He had an eye for strategy and he lead his fifteenth into battle, inspiring them with bawdy jeers and roars of defiance. But he became the hero within the trenches of Fortis Binary. Told to charge the enemy emplacement, Vandergrift, colonel of the 7th at the time, led his forces to battle, but was slaughtered along with an entire 3 platoons from the hails of mortar and plasma fire. Hefting the ancient and reverred power sword Martyr, he roared with the heart of a Commissar, bawling at the Marines the Pacific Creed and the Marines oath. Because of his inspiring leadership, they gained twenty metres of ground. Thirteen hours later, during the dusk, a black ship came down, and with a swift strike, the Storm Troopers cuffed the dazed and wounded Colonel Puller and dragged him onto the ship. The men despaired, for whoever is taken to one of those ships never returns. 
Three weeks later, they climbed aboard their ship and standing before them was the new Colonel Commissar that they had been assigned, but under the swaying black cape and the cap, was the figure of none other than Colonel Puller. During the siege, he was mistaken by one of the onboard staff as a Commissar who had forgotten his gear. Now named as Commissar-Colonel of the Marines, Colonel Puller was given full battlegear and papers of the Lord Commissar. 
But how he has survived to this day remains a mystery, although some say during the siege of Balhaut, he was separated from the Marines and ended up in the same broken ruin as a dying apocathary of the Silver Guard Space Marines, who in a desperate attempt to not let the sacred gene seed fall into enemy hands, implanted it into the Colonel. 
However he's managed to survive this long it doesn't matter, for he is a tenacious and bawdy Colonel that leads the Mortem Regiment by example, always being the first to run into the oncoming storm head held high and defying xenos and chaos at every turn. Armed with the ancient sword that dates before the Heresy Martyr, his old bolt pistol Darling and the thick tomb known simply as the Mortem handbook which contains a piece of knowledge that every soldier in the regiment has to give about their homeworld and their experience within other regiments. 
Colonel is named the Hero of the Mortem soldiers and rightfully so, for he unites so many different cultures and races into one single fighting force for the Imperium, and yet protects every single one of them against their enemies. 

am playing AM atm, and wanted to make a character that emboldened how small details can get lost within the machine of the Imperium:
Colonel-Commissar Chesty Puller:

I read that out loud. I can't stop myself.

That guy is a baws.

I just don't really use special characters . I just use my own guy who hi think of

I avoid SCs in my own forces. Generic HQs for the win!

I have no trouble with one of my friends using Belial as his Warlord, his army is an actual Deathwing with loads of Terminators and two Land Raiders.

On the other hand, I was rather dismayed to face Abaddon at a tournament. Supposedly, he is my Warlord's Warlord.

I don't like using Pre-Named HQ's in my lists if I can help it. But my headfluff includes

A Pirate Necron Lord, Xerxius, who travels the galaxy looking for other worlds his dynasty once controled, and Necron artifacts.
A High Cyptek, Teletrix, who handles the details.
A Destroyer Lord, Potentius, who is their attack dog on a leash, controlled by Teletrix.

Currently I am using Pedro Kantor. I use him with a home brewed chapter of Imperial Fists/Crimson Fists. My head cannon goes sorta like this. The Crimson Fist chapter was devastated on Rynn's World. So Pedro and his escort of Sternguard have to help complete missions they just don't have the man power to complete. Being a son of Dorn successor chapter, The Eternal Brotherhood would easily follow Kantor,he is very battle proven and he exemplifies the chapters creed of leave no brother behind.

Bludbaff is my Warboss. I'm not in the habit of fielding special characters, but I have considered building a "final form" Bludbaff and fielding him with Ghazghkull's rules. I wouldn't feel right fielding an Ork SC (except as a counts-as) because their careers are generally pretty well known, and I'm not doing anything remotely related. If I were going to field an Armageddon-themed list I'd happily use Ghazzy, Snikrot, and Grotsnik, but that's not at all what I'm doing.

I don't use any SCs in my Guard list, but if I did they'd be counts-as. I have a regiment from a home-brew planet (using the Wargames Factory Shock Troops) and I would want to use a model from the same range to represent any SCs. Again, the sheer numbers of people in the faction and the relatively short careers of most of its members make using a SC with his own canon history seem silly to me. Why is Creed fighting Ultramarines, led by Marneus Calgar, no less?

If I were to play a SC in a Marine faction, I would use the actual person. Since Marines are so few in number, it makes sense to have the individual have a decent chance of deployment in any of the organization's missions.

I usually make the special characters take on a sort of rogue role. They're primarily dedicated to their chapter/craftworld/Waagh, but they occasionally can be called on by others to join them. I also made my Salamander captain have multiple personality disorder so he can be fielded as Sicarius.