Imperial Guard Armored Battle Group

I should return to the tabletop side of things for now. The next review should be on Ice Guard by Steve Lyons before finally settling on Mechanicum by Graham McNeill. Oh boy, I'm so looking forward to that book. I like Ice Guard too, which is why I want to write a review on it first, but Mechanicum is...in a word, epic. Epic Titan fights, cameo by two Imperial Knights, a look into House Taranis, one of the most ancient Knightly houses and situated on Mars! Plus...Titans again, sorry, I just love Titans. The Void Dragon is pretty cool too. And I really like the split between the Fabricator General Kelbor-Hal and his fellow Magos. Koriel Zeth, in particular, was one of the most awesome characters in the book, along with Forge Master Ipulvien Maximal. I really wanted to see them complete the Akashic Reader, but that damned Horus and his fellow traitors basically wiped off the good guys on Mars. DAMN YOU, HORUS! Well, he's dead. So I'll round up my fellow Imperial Knights from House Yato, a huge Mechanicus army including both Skitarii maniples and giant robots from Legio Cybernetica, an armored company from the Draconis Imperial Guard Armored regiment and a Titan legion to hunt him and the Sons of Horus down.

They will burn. In the name of the Emperor, I will ensure every single force of Chaos burns and gets thrown back into the Warp. That means I had better get back to writing War Convocation then. Well, it shouldn't be a problem. After all, I just finished writing the second draft of my Masters Thesis, and largely finished the stuff I needed to do for my graduate school applications, so I'm pretty much free for the rest of the week. That means returning to War Convocation and taking a peek into the Forge World of Draconis IV, its relationship with House Yato, the Knightly House of Draconis III, and the sub-par plasma weapons it supplies the Imperium after Ryza became busy with trying to survive two Waaaghs!. YAY!

As I said, with this free time, I should return to the tabletop sspect of my hobby. I still have one last Onager Dunecrawler to build, so I'll start on him this week or so. My wallet hurts, though...I had to splash on graduate school applications. I had better get into at least one of them or I'd have wasted all that money. Sigh. Anyway, once my Adeptus Mechanicus army is done, I will proceed to the next stage of Warhammer 40K.

The Titan legions.

Yeah, you heard that right. Well, I'm not going to buy the Titan models from Forge World. I can't afford it. I want a Reaver Titan, and the damned thing costs over 500 pounds, which means more than a thousand dollars, both American and Singaporean currency. I shudder to think how it'll convert into yen. Above 100,000 yen, that's for sure.

So the solution is to scratch-build a Reaver Titan on my own. Build it from scratch using cheaper materials. I'll probably ask the staff at Battle Bunker for advice, but basically I'm considering using a combination of cardboard, PVC plastic and maybe bottle caps and whatever I think necessary. Or a Gundam model kit. We'll see. Though Gundam looks more like Tau......

Obviously, my hand-made Titan isn't going to look like the real thing, but hey, I'm not using it in official games or tournaments, so I don't think my opponent will mind if I bring a horrid-looking Titan and plonk it down on the table. We'll have a good laugh, and I'll cry as I watch my 1,475-point Reaver Titan melt and blow up after he drops over ten meltagun tactical marine squads in front of it. I hate drop pods.

The other thing I'll build is my Imperial Armored Battle Group. I somehow got my hands on the Imperial Armor volume 1 2nd edition, and I really like tanks. I'm a big fan of armor. So yeah, I want to try using the Imperial Guard Armored Battle Group and just field nothing but tanks! Woohoo!

I know I'm a big fan of the Adeptus Mechanicus. But I also absolutely love the Imperial Guard. As you can see, most of the novels I read are about the Imperial Guard. Not Space Marines. Come to think of it, other than the bunch of Horus Heresy books that I don't really like (the only one I like was Mechanicum, which you all can tell from my enthusiam and intention to write a review on it) and the Grey Knights omnibus, I do not read any Space Marine novels at all. The majority of the novels I read are overwhelmingly Imperial Guard with a sizable portion (about one-third) of the Adeptus Mechanicus (I include Titans, Imperial Knights, Skitarii and Tech-priests in here). Well, the number of Imperial Guard novels I read will continue to rise because of Colonel Iron-hand Straken and the sheer number of Gaunt's Ghosts series. So yeah, I'm at heart an Imperial Guard player.

Hmm, actually I best represent the Imperium of Man. My heart consists of two eagle's heads as seen in the Aquila. One of Earth and one of Mars. So I'm half Imperial Guard and half Adeptus Mechanicus. Well, the Imperial Guard regiment of Draconis III is closely related and very dependent on the Adeptus Mechanicus and the forge world of Draconis IV, particularly because they are an armored regiment. Or mechanized regiment. Whichever word you prefer. So they rely on a lot of armored units, tanks and gunships, much more than infantry. They try to eschew infantry. So they're basically like the Armageddon Steel Legion or the mechanized infantry and tank regiments of so many Imperial Guard armies. Focusing solely on armored tanks and formidable gunships than infantry.

If you remember, I already have a couple of Leman Russ Executioners.

Remember these guys?

Not to mention I still have a giant Stormsword/Doomhammer/Shadowsword still waiting to be used. I really need to use it in a game.

Doomhammer ready for action!

So yeah, I'm going to weep when I finally field a whole regiment of tanks, and then drink my opponent's tears. Tears of joy, that is, when he wrecks my armored columns of tanks with either tons of melta or a sea of haywire attacks. Ouch. Well, at least I tried.

Anyway, I'll need a Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon, because y'know, to take advantage of the BS 4 upgrade that the Tank Commander gives, and up to 4 Leman Russ Battle Tanks. Yay. This will give me either the option to play standard 40K, with a pure Imperial Guard Combined Arms Detachment that includes a Lord of War, or a conventional Imperial Guard Combined Arms Detachment allied to an Imperial Guard Armored Battle Group. In other words, lots of tanks. Yay. Even more tanks.

So the pure, completely conventional Imperial Guard Combined Arms Detachment would look like this:

Shadowsword.

Tank Commander in Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon squadroned with a Leman Russ Battle Tank.

Veteran squad with 1 heavy flamer and 2 flamers

Veteran squad with 3 plasma guns

2 Vendetta gunships

Leman Russ squadron of 3 Leman Russ Battle Tanks

Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannons

Alternatively, I can swap out 1 Leman Russ Battle Tank and 3 plasma guns for a 2nd Leman Russ Executioner, and equip it with a lascannon. I have the Doomhammer list as well, which is extremely plasma heavy and relies more on plasma veterans, so it doesn't have as many tanks as the Shadowsword regiment. Oh well. At least I tried. There's the Stormsword list, which swaps the Shadowsword for a Stormsword (obviously), discards 2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks for a Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannons and lascannon that's upgraded to Knight Commander Pask. On the plus side, both Veteran squads gain the Forward Sentries doctrine with the leftover points. Oh well.

As for the Imperial Guard Armored Battle Group, I exploited the cheaper points in the Imperial Armor volume 1 2nd edition for the Vendettas, and made use of the non-requirement for the company command tank to need a squadron buddy. Additionally, I could use the Beast Hunter Shells that's unique to the group and have tanks for troops! I wasn't sure what's the point of allying the Imperial Guard, but I did so because the Leman Russ Executioners cost cheaper in there, and apparently I need to have infantry to screen my tanks from being charged in assault. Good meat shield in case my opponent drops drop pods of tactical marine squads in front of my hapless tanks like that disastrous game so long ago. I lost both my Leman Russ Executioners in just the first turn. Ouch.

Anyway, the list looks like this:

Imperial Armor Armored Battle Group Army

Company Command Tank, Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon and Beast Hunter Shells

2 Battle Tank Squadrons of 2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks each

Imperial Navy Gunship Support, 2 Vendetta Gunships

Imperial Guard Combined Arms Detachment

Knight Commander Pask in Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannons and lascannon

Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannons

2 Veteran squads

Imperial Knight Oathsworn Detachment

Knight Paladin

It would have been awesome if I could afford a Knight Crusader. I mean, I could swap out the  Tank Commander in Leman Russ Vanquisher and 2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks for a single Knight Crusader, which does the job a lot better, but doesn't fit the fluff just as well. Huh. Maybe I should try that. I mean, the tanks fire 1 S8 AP2 Armorbane shot, 1 lascannon shot, 6 heavy bolter shots that snap-shoot and 2 battle cannon shots while the Crusader fires 2 battle cannon shots, 3 S8 AP 3 Stormspear rocket shots, 12 Avenger gatling cannon shots with rending and 6 heavy stubber shots that don't snap-shot. And it's super-heavy, so it doesn't get immobilized or blown up upon a penetrating hit and I don't have to worry about weapons being destroyed. Hmm...on the other hand, the Knight Crusader is only AV13 as opposed to having 3 AV14 walls, and has 6 hull points as compared to 9.

Anyway, there's still a lot of things to consider and I'll take my time revising the lists. I don't know. We'll see. I want to try a Steel Host list, but obviously the Hydra makes it difficult. Oh well. We'll see. Anyway, look forward to the review of Ice Guard tomorrow.