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...