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I don't like to use them I make my own fluff for my space marines so it is kinda weird in my opinion but I will occasionally throw in Lysander and Pedro maybe for tourneys but I do not think I will do it for friendly games or a campaign.

I cut my teeth in 3rd ed. where the rule was Special Characters could only be used in X amount of points games, with opponents permission. And the occassional scenario. So first off it's habit. 2nd off the game is about you controlling YOUR forces, I feel like alot of that is cheapened with s.characters, as it's just 'pretending' to direct 'thier' forces.

3rd is the fluff reasons.

4th reason I dislike most Special Characters

I run my warboss as Ghazghkull Thraka. Mainly because I feel like I would be silly not to use Ghazzghkull over a Mega Armored Warboss. I just love his Waaagh! too much, and with the new FAQ he is basically back to being like he was in 5th.

Necron unique characters are too expensive. I only use Imotekh when I play with 2+ people.

Mostly just lousy ratios of points to abilities. Much as I like some of the special characters, when you really get down to it, it seems like most of them are just overpriced for what they do. I've tried running a few, but inevitably I find that I would've been better off just loading up a normal HQ with wargear and sending him to town.

Prime example is Njal Stormcaller. Pretty neat model, his storm can be kind of nifty, but he's 240 points, 275 with the Terminator armor. You're paying around 75 or so points just for his special storm - everything else can be bought standard on a plain Rune Priest (aside from the 24" anti-psyker bubble). Plus, unless you're running him up around the battlefield or playing against a really aggressive opponent, his storm is going to be completely useless, since all of the abilities require you to stand within 18-24" of the things getting hit by it.

The only one I use on a frequent basis is Belial, and that's because he's one of the cheapest special characters I've ever seen, at 130 points for a Terminator (with your choice of weapons) that gives you the option of taking Terminators as troops.

When I comes to guard, I only use Marbo and kell as counts as for my renegade army.
I don't find any other character appealing to me. On the other hand when I play chaos,
I almost never use any character, they are over costed and are a waste in 1750 games that I play.
Maybe typhus will make rethink. But I enjoy more fluffy way of thinking.

Zogwort's a must. The snakes make the warphead survivable. Now if they gave warpheads upgrades....

In higher point games I might use Telion to give my scouts 2+ cover saves and his super sniper, and Cassius to go with the Assault Terminators and to ruin a S3/4/5 models day.

He's 125pts for T6, FNP, a Master Crafted Combi Flamer with Hellfire rounds. And he has the other benefits of chaplains for your assault terminators.

He's also great for walking right over Eldar/DE/Guardsman characters. He's one of the better buys in the codex, and if you are considering running a chaplain with your Terminators, consider him. (Why take a Termie Chaplain for +5 pts and less benefits?)

In 2k or more I like to use njal instead of a normal Rune Priest in my IG army . For my necron I use the storm lord , but not always . I use Marbo and that is it as far as specials go . I would use cortez for IG , if I could.

I played Ultramarines for 3 editions. I used Calgar...once? Maybe not at all. I had his model.

I now play Orks. I sometimes think it'd be fun to use Grotsnik and an army of bionic grots... but I'm getting real tired of painting Gretchin.

I'd use Gazzy but I play budgethammer these days and my AoBR Boss is just fine.

As daemons you pretty much have to. Even in smaller point games (like 500) its worth it. Their extra abilities over a standard herald are pretty good.

Also, we have the changeling. 5 point unique character. Lets you single out their doomy IC with a challenge, and also can do some serious friendly fire dmg to your opponent (I once had a Russ fail its test. Murdered 7 ally marines and glanced a chimera).

For me I guess it depends on the army. For instance, Orks I never take one. There are plenty I consider, but then I could take another 20 boys, or 10 lootas or something.
Space Marines, yes, but its a matter of taste, style, and point size.
Eldar, Eldrad almost every time.
Nids, far less necessary, but definitely nice when they fill a role (like Doom).

I'd rather use a generic HQ for my army because you can customise it and create something unique to only your army which gives it that extra flare and I like doing good in-depth backgrounds about them but thats just my openion..

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
I cut my teeth in 3rd ed. where the rule was Special Characters could only be used in X amount of points games, with opponents permission. And the occassional scenario. So first off it's habit. 2nd off the game is about you controlling YOUR forces, I feel like alot of that is cheapened with s.characters, as it's just 'pretending' to direct 'thier' forces.

3rd is the fluff reasons.

4th reason I dislike most Special Characters

Mostly this. But I started much earlier during the RT days, but really didn't start playing alot until 2nd edition, in which SC really took off, but unfortunately, the Ork characters were generally pretty weak and found that I could customize the base HQ into better characters.

However, Orks hit their stride in 3rd edition, and several of my friends started playing with 3rd, so I got alot more games in with that edition and just got used to not using them as we rarely played 2000 points or more.

Now, I probably would consider taking Pedro with my Crimson Fists in a 2000 point game, but anything less wouldn't fit the fluff (really, you're gonna wake up the freakin' Chapter Master for a battle that takes 1/4 of a single company? )

Rarely.

I just like to use the generic characters because then I can equip them exactly as I wish and make them look how I want. It makes them feel more like my own work when I have converted them myself.

For my DE I use no special characters, for my Catachan I have been considering Straken for a more catachanish CCS, but the only special character I use at the moment is Pedro Kantor and only when I'm not fielding a full scout list. Why Pedro? The model is awesome, I like his fluff and the best of all (in my opinnion) he is more of a leader than a one man army. Put him on the table alone and he'll die for sure. Give him a squad and use him and his squad along with one or two more squads working together and he shines.

Firstly, just because you take a model with the rules of a special character doesn't mean you need to take that actual character. GW encourages you to use Eldrad rules for farseers that aren't actually Eldrad, and the like.

Secondly, there are several characters that are required to unlock certain playstyles. You cannot run an ork biker army without Wazdakka, because he's the only unit in the codex that makes warbikes scoring.

Thirdly, as for myself, I'm on and off again with special characters. SCs that are no more than beatsticks are usually not worth taking, but the ones that can allow you to do some fancy things with the rest of your army (like Khan, or Al'Rahem) are good if that's the style you feel like running that game.

I don't mind special characters, if people want to use them its fine by me in any setting (although I think the people who spend the majority of their points on several ridiculously overpriced characters are a tad silly.)

I personally don't use them often however, I prefer to choose a normal HQ choice and build him up to match my fluff, this is usually because I tend to play armies a bit too obscure to warrant the use of special characters.

For example, I play Angels of Absolution (DA) so to take Ezekiel or Asmodai or Azarel is a bit silly for me, don't get me wrong it could happen that they show up etc, I could take them to represent my own character but I don't feel any of them are suitable to my fluff, so creating my own is more fun and suits me better.

On the other hand however I do use Belial quite often (You'd be silly not to these days.) although since he isn't overly priced or heavily equipped with loads of fancy rules etc, I feel I can fit him into my fluff better, so when I do use 'Belial' I'm actually just using him to represent my Terminator Company Master.


In summary:

If people want to use them to represent their own character - Perfectly Fine

If people want to use them as they are - Perfectly Fine

If people want to take characters or combinations of them for more serious gaming - Perfectly Fine.

I've never really been of this belief that special characters are unfair or ruin the game, and at the end of the day the better characters usually tend to be expensive or have some form of drawback/risk. So while they can be amazing or powerful they can die just as quickly as anyone else or suffer the same horrific deaths as common units.

I've watched many a terminator character scatter off the table or mishap and I've even witnessed Typhus being killed by his own daemon weapon.

For my Orks I never used any SC HQ's but I did run Snikrot and if I took Flash Gitz I'd use Baddruk.

For my DE I used to just use a couple of Haemys but I now used the Duke and am thinking of using the Baron as well.

I'm not sure about my Chaos SM, as I've only just started them, haven't really gone through the options, kinda waiting for the new codex, but might use Typhus as I'm running a Nurgle army. I'll will probably use Epidemius in an allied list.

I use Unique ICs if they "bring" something to my army, be it alternative Troop choices, a better theme or more effectiveness.

The fluff aspects doesn't bother me one bit.
I don't see a game of 40K as the single only skirmish taking place on this planet, but rather a tiny "zoomed-in-upon" part of a larger epic struggle.

"Sometimes". When fielding IG, I will take Marbo for most of the battles. When my pure Death Guard army
goes to war the only correct and true leader choice is Typhus. Some random Chaos Lord or Daemon Prince with MoK
is just a counts-as poser.

I'll usually take St Celestine for my SoB, and there's several different reasons. The first and second go together, actually.

In the old WH codex she cost 201 points and had a minimum army size requirement, and having her die cost you Faith points even if she got back up. That's bad, in my book. And yet I had the model, converted with angel wings and all, and an old mate of mine insisted on painting it when he saw it in base coat. This guy has as rock steady a hand as any bomb expert could ask for, being known for the freehand Latin slogans on the leg guards of his DA Terminators. So I had an incredibly well painted model and a very crappy codex to actually field it with. Now, at 115 points I'll happily take the deal even if she lacks Eternal Warrior.

And ofc, as long as no one else in my group tries too much FNP spam I'm happy to not take a HQ for that.

It's annoying when people use SC as a crutch. Seeing Chapter Masters accompany a couple of squads on every engagement they make, or seeing Lysander/Belial appear in a different incarnation in every single SM chapter in the galaxy. At my local it's always the younger guys who get all excited about which SC is best and how to shoehorn the most into their imbalanced lists, I guess I just equate constant SC usage with immaturity as a result.

In FoW I used to play a Soviet player who'd take the same damn character in every game, I asked him, "the front is 1600 miles long and this guy seems to be in every part of it?" I eventually stopped playing against him.

In FoW I used to play a Soviet player who'd take the same damn character in every game, I asked him, "the front is 1600 miles long and this guy seems to be in every part of it?" I eventually stopped playing against him.

butt hurt much ? how do you build a DW army without belial or an army of inquisitorial army without coteaz etc? And sometime "normal" HQs just suck . a cannones has 0 sense as an HQ , she is plain bad , now wonder sob player take the saint and the priest .

I don't like them so much the only reason I am going to paint my DA army in DA style is because I need to use Belial to get a deathwing army. So when I play with characters, I feel obligated to fight with that chapter.

I chose sometimes as I ran the Stormlord for awhile but in 6th edition there is no good go to character for Necrons, they all have flaws or simply cannot do what a D. Lord or generic Overlord can do for the same points. I do also run a small GK army and now with allies I may be running Draigo again if I don't use the Librarian.

I use either Cato, Lysander, or Pedro almost every game. I won't be next game, but I'm using Loth instead

For my bikes, its Khan. For Grey Hunters it was Bjorn (haven't done a 6e game with them yet).

I don't use named characters with Orks or Tau (not sure that counts though).

Never simply because i want my characters to be my own. I want to create my own narrative.

I don't mind opponents using them it's just not for me (which is often hard to explain to others when people tell me: man you should really take lysander/cassius/doom of malantai ect....)

salvadorjer wrote:
Never simply because i want my characters to be my own. I want to create my own narrative.

I don't mind opponents using them it's just not for me (which is often hard to explain to others when people tell me: man you should really take lysander/cassius/doom of malantai ect....)

I'd agree with you, IF they let us buy EW and a special ability for IC like in 4th edition.

I take Belial because I can't run my army without his special rules. If I don't take him, it's because the army is below 1k points... or I'm experimenting with some concept.

I don't, but primarily for two reasons:

Firstly, I don't own any. I don't like to make my generic commander X suddenly become this named hero.

Second, the Tau codex special characters are pretty meh. I've considered Shadowsun, but she isn't anything special. They're all quite expensive for such little gain compared to SCs found in other codecies.

Backfire wrote:
I just feel it's kinda demeaning to have Eldrad or Calgar present in every frigging tiny skirmish in the galaxy.

This makes less sense to me than it should.
It only really gets weird if Eldrad is on both sides of the battle. (And even that can work, if only once in a while)

The fact that I am continually watching the Swarmlord (for example) battle, does not mean the Swarmlord is at every silly little skirmish - it's that I don't watch silly little skirmishes; only the important stuff! (Skirmishes can be important too, so it isn't like the Hive Mind would never utilize its most creative feature in small scale spearheads. . . .)

To put it another way, if I have a named character I want to use/create, I do, then I work various wins/losses into their story.
They are very much going to be in every battle of their career - and some of them won't be classically epic.