I was bored today so when I got a bit of free time I decided to name some of the units from my different armies because it seemed like a neat thing to do. For instance I named one of my hafzas after this guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fakhr-al-Din_II and gave him a backstory. Have you guys ever done anything like this and if you did what did you name your troops?
I've only done this for the Strikezone Wotan event. First it was my liutenant for my Acontecimento army named "Joao Do Santos". He had a backstory of being a veteran from the Paradiso, who during the campaign got involved in some "shifty business" from the Hexaedron. Later in the campaign, as my machinist tended to survive all the matches I played and also managed to gun down some enemies with a few lucky rolls, he also got named as Corporal Jenkins, an ingeneer fallen in disgrace and with a huge debt to pay, forced to enroll to the PanOceania military, and who had some sort of wicked luck that kept him out of harms way even in the heat of battle. Other than that, I don't usually name my troopers, as I prefer more of an "unknown soldier" vibe to my armies.
Rarely. And it doesn't often come up in games. First unit I thought to name was my O-Yoroi, which I named "Kuratas" after the famous-ish Japanese IRL Mech. Picture is the only picture I have. From when I was getting into the game for a second and permanent time. After my Aragoto hacker failed four WIP checks in a row in one game, and twice in the following, I've officially named him "Baka" (Japanese word for fool). Baka's the only one I deride and speak to in game, as it's rather consistent. Didn't really think of much names for the rest, I think I might have thrown the name "Tamayo" at the female CCW Domaru. I got that from a novel I read in '12. I usually use her as my Lt. Other than that, I don't think I named my own units, although I do mentally think that the names of the CrazyKoalas that follow Yojimbo are called Seibei and Uchiteru (like from the movie). That's not my own idea. And pose and say "TOKUSENTAI" when my Haramaki have a particularly lucky roll. When I expanded to generic Yu Jing I didn't name any of the new units, none of them really stood out as a common Lt or particularly successful unit. Wait, I lie. I've got this guy: "Oong" the last Smoke Bender of Huang Di (when I want to play off the Chinese rip-off joke). Or Aang. My best friend for whom I paint Nomads has a few named units. We've got a pretty unique looking Iguana with tattoo like markings which we tried to come up with a good name for, but between tribal names we just end up calling her Iggy which was what stuck. This unique bounty hunter conversion is called ended up being named "Ferdinanda" by his S.O. He ended up liking it because it's an appropriate name for an Assassin because of the Archduke Ferdinand who famously got Assassinated. One of the Jaguars of his is white whom we call "Jeff." And we've got this Morlock we call "Krang" because he looks like the TMNT villain. So really long story short, if the model looks like a reference to something it might be named after that reference. Otherwise the unit's likely unnamed.
There's a few. My BSG Foxtrot is named "Billy" due to her taking down an Anathematic during the reactive turn with an engage + knife crit.
When it comes to game like Infinity where everything consistently dies, and you play the faction which has everyone that matters non-cubed* (with the background justification, no less), it's hard to consider getting attached to anything. Although my friends joke that if I feel like giving them some names, I can just look at star map of southern hemisphere for inspiration * - although frankly, presence of cubes on hassassins is probably the most inconsistent thing I've seen recently. Why do Govads and Ragiks have them, but not, say, Muybs and Farzans? Eh, whatever.
I actually do, but it's mostly for reference at this point. I write the names on the bottom of the bases, and then use those names whenever I need to remember which one has what loadout for the day ("Alright, I got six moderators. Today, Clover is the Lt., Gangu and Davy are armed with Pitchers, Roche got the MSR as usual and Locke is the Paramedic. Jones has the basic loadout"). It just helps me remember better than "the one with grey hair" and "the model with the Spitfire has a MSR". So far, it's mostly for my Moderators though, but I plan on giving more units names as I paint them.
I named some over the last years. First one was in WH40K for my Imperial Guard Sergeant who survived 8 terribly bloody battles by fleeing off board on the last turn only to come back to the next fight. Apparently I never used Commissars . Sergeant Lucca is a converted Orlock Ganger Mini with a double-barrelled Shotgun and Dreadlocks. I still have this Miniature somewhere (That was 17 years ago, stopped playing WH40K 5 years ago, Imperial Guard even longer). Latest addition is Nomad Spektr "Mad-Eye" who up to now killed more people with his mines than with his combi rifle. But he gets additional weapons training in the next skirmishes...
I did it for Flamestrike, then the characters made a comeback for Wotan... it's always easier for Aleph armies, since "Death is no Escape" :p (kudos to whom picks that reference without using google).
@xagroth I just hope that "Doing pretty good job so far" won't trickle into these parts, or at least not for similar reasons ;P
Ehehehehe, I started doing it on Wotan and things really got out of hand from there :D I have a file with all my Morat models names in it, and if I think one of them has died for real I usually write "DEAD" in front of the name, then make up a new name for the new guy who took his place. I even separated them into main or support characters based on how many orders I spent on them and how many awesome stuff they have done. Kinda doing the same for nomads now too. First ones to get names were the Riot Grrls and the Taskmasters/Kriza Boracs. Luna, my taskmaster with Spitfire (or Krisa with MK12) is already racking kills and awesome tales like a badass.
My Female Rasail Lt. is called "Lt. Ripley", everytime she shows she is my MPV shooting and burning to death everything in her path. Even that time when a creepy Speculo alien managed to get to her from behind, Armor Plot protected her and the Speculo was killed.
I named all my humans, while each REM has a two-digit serial number painted on it (when I paint TAGs, I intend to do both). It makes it easy with nothing on my list which mini is the Lt or THAT Combi Rifle guy is the Forward Observer. They are just simple names, however; no references or backstories. Prior to this, I only named two minis. Two of my Gaunts in my 40K Tyranids army. They were both my original colour tests for the scheme I was working on, each with subtly different approaches (to decide which way to do the rest of the army). I think I named them John and Bob, but that was quite some years back now.
I had two named elf spearmen in my elf WHFB army. Both back-rankers. Rose-cross and Gold-star. They were normally the first to die.
All of them. I even named their Company: Sand Cats Tactical Security LLC. These are my Sand Cats, with the Wrecking Belles (Odalisques Core Link team) front and center. And these are the names of the Units. I have to say it's a bit outdated, since that's the Wotan Campaign Roster and I'm making two small changes: Golden Sphinx (Yuan Yuan) has been retired for a long time, and I'm replacing Gwen and her Anaconda "Paladin" with a Riot Grrl named Rita and her new Iguana "Jack Rabbit" (because as soon as I get the actual models not to proxy in official events, the rules change and we can now do so =P)
Every painted miniature gets a name. While the humans get names depending on origin/fluff I've decided for klingon names for my Morat. For me, it gives more character to the game when you move your Chasseur Jules instead of random merovingian guy :P
One of my juris- my dick- tion of corregidor alguaciles has earned himself a name after a game yesterday. Deadeye. His feat: Surviving several exchanges of fire with a spetsnasz hmg from across the board, using only a combi-rifle. Needing 2s to hit and getting a crit in the final fusillade (my opponent scored 3 hits on me but I passed every save prior to this).
Let's see here... I named a Hellcat for the Wotan campaign Major Juan Ramos. I have a converted Aragoto that is painted yellow with black stripes on her suit. I call her The Bride. If I'm playing Public Security Section 9, then all the troops have names, but the Tachikoma are just Tachikoma.
I've written names on the back of every PanO unit I own. I use it to enjoy the fluff more, I enjoy looking into the backgrounds of the unit and trying to get appropriate names but also it's useful for differentiating which unit is the LT or who's the paramedic etc. Sometimes it's callsigns like Battlestar, sometimes last names, most times first names. Tags get "Nicknames" in quotation marks, rather than names like Trevor.
This is what I have so far. most were built out during Wotan. Haqqislam Characters Ghulam Regiment Binbaşı Maih Aafah (Major) Çavuş Palavi Zyah (Unit Doctor) Uzman Onbaşı Haley Tifah (Heavy Weapons Missile Launcher) Onbaşı Fahim Yachel (Heavy Weapons HMG) Onbaşı Asil Tilki (Specialist) Maghariba Guard Kolağası Neith Issa (Maghariba Regiment Pilot) Sekban Unit Teğmen Engin Sadik Çavuş Feray Sadik (Specialist Haris) Uzman Çavuş Thomas Sheffield (Unit Doctor) Uzman Onbaşı Timur Demirchi (Specialist Spitfire) Uzman Onbaşı Serkan Avci (Heavy Weapons HRL) Al’Hawwa Raqib Haroun El-Mofty (Specialist) Raqib Qadir Kader (Specialist) Janissary Corps Kolagasi Tadashi Binici Mülâzım-ı Sani Paavo Kartal Onbaşı Xun Teke Onbaşı Ignatia Macar Çavuş Zandra Solak