Warhammer 40k Armies Need A Reason To Fight

[Selorian]

An article about the importance of fluff when playing Warhammer 40k and Magic The Gathering: Warhammer 40k Armies Need A Reason To Fight (http://atthamovies.com/warhammer-40k-armies-need-a-reason-to-fight/)

How much importance do you place on having a back story and a reason for your army to be on the field of battle?

[Popsical]

For me fluff is the be all and end all of 40k. So sadly i dont play pretty much at all anymore.
Thankfully i like the modelling and painting side of the hobby enough to keep me going, else id jack the lot in.
I found games for the sake of gaming became dull after a while, so i tried to find ways of fluffing the battles up.
Youve gotta have players around you to have the same or similar interests tho.

[Katharon]

I like to play regular games and I like to play fluff-oriented campaign games. One should not be without the other, game and fluff, but its not the "end all, be all" of a game. Some people can appreciate a rule set as much as the fluff that goes along with it.

[Joe TwoCrows]

Fluff? I play DE (and once in a great while, Orks). The Orks are their own reason to fight, and for some unimaginable reason, everyone want to kill DE. (Not fight them, just kill them.)

How much more reason is needed?

What I'm really saying is this is a WAR game, where the entire point of the *game* is a sense of conflict. My usual opponents all (but one) enjoy talking up a good scenario, and then (usually) ignore it completely in favor of pure and simple "SHOOT THEM". Then we go have a beer, and laugh.

The details? I retcon those every other year or so.

[Houghten]

I'm almost exclusively an Ork player.

I'd be harder put to answer the question "why would I not fight?"

[SaveModifier]

I always come up with a story for the fight, in 40K, I have an Ork army, so they're always up for a scrap, and I have a Minotaurs Space Marine army, so that solves why they'd be fighting other Space Marines, those guys don't like other chapters and want nothing more than to fight them

[Mr.Pickelz]

if you can find the Codex: Daemonhunters, there is a fluff page that lists all the reasons GK's/Inquisition would fight the other factions, including generic reasons. "Commander is possessed"

"Daemonhunters would fight Orks because: The Orks have constructed a Gargant with parts salvaged from a wrecked Banelord Chaos Titan, and the essence of the Chaos Titan has taken over the massive war machine. The Daemonhunters must get in and plant charges to destroy the Gargant before its psychic resonance acts as a beacon for Chaos fleets and renegades."

"Daemonhunters would fight Eldar because: The Avatar is pretty much a Daemon when you think about it..."

"Daemonhunters would fight Tyranids because: A Slaaneshi-worshipping cult has engaged in all manner of debaucheries to send a psychic signal into the Warp to attract followers of their daemonic patron. Instead, the Tyranids have arrived and the cult members must be killed to server the signal and prevent more from arriving."

...and more reasons are on pages 52 and 53 of Codex: Daemonhunters. :)

[Skullchewer]

I'm almost exclusively an Ork player.

I'd be harder put to answer the question "why would I not fight?"

Yup. This.

[Wolfshade]

Whilst I love the fluff, when it comes to a game, it is just that. There is no consideration given to the narrative behind the action. The only exception being is during a campaign.

[Arkhan Land]

I think fluffing your battle (sounds great I know) is important! Even in the instances where its the same chapter playing against eachother one could assume that the wispers of the warp give imperial commanders nightmares where they must face their own forces or even fight their dopplegange. its like a treehouse of horrors episode of 40k

[DarkLink]

The demonhunters codex had a whole section on why they would fight X. Then no one ever read it, and claimed that Grey Knights only fought daemons, and I was sad. True story.

Edit: ah, ninja'd

[Trianglebob777]

You fight because in the grim darkness of the future there is only war.

[This Dave]

I love to try and find a reason for the battle as it makes the game feel more cinematic. It just gets hard to do sometimes at tournaments or local game stores when 5 out of 6 armies you run into are Loyalist Marines of one kind or another and that's what you're playing.

[interrogator_chaplain]

My Dark Angels, led by Interrogator-Chaplain Ezrit fight to capture Arketus Bane, Fallen Angel, now a Dark Apostle leading a warband of Chaos Marines in the Ultima Segmentum. All other factions that they fight on the way are in their way on planets that contain clues to the whereabouts of their dread foe.

(Alternatively, when I am forced to fight forces that would be considered Battle Brothers, I go with the narrative that they are staging combat simulations in warp transit or, if Guard, that an Imperial Guard Colonel has gone rogue.)

[chicop76]

I remember one game we played was a 4 on 1 and I was nids. What I did was sit back and killed anyone that cam by me. The space wolf player did pretty much the same while the eldar and other marine player went at each other. When I decided to kill off the Eldar player the game turned into 3 on 1. Instead of charging 3 on 1 I just sat back and shoot. My genestealers and ravengers stayed back and assulted anyone who threatened my dakka fexes and zonathorpes and my shooty winged tyrant and shooty heavy fexes. The gaunts just was back up.

I managed to beat the 3 on 1 due to out shooting them and crusing them in assault when they got close. Being 4th edition really helped too.

Anyway they got upset and said I didn't play the fluffy way, basically let the marines win in other words. My comment was they had the bs upgrade from fighting Tau and took on their tactics and evolved. Since the hive mind isn't stupid and usually nid fluf goes a long the lines of nids killing everything and humans nuking the planet, if they could make the halo rings I wouldn't be surprised if humans used them against the tyranids if the situation get too worst.

Anyway some people think fluff is justification for them to win and for you to lose.

I like the imperial armour books which have set list which make the game more fluffy.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

For me i go for a bit of both if i am fighting another loyalist faction then the battle becomes a training exercise or an honor duel. if i am fighting xenos or traitors then its enough said :) i know for my own enjoyment i have fluff that i try and follow. but if in a competitive setting its just games for gaming. against friends there are grudges or bad blood between commanders. like my marines despise gurlyman and his sons. my chapter master has come to blows with uriel ventris before and does not listen to calgar.

[AdamHarry]

An article about the importance of fluff when playing Warhammer 40k and Magic The Gathering: Warhammer 40k Armies Need A Reason To Fight (http://atthamovies.com/warhammer-40k-armies-need-a-reason-to-fight/)

How much importance do you place on having a back story and a reason for your army to be on the field of battle?


This is why I like playing objective games. You can get as in-depth as you want with them. You can just throw down generic counters, or you can model up some cool objectives and it pretty much makes the story for you.

I've got a set of objective I'm working on that are "relay" towers. If I throw 5 of them down, it's pretty obvious that the two armies are fighting for control over the relays - maybe to call down fire support, maybe to call down reinforcements. But the back-story fills itself in if you let it.

then again - sometimes i just want to roll dice and kill stuff.

[Cactus]

I've always enjoyed historical games because the scenarios and armies obviously have a reason for battle rooted in the real world but I always thought 40k was pretty generic until the Black Library books flushed some things out. The Horus Heresy books cemented a much better motivation for war in my mind.

I don't know if anyone else has read, "'38 - A Very British Civil War," but it's infinitely amusing and fun filled game setting. It also allows for players to concoct some imagination into an alternate history setting.

[Sainhann]

About as much as GW does which is very little or no reason.