How important is fluff to you when designing/playing an army?

[CommissarKlink]

Originally Posted by bradshaw88

Excuse my general idiocy but what do you mean when you say "fluff"

Fluff means background/backstory, and can be used in a general or a specific sense.

For example, I could say "according to my army's fluff, they are from Troll Country, so they have a lot of Trolls, but no Savage Orcs, because it's too cold up there to run around half-naked or worse."

Or I could say "according to the fluff, there are only 8 functioning steam tanks in the entire Empire, so it seems unlikely that they would use two for this insignificant little battle."

Personally, I think fluff is important, all the more so since GW is so, shall we say, cavalier regarding rules updates and playtesting and such.

[ChaosVC]

GW staffs had pissed all over fluffs while drinking cheese flavoured beer. Fluffs is like the points in "Who's line is it?" they don't matter...

[Alathir]

Originally Posted by kramplarv

I don't ask for other persons fluff. if they tell me. fine. I don't care. get on with the game already.

stupid armylists? hrm... Pure goblin armies with no special/rare choices or magic items or wizards at all. pure gobbos. looks amazing. That's all. but it's a rather stupid army. And no amount of fluff can change that.

we have the ultrafluffy slayer army. pure 100% fluff awesomeness, cool models most of the time. But totally totally stupid...

we have fluffy monster hordes of WoC, with no throgg, så a lot of trolls running round and being stupid and in the way and taking time etc. All in all, a rather boring army to play against. (and not to mention stupid hehe )

we have fluffy nuln-armies, with loads and loads of fluff and fluffy units. and cannons. and steamtanks. and everything... cool idea, cool fluff, totally stupid to play against.

Wow, you and I are exact opposites of each other when it comes to this game then, you could say you are Bizarro-Alathir. For me, a fluffy army is never stupid and the only armies I would call 'stupid' are those that have absolutely zero fluff behind them and are just created with gaming in mind. For me, that represents a complete misunderstanding of the hobby.

[kyuzo]

Quote

Wow, you and I are exact opposites of each other when it comes to this game then, you could say you are Bizarro-Alathir. For me, a fluffy army is never stupid and the only armies I would call 'stupid' are those that have absolutely zero fluff behind them and are just created with gaming in mind. For me, that represents a complete misunderstanding of the hobby

If I wanted to hear about this stuff I would read a book or watch a movie. If I wanted to stare at something pretty I would plant flowers. To take a wonderful quote from south park "Nobody likes having to rise to a challenge, but competing against other people and getting in their faces and saying "Ha ha, I'm better than you" is a part of life and if you can't handle that you might as well move to France with all the other pussies"

[AtmaTheWanderer]

I will look at fluff as a indication of how the game designer's "intend" a solid, well rounded army to be built, but I will not for one second allow fluff sections to force me to take a unit that is bad.

I don't care if the fluff says every Whatsamajigger Army invariably includes a unit of Whoozawhatsits, if Whoozawhatsits suck and are not a 1+ mandatory choice, my army will not include them.

[kramplarv]

Originally Posted by Alathir

For me, that represents a complete misunderstanding of the hobby.

For me, the hobby is "whatever".. thousands of other hobbies are better and more fun in the story mode imho. But the game warhammer is the best miniature game that exists.

painting? nah. If I want to paint or see other paintings, i go to an art gallery or something. of course the game is funnier when there are two painted armies. But I'd rather play against an unpainted "non-stupid" army than a painted stupid army

[snurl]

Without Fluff, Its not an orc, its a game piece.
Without Fluff, Its not a holding action, ambush or invasion, its a game.
Without Fluff, Its not a regiment of militia, its a game piece with low stats.
Get the picture?

[BigbyWolf]

Personally, I love this kind of thread:

Warseerite 1: "The way I play the game is correct!"
Warseerite 2: "Wrong! The way I play it is correct, it must be because it's the way I play it!"

And it's usually at this point Warseerite 3 reminds everyone that it's just a game, and we are all free to play it anyway we want, and we are all correct, or incorrect, if you're a negative kind of person.

[O&G'sRule]

Not really at all, the models, amusing rules and wanting to see how certain things compliment each other is more what gets me started, though I like reading all of it

[EviIPaladin]

Originally Posted by BigbyWolf

Personally, I love this kind of thread:

Warseerite 1: "The way I play the game is correct!"
Warseerite 2: "Wrong! The way I play it is correct, it must be because it's the way I play it!"

And it's usually at this point Warseerite 3 reminds everyone that it's just a game, and we are all free to play it anyway we want, and we are all correct, or incorrect, if you're a negative kind of person.

Warseerite 3 to the rescue!

It is just a game/hobby so go ahead and do whatever the hell you want. I'll still play my Clan Wraneklaw whether you play fluffily or not. I enjoy seeing other fluffy armies, but I won't accuse you of "misunderstanding the hobby" if you don't want to play a fluffy list. But I will be pissed if you start being a douche and power game, rules lawyer, etc., etc.

-Evii

[kramplarv]

Originally Posted by snurl

Without Fluff, Its not an orc, its a game piece.
Without Fluff, Its not a holding action, ambush or invasion, its a game.
Without Fluff, Its not a regiment of militia, its a game piece with low stats.
Get the picture?

I am playing the game warhammer fantasy battles. I do not read the fluffy books since I'm in for the game.

otherwise your anlysis is almost correct. I will correct it;

With or Without Fluff, Its not an orc, its a game piece.
With or Without Fluff, Its not a holding action, ambush or invasion, its a game.
With or Without Fluff, Its not a regiment of militia, its a game piece with low stats.


edit: forgot to include happiness; D I'm not trying to insult anyone. I'm just here for the game. If people want to play fluffy, Do it. I don't care if they d or not. And I do not say to people that they must de-fluff their armies As long as people don't tell me to fluff mine.

[mweaver]

Background is very important... just not GW's background, usually. Mostly when we have played of late the games are tied to our D&D campaign. (A sneaky way of luring our hard-core D&D players into some Warhammer).

[BigbyWolf]

Originally Posted by kramplarv

I'm just here for the game. If people want to play fluffy, Do it. I don't care if they d or not. And I do not say to people that they must de-fluff their armies As long as people don't tell me to fluff mine.

QFT, the beauty of our little hobby is that we have the freedom to play however we want, if you want to play it fluffy, you can...if you want to throw an army together and have a game, you can...if you want to paint your Night Goblins blue with white hats and have them led by a black-clad Orc and call them "Gargamel's Smurf Warriors"...you can!

Edit: And don't mock the Smarf Warriors, I'm currently doing it to all my 3rd edition Night Goblins!

[Ward.]

Originally Posted by snurl

Without Fluff, Its not an orc, its a game piece.
Without Fluff, Its not a holding action, ambush or invasion, its a game.
Without Fluff, Its not a regiment of militia, its a game piece with low stats.
Get the picture?

I admire this line of thought, but a lot of GW's fluff sucks pretty hard as of late and I'm more of a gamer then a narrative companion.

[kramplarv]

well, as far as fantasy stories go in general, WHFB story and style and setting is imho one of the best among fantasy settings ever. It sure owns lord of the rings, wheel of time, Faerun, Eberron, Trudvang etc. Why? because it is based on reality most of the times.

[Johnnyfrej]

For me, Fluff is more important than the gameplay. I really cannot see Fantasy as a gaming platform with it's current incarnation (Who needs an army? Everyone knows it's crazy Heros and Magic that wins Fantasy). Without theme I would get bored of Fantasy much faster and probably go on to much more enjoyable and balanced games (such as BFG or 40k).

However, because fluff does exist, I can make my Khorne Warriors of Chaos army and not get tired. There are so many fun units of the WoC book that building and converting them all into faithful followers of Khorne will ensure I don't bore of this army any time soon.

[TrojanWolf]

I don't think fluff itself is massively important, although my armies seem to have a theme to them.

My WoC is predominately Tzeentch, with a few followers of Khorne for some variety. Wherever I'm using a unit that can have a mark, I give it one not so much for the benefit as to have a unified army (although a 6+ ward save on every model is certainly helpful). I tend to think of the few Khorne models I have as being manipulated by the Tzeentch worshippers (if you come with us, you'll be able to kill tons of stuff!).

I'm just starting Skaven too, and I've gone for Clan Moulder. Which meant that even before I got my paws on the book I'd already converted an Abomination and painted up some Rat Ogres. I may not take the Abomination all the time, but at least my clanrats and stormvermin will be painted in Moulder's colours.

Admittedly, with the couple of games I've had with them I swear by a Lv2 Warlock Engineer with a doomrocket.

[Tokamak]

Originally Posted by TrojanWolf

I don't think fluff itself is massively important, although my armies seem to have a theme to them.

Well yes, I'm not really interested in a detailed history, the models in the army are supposed to tell the story themselves.

[ShOnA]

i actually think that you need the fluff in order to create a good base for your army...without it you will just have a mish-mash of characters who do not work well together!

[BigbyWolf]

Originally Posted by ShOnA

i actually think that you need the fluff in order to create a good base for your army...without it you will just have a mish-mash of characters who do not work well together!

Not necessarily...Not everyone who throws together Kairos, the Blue Scribes and 2 Tzeentch Heralds is doing it for fluff reasons, yet they seems to work well together.

I think the important thing here is not to confuse fluffy with themed.