I didn't get a whole lot more done this week - just one more squad of neo-Praetorians. Animal acquisitions took priority this week. So yes we added a few more critters (local cat rescue) and getting them sorted out before the impending deep freeze meant almost no mini-working time. I was trying to get the command squad for this unit done as well and it will probably happen over the weekend as the M&M game will be cancelled due to weather so I will have some extra time.
IG infantry squads are a little strange now. They start at a 10-man unit but they can go up to 20. Now that's not strange as in prior editions you could go up to 30. The weird quirk is that you get two sergeants, and potentially two comms guys. You also still have the ridiculous weapon restrictions per-squad so it's no more than 2 of any special weapon per 20 man squad when you can take 4 total. So instead of taking say 4 plasma guns you can only take 2, and then the other 2 have to be something else.
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| Pretty much took all the options I didn't take in the first squad - Sgt has the autogun, took comms guy, various alternate poses like the grenade-tosser |
This is another just plain dumb rule coming from the policy that a squad can only be comprised of what comes in the box. By definition, when building a guard infantry army I am going to be adding multiple boxes of guard infantry. In my case I am aiming for probably 3 of those big squads with a couple of 10-man units available for moving around or riding in chimeras. So around 100 infantrymen. This means I might want to specialize my squads into particular loadouts. Among other things this makes them easier to run as taking say, a pair of melta guns means I have one extra weapon type to worry about. Instead, what we get is having to take a melta and a grenade launcher (this is in one 10-man squad) which means I have two weapon stat lines to track alongside the ever-present lasguns. It could be worse - check out Plague Marine squad options sometime - but in a guard army which tends to be all about uniformity it really stands out.
With 10th edition they brought back leaders joining units - which I like - but with guard it's not just individual characters. You can have a 5-man command squad join up, which gives you a 25-man unit, and then you can have another character join it - like a commissar or a castellan or something similar. So one "squad" ends being a 26-man unit with all kinds of different guns and gear and special rules mixed in. I mean, it's kind of cool to have this level of customization in 10th - as it's rare these days - but it is a little strange to put it together as a new component in 2026. Oh, and you can then add in an ogryn bodyguard too, so 27 men, er, "unit members".
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| Inspiration |
Then of course the command squad causes further weapon loadout chaos as two of the five members can take special weapons ... and the set comes with 2 complete sets of each: flamer, plasma, melta, grenade launcher. There are no restrictions on doubling up. So a 10-man infantry squad can only take one of any given type, but a 5-man command squad can take two?!
Now one of the tropers who can take a special weapon is also the guy who starts with a banner so in a big squad like I'm talking about here the +1 OC is almost required. An OC bump on a 20-something man unit is just too potent to ignore. But ... you don't have to merge your command squads into another squad - they can run around on their own, say in a vehicle, and that would be a good place to take double plasma, for instance.
Though this does mean that if most of my command squads are going into large ground-pounding infantry squads, well, I'm going to have an extra set of special weapons left over from each. Those sure would look nice in the hands of say, another line trooper in there ... but no. GW says that's just too much!
So you could end up with a 27-man squad with 4 melta guns, 2 grenade launchers, 16 lasguns, 3 pistols of various types, possibly an autogun on one of the sergeants, and a ripper gun on the ogryn. Simple, eh?
And yes, I'm the guy that bought 4 combat patrols when I found a deal a year or two back so I have options and I doubt I'm the only one to do that ... it's the Guard! You can't go small building a guard army! I have a fair amount of older stuff but I'm trying to start fresh with this army and make it conform to all of the modern ... innovations ... of 10th and 11th edition 40K ... however that turns out.
And for any old-timers that might be wondering no, you can't flip two guys to a heavy weapons team in each squad anymore. They only come in the separate unit now. It was not always the best choice even in the old days but it was an easy way to drop a lascannon into your gunline and have it shielded by the rest of the squad. Not anymore!
Anyway there's the latest on the Praetorian Project! More next week!
