Army Backgrounds: Do you have one? Why or why not?

[erwos]

Only the very lightest of backgrounds.

My Iron Warriors are part of the 7th Company. They're reasonably friendly with Abaddon, and will go into battle with him and other legions (I have three squads each of PMs and 'zerkers, and imagine I'll paint up new squads as other legions as trades allow).

My Jenen Ironclads (lifted the name from Codex: Eye of Terror) are armoured-company traitors who are allied with the Iron Warriors. They do like salvaging Imperial gear and turning it to their own use, so while they primarily have the older gear, they do run into the odd new bits.

I don't need much more than that, given that they're canonical groups... they do what Chaos does, which is invade planets, kick tail, and then divide up the plunder.

[DadExtraordinaire]

My army background can be found here, at the bottom of the first page.

[url]http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=10707[/url]

It is almost two years old, and I have not updated it since then, so it is probably full of grammar errors and the like.

Interesting concept Buffo - I like it...a lot. I have some 3rd edition Warhammer Plastic Skeletons for my Chaos Space Marine / Daemon Army well more like a huge invasion horde. The conversions have certainly given me some food for thought for my army. As for washes try a chesnut brown (which is red / brown)

[MarshalAdamar]

I like the idea of a background fluff, especially for a home brewed chapter. For me, I couldn’t play an army unless I knew how it fit into the fabric of the 40k universe. But I’m a story driven kind of person. Now that I have not just played a game of 40k off the hip but I find that I enjoy mini campaigns or even just placing the mission with in the context of a larger story add to the enjoyment of the game.

I made my home brewed chapter after I started a vanilla marine army and found that the paint job was very close to the black Templars. I read the codex and loved it, but I was not going to repaint the army to the actual BT paint scheme.

So the “Lions of the Emperor” were born. Sent by the High Marshal to pacify a back water system that was tainted by the ruinous powers Marshal Adamar took the equivalent of an entire battle company and set forth on his crusade.

Shortly after the Lions entered the system a warp storm engulfed the entire system trapping the crusaders. Cut off from the Imperium and all contact with their chapter they continued to fight to purge the taint of chaos. Supported by vast maufactorum forge ships they purged the planet of Rilos and established a fortress monastery as a base of operations.

Over the course of the years trapped in that system the Marines slowly took on their own traditions and traits. Their chaplains preached that they fight like “lions”; “Lions for the Emperor” on the battle field.

After battle the surviving battle brothers would take a knee on the battle field and pray with their chaplains and thus the red knee pad became a symbol of the brother’s victory on the battle field. After many particularly bloody engagements the forearms of the initiate would be red, caked with blood and so the red forearms became a symbol of the willingness to shed blood for the Emperor in brutal hand to hand combat. In time the initiates began to paint one kneed pad and their forearms red as symbols of the bloody campaign. And finally from removing their helmets with bloody hands time and again to kneel and pray with their chaplain their helmets would become crimson, leading the battle brothers to paint their helmets red.

In the end the system was purged of Chaos and the warp storm abated and the crusade returned to the Imperium to report to the High Marshal what had happened. The crusade fleet returned home to find that time passed much more slowly in the warp storm than for the rest of the Imperium. In addition the Black Templars that assembled to meet the High Marshal bore only a passing resemblance to the ones that had left of the original crusade.

In fact after much debate, the High Marshal proclaimed that they were no longer “Black Templars” But worthy to be their Own Chapter. And so High Marshal Adamar took command as the chapter master of the newly formed “Lions of the Emperor”.

[DadExtraordinaire]

I love fluff. Fluff was the reason I got in to the game to begin with, and I find it's very hard for me to seperate the game from the story. To force them in to seperate interests just doesn't work well in my head, but I still value competitive lists... so I've combined the two theories.

As a result, my Imperial Guard's fluff paints them as a hardened force of veterans who are well-equipped, well drilled, experienced and versatile. More than just their army list, I've probably written about 90 pages worth of fluff of both their planet and sector's history. (I've combined my 40k army and my Battlefleet Gothic Imperial Navy in a roundabout way) Where as there is a fairly rigid distinction in most regiments between Light Infantry, heavy infantry, mechanized and armour in most Imperial Guard forces (the Cadians, for example) I've adopted something of a "Rommel" theme whereby Prussaria's Reichsguard are raised as 'combined arms' forces that bring together tank, artillery and infantry companies in equal measure in a single regiment. In essence, it's US/German Blitzkrieg theory. In game terms, I don't spam vets, nor tanks, and I usually find an equal measure of every unit type in my lists.

It's always surprised me that despite the Imperial Guard's underlying theme of encouraging combined arms, the fluff of most regiments doesn't reflect it very well, with regiments being defined strictly as "infantry", "armour" or "artillery", and not much cross-pollenation.

I would like to read your history sometime Koppenflak its sounds really interesting. I see many fluff IG armies are based on either Death Korps of Krieg or Elysians.

Historically, the German forces of World War 2 adapted ideas from the British use of the Tank in WW1 combined with their own storm trooper tactics of WW1 and a highly efficient Air Force, the German forces Blitzkrieg their enemies for the first few years of the WW2. Rommel incidentally was only commanding the 7th Panzer Division during the fall of France. His dynamic manoeuvres in the Desert War are a good read to understanding Operational Tactics. The British utilised combined arms in WW2 after learning from the Germans but the organisational structure was different from the panzer divisions of WW2. The British artillery was probably the best in the WW2. The American armed forces of WW2 tended to have all Armoured Divisions and all Infantry Divisions with Combat Commands which were essentially small combined armed forces for localised situations.

GW leans towards the armies of the 1st World War for IG certainly the architecture of the IG vehicles are all about WW1 as well as the fluff around mass IG armies walking into the hail of enemy shells, bolt rounds obliviously unmoved by the huge losses suffered (very similar to the sort of WW1 assaults made between 1915 to 1917).

[Koppenflak]

I would like to read your history sometime Koppenflak its sounds really interesting. I see many fluff IG armies are based on either Death Korps of Krieg or Elysians.

'Be quite happy to send it on to you. I'm at work at the moment, But Ill PDF what I have when I get home and send you a PM.

Cheers.

[Kahoolin]

Background is very important to me, but I don't think it's important in itself. That is, I don't care at all if the person I'm playing has it or not, so long as they are fun to play with

I have a strong background for my guard and my sisters worked up in my head and represented on the models by banners, squad markings and army list choices. Haven't really had occasion to write it down yet, but it basically explains the different models (I have Cadians, DKoK and homebrew guys) in my army and why they are fighting side by side. It also explains why my homebrew guard frequently ally with sisters, and why they are an aggressive force full of power weapons and priests, which is what I like to play.

If my opponent has a good background too, great. Even more fun. The only weakness I find with background is if you place too much emphasis on it it can become a burden trying to explain why Tau would fight Tau or why my loyalist Guard are attacking Astartes again. So you have to take these things with a grain of salt, it's a silly futuristic wargame after all.

[Paul]

Due to the success of the thread, I will post a couple of paragraphs from my TO&E document:

The Concordian 1st “Ironbreakers” Armored Regiment is currently deployed against heretic Space Marine companies. The regimental nickname is derived from their specialization in destroying enemy vehicles, including 1 enemy Warhound titan, 4 enemy superheavies of varying types, 28 enemy Land Raider battle transports, and innumerable smaller vehicles. Founded from the Knight World of Concordia, the Ironbreakers sport an unusually high number of variant Leman Russes from Aeptus Mechanicus Forge Worlds.

The 2nd Company of the Ironbreakers was formed from the remains of the 2nd Brettonian Armored Regiment after its decimation by the heretic Titan Legion “Legio Mortis” and its subsequent rescue by the 1st Company of the Concordian Armored.

The incomplete 3rd Company was formed from attached infantry of the 7th Trynzendian Assault Shock Regiment, leading to the similar uniforms and equipment to the latter organization, including a preponderance of auto-cannon heavy weapons and a preference for the flamer. Vehicles for the company are provided from Concordia.

Due to its deployment against renegade Space Marine units, the most common training missions undertaken by the 1st Concordian Armored have been against friendly Space Marine units, in order to better learn the capabilities and strengths of enemy formations.

Recently, the 1st Concordian has fought alongside elements of the 143rd Elysian Drop Troops Regiment, allowing it to successfully engage and destroy Eldar formations in a recent engagement. Due to the success of the combination, further cooperation between the two regiments in the future is extremely likely.

TL;DR: Awesome stuff.

[DadExtraordinaire]

'Be quite happy to send it on to you. I'm at work at the moment, But Ill PDF what I have when I get home and send you a PM.

Cheers.

Koppenflak thank you very much I look forward to reading it and if I get time would like to reciprocate my own background of my IG army and Blood Angels 2nd Company's involvement with the IG army

And,

I hope you didn't take offence to my skim history of the WW2 formations and where GW approaches the IG from? I find that history can provide us a wealth of material either for a WAAC, themed, fluff or a themed-fluff based army.

I think what is difficult is trying to create a background for an existing force in the W40K universe, i.e. for me it’s my Novamarine force I have just started building for my sons

[Koppenflak]

Koppenflak thank you very much I look forward to reading it and if I get time would like to reciprocate my own background of my IG army and Blood Angels 2nd Company's involvement with the IG army

No offence taken at all. And you have a new message.

[EnglishInquisition]

I'm all for "fluff" and background, but I find it can come from many sources. The models, the paint scheme, or the actual codex.
For example, my Tau are all based around the number 8. This is because Tau have 8 fingers, so I made the connection that they would count in Octal (base 8). Octal is a direct multiple of binary (base 2), which is pretty much the basis for logic (yes/no answer etc), hence their rapid advance technologically I know all very basic and full of holes but it works for me..
So, I have 1 commander in battlesuit, with 2 bodyguards, 4 stealth suits, and my fire warriors are in squads of 8, as are the pathfinders. If something can take a transport then they get it, to reflect their use of technology. Other choices are in 2/4/8 as required. My 1500pt list runs out with about 50 models which really pleased me as the codex suggests that this is the approx size of a Hunter Cadre!

My Guard Army are based around the Vostroyans, but I really couldn't paint another red army, so I went with blue. To explain this I went with the theme of the Vostroyan Secondborn, an army raised in addition to the required firstborn of every family. As these sons would be the ones who would normally take on the Family name and responsibilities (lets face it, those firstborn aren't really coming back home!), I went with the theme of lavish expenditure, to keep these "loved" sons alive.So we are heavy on tanks and Chimera, plasma guns would be expensive (if dangerous), but if they hit something it's pretty much guaranteed to die, so thats my special weapon of choice. My platoon struts its stuff with a flamer and vox in every squad. Only one veteran unit (lets face it they haven't been around that long), and some good old long range ordanance, don't want those heirs dying too soon, so kill the enemy from a distance if we can! The conscripts are based on the Valhallan models, and pretty much look like the poor man's Vostroyan. Since they have now been stripped of all special weapons from their squads in the rules, I now think of these as the "Draft Dodgers" and are looked upon as pure cannon fodder, and don't deserve to be equipped with the nice fancy stuff that keeps you alive!

Well thats 2 of my armies fluff, and they do play pretty well, and hold their own on the battlefield,. I love to see themed armies at work, as it seems to tick all the boxes for a fun game.
Ramble over!