How important is fluff to you when using an army?

[shadosun]

Ok I'm sorry for the kinda vague title, here's what I mean.

I've dabbled in 40k for awhile now, never really made a complete army, but now I'm ready to buckle down and collect one single army so I can play (deployment/time away from cool things can change your perspective lol). So since I have 1 month till I come home I've narrowed down my choice to either GK or DE. Now here's where the question comes in and hopefully all of you will help me choose through your own choices....DE are badass, amazing models, very unique. Yet in their fluff they are deplorable and dispicable on every level imaginable. The GK have neat models, they are very cool looking yet in the end your army looks uniform. But their in their fluff they're defenders, they may be ruthless in their methods, but they are the good guys. I associate with them more. *sighs* and there's the problem. I love the DE models yet not the lore so much, and GK are pretty cool looking with better lore that fits me. What did you all do when you picked yours? Did fluff inspire you? Or did you just picked something that looked cool? Or something different?

Sorry for the wall of text, its been a long day at work so far and that caused me to ramble lol

[isotope99]

Look matters more, fluff is flexible as you can make your own up. Don't like the sadistic nature of the DE? Make them heroic rebels on a mission to avert some galactic catastrophe that brings them into conflict with the other races oblivious to their approaching doom or just straight corsairs looking to score some treasure.

[DarkLink]

I don't play 40k for its masterful writing (there's a bit of sarcasm in there if you didn't catch it). I enjoy the fluff, particularly for my Grey Knights, but I play them for their rules. Their models don't hurt at all, either.

I will say, though, that I started playing them for their models and to a lesser extent their fluff, and stuck with them when I found their rules to be very fun (even if their last codex was horrible).

[bfmusashi]

40k's fluff is intentionally open ended for just this reason. My guard went from being a "renegades" due to a bureaucratic mixup to being a Rogue Trader crew. It's all about the fun, so lean back and play your DE as good guys if you want, there's tons of scenarios where that could happen.

[Nosmo75]

Look matters more, fluff is flexible as you can make your own up. Don't like the sadistic nature of the DE? Make them heroic rebels on a mission to avert some galactic catastrophe that brings them into conflict with the other races oblivious to their approaching doom or just straight corsairs looking to score some treasure.

isotope99 has the right of it. =)

[Mobynick]

I love fluff and I often write my own ...often poorly. If you want your dark eldar to be good than write some fluff that supports your end. Maybe a Dracon is repentant for her atrosities and flees to find a way to redeam herself.

I love the Celestial Lions SM chapter but since they were left to die on Armageddon I had to write fluff to explained how the escaped and rebuilt their shattered chapter. Often this is more fun than the gaming I do or the lists I build or the hours spent painting.

In the end GW dictates so much, why let them ruin your ideas with their fluff?

[DoctorEvil]

The thing with fluff is how do you define "fluff"?

For me "fluff" is the novels. I read the Gaunts Ghost novels....I suddenly have an urge to create the Tanith 1st Imperial Guard. The latest book I read was Blood Reaver, now I want a Night Lords CSM army.

Honestly, I hate the Codex "fluff". It's the novel "fluff" that drives me.

Unfortunately DE, has little good novel "fluff". I can remember one really good DE short story in one of the collections. GK has the Ben Counter series which really isn't bad.

Get your inspiration where you can!!!

[BrokenWing]

Buy both.

Play Dark Eldar when you feel mysterious and evil.

Play Grey Knights when you feel bright and shiny.

[Calgar33]

Like everyone else has said the fluff is what you make it. For my DE I like to imagine my Archon as an admiral of a pirate fleet, so I built an army based entirely around raiders and ravagers but for my Ultramarines I wanted a Second Company army so I am building it around Cato Sicarius, tactical squads and drop pods. Thats the best part about Warhammer, you can have your fluff match how you want to play.

[shadosun]

I thank all of you who posted on here :) I guess I forgot the whole side of "make the game your own" lol. Now with fluff thrown out the window it comes down to picking the very fast DE or tactical GK. As all of you have stated DE will probably be my main choice. GK will most likely get bought later down the road. I'd love both immediately, but the military is not the highest paying job ever lol

[BrokenWing]

but the military is not the highest paying job ever lol

It should be.


I'm experimenting right now with a fast GK army actually. Played some proxy test runs with it just last night. It involves 3 Stormravens. Not that biggest army you'll ever see but it sure did pack alot of shooting into a small package.

I also play Dark Eldar, I think you'll enjoy them. I would direct your attention (if you're considering pirates "ar!") to the forge world Corsair conversion kits.

[shadosun]

It should be.


I'm experimenting right now with a fast GK army actually. Played some proxy test runs with it just last night. It involves 3 Stormravens. Not that biggest army you'll ever see but it sure did pack alot of shooting into a small package.

I also play Dark Eldar, I think you'll enjoy them. I would direct your attention (if you're considering pirates "ar!") to the forge world Corsair conversion kits.

I thank you on 3 fronts. 1) ty for thinking we should get paid more, its nice to see someone agrees with what we think lol 2) unknowingly you showed me that GK can be multifaceted and can attempt different playstyles rather than one routine thing and 3) I will def. have to check out those conversions :D

[Daemonette666]

Fluff does not matter to me at all, but to some it matters a lot. Everyone tells me GKs can not be corrupted, but I refuse to play a pro Imperial army - I corrupt every army I play.

In order to use the GK codex and have it following Chaos, I had to invent a storyline where one of Fabius Biles Clones and a Grey Sensei (human born a mortal woman and the Emperor before he became the Emperor who has fallen to Chaos) have joined with a company of Word Bearers and created a genetically super Psychic Chaos Space Marine Army with the help of dark Mechanicus Allies lost STCs and reverse engineered battle salvage, they create an Army that looks like GKs and has the same abilities.

It works, but it would have been better if no one cared if I corrupted GKs. Now I have to paint and convert them so they look like Word Bearer's with Artificer Armour and Force weapons.

[murrburger]

I'm pretty sure GK can be corrupted (at least in the new codex) by the sorcery they inevitably come in contact with. If you can justify it, I believe you should be able to do it. (A small strike force of GK got trapped on a daemon world while making their last stand, or through a Brother-Captains personal flaws, a contingent of GK probe too deeply in to a daemonic artefact.)

Anyways, fluff is quite important to me. I like to imagine the ridiculous circumstances brought on by the abstraction of the ruleset.

Captain: "40 brothers were sacrificed so that we could hold this hill until turn 5. The battle is won: Ultramarines, roll out."
Sergeant: "Captain, the enemy yet remains."
Captain: *shrug* "We won. Ultramarines, roll out."

[Corvus-Master-of-The-4th]

Fluff does not matter to me at all, but to some it matters a lot. Everyone tells me GKs can not be corrupted, but I refuse to play a pro Imperial army - I corrupt every army I play.

In order to use the GK codex and have it following Chaos, I had to invent a storyline where one of Fabius Biles Clones and a Grey Sensei (human born a mortal woman and the Emperor before he became the Emperor who has fallen to Chaos) have joined with a company of Word Bearers and created a genetically super Psychic Chaos Space Marine Army with the help of dark Mechanicus Allies lost STCs and reverse engineered battle salvage, they create an Army that looks like GKs and has the same abilities.

It works, but it would have been better if no one cared if I corrupted GKs. Now I have to paint and convert them so they look like Word Bearer's with Artificer Armour and Force weapons.

I'd be the first to complain. But I dont think thats a bad idea/against the fluff, seeing as your not corrupting Grey Knights, your stealing there gear and giving it to the Word Bearers... Which isn't exactly the most unlikely of things, given what Word Bearers are like :L