[Theory Corner] Task Force Aardwolf
Being an Example of our beneficent Emperor's Strength under Arms, at Group level, non-Astartes, within the Sector Maledicta.
TASK FORCE AARDWOLF
OPERATIONAL SPHERE: JANNERIA PRIME
56 Thoth Rifles, Echo Company, 1 Platoon
Commanding Officer: Bvt. Capt. Shaline al'Aisha
Subordinate Officers: 1st Lt. Orianna al'Gebra, 2nd Lt. Semash Kasimir
Political Officer: Comm. August Hekler
Operational Strength
92 Light Infantry personnel (squads paired and directly led by commissioned officers; skilled snipers customarily promoted to command squads)
18 Fire Support personnel
15 Reconnaissance Cavalry personnel and mounts
6 Ogryn auxiliaries (permanent secondment from 2 Roskov)
1 Leman Russ AFV, Vanquisher class, Gryphonne IV pattern, "Naja Pallida"
29 Tempestus, Charlie Company
Commanding Officer: Temp. Pri. A.J.St.O "Bobbo" Robbins-Herbert
Operational Strength
34 Tempestus Scions
3 Taurox APCs (localised variant for Jannerian terrain: turret absent, rear flank autocannon mounts derived from Prime class, low yield repulsor units replacing tracks)
Janneria PDF, Drake Battalion
Malcador AFV, XI pattern, STC standard
Malcador AFC, XIII pattern, Defender class
Auxilia
Freeblade Knight Preceptor "Dawnbreaker" (Sigvald Einarsson)
"Serenity" [REDACTED] [REDACTED]
STRATEGIC SITUATION
Intelligence indicates Lady Astor de Gomme (planetary governor, Janneria Prime) dissolved PDF assets and turned military affairs over to xenos identified with "Da'Ieldi Sept." 29 Tempestus HQ (Imperial Citadel, Hamoaze) under siege by xenos.
[REDACTED] operative, codename Serenity, confirms situation on ground. Elimination of Governor de Gomme remains ongoing strategic goal, but xenos presence now heavily entrenched; elimination largely of symbolic/propaganda value over strategic.
56 Thoth Rifles dispatched: nearest formation logistically suited to the Janneria combat zone (oceanic, archipelagic, dormant volcanic: armoured elements unsuitable for deployment beyond primary continental mass). Culture and climatic adaptations unsuitable. The Emperor Preserves.
COMMENTARY
"Dashed rum do sending us a bunch of desert rats - and promoting the filly-in-chief so she can boss us about? Bad form, HQ, very bad form."
"Well, Prime Robinson - 'Bobby', was it? - if you'd like to recall the distress signal your regiment transmitted, my rodents and I can scurry off. Plenty of carrion elsewhere that needs our attention."
"Let's not be too hasty, now..."
And Now For Something Completely Different
You may blame Jeff at the Beard Bunker for this. He's posted twice about the Victoria Miniatures retro Imperial Guard range, and both times have seen me coveting an army I will, let's be clear here, not have the inclination or resources to assemble any time soon. It's not impossible, but it would involve a rather larger residence, with space and adequate aeration for a 3D printer on which to fart out over a hundred desert-dwelling militants, and also me learning how to paint that many ordinary humans without my hands falling off at the wrist.
Nevertheless. Popular propaganda has it that everyone has an Astartes Chapter inside them somewhere, and this may be true, but I also think everyone has a Guard Regiment inside them, and this is more interesting to me. The specific kind of recognisable, almost-real soldiery that appeals to a hobbyist reveals much of their character, I think.
Some people are drawn to a specific range of Guard figures (I've always been a fan of the Vostroyans, myself, and the Valhallans - my previous pipe dreams involved using the former as officer and storm trooper corps for an army of the latter). Some people are drawn to a specific troop type: the Big Tanks, the Poor Bloody Infantry, the Big Toy Soldiers in their carapace armour.
I am drawn to the logistics. See, in the Cain novels (my template for this sort of thing), a Guard deployment almost always seems to involve multiple regiments awkwardly co-existing, negotiating differences of command and culture, united by a shared strategic goal and faith in the Emperor and not an enormous amount besides that.
I wanted to try and replicate that at micro level, with a platoon of pseudo-Tallarns (to match my desert board and capture that Fremen vibe that's firing my brain at the moment - yeah, I did watch the 2021 Dune last week, what of it?) forming the bulk of the army. The Victoria range includes Ogryns and Rough Riders, so the army can have those, and a pseudo-Russ tank, so it can have one of those as a treat (and I had the points for a Vanquisher, and specialist anti-tank tank feels like a good use for your one AFV).
Mechanised infantry, however, would be drawn from the Tempestus Scions range. I made up a unit of these some years ago when drawing up the background for Janneria Prime - the world over which I fought many of my fifth and sixth edition games, and currently home base for a Tau army that may make an appearance in a battle report if I'm ever down that way again. 29 Tempestus, no relation at all to 29 Commando (who happen to be based in my home city), are the last redoubt of Imperial loyalism on Janneria. They also give me an excuse to attack some Taurox kits - I think there's the potential for a bloody good little tank in the Taurox, as long as those stupid track units are replaced and those silly little turrets take a Burton. Hence me thinking: Primaris-style sci-fi hovercraft. Ideal for a unit that fights over a planet that's mostly water or sharp pointy rocks.
The Malcador tanks are a piece of insane self-indulgence on my part. They should probably be Rogal Dorns or something, they could have been a Baneblade chassis... but I love those big lumps of resin, and the idea of some absolutely antique armour being broken out of local PDF hock for big games tickles me immensely. My one regret is not being able to make one of them a Defender without chucking the Ogryns out. I'm not saying I wouldn't do that. I just like Ogryns.
Finally, there are the Agents of the Imperium. The Knight Preceptor is one of my favourite chassis. I don't care if it's technically any good or not, it's got a whocking great laser with two settings and that goes nicely with the "strike or sweep" nature of its melee weapons. The name is a bit of a reference - I will never be able to leave my Skyrim main behind.
"Serenity" is my nod to competitive demands, and also, I like Assassins. Callidus is supposedly the good one, Vindicare is slightly cooler. She could be either.
I engineered all this along a vaguely old-school line, starting with a 1000 point army (half of the Thoth Rifles) and then adding 500 point blocks of other stuff (the Knight and Assassin, the two Malcadors, all the Scions, and the rest of the Thoth Rifles) that could more or less plug and play depending on circumstances.
This is exactly the sort of project I'm not allowed to do: a chaotic soup army that would need at least three books and an exhausting game scale to be realised. It is, however, a fine spitballing exercise for a soggy Wednesday morning.
Yes, yes, but where are the NUMBERS?
Astra Militarum
Onslaught (3000 points)
Combined Regiment
Characters
Commissar (70)
Plasma pistol, power weapon, Kurov's Aquila
Militarum Tempestus Command Squad (95)
Command Rod, Grand Strategist, master vox, medi-pack, volley gun
Platoon Command Squad (80) (Warlord)
Drill Commander, master vox, medi-pack, sniper rifle
2 x Platoon Command Squad (60)
Master vox, medi-pack, sniper rifle
Battleline
3 x Infantry Squad (120)
2 boltguns, 2 sniper rifles, 2 autocannon teams*
Onslaught (3000 points)
Combined Regiment
Characters
Commissar (70)
Plasma pistol, power weapon, Kurov's Aquila
Militarum Tempestus Command Squad (95)
Command Rod, Grand Strategist, master vox, medi-pack, volley gun
Platoon Command Squad (80) (Warlord)
Drill Commander, master vox, medi-pack, sniper rifle
2 x Platoon Command Squad (60)
Master vox, medi-pack, sniper rifle
Battleline
3 x Infantry Squad (120)
2 boltguns, 2 sniper rifles, 2 autocannon teams*
1 Infantry Squad (120)
2 flamers
2 flamers
Dedicated Transports
3 x Taurox (65)
Storm bolter, twin autocannon
Other
3 x Taurox (65)
Storm bolter, twin autocannon
Other
3 x Rough Riders (70)
3 x Heavy Weapon Squad (60)
3 lascannon teams*
3 x Heavy Weapon Squad (60)
3 lascannon teams*
Leman Russ Vanquisher (155)
Hunter-killer missile, lascannon
Malcador (250)
Hull autocannon
Malcador Defender (310)
Autocannon sponsons
Ogryn Squad (65)**
Hunter-killer missile, lascannon
Malcador (250)
Hull autocannon
Malcador Defender (310)
Autocannon sponsons
Ogryn Squad (65)**
2 volley guns
1 x Tempestus Scions (55)
1 volley gun
Allies
Callidus Assassin (90)
Knight Preceptor (405)
* I currently experience conflict: I love the look of the entrenched weapon teams, but it's probably more "light infantry" to give everyone missile launchers, but missile launchers are a faff to resolve with their random A and D numbers...
** I'd need 6 of these to make up the numbers in 1000 point games. One assumes the others are at home picking their noses the rest of the time.
Kill Team post coming this weekend, probably.
Good Old Victoria Miniatures. I have long had them flagged as a potential source of Gue'vesa components, mostly held back by a lack of sufficiently sci-fi looking helmets and legs that would blend with Fire Warrior armour pieces. Although now it seems like she's made modern style legs and heads that would both work if the figure scale lines up...
ReplyDeleteYou are probably onto something with the inner guard thesis. Goodness knows I had about a dozen Imperial Guard concepts living rent-free in my head long before a Space Marine concept began to crystalise. Though it probably says much about my character that technically the specific brand of recognisable, almost-real soldiery that appeals to me most is not from the Imperial Guard range at all.
(for what it's worth out of the actual Imperial Guard ranges I'm quite partial to the Steel Legion and Mordians due to the Firewarrior connection, and still maintain a pipe dream of recreating the Dolumar IV troops from that game if by some miracle I ever end up with enough metal Steel Legion grunts, Mordian officers and Necromunda autoguns)
Personally I am a big fan of missile launchers, considering them the underrated sleeper hit of the Imperial heavy weapon lineup, and the only reason I don't use them more is because my main Imperial 40k army doesn't really have access to them. They are especially dangerous in Imperial Guard infantry companies, where the platoon system makes it easy to get them with enough numbers and dispersal to guarantee at least one or two trained on the side armour of whatever vehicle you need dead that turn, while bombarding opposing troops with frag missiles from the rest.
On the other hand your mileage may vary in Command Point Country, and all those mecha-brain guidance circuits do require an awful lot of fickle techno sorcery to keep in working order, which means keeping good ties with those damnable Mechanicus shamans who really can't be trusted, and at any rate they are a lot more complicated and expensive than a good honest autocannon or mortar tube.
Far more concerning is that looking over all available troop strength data shows the entire army is critically lacking in the single most important element of all - FAITH. For it is most obviously certain that it is in the fighting spirit of Man, the very SOUL that HE THE EMPEROR has given to Man alone in the universe, that is the greatest weapon and surest armour against the darkness of corruption, degeneracy and alien predation. And yet I can see no reference to any Ministorum elements attached anywhere in the order of battle.
This weakness is particularly obvious in sending them against the particularly insidious wiles of the godless xenos Tau apostates, who are wont to corrupt the hearts of Man with their disgusting concepts of progress and peace. Such sickening ideas have a strong risk of diseasing the minds of the common Imperial serf, and as thus insulating them with spritual advice on the proper virtues of hatred is of paramount import.
A formal warning on prosecuting the crusade without Ecclesiarchal cooperation and embedded Priesthood representation has been issued and a notice of closer investigation logged with the Officio Hereticus.
So as it happens, Mordians were my original faves, back in the hallowed year of 1997 when I bought a Guard codex (one of those second edition ones that we'll be coming back to in another comment, oh yes) and thought "planet of eternal night, fancy-ass uniforms, cool chainsword officer, sign me up!" (although I've always had a soft spot for that one paunchy Cadian officer with the shotgun; Captain Mainwaring in space).
DeleteYou're definitely talking me around to the missile launcher, and I am quite fond of the missile/grenade launcher duo as an aesthetic. I balk only because I'm conscious of wasting my opponents' time, and I find the more "roll to see how many rolls I make" rolls I have to make, the saltier my opponents tend to become, and the harder it is for the newer ones to parse what's happening (which leads to more salt). Such is the reason for comparatively few Blast and Torrent weapons in my armies, and a general wariness around randomised damage output as well.
Autocannon good, though. Maybe I'll stick to them on the vehicle mounts... (Incidentally, when I wrote this post I wasn't aware of the plastic Malcador or, for that matter, the baroque and blinged up Leman Russ design, both for the despised Horus Heresy experience, and now that I know about those I'm much more keen on a tank company. Not a big fan of "find space in your wallet and case for half a dozen Chimarae," but perhaps we can work around that. Even the Rogal Dorn, with its extra wide tracks and pleasingly proportioned turret weapons, is starting to speak to me.)
A compelling point regarding the articles of faith. If I abandoned the various Enhancements on the units I could certainly bring along a regimental preacher, perhaps split the Commissar's big squad in half to give them something to lead.
(I am slightly disgruntled that the "Militarum" don't seem to have the same command level flexibility as, say, Necrons or Space Marines; there doesn't seem to be a way to attach a Priest or Commissar to the same unit as a Command Squad, despite that being the logical place to put them... I may be missing something, tenth likes to hide its rules where I wouldn't think to look, but I don't see an obvious rule in the same place as it is where they are in the other armies, if you follow me?)