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.

How deep do you go into the fluff of your army when designing it for games? If you are using a custom regiment or chapter or something of the like, how do you decide planet, numbers (like 81st Immovables or 54th Kappic Eagles) organization? Something to make your army more than a color scheme?

I go for Broke in Lore. Black tide, Land Raider Crusaders, The Templar way.

I'll only build an army ridgedly to the fluff if the army is either a project army or the army is for a fluffy narrative game.

In general I'll mainly build day to day armies with fun in mind rather than fluff, though I'll try to keep it close to the fluff i.e. my WE contain very little ranged weaponry and my NL contain no daemon/corrupted units.

I start with a colour/model theme and then let the fluff slowly sink in. I don't plan everything out ahead of time, but it slowly gets assembled.

I do have all of my characters named, all my vehicles and squads are named - I don't even remember them myself, yet, lol.

I go out of my way to ensure that a character has the same wargear, traits, and spells each game - regardless of whether it's ideal (I have numerous characters so I can normaly adapt easy enough).

The self-designed lore does alter how I play and build lists.

Am I the only one hearing the Beegees /Take That?

As it stands, my armies are intended to be mildly fluff-heavy. But my Blood Angels are going to use basically whatever I feel like, being a Battleforce combined from multiple companies able to take on all comers, my Orks a small mob of Deathskulls able to field a few vehicles and my Aeldari soup Exodite force a combination of whatever I want to build and customise at the time.

I am to build a story for my opponent.

So my collection as a whole is completely interlinked and forms one combined force I could dump on the table for Apocalypse, and as I expand my collection I tie new things into the story or think about what would logically be included in my force.
Or in reverse, if I feel a particular desire for a certain unit, I consider how they might be attached best in the fluff to my existing force.

craggy wrote:
Am I the only one hearing the Beegees /Take That?

As it stands, my armies are intended to be mildly fluff-heavy. But my Blood Angels are going to use basically whatever I feel like, being a Battleforce combined from multiple companies able to take on all comers, my Orks a small mob of Deathskulls able to field a few vehicles and my Aeldari soup Exodite force a combination of whatever I want to build and customise at the time.

How deep is your fluff? ( on second thoughts, that sounds really dodgy)

on topic, its the background and setting that made me fall in love with 40k, so all of my armies are built around a theme, Orks = Ghazkull/Nazderg alliance, Dark Angels = Deathwing/Ravenwing, Nids, Kraken because my usual 40k opponent decided to do a Iyanden Wraith army ( and YES, he does actually use the Iyanden trait for them).

I`ve always looked at 40k as a way to represent on the table what I like about the setting, so I generally play narrative power level games with a scenario that has been decided beforehand (pretty much the White dwarf battle report approach rather than the interwebs tourney focused style).

At the end of the day however, it all comes don to "buy the models you like" and go from there.


I should point out however that I have names for all my sergeants, and my soon to be rebuilt dark eldar army will have as many Clive Barker related conversions in it as I can get.

if you have ever played the original 1990`s UFO:Enemy Unknown by Microsoft then you will undestand how attached I can get to my characters

I always build up a super fluffy army from scratch.

Named Characters and army/chapter whatever is a must. Even naming squads is cool, even if i forget what I've called them, writing it down helps.

Always choose the appropriate sub-faction rules for the army. Even if they aren't the most competitive.

Go through a bunch of test colour schemes to see which one works out them most and how it will best represent the army on the field of battle.

Mostly though, I'm very particular about the way they look on the table. I will spend hundreds of dollars more than I need to to properly kit-bash/forgeworld the gak outta my models. They need to always look uniform, if anything is out of place or improperly represented I either won't use that unit, or I won't even start the army.

Nothing is worse to me than an army of mismatched models (primaris and squat marines in the same army) or an army that paints their units in different colour schemes (eldar/chaos daemons). It drives me nuts. Even if they have mismatched armour patterns like a lot of Eldar does, I will go out of my way to kit bash units together to make sure they have all the same patterns of armour.

Not deep.

I'm the Cadian 9125th Armored Regiment, but that's about as deep as it goes. My Shadowsword is Angel Adamant.

When building lists, I prioritize my list being able to win the game over fielding tanks and artillery by the company.

Paint scheme comes first, I build the lore as I get in games.

Examples:

My 2E Imperial Avengers chapter now has some pretty deep lore; the chapter's history, organization, battle honors relating to paint scheme, special characters and the like. I've essentially got an entire codex worth of info about them.

My (4E?) Tau army has some basic lore and some lore behind the paint scheme (parade dress, red breacher scheme, pathfinders in a blue camoflauge, etc.). About a half page's worth of notes.

My 6E Tyranid army has some 'named' creatures in it; Blue, Charlie, Delta, Egon, Fred, etc... the Termagants (I named my Termigants after the Jurassic World Raptors, B-Z), George the Carnifex, Big Momma and Naomi (From "Mama's Family") for the Tervigons. No lore about the actual army other than they are part of Behemoth.

My 7E Adeptus Mechanicus army I'm just finishing the paint job on, hasn't even had it's first proper battle. No lore for it at the moment, other than it is a Mars subfaction.

0%. I let the dice decide what my army is.

The self made lore for my armies isn't so restrictive that it hamstrings my choices (no "I MUST USE ONLY FLAMERS") but the lore for my armies reflects my preferred play styles. That said I rarely have names for my guys or details such as planets but instead I generally focus on their situation and the direction their plot is pointed towards instead of naming this battlewagon or that dread.

My Orks are Deathskulls (lead by the duo of Warboss Scuzzer and Warboss Vankraken... they both think they are the boss, one loves to make up ideas while the other loves to steal ideas, so the strategic one thinks the other boss is following orders while the one who steals ideas thinks the strategic boss is his walking finkin kap. The other Orks are too confused and those who question who is boss gets a PK to the face). Being Deathskulls they of course loot EVERYTHING including tactics like Blitz Brigade, using a ton of Dakkajets, having a Kan Wall, etc. I don't think I need to spam lootas and gretchen to be proper deathskulls because what makes them deathskulls is that they love to loot and paint things blue. Also unlike those Bad Moon gitz who buy their fancy Snazzgunz, my Flash Gitz are proppa kitbashed with kustom snazzgunz (zoggin bad moons, they ruined Orks).

My Tau are basically built around the fluff of being a forward expedition force that operates on the outer limits of the Tau's sphere of influence and struggle with maintaining supplies and generally have to make a lot of field repairs. They use the old model Broadsides for example as they don't have access to the new ones and their earth caste crew engineered their own HYMPs and CIBs (3rd party bits). Gameplay and fluff wise they generally utilize a Hammer and Anvil strategy with the anvil being a core of Fire Warriors, Pathfinders, Broadsides, Hammerheads, etc while the hammer is generally Crisis Suits (8th has been rough trying to play this strategy). Doesn't mean though that I can't also run lists using a more mechanized list (Devilfish and Fire Warriors), Fire Warrior on foot spam, etc but I will say Fire Warriors are the core of my army so I generally always field them in moderate to large numbers.

My Space Marines (The Void Kraken) are generally the most "fluffy" in that I built their lore around their preferred combat style which is using elite units up close (they are skilled at rapid deployment and ship boardings) so there are a lot of Sternguard, Terminators, Vanguard Vets, Drop Pods, etc along with scouts who for land ops will infiltrate and set up for the deployment of the rest of the army and provide sniper fire or close combat support. Almost never use tactical marines as I find them both boring and ineffective at what I want my marines to do. My Void Kraken marines are closely linked to the fluff of my Inq army of the Fiery Hear of the Emperor faction which are a group of crazy fanatics that think the end times are coming, primaris marines are pure heresy, Bobby G is illegitimate as was resurrected as a puppet of a chaos/eldar god, etc.

princeyg wrote:

if you have ever played the original 1990`s UFO:Enemy Unknown by Microsoft then you will undestand how attached I can get to my characters

Made by Mythos Games and published by Microprose. UFO: EU / X-Com was a big part of my childhood and I spent a boatload of hours playing that on my Amiga 1200 (and then eventually on the PC with that crash proned dos version).

 Apple Peel wrote:
how do you decide planet, numbers (like 81st Immovables or 54th Kappic Eagles) organization?

Numbers and symbols are based first and foremost on availability of decals/etched brass/resin parts.

I might end up with a symbol or number that's not exactly what I would have picked but if I've got or can easily get piles of decals/whatever then that's completely worth it vs. free-handing all of them.

My Raptors is army is on-hold until I can get some decent decals...

For campaign? Eh depends on the feel im getting from the group.

For army building i get pretty into the fluff. My dark angels project i did i looked up everything down to how they mark their squads, companies, leaders of said companies, and how they were kitted out.

I have found that you have a lot more liberal freedom when it comes to making an army on chaos then you do in imprium. Chaos is just....well chaos so you can kinda do anything.

With regards to marking things, I try to use quasi-historical markings on my armor, with the colored diamonds, circles, squares, and triangles. I don't nearly have enough tanks for it to really matter or be noticeable, and the way they're fielded generally has nothing to do with their tactical markings.

I'm satisfied with my color scheme, but I'd do it differently if I were to fully start over. My things are slightly off-white with grey stripes; and if I were to do it again I'd go with solid green with whitewash over it. I've also periodically entertained the idea of making my vehicles dark green and painting the white cross on top.

I have a head cannon for all my armies. My tyranids are hive fleet Psythe. My GSC are my fleets forerunners who have lurked in the shadows of the imperium since before the emperor. I of course have guard brood brothers. Finally I just acquired a primaris army and they are very mysterious they regularly attack(non tyranid) xenos threats near hive infested space "saveing" many imperial colonies only to have them soon after consumed by the tyranids. There has been reports of them fleeing into shadowed tyranid space and makeing unheard of time as if it did not effect their flight as if they had some beacon other than the astronomocon.

Always name my characters.

In my CSM armies i make a point of always having some chaos space marines in it for normal games!

Tournaments, all bets are off

I used to go deeper than I do now. I started with Dark Angels in 3ed, so the fluff was pretty much just provided.

As I started understanding the fluff better and realised the Imperium is utterly evil, I decided I'd prefer to be on the anarchic side of evil rather than the totalitarian side. So I converted my Dark Angels into a warband of Fallen (who look uncannily similar to the Fallen models they have now.)

Shortly after I decided to go full heretic and got the 3.5ed Chaos codex + the Eye of Terror campaign supplement. I was very into the grimdark vibe, so I had an army which was basically a suicide cult throwing themselves at the enemy gunlines at the behest of a World Eaters champion and his entourage.

My 4ed eldar had their own colour scheme but no backstory or even name for their craftworld and my current dark eldar are yet to get a name for their kabal.

I have started thinking a bit more about fluff again, my DE have a motivation, they're hunting marines to capture geneseed for their haemonculus associate, hopefully with the result of creating a brand new, mindlessly aggressive mockery of a space marine to be unleashed in their gladiator arenas, thereby drawing greater crowds and increasing their income and reputation.

The "I write a 30-page background and a short story" for my army level deep. Although to be fair, I don't do that for every army, just my Space Marines and Imperial Guard. My other armies have smaller backgrounds (though still quite big) that tie into the background of my main army.
I have actually been developing a language too for my custom Space Marine homeworld. Either I am obsessive or I just really like worldbuilding.

Not very deep.

An idea > build list around that idea > conversions if needed > paint scheme > name if i can figure one out.

 Desubot wrote:
name if i can figure one out.

Name ideas for lazy people:

http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/warhammer-40k.php#.WrwnAdRua1s

Take this as a 'for instance'
I play tau. I thought that a fluff justification for my suit heavy force could be that of a defensive garrison for an asteroid mining facility. What did I do? I replaced my Kroot with Ork shootas. Fluff justification? Kroot cannot survive in vacuum while Orks are really only curious as to why their waagh cry doesn't make any sound.

Was it the only reason? No. . . I believe that the models are more durable than kroot; the arms are thicker so they are not as likely to break when transported or if they get accidentally knocked off the table.

And when I told my justification to my local ork player? She was enthusiastic in saying that mercenary orks actually have a fluff justification. . . even with tau.