EDITORIAL: Theme your forces- put in to get out!

[General Biakal]

There is a definate theme here... that theme is "Im gonna mash some birds fannies up and Darth can either get the other end or fuck off"

Armies, gangs, battleforces, hell even zombie survivors sort of come ready themed... even if the theme is "No Theme just people surviving".
Themes out of the box include weapons, armour shapes, emblems... and this is why we use minis to wargame and not coloured counters- playing "pieces" in wargames have different but matched abilities that give them a personality. Dwarves are gonnna ruin your shit with an axe if you get close enough and Wood elves will shoot you from a tree. so we have minis that look a certain way to highlight these abilities and Add Narrative to our games. "Blue Faction fighting Yellow faction for D6 victory counters" is pretty sterile, but "a Sheim-de Lam Eldar warband fighting back Blood Angels strike force wanting to detroy their Webway portal" makes a game AND a story. Why do they want the webway destroyed? what is a Webway anyway? Making gamers ask and answer these questions brings a whole new level of interest and depth to the hobby:

Fluff.

And its fluff that themes your armies, leads you to colour styles, even changes the way you fight with your army. if you know you have a million brainwashed Guardsmen at your back you might be more inclined to send men into the meatgrinder more readily than your elite Terminator squad.

But theming your forces (and your games) is an important part of the hobby. its integral. Here is an actual medical diagram i just made on paint. its how i see the "hobby"



The arrows go both ways and size does not change importance

Themes increase your gaming enjoyment, your painting and modeling enjoyment, and develop your own creative abilities. its what got you interested in Wargaming onne you realised Risk was yes a good strategy game but in the end boring as fuck.

So How Do I Add Themes?

well, for this im going to use GW stuff cos its what i know best. but im sure the principles carry over the whole geek spectrum.

1. Painting and Modeling

bit obvious this, but colour keys throuought your army give a unifrom look and a coherentsy, even if they are a fantasy militia in their own clothes. Also, weapon choices, skin colours, decals and unit standards all help create a "whole"... and battle honours add to your "Fluff" too.

2. Fighting style

the units you choose from your codex or amy list also theme your force, so do it cleverly. Mechanised infantry, lots of bikes, huge blocks of troops, lots of magic, no magic, horses.... most armies have a choice of a fast, agressive list, or a static, defensive one. or a magic heavy one. or whatever... but once you start down a path, be sure its where you want to go and stay true to it.

3. Special Characters

These can make a real difference. mostly cos in lots of games they come with rules that can affect your whole force. You can, if you wish, use the names and personality spoon fed you in the Fluff. OR you can make your own. as long as the stat line is the same it will not be cheating to call your Chapter Master anything you want. His backstory can be anything. just go fucking nuts- this is a real creative niche for you.

4. (most Important) Create Backstory

Where is your army from? why is it fighting? is it a long way from home, or defending its cities? is it a brand new, freshly equipped force, or is it a force of veterans, rough round the edges? Are there and tensions in the leadership? are supplies low? is one unit leader a stickler for discipline but another a lazy twat? from this, ideally created before your first model is bought, the modeling, army choices, painting and play style is derived. but there is one golden rule:

KEEP TRUE TO THE FRAMEWORK GIVEN

in any system you cant just write a list with any old bollocks in- in 40k we have the FOC, WHFB has a percentage system i hear, many other systems need a minimum and maximum of some stuff- plan your fluff round that.  
Dont plan your Wood Elves army like a WW2 german panzer division, dont have Space Marines organised like Venture Scouts. You have to stay in the spirit of your chosen force. The framework is helpful, not constricitve.... i promise!


Part Two: An Example 

My army is an Imperial Guard Force, the 349th Assault force (Recon). It is led by two men, Enoch Biakal and Rondo Van Xur. Enoch is a dour, quiet, thoughtful general, wheras Rondo is more dynamic and reckless

because of the way the IG codex works, i have up to six squads of 10 man Veteran squads and two HQ squads. so three are in a "defensive" posture, with a heavy weapon and "rapid fire" special weapons like plasma rifles. Their HQ is obviously Enoch and he also has a Heavy weapon as well as most of the Regimental Advisors.
The other three are armed with assault type weapons and are designed to move quickly and take objectives. These are led by Rondo. He has a Priest with hi, making him more effective in combat.

Basically, Enoch is a "counts as" Creed, and Rondo is a "counts as" Straken. get it?

as the AF(R) is a special formation made up of elite units from the whole army fighting on the planet Snakefish Sigma IX most vehicles all have parent units, but also indicators of their elite status. this is done with decals. Sometimes the rules help you with creating truly unique things, so I used the "special paint job" from the Imperial Armour books to make my Vulture gunship stand out. its black pressence also affects the game too- with the "special paint job" rule the first leadership test failed each turn can be re-rolled.

Im actually choosing which models i buy now using this frame. For instance, i have NO commissars in my army. No ratlings either (but i do have converted snipers that I can use as "counts as" ratlings- see, using the framwork without compromising either my theme or the game rules???) and no psykers. I could probably bend the theme a little to add any of these if i wanted, but i dont.

So in the end, its your army- dont forget that. But by the same token, you have bought into a certain framework with whatever system you choose. you HAVE to stick to that otherwise there is no point. you can do anything with YOUR models but rules is rules... thats the freedom of a pure modeller compared to a gamer. See the hobby as a whole and add your own creative juices... most "Company Fluff" is deliberatley open ended to allow you a lot of breathing space. a themed army will look better, be more rewarding and in the end, make your whole experience of hobby wargaming more positive and develop bits of your brain you didnt even know worked.

WORD.


 

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Yes Theme and Narrative are a very important part of the hobby which seem to have been lost on all these people I see playing Spacemarine Vs Spacemarine all the time. Every battle should be a story even if it's just one about fighting to the death, other wise -as you said- you might as well be playing with plastic pawns.
Themes come into play at every point of the hobby, from the parts you choose to do your conversions and the colour scheme you choose to paint your minis in, to the terrain on the battle field you play on.
All to often I see people playing games with a wide open table and all the terrain at the edges. Battles don't take place in the middle of nowhere ... they take place where there's something to fight about!

Think about what's going on when you play: why are your High Elves in the Chaos Wastes? What provoked the VASA attack on the Syntha base? What are Moria Goblins doing in Lake Town? How did your Cryxian Pirates get this far into Cygnar? What are the Harbingers of  Horus and Bast fighting over? And why the fuck did your Catachan Jungle Fighters land on an Iceworld?
It's the little explanations for this soft of thing that makes the starting point of a story

In an RPG theme and narrative is just as important, yes the over all plots up to the GM/DM but you need to contribute to the story too, just why dose does your Drow travel with a Half-Orc and a Halfling? If your Rogue is looking for her lost brother; have her ask about him from time to time. Why dose your Barbarian have the nick-name he does? Does your Dwarf keep wandering off on his own for a reason? Did something happen to make your Elf afraid of spiders? And just how crazy is the guy with the sock puppet really?

It's this sort of thing that makes the difference between a hum-dum game where some Dwarfs killed a bunch of Goblins and the battle for Axehead pass where the stout brave Dwarf Warriors of Karaz-a-Karak held off an unending green tide of Goblin raiders from the Mangled Moon Tribe.


PS I'm not complaining about the picture of all the girls in Leia's Slave-girl out fit, but don't you think a few pictures of theme'd armies would have worked better with the article?

[General Biakal]

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

PS I'm not complaining about the picture of all the girls in Leia's Slave-girl out fit, but don't you think a few pictures of theme'd armies would have worked better with the article?

Nope. people can find them on their own. but a picture of several fit birds dressed as Leia in "Jedi" explain the concept: ie theme, while also demonstrating my savage need to smash their ladybits up with my wangdoodle.

by using an abstract image im not excluding WHFB, 40k, FOW, lesbians and geeks. you could argue im excluding hetrosexual females but consider this: I firmly believe all hetrosexual women spend many waking hours working out ways to get me to shag them ragged. by highlighting the fact all they have to do is find six fit mates and dress identically as a sexual fantasy object then HEY PRESTO!! we are all happy.


i really agree with your points on narrative- hell thats why Gav Thorpe sank all that effort into the ultimate failure that was Inquisitor...

i dont know much about Questing but i get the impression ones character is very personal and there is quite a symbiotic relationship between player and construct... so making a real seeming "avatar" if you will is even more important.

im keen to see if others have similar narratives and dynamics in their army or if they prefer a less "romanticised" game of war and strategy