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I don't use unique characters in 40k, Fateweaver is amazing, but I prefer to have generic characters that I can make my own.

However, if I REALLY like the fluff (and the rules aren't terrible) I will try squeeze it in (like blue scribes in AoS). I never use a unique character just because the rules are good though.

It seems off that certain unique characters are in most applicable armies, do you think it's ok for unique characters to have rules that make them "must have" models.

 DarkBlack wrote:
I don't use unique characters in 40k, Fateweaver is amazing, but I prefer to have generic characters that I can make my own.

However, if I REALLY like the fluff (and it isn't terrible) I will try squeeze it in (like blue scribes in AoS). I never use a unique character just because the rules are good though.

It seems off that certain unique characters are in most applicable armies, do you think it's ok for unique characters to have rules that make them "must have" models.

I use each special Space Marine as an officer in my own Chapter, so each company has a different feel to it. 1st Company are Carcharadons, 2nd are Ultras led by Calgar, 3rd are Imperial Fists under Pedro Kantor and Chapter Master "Lysander," 4th are Sallies under Vulkan and 5th are Templars under Helbretch. All conversions of course. 6th will be a biker White Scars under Khan, 7th all Land Speeder squadrons and Crusader Squads led by The Emperor's Champion. 8th is led by Shrike, 9th by a generic and 10th are Scout Ultras under Sicarius.

10 different companies, each one unique and fun to play.

You should have an option for both, because Iove Kharn and his rules are ace. However if a character is pants but cool fluff, I'll only use him occasionally (Fabius Bile). But you can only have so many HQs.

But some things are just an auto take, or you get pwned.

That and they are just too expensive to bother with (Abbadon).

I use Commander Shadowsun cause she has great rules and a great model.

Her warlord trait is really handy, giving stealth and shrouded to something like a crisis team is awesome and she isn't too expensive either.

Taffy17 wrote:
I use Commander Shadowsun cause she has great rules and a great model.

Her warlord trait is really handy, giving stealth and shrouded to something like a crisis team is awesome and she isn't too expensive either.

+1
taking Shadowsun & Farsight as HQs and several character upgrades are boss in seventh. Why? warlord trait flexibility. Shadowsun if you need movement shenanigans. Farsight if you need DS placement. or a random sergeant if you don't need either.

When I play a unique character, it's more than likely because I am sick and tired of rolling for warlord traits and just want an HQ who is reliable in that regards OR my strategy for my army relies on a very peculiar warlord trait.

Agree with above, I really hate rolling for Warlord Traits. It completely removes any immersion from the game.

Often the SC are just far and away superior to any other option in the dex. Eldar have been using Eldrad forever, so I don't feel this is something new, although more armies are certainly jumping on the bandwagon. Fantasy also had a few armies that really benefited from SC, although it seemed rarer.

I like the rules on some of the unique characters but I hate how for some of them every army has that same character in it. Awful lot of Draigos out there fighting on countless worlds. Personally I rather have my model be actually unique but uses the same rules so it doesn't feel like I'm using Castellan Crowe clone #14756

 Vankraken wrote:
I like the rules on some of the unique characters but I hate how for some of them every army has that same character in it. Awful lot of Draigos out there fighting on countless worlds. Personally I rather have my model be actually unique but uses the same rules so it doesn't feel like I'm using Castellan Crowe clone #14756

Agreed, I think fantasy does a better job of this than 40k does. Between magical weapons and often unique spells/skills combos, it's often better to take an original character than a SC unless the SC has special abilities. Even then you usually take 1 of each.

in 40k it seems that SCs that get taken completely eclipse their counterparts. Belakor is much better than any other Daemon Prince. Fateweaver is amazing, Draigo, Tiggy, Eldrad...it's hard to justify taking a normal version unless you personally hate SCs or that SC in particular (looking at you Draigo).

Akiasura wrote:

 Vankraken wrote:
I like the rules on some of the unique characters but I hate how for some of them every army has that same character in it. Awful lot of Draigos out there fighting on countless worlds. Personally I rather have my model be actually unique but uses the same rules so it doesn't feel like I'm using Castellan Crowe clone #14756

Agreed, I think fantasy does a better job of this than 40k does. Between magical weapons and often unique spells/skills combos, it's often better to take an original character than a SC unless the SC has special abilities. Even then you usually take 1 of each.

in 40k it seems that SCs that get taken completely eclipse their counterparts. Belakor is much better than any other Daemon Prince. Fateweaver is amazing, Draigo, Tiggy, Eldrad...it's hard to justify taking a normal version unless you personally hate SCs or that SC in particular (looking at you Draigo).

Well that's how it should be I feel. Most special charcaters are special because they absolutely eclispe their compatriots. Like Tiggy being a much more powerful psyker than the average Libby, Draigo legit being the most powerful Grey Knight ever (and needs to be to be Chapter Lord), Belakor being a former god. 40k's fluff powercreep is such that unless you're a head above everyone you're nowhere near special enough to warrant a name.

 Deadshot wrote:

Akiasura wrote:

 Vankraken wrote:
I like the rules on some of the unique characters but I hate how for some of them every army has that same character in it. Awful lot of Draigos out there fighting on countless worlds. Personally I rather have my model be actually unique but uses the same rules so it doesn't feel like I'm using Castellan Crowe clone #14756

Agreed, I think fantasy does a better job of this than 40k does. Between magical weapons and often unique spells/skills combos, it's often better to take an original character than a SC unless the SC has special abilities. Even then you usually take 1 of each.

in 40k it seems that SCs that get taken completely eclipse their counterparts. Belakor is much better than any other Daemon Prince. Fateweaver is amazing, Draigo, Tiggy, Eldrad...it's hard to justify taking a normal version unless you personally hate SCs or that SC in particular (looking at you Draigo).

Well that's how it should be I feel. Most special charcaters are special because they absolutely eclispe their compatriots. Like Tiggy being a much more powerful psyker than the average Libby, Draigo legit being the most powerful Grey Knight ever (and needs to be to be Chapter Lord), Belakor being a former god. 40k's fluff powercreep is such that unless you're a head above everyone you're nowhere near special enough to warrant a name.

Lets be fair, there are a lot of special characters that are down right terrible in 40k which are completely eclipsed by a similar standard HQ. Ghazzy is generally considered way overpriced compared to a Mega Armored Warboss with a Lucky Stikk, the Tau named ethereals are hot garbage compared to the generic one, the named Space Wolves characters are vastly inferior to the power of a Wolf Lord or Battle Leader on a wolf, Space Marine characters are generally meh when compared to something like smashfether, etc. For every Ulrik that makes any footslogging Wolf Priest a joke you have a Ragnar Blackmane that is terrible when compared to a Wolf Lord or Battle Leader with proper wargear.

Both?

Some characters, like Cassius, I like both the rules and the fluff.
Others, like Sicarius, I’m not fond of the fluff, but the rules are interesting.
Calgar I own the mini, and at one point liked his fluff. But they kept adding more over the top fluff, so he’s kinda a joke these days. Less was more. His rules have also drifted, I think he’s back to worth fielding.
Sgts. Cronos and Talion I field just on their rules. Not familiar with any of their fluff outside the codex.
Tigurius I’ve not fielded, but could do a counts-as. Both his fluff and rules are a bit over the top.

A lot of the Ultramarine characters are pretty shallow. "I’m the best <blank> of the Space Marines.” Where <blank> is scout sarge, tank commander, chief librarian, company captain, etc. I know a lot of the fluff is supposed to be biased propaganda, but I find it a little grating. Partially because it feeds into the Ultra haters (which has mostly faded). But the best tank commander should probably have been an Iron Hands, and the scout should be a Ravenguard, etc. Calgar I could see as the “best” chapter master (and Sicarius for captain) as leadership and organization are the classic strengths of the Ultramarines. But Calgar’s exploits are getting very fanboyish, and Cato’s an arrogant cocksure prick.

Cassisus I like because he’s a bit more then a cardboard cutout. He’s not just a chaplain. He’s got the history with the ‘nids, the grizzled and older then dirt thing, and the tyranic war vets. Plus he’s got fun rules.

I take Draigo for the rules ... he has the only Storm Shield in my entire army!

SJ

 Grumzimus wrote:
You should have an option for both, because Iove Kharn and his rules are ace.quote]
My thoughts exactly, and for the same character.

Because he/she has some interesting rule I'd like to use in my lists. Fluff can be changed to accomodate that.

One of my favorite models is Castellan Crowe from the GK's. Love his fluff and his rules, I often take him even though he isn't the best option.

While I agree that Ghazzy is overpriced I feel it's in error to consider him a MA Warboss. His WS, wounds and attacks are higher. Immune to ID. His gun is stronger, fires more and has twice the range at 36". Not only calls a waaagh like a Warboss but automatically gets the codex's top warlord trait making the army fearless during waaagh and on top of that his own extra buff of an invulnerable save and the ability for him and Manz in his unit to run. He doesn't use the HQ slot which is very crowded for Orks. Altogether I'd say there is a significant difference between him and MA Warboss.

He is still overpriced, though, and it would be nice if at least they brought back his Waaagh!'s lasting two turns. I'd be able to swallow his price more easily with 2 turns of fearless fast running chargers.

But on topic. Both fluff and rules have me using SCs to meet the formation requirements of my fluffy army. Ghazzy's army. But also to be creative I intend to kit bash a MA big mek to make Orkimedes and still be fluffy.

Depends on the character. I play Sammael and Kharn for their rules (because they're ridiculously awesome for their cost) while others like Bile I play solely for the sake of fluff.

However I'd prefer it if Special Characters returned to the realms of Fluff Only (where you had to get permission from the opponent to use them). This gives way to people using customized HQs rather than cookie cutter special characters. It's gotten better in recent years though where generic characters can be more cost-effective with their wargear choices over the SCs, who are often overcosted for an esoteric ability.

A combination of both, to be sure. Just so happens that Kharn is the only named hero dedicated to Khorne, and he also has awesome rules. I don't like his model, so I use the older generic Khorne lord with axe to represent a different guy who uses his rules.

I also use a lord on juggernaut with AoBF as my other HQ choice, so there's a mix of named and generic.

It seems silly to get bent out of shape over the issue, though. I Will never understand why such things matter at all.

Where is the because its cool option?

Well Dark Angels don't really have a choice in the matter.

EDIT

When did I become a dreadnought?

Running salamanders i would love to run vulkan hestan for his cool factor but i know a big part of it is to just get the other half of my chapter tactics... -,-

Both; I think the game is more sensible when the epic heroes of the game are present rather than some generic schlubs no one had ever heard of. However, I won't generally just a survival character with poopy rules, so I voted rules.

I love using Telion for my own grizzled Marine veteran. I don't really use any ofher characters.

Both, but I lean more to the rules. I won't use a special character who doesn't fit the theme of the army I'm playing, but even if the character fits the theme, I won't play him if he sucks.

I run the marine errant character from the Babbab war as my company commander sometimes and I'm a fan Cassius.

It's not that SC are better than generic counter part in many cases. With a few exceptions it's usually better or cheaper to take a none named character. For Example Chapter Master Smash is far nastier than any of the space marine Characters, and Tigerious cost almost as much as three Liberians.

I do like the buffs certain characters have but I also like their background if I'm going to play them.

I use Ahriman, mostly because I love his model and his fluff, and sometimes his ability to cast the same witchfire power three times can be nasty - three Psychic Shrieks can devastate a lot of units, and if you roll Doombolt for your Tzeentch power you're pretty much set. Still very fickle though, and he can also be a massive waste of points.

I don't currently own any special characters (unless you count Kranon) and there aren't very many that are high on my list to get, but the ones that are I want purely for fluff/theme reasons. Conveniently, Typhus is supposed to be pretty decent, but I don't really know if Yarrick and Fabius Bile are considered cost-effective, and to tell the truth, I don't really care. I love their background and would love to field them in any game I can fit them in. And if there were AdMech characters or a named Warpsmith they'd be given number one priority regardless if they were considered good or not.