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Is this Hugo Weaving ?

September 8, 2015, 2:02 am
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Found here.

 

Not that I care.  I gotta have this guy !
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Funky furniture

September 11, 2015, 1:54 am
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Blood Pact 2

September 18, 2015, 2:12 am
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So Siege Studios are doing seven squad leaders - they have the bits (I hope) and we should see them soon (I hope).

The first tranche of Blood Pact appeared here.  In the comments, Slovak said "I want to see thousands of them. Thousands."  So I've done some more.

 Etogaur (roughly 'Colonel'); he's a FW Alpha Legion head, which although does not have an Oni mask like most of the other Blood Pact 'grotesque' heads, the mask is suitably leering.  The Scion Officer's body being suitably high status and officer-y.


Bodyguard with scion arms, Wargames Factory body and assorted belt kit.  The heads here are curious constructs renegades.  Which are lovely and will break up the existing sea of maxmini heads.


Etogaur's personal assistant.  Scion comms stuff.  And the other bodyguard.

More Blood Pact next Friday. But more flekkies next....
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The last Flekkies

September 22, 2015, 1:51 am
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So trawling the bits box I found the very last stock of Wargames Factory head that I have used for the 'flekkie' iggies. So these will be the very last 'flekkies'.

The obvious thing (to me) seemed to be to get the FW vets with shotguns and give the flekkies even more interest.


There's a mixture of Vicky Lamb, GW and Anvil Industry legs.  There are also two sets of arms (probably maxmini) with the spare shotguns as well as the obligatory sergeant with a plasma pistol.


All with belt kit and a gentle sprinkling of shotgun cartridges. Also there is this guy on his own:


Cadian body and legs with scion arms and hellgun and a FW Cadian hat.  He'll go with the Cadian Straken (there's one more built the same) and the two hellgun toting dudes will be Straken's homies.


Blood Pact on Friday...
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Photography Practice

September 29, 2015, 1:58 am
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I went to the Tadcaster Airshow at the weekend with a couple of old friends (they're my age, so they are old friends....) to commemorate the increasingly mundane fact that I have survived another 365 days (I'm not complaining).  The airshow is at the former RAF Church Fenton, which was still (just) a fast jet training flying station when I first climbed into a FV4201.

If you look on the interwebs for it, it's under "Yorkshire Airshow".

Anyway, this is the same camera and same lens as I photograph minis with.  So considering that some of the picts of minis are okish, I'm really quite pleased with this as an exercise in photography.


There was any amount of fast moving cloud scudding about, but it was all much higher than the flying displays.


The displays were all very low, mostly around 200 to 300 meters, at a rough estimate.


The yellow here contrasts nicely, it also shows up better against the clouds where that's what's in the frame; this scheme is for the 'Yellow Jacks' the forerunners of the Red Arrows.  Now you know that, you should be able to identify this aeroplane; I'm anticipating that if you read this blog regularly, the other three are EPLS.


You can see how this would be harder to see at a greater distance, against a pale sky.

These were all taken in the 'sport' setting, so I was able to shoot almost 800 picts in a couple of hours. I'm showing you four.  Actually more than 0.5% are ok; there are some sequences of the Vulcan making passes.  From an easy 400m away, it made the ground shake.  What a kool toy.

Anyway, back to 40K next.
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Blood Pact 3

October 2, 2015, 2:07 am
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So here are more of the 'thousands' of the Blood Pact.  What has happened is that the small people have ruined our lives and Mrs Z and I only get a couple of hours to ourselves in the evening and now do things like actually converse.  Anyway, I also have spent some time building Blood Pact-ers, so Children are progressing the project along, but only by displacing my hobby activity from weekends to scattered hours in the week.  


Damogaur (roughly 'Major') gazes lovingly at his Bloodthirster Sword.  The mind boggles as to what he did to be gifted one of those by Khorne.


High Sirdar (roughly 'Captain') prepares to draw his more normal sword.


And the obligatory nutter with flaming sword and skull on a chain around his neck. Possibly a 'Blood Mage', whatever one of those is...


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Project Progress Update

October 6, 2015, 2:13 am
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Nice Pict to symbolise progress:



Ok, sort of in response to the 6MMMRC, here's the latest news:

DKK Salamanders - need finishing off.
ASL Crassus - Done
Valhallans - now so old they need touching up. 
3rd Thunderer Conversion.  
Additional Officers Nearly all done (but I keep adding more....)
"Word Bearers" er, um, tbc. 
Leviathan Mortis' - Despatched to the Dark Mechanicus
DKK Grenadiers Done
Full Size ATAT fleet Test Mega Bolter Done
DKK Hydrae Built & Painted Done
Thunderbolts - WIP Done
Clone wars Vendetta conversions  WIP
World Eaters Land Raider  Despatched to the Dark Mechanicus
Meridian Infantry
Inquisitorial Gun Cutter WIP
Isenkearn APC Test Model Done
Isenkearn Command Squad Done
Imperial Basillica
Elsyian Army  Done
TGG Kickstarter girls Delivered late May

  • Jailbirds        WIP  Includes 60ish Catachans....
  • Iron Empire   WIP
  • Kurnigova      WIP  Includes repainting my existing Cadians....

And then a trawl of whats in the boxes
Trawling:  

  • Shoulder Launched AA ML Platoon for the Iggies.  WIP
  • Arco-eviscorators   WIP
  • Crusader               WIP
  • 3 Armoured Sentinels       WIP
  • Blood Pact Tranche 1        Done
  • Blood Pact Tranche 2        WIP
Broken rules:

Two chaos Knights.
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Blood Pact 4

October 9, 2015, 2:23 am
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Blood Pact SWS: three GLs and three with liberated Kantreal Mk IX Lasrifles.


Curious Construct swedes, WGF bodies and Cadian arms and arms and maxmini arms and Cadian arms.  All variously armed with small arms. (Yes, Drax, I know, I did it for you.....)


Ready to indirectly bombard my position.  'stewards.


Showing their CESFAW nature.



Vox Ops.  They don't wear helmets to better hear the words of their Archon ("Whose voice drowns out all others....")


Their Melta gun toting buddy.



That's all for now.
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Splash another bandit

October 13, 2015, 2:26 am
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Another separatist T-65 is bounced by Imperial Thunderbolts before it can get away.   Given the law of averages, every time a T-65 launches on a mission the number of Thunderbolts lurking above it does not diminish, whereas the number of separatist airframes does, meaning that as the campaign progresses, the separatist is exponentially less likely to make it home.


The scar in the ground can clearly be seen where it has crash landed. The picts were taken by the other Thunderbolt.  The pair are quite likely to continue to circle until ground forces arrive to secure the crash site, assuming they don't go 'bingo' during the meantime.


In this instance, it looks like the T-65 is not too badly damaged; assuming that the pilot doesn't manage to destroy it, it may well become a trophy on a plinth at some Imperial base after the war, perhaps. 

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It's no Joke

October 16, 2015, 1:35 am
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A Valhallan, a Necromundan and a Cadian walk into a bunker…

Not the beginning of a joke, but three fugitives fleeing westwards meet the Kado 540th Infantry coming the other way.  Fortunately the Valhallan manages to convince his world-brothers not to shoot them and they are escorted to C Company HQ, at that time, a log and earth bunker no longer required by it’s previous owners.

The three fugitives are given and hot drink and the Valhallan, Serjeant Lik, is questioned by   Comrade Major Gogebic.  Kommissar Tora is sat at the back of the bunker, allowing himself to be mostly obscured by the stores and equipment therein.  Pte Yoshida, the Necromundan, has noticed him and signed to his Cadian comrade that the Commissar is there, but cannot get Serjeant Lik’s attention.  He just hopes Lik doesn’t say anything too dumb.  

"So how did you all get away ?"

Sergeant Lik licked his lips and began his account "Well, I understand that it was the Cadian Master Sergeant; apparently he’d been in the Interior Guard at some point.   We were kept in a series of pens and he was in one of the others with some Death Korps.   Turns out that he was hardest bastard in that pen, which is a turn up for the books, eh ?"

Comrade Major Gogebic nodded encouragingly "Well, what did he do ?"

"We all got taken out once a day for interrogation, which was really just intimidation and brutalisation to soften us up, there was no real intent to get meaningful information out of any of us.  The Cadian had apparently been whispering to each of them that he was psychic and that one of them, the guards, was weak and that he was going to make the weak one kill the rest of them."

"What ?" the word came out of Comrade Major Gogebic's mouth perhaps little fast, he hoped he hadn't spooked Sergeant Lik.  But the man just shrugged and delivered his explanation.

"It was a bluff, apparently, something he’d dreamt up whilst he was in the Interior Guard.  But the odd whispers had set the guards on edge and watching each other, we could see that in the other pens.   Over eleven days we reacted to their edginess, they became even more jumpy.   Now I imagine that the Cadian, on one of his interrogation trips, just made eye contact with one guard and nodded towards another and one of the guards had become so freaked out he just shot the other.  The Master Sergeant then took down the other one and sprung the rest of us.

The Master Sergeant and about half a dozen Cadians and all of the Krieg boys stayed in the pens.  We could still hear the gunfire and explosions as we crossed the outer perimeter." 

Serjeant Lik took a mouthful of recaf and paused a moment, savouring it before continuing.

"We’d been heading West for two days; we lost about half of the men actually breaking out of the heretic camp, but were all arming ourselves from their bodies on the way out; once we’d made it about an hour we split down into small groups, mostly on unit lines, but some of the more veteran guardsmen made sure that their groups were mixed, I started out with three other Valhallans, one from my own Battalion, but when we saw others splitting down and mixing up. I saw the sense and so I left them.  They wanted to stay together, they could not see how having men from different worlds improved the chances of the small groups.  We've made it."

Comrade MajorGogebic nodded; “Go and see Corporal Jenkski, he’ll have breakfast on, you three look as if you could use a good meal.”

The three men drew themselves up to attention.  Sergeant Lik saluted and the three of them ducked out of the bunker and went in search of the promised hot meal. 

“Well ?”

Kommissar Tora exhaled through his nose as he pursed his lips.  He’d had instruction from his own chain of command; not to be delinquent in his own duties, but to ensure that such men were not drawn to the attention of the Inquisition.  Not hidden, but not fed to godless torturers for no good reason. 


“Assign them to me.  I can watch them and you can release Jenkski and Serich back to their Platoon.  We’ll keep them until we roule back to the rear.  There’s no point in trying to pass them back when we’re going forward, you can’t spare the escort or the transport.

Is it snowing yet ?"


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Reaching the Edge of the Xyphonica Conurbation.

October 20, 2015, 1:39 am
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XVIII Corps’ 28th Infantry Division, under 1* General Jelan is composed of five regiments raised as one founding from the world of Ketzok.   The Ketzok 2ndLight Infantry are the Divisional Recce formation.  This balmy summer evening finds 3/2KLI pushing through the commercial district of the town of Lealine[1].  At the Northern end of XVIII Corps’ TAOR, Lt Col Daaler is in no hurry, he knows that XVII Korps to the north are also sending recce elements into the conurbation. 

Lealine is thought likely to be occupied by the PLA and their new allies, the so called ‘Blood Pact’[2].  Lt Col Daaler picks ‘B’ Company and its OC selects his lead platoon and they shake out into their skirmish formation and push into the ruins with the aim of securing a line along Glassmill Way, the main north/south road through the town, by nightfall and allowing the rest of 3/2LI to reinforce them during the night.

Tound ducked as the stubber slugs thumped into the doorway around him, he threw himself backwards in a shower of stone chips and dust, landing on his arse and skidding across the broken glass and smashed door.   Stooler’s hand bit into his shoulder and pulled him further back as the smoky trail of the tread fether came through the ruined doorway and thumped into the now damp plaster. 

Tound and Stooler both flicked their eyes up to the tail sticking out of the wall barely more than arms reach away from them, spring loaded fins quivering as the rocket motor fizzed out.   Scrambling for his las carbine, barely catching the sling with his fingertips,  Tound found his feet again.  They ran pell mell back through the ruined kitchen show room, catching up with the rest of their squad, bunching, pushing.  Feet skidded on the debris.

Their Sergeant stood her ground and shouldered her squad members aside as they broke around her like waves around a rock.  Her right arm extended, flinging three grenades through the door opening back into the room Tound and Stooler had entered.   Pins and handles tumbled onto soldiers diving for cover.

Keilbach was the first out of the back of the shop complex, running low and headlong he was heading for the picture window of the shop opposite, half way across he seemed to stumble and crashed face first into the showroom, leaving pink mist and the smell of charred flesh in the air behind  him.  Ramiphilon was moving too fast to stop, he also caught half a dozen las-rounds and fell backwards, back into the kitchen shop.

They were trapped.  They had been the cutting edge of the battalion advance; the squad were a probing patrol moving deep into the urban area, combing through the commercial district.  There were other squads also probing like they were, but these were spaced widely to avoid friendly fire incidents.  They had taken a few targeted las shots and dived into a ruined shop to outflank the shooter, only to run into a better laid ambush; now their original way in was cut off.

If it was just another squad, they had a chance to fight it out. If it was a larger formation, their best hope was to dig in and wait for relief.   Tound as an experienced soldier of some eight years active service, knew this and was cursing their luck; Sergeant Hunebuck’s squad[3]were good at infiltrating through the urban battle field; they drilled for it extensively and had plenty of real life experience.  Which meant that the veterans they were facing were even better.

The grenades went off, setting off the RPG and sending a tongue of flame shooting across the ceiling of the small space the remains of the squad were in.   Sergeant Gelmaur barked orders to form up for a hasty attack and thumbed the activation rune on her chainsword.  She stepped back into the burning room and instantly crumpled under bursts of las and stubber fire.   Heavy bolter fire began to eat into the building from the back. 

As the stonework of the building was being eaten away, heavy bolter rounds penetrated the ruin and began exploding in the space the squad were sheltering in,  showering men with more stone flakes and killing three of them outright, including Josle the medic who was frantically trying to stem Ramphilion’s bleeding.

Brenus emptied his las rifle on full auto through the gap where Sergeant Gelmaur had fallen.  Stooler followed suit.   Tound threw his grenades through the doorway, past his two squad mates and then moved back again leaving the reloaded Brenus facing the outside world.   There were a series of explosions from outside of the building and fiz and crack of las cannon fire.  The three of them inched through the room, stepping over Sergeant Gelmaur and the three dirty red-brown soldiers who’d shot her and then been slain in turn.

Glancing outside they could see the hulking form of a Wolverine armoured car[4]repeatedly blasting away with its twin las-cannons at the positions from which the squad had been ambushed.   “Thank feth….” Began Tound, the sound of his voice being chocked off as a red covered arm wrapped itself around his neck, he felt himself being pulled over backwards onto the knife, a text book manoeuvre he’d used a few times himself.  He could smell the dried blood that the assailant’s arm had been died red with.  He felt the knife wielding hand wriggle and saw the knife as his own body weight was used to kill him.  The jagged blade had gone in through his arm pit and was now scraping the inside of his body armour.

Stooler spun around and put a sustained burst of eight las rounds through the leering mask of the man stabbing his best friend.   The second infiltrator flung his axe end over end, splitting Stooler’s helmet and buring itself in his head, almost but not quite bisecting it.

Brenus emptied his rifle into the second infiltrator and then dropped it and snatched up Stooler’s carbine.   Through the back door, their original point of entry, he could see a Warthog nosing through the rubble, it’s autocannon slowly traversing, already spent brass tinkling on to the road off of the rear platform as the vehicle rolled forward, large low pressure tyres rolling purposefully and slowly over broken glass, smashed brick and Guardsman Ramphilion's las carbine without further damaging any of it. 

Guardsman Brenus, suffering from a mild sweat, a coating of stone dust and the promise of downstream PTSD, is the last man standing.   It’s another six minutes before he feels safe enough to quit covering the threat points and begin triage and first aid on his squad mates.  

3/2KLI established itself along the western boundary of Glassmill Way, but not until after midnight and only after taking many more casualties than anticipated.  72AG had met the Blood Pact for the first time and found the skirmishes unexpectedly tough. 

The rest of the Regiment formed up on the positions established by 3/2KLI.  28 Inf Div intended to form up and prosecute an assault on the inner districts of Lealine after 24hours of rest, re-organisation and preparation[5].  In the event, Blood Pact counter attacks, under cover of the ruined buildings, continued, sometimes in strength, throughout the day, only ceasing when the Divisional attack was launched.



[1]Pop 13,000.  Lealine is a western suburb of Xyphonica.  Securing a foothold in the metropolis will give 72AG access to routes into the city proper; the main roads, highway access and disused rail network.  Plus as each Corps rotates its divisions through their daily objectives, it gives them practice in operational FIBUA.
[2] At this time, the Blood Pact have not been in contact with any part of 72AG.  The Only person in 72AG who has operational experience of fighting against them is 3* Gen Romos, who served in the Sabbat Crusades as a junior officer ~200 years ago.
[3]Sergeant Hunebuck had been their Sergeant for six years, being replaced by Sergeant Gelmaur four months ago as Sergeant Huneback finds himself as an RSM in a locally raised battalion.
[4]Wolverine armoured cars were used by Cadian 144th LRRR when they were first deployed to Devos IV.  With a number of parts in common with both the Leman Russ MBT and the Chimera family, these vehicles soon found their way into most of 72AGs recce units.  These ones, like the Warthog, were probably 17 Korps assets.
[5]This 36hr period had seen the fiercest fighting that 28 Inf Div had been involved in.  2KLI took more casualties than anticipated and 3rd Bn paid the lion’s share of the Butcher’s Bill.  But the objectives were achieved and XVIII Corps had it’s foothold in Xyphonica. 
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Ohh, I like this.

October 27, 2015, 1:05 pm
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Reinforcing 22 Armoured Regt

October 30, 2015, 3:10 am
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I'm building a third troop for the ASL tank squadron.  So these are likely to be 430, 431 and (eventually) 432.  The unpainted one you can see is from the bitzbox.  And as a part of the ASL, these two have plasticard vorpanzer.


So other mods to match the existing ASL tanks include the side mounted searchlight and the smoke dischargers mounted on the vorpanzer.


All of the others are configured like the unpainted one, with a supplementary 40 gallon drum on the toolbox. The painted one was obtained when I asked a regular contact if had a Pheaton pattern LRMBT kicking around that I could purchase.  It came with HB sponsons and the usual ugly laser cannon barbette on the front.


I have another Pheaton pattern LRMBT, found on ebay, on its way for the princely sum of £16.  Which is excellent for filling out the ASL formation to three troops, matching the numbers and TO&E of the DKK tank formation.  OCD ?  Me ?  I don't know what you're talking about.


Another major change is that the previous tanks have a plasticard sheet over the hole where the barbette would be and then a 'normal' Chimera front weapon mount (all HBs, obviously) with the back end shaved down for a decent fit.  Since those tanks were done Karitas and I put together the DKK formation and therefore I had a few of the Mars pattern hull weapon mounts left over.


So these babies get them first.  There's another waiting for the last tank to add; after that I may retro fit them to the older ones.  Obtw, there's a stubber armed cupola to go on this one.  Its just camera shy.


As you read this now, the unpainted one is now painted to the same level.  Decals next, then weathering, then dressing with stowage.  But not until No3 is at this stage.

Hope fully, this links back to a previous shot of the other ones.

Pre-publication update: No3 is now here as well, so I'll be able to get on with that soon.
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Just teasing

November 3, 2015, 2:32 am
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These girls have been done by Raven's Nest Painting. They are poncin' about a bit, but that's girls for you.

These girls are from the 43rd Helgedad Light Infantry.  Which is a part of 2nd (Devos IV) Inf Div, XXXVIII Corps.  Recently deployed, 2 Inf Div is well trained and fresh.  Which is all well and good considering that XXXVIII is only fielding half of its front line Divisions.


The banner is a WIP.  But I'm looking forward to these girls arriving soon.


Oh look, a real one !







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42Bn "Helgedad" VV Regt

November 6, 2015, 1:32 am
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2nd (Devos IV) Infantry Division is formed around a nucleus of battalions locally recruited.  The Hulin Rifles, recruited almost exclusively from Drookian expatria and formed around a cadre of Palladian and Mordian officers and NCOs, have already been mentioned.

The 42nd “Helgedad”[1]VV Regt is actually an offshoot of the militia raised in the South Eastern Aglov region of Acer.  Originally a response to the separatist rebels on Benq, the militia was a religiously motivated self-defence force.   Attached to the local policing authorities (sponsored by the local agrarian oligarchs) the various parts of the militias were branded as Special Purpose Mobile Units. 

Paint by Raven's Nest Painting


The Special Purpose Mobile Units were organised into platoons and given public order, area search and basic FIBUA training.  With the realisation of the undeclared war on their planet, they began to take themselves more seriously, upping their recruitment and becoming involved in the campaign to make continental Acre safe for loyalists.  Perhaps because they were drawn in contingents from numerous districts, with differing levels of training, they demonstrated a wide spectrum of capabilities and qualities.

Some were amongst the toughest and most professional loyalist forces whilst others proved abusive or unprofessional (leading to a number of ‘friendly fire’ incidents).  Fortunately the blame for the worst behaviours was able to be posthumously assigned to Col Omon, who was almost certainly not to blame for the vast number of mistakes, crimes and failures attributed to him.

After Operation Tranquility, with XVII Korps, mostly 902 Div, training around the largely commercial town of Peltor sent the Valhallan 540th(Kado) Heavy Infantry to form the Special Purpose Mobile Unit into a proper military unit.



The Valhallans, recently put through a three year Cadian all arms training programme themselves, set to their training task with aplomb. The Valhallans (and their linguistic cousins the Vostroyans, who run 72AG[2]) refer to 42bn as “Vnutrennye Voiska” (interior troops).  The soldiers wear a patch with “VV” surmounted by the Aqilla on their left breast pocket.  This is not visible in the pictures as it is under their body armour.

The soldiers in the pictures are wearing  6B23 body armour with rigid plates on the arms and legs.  Some are wearing the Zsh 1-2 helmet some the Kolpak 1-SB1 helmet, some are wearing a variety of soft headgear harking back to their days as independent Special Purpose Mobile Units.  It would not be unreasonable to assume that these individuals are veterans of the pre-war armed uprisings.  They are armed with the Arakan pattern[3]AN 77 auto rifle and AN 48 auto pistol.  Many of them are carrying demolition charges.   The NCOs are carrying locally manufactured[4]chainswords.



[1]Helgedad is small city, the provincial capital of the Aglov region.
[2]The Commander of 72AG and his Corps Commanders are Vostroyan.
[3]Comptroller Bellormus’ efforts to supply 72AG have resulted in a glut of weaponry, allowing the staff of 72AG to ensure that small arms natures are common to large formations.
[4]Made on Devos IV, quite possibly on Benq before the schism.
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John's Toy Soldiers: Vive la France

November 14, 2015, 12:11 pm
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Camo Cadians

November 20, 2015, 2:10 am
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The camo Cadians (that's what it says on the cardboard KR case) have been posted before.  But they have recently been reinforced, with newly painted comrades arriving from Raven's Nest Painting. Sorry about the slightly dodgy photos, but's winter and hence quite dark in the garage, even in the early afternoon.


The Straken conversion from Catachen to Cadian has been superbly done by Col Gravis.  The hellgun armed bodyguard already has a painted up buddy.


Here, with the FW shotgun vets, is the Cadian-ised Sgt Harker that Col Gravis also customised.  They may not be able to be Grenadiers with him around, but I don't see that as being a problem.


Ten snipers.  Because pinning.


Also present are the two squads of AA missiles, designated by their blue and yellow shoulder pads.


And I put the 42VV Regiment girls out as well.


One of the platoons; there are two platoons of five squads. Additionally, there are three special weapon squads and the heavy weapon squads (one AT, one Fire Support).


There are only two squads from the 24VV Regiment's contribution to the war effort here.  The TGG girls are great, but look like they are seriously flouncing, rather than seriously soldiering.  But when you look this good, who cares ?

In terms of 'progress' this represents a reasonable slice. And pushes little men on 25mm bases over the 1000 mark.  The camo Cadians have four command squads - in points terms this is a CCS, a spare CCS and the two PCSs.  But the plethora of banners could allow me to show various units of 72AG all using the same figures, giving the army a veneer of commonality.

Anyway, I've done a little cogitating about the Astra Militarum, so if you enjoy my expositions into how the Grimdark works, there's another one of these coming up soon.
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FW Knight Cerestus up for grabs.

November 23, 2015, 2:19 pm
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Creating the Imperial Guard.

November 27, 2015, 2:29 am
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So longer term readers will recall my series of posts about the viability of M41 Space Marine Chapters, the whys and wherefores of the inquisition and how the DM supports the IG.  But what of the IG ?

As you read this, please remember that I am generalising, this is an exploration of ideas for the background for the Grimdark, not a real political/military essay, despite the illustrations.   Hopefully it’s food for thought.

Tiawanese conscripts
The fluff is stuffed full (and always has been, which is weirdly consistent for this game) of tales of martial societies presenting regular tithes of fully formed and armed regiments, gangs from underhives conscripted by force and tribes from deathworlds, horse borne warriors from feudal worlds and loads of others in between.  Whole armies of volunteers, holy warriors, conscripts, professional soldiers, militia, farmers, criminals, web designers, redeemed harvest clanners, people who fight because they must, because they can, because they should and because they don’t have any other option.

All of these people represent 10,000 years of human diaspora since the Horus Heresy.   Across over a million worlds, living in every conceivable mode of governance and variation of society, family and culture.  We have examples in the fluff of where stiff upper lip formations jeopardise or harm the Imperial war effort due to their mindset.   The Imperium has had 10,000 years to sort this out, but hasn’t. 

The obvious answer to this seemly solvable conundrum is that the losses involved have always been made up from available resources.  But as world after world is lost and the available resources decrease over time, this will become a problem.  The fluff as is seems to leave the impression that, possibly only a century or so after this tipping point, we are witnessing the point where the Imperium is under such pressure that if it does not embrace critical thought instead of ages old dogma, it will pass the point of continued viability.

But what of the problems with integrating all of those disparate humans into a working military apparatus ?

USMC Drill Instructor giving some handy hints to one of his charges. 
The issues the US military has taking young men from the oil field of Alaksa, farms of Arkansas,  Bible thumping heartlands, Hispanic communities and hard edged east-coast capitalist bastions are, these days, somewhat mitigated by America’s widespread access to common culture through television, education and technology.  Contemporary accounts from recent conflicts do mention these differences, but more as literary colour than any real difficulty[1].

May Day Parade.  Very 'IG' in scale.
Across the vastness of the former Soviet Union, a vast army has well documented troubles due at least in part due to its scale and the relationship between geography and communication technology.  Russia’s paramilitary security forces were widely mobilised for the first Chechnya war – they were noted for having vastly different performance in combat due to units from different locations having vastly different levels of training, professionalism and equipment. 

At what might be the zenith of its power, the end of the 19thand early 20th century, the British Empire managed to meld together armies from across what is now the commonwealth by dint of officering almost all of its units with public school boys from the UK who had been through the same officer training establishments.   Arguably, this was possibly the most important factor in successful imperial wars[2], not necessarily that these officers were any good (although the war office did obviously recognise a need for a certain level of common professionalism), but that they were culturally homogenous and shared understanding of military knowledge and purpose[3].

The British Military has for a long time, stretching back to Napoleonic times[4], a culture of institutionalised off duty alcohol abuse as bonding mechanism, in certain units, being in the right drinking circles has been as important as blood and class ties of previous centuries.   With Operational theatres being ‘dry’, parts of the modern US military wholly embrace chewing tobacco.  The Afghan National Army was often viewed as barely functional when off duty soldiers were smoking marijuana – by western mentoring teams were probably incapacitated to a far greater degree during their last mess function[5].

Armies that commanders expect to function must have self-belief,  for some contemporary armies, this manifests itself as in certain uniform items which in past have designated elite status being worn by a much wider population to encourage espirit de corps .   We (on both sides of the pond) are familiar with a regimental system which embraces tens or even hundreds of years of history – ask most people who have served in the British Army where their Regiment was at Waterloo and most of those in the combat arms can tell you.   Thousands of words have been written about why men fight, ‘for their comrades’ always comes out on top, but the weight of history and expectations of wearing that cap badge is also very strong.

OMON Officer wearing striped jersey copied from the Russian Airborne Forces.


Rolling forwards 30,000 years and that espirit de corps may well manifest itself in units raised from militarily focussed worlds like Mordia, Kreig and Vostroya[6].  Others do not enjoy this historical (military) advantage.

People drawn from worlds where the unit for warriors is the tribe or liege lord’s retinue or warband[7]are going to behave differently; on parades where they are being addressed by a General these cohesive groups of individuals might spend more time eyeing each other up than listening to a keynote speech[8].   Individuals unused to parades like this may just get up and walk off[9].

Zulu.  A few Impis could well satisfy a planetary Governor's obligation
There are many apocryphal tales of individuals from 2ndand 3rd world countries attending 1st world training establishments (including other non-military situations, the Olympics spring to mind for some reason) where persons have to be constantly dissuaded from cooking their own food over open fires or petrol burners in corners of accommodation blocks or other public spaces.  You can tell people where the cookhouse[10]is but if they culturally all cook their own food, then they might just nod and smile and carry on doing what they always have done.  Dropping a pastorialist or hunter gatherer in to a barracks in uniform is only the beginning.  Some of these people will not have worn shoes before and will be required to learn a new language (hey, they got there in a space ship, they'll cope). 

Sierra Leone's West Side Boys.
Some of those who are enlisted for the Emperor’s wars will be from strongly patriarchal, even misogynistic cultures.  Others will represent more enlightened cultures with mixed or wholly female units.  Some will be deeply religious, others less so.  Some will feature units where holding hands is common, some where favourite off duty pass times include cross dressing, some where individual morality is a strong factor, some where catamites are a perk of higher status.  Constant assessment at every stage and finding a suitable army for the unit to join will be what the Departmento Munitorium officials have been doing for thousands of years. 

More Russians. Just different ones.
The incredible diversity of the Imperial Guard and the almost constant risk of internecine combat breaking out, the inadvertent burning down of training establishments by accidental cookery, mass food poisoning through bootleg bushmeat and reheated poultry, mean that the Departmento Muntorium  has had to develop a strategy for ensuring that the tithe is not wasted. 

The first part of the strategy is cadres.  In the same way that colonial powers of the 19th century led their locally raised units with their own officers, so the DM will use cadres from its reliably military sources[11]to train and lead units raised form places with a less martial outlook.   Whether this is a permanent arrangement, with the cadre become the command echelon of the unit, or whether they are ‘only’ there in a mentoring role, is going to be dependent on circumstances.

Legion de Etranger - successfully doing what I'm talking about for about 200 years. 
Second phase cadres will be those IG regiments who have ‘done their bit’.  Possibly settled on a ‘trophy world’, possibly retired to a quiet garrison post – a regiment where the bulk of the personnel are getting towards the top end of fighting age, settled with intention of allowing time for them to raise a new generation (who will grow up in a culture where nearly everyone in authority was a member of the same military unit) who will them provide the next tithe.  This could go for generation after generation, if circumstances allow.  Some of these garrison worlds, by M41, will have been inhabited by retired iggies for possibly thousands of years, its own population subsumed in the population so long ago it’s not even in available records[12].

Much rarer would be the circumstance where a regiment could be reinforced by a fresh intake of recruits from its own homeworld.  Much more common would be breaking up no longer functional regiments as Battle Casualty Replacements for still functional regiments from the same homeworld, or at least one where they have something in common.  The sensationalistic GW fluff loves smashing regiments from disparate origins/different strategies, tactics and technological competence and them either being the worst things ever or superlatively good[13].  The point is that arrangements are in place to preserve experience and that invaluable espirit de corps. 

The second part would be mustering/training/equipping worlds.   The Departmento Muntitorium supports war on a vast scale; the Sabbat Crusades, the “100 Regiments of the Crusade of Fire” and even 72nd Army Group on Devos IV.  All of these require tens or hundreds of regiments.  These would have to be supplied from Forge Worlds to ensure some degree of interoperability of weapons and equipment.    Tithed bodies of men would arrive in whatever state they arrived in and leave, perhaps years later, organised and deployable as an Imperial Guard regiment.  This is not to say that they are all going to look and behave the same, simply that they can function as a part of a larger army. 

Irish OCS
These establishments could also possibly be thousands of years old (maybe not the infrastructure, but it’s place in wider imperial culture and in administrative terms as far as the DM is concerned).  And well set up and practiced at taking a body of men in whatever state they arrive in and taking appropriate action to turn them into a formation which can contribute to the fighting power of a larger army.

A third part is the Schola Progenitum.  I’m guessing if you’ve read this far you have your own ideas and opinions about these.  I think that there probably ought to be one on every planet with a space port.  Some will be modest, some could be huge.  Vast, even.

The fourth facet of the strategy is the Commissariat.  This is why Commissars belong to the DM and not the Imperial Guard – the power of life and death has the net result of furthering the aims of the IG, but is granted on behalf of the DM in order to provide continued assurance that the unit will continue to do what it is supposed to.  The Commissar's purpose as part of the Departmento Munitorium is to take any measure necessary to ensure the functionality of the unit. 

What these training establishments do not have to do is to train people who are already seasoned fighters into a crack infantry (armoured/airborne/artillery/etc) unit.  Of course, if the draftees have no combat training or experience when they arrive, then this is provided.  However, if they are already capable, they may only need conversion training to new weapon systems; the establishments are more properly concerned with the new intake addressing administrative detail like accurate reporting[14](of manning levels, casualties, numbers of enemies sighted, etc).

A military structure that many of you may recognise as a modern military pattern is also not something strictly necessary for assimilation into the IG or successful campaigning.  I refer you to the Tanith 1st and Only, who appear, despite being the size of ‘a normal IG Regiment’ seem most of the time to have only two commissioned Officers and one NCO and still manages to function.   So there is no requirement for a regularised rank structure.  It is entirely possible that the DM doesn’t give a hoot how big sub units are either – so we needn’t expect a Regiment to be split into three battalions of four rifle companies of equal size[15].

A ~5,000 man IG regiment from a feudal world could include the warbands of over 800 cheiftains of varying size who would constantly re-brigade together along ethnic or tribal lines depending on the current situation.  As long as the overall corpus follows the leadership of their anointed leader, the regiment can still hold a place in one of the IG’s expeditionary armies[16].   This is what the Commissars are really for, ensuring that the mid-level chiefs use their influence to ensure that the commanders intentions are carried out.   Given these circumstances, the on the spot execution of dissenters looks like a viable management tool.   The DM is not short of recruits for the IG, some bits more skilled (useful) can be more carefully handled, those which are used as a blunt tool will tend to be controlled with blunt tools.

FARC
Of course the Departmento Munitorium would prefer to accept foundings of Regiments like the Gudrun Rifles, Tanith Frist and Only and DKK.  But more often will take even formed military units and pass them through its training establishment worlds, just to be sure of a good fit into whatever army they are going into.  And to assess the unit’s capability and readiness for deployment.  

This is getting a bit long so I’ll leave you with a couple of things to think about:

·         Staff colleges where those earmarked for greatness are removed from their native culture and schooled in the ways of the DM and the wider Imperial Guard.
·         Some Regiments leave behind their nearest and dearest forever.
·         Some Regiments will have a ‘baggage train’ of families, children and other non-combatants.
·         The institutionalised inflexibility for which the DM is (in)famous.

  • Locally raised Regiments who havn't been through homogenisation. 


I know that none of this new or spectacular, but it does make for some interesting fluff….



[1]And there can be benefits; Native American code talkers, Japanese American units etc are all well documented examples of diversity being a positive asset.
[2]Imperial wars appear mostly to be the imperial power controlling the conquered population or defending its imperial territory from outside aggression – mostly (Hittite, Chinese, Roman, British, French [you could include the ‘Vietnamization’ of that war and the ‘Iraqi/Afghan solution to an Afghan/Iraqi problem] empires all did this) local troops with imperial leadership.
[3] My emphasis (obviously) but purpose – on a wider level as well as understanding the commander’s intentions on the ground, as vital to success.  After all, if you don’t what the objectives are, you will not know when or even if you’ve won.  Or lost.
[4]The same units, same messes, preserve by tradition (which is as we know stronger than regulation or law) that which has gone before.  Including institutionalised alcohol abuse.
[5]Leaving one with the unenviable task of comparing a little after duty social smoking with sustained and relentless alcohol abuse.
[6]And all the others.
[7]Askari, ashiguru, housecarls or whatever else they may be called.
[8]Or, more importantly, an orientation or operational briefing.
[9] If their culture is one where personal fealty to a great warrior who has to prove himself personally to his followers, then the individual is not going to comprehend how ‘important’ the General is, much less being inclined to wait around and listen.
[10]Mess, Galley, cookhouse, refactory, dining room etc.  So many different names for a place to eat.  It’s the same with the ablutions/toilets/head/john/bathroom/etc.  And culturally these all function differently (do you sign for your meal ?  Do you pay for your meal ?). It’s going to be confusing and people won’t automatically know what to do, even if it’s their ‘own’ establishment they are in.
[11]Cadia, Krieg, Mordia, Valhalla, Vostroya, Tallarn, Narmenia, Catachan etc.  One can only hope that the DM examines the candour of the new tithing and sends them the most appropriate mentors.
[12]Agripinna.  Almost certainly
[13]Yawn.
[14]This can be a problem if the individuals who make up the unit are not literate.  Illiterate soldiers required to report into a modern army can be seen as liars or fantasists.  Unreliable reporting and inability to keep records (for things like feeding states and ammunition accounting) make the job of the Departmento Munitorium officials exponentially harder.
[15]And HQ Companies in each Bn and supporting arms and detachments at Regimental level.
[16]It might wear uniform and march in formed bodies of men when the Commissars crack the whip, but may well abandon imposed regular formations and personalise their uniform to a point where it isn’t (uniform), but such an uncivilised regiment ‘going feral’ in contact with the enemy might not be a disaster, it could even be an advantage.  However, in the training establishment, on troop transports transiting the empyrean and sailing through the void, a tight lid needs to be kept on the barbarian hordes in the IG. 
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2015 Annual round up.

December 24, 2015, 2:19 am
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Ok, so here’s this year’s roundup:  It looks OK, with a reasonable amount of progress and a lots of stuff out to paint.  I am getting to the point where I can see an end to it all.  However, there’s still ideas for using up left over arms and equipment, which would see another two units of 72AG taking shape.  Plus of course those Frostgrave cultists look like  a good bet for getting some more bodies on the table for the forces of freedom.

Anyway, here’s the done pile:

ASL Crassus–                 Done
DKK Grenadiers             Done
DKK Hydrae                   Done
Thunderbolts -               Done
Isenkearn CommandSquad Done
Elsyian Army                  Done
Blood Pact Tranche 1    Done
TGG Kurnigova             Done Includes repainting my existing Cadians....
Shoulder Launched AA ML Platoon for the Iggies.  Done



DKK Salamanders - need finishing off.
Valhallans - now so old they need touching up. 
Leviathan Mortis' - Despatched to the Dark Mechanicus
Full Size ATAT fleet Test Mega Bolter Done
Clone wars Vendetta conversions  WIP
World Eaters Land Raider  Despatched to the Dark Mechanicus
Inquisitorial Gun Cutter WIP
Isenkearn APC Test Model Done
TGG Jailbirds        WIP  Includes 60ish Catachans....
TGG Iron Empire   WIP

Trawling the boxes:

·                     Arco-eviscorators   WIP
·                     Crusader               WIP
·                     3 Armoured Sentinels        WIP
·                     Blood Pact Tranche 2        WIP
·                     Blood Pact Tranche 3         WIP
·                     3 ASL LRMBT                    WIP

Broken rules:

Two chaos Knights.

Stuff not even looked at:

3rd Thunderer Conversion.  
"Word Bearers" er, um, tbc. 
Meridian Infantry
Imperial Basillica

So you can see that there's more than enough to keep Devos IV going for a while.  
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