A degree of Clarity

I figured that, given my last few posts, I needed to clarify how the traitor guard are shaping up. With the rough riders built, and some new guys added to the army,It's only right I let you lot in on what I have and what plans I have for the future of the army.

The idea really is to build up a massive force with all sorts of different troops and vehicles/ weapons. The army at first was quite restrictive, and sat at a mere 1500 points.

1500pts? I hear you cry! That's about right for a game!

However, the 1500 points was restrictive. By having a massive army at my disposal, I can better pick and choose depending upon my opponent and the scenario plus, if I EVER decided to play a stoopid apocalypse game again I could field pretty much a guard regiment!

The army currently sits at just under 1900 points, no mere paltry force either!
The troops I have also carry a variety of special and heavy weaponry, as well as a few junior and senior officers with nice kit.

Here's a quick lowdown:

HQ
Command squad with advisors (namely ordnance guy and pilot guy with a couple of bodyguards)
Priests (coutns as HQ, but does not take up a slot in the organisation chart)
Psyker

Elites
Ogryn
Beastmen (stormtroopers)

Troops
Infantry platoon - command squad, 3 infantry squads with heavy and special weapons, heavy weapons squad, conscripts
Veterans- grenadiers with multiple special weapons, chimera

Fast Attack
Rough Riders

Heavy Support
Leman Russ

As you can see, in terms of manpower the army is vast, but cheap on points ( oh the pitiful value of human life!)


The MASTER PLAN
Well, I have been musing about it for a while now, and the army needs more of everything!
The ultimate plan is to include the following options and squads to "complete" the army:

HQ
Techpriest enginseer
Astropath for command squad and chimera
Commissar Lord (chaos equivalent)

Elites
Psyker battle squad
Complete ogryn squad up to 10 models

Troops
Max out infantry platoon with: 2 infantry squads, 4 heavy weapon squads, 3special weapon squads and 6 chaos equivalent commisars
3 more veteran squads in chimeras
penal legion (chaos equivalent) squad

Fast attack
Max out rough riders
Sentinel squadron
Hellhound squadron

Heavy support
2 more leman russ
3 ordnance battery tanks
hydra flak tank battery
(with this last one, the plan is to have maybe one of eac or something to start with, and build it up later)

Of course, in terms of time and expense, this army will take about a decade and a remortgage to build(!), but I have been thinking about "short cuts" along the way to help save me dosh. Here's a couple of em...

1. Rob the loyalists!- that's right, steal the tanks and vehicles, plus whatever else I can use from the necromundan guard. Very sad day for them, but the chaos legions require more for the cauldron of war! I do wat to do soething with the tallarn models though, so they may well find themselves chaosed up too- I haven't decided yet. I figure that if I dont use them anyway, I may as well focus everything on one guard army!
2. Raid the warhammer boxes again- raiding the boxes I may find models suitable for use as chaos commissars,or penal legion troopers, plus that elusive psyker battle squad. I have already had a bit of success there with the rough riders, so I figure anothe raid may prove fruitful!
3. Minimise on metal models- kit bash the effing hell out if it. I am finding that converting via plastic kits is quite easy and inexpensive if it goes "the way of the pear."
4. Know when to stop!! This is probably the most critical thing. I got caught out when I was but a young whipper snapper playing warhammer, and collected somewhere in the region of a 15000 point orc and goblin army in the space of 8 weeks! All that beer money gone! If the army looks like it is stretching into the realms of silliness, then I will stop and focus on scenery instead. Remind me of this if I get carried away again later! That said, my orc army is the envy of everyone that sees the 8 boxes its stored in...

On top of all this though, there is still the hanging question about including daemons in the army. I reckon that as long as the other player agrees, I'll simply include from the appropriate codex and chuck them in!

Well, that's it for now. I was gonna throw in pics, but couldn't be arsed. I will chuck in the odd one or two once I have painted some more units up ans showcase the guard as they stand. I may even set them up on a battlefield and let you all gawp at it that way....

Be cool y'all, and check out the last couple of posts to make sure you at least have some vague idea about what I am wittering on about...