Topic: Starting 40k Planetery Defense theme

[orcyboy]

An old buddy of mine decided he wanted to get back into gaming, specifically 40k and he’s suckered me into starting 40k again as well.
I haven’t touched 40k in almost 20 years so I have a few questions.

I really want to build an army around a Rogue Trader concept as in a commissioned Rogue Trader traveling the galaxy with a sort of ad hoc army of Imperial Army/Guard, Marines, ships crew and miscellaneous abhumans. (to fit the mixed bag of minis I have left over from back in the day).
Or maybe space pirates theme... space Ice pirates..

I thought there was some buzz on the interwebs a few years ago about an Inquisitor army book that might work but I’m not finding anything about it anymore.

So here’s my first questions:

Is there an existing army book (codex?) that will fit the bill?

Did they ever bring back a build points system for putting together your own vehicles and dreadnaughts?



I’ll start digging my stuff out and take some pics.  Maybe help me decide what army book will work best.

[Aldaris]

The only army that really allows a mix of guard/army, Marines and assorted weirdos is propably Grey Knights. Imperial Guard would work as well (guard/army, some weirdos and abhumans) but sadly no Marines in there.

If you want to build your own vehicles up from a chassis the only army who can do that is Orks (the others have equipment options too, but Orks have the most freedom).

40K is a fantastic system currently, but the days of Rogue Trader are as over as the extremely open style armies the early editions of WHFB had.

[rufus sparkfire]

The Grey Knights book is the inquisition army list, but it's unfortunately rather more limited than it should be.

I think you can make a pretty good rogue trader list using it.

[orcyboy]

So does the Grey Knights book have to have Grey Knights (that sounds like a silly question now that I wrote it). And what is a Grey, Knight just a space marine or something more?  If they are just a space marines with a fancy name it could work.

[phillyt]

Forge world has some fantastic lists with marine guard lists.

[orcyboy]

Forge world has some fantastic lists with marine guard lists.

That sounds promising.  Are these listed on their site or are they in one of their books?

Here's what I got for this project so far:

I was hoping to use old terminator as the leader





















I have a feeling Im going to get stuck using the Imperial Guard list.  Thats fine but I have about three dozen old plastic Imperial Guard I was going put my hobby skills to the test on and expand into a proper Guard army. 

[rufus sparkfire]

So does the Grey Knights book have to have Grey Knights (that sounds like a silly question now that I wrote it). And what is a Grey, Knight just a space marine or something more?  If they are just a space marines with a fancy name it could work.

You don't have to include grey knights, though you do have to use the special character Inquisitor Coteaz so that you can have inquisitorial henchmen as troops. Actually, your old terminator would do to represent him - he has artificer armor and a force hammer.

A second inquisitor can be armed in various ways, including with some alien items. Also you can have assassins (vindicare, eversor, calidus, culexus).

Grey knights are just space marines with stormbolters and force weapons. Also, inquisitorial warrior henchmen can be armed as space marines.

Here's an overview on henchmen:

3-12 per unit, any combination of these:

-arcoflagellant (close combat cyborg thing)
-banisher (chainsaw priest)
-crusader (power sword and storm shield)
-demonhost (could represent an odd alien creature)
- deathcult assassin (fast killer with two powerswords)
-servitor (can have heavy weapons)
-Jokaero (techno-monkey)
-mystic (guides in deepstrikers)
-psyker (psychic artillery)
-warrior (like a Ld 8 guardsman. Has laspistol/chainsword and flak armor. Can have bolter, stormbolter, or hot shot lasgun. Can also have carapace or power armor. And meltabombs. 3 per squad can have melta/plasma/flamers, combi-melta/plasma/flamer, power sword, plasma pistol, power fist, stormshield.)

Vehicle-wise you have rhinos, razorbacks, chimeras, land raiders (three types), stormraven gunships, dreadnoughts (venerable and normal), and the dreadknight (guy in a big robot suit thing).

[orcyboy]

Thank you Rufus thats exactly the run down I was looking for.

I assume hot shot lasguns are those bigger looking lasguns the storm troopers guardsmen carry.

The 'crusader' option sounded interesting enough for me to check them out on the GW site.  Sadly their models for them are very bland.

[rufus sparkfire]

Yes, a hot-shot is a lasgun with AP3 and 18" range. 5 points though! Bolters are 1 and storm bolters 3!

[Darknight]

Sadly their models for them are very bland.

Conversions, sir! I made some lovely crusaders using Cadian arms and torsos with Bretonnian man-at-arms shields, a powersword from somewhere and Space Marine legs. The robed Dark Angels models would work very well for the legs, and also the power swords.

[GamesPoet]

Those older models pictured above are awesome!

- - -

The idea of having a mercenary 40K army appeals to me, and after seeing the coteaz figure (warning: its "fine"cast), maybe I'll do up a Inquistion army some day.  Even basing it on IG could be good, just not possible to use other models without doing conversions, not that I wouldn't.  Although think I'll check out those forgeworld lists that PhillyT mentioned, too.

[phillyt]

I find the majority of those models hideous beyond comprehension, but I appreciate the imagry they are trying to portray.

[orcyboy]

I really hate the Catachan guardsman and I was a little surprised when I bought a lot of 29 of them Friday night. 

LOL, you were surprised?  Were you drunk ebaying again?

 

[Aldaris]

Lascannons certainly aren't crap, they're just a bit expensive and come mostly on BS3 models. Fortunately, the orders systems allows you to mitigate that somewhat with the "bring it down!" order, making them twinlinked for a turn. They aren't bad choices even in basic infantry squads, just like missile launchers and autocannons. My rule of thumb is usually that each basic infantry squad should have either an autocannon, missile launcher or lascannon, listed in my order or preference - autocannon and missile launcher are about equal in my favour though. Lascannons are also pretty good in company command squads, as those usually won't move much and have BS4.

Flamers. Those are great on platoon command squads. 3 or so on a small unit will allow you to really hurt some chargers that just massacred one of your infantry squads and are now hanging out in the open! Couterassault, napalm style.

Meltas are the weapon of choice (well, one of 'em) for Veterans and company command squads, putting that BS4 to good use. Plasma is another good choice for those two, so you'll want a couple more of each (two more plasma guns for a start will give you two good vet units). I'm not a fan of heavy bolters, they lack the punch of autocannons and the number of shots two do significant damage, besides you can get loads of 'em for cheap on your vehicles if you want to use them. Mortars are very nice little pie plate machines that are cheap and don't need LOS - a heavy weapon squad of 3 is a solid and cheap choice. Hide 'em somewhere safe and whump away.

Heavy weapon teams are supposed to be mounted on 60mm round bases, as they're 2w single models now instead of the old 2 model gunner/loader team. Not many people will complain if you have old models mounted on seperate 25mm bases though.

[MrDWhitey]

Some of those models just make me happy!

 

[phillyt]

Were you drunk ebaying when you bought those catchans?

I love laser cannons.  They are my choice for anti-vehicle.  On HWT with orders and from cover, they are a great choice.

[orcyboy]

Thanks Aldaris, thats the kind of good information I was looking for.

@PhillyT:  They were cheap cheap cheap and they gave me a load of heavy and special weapons to get me going.  The nice thing about the Lascannons and mortar is the crew aren't attached so I can transfer them to another Imperial Guard army.  One of the Heavy bolters has what I guess is an old Stormtrooper with a beret so he can be used elsewhere too.

Whats the deal with most of the Guards special characters being Catachans. With their over-the-top governator/Sgt-Rock/Rambo themes I don't see how there can still be bad guys still left alive in the galaxy.

 
I'm finally painting again after two years hiatus.  Can anybody offer advice on painting camouflage or point out some good links on the subject?

I'm painting two test models I'll post as soon as done.

[phillyt]

I just liked the way you phrased it, like you subconciously bought them and were shocked to discover it!

[orcyboy]

I just liked the way you phrased it, like you subconciously bought them and were shocked to discover it!

Yes, that is how it happened. It was a face palm oh shit moment. Damn buy-it-now button!

[orcyboy]

So here's the camouflage scheme I going to go with.  Based off the Swiss alpenflage.

Again, if anybody has any tips on painting camouflage let me know.

[GamesPoet]

I like it!

[Mathi Alfblut]

Some true old school ragtag badassery there! Mathi Approve! 

I would use the Imperial Guard book but that gives you problem with your terminator/leader. But hey, you could use him as a Enginseer.

[Larkyn]

Imperial Armor 9 has probably one of the best Imperial Armor army lists in it (and definitely my favorite). The Tyrant's Legion: basically Space Marines with Imperial Guard conscripts, and Leman Russ tanks, and some cool artillery. There's even a Pirate/Mercenary unit called the Renegade Marauders, in addition to some cool optional gear and rules, they can take an Arvus Lighter as a dedicated transport (think mini Millennium Falcon). Oh, and as Fast Attack choices, you can also take squadrons of additional Arvus Lighters.
For your HQ, if you want to take a Terminator, you're stuck with making him do as big ol' Huron himself, which isn't a bad thing, however, at 1,500 points and more, you MUST take a Legion Centurion (read: 2 wound veteran sergeant as HQ). The Astartes themselves can be fielded in units of up to 20 guys.
The big blocks of infantry, the Legion Auxilia, as I mentioned before, are essentially IG conscripts. Base unit size is 20, but can have up to 40 total. Can also take up to 4 heavy stubbers, making them quite good at shooting, despite the shoddy BS.

I cannot recommend this list enough. If you want a Space Marine led human force, this is the way to go. You get Astartes, human meatshields, quality battle tanks, artillery, flyer support, and all around badassness. This list is absolutely PERFECT for a Pre-Heresy Space Marine Legion, a Rogue Trader army, the Tyrant's Legion itself, and Chaos pirates. It is pure badass in written form.

You can tell that Matt Ward had nothing to do with this list.

[Aldaris]

You can tell that Matt Ward had nothing to do with this list.

Very original, well done. And I liked that post quite a bit up to this point...

[Larkyn]

You can tell that Matt Ward had nothing to do with this list.

Very original, well done. And I liked that post quite a bit up to this point...

What? You actually ENJOY Matt Ward's books??! Grey Knights that slaughter Sisters cause "dey may b korrupted", and who use xeno-tech. Blood Angels who ally with Necrons to fight back 'nids. Granted, I haven't seen the new Necron codex yet, but I'm sure it's full of Wardisms too. He was actually quoted once saying that all Marine chapters who don't have Ultrasmurfs geneseed are inferior to those with Smurf lineage.
Even Robin Cruddace can write a better codex than Ward can.
Sorry, Aldaris, I wasn't aware you are a Wardfanboi. I'll tread carefully for now on.