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.

To often games in the Age of Darkness turn into a fight between, say, yellow marines vs blue marines. One way to make your army stand out is getting legion specific upgrade sets. While not cheap, they offer a great opportunity to customize your army and make it look distinctive not only by color, but also by the visual style of the marines. Many of us use legion specific units and, from my point of view, they often do stand out to much 'cos their heraldry and stylistics differ heavily from the general non-specific marines. Upgrade sets help bring the stile of the army to a unified and distinctive look, appleasing not only your desire to play, but also your aesthetic feelings. Naturaly, there are a lot of us, who are tight on money (I, for example), but getting a few of the sets can help differentiate units, strengthen the fluffiness of your army and help "forge the narrative". For example, The attached pictures show TS veterans, who, thanks to their helmets and shoulders will allways be easy to distiguish from the regular prosperan dudes. But tha's just my thought sn this subject, what do you, fellow dakkanauts, think of the upgrade sets, their worth and impact on the game?

Like you, I think FW upgrade sets are worth it, but not for the basic troopers.
Veterans, officers and sergeants, I think it is enough to give a good look to an army

I like the upgrade sets, but the torso upgrades strike me as mostly useless on some marines, as they will just end up covered anyway.

Still love them, still have them for some of my Ravens.

Fantastic on characters and special units. not so much on normal foot dudes.

it depends on the army.

also shoulder pads i prefer just using decals. toooooooo expensive for raised details.

 VictorVonTzeentch wrote:
I like the upgrade sets, but the torso upgrades strike me as mostly useless on some marines, as they will just end up covered anyway.

Still love them, still have them for some of my Ravens.

Agreed, but on assault squads or any other guy, who is not holding a gun of some sort, they look good.

 hordrak wrote:

 VictorVonTzeentch wrote:
I like the upgrade sets, but the torso upgrades strike me as mostly useless on some marines, as they will just end up covered anyway.

Still love them, still have them for some of my Ravens.

Agreed, but on assault squads or any other guy, who is not holding a gun of some sort, they look good.

That is true, and what I will relegate torso mods to in the future.

Welll probably just me but the thousand sons achean pads are vital.
(Admittedly I've mostly sculpted my own )

The shoulders are worth it on all non-troops marines. The cool torsos and heads are good on dynamic sergeants and characters.
One or two sets of heads, shoulder pads and torsos should go a long way towards a complete army.

I just go for the heads. I prefer the decals on the pauldrons, and the iron warriors torsos don't look particularly iron warriorsy.

Shoulders are pretty great (saves a lot of time, fuss, and bother trying to center your decals), but I can take or leave the rest of it.

 JamesY wrote:
I just go for the heads. I prefer the decals on the pauldrons, and the iron warriors torsos don't look particularly iron warriorsy.

I mostly agree with this. Helmets/faces draw the eye, so if you're going to spend money on upgrades, helmets make the most sense. Personally I only use WE helmets on my sarges and vets since they suit Mk.2/3 armor much better (I sure wish FW did proper Sarum helmets).

Torsos might be good on despoilers, but they really will be obscured by any arms crossing the chest. And decals are cheaper and look better (IMO) than sculpted pads once you learn how to use them (and they aren't difficult).

 VictorVonTzeentch wrote:
I like the upgrade sets, but the torso upgrades strike me as mostly useless on some marines, as they will just end up covered anyway.

Still love them, still have them for some of my Ravens.

This. You can hardly tell which of my Imperial Fists have the torsos. The helmets and shoulder pads add a lot, IMHO. Transers are ok, but I prefer the 3D pads.

For Dark Angels, all my marines will get the FW heads, I use the GW plastic upgrade kit for shoulders on all, and veterans / sergeants get a torso upgrade and some further variety of kitbashing in weapon or armor.

I really want to get some of the Blood Angels upgrades, but I've already built all my MkIV marines and don't plan to get more anytime soon.

I still have 20 Mk3 on sprue, but I don't want to mix armors if I can avoid it.

I may get a set or two for building Praetors/Consuls, but I can't think of what else I'd use them for at this point.

Add me to the "Torso's for special units and characters".

I also use raised shoulder pads for the special units and characters, but transfers for everyone else.

I have a bunch of WS ones for my 40k and I give them to Vets, Captains and so forth. Its pretty fun

Mixing armour sets is realy a bad way. There are some upgrades like the Achean helmets and shoulders for TS that fit on any power armour, but putting a Mk 4 upgrade on a Mk3 marine is bad visuals.

 hordrak wrote:
Mixing armour sets is realy a bad way. There are some upgrades like the Achean helmets and shoulders for TS that fit on any power armour, but putting a Mk 4 upgrade on a Mk3 marine is bad visuals.

Isn't that basically MKV though Ad-hoc field repairs by scavening parts of different marks.

tneva82 wrote:

 hordrak wrote:
Mixing armour sets is realy a bad way. There are some upgrades like the Achean helmets and shoulders for TS that fit on any power armour, but putting a Mk 4 upgrade on a Mk3 marine is bad visuals.

Isn't that basically MKV though Ad-hoc field repairs by scavening parts of different marks.

That it is. Thats why I don't use MK V. To much like late Heresy.