40k chess set loadout

[marvmoogy]

I though this would be a really cool, original idea.....until I did a google search :(

 

But, undeterred, I'm planning to make myself a 40k chess set!  Due to size, all the minis will need to fit on 40mm bases.

 

What i was hoping of though, was some ideas on the loadout.  Naturally, the pawns will be made up by tactical marines, but what would you do for the rooks, knights, bishops king an queen.

 

Bishops, by namesake if nothing else, will be covered by Chaplains, but I'm really not sure about what else to use.  Maybe Knights = robed jump pack marines?  I also want to keep it as cheap as possible!

 

So, the questions:

What would you use for:

Rooks

Knights

Bishops

Queen

King

and why?

 

Also, what to use for the opposing side?  Naturally we'd assume to use Chaos marines...but I fancy painting something non-power armoured as Im working my way slowly through paining a battle company so want a change!  I'm not too up on the enemies of the imperium, but I do like Eldar minis.

 

So, next set of questions.....what 'enemy' would you use, why, and what would the make up of the pieces be?

 

Cheers all - hope this will be an interesting WIP when I get the pennies together to get it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brother Guyus]

Not a bad idea, would be nice to see it pulled off. If it was me, I would go with this:

 

Rooks: Devastator or assault marines
Knights: Terminators
Bishops: Chaplains

Queen: Librarian

King: Chapter master/Captain.

 

As for an opposing force, if not Chaos, then I would pick between Eldar, Necrons or Orks. I think Eldar are probable the best choice there.

 

Pawns: Eldar Guardians

Rooks: Rangers

Knights: Dark Reapers

Bishops: Warp Spiders

Queen: Farseer

King: Avatar of Khaine.

 

Of course, this is just my opinion, hope it helps in someway!

[roninmodern]

As this is in the DA forum, I'm going to assume that DA characters are useable.

 

King: Azrael

Queen: Ezekiel

Bishops: Chaplains

Knights: Assault Marines

Rooks: Terminators

Pawns: Tactical Marines

 

You could then almost entirely mirror this for the opposing side by making it a Fallen force with Cypher as the king.

[Skylar D'Forge]

I would say, make the 'pawns', Impeiral Guard and then have the 'knights' as Space marines!

 

And Excuse me If I am wrong but, the 'Rook' is the 'castle' right? So I would think they would be great as terminators!

[Ravenfeld]

Well if price wasn't an issue I would:

 

Rook - Dreadnaught / Devastator -

 

I always picture Rooks as being very solid and hard, that translates very well to a Dreadnaught in my opinion, and having a venerated one bring up your flank is never a bad thing! Barring that I think a Dev with a Lascannon would represent the straight line destruction quite well. Vote Dreadnaught.

 

Knight - Assault Marine / Biker -

 

Either of these could work, the biker obviously has a more pronounced similarity, but the strange movement of the knight could easily be represented by the assault marine. Jumping at odd angles to get in the perfect kill. Vote Assault Marine.

 

Bishop - Chaplain / Librarian -

 

Really this just makes the most sense as you stated. Yet I think the Libby works just as well, and perhaps makes more sense in the 'advisory' role I perceive bishops to have when dealing with royalty. Either would work.

 

Queen - Librarian / Chaplain -

 

Same train of logic, save that I actually feel the Chaplain is best suited here because of the Queens killing power.

 

King - Captain / Chapter Master -

 

A natural fit, if you wanted to do a specific fight you could do Ultras vs Black Legion and have Marneus Calgar vs Abaddon! I think that would be pretty rad.

[marvmoogy]

cheers for all the replies so far guys.

 

dI'd love the dreadnought idea, but the base is too big for the board I've measured up - hence the 40mm base limit.  I'd also love to use the named characters, but I think it'll just cost too much.  I could use the minis from my army, but I think it'd be nice to have this out on display.

[Isiah]

I assume this is for a DA chess set? If not I'll move it to the Amicus Aedes section.

King: Azrael

Queen: - Mrs Azrael (hmmm this is a tricky one but assuming the Queen is the most powerful piece yet ranked second in command then maybe Ezekiel

Bishops: one Librarian (white squares), one Interrogator-Chaplain (black squares)

Knights: Ravenwing Black Knights or bikers

Rooks: Deathwing Knights or Terminators

Pawns: a mixture of Tactical marines and/or just Scouts

of course one could build a pure DW themed set thus:

King: Belial

Queen: DW Standard Bearer

Bishops: one Librarian in termy armour, one Int-Chaplain in termy armour

Knights: DW Knights

Rooks: Dreadnoughts with tl-las and ml

Pawns: DW termies.

Great fun

Cheers

I

[marvmoogy]

sorry - yes its for DAs...and i'm afraid the whole DW option isn't an option - I can't afford £200-odd just on the minis! lol

[Skorpion]

Love the Idea: Would you mind if I tried a similar idea with my Blood Angels?

 

King: Commander Dante

Queen: Librarian

Bishops: Chaplain

Knights: Assault Marine

Rooks: Terminators

Pawns: Scouts

 

Black Legion Idea:

 

King: Abaddon

Queen: Sorcerer

Bishop: Dark Apostle

Knights: Raptors/ Warp Talons

Rooks: Terminators/ Obliterators

Pawns: Cultists

[Isiah]

Here's on with SM tanks:

 

King: LR Crusader (short range deadly)

Queen: LR (long range deadly)

Bishops: Techmarines with servitors, or Vindies

Knights: Whirlwinds (reflecting the Knights' ability to leap over other pieces to cause damage)

Rooks: Preds all-lascannon (seriously killy at range)

Pawns: Dreadnoughts (yeah seriously cool), or Rhinos :)

 

Cheers

I

[pueriexdeus]

I have been thinking of this for years. Though I am a DA player I am not interested in making it DA centric, but more as a 40K chess set.

Idealizing the proper pieces to be used has brought me the the following conclusions.

 

King; A suitably blinged out Space Marine Commander, DA Company Master, Belial, Kaldor Draigo

Queen; Sisters of Battle Canoness, Mistress of Repentance, Female Grey Knight Inquisitor

Bishop; Sisters of Battle Arch-confessor Kryinov, Imperial Guard Techpriest Enginseer

Knight; SM Vanguard Veterans

Rook; Suitably Blinged out Terminator w/TH, SS, Darnath Lysander

Pawns; Scouts in assorted configurations.

 

My reasoning for this type of setup is that I believe it will easily represent international standards for chess pieces. Anyone who has played chess should have no problem identifying the pieces and their position.

 

***edit SP***

[Rizara]

Pawns: Tactical marines

Knights:  Assault squads, give em power weapons, jump packs, and tabards.

Rooks: Death Wing knights, nothing says immovable castle like a termie with storm shield.  Robed ones just add to the flavor.  Could go with storm shield and Thunderhammer.

Bishop:  Chaplains.

Queen:  Librarian

King:  Master, probably Belial would fit best, as he would be in terminator armor and imposing.  

 

Opposing side.  Fallen.

Similar models, just chaos them up a little, and go with opposites.  

Pawn:  Fallen Marines

Knights: Fallen Raptors

Rooks:  Fallen terminators, or fallen obliterators.

Bishops:  Possessed Marines, cause Fallen won't have much in the way of chaplains, but mutated guys would spread chaos nicely.

Queen: Sorcerer

King:  Fallen Chaos Champion, in terminator armor, or matching armor to normal DA set.  

 

This setup would make it easier to actually play and remember what is what no matter what side your on. 

[Ordo Machinum]

Here's on with SM tanks:

King: LR Crusader (short range deadly)

Queen: LR (long range deadly)

Bishops: Techmarines with servitors, or Vindies

Knights: Whirlwinds (reflecting the Knights' ability to leap over other pieces to cause damage)

Rooks: Preds all-lascannon (seriously killy at range)

Pawns: Dreadnoughts (yeah seriously cool), or Rhinos

Cheers

I

Love it, though I'd change to:

Bishops: Preds w/ Heavy Bolter spons and Twin-linked Lascannon

Rooks: Vindicators

...and definitely keep Pawns: Dreadnoughts FTW!

Techmarine might seem lost amidst such a grand gameboard. Although, you could model a few on the tank/dread bases.

[Brother Tyler]

Hmmm...in the past I've approached this strictly from the perspective of colors - black, red, and white being the three traditional colors.

 

King - Standard Bearer

Queen - Captain/Chapter Master/Champion

Bishop - Chaplain/Librarian/Techmarine/Apothecary

Knight - Assault/Vanguard Veterans

Rook - Terminators

Pawn - Tactical

 

Why the Standard Bearer instead of Captain/Chapter Master/Champion as the King? Well, despite the King being the most valuable piece on the board, he is really the least potent. The Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. Applying a 40K methodology, it would be counterintuitive for the Chapter Master/Captain/Champion to be so vulnerable and avoid combat. Symbolically, however, no one would want their battle standard to be captured. So putting the most powerful character in the role of the most powerful piece (Queen) and putting the hallowed (and protected) relic in the role of the protected King seems more appropriate (to me).

 

The flexibility in the Bishop allows for variation while still having "priests" in the role. A black army might use Chaplains, a red army might use Techmarines, and a white army might use Apothecaries. If you don't want two of the same type as Bishops, you can always put a Librarian on the other side, give him the appropriate colored armour for the side (red, black, white), and indicate his psyker-ness with a blue tabard.

 

The alternate for the Knight was the biker, but those tend to be too large. Besides, the move of the Knight seems to be rendered better by a jump pack.

 

The alternate for the Rook was a Sternguard or a Devastator, but neither of these set the role apart from the Tactical squad role well. The rock hard nature of Terminators seemed to work better, too.

 

Tacticals as Pawns require no explanation, as most other players setting up a pure Space Marine army for a chess set tend to default here.

 

Now in the past, I've planned this around Black Templars versus Word Bearers or Blood Angels versus Black Legion (classic red versus black).

 

Applying the above to the Dark Angels presents an interesting challenge. It would be quite simple to simply apply green paint in place of one of the three standard colors, but then you run into the Chapter's idiosyncratic use of three different color schemes (not including the specialists). A "properly" painted Dark Angels side using the appropriate thematic colors would have a mostly green army, Bishops in weird colors, and Terminators in bone white. You might paint everyone in green, but purists would likely wrinkle their noses. Personally, I recommend the Fallen as the black army, and the use of Cypher in opposition to the Grand Master/Company Master (Queen in my army) seems like a great idea. So Fallen as black. So if you want to stick to the more traditional colors (instead of a green Dark Angels army), the red robed Guardians of the Covenant or the bone white Angels of Absolution might work in opposition to the Fallen. Either/both of these might be painted with all pieces in red/white without offending anyone that is tied to "correct" colors.

[marvmoogy]

Love the Idea: Would you mind if I tried a similar idea with my Blood Angels?

 

King: Commander Dante

Queen: Librarian

Bishops: Chaplain

Knights: Assault Marine

Rooks: Terminators

Pawns: Scouts

 

Black Legion Idea:

 

King: Abaddon

Queen: Sorcerer

Bishop: Dark Apostle

Knights: Raptors/ Warp Talons

Rooks: Terminators/ Obliterators

Pawns: Cultists

 

I'd love others to try it out!  Fingers crossed, I'll get the first piece of wood at the weekend - I'll make a thread in the WIP section.  Do the same and share how you're getting on!

[elmo]

Just I can't wait to see this

My idea would be that as the pawns should be smaller than the rear rank I would go something like this

King: Belial

Queen: Chaplain in TDA (just like the idea of the Chappy moving in all directions smacking the heretic)

Bishops: Libbies in TDA

Knights: Ravenwing (who else :)) you could model these doing a wheelie to fit the smaller base

Rooks: Terminators with ML

Pawns: Tactical Marines

Not the cheapest option.... but would look great

[Grotsmasha]

I'm actualky partial to Brother T's suggestion for a standard bearer for King, and having the Force Commander as Queen. I also think Orks would be a good counter army

 

King: Standard, although not particularily orky.

Queen: Warboss

Bishop: Weird Boyz

Knight: Storm Boy

Rook: Mega armour Nob

Pawn: Gretchin/Snotling base.

 

Cheers,

Jono

[Aegnor]

Surely the hapless cannon foddd... er pawns have to be Imperial Guard?

 

I think terminators are best used as rooks.

 

Assault Marines with jump packs as knights.

 

A librarian and a techmarine as bishops - representing learned advisors.

 

If not for the base size restriction, I'd nominate Sammael as the queen piece. Instead, Asmodai as the Queen.

 

Azrael as the King.

 

For a general Imperial set, I'd say IG for pawns, Leman Russ's for rooks, SM commanders for knights, Inquisitors for bishops, a titan (obv. not to scale) for queen and the Emperor on the Golden Throne as king.

 

For Eldar: Avatar as King, Farseer as Queen, Dire Avenger Exarchs as bishops, Warp Spiders as knights, Wraithguard as rooks, guardians as pawns.

 

For Orks: Ghazkhull as king, Weirdboy as queen, nobz as bishops, stormboyz as knights, big mekz as rooks, gretchin as pawns.

[Brother Tyler]

Surely the hapless cannon foddd... er pawns have to be Imperial Guard?

This really depends on the theme of the set/army.

 

If the theme is the Imperium, then Imperial Guardsmen would seem appropriate as pawns. On the other hand, if the theme is Space Marine, then players are more likely to select either Tactical squad Space Marines or, occasionally, Scouts.

 

On the perspective of enemies, you really have to consider who your opponent(s) might be. In my case, I'm more likely to play chess against opponents that have little or no understanding/concern for Warhammer 40,000. So for me, both sides would have to be close enough in appearance that my opponent(s) will clearly recognize what the WH40K minis represent in terms of standard chess pieces. For me, having the opposing sides represented by analogous pieces is preferred - Chaos Space Marines and loyalist Space Marines can be modeled close enough in appearance that the black and white queens, etc. are obvious. A more cautious approach that I will probably incorporate is adding the standard chess piece designations as decorations around the bases. The pawns will probably be on standard bases without decoration, but the pieces in the back row will very likely be elevated with wooden stands. An alternate method might be to incorporate the standard chess piece designations in paint upon the armour, possibly on the right shoulder pads or tilt shields (this might detract from the theme, though, so isn't necessarily recommended for diehard WH40K enthusiasts). Choosing a dramatically different army reduces the recognizability (and apparently I just made that word up because I'm getting the red squiggles) for the opponent. Careful model choices might mitigate this somewhat (i.e., if both sides have knights, and only knights, represented by jump pack models).

 

Just a note, further discussion of the hypothetical chess sets needs to restrict itself to the armies covered here at the B&C. So please, no further suggestions for xenos pieces. I know we all have them (I have them myself), but they are not part of the B&C. Feel free to communicate your xenos ideas to the OP via PM if you want.

 

+EDIT+

 

And this is marvmoogy's discussion in the Dark Angels forum, so I want to keep talking within his parameters. If anyone is interested in a wider "WH40K" chess set discussion/project, however, let me know and we'll set something up. I have some wider ideas on the subject, but I'm trying to confine my comments to answer marvmoogy's question.

[marvmoogy]

 

Surely the hapless cannon foddd... er pawns have to be Imperial Guard?

This really depends on the theme of the set/army.

 

If the theme is the Imperium, then Imperial Guardsmen would seem appropriate as pawns. On the other hand, if the theme is Space Marine, then players are more likely to select either Tactical squad Space Marines or, occasionally, Scouts.

 

On the perspective of enemies, you really have to consider who your opponent(s) might be. In my case, I'm more likely to play chess against opponents that have little or no understanding/concern for Warhammer 40,000. So for me, both sides would have to be close enough in appearance that my opponent(s) will clearly recognize what the WH40K minis represent in terms of standard chess pieces. For me, having the opposing sides represented by analogous pieces is preferred - Chaos Space Marines and loyalist Space Marines can be modeled close enough in appearance that the black and white queens, etc. are obvious. A more cautious approach that I will probably incorporate is adding the standard chess piece designations as decorations around the bases. The pawns will probably be on standard bases without decoration, but the pieces in the back row will very likely be elevated with wooden stands. An alternate method might be to incorporate the standard chess piece designations in paint upon the armour, possibly on the right shoulder pads or tilt shields (this might detract from the theme, though, so isn't necessarily recommended for diehard WH40K enthusiasts). Choosing a dramatically different army reduces the recognizability (and apparently I just made that word up because I'm getting the red squiggles) for the opponent. Careful model choices might mitigate this somewhat (i.e., if both sides have knights, and only knights, represented by jump pack models).

 

Just a note, further discussion of the hypothetical chess sets needs to restrict itself to the armies covered here at the B&C. So please, no further suggestions for xenos pieces. I know we all have them (I have them myself), but they are not part of the B&C. Feel free to communicate your xenos ideas to the OP via PM if you want.

 

+EDIT+

 

And this is marvmoogy's discussion in the Dark Angels forum, so I want to keep talking within his parameters. If anyone is interested in a wider "WH40K" chess set discussion/project, however, let me know and we'll set something up. I have some wider ideas on the subject, but I'm trying to confine my comments to answer marvmoogy's question.

 

Hi Brother Tyler,

 

Thanks for some of the suggestions there - I like the idea of raised plinths for the more powerful characters and the designations on the shoulder pads.

 

Re: another thread - I think it would be great as it'll give me even more ideas!  I posted here as I am a DA player and ideally want DAs as one of the sides...but non-DA suggestions are welcome!

 

Cheers,

MM

[Aegnor]

The other thing you could do for a DA set is have Watchers in the Dark as pawns.

 

Might get expensive though unless you have luck on a bitz site.

[EPK]

Nice Brother Tyler - makes perfect sense for the King to actually be represented by a Standard Bearer.

 

For DA I would more or less take Isiah's list with that change.

 

 

King: Standard Bearer (an iconic representation of the chapter, aka what the king is to his kingdom in chess)

Queen: Azrael (it is the most powerful piece on the board after all)

Bishops: one Librarian (white squares), one Interrogator-Chaplain (black squares)

Knights: Ravenwing Black Knights (might as well go with the elite KNIGHT bikers after all)

Rooks: Deathwing Knights (same as above, why settle for just normal Terminators)

Pawns: Tactical Marines (we don't need no stinkin' scouts)

[Isiah]

I'd buy that :)

 

Cheers

I

[Quixus]

King: Commander Dante

Make it Gabriel Seth, Dante is too mobile for the king.

Queen: Librarian

How about Mephiston? He is unique just like the queen.

Bishops: Chaplain

Knights: Assault Marine

Rooks: Terminators

Pawns: Scouts

Good ideas.

 

King: Abaddon

I'd say any greater daemon.

Queen: Sorcerer

I'd put Abaddon here. He is one of the most powerful agents of the Ruinous powers in the material universe.

[marvmoogy]

Right guys....the plans are evolving....I'll be doing some maths tonight and will post the board layout later.  Fingers crossed, I'll have the first part of the board made at the weekend!