Les Grognards

So in my quest to collect them all, all the guard that is, I have purchased some more Les Grognards from Wargames Atlantic for conversion in to DKoK command squads, heavy weapons and engineers

 I plan on getting hold of a box of DKoK Command Squad, Engineers and also a Heavy Weapons Squad and using the extra bits to build more squads. 

Looking through the various bits in the command squad I think this will be the hardest one to bash together as it’s designed to build only a limited number of models, although I think there will be several bits that can be used to build at least two, if not three additional models (using Les Grognards bodies)

The heavy weapons squads will be a little easier, while there will only be enough bits in the box to build three weapons platforms, it should be easy to convert up three more from the heavy weapon options in the Les Grognards box. The will also be bits left over from the Les Grognards box to build three more heavy weapons teams, built as mortars (played as cadian HWTs) to add some extra support.

The Engineers is actually going to be the easiest to convert up. The box contains enough weapons to build five models with club and pistols or 5 with shotguns plus a remote mine, flamer and Sgt, also with several options. This means that the box can build at least 13 models, possibly 16, so it should be easy to build three 5 man squads with the bits in the box and Les Grognards bodies. With a few extra bits, building a couple of remote mine operators and flamers will.also be fairly easy. 

I have yet to get the DKoK boxes but I'm hopeful to grab them soon, although given current event, it might not be as soon as I would like.

DKoK reinforcements finished

Having just finished writing about the Northern Invasion, I though I should post up about the DKoK reinforcements that filled out the ranks and completed the two 20 man squads.

Firstly we have the Marshalls. There are three here but I will only actually needed two, one for each squad. Now with the latest guard codex these will be transformed in to commissars or similar for the new command squads.

The models are armed with power swords and pistols, one with bolt pistol and the other two with plasma pistols.

The next models were the bulk of the reinforcements, with 21 models painted. This was to allow for the swapping of one sergeant models over to allow for the third marshall.

These three models are some are the stand out models, the medic with his bag and the demolitions guy with pack but the one I'm most proud of is the signaller and his map. I have actually gone back over the other signaller and redone his map to, showing a similar scene which links to this map.

The other 20 are mostly regular guardsmen with a couple of special weapons thrown in for good measure. These models were the main effort for me before NI24, as they were the only part of the army not fully painted.

 There are going to have to be some adjustments to the DKoK forces give the changes in the new codex, as the special weapons options have changed somewhat but I'll be going over all that in due course.

Guard previews

Despite having a whole host of post sitting in my draft folder, I though that I should get this out in some sort of timely manner, otherwise it it would be so long past the even that the actual codex will probably be out!

With the latest reveals show, we got a whole host of new guard models, some expected and some less so. On the whole though I think we were all braced for a host of new Kreig. 

The launch box is another exceptional box, and no doubt high on the list of any true Kreig fan, if not any guard fan in general. With two squads of death riders, an engineers squad and and artillery gun, all let by the new Kreig Character. Completing the box are the new codex and the new data cards. This really is a nice box, however, I don't think I will bother with it, for one simple reason, the 10 death riders. I have 10 rough riders and don't need, nor want any more horses, plus I'm not overly fussed about the command model, as beautiful as it is. If there was more engineers and a command squad instead of one of the horses, then I would be far more interested, but as it stands, a large part of this box is not of interest to me. 

The new codex looks very nice though, if anything I like the standard version better than the limited edition box, however, I will be keeping an eye on eBay for the new book and cards when they come out. I suspect that I will not be able to pick them up for cheap like the BA book and cards, but I will be looking nonetheless. 

The sole character model (except those in the command squad) was Lord Marshall Dreir. Mounted on his Kreig steed he can join his fellow Death Riders and charge headlong in to battle. He is apparently one tough cookie, with a 4+ invulnerable save and a revive on death special rule, possibly even a FNP save as well. He comes armed with a fancy sword and grants Death Riders devastating wounds on the charge, which could be very useful against tougher models. 

He is a stunning model, decked out in all his finery and will make an amazing centre piece model, especially whem surrounded by his fellow Death Riders.

Which are also very nice models. These boys come with options for either lances or swords. The Lance's seem to only be frag tipped and no option for melta, the power swords seem to be standard power swords. I believe both come with lascarbines for some shooting action as well. 

Additionally these are supposed to have rules that enable them to make a reaction move when enemy units get within a certain range, useful for denying charges and the like. 

I think these are really nice models but I really don't think I have any need for these. I think they have there place in the army list but I have my rough riders, who do the job I want them to do better than the death riders can. 

Next up is a unit I am very keen on, the Command Squad.

While we don't know many rules here, there are a few bits we do know. There are six models, lead by the Commissar. 

The alchemist is the medic equivalent and while we don't know what he does, I suspect that it will be a FNP save, whether this is a 6+ or a 5+ is unknown, but here's hoping for a 5+.

We don't know about orders yet, but hopefully, despite being a Commissar, he won't be limited with which orders he can give. As for the others, the vox and standard will no doubt do the same thing they usually do and the Commissar Cadet will most likely have a boosted combat stat line but little.else is known at this stage. While I am excited by the new command squad, I really was hoping for a new Marshall model, no I have to hope that they don't remove the Marshall from the Imperial Armour list.

The heavy weapons teams are another model on my wishlist list, especially the flamers! At 18" S5 AP-1 D2 and presumably d6 shots, they are looking very tasty. I am hopeful I can get squads of the stubbers and flamers, possibly using some 3rd party models (looking at you Wargames Atlantic). The lascannons are less appealing at the moment. They unit also comes with a Fire Co-ordinator which we don't know what he does but seems like it might be a fire on death type mechanic.

Engineers have been reborn in plastic, although they have changed a bit in the process. They have gained a mini Cyclops, in the form of the remote mine. This will have the ability to deal mortal wounds to a near by unit, and when combined with the free grenades stratagem, could be quite devastating. The unit also has the scout ability, which could be useful for grabbing early game objectives. In addition to this they look like that have fairly limited options, with shotguns and a flamer or laspistols and trench clubs being the only options. I am really not sure on the load out for either option, the limited special weapons could be problematic and combat guard are not really much use, however, it really depends upon the various weapons profiles as to how effective the units is. 

Lastly we have the big boys of the Kreig, and I mean big, on 130mm bases they are a substantial size and will not be easy to hide away.

We don't know which weapons are direct fire and which are indirect but I would be surprised is any of them didn't have indirect, as they are Kreig artillery pieces. Firstly the Quad Launcher, the updated version of the classic Thudd Gun. While we don't know any rules, I suspect that this will be a lighter weapon, somewhere around the standard mortar profile, and similar to the wyvern with 4d6 shots. The only issue is the next weapon.

Multiple Rocket Launcher is a very similar weapon and we know that this one will have the Anti-infantry 3+ ability. This means that it will cut through pretty much any light armoured infantry units, such as Tau, Guard and even Orks, however, I suspect that it will have quite a low strength and ap values with lots of shots. There will be some difference between this and the Quad Launcher but I suspect that this will be the better option of the two.

The next two weapons are also similar. We don't know anything about the heavy mortar but I suspect it will be hard hitting with high strength and damage, maybe even d6 damage but few shots and short range.

Opposite to the siege cannon which we know is a 3 damage weapon and I suspect a long range, probably table spanning and presumably more shots, maybe d6 to the mortars d3? 

Right now, without knowing the rules for any of these units my wish list is pretty large! So far I definitely know I need at least one command squad, if not two, also two engineer squads and two heavy weapons squads all backed up by two artillery pieces, either in heavy mortar or siege cannon form. I am not planning on getting all GW kits, most likely I will get one of each of the infantry kits and both artillery kits from GW and then kits from Wargames Atlantic, a grognard infantry and a command\heavy weapons kit, which I will kitbash with the spare GW bits to form the other units I want. Along with some of the bits I already have I should be able to bash together everything I need\want. I am really liking the new GW releases and who doesn't want more Guard infantry in their collection! Now I just have to wait and see if I can grab the codex at a reasonable price!

DKoK reinforcements

So I’ve finally bitten the bullet and got some reinforcement for my Death Korps of Kreig. I’ve been planning this for quite a while but have been holding off until I got well down the list of painting. After spending quite a while painting and not building anything, I’ve got a bit tired of painting and lost some enthusiasm to continue, so i thought hat it was time to do something different, hence the DKoK reinforcements.

There are 21 regular DKoK soldiers plus two DKoK Marshals built.

21 regular DKoK

There is a reason for the 21 models, rather than the standard squad of 20 models. When building these models I was considering how they would fit in to the models I already had, which were originally built with Kill Team in mind. This means that I have two sgt’s but also a bolt gun equipped trooper, something you cant have in game. So I had to do a little reshuffle to get everything to fit. Hence 21 troopers as one of the original sgt’s is now a Marshall and the bolt gun wielding trooper is now a Sgt. 

Two new Sgts

Talking of Sergeants, here are the two new ones. One is armed with a chain sword and one with a las pistol, meaning that there are some options as to how to field them. The one armed with the las pistol has a cybernetic are, curtesy of the AdMech, mainly the Skorpius model. Granted, if I wanted the most optimum load out, then plasma pistol and power sword are the best, but I wanted something a little different. In game I could easily just play them as plasma pistols and swords anyway. 

I have also built a number of special weapons and options. These four are the special options models, with two being medics and one being a vox caster. The third could be used as a vox caster but he’s actually the demo expert from the Kill Team box. 

Medic, Medic, Vox, Demo

The medic are essential for DKoK, as the ability to return models is really useful. You can only use one in a 20 man squad, but I usually run two medic models as I don’t have spare models that I can swap in and out as needed. The Vox caster is also very useful and while it stops you having two plasma guns per squad,  it’s one of best way to regain CP in the Guard list. The demo pack equipped guardsman could be used as a vox caster if I wanted but really I just like the back pack and wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to model a guardsman with it. 

Melta, Sniper, Flamer, Grenade and Plasma

The special weapons were some of the most fun to build as they required some kit bashing. Most of the were pretty easy to do, but a couple needed some more work.

Snipe and Flamer

The sniper and flamer were the easiest to build as they required no work at all. The sniper is pretty useless really, it doesn’t really give any advantage over a standard lasgun but it’s just a cool little thing to have in the squad. The precision can be useful occasionally. The flamer is useful as always, nothing wrong with auto hitting weapons, especially with overwatch.

Grenade, Plasma and Melta

The grenade was the easiest conversion, it basically just required a small cut in the launcher and a bit of trimming to get everything to match up nicely. This was needed as the left hand loading the shell was missing, I’m sure that it’s around somewhere, as I made a few moulds for the scions to use. The plasma was a little harder as I was missing the right arm, however, a little internet searching lead me to other arm options, I cant remember which one but cutting down one of the lasgun arms works very well and doesn’t require much work apart from trimming the pistol grip from the plasma gun. The melta was the hardest as while I could use the same trick as the plasma gun, I had already used the arms I needed for the plasma gun! In the end I managed to sort another set of arms out but the melta gun is not quite as straight as i would have liked. It’s not noticeable on the table top and so I’m not really that worried but it’s still slightly annoying. 

Riflemen

The riflemen were all straight forward, just a simple case of glueing on the arms to the bodies. There were a few that don’t sit quite as straight as they should due to the different torso size but this is not a problem at all. 

More Riflemen

There were also a few other riflemen that were a bit more characterful. These were mostly due to the fact that I was running out of two handed rifle poses. I would have built most of these anyway as I like having some different poses in the mix. 

Reloading and grenade

Pointing and trench club

The pointing arm is again from the Skorpius model again. It adds another little point of interest on the models.

Next up are the Marshalls. These models are Forge World models rather than GW main models, however, there are several hints that we might see these as plastic models when we get our codex release. Either way these are almost a must bring when fielding DKoK in force. They are basically DKoK versions of the Cadian Castellan, with some very good rules. The Cult of Sacrifice rule lets you use the insane bravery stratagem for 0CP, even under the new rules, as it names the stratagem specifically. In addition, as far as i read it, you can also use the stratagem multiple times per battle, as the core one lets you use it once per battle but this ability is a once per battle, per model ability, so 3 Marshall’s means up to 4 uses of the insane bravery stratagem. The only condition is that you can only use it twice per phase. I will need to have a look at this to see if it is the case, but as far as I can tell it is. The second rule is Martial Dedication, which gives the squad a 5+ FNP, better than a command squads medics 6+ ability. Throw in a Psyker and a unit can have a 4+ invulnerable save against shooting, a 5+ armour save, a 5+ FNP save and can bring back D3 models a turn, which should make the unit pretty reliable. 

These two marshals are both equipped with power weapons as standard and one has a bolt pistols.and the other a plasma pistol. The third marshal, the promoted Sgt, will also have a plasma pistol and power weapon. 

You can't quite see it but the one on the right is holding a watch, I guess he's just waiting for the right time to send the new wave "over the top".

Carrying enough stuff for war.

Spare body

So with 21 troopers and two marshal's, there remains one body left. As yet he has no function but we'll wait and see what happens, maybe the new guard book will give him a role!

Wargames Atlantic Death fields Les Grognards

This box is a great value box, 24 models for around 25 pounds, (20 from my local stockists) and while they are not quite as good quality as the GW ones, for a guard army they work very well and once on the table top you'll never really notice the difference in quality.

AdMech and Kreig ideas

So, as with many wargamers, I have had an idea. It’s and idea that  really don’t have the time or money to carry out but I’ve been planning and researching the idea. The main idea came around as additions to my AdMech army, as my Knight has almost finished being magnetised ready for priming and painting. The army at the moment consists of 3 HQ’s, 3 squads of Skitarii and a Skorpius tank. This currently brings it to 1100 points and I would like to push it up to around 1500 points. 

There are two things that I would like to add to the army to achieve this, firstly there is another squad of Skitarii vanguard. I currently have 12 models, two of which I cant use as they are a second plasma gunner and a second Sgt. I would need 8 more bodies to fill out this second squad of vanguard. In addition to this I would like to add in two other squads but there is a minor catch to this part. The squads I want to add in are Secutarii Hoplites, however, given the price of these models, around £64 each at GW prices and over 50 elsewhere, they are far to expensive for me to buy outright. 

Secutarii Hoplites

So I’ve come up with a little plan. Initially I was thinking that I would just buy the bits for the Skitarii bodies and then third party bits for the shields and the power mauls, namely Anvil Industries Riot shields and Shock Staves.

Shields and Staves

 However, after some further research and pondering, i decided that this might not be the best way forward. This was for a couple of reasons. The main one being that Secutarii is that they are Forge World units and not in the main codex, meaning that rules interactions and updates may not be as easy to deal with as the other units, secondly, getting the datacards is not going to be as simple as they don’t come in the main pack. Lastly, I want these to be a sort of close combat protection for my big knight, a sort of retinue that follow the lord in the knight and are sworn to protect him and his knight, meaning that I won't them to stand out a bit and be different from the rest of the admech army. 

This initially led me to look at some of the Wargames Atlantic models, namely the WW1 french models as these would also be usable with the other project here, the kreig, however, they just didn't have the right vibe for me. Looking at other options, such as Spanish conquistadors or Roman Legionnaires and even the Digital offerings, like the Death Fields Security, future French Foreign Legion and even Trojan War Infantry, none of them really fitted what I wanted. They were either too old fashioned for a Sci-Fi setting or too Sci-Fi for a 40k feudal planet. In the end I actually came down, rather randomly on Genestealer Cult Neophyte Hybrids. 

With head and arm swaps, plus a few adjustment to the iconography on the models, I think these will make very good Secutarii stand-ins. The bodies are armoured but to to formally armoured, with a suitably space faring vibe. Combined with the Navy Breachers spare helmeted heads, I think they will not look like GSC models in disguise. The arms and shields will most likely still come from Anvil Industries, as I haven't seen anything else yet that I like the look of. The arms may well.end up being a bit of a hodge podge of arms from the GSC kits, various Wargames Atlantic kits and some other GW kits, such as Cadians. I've yet to figure that bit out. 

The last price of the puzzle was what to run them as? As I mentioned above, I don't really want to run them as a forge world unit, but there is a nother option that will fit with the army system and enable me to run them as I want, and that's the Agents of the Imperium Adeptus Arbites Subductor squads. Each is armed with a shock maul and shotpistol, and a 4+ invulnerable save, represented by the shield. This means that I can build them multiple ways, with a mix of shields and shock mauls, shields and pistols, and pistols and mauls. Giving variety and also meaning I need to buy less shields and shock mauls! Bonus! 

However, having solved this problem, I'm still left with another. Originally I was planning on using some Wargames Atlantic WW1 french bodies to pull double duty as Secutarii and Krieg, with the 35 models forming two squads of Secutarii and a command squad and standard squad of Krieg. However, with the changes to the Secutarii above, I was left with an issue for the Krieg. I did not need 35 models for the Krieg and the WW1 models were themselves not ideal anyway, they were a good compromise for the two different units. This mean that I could either get proper Krieg, as I only needed them models or I could look to get just some sprues from Wargames Atlantic to build the ten models I needed but from a different kit. Looking around the Grognards are a popular kit to use for Krieg alternatives both as original builds and kitbashes. Having built a few of these, I can see why.

The trouble here is that that come in boxes of 24,which I can pick up locally for around 20 pounds. If I look at buying just enough to build a 10 man squad,it's going to cost around 18 pound to buy the four sprues (each containing 3 bodies) I need. So it just makes sense to buy the whole box, this giving me 24 bodies. I don't know if I have enough bits to build all of them as Kriegsmen but I should be able to build at least a squad, command squad and a character with that lot. Which would fill out my options for the mechanised infantry for e they will be used as.

This is one of the few times that I'm glad GW boxes come with so many options, as it means building additional forces is quite easy with just a few extra bodies. 

With the addition of these units to my overall AdMech forces, I should be up to around 1450 points, the addition of some enhancements and an additional Skitarii Marshall, if there are any spare bodies, will push this over my 1500 target with ease. 

As for when I will get around to building and painting any of these projects, I have no idea! I'm still planning on bashing some Field Ordnance Batteries from my spare parts and some extra bits plus I have a whole army of Dark Angel successors (the Dark Guardians) I need to paint up. 

DKoK

With the release of the new kill team and the new Death Korps of Krieg models, which look amazing, there are now a host of unanswered questions. 

The primary one has to be "when will the codex come out?". Well, if you believe the rumours, September. Honestly I don't know but it does sound plausible. We have new sculpts in kill team, released at the beginning of August and then the new codex in September. I'm hopeful that this will be the case and am looking forward to seeing what new goodies we will get. 

Which leads me in to the next set of questions, and I say set, because there are a lot of them. First and foremost in my mind is "are we going to get a full DKoK line?" which is followed very closely by "is this a 3rd guard line or a replacement line?". For the first part of we look at the models from kill team, these are very much mono-pose looking models, with their respirators and extras. This means that a full line up might be harder, but then we may well get a more multipart kits later, as we have done with other releases similar to this. I for one feel that we will see a full line up, with units like the engineers and mole mortar squads as well. This however leads to the second question, if they do a full line up, will this stand alongside the current lines, the Cadians and Catachans, or will it replace one of them? I hope that it will stand alongside the others, giving 3 very different armies to choose from. However, I am very worried that we will see it replace one of the lines, specifically Catachans. The Cadians have just received an upgrade sprue and whole the sculpts are not new, they are not that bad and the new additions have done a lot to bring the boxes up to the level they should be. The Catachans however, really need a full overhaul, as the kits are lacking multiple options and the poses and sculpts are very old and odd looking. We know that they can do good Catachan sculpts due to the two limited edition models, the colonel and Ripper Jackson but two good models is not enough for a full range. I'm not sure they would have spent all the time doing a rework on the Catachans and a new full range at the same time, hence I fear the Catachans days are numbered. 

One bit of information that supports the idea of a full range is the rumour of new plastic Death Riders. Now, while this would be great, I would like to see this as a multi regiment option. I really like rough riders and I would not like to see this unit pigeon holed in to a DKoK only option. Having a generic rough riders unit would be much better in my opinion. 

Again, this rumour leads nicely in to the next question that I have "if DKoK are being ported across from forge world, what other discontinued items are?". While Forge World discontinues items all the time as moulds run out, there have been a couple of noticeable options discontinued recently and more importantly at a similar time to a lot of DKoK stuff. I am of course refering to Elysian drop troops and the Tauros vehicles. It gives me a lot of hope that we will see some of these units moved from forge world to GW main, mainly the Tauros and Tauros venator. I would like to see Elysian troops put across as well, however, this then causes the same problem to new DKoK models pose, because this would then mean 4 possible guard lines, something that I highly doubt if profitable and with Catachans being the oldest range, I can see them being the ones that are squeezed out. 

All in all the new DKoK models are a great addition to the range and really do bring with them a lot of hope for guard players that we will get a major update to the infantry line. It also brings hope that we will see other Forge World lines come across to GW proper to add in options that are so desperately needed to the codex. However, for me there is also a note of caution, as new lines generally mean old ones are removed, and seeing as the oldest line is my beloved Catachans, this may mean their days are numbered.