40K Thursday: This Year's New Army

In between all of the other army work I've been doing - and 40K has been a huge focus for me this last month - I got to talking to Blaster about what else we want to do this year. We usually try to build or acquire some new terrain too. We've done hills, trees, and snow terrain in the past. our biggest lack right now is ruins or more sci-fi specific terrain like storage tanks, factory parts, etc. That may become a goal for the year - build a set of terrain for a "ruined city" or "ruined factory" table.

Besides that talk though he mentioned he had thought an Imperial Guard tank army would be fun and I agreed. That's something we could build together and use with our imperial armies as an allied force. We will start with a few and maybe add a piece each month - a tank, a flyer, something like that. By the end of the year we should have a good-sized tank force. I'm not worried about tournament play here, just another army option to have around the house.

The current IG codex, or "Astra Militarum" codex has a Tank Commander as an HQ option. He's an upgrade to a Leman Russ (any type) and has to have at least one other tank attached to him forming a 2-3 tank squadron.  Right now we're probably looking at a Vanquisher for the commander, and an Exterminator as his sidekick. He has orders he can issue (with a decent roll) to let them fire at separate targets so the squadron limitations shouldn't be much of a problem.

For an allied detachment you need one troop choice, and for a full CAD you need two. We're going with the always-popular Veteran squads to answer this need. That gives us some troops on the ground but keeps it at a minimum. We will probably go with plasma guns, maybe melta, for them. We're still discussing transport options but for now they will be on foot for a few games at least. I'd like to get them some Chimeras and even moreso some Valkyries, but that will have to come later.

 That gets us the minimum requirements to field the group: Two tanks, one infantry squad. We won't stop there of course.

For HQ's that don't take up a slot I have my old Rogue Trader Adeptus Mechanics and his three servitors. They've been in a box for decades and now they finally have a reason to hit the table for a real fight. Gotta keep those tanks alive!

I also have a pair of RT psykers in all of their late-80's painted glory and I will be taking them too. This will probably be their first action since ... 2nd edition? Yowch.

I have some commissars of a similar vintage too. I'd say there's a good chance they join in as well - why not? Two vet squads each with a commissar and a psyker are notably more dangerous than basic infantry alone.

Our other immediate acquisition is a pair of standard Leman Russ tanks. It is a tank army after all. There's our heavy support choice.

For Fast Attack our first choice is a Hellhound but it will be a while for that one. We both want some more Leman Russ hulls before we pick the flamer tank up. Valkyries will probably come first here too.

Elites are trickier as we might go with some cheap ratling snipers. We've also talked about some ogryn to guard the rear but those are pretty low on the priority list.

That's enough to get us started. once we have some of this put together I will share pictures. Expect regualr updates on this one through the year.