The Plan...
When I started this army, I always had the goal of making it Apoc. scale. Whether this was because of the Spirits I was drinking at the time I thought it up, or the fact I just really love converting hundreds of troopers... who is to say.
As my latest batch of the needed Men at Arms heads is incoming from England, I consider the new platoon I will be making. Will I abuse more Cadian legs and make them like my original platoon, or will I say forget it and just go the easy route?
Added to this the many beautiful ideas that have come to mind, both in expanding beyond just the infantry, and into specialists and terrain.
New Units
Engineering Squads
As I looked over the Siege Army list that Forgeworld so happily provides for easy download. I looked over the Troop Choice; Engineers. I love these guys, for the simple reason of being unusual.
Sure, they are pretty much just veterans with some special gear. The personality of them made me think of making up my own. I did not want to make them just a carbon copy of my previous regular infantry... I want to make the different and more archaic looking.
Enter some Empire Bits, and some new heads from Puppet Wars.
It is a rough idea, and one that will likely change as I receive the actual bits and see how they look together. Greenstuffing a few armor plates on Cadian legs will be pretty easy I think.
Add to this the fact that buying some Hades Breaching drills from Forgeworld would take me awhile, this may be a project for Next year at some point. Depending on whether or not I find semi-permanent work in the school system.
Cavalry
While I have actually put together a unit of Rough Riders... I find that they really look out of place with the army I have right now. Whether it is the paint scheme or just the use of Wargs as mounts I am unsure.
My painting skills are not what I would like for the appearance of my army. But without winning the lotto, I am unlikely to be able to pay someone to do it for me.
Whatever I do, I intend to have at least two more squads of riders... even if it means using Simple Green to strip the paint and go with a different color scheme I like better.
Terrain
The ideas I had for terrain came from my great interest in World War I and II, and what various governments tried to do to protect themselves. France created the Maginot Line, what they considered to be the greatest line of fortifications built specifically to stop invasion from the East. It did not work of course, but it was an impressive feat of engineering to build.
What would go into such a design in the world of 40k? How many big guns, how many small guns? How big of a table would it cover? And finally, how modular could I make it?
To start, you must have THE BIG GUNS!
Imperial Defense Laser
Ever since seeing various WIP of others, I have been fascinated by the idea of making a Defense Laser. Not just to use it with the datasheet, but to have a cool bit of terrain to fight over as an objective.
Thanks to me having time around the house, I have been working on many in-home remodeling projects. With left over pipes, and various bits lying around... and a small hamster ball from years ago, I think I can do it.
Mid-Range Guns
Next up I would like to get a hold of a couple of these bad boys... to cover the mid range guns of the Line. These are made by the proprietor of IronHands.com... the site even has some great "how to" guides for other terrain pieces I may just use someday.
Not only do they fit the theme of a line of big guns, but they just look fantastic.
Other bits and bullets
Not everything is a big gun, so of course smaller weapon emplacements, barricades, and trenches will be in order. The only difficulty I see in all of this is length of time it would take, and how easy it will be to make on a limited budget.
I will be doing further research on the actual historical Maginot Line itself... to see what really went into it. That way I don't go too crazy and just make a line of Battle cannon towers everywhere.
In summation... after a little bit of run-on
Goals for this year and most of next (Barring the end of the world... or the Emperor getting off the Throne)
Engineer troopers x 20+
Rough Riders x 20+
Regular Infantry x 50+
Defense Laser (Definately)
Other Stuff for the line (Maybe.. depending on time and resources)
This would bring my total Infantry force to around 200... just out of Regular Guardsmen.
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