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(I think this is the right forum) Hi all! I've been wondering: how do you all differentiate your horde units, or any units really, that end up bunched together? Things like multiple units of khorne dogs, guardsmen platoons, and the like. Do you face them in different directions, paint their bases, change basing, or what? Thanks!

I'm considering msu hounds, so this is an issue. Best way is paint scheme, slight colour differences to show what's what.
My cultist horde had different colours each unit.

I have a few tricks. These are for my marines, so might not be applicable everywhere.

Different ages of minis. If I have a tac squad of RTB01s next to 2nd ed pushfits, while a 3rd ed squad steps out of a drop pod next to them, it’s still clear who’s who.

Details. My second squad has white purity seals, rather then the normal tan I paint them. When I put together my first 2 squads out of my BaC box, one has CC weapons on all of them, the other has bolt pistols.

Helmets, shoulderpads, weapons or other such obvious details in different colours is probably the simplest way. Adding different accessories means you don't have to bother about different colours so that speeds up painting even if only by a little.

Having different base details is quite subtle but clever if you really don't want units to have their own livery or the like.

I tend to try to keep the "special" guys as the boarder between units. Telling one guardsman from the next might be hard, but if there are two meltagun guys next to eachother it becomes easier to tell where the line between units are.

One of my armies is a Kroot heavy tau army. It's EXTREMELY kroot heavy. So, since kroot are known to evolve, I have one unit dark brown, one unit dark green, one unit Canary Yellow, and another unit as an earthy-red color. It looks a little weird, but with 100 kroot on the table it becomes a necessity.

Guard and Marines can use unit markings very effectively. Be that squad markings or just using different colored symbols. Others will pick a detail to distinguish them, for example, first platoon has helmets, second has hats, etc.

Ork, nids, and necrons will often put a color on the base, so 1st unit is red, next is blue. The alternative is numbering the bases, but that's harder to tell at a difference.

My Nids all have a stripe on their white heads. Red for Primary Unit, blue for Secondary, green, pink, brown and so on as the units are less common in my armies. So for instance, my Children of Cryptus have a red stripe, my 10 strong unit of basic Stealers and their Broodlord have a blue stripe, my five bug strong unit and their Broodlord has a green stripe and three other units of five Stealers use flesh color, chestnut ink and gray for their head stripes. Same concept goes for each species, and leads to some bugs getting names. Redhead, Blu and Greenhorn are the names of the triplet Flyrants.

If I ever get around to painting up my Blood Angels, they'll have their knee pads decaled as the codex lays it out.

My Necrons aren't as well thought out, but for some reason half of the Warriors I have are a bit more bronze than the others, so I think I'll just make that more prominent.

My Eldar Corsairs and Red Corsairs are the easiest. One squad is a completely different scheme than the squad next to it. For Red Corsairs, a Tactical Squad will be either traditional red and black or be Space Wolves or some other very unique scheme.

Different colored foliage and rocks on the base. A more subtle visual indicator.

This is pretty much the reason for squad markings.

Another option is painting the ring of the bases of each squad differently.

My between klan colours and armaments I keep my orks organized.....ish.

Different equipment, buoyed by the fact I refrain from duplicate units where possible, or there's something absolutely different. For example

3rd Squad (Tacts) are snap fits and my first ever models.
2nd Squad (Tacts) I recognise because they're badly painted multiparts (old box)
1st Squad have bits add on, and will be better painted (one day)
4th and 5th Squads are box BaC MkIV boys. The specials (sergeants included) are all put on the same row as they respetive bolters,

Mostly it comes down to different transfer markings.
1st Squad have black verticle arrows with skulls in them.
2nd have transparent verticle arrows
3rd have solid black verticle arrows
4th have solid black horizontal arrows
5th have transparent horizontal arrows
6th Squad will share 5th' markings, but being "The Dumbass Brigade" will all have bare heads.

My Legionnaires tend to be fairly similar. They have different poses, battle damage, armour components, etc., but it's all relatively minor. This is because the squads are designed to be relatively interchangeable.

I do different Numbers on my shoulder pads, but i'm not sure if that would help your situation.

I haven't gotten a game in for a long while, but my ork units are setup with slightly different color schemes in groups of ten. That way I can combine them into larger units as needed.

My Blood Ravens I never got enough to really need to worry about it.

I tended to blob my guard platoons into one giant squad, so I never really worried about it.

Other than that, shoulder pads were marked with a different colour for guards, and a different roman numeral for marines.

Gonna sound dumb... Squad markings for SMs/CSMs.

My Cultists by models. The DV snap fits are one, my convered Cadian/Catachan/Marauders a different one.

It seems a lot easier to distinguish models with helmets or armour, but the stripe idea put forward by SharkoutofWata seems useful for daemons and other creatures. Another idea is subtly different shades of the same skin colour, or painting an icon on their flesh (perhaps in different colours for different squads). You could shorten the tails of Khorne hounds to different lengths, or make some three legged. You could pose them in certain ways, so one squad are leaping/running, while one squad are standing. I think this is one of the fun parts of modelling, to try and come up with creative ways of maintaining group identity while distinguishing different squads. It's not too different to trying to mark out a champion in a squad of chosen or sternguard!

nareik wrote:
Another option is painting the ring of the bases of each squad differently.

This is exactly what I did on my first 40k armies

Now, I'm not so fond of the cornucopia of base colors. Squad markings like shoulderpad icons, painted lines, campaign decals, and so on, are the way to go, IMO.

For many space marine chapters, there is the benefit of the Upgrade Packs too, because they come with many unique shoulder pads.

I played vassal before I played a lot of 40k. (Before that I played wfb but that did not really have this issue.)
So I started painting the edges (not the top just the edges) of my bases in a similar manner and used special markings for special weapons, IC's and characters. It works like a charm.



I am re doing some of my armies I might do it in an other way this time. It worked but it also made the army look more gamey and less like a miniaturized diorama of an army.

I generally remember who is who in my games.

But I have contemplated sticking rocks/grass on bases, particulary for my Orks, to show which Boyz belong where.

For Blood Angels, I use Company Markings.

Not sure if I'll keep my Tau or sell them, but for them I run a lot of one off's (Ghostkeels, DS Melta Crisis etc) so it's not an issue.

 Talys wrote:

nareik wrote:
Another option is painting the ring of the bases of each squad differently.

This is exactly what I did on my first 40k armies

Now, I'm not so fond of the cornucopia of base colors. Squad markings like shoulderpad icons, painted lines, campaign decals, and so on, are the way to go, IMO.

For many space marine chapters, there is the benefit of the Upgrade Packs too, because they come with many unique shoulder pads.

The cheaper, less permanent solution is to put colored rubber bands around the bases or arms/legs of the models. This works well for xenos hordes.

Squad markings. There's very few exceptions where you won't be able to use those.

In the examples you gave IG fluff wise is supposed to use squad markings, Khorne dogs could have a similar squad marking that demons of Khorne use.

If you don't want to use squad markings, just make sure you leave about a 3" gap between units. If you are forced to put them closer you just turn the models at the border into opposing facings. Pretty simple.

As a guard player at first I would mark the bottom of each base with a different colour, but of course this was useless so then I moved to painting the edge of the bases but this still proved ineffective to the point where one day I just said F it. And painting a nice visible circle of colour on each bas that clearly shows the different squads ie red, blue, gold. Etc. You'll lose points on basing but it makes it much easier for casual games to quickly determine who's who.

I am currently contemplating the use of magnetized back banners for my orks. I am just not sure if modern ork min's look that good with back banners. But it seems like the ideal solution.

For my Orks, I gave one squad of choppa boyz a single shoulder pad.
'ard boyz were given 2 shoulder pads, helmets and that jaw thing.
I only have one squad of shootas, so they get no pads.

Necrons are a bit...different. Since they were my first army, all the warrior squads are different colors.
Now I just mark the shoulders on the newer additions.

I don't bother, generally. I track how many units are in the combat and how many losses each one took then just separate the remaining models into the right number of surviving squads.

I give each squad a unique base rim colour and paint the armor of the sergeant the same colour for flavor. Some like it some hate it but it gets the job done.

I just use so many Vehicles that I only have to keep track of like 22 dudes in a 1850-2500 point list.

But in armies where that isn't an option( and most of the time, it's not a good one when you can. ), I'd use some form of Squad Marking on the model.

different colored bases. When you run out of discernable colors then start using poker chip/pin stripes of 2 colors.

Build with some kind of different detail.

My horror have on group all with feathers and another all without, mouths vs beaks would work too.

Basing differences is something I wish I thought of.