Do you name your models and create fluff?

[Hanblack Nagash]

just curious lol

i know some ppl name their lords for fluffy reasons but i allways named my terrorgheist meatloaf.

simply cos of the song "bat out of hell".

I also have a nasty habit of naming my banshee "Sindel".
Anyone who has played mortal kombat will understand lol.

makes thing abit more interesting for me, but strange to many of my friends lol

 

[El Syf]

Ha the MK reference is brilliant! Yeah all my characters and most of my units have names. Named my blood knights Walach's Hand (as in Neferata Abhorash has his hand) and taken other cues from the Red Duke novel. It's also a good way to get a few smiles out of opponents if you go for humorous names. Makes it less of a competition

 

[Hanblack Nagash]

Ha the MK reference is brilliant! Yeah all my characters and most of my units have names. Named my blood knights Walach's Hand (as in Neferata Abhorash has his hand) and taken other cues from the Red Duke novel. It's also a good way to get a few smiles out of opponents if you go for humorous names. Makes it less of a competition

couldnt agree more.
after all it is supposed to be fun.

 

[Blutsauger]

I like to come up with narratives for my characters and armies, which helps inform my unit and character selections. For example my Vampire Lord, Wolfram von Blutsauger, is a very proud and martial lord who embodies the aristocracy of the night and draws a good deal of inspiration from good ole Dracula. So he has lots of creatures of the night (bats and wolves) in his force, but views the more animalistic undead (Ghouls and Crypt Horrors) as beneath him. He lacks the magical finesse (being only a level 1 wizard) to adequately bind the more magical undead (banshees, wraiths, hexies, spirit hosts) to his will. He has a cabal of indentured Necromancers to provide magical support to his forces, and surrounds himself with sycophantic lesser Vampires, whom he mercilessly manipulates and abuses. So there is also a rotation of lesser Vampires in the army, as well as a unit of Blood Knights. The rest of the army is rounded out by zombies, skeletons, black knights, and von Blutsauger's pride and joy, Maleficus the Zombie Dragon.

I have a narrative working it's way through my mind in regard to von Blutsauger's goals and motivations. Something about a lost love, taken from him and destroyed, such that he seeks vengeance and a way to restore her to unlife. In larger battles I'm thinking of including a Black Coach with the remains of his love inside. Or that she was taken and entombed ala Vargheists, and when he went to rescue her she was gone but a unit of Vargheists attached itself to his forces. This lets me rationalise battles against almost everyone, as he seeks relics of great power to enact the ritual to restore her to unlife, as well as the more mundane day-to-day battles associated with running a secretive Vampiric kingdom. Keeping the cattle in check, sowing fear and confusion, fighting off rival Vampires and other undesirables, etc etc.

I also like to think that one of the lesser Vampires attached to his court has an infatuation with him, and she seeks constantly to undermine his efforts to recover his lost love. He is, of course, aware of this but tolerates her interference as long as it remains low level. His relationship with her is complicated, as he feels a certain affection for her, but only in so much as she replaces his true love. She adores him, but at the same time would rather see him destroyed than reunited with his true love.

 

[Hanblack Nagash]

I like to come up with narratives for my characters and armies, which helps inform my unit and character selections. For example my Vampire Lord, Wolfram von Blutsauger, is a very proud and martial lord who embodies the aristocracy of the night and draws a good deal of inspiration from good ole Dracula. So he has lots of creatures of the night (bats and wolves) in his force, but views the more animalistic undead (Ghouls and Crypt Horrors) as beneath him. He lacks the magical finesse (being only a level 1 wizard) to adequately bind the more magical undead (banshees, wraiths, hexies, spirit hosts) to his will. He has a cabal of indentured Necromancers to provide magical support to his forces, and surrounds himself with sycophantic lesser Vampires, whom he mercilessly manipulates and abuses. So there is also a rotation of lesser Vampires in the army, as well as a unit of Blood Knights. The rest of the army is rounded out by zombies, skeletons, black knights, and von Blutsauger's pride and joy, Maleficus the Zombie Dragon.

I have a narrative working it's way through my mind in regard to von Blutsauger's goals and motivations. Something about a lost love, taken from him and destroyed, such that he seeks vengeance and a way to restore her to unlife. In larger battles I'm thinking of including a Black Coach with the remains of his love inside. Or that she was taken and entombed ala Vargheists, and when he went to rescue her she was gone but a unit of Vargheists attached itself to his forces. This lets me rationalise battles against almost everyone, as he seeks relics of great power to enact the ritual to restore her to unlife, as well as the more mundane day-to-day battles associated with running a secretive Vampiric kingdom. Keeping the cattle in check, sowing fear and confusion, fighting off rival Vampires and other undesirables, etc etc.

I also like to think that one of the lesser Vampires attached to his court has an infatuation with him, and she seeks constantly to undermine his efforts to recover his lost love. He is, of course, aware of this but tolerates her interference as long as it remains low level. His relationship with her is complicated, as he feels a certain affection for her, but only in so much as she replaces his true love. She adores him, but at the same time would rather see him destroyed than reunited with his true love.

deep stuff man, good fluff that.
i too enjoy creating the story behind the creations. after all the army book is more than a rule book. it provides reading material. well written in most cases.

 

[Blutsauger]

deep stuff man, good fluff that.
i too enjoy creating the story behind the creations. after all the army book is more than a rule book. it provides reading material. well written in most cases.

Thanks. There's a few of us in our local club who like to come up with narratives for our forces. I like to use the models to represent a story or imagery from my mind, and I find it really helps to keep me motivated when building and painting my armies.

 

[Bounce]

All my fantasy characters have names and stories from Bounce the Confused, Warlord of the Mad Rock Clan, to Berendan Aesrandir, Once Dark Elf Prince now trying to fight for the side of Light and Lady Elanor and her coven of vampires and vampire fan girls.

 

[Borgnine]

Wow, Blutsager, that's some nice piece of story for your army!

I also name my characters and try to give every unit their own, fluffy name - other thing is that they also tend to get nicknames that are diffrent from my 'official' name - often taken from german, because their names for units tend to be quite good. My name for GG's is Legio Maledicti, but they tend to be named Verfluchts - which is kinda taken from their german name and Varghulf is affectionaly named "the fledermaus" ;]

The Vampires and other characters are given names and sometimes - personality ;] They are all Von Greifens - an ambitious family from Sylvania. Constantin von Greifen [Vlad von Carstein model] is the head of the family and - as of now - the most magic oriented of the lot. Next one is Sorin [Dark Vlad model] who is the gruff warrior - the blender vampire sitting in the Grave Guard unit. Because of slight diffrence in scale, he's fluffed as being a really tall and imposing man Dragos von Greifen is a knight [converted from Chaos Knight] riding as a kastellan of Blood Knights or as a character vampire on a nightmare. Lucan [model looks like this but mine is unpainted] is also a warrior, but also a traveller - relies more on speed in combat rather than pure strength ;] The family will probably grow when I buy more vampires - I'll need some mage ;]

They work together with necromancers - Alexander Hautfell [when I'll get that Kemmler model] and Rado Krebs [modern plastic necromancer model] There is also the creator necromancer - Haralamb Gudvanger [who I'll convert one day from nurgle lord] - who makes monsters such as Crypt Horrors [made from ogres].

All this is kinda pointless in battle and one doesn't usually use those names, but I find it pleasant to make up those names and the army seems more "mine" when even names thought up by me ;]

 

[Siegfried290]

Only funny nicknames

Mortis engine is "The pimpmobile", or "Crazy train".

Necromancer (who I painted as a blind person) is called "Gargamel the Blind", after he won a combat against dark elves with white helmets and blue armor :lol:

3 banshees are called Angela Gossow, Alissa White-Gluz and Otep Shamaya

And best of all, opponents refer to crypt horrors as "OP little **** *** **** ** **** *** ****"

 

[Borgnine]

Pimpmobile! I like that!

Of course, one thing is creating serious fluff and serious names and another is minis getting new, often silly nicknames on the battlefield And after seeing this I think that I'll also will be calling my future ME pimpmobile :]

 

[Mad 'At]

I like to create fluffy names for characters and units, and sometimes tries to think up some background fluff to but I never get very far with it. Some names for models are also invented mid-battle during games, I have a Troll who got named Stubben (means tree stump in Swedish) by a friend who borrowed my army for one game at a tournament. And during the last game of the latest tournament I visited my Goblin Big Boss on giant wolf got named Rudolf by my opponent.

Of all the names that my models have revived over the years there is really only one that has stuck, and I now use it every time I talk about him. He is my OnG army's mascot, the one, the only, the Mad 'At. Named for the magic item he always uses, the Wizarding Hat. His name is even so renown that some of the people I have played against has started using it.

 

[Scalenex]

My LM army and VC are at war with each other (I have not figured out a way to rope in my Empire army though).

My vampire lord Count Renliss followed his sire to Lustria after their vampiric rivals ousted them from Sylvania. Renliss' sire died fighting a Saurus Old Blood. He was entombed in a makeshift Black Coach that is a zombified Stegadon. Converting undead LM is a slow process. I have stories for my undead vampires here and here. He is being assisted by the Necromancer Modrek and the Fallen Priestess turned Banshee Kayishen.

http://www.lustria-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=9750

http://www.lustria-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=10149

I am considering adding a Skink or Skaven Necromancer if I can come up with a non-tacky way to do it.

 

[mr. dude]

My old GW used to give bonus points at tourneys for having a good story behind each army, so I used to come up with some fluff and I occasionally named my models. Of course, the names were all ridiculous (like Blubberfezzle) and the stories were even more ridiculous (X wanted a boat to go fishing, but ended up receiving the wrong make of boat, so he got all upset and attacked the nearest village. This started a 200 year long war, after which there were no survivors. Our story takes place on a totally different planet... etc. etc.)

So basically, yes, I do come up with fluff, but if I don't find it funny then I won't bother with it.

 

[Petterwass]

Yep, I need at least a name before I can paint a character model and preferably a short backstory too.

The main fluff about my force is that it's split in twain by two mutually antagonistic factions.

One one hand we have my coterie of about half a dozen vampires of varying potency who have recently inherited a old castle with and extensive cemetary and necropolis and were planning to use this to make a bid for power on the borders of Sylvania.

On the other hand we have Draegoth the defiler and Moragoth of the tainted waters, two immensely powerful wight kings whom the vamps brought back to unlife. They immediatly set about raising up their old household troops and now the force is split in two; the vamps have rasied a large force of zombies, crypt horrors, ghouls, bound banshees and ghasts and have even sacrificed the weaker amongst them to become vargheists. The wight lords still retain authority over therir former retinues and actively dispute any attempts from the vamps to take controll over their skeletons, grave guards, hexwraiths and black knights. The wight kings themselves also have enough animating force and pure willpower to act as mortis engines, one riding on a spectral giant, the other on a monstrous floating zombie whale (still to be converted).

They both hate the other faction, but none have enough power to face outside forces on their own so currently there is an uneasy truce where they have divided their domain and only talk before major battles against outsiders. In battle the Wight Kings provide elite troops and their raw willpower and authority is enough to shore up any soldier that even thinks of leaving their unlife without finishing their duty while the vamps provide pure numbers and strange monsters as well as their raw personal might.

All of the vamps, nocromancers and lesser wights as well as all of the regiments also have their own backstories* but I think this is enough for now.

*My favorite is a unit of zombies that were once a Empire patrol who discovered that "aggressive patroling" (i.e. banditry) was not a very good idea in Sylvania.

 

[Kaptain Von]

Always have. Some more seriously than others. The Slann Mage Priest Stikitofipud and the Tomb Prince Bhak'Gamon the Almost Indestructible (and his Grand Vizier, Rakhospaahribs) were perhaps slightly frivolous, as was the Chaos Sorcerer Lord, Dredlok Holliday.

My Vampires tend to be quite serious though, drawn from vaguely literary sources fused with the Warhammer background. Lord Ruthven and Carmilla are my favourite fictional vampires, while the Necromancers Rosenkratz and Guildenstern are. Well. They tend to be dead, lots.

Army background's a bit different; I usually start off with names and a rough aesthetic concept and then let the games I play fill in the details. If a game's particularly memorable, it makes it in, and if a series of games against the same person happen, they become linked.

You can find the background as it stands over here.

 

[badfox7]

I don't personally name my vamp characters or create fluff for my army because I try a lot of different lists and I like the game and strategic aspect of the hobby. I do have a partial Undead empire army though. And I know a lot of people who do do the narrative and names. My ogre army I created a fluff for though. I think it is awesome when people do. If I didn't try so many lists I would probably have some more fluff to my army.

 

[Danceman]

I always start with a theme, name, and background for my armies. When I started out many many many years ago I was more competitive but nowadays I'm doing it for painting/modelling and making something that is my own. I still play to win, but list optimization is secondary to me.

 

[Kassill]

Yes.

The main thing that drew me into the hobby was the narrative behind it all. That was/and still is my favorite thing behind it all. And I love being able to jump right in and customize my own characters/stories in the vast world(s) of Warhammer fantasy/40k.

 

[Kindred]

The only repeat character in my army is Count Dragula, a very masculine looking Lahmian that I have decided is a crazy old male vampire in drag. Oh, and of course the vampiress sitting on my coven throne; Marceline the Vampire Queen :konrad:

 

[Adam_Barrow]

Marceline the Vampire Queen :konrad:

I approve.

 

[Constant Drachenfels]

I almost always name my characters, though I don't invent a lot of story for them...
the two necromancers in my army I named Konstantin von Altbach and Mortant Breughel (meant to be a distant relative of a certain mutant from the Drachenfels novel), the wight king's name is Heirdall Morkarsson - which is a kind of nod to my all time favourite villain, Morcar, first Everchosen of Chaos from old fluff and the HeroQuest boardgame. I like me some inside jokes

 

[Tharkad]

I can not play an army nor build an army list without creating its fluff and naming the characters and units. I know I have a problem.

 

[Corien Sumatris]

I love you all, I had to start with that.

I so dearly wish that I had a mindset that I could create story and names for why the stories fit so well, but I just don't have that great of an imagination anymore. I've tried and everything that I come up with is always dumb or generic, and I don't like it one bit. I envy you all, I think it would help me see the big picture vs just seeing this as a game. This is the reason why I fail at Role Playing and the sort. It's like I'm Bender at the beginning of Benders Game.

 

[mr. dude]

Sleep deprivation and a late night on the computer is a solution to all forms of writer's block.
Adult beverages work too if you can drink them, really anything that temporarily shuts off your brain and makes you just put words together will help you create a story. It won't make sense, it probably won't be relevant to what you want, but it will go places that you weren't expecting and that's how sparks of imagination occur.

 

[Corien Sumatris]

Well I do like alcohol, so when I write my fluff then I should be blasted? lol I'm liking this plan!