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One of the main criteria I have when buying new models/units is whether or not I like the models. If I like the models then the unit will find a place in my armies, regardless of how effective they are on the battlefield. Likewise, if I really dislike a model there's no way I'll pick it up purely for how good it is in game. Since I lean more toward being a collector than a competitor it's not a problem, but I was wondering if competitive/tournament players buy/paint/play models they dislike as models, but like for their use in the game.

E.g.: I like the IG, but I know I'll never run a Taurox. I like the Eldar, but the Wraithknight is probably my least favourite model in the entire Eldar range.

On the flipside, do you ever run sub par units purely because you do like the model and/or the fluff?

Great topic!
I'm the same way. If the figure is lame, I won't use it, I don't care how great it is on the table. If the figure is super awesome I'll try to find a place for it.
However, if the rules are so awful that fielding it is harmful to winning, then I won't use it. My favorite figure is the Penitent Engine, but its so painfully useless that I just can't use it.
I actually don't like the exorcist model, but I love the rules so I convert whirlwinds.
I like the jakero's rules, but hate the concept of the figure, so I convert.
I love dreadnaughts, but they suck, but I use them anyway.
I try to find a balance between looks and effectiveness.

I have penal legion and old kroot in my army. Along with tanked out sergeants and commissars. No heavy weapons. I sold off my competitive armies recently and now im left with the mediocre but really nice to look at imperial army.

I am definitely style over substance.

I balance it a lot. You can expect both units like Nurgle Spawn and melee-equipped Khorne Chosen in my armies, simply because I like both.

My Biker squad is full of plasma guns but I would not have taken plasma guns if I thought they were ugly.

Same thing with my Melta-Raptors, my winged DP, et cetera ad nauseam.

I just can't resist fielding massive swarms of hormagants, they just look so cool on the battlefield and they seem like the sorta thing every Tyranid army should have.

However on the flipside, I love the Lictor model but dropped him from my army back in 5th, after his spectacular death streak.

I've never been tempted by the biovores, pyrovores. I hate the models. So I guess that means I'm all about style too!

I am all Theme/Style over Substance.

For my IG -
I have Rough Riders and a Fortress of Redemption.
No Flyers, No Leman Russes.

For my Necrons -
I have Flayed Ones and a Doomsday Ark.
No Flyers, No Annihilation Barges.

I will use what I like, looks/fluff wise even if they are sub-par units.

As for the flipside, I'd like to grab a Penitent Engine someday, even if they're somewhat ineffective on the tabletop. They have a cool model and fun fluff.

I wouldn't use a model I didn't like, however I would build or convert something else in order to fill a slot.

I've done that a lot for my Tyranid army, partly to make everything fit the theme of snake creatures.

My CSM army at this point, is pretty much my style, and fun army. I use stuff like Daemon Engines, Warpsmiths and even regular CSMS!

I'm not too fond of fortifications, but I sometimes use an ADL with my Dark Angels. Never with my orks. Hiding behind some slabs of ferrocrete? That's not something the boyz would do!

I use missileside's even though I hate the model pose over the railside.

Swastakowey wrote:I have penal legion and old kroot in my army. Along with tanked out sergeants and commissars. No heavy weapons. I sold off my competitive armies recently and now im left with the mediocre but really nice to look at imperial army.

Why no heavy weapons? I ask because the only ones I use for infantry squads are the missile launcher teams and maybe the mortars. I just don't like the look of more than one guardsman on a single base.

When the stormtalon came out I was on the fence about it’s looks. The mechanics pushed me over the edge to picking one up, and it’s grown on me since.

I don’t own any centurions. They offend me from a fluff stand point, and I dislike the look. That said, I’ve seen nice things done with the kit, and am willing to have some flex on what I include.

Back in 5th? edition of WHFB I was fielding a rot-free undead army. No zombies, no ghouls. Just skeletons, wights, wraiths and the like. Then my friend got me a flock of carrion. Rotting giant bird things. “Nev, you need these” he said, and was correct. They added a fast moving unit to harass war machines or lone backfield wizards. Something my shambling horde could not get to easily. But they were a slap in the face to the “style” of my army. I fielded the little buggers though, and made my friend regret getting them for me.

I don't like vendettas , because they weight a lot and are hard to transport , but I use 2. I never wanted to play marines , but I have 20 grey hunters , a rune priest and coteaz . I never wanted to buy fortifications , but I had to buy an aegis . I didn't realy like how IG look like , but until I got my hands on a lot of cheap resin Infinity Volenteers .

I don't think I realy liked how any of the IG models look like , save for karskin veterans.

When I play 40K, the Rule of Kewl trumps all. I play with several models just because they look kewl, not because they are very good on the table. For example, when I was running my Dark Angels, I had an entire squad of Veterans armed with Bolt Pistols and Plasma Pistols. I called them "The Gunsligers". At about 40 pts a model, the unit was the most expensive one in my army, but seeing this on the table:

This was just pure awesome in my opinion (wish I would have taken pix when they were painted. :( )

On the flip side, I strongly dislike (hate is too stong of a word) the idea of a genetically modified super soldier wearing power armor riding a motorcycle into battle. It makes no sense to me. I know, it's sci-fi and all that, but when you have Rhinos, Land Raiders, Drop Pods, Jump Packs, Thunderhawks, Storm Ravens, and heck, even teleportation, why would an army ever use a motorcycle to ride into battle? And the rules for them is just... they make me go "what?". My Space Marine suddenly gets tougher, faster, and can shoot more often while on a motorcycle? And when they turboboost, they gain an invulnerable save? How do they get the motorcycles to the battlefield? I've never even heard of how they transport them. Do they use Thunderhawks? Do they teleport to the battlefield, then race off as the vanguard? It just doesn't make any sense to me. I can see Scouts using motorcycles- they would need something fast to get around with. However, scouts have access to Land Speeder Storms, so... I could accept Jetbikes. Heck, I prefer jetbikes. It's sci-fi, and a jetbike in this setting seems appropriate. Motorcycles? Huh?

Off my soap box for a moment- I like to play with the units that look good to me. If it just so happens that the unit works well on the battlefield, great. When I ran Blood Angels, I actually ran Sanguine Guard and Assault Troops with jump Packs- and no Dante (such a horrible, horrible model). I really liked the fluff behind Meph, but hated the model. So I made my own and started using him.

The Centurions are one of those models that... just eh. The rules where intriguing, so I purchased a unit and played some games with them. The results where mixed- and even though the model is well sculpted, I just still can't get over the "Yo! I heard you liked Power Armor so I made you Power Armor that you can wear while you wear Power Armor! Bling!". Then you look at Terminators, and the sudden, inevitable thought enters your mind: "Why aren't these Terminator rules?"

Using a model or unit I don't like but is effective on the battlefield just makes me feel... dirty. Or sad. Like I've betrayed why I play 40K.

I use Biovores even though I don't like the official model, but I converted my own.

Rule of Cool is the only rule worth following. If the unit in question is onbjectively and irrevocably the worst unit in the world, detrimental to winning, then I'll still run it if it has cool fluff/looks/model/theme.

Sometimes cool models and effectiveness coincide, but I'd never play anything just for the competitive edge it grants.

I have 60 hormogaunts, 6 warriors with nothing but scything talons, an old one eye, and a swarmlord.

I totally go for the power units.

I drew the line of fluff vs effectiveness with the Repentia and Penitent Engines. They're too expensive and so utterly useless that I have to consider it a victory if they even reach close combat. Their so expensive that if I field them its almost a guaranteed loss for me.
There's nothing in the SM dex that I wouldn't take.
For Chaos, Mutilators, 1Ksons and maybe warp talons.
IG, Rough riders
Tau -
Eldar, Howling Banshees even though I love the figures and fluff.

Much like the OP, playing is something I do with my miniatures, rather than miniatures are something I buy in order to play.

I will absolutely play sub-optimal units if I like the models (or I'm pleased with my paint job) partly because I'm not that bothered by being über competitive and also because I like to test things out for myself rather than rely on Internet wisdom.

My one concession is I will try to run sub-optimal units as optimally as possible, so will give serious thought to wargear options, attaching characters, unit size etc, to try and give it the best chance possible.

But run models I don't like? Never. Absolutely the last thing I'd do in a wargame. If I want to run a unit that has models I don't like, I find some counts as stand-ins that I do.

I think I am balanced. Playing SM I use some bikes even though I think they are ugly but refuse to play a WS army because that is just too much ugly. I also think the TFC is the worst quality model made (finecast is crap) thus making it ugly. I have both because they work with my army well. I also buy and convert plenty of models for the cool factor though.

I'm a primarily painting/modeling player, and aesthetics matter to me most of all. I won't use a unit if I don't like how it looks or can't make a suitable conversion. Similarly, I'll include units that are less than ideal (tactical Terminators, powerfist sergeants, Space Marine captains on foot) just because I like the look of the models. Hell, if Rough Riders had cool models, I'd use them too. This is a good idea for a topic though, I'm liking the discussion!

I only field models I like, so no, my armies never include models I don't like regardless of how good they are or their rules.

Crisis suits. I love them, but they have a pretty old model so it is not very sharp, making it kind of crappy
.

For example, I wanted an Inquisitor and her retinue to go with my Sisters of Battle, so I wanted them to be all female. But I didn't really like the female inquisitor figure that wasn't available anyways. I also wanted jakero, but hated the idea of space monkies. I also wanted servitors, but thought the servitor figures were lame. Also, female acolytes and crusaders? Yup, had to find them somewhere else. So, I put them together and finally finished them this week. The two women with enormously huge guns are the jakero, btw. Since I hated the figures for a unit I really wanted I made them how I liked because I'll never use figures I think are stupid.

Dreadnoughts look so cool, I use one in almost every game - even though it almost never justifies it's point cost.

On the flip side, I refuse to run Vindicators or Thunderfire Cannons, because the models look so dumb.

I play Tau but won't use the Kroot cause I don't like how they look. Same with Vespid. If I made some counts as for Kroot I would (like IG or something).

I don't like SM Centurions or Land Speeders, so I won't use them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Crisis suits. I love them, but they have a pretty old model so it is not very sharp, making it kind of crappy
.

I love the model, since I love 80s robots, but I like to source other weapons for them. I like Eldar lances and Gundum weapons

Annihilation Barges. Ugly as sin IMO, but way too good on the board to ignore.

Same goes with Canoptek Scarabs (non-converted ones anyways), but I guess they're so simple they're at least non-offensive.

On the flippity, the models for sword-and-board Lychguard and Flayed Ones I think look pretty cool, but I've never got any real competitive use out of them, so only played for casual or campaign games.

 doomdreamer wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Crisis suits. I love them, but they have a pretty old model so it is not very sharp, making it kind of crappy
.

I love the model, since I love 80s robots, but I like to source other weapons for them. I like Eldar lances and Gundum weapons

I love the crisis suit models. I'm putting together a farsight enclaves army with a planned 21 xv-8s.

You have a favorite loadout stylistically? I'm looking forward to my squad of three with double flamers and 2 "heavyarms" squads with double burst cannons.

Depends for me.

If i love a model but its rules are poor, ill use it in casual games.

If its something i really need in my army but hate the model, ill convert my own version of it.