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.

Hello everyone I am in the process of starting a chaos army, I have my first 10 plaguebearers done and a pox bringer done. I plan on having a swamp themed base for my nurgle stuff. However basing Ahriman in the swamp seems off. How bad would it look if I bases say Khorne things with lava, tzeench things with something else and nurgle in a swamp.

With Chaos you can get away with a lot.

Something you could try is maybe a generic basing theme around the edge of each base, going into swamp, lava etc at the centre under the model. Would suggest the chaos power corrupting the ground under them...

If you keep the colour of the rim consistent then you can get away with quite a bit of variation on the top of the base.

If the rims don't match that can look pretty bad.

In my opinion you want a common theme especially on an army like Chaos to tie them together somehow. The models themselves won't do that through thematic sculpting, which is different for all its sun-factions, and if you don't choose a common color scheme for them, all you are left to work with is the bases.

While aesthetics are subjective and it's by no means necessary to go with the same basing for an army, and at the end of the day the army needs to appeal to you before anyone else, in my experience mixed basing is detracting to most people. I can think of two people I've met who were OK with this, but their armies earned derision from a lot of other people for looking like a mess at best.

You could use slight variations of the same theme to give each sub-faction its own distinct look, while visually staying close to each other and making it appear like an army that's in the same place at the same time. Say if you went with the swamp thing for Nurgle, you could have clearer water and healthy flora mixed in on Tzeentchian bases, Khornates drip blood onto the swampy ground but otherwise not caring that they're knee deep in a bog, and Slaaneshi models solely putting their feet on solid ground so as not to mess their good looks up. You would work with the same range of colors to begin with to tie the entire army together, but introduce colors and aspects to the bases that tie in with the respective models standing on them.

 Geifer wrote:
In my opinion you want a common theme especially on an army like Chaos to tie them together somehow. The models themselves won't do that through thematic sculpting, which is different for all its sun-factions, and if you don't choose a common color scheme for them, all you are left to work with is the bases.

While aesthetics are subjective and it's by no means necessary to go with the same basing for an army, and at the end of the day the army needs to appeal to you before anyone else, in my experience mixed basing is detracting to most people. I can think of two people I've met who were OK with this, but their armies earned derision from a lot of other people for looking like a mess at best.

You could use slight variations of the same theme to give each sub-faction its own distinct look, while visually staying close to each other and making it appear like an army that's in the same place at the same time. Say if you went with the swamp thing for Nurgle, you could have clearer water and healthy flora mixed in on Tzeentchian bases, Khornates drip blood onto the swampy ground but otherwise not caring that they're knee deep in a bog, and Slaaneshi models solely putting their feet on solid ground so as not to mess their good looks up. You would work with the same range of colors to begin with to tie the entire army together, but introduce colors and aspects to the bases that tie in with the respective models standing on them.

Excellent approach to the issue, particularly the last paragraph.

I'd agree with the folks who've already posted - a common basing theme tying the army together is just going to look better as a whole than different basing styles on different models, unless you're clever about it. Keep the rims the same colour on all the models, and if you think you can pull off a look along the lines of they're clearly in the same place but each Chaos god is influencing the terrain under its followers in some way, that could be pretty cool.

If each base is entirely different though, I feel they would just look like entirely separate collections of models.

Why not half and half?
Base half the base in sand. Brown. Grey whatever you choose.
Then base the other half according to the faction.
That way you still have a common factor

I love basing. I always try to keep 1 common element across them. I havn't done chaos, but usually I will try and make sure all models have at least the same color.

Jungle nids, everyone has at least 1 purple flower or leaf plant.
Dwarfs, everyone gets a little snow.
Necrons, everyone gets come cracked desert.
Smurfs, not sure yet, but will probably do snow or rocks.
Empire and Bretonnians both had grassy bases.

Some tournaments score painting with a "unified thematic base" as part of the score. So keep that in mind.

With Chaos you maybe be able to get away with it a bit if you did something like

Nurgle; Swamps
Khorne: lava
Tzeentch- snow
Slaneesh- Grass

As long as each god has its own base theme.

Personally like keeping the same color tone overall but don't mind using different types of bases.

dirt and flock for lazyness

some urban ones for forward units like scouts

but both are in a raw umber like color.

Necessary? Maybe not but I have to have my guys match basing so they look like they are all "in the same place". The easiest way to do this is to base them the same.