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what happens when they die on the table? what story could be given so they are alive for the next battle?

Remember that loosing your last wound does not necessarily mean “killed” but “knocked out of action” Marines in particular can live though a LOT.

Other armies, like chaos, necrons, and eldar phoenix lords, have their own excuses.

For Nids it's easy. EVERYONE dies after the battle, even the Swarmlord, and everyone is recreated later!

 Nevelon wrote:
Remember that loosing your last wound does not necessarily mean “killed” but “knocked out of action” Marines in particular can live though a LOT.

Other armies, like chaos, necrons, and eldar phoenix lords, have their own excuses.

Pretty much this. Remove as a casualty does not mean death. It just means the model has taken enough damage to take it out of action, due to pain, broken limbs, shock, etc.

i remember ready a battle report where Stern is fighting 1-1 with abbadon and abbadon loses so he is teleported back to his ship.

i think it is all sorts of bits like that

All the excuses I can think of
General: Knocked out, wounded, ect.
Necrons: Re-made at base (whatever that's called again
Tau: Only the suit/tank was damaged
'Nids: Reanimated
SM: Extreme survivavbility
SoB: Faith/miracles
IG: There are so damn many of them!
Eldar: Trickery
Dark Eldar: Come back to life
Orks: They're pretty darn tough

With warp travels messing up and causing time travel, the fact that losing your wounds doesn't mean you're killed and pure badassery, there are plenty of ways to explain why that character lived on. Yarrick and Celestine don't even need those

They trip over their shoelaces and are knocked out, before being teleported to the next battlefield.
Just as planned.

Kairos Faetweaver respawning in 5...4...3....

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
SoB: Faith/miracles

Heck, one of our special characters has the ability to routinely come back from dying.

At my local GW store if a named character was killed in any of the big games they enforced a 365 day ban was put on them being fielded again in any type of game, this may have changed since, I haven't been in that store for 15 years.

PastelAvenger wrote:
At my local GW store if a named character was killed in any of the big games they enforced a 365 day ban was put on them being fielded again in any type of game, this may have changed since, I haven't been in that store for 15 years.

That would be so irritating: oh you're new here at the store and you brought Marneus Calgar as your only HQ, pity you can't use him, see that guy over there killed him 6 months ago and you need to wait another 6 months to field. Sorry about that


But as it has been stated in this thread 0 W doesn't automatically mean death: just unable to continue fighting

Named characters are too wise to stay in a fight they would perish in. They always have an escape route when they are too damaged or weakened.

"Fools! I shall return, this is merely a setback!" *teleports out*

 PrehistoricUFO wrote:
Named characters are too wise to stay in a fight they would perish in. They always have an escape route when they are too damaged or weakened.

"Fools! I shall return, this is merely a setback!" *teleports out*

Very this.

Co'tor Shas wrote:IG: There are so damn many of them!

I have my own named characters for my guard army (not proper special characters, but characters that have to survive from battle to battle for the narrative to continue), and there are lots of ways for a resourceful guard officer to survive.

While sometimes it's the cliche gets-caught-in-the-blast-and-thrown-off-his-feet or the gets-knocked-out-and-slumps-to-the-ground, it sometimes gets more clever. Once my entire CCS was removed as casualties, and the explanation was that all four of the officer's command staff was killed, and the officer, miraculously unhurt, hid himself under the bodies of his retinue and waited until the battle was over. Another time, a massive gout of flame killed off everyone, and the flames were temporarily stopped by the refractor field shielding his body, but the flame thrower did catch his powerfist on fire, causing him to run around flailing and waving his arm, presumably as yakkety sax played in the background.

Though I did know someone who justified it as his senior officer came from a large family, all of them sons, and all of whom joined the Imperial Guard, and so if the officer was killed, command would go to one of his brothers or cousins, who just so happened to have the same equipment, stats, and special rules.

 MrBlackledge wrote:
i remember ready a battle report where Stern is fighting 1-1 with abbadon and abbadon loses so he is teleported back to his ship.

i think it is all sorts of bits like that

The old apocalypse battle report.

Man, if only the Turbolaser had managed to take out the Star Fortress - Abaddon would be dead!

My DE have a SC who's fething HOBBY is getting killed. How jaded do you have to be to find dying a rewarding recreation?

Daemons just respawn in the Warp and pop back up.

Orks can be stitched together from random blown up bits of ork, and nailed back in approximately the right order to fight again. Staples and duct tape, baby!

The only one of my HQs who has died so far is my Dark Apostle, once, in melee with Grotsnik.

I reasoned that the old cranky Apostle was too stubborn and mean to just die like that, and that he just stands up again after the battle.

Deus Ex Larramancells or something.

For me, they just teleport back to the ship.

I can imagine Calgar shouting to all: "Screw you guys, I'm going home."

...and later on telling everyone on Macragge how he held the lines HIMSELF, being the last one who left the battlefield.

*and everyone claps*

Well Necrons pop out of the grave as per usual, anyone related to Chaos can be resurrected, both the Dark Eldar and Eldar possess means of resurrection, Orks can be slapped back together by a Dok and be good as new, and Tyranids are just respawned by the Hive Mind as the Mind acts as a data cloud where all the unique sentient Tyranids are stored.

The only ones you can't really explain coming back are the Imperials and Tau. Although an Emperor's miracle might protect them, or simply be WIA instead of KIA. Maybe a warp accident caused some fething of linear time and they went back in time.
(this is actually something I've been wondering about for a while, if Bob goes back in time to team up with himself, if the original Bob dies, does the future Bob also get erased, or does the funkiness of the warp protect Bob?)