Fluffy: can it be competative.

The first question, the oldest question in the universe... No, not that one for those that watch Dr Who. Can my army be both fluffy AND competitive?

I'm talking about real fluff, not those that run Dual Ironblasters/gutstar and call it fluff. The type of army where when your getting ideas about it and reading the army book/codex and see for example a city or a theme and stick to it, even creating your own fluff about your army to match the way that your color scheme is going.

What is fluff
For those that do not know what fluff is, it's not the stuffing from a teddy bear. It's the lore behind the army. The "backstory" as you will. The part of the army book/codex a lot of people skip over at first to look up how much this uber lord can take and what certain things do. It's the reason your paying 50 bucks for a book these days. In it, you learn about cities like Hag Grief, Lustria, Brettonia, Sylvania, Where ever the hell those damn tomb kings come from, Why orcs fight, Why gw likes to throw tentacles on everything slaanesh, etc.

Examples of Fluffy and competitive armies:
Orcs and goblins is an army that you can be both fluffy and competitive with. You want an army with nothing but orcs that go out and WAAAAGGGGHHH and smash? you got it. Want an army of little night goblins? It's got you covered. I have yet to see a bad orcs and goblins list that didn't have some sort of competitive nature to it and still have fluff tied to it.

Empire is another example of an army that can be fluffy and competitive. Say you want to set out and do a lot of shooting. It's got you covered in spades. You also have access to all the rule book lores so your never out of the loop when it comes to magic, and you also have great combat armies that can keep with the fluff.


Now, I can contend that every army has the chance to be fluffy and competitive. Mainly due to how all 8th edition army books, and how all 6th edition 40k codex's are written. This isn't to say that every army is created equal. It's to say that you can still be fluffy and still be competitive with a book. A fluffy tomb king army will not be able to stand against a fluffy Khorne deamon army, but then again, that's the nature of the beast.

Also, There is of course the "codex creep" as it's referred to. I have seen very effective wood elf lists that also included fluffy units. Although, I have yet to see any that have actually won a tournament as of late. I refer to wood elfs because it is currently the "weakest" of the army books and also one of the oldest. I will say that, in my own opinion, that the average skilled player playing a fluffy wood elf list will not be able to beat a fluffy tomb king's list due to the tomb kings being written for 8th edition and wood elfs being written for 6th.

The 40k side is even more prevalent to this issue of a codex creep. Every army that came out at the tale end of 5th edition was superior to the last. Fluff had no concept in these books, it was, can I get this big ass gun on this squad and how many of them can I squeeze into the points limit.With the release of the two books for 6th edition tho, I am seeing more of a focus on the fluff and how people can make a fluffy army.

So, When choosing your army remember, Fluff can be competitive. Just don't try to say that your teclis beatdown show is fluffy ;)