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Theming your army

One of our players (Hagen Kerr) wrote an article published in White Dwarf 253 about creating a themed army. Games Workshop has published much over the years on the subject of army themes, but for your convenience a synopsis of the ideas is below:

Step 1: Choose a background - this outlines some idea of where your army came from, and what has shaped their fighting style. This provides a basis for how the army is constructed and what units you will use in preference above others.

Step 2: Decide on a paint scheme - we're assuming you've already done this…

Step 3: Name your characters - giving your heroes or heroines (or villains) a name so that your opponent knows full well who was their nemesis on the battlefield.

Step 4: Decide on any army list restrictions - this is to help make your mind up in factoring how your army is presented on the tabletop

Inquisitors and Imperial Assassins

Now these are two of the most difficult characters to use effectively within the theme for your army. How many tournament Space Marine armies have you seen with an Imperial Assassin in it? A few, I'll wager, with no rhyme or reason to why other than the army list doesn't say you can't take one. Believe me, there isn't much reason to take an Imperial Assassin save for special scenarios that you might play with your regular gaming group. Too often they are used to fulfil a role that an army doesn't have the troops for (Eversor or Calidus Assassin in a Guard army, anyone?), with no thought to what their actual mission might be.

You can follow a couple of simple guidelines in the way Inquisitors and Imperial Assassins are used. For instance, an Inquisitor may be attached to an army that he has commandeered to investigate some alien threat to the Imperium. The Exorcists Space Marine Chapter have quite a large involvement with the Inquisition (see www.Armageddon3.com), and therefore it would be quite reasonable to include an Inquisitor in this force. Blood Angels (or their successor Chapters) with their unstable geneseed would be much less likely to have an Inquisitor appearing in their ranks.

If you want to take an Assassin in your army, you might want about using them with the following restrictions:
· You may not take an Imperial Assassin with any Space Marine army that does not have a cordial relationship with the Inquisition (Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Dark Angels spring to mind - you be the judge of any others)
· You must take an Inquisitor as the "commander" of the Imperial Assassin (so 1x HQ plus 1x Elite slot)
· You must give your Imperial Assassin a mission for the game - e.g. "Kill the Farseer and Retinue", or "Destroy the Leman Russ Demolisher". This "mission" must be made aware to your opponent before the battle. Your Assassin must make as direct a path as possible to the enemy unit in question (feel free to engage any enemy units that block your way to the target). Once they have successfully completed their mission they are removed from the table at the beginning of your next turn (slipping away through the undergrowth to their next pick-up point).

Theming your army can be a very rewarding experience for you as well as your opponents. The level of involvement and effort is entirely up to you - not all armies require a lot of work to come up with a suitable background for why they exist and what their function is, so there's really no excuse not to give it a go!