Who Else Likes to 'Theme' Their Armies?

[Darkaiser]

I've played WH TT for many years and, after the initial thrill (and the accumulation of MANY models), I began to make armies focused more around a theme than just for tactical play. For example, in my current Vampire playthrough I have

Helman Ghorst with all of the bonuses for Zombies, Skeletons and Crypt Ghouls. His army consists of 4 of each of these units as well as other things. I find that his Skills, coupled with his magic and his Corpse Cat, can turn otherwise trash mobs into a respectable Tier 1 fighting force.

Helmut Von Carstein (generic Vampire Lord with a natural bonus to Armor, Melee Defense and Melee Attack), who is currently building a force of Grave Guard, Black Knights, Bats, Wolves and Skeletons with spears. I'll eventually replace the Guard and the Skellies with more (better) cav and have a very fast force used for reinforcing (because they can get on the map faster) the main force.

Once I recruit him, I plan on giving Kemmler all of the Ethereal units I can muster and all of the associated Skills. Plug in a Banshee for flavor and not the Lich Master becomes the Ghost Master until Krell arrives in the patch.


Does anyone else set up armies this way or is it just me?

[DrDaft]

Yeah I do this a lot as well and you can get away with it on SP campaign too which is nice,

Like I have an empire army which just consists of Gunpowder units and 4-5 halberds to hold the line i have everything from hand gunners to outrider /w launchers etc...

just don't try to do themed armies in MP never work really well, maybe except a skaven swarm xD

[Disparate Revenant]

I also like to mix up the variety in my armies. Never really understood the people who just make a copy of the same army over and over...seems boring.

[Eversor That Coming]

Quite often. When I played my Skarsnik campaign, even after retaking Karak Eight Peaks, I did not recruit any orc units or orc leaders/heroes. A few trolls, giants, spiders and artillery pieces for sieges but other than that, it was night goblin/goblin units only.

[General Grievous]

Maybe not themed as such, but specialized in line with the Lords skill tree. So, for example my Dwarf Runelords get Dwarf Warriors (both sort) for Infantry, Rangers (both) for Missile, and a Master Engineer with 3x Arty. Maxing the relevant perks/technology can make those units really strong - like 60 missile damage for rank 9 Bugmans Rangers, and 600+ damage with the Organ Gun!! Likewise, the Melee Lords get Longbeards/Hammerers/Slayers etc and Thunderers/Quarellers as they synch with Grimnir's Heirs and Tactition Perks.

I always make the armies slightly different though for variety, and this is where the RoR excel. I only witsh they'd hurry up with the new units/RoR for the WH2 factions...

[Gamefever]

I have been doing the best I can to make themed armies for all my recent plays.

I really enjoyed my Skarsnik campaine kinda figured him out a little late though before I started experimenting with some army comps of just say all wolf riders, and I had one that was mostly squigs pretty fun for supporting an artillery based gobbo army.

When I play Dark Elves I still get caught up in just using Spears, Darksharts, and Reaper Bolt Throwers though. Dark Elf lords get a name of power about level 10 and from there I try to make themed armies around there name like all Shades or Cav based army.

Not sure what to do with the dwarves, always make a warmachine heavy army with them...thought about trying a vanguard themed army with them.

[MrMurLock]

Yeah I almost always do it in single player as well!
It works even better with the DE when you unlock their names of power!
My favorite would be Karl Franz though, just having the absolute elite units of the Empire in his army feels very satisfying.

[Darkaiser]

Originally posted by Mr. MurLock:

Yeah I almost always do it in single player as well!
It works even better with the DE when you unlock their names of power!
My favorite would be Karl Franz though, just having the absolute elite units of the Empire in his army feels very satisfying.

I agree. My next Empire playthrough will be Volkmar and bunches of Flagellants to hold the line while shooters tear up the enemy. Unbreakable is the best thing ever!

[Sometimes_Consistent]

With skaven it's a lot of fun. It's very easy there to make pestilens, skyre (spelling?), eshin or mors/moulder armies. And of course slaveswarms.

[Ohio9]

I don't like to have many types of the same unit in one army. All my armies are very mixed. Usually no more then two of the same unit.

I do make adustments based on certain general skills though. For example, my warrior priest generals will always have at least two flangelent units, whereas most of my other armies will never have more then one.

[The Mighty Mulletman]

I do this all the time for all races. Legendary Lords are themed. Generic Lords develope their own themes as the campaign goes on.
They make their own stories and the character grows with it. The other plus is that it makes the battles more varied.

[Darkaiser]

Originally posted by The Mighty Knightly MulletMan:

I do this all the time for all races. Legendary Lords are themed. Generic Lords develope their own themes as the campaign goes on.
They make their own stories and the character grows with it. The other plus is that it makes the battles more varied.

I very much agree here. I had a generic HE lord that had a bow so I gave her all the archery skills and gave her a Seaguard and archer-heavy army. Got ambushed and BOY did she tear them up! I'd bet my normal army could have been slaughtered! I gave her the arty skills and some bolt throwers later on and she was a beast in a siege

[Aenarion]

Originally posted by Darkaiser:

Originally posted by Mr. MurLock:

Yeah I almost always do it in single player as well!
It works even better with the DE when you unlock their names of power!
My favorite would be Karl Franz though, just having the absolute elite units of the Empire in his army feels very satisfying.

I agree. My next Empire playthrough will be Volkmar and bunches of Flagellants to hold the line while shooters tear up the enemy. Unbreakable is the best thing ever!

I've tried this. Unfortunately they're not as good as you think for line holding as they die so quickly. Will definitely give it another go eventually as it is at least cheap for a back up army.

One of my favourite themed armies was an outrider stack with a few heavy cav to protect them from hounds.Artillery+handgunner stacks with a few greatswords and halberdiers to hold the line was also quite fun.

I feel The Empire is more rewarding for this kind of experimentation as they're actually not that well suited to a traditional 'balanced' army. For one thing, their individual troops mostly cannot trade very effectively against enemies of the same type (whether melee, missile or cav) so you have to look for ways to overload the enemy in one category or another.

It's quite different with elven factions, where the missile troops are sufficiently good that at least in early-mid game it's sensible to build an army around them. On my HE games all my armies have a core of seaguard and archers, with assorted swordmasters/cav/dragons/heroes.

[gachi is manly]

I do it a lot, especially if there's good incentive to do so (like Malekith with Black Guard or Skarsnik with Goblins.)

Throgg with an all creature army. Isabella with a flying circus of vampires and monsters. All plague stuff with Skrolk. Kholek with a bunch of DOgres and Shaggoths. You get the idea.

[Macros]

I do it all the time in my high elf campaign - though unit mods can help to vary the roster a bit. Ellyrion/Tiranoc armies are basically full cavalry/chariots, Caledor armies are an assorment of dragons and dragon princes, Saphery has a bunch of swordmasters, loremasters and mages, Chrace has white lions and monsters... All in all, nearly every elven kingdom has a more or less faithfully themed army, with some lords renamed Alarielle, Alith Anar, Eltharion or Imrik.

[Voxrox]

Well, I usually only really try this with the Empire. And preferrably with some added units like Mixu's and other mods, which has Imperial Foot, various knightly orders, the Altdorf Company of Honour, Nuln Ironsides, special Steamtanks etc

Then I try to theme the armies according to the province I designate them (usually they are led by their respective Lord after confed)

So a Nuln/Wissenland army will have like 2 Cannons and 2 Hellfire Rockets (my other armies usually have only one each), lots of halberds and of course gunpowder units. All in all a very advanced, gunpowder based army that however will lack a bit of mobility

A Middenland Army would have stuff like Warrior priests of Ulric, lots of melee swordsmen/Zweihanders (Carroburg Ones), mostly Archers/Crossbows (Drakwald), The Knight's Panther, and maybe not so much artillery. An army focused on attack, overwhelming an enemy head on with brute force - which is not my common way to play Empire

A Nordland Army would have mostly low-cost units - as they are a rather poor and sstruggling Province.

Also Karl Franz - of course mostly a good mix of highest Quality troops, best of the best, Altdorf Company of honour, at least 2 units of Reiksguard, halberds etc. And special units like the Imperial Foot

A generic General I usually rename to Kurt Helborg - he would have a focus more on cavalry, fielding even more Reiksguard, while neglecting ranged power a bit

And so on. Its usually most fun with mods that add units to the provinces to recruit. So you can really "earn" to make these armies. And then you can often find yourself in battles that would not suit your prefered playstyle, which makes it fun imho.

With other races I am not doing this too much or to such a high degree of detail though...