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Chaos Space Marines have always been my favorite playable faction in WH40K they have so much diversity and let's admit all of their models are badass. I am someone who takes a lot of pride and joy in whatever I am doing, knowing I am doing it in the most efficient way possible. Suppose I am playing a role playing video game, I will extensively research abbout every stat, every weapon, every spell, etc. to make sure that I character I make is the best possible one from everything to gear and stats.

In WH40K I love creating my own armies and giving them their own fluff. So let's say I make a Nurgle devoted warband and their leader is a Nurgle Sorcerer because that's how I imagined/designed it in the fluff. But looking at unit stats, suppose I favor the stats of a biker HQ or a jump pack HQ. Now I feel like my army is losing available advantage. Does this happen to any of you? Do you let these factors influence your playing or do you just play with whatever and enjoy it regardless?

I think it depends on the situation. Friendly play, tournament play. When I build an army, I like to 'create' the army so to speak. I built up my Cadian mechanized army. I will base my lists off of this theme, but I want to win of course. I will run optimized squads and work within the theme. I do a lot of research and look for cool new idea's that may bring more out of the army, which only goes so far with guard, but I approach every army this way. Saim Hann eldar and Crimson Fists(lots of veteran marines and scouts) are some others I built.

I see what you mean about trying to be as efficient as possible, but I don't think the game is so black and white. Yea a biker sorcerer is better than one on foot, but the one on foot has a place. Doesn't make it bad and if that was the reason you lost the game, then I think something else may be contributing to the outcome. Of course there are actual bad choices you can make in list building, but I'm sure you know those.

 Bonachinonin wrote:
I think it depends on the situation. Friendly play, tournament play. When I build an army, I like to 'create' the army so to speak. I built up my Cadian mechanized army. I will base my lists off of this theme, but I want to win of course. I will run optimized squads and work within the theme. I do a lot of research and look for cool new idea's that may bring more out of the army, which only goes so far with guard, but I approach every army this way. Saim Hann eldar and Crimson Fists(lots of veteran marines and scouts) are some others I built.

I see what you mean about trying to be as efficient as possible, but I don't think the game is so black and white. Yea a biker sorcerer is better than one on foot, but the one on foot has a place. Doesn't make it bad and if that was the reason you lost the game, then I think something else may be contributing to the outcome. Of course there are actual bad choices you can make in list building, but I'm sure you know those.

Yeah I am someone who is very visual if that makes sense. The first reason I fell in love with chaos was their look and appeal. My favorite unit is the Defiler but they are kind of crappy. And yeah the stats would be better on a bike, but I imagine my warband's sorcerer lord levitating through the battlefield shooting psychic blasts of power from his mind. Putting him on a bike just makes him seem less badass and quite silly. I don't think I would ever play tournaments but only local game shops and it's hard to say how people play because I am moving and have no idea of any shops where I will be moving to.

Aside from CSM and SM I would say my favorite army is Necrons and I don't know why but I look at every unit in the game that they have to offer and I am like, "Yeah I can imagine using any combination of these." Even looking at Eldar units, I wouldn't mind so much if my HQ was on a jetbike. I guess I get this really specific connection with Chaos because I make a very specific and lore/fluff friendly idea in my head of how the army should play but then find out it's not very optimal.

Sometimes, when i want to include a unit or piece of wargear that seems not fluffy for some reason, i either try to build it to look more appropriate yet count it as having rules that i need. Or make up the fluff that fits but is yet still logical.

For example, I've got lots of scratch-built and converted mek guns but not enough grots to man them. But i have some IG models. The solution is simple. As some of the mek guns are converted from WW2 artillery guns, they're clearly 'umie tech and as i play blood axes who are well known for dealing with 'umiez and sometimes even enslaving them, i say that kommandoez have captured a bunch of artillerists and looted some gunz so that the umanz have to work for orks or get inevitebly slain. Soem of them have chosen to live. As they're umiez, they're bs3 but as they live in orky conditions and are treated as lowly grots, they're ld5, s2, t2, etc - grot stats, all in all.

When you play CSM and want to run a biker sorc without abike model, you can always just make him look mutated. replace the lower part of the body with a plague drone or a spawn, for example.

Sometimes i want my footslogging warboss to be riding a bike. But i don't like the look of a biker boss riding along the footsloggas. So, i'm planning to make a huge ass rokkit pack for him. I have some experience with building rokkit packs as i've allready made 4 out of plastic clay for my boyz to become Stormboyz!

What koooaei said. If you want the bike profile for your sorcerer, but don't want to actually put him on a bike because you think it looks goofy, add some other conversion to the model that makes it clear he can get around fast and put him on a biker base. Just about every player will accept it, especially if you're not playing in a tournament.

Converting and Counts As mean you never have to take a model you don't like to get the rules you do like.

As a new player I struggle with the same thing... too many cool choices and balancing that against competative play.

I first fell in love with deathwing knights. I liked the idea of a smaller elite army, studied all the chapters. I dont like bikes either and saw deathwing only isn't competative so looked into what other chapters had to offer. After many hours I found out termies basically suck (aren't competative)

Lucky for me, I found more models I liked, and filled a competative role.

There's no reason to field a lousy army, or one you dont like the looks of. There's usually an alternative to fit the table top job, or a fairly simple way to convert the models you dont like.