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I have a friend who is really interested in heraldry. What would you say is the army with the most heraldic themes to it?

I was thinking Knights?

Models with shields, banners, crests, etc?

Thanks!

Knights have the most audacious heraldry but Space Wolves have the most. Nearly everything is modeled with talismans, shields, runes and blah blah.m there's just not a lot of easy mutability there. Prolly not what you were looking for.

Terminators in general have that little shield on their armpit so Grey Knights can have heraldry if painted for it. Black Templars are also very iconographic and, I mean, Templars is the theme and they do it pretty well.

Could also just make a custom chapter where a unified symbol goes on the kneepad and personal heraldry goes on one shoulder with each squad having another unique option on the other to tie them all together there too.

Imperial Knights are big on hereldry, likewise as are grey knights, with every grey knight having their own coat of arms. likewise your friend could easily produce a space marine chapter that is big on personal hereldry, many space marine chapters have some hereldry to them

Knights have the most audacious heraldry but Space Wolves have the most. Nearly everything is modeled with talismans, shields, runes and blah blah.m there's just not a lot of easy mutability there. Prolly not what you were looking for.

that's not heraldry.

I was also thinking of the squad markings on Space Wolves and the not-Ragnar Blackmane companies. Lots of personal markings and crests on shields and banners. That doesn't count as heraldry?

There used to be a lot of heraldry in 40k back in the day.
At least the books want me to believe that I was still playing WFB that time.








you could also just use space marines an choose a really cool colour scheme. SM colour schemes are just heraldry on space knights. They are dead serious about their colours in the fluff.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Pictorial_List_of_Space_Marine_Chapters_A-L




Automatically Appended Next Post:
There are some bits your friend might want to pick up some Grey knights bits to add some additional options to add heraldry to his Space marines. Here take al look at the small shields on the terminator sprue ( but they are also on their marine sprues). They are sold frequently on bits sites, ebay etc. and will add tons of character.

http://www.bigorbitgames.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/grey-knight-terminators-sprue-1.jpg

Definitely Space Marines.

Once upon a time, every Marine had a collapsible pole built into his backpack that could be extended to hang their personal banner off when they were acting as Squad Leader after their sergeant split the unit up.

They still have more space on their armour for personal heraldry than any other army aside from Knights. At least one shoulder pad on every model, usually two, and often one or both knees as well.

Admech models also have a lot of hearaldry options. But usually they are just painted red and they don't have so much fluff about their heraldry.

With enough bits, green stuff, super glue, and imagination you can make any faction have loads of heraldry. Even Orks could snazz up their armor with symbols, crests, etc and act all Nob like.
Example being Waaagh! Killjoy
Ruler: Warboss Victoryion
Symbol: A Squig Kraken
Words: "We do not know "
Known for their saying "Wut iz ded may neva die but comes back fer anotha go wif even moar dakka"

But seriously 40k is basically fantasy in space so you can tack on the medieval/feudal Europe design and imagry with basically any faction short of Nids. Even Tau can pull off some feudal era Japan/China style banners.

If he is into really complex / over the top colour schemes he might also enjoy Harlequins. Their colour scheme blows all others out of the water.

Any faction could if you really wanted to, save for Tyranids and Necrons.

Imperial Knights and Space Marines are probably going to top the list, but you can do a lot with most armies.

Cptn_Cronssant wrote:
Any faction could if you really wanted to, save for Tyranids and Necrons.

Actually, Necron dynasties have a very elaborate heraldry. The markings kind of look like crop circles. Check out our codex. The drawing are pretty cool.

Standard Space Marines have the most freeform heraldry you can hand-paint on. Either that or something like Harlequins, where the entire model essentially acts as a freehand canvas and traditionally the whole model is painted in heraldric quarters.

Depends on how you define heraldry.

If he defines it as lots of colours and pretty pictures, then Knights it is.

If he defines it as the ability to know that a coat of arms you've never seen before belongs to a 3rd son, then Knights would be disappointing. Back in (EPIC) Titan Legions they had a pretty cool marking system, but these days their official method seems to consist of putting a transfer sheet in a bucket of water, swirling it around then dunking the knight model into it. There's little rhyme or reason to the markings.

 EnTyme wrote:

Cptn_Cronssant wrote:
Any faction could if you really wanted to, save for Tyranids and Necrons.

Actually, Necron dynasties have a very elaborate heraldry. The markings kind of look like crop circles. Check out our codex. The drawing are pretty cool.

I know they do and it is epic, but it's difficult to represent on anything but a scythe/monolith.