WIP - Qilin Command Car (Chimera)

The Lin Guo forces are known for using a variety of locally produced variants of STC vehicles and equipment. All such variants are approved (sometimes grudgingly) by the Mechanicum, and some are even exported to other forces.

One of the most popular variants is the Qilin armored car, a wheeled version of the venerable Chimera armored personnel carrier. Specifications of the Qilin are very similar to the baseline Chimera - although the wheels mean that it performs slightly better on roads and urban environments, and poorly in muck or off-road environments where tracks are superior. The Qilin is quieter than a Chimera, as it has a slightly smaller and more efficient engine, and the ride is considered significantly more comfortable. As a result, it is a highly prised vehicle; especially with urban forces and commanders that wish a bit more comfort than a lumbering tank.

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So here's the first vehicle of my army, a Qilin (Chimera - the Qilin was an ancient Chinese creature that combined the features of many animals, like a chimera). The major difference, obviously, is the use of a Chapterhouse Studio's wheeled chimera conversion kit (here).

But I also wanted to up my modeling game, so to speak... and while this version is the one that I want to use in this list - I may want to change things up a bit. So, with the magic of magnets:

Fully swappable weapons! It occurred to me that this is also a perfect way to "mark" weapon destroyed results... but then, how about "immobilized" results? Hmmmm....

I'm real pleased with how it turned out - looking forward to painting it. I'm trying to think of a clever way of marking hull points & "Shaken/Stunned" - "wrecked" I can remove the turret and flip on its back... destroyed, I'll put down some sort of crater...

My 2013 army

Wow - I suck at this blogging thing.

So, I'm working on my 2013 army - that's kinda how I do things, I build a new army every year. Although I may stick with this one for a while, and just build on it.

I've mentioned that I like to build theme/fluff based armies, and this one is no different. I also talked about "building with constraints", and I've forced a few serious ones on me this time. But, I like how things are turning out.

So I started out by picking a codex. I went round and round on this one, toying with Tau, Chaos, and Eldar. Tau are my favorite looking army in 40k (my anime love), but rumors are that they're getting a new codex this year. I don't want to build up an army only to find that its invalid - so I'll wait on the Tau. Eldar were appealing - mainly because I've never done them in a tournament. But they are expensive to buy (with lots of finecast and metal) and tricky to play - so pass. Chaos (specifically Iron Warriors) almost pulled me in - but they're kinda the flavor of the month, being a relatively new codex. And I expect we'll see a good deal of them this year (particularly the Heldrake), so I moved on.

That left me with Guard and Marines, and I did marines last year. So Guard it is. I started by re-reading the codex, and reading some Black Library fiction. Then a quick visit to some of the competitive sites to see what's hot in guard-land. Chimera walls. Tons of Veterans. Vendetta Spam. Manticores. Well, we'll take none of those, then :) (I'm a glutton for punishment, apparently - in the end I did take 1 squad of Vets, though).

It occurred to me that all the fiction, the awesome power of the Imperial Guard artillery is often described - but I rarely see it in the tourneys I go to. The wheels started turning. At first I looked at the Basilisk and the Manticore, as they both have GW models available. The Manticore I turned away from, because I see tons of them out there ('cause they're good). The Basilisk is slightly rarer, and a mighty fine cannon. But I spent a moment looking at my other three options:

• Medusa - very cool gun, used them several years ago. Also not traditionally true artillery - its more of an assault gun. For those reasons, wanting to try something new & wanting some basic artillery - I moved on.
• Griffon - now we're talking. Highly accurate, decent stats, and cheap. Quite possibly, this could do the trick... but then...
• Colossus - the big daddy. Expensive, but decimates infantry because... no cover. That's right, you can't hide from this fella. And strength 6 barrage ordnance is nothing to laugh at for small vehicles either. Plus, this is what the Imperial Guard artillery is supposed to be. Big, massive, rain of destruction.

So - Colossus it is.

I started out with the "core" of my force - three Colossi, in separate squadrons. There you have it - an Imperial Guard mortar battery.

But that's not a complete 40k army, of course - we need the HQ and 2 Troops, at least.

The HQ was simple - a plain company command squad, with a Master of Ordnance added in for good measure (more boom).

Troops are more problematic - an artillery company isn't necessarily going to have lots of  troops - so I started looking at veterans. But veterans are just that... veterans. They should be on the front lines, not hanging back with the big guns. So, an Infantry platoon. Then, I decided the platoon needed 3 squads - one for each mortar. These are the men who are intended to defend their assigned mortar, and also get drafted into service when its time to unload ammunition and such. I gave each squad an autocannon, to help crack open vehicles.

But then I needed another troop - and I was beginning to think about other things, gamewise and fluff wise:

• A company, fluffwise, needs its "supporting elements" - a commissar, priest(s), engineseers(s), etc.
• Air is king in 6th addition, and I can't mortar them out of the sky - so how to deal with flyers?
• What other types of units support artillery? Spotters, scouts, engineering teams, and other weapon teams...
• Guard suck at HtH - so how to deal with the inevitable assaults

So in the end, I've added:

• A Lord Commissar with Powerfist and Plasma pistol. He goes with the Vets, although I can move him around (which is why I took him rather than the platoon commissar).
• A priest with eviscerator.
• An Engineseer with a servitor, to keep those mortars firing
• A rough rider squad. Hells yes, I said rough riders. One, they make fine spotters. Two, they're low tech (more on that later). Three, they're decent counter-assault. Four, they'll look cool.
• A ratling sniper squad. More spotters/scouts. I plan on modeling them as normal men, rather than ratlings, though...
• A hellhound. Good at keeping skulkers away.
• A veteran squad equipped as Demolition specialists with a heavy bolter... who ride in
• A Valykrie (not a Vendetta. Why? Because everyone takes Vendettas. Silly me).
• Two missile teams attached to the infantry platoon.

Finally, an idea started sinking in while building them out - low tech. In sixth edition, autoguns and lasguns have the same stats - so, as a modeling project, I could give all my troops autoguns, to make them different. This idea grew, until I decided that every unit on the board would use projectile weaponry (except the Commissar - why? Read your fluff - Commissars are always from off-world) to represent a lower tech world's contribution to the might of the Imperium. So, some self imposed constraints:

• The special weapons of choice are Grenade Launcher and Flamers. No plasma or melta.
• The sole chimera (the Company Commander's) is armed with heavy bolter rather than multi-laser.
• The heavy weapons teams are autocannons and missiles - no lascannons.
• I'm going to model the Valkyrie with some sort of auto/assault-like cannon instead of the multi-laser.

There you go. My master plan for 2013. Fluff wise and visually, its pretty awesome (in my opinion). Game wise - well, its interesting. Against power armor and worse infantry, this army destroys. I've played some test games - and it does real well. But (there's always a but) - against Terminators and heavy armor, there are issues. Against terminators, I just gotta hope for volume of fire. Against AV 13/14, well, I need some luck. Imperial Guard missile teams and Veterans with melta bombs are it. That being said, I do like this list, and look forward to playing it this year.

And for the record - if I was going to play in a highly competitive environment, I would lose the rough riders and priest (at least), and start passing around plasma guns...

Design by constraints

Sorry about the delay - I don't know how the regular bloggers do it every day :)

One of the most powerful tools, in my opinion, in designing your army is the use of constraints. Now we're all used to some for of constraint - nearly every game out there has some form of limitation on how you create your force. Points, FOC charts, unit size restrictions - all these and more enforce a set of rules that constrain the choices you can make.

But that's not what I'm talking about here - I'm talking about self imposed constraints. Limitations that you place upon yourself in order to challenge yourself or to shape the composition of your force.

Constraints can be an interesting way to improve your game. The way this type of limitation works is this: Perhaps there is a unit that you always take. You've designed your force around it, and all of your opponents have come to expect the presence of the unit. So for a game (or more): Don't take it. Force yourself out of the comfort zone and see how you do without this unit. Surprise your opponent. The unexpected can be powerful, and you'll sharpen your skills without relying on your go-to unit. This is a great thing to try with those units that you consider auto-include. Another way to do this is the opposite approach: Those units you find to be useless, pointless, worthless - give them a try. Stretch your tactical muscles. See if your skills can lift up a mediocre unit. Maybe something isn't as bad as your feared.

Note, I'm not recommending this approach for those of you who are in-it-to-win-it on tournament day - these sorts of experiments should be done in friendly games, leading up to the big day and helping you to be a more skilled player. In many games, the dice can be cruel, or there are effects that might remove your favorite unit - so make sure you practice some without it.

For me, I apply constraints as a way to build a fluffy or thematic list. When I come up with an idea for a force, somes story describing the army I'm building, one of the first things I do is to ask myself what units are required, and just as important, what units should be restricted or prohibited so that my force is "true" to the concept or theme.

As an example, in the 40k fluff, the White Scars don't use dreadnaughts (it's there, go read the old Adeptus Astartes books). So, in building my sons' White Scar list we're not taking any dreadnaughts (even though they are cool). And obviously he's taking bikes :) Two constraints that are not in any way required by the rules, but certainly contribute to the thematic integrity of the list.

All of this is leading up to my current 40k, Infinity, and Heavy Gear projects. More on that later...

How did I survive all those years...

....without knowing about superglue accelerant?

Zip Kicker is awesome. I couldn't do my Infinity figs without it.

Test figure for my IG scheme...

So here's the first figure for an Imperial Guard force that I'm thinking about building...

Need to clean up the base, and maybe add some grass or rocks...

I like it. Think I'll stay with it.

Theme Based Army Building

In theory, all army building is theme based. Your theme could be "A list that crushes all my opponents before me and makes them cry".

But usually, that's not what people mean when they talk about a theme. When I say that, I'm referring to some aesthetic, artistic, or story-based concept that is applied to a force that usually ties your army together visually as well as tactically.

The most basic of themes is your paint job - making all the units follow a standard color scheme can transform those plain grey & metal figures into a solid representation of a unified force. A good paint job can pull together units that normally might seem odd to be together - but somehow, when they're all painted the same way... ta da! They're an army!

Another type of theme is the "iconic" army - this force is constructed in such a way that others viewing it on the table immediately recognize it for what it is - because not only are the figures from the given army list, but your choices fall in line with the established fluff.

Consider, for a moment, Space Marines. By everything you read, the vast majority of your force should be tacticals (unless you're doing a specialty force, but more on that later). Everything you read about the Emperor's boyz would suggest that most forces are made up of large amounts of your basic line trooper, the tactical marine. This flies in the face of common competitive tactics (considering that tacticals are overpriced and not as flexible as the fluff makes them out to be). But visually, a large number of 10 man tactical squads on the board just screams "Space marines".

Finally, there are the "specialists". Deathwing and Ravenwing. The 10th company. A specific craftworld. Speed Freaks. Armored Fist. These more specific themes can really be evocative and look great on the board - the trick is, to truly represent your theme and not "cheat" by adding some choice units which in theory shouldn't belong ("Why yes, my scout company just happened to be joined by a terminator squad and two riflemen dreads...")

This leads me into my next project, an Imperial Guard army. But I didn't want to just sit down and throw together the usually suspects (Vendettas, MeltaVets, Manticores) - I wanted a theme. So I'm building an Imperial Guard mortar battery. In the next few articles, I'm going to describe how I've planned this out and then blog about my efforts...

My next project

So I'm starting a new project, an Imperial Guard army. In the next days/weeks/months, I'll put up the idea for the theme, but for now here's a test figure to see if I like the plan: