A Taste of Chaos: Editorial - Another filler post. Unit fillers, that is.

Hi guys, I've had this post ready to go for about two weeks, but with things in real life getting on top I've not had chance to go back and tweak it before I posted it. UNTIL NOW!

Editorial: Unit Fillers

So, what does everyone think about unit fillers?

For those who don't know, live under a rock, or play more childish games like 40K (ooooh snapz!), Unit Fillers are basically models which are used in lieu for the actual models which should make up the unit. They are generally based on a larger base which ranks with the rest of the unit, so if a unit is 20mm, unit fillers are often put on 40mm square bases. Game wise, they have no additional affect, but the equivelant base space they occupy represents the number of models that should be there - so the earlier example would take up four spaces, and count as four models for wound purposes. Confused? Good, I'm terrible at explaining.

There are several different kinds of unit fillers, and several reasons why people do them.

The first is a simple money saving, and time saving, reasons. For larger units, people will spare themselves the monotony of painting more identicle zombies or goblins and instead choose to put a dioroma or terrain piece in.

The second is to add a bit of character to units. A well done diorama (the squabbling animosity orcs model GW produces), or the odd characterful model (again, see the Empire Bear mascot GW produces) can add alot of personality to a unit. And I've seen alot of people using Ogres to bolster their puny ranks at the back, and why not? Many people have older, antique models from over the years which no longer have a place in their front line, so why not add them as a cheeky auxilliary to the back of your squads?

There seems to be alot of debate regarding unit fillers across several forums. Some people love them, and rightly so. If alot of effort has been put into them and they match and enhance the feel of the unit then I'm all for them. A few people dislike them, however, thinking they look out of place and are lazily alternatives to buying and painting models. Again, I kinda agree on this point too, some terrain pieces look out of place in huge units and detract from the "fluid" movement of the group of models, making them look static and stationary as they stand by a huge piece of gothic masonry.
So, coming back round to the topic I want to talk about, are unit fillers worth it? Does my slaanesh army need them?

Well, no, I don't need them. Building my second unit of daemonettes, I have more than enough to make up two full 30 strong units of core. However, I've got a unit filler in the form of a faithful daemonic hound to go alongside my banner bearers. The banners both intrude the model to their right hand sides personal space (the blue flag actually intrudes the one behind it too!), so I've added an OOP Dark Edlar warp beast to my front line.

And, secondly, I've plans for a unit of old OOP metal daemonettes. These guys are pretty pricey, so a few shrewd investments on ebay should help bulk up my unit. But alas, I may need help to fuller fill out the unit to a substsantial size. I got a bargain on eBay for 7 old daemonettes (including command).I found an old daemon prince from that era in my bits box, painted a sexy shade of scoprion green in the same scheme as my Death Guard from around the year 2000. Old school! So after a 10 year slumber in the bits box, I gave him a proper strip, and touched him up. As he's about the same size as a current day chaos spawn, I'm going to make him into a unit filler. As he takes up four spaces in the ranks, and the old crab claw daemonettes cost about £3 each before postage, that should save me around £12.

Unfortunastely, terrain pieces will not be finding their way into my unit. I find them far too static within my fast army, and would look out of place within my ranks.

So, here's a few unit fillers I found trawling the internet. They arn't mine, and look really cool, so I thought you'd like to see them. If any of these are yours, feel free to drop a comment and I'll happily drop your name and website details in either this post or a future post. You are obviously someone who deserve adulation and celebration and if you really want, I'll come round and give you a kiss.
No tongue though.

This is a terrain piece done well, as the bloodletters are on the terrain piece, making it look as if they're moving through the terrain.

I'm not sure why, but I approve of this terrain filler.

The Kislevite is being seduced by three daemonettes. It takes up four models, and uses 3 daemonettes, a net gain of one daemonette! Since they are the rare-as-donkey-shit diaz daemonettes this is a saving of about £100.