Background

Every time I see a new warhammer army, one of the questions I ask the owner is, what's the background? half the time I get an enthusiastic storyline that blows my mind with awesomeness. The other half the time they're like "... they're just space marines..." or like "...tyrannid can't have backgrounds..." and if you ask me, that's just being fucking lazy. You spent the time collecting, painting, and piecing together the models, why not come up with a little story?

Now I don't expect you to write whole books (like me :D) but at least give them a unique name or something, or a company. Right now, Ultramarines 3rd company, with Captain Hagar Samuelson. DONE. Came up with a named character, and a company... NOT HARD TO DO AT ALL. But when you tell me that it's just ultramarines, and there's a ubiquitous captain of anonymity, then my mind just can't comprehend it. The gears have nothing to grip onto, so I'm left with this single spinning gear, and the rest are like.... alright.... no work today I guess...

So to all of you who have an army that doesn't have a background, to all of you who have an army that doesn't even have any thought put into the models other than what GW has pumped into us, then shame on you! Love your models a little, and show them the dedication they show you, and maybe they will start rolling better.

For example, lets say you have tyrannids, and the big thing there is that tyrannids aren't individuals. Well, what hive fleet are they with? what planets have they been for them to adapt? for example, deep sea nids was a thing Blue Table Painting did one time. They were a deep turquoise and covered in barnacles and just looked really cool. Another thought is what if the tyrannids had just been on, lets say... a desert. They're like a bone color, with sand for the carapace color. With a little green stuff you could extend their jaws down a little, and make them look a little more intelligent from doing so, the simple changing of an angle has a lot to do with how we perceive them on the table. They could favor burrowing tactics and their gargoyles could be styled like vultures. Where as their Hormagaunts could be styled in more of a rattler snake look. The rippers could be done like dung beetles and the bigger creature like carnifexes could have more mottled skin like an elephant's. And that's all off the top of my head, there is a fantastic background, their with hive fleet Kraken and they invaded a desert world, conquered it, and adapted to it. There you go.

Every army can have a background, every army can be personalized, every single army has a story to tell, so get out there and tell it!