Hey all,
After spending bits and pieces of my day-to-day routine pondering the state of Chaos in 6th edition and listcrafting Vampire Counts armies from memory, I am naturally brought into contact with a variety of different gamers over the internet, one of which spurred me to write this article.
This player proposed a list that was clearly designed to be abusive and hyper-competitive by throwing in five Riptide Battle suits from Tau Empire and the Farsight Enclaves into a 1500 point list. Just writing that made me shudder for more than one reason. I get that we all participate in the hobby for different reasons, but the vast majority of the gamers that I interact with on a regular basis aim to play, have fun, and if the dice favor them, win. That is not to say that certain people put more effort into their lists, giving them more teeth in the process, but its no more so than the people who put a more effort into their conversions and modeling, or those that put more effort into their painting (and if you are one of the lucky ones that does all of these, well, hats-off to you!).
Thing is, most of the people I interact with in the hobby care too much about theme to run a list like that, and I don't think its off-base to say that probably is the case for most players.
But what exactly is theme in how it relates to our hobby?
To give a cop out answer, its different for each of us and for each army that we play. From a purely hobbyist standpoint, it could be the guy that Ork-ifies every army that interests him. Space Marine Centurions? Who needs tiny heads when you have Orks! Grey knights? Forces of destruction are no match for grot inquisitor! For him, its all about the orks, and most of his conversions are fantastic because of his adherence to this theme (and because they are all quite good). In this case, the theme was created from the hobbyists creativity which in turns allows a narrative to form that they control. Is it canon? Nah, but it doesn't have to be. Its the misadventures of Brother Captain Grotzmash fighting for da' Emperder, not a lot more needs be said.
From a broader perspective, it could be like me fellow contributor Hazon, who has built and painted thousands of points worth of Space Marine Salamanders, with some hefty conversions thrown into the mix. This was an overarching theme that was established in the lore, but built upon by him. This is where the theme has influenced the every aspect of his game, and his lists are fun, lore-friendly, and mean (as a Space Marine should be). When he uses Vulkan, he has entire companies at his disposal and it feels like the Salamanders are reigning fire down upon you. When he brings out the Salamanders, its a battle worthy of the tales they tell in the Black Library.
Now, where does that leave me?
I tend to be a bit more in between the two, though my stuff seldom gets painted. As a Chaos player, my options for a truly competitive army are limited to models I hate with rules I despise (the infamous Helldrake) and fodder (cultists). Neither of those suits me, but still I am drawn to the book that hasn't really treated me well these past two editions.
I could certainly counts-as my chaos as the new, 6th edition Space Marines (in which case I could properly represent a Legion!), and while I may end up doing that, my time tends to be invested in the army as it stands. It is tempting to say that doesn't leave a lot of options, for sure, but I've won against some very tough opponents with lists that have been very thematic.
Of course, it helps that I play Death Guard when I do bring out the boys in power armor, but beyond that theme is hugely important for me. I tend to run squads in the appropriate number (Nurgle's number is seven) with limited use of mechanized vehicles, like a true Death Guard player should!
Now, if I were to run an entire army of Nurgle, that'd limit my options pretty bad despite the fact that most units in the book CAN take marks now, but some marks are clearly better suited elsewhere. Take Terminators, for example. Toughness 5 is stellar, but most things that get thrown their way don't care about that, meaning that all the points you pay for a mark to adhere to the theme is essentially wasted in a game of rock-paper-scissors- plasma. So, in instances like this, I tend to bend the lore-theme while keeping the aesthetic-theme in place.
Who says that followers of Nurgle have to be big, bloated, and burly? Mortarion is described as being skeletal, like the Grim Reaper. Nurgle is the chaos deity of Death; rotting, putrifying soldiers is just his favored means of appearance but it is not his only one. Tzeentch, Khorne, and Slaanesh are all more useful marks in that order, so why not use the opportunity to get those creative juices flowing and model something awesome, or make the lore fit your own needs?
Death Guard units with the mark of Khorne? Mad-cow disease, in space. Tzeentch? Clouds of flies and nurglings that soak up the blows before they hit the bearer. Slaanesh? A deadening of the nervous system that has lead them to be immune to pain, pleasure, and deterioration of their perceptive senses so they cannot see or hear very well anymore. My personal favorite are units of Nurgle Noise Marines that are modeled to be shooting chem-weapons and explosive corpses (think the corpse cart from Warcraft 3).
These are just some examples that I came up with where you create a theme around the list you build, where you aren't limited by the units can take, just how creative you can be when you model them outside of the box.
Hope this made sense!
Vortaine
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