Op-ed: The Most Creative Armies GW Ever Made
GW has over 40 armies across Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar. Some are pure creative masterpieces. Here they are:
Over the last 30 years, GW has carved out a creative niche for itself, across both the fantasy and sci-fi genres. In the early days, they were heavily influenced by the existing universes and tropes of the day. You can find influences in their games from:
- Lord of the Rings
- Star Wars
- Star Trek
- Dune
- Starship Troopers
- Judge Dredd
- Alien
- Hellraiser
- The Elric Saga
- Terminator
- etc…
You can put many of their armies on a spectrum of “trope-ish”, to wholly unique. As the years passed by GW slowly but surely discarded many of the tropes and invented factions that are completely their own. These are our selections for the armies we are most impressed with, that stand on their own two feet with little to borrow from other factions in the genre.
Kharadron Overlords
The most creative reinvention of Dwarfs out there. The sky-pirates with a lust for aether-gold, floating pirate ships, and all kinds of funky hot air balloon elements are amazing. The Kharadron Overlords showcased how GW could take a tired trope like Tolkien dwarfs and push them into something totally unique.
Nurgle (Daemons)
Chaos as a concept is a very GW piece of IP. But even within it, Khorne is very traditional folk-lore demons, Slaanesh has temptress/Hellraiser elements, and Tzeentch has a lot of scheming wizard mixed into it. But jovial, fat Grandfather Nurgle, the entire gardening elements and horror mixed with humor is really something unique. There’s a reason Nurgle is so popular!
Adeptus Mechanicus
We’ve seen cyborgs all over the place, but Adeptus Mechanicus is a unique alloy. You have the cyborgs, the steampunk aesthetic mixed with body modification, mixed with gothic religious ignorance and dogmatic certainty. It’s fantastic. Also hovercraft!
Idoneth Deepkin
These guys are just weird. Like 11s on the 1-10 scale of creatively funky. Soulless bald sea-elves who ride fish, yet raid the land… for souls. Let’s not forget the spectral shipwrecks they bring with them. What’s not to like? People had been asking GW for men-fish for decades and got more than they ever bargained for!
Skaven
The nefarious ratmen who never win and never give up have been a unique GW staple for decades. As they have been moved into the Age of Sigmar and become every more steampunk and about their crazy machines with no concern for operator safety – they’ve only gotten better! They tried to blow up the moon for god’s sake! All hail the Skaven!
~Did we miss any? Who’s on your list for most creative armies?
