40K Imperial Guard

[tim in saskatoon]

Over the years I've been puttering away at an Imperial Guard force for 40K using all metal Catachan figures. Originally I wasn't even making the force FOR 40K - I was just using the figures for a Savage Worlds Showdown Sci-fi campaign... but that's a whole other story. Slowly I added more and more and eventually had enough for a genuine 40K force!

Here they are:



There are loads more pictures of the individual units over on my blog:

http://saskminigamer.blogspot.ca/2016/05/guaiacan-commandoes.html

[Elbows]

Looks good...Guard are easily the army with the most "unfinished" projects.  I don't know that I've ever seen a fully painted guard army on a table in person.    Nicely done. 

[syrinx0]

Nice looking force. Need more fast attack and heavy weapons.   

It's not hard to field a painted guard army, problem is when to stop adding platoons and vehicles. I'm probably going to stop soon. Really.

[Dentatus]

Very nice force. And epic to see them arrayed on the table like that.

[Legion1963]

Indeed. That looks realy great. And nicely painted too. It must be a joy to put them in the field on an operation. ;-)

[Gibby]

Great stuff! We're looking at playing games in the excellent 40k universe but using better rules. For what we have in mind, this would be a pretty massive army I think! Inspiring stuff! I am a big fan of Catachans. That Commissar may not survive the jungle...

[Brummie]

Lovely force!! 

I used to have a sizeable guard army, considering going back to doing one.

Iusse with Guards is you spend all that time putting them together and painting them, and then at least 50% of them die in the first few turns 

[Inso]

Fantastic army 

I'm loving the camouflage and the mixed race/sex aspect of the troops.

The metal Catachans are some of the best miniatures that GW produced... a mix of WH40k and Veitnam war styling.

I collected an army of them just as you did... but mine are painted in 2nd Ed brightness with a gloss varnish. I often wish that I had painted them a bit more subtley but there you go... certainly not a patch on your army :

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/GW%20Stuff/Catachan2.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/GW%20Stuff/Catachan5_zpseb5abfb1.jpg

I particularly like the fact that you have stuck to the idea behind the Jungle Fighters mini-codex and only have troops and Sentinels in your army. Theme is everything for me and it may not win battles but it is so much fun building an army with fluff and a theme to back it up

[Major_Gilbear]

Wow, what a super-looking army! 

The metal Catachans are some of the best miniatures that GW produced... a mix of WH40k and Veitnam war styling.

This is pretty much what I thought when they were first released back in WH40K 2E days, and is pretty much still my view now.

I also really liked the other metal regiments put out too - I don't know why the modern plastics missed out the feel of the relevant regiments so completely though.

I do think that some units can be added to the Catachans if they are themed suitably - rough riders and storm troopers specifically, but I would restrict how many I added though (just a decent squad of each maybe).

[Inso]

...especially Ogryn

Rough riders would work... maybe with reptilian mounts...
Stormtroopers would probably be better themed as 'up-armoured' veterans (a bit like a Catachan version of the KASRKIN of the Cadians... which were effectively better equipped veterans rather than Stormtroopers from the off-world training planet).

Armour would be questionable though.

[Major_Gilbear]

...especially Ogryn

Yep, although it looks like tim in saskatoon has some already!

Rough riders would work... maybe with reptilian mounts...
Stormtroopers would probably be better themed as 'up-armoured' veterans (a bit like a Catachan version of the KASRKIN of the Cadians... which were effectively better equipped veterans rather than Stormtroopers from the off-world training planet).

Armour would be questionable though.

Yep - pretty much my thoughts too.

I don't think it's essential for RR to be on lizards or weird creatures though - horses are not too out of place if you consider them to be deployed selectively is certain areas/planets as scouts in less dense terrain. Besides, they might even be special genetically-engineered horses!

Your idea for Storm Troopers was just what I had in mind when I wrote my post - native Catachan troops that fill the role, rather than being drawn from an independent regiment full of Schola Progenium alumni.

[tim in saskatoon]

Rough riders would work... maybe with reptilian mounts...

hmmmm... I do have a couple of these in a box somewhere...





that might make a decent proxy "roughrider"..?

[Major_Gilbear]

Yeah, those mounts would look great for roughriders! I assume you'd replace the troops with Catachans?

[Inso]

Yep... those would work great for Rough Riders.

If you were lucky, you could probably get away with chopping the riders at the waist and dropping on Catachan bodies

[Pictors Studio]

That looks great.  I always thought the Catachan figures needed their own special rules.  I know they had their own Codex in 3rd edition, I have it and have used it, but it seems like they needed to be their own army.  The figures were very cool looking but seemed like they should have had different stats from the regular guardsmen due to the size of the minis.  Their arms were bigger than SM arms. 

If they had given them no armour save and a T4 it would have worked perfectly and then made them extra sneaky or had an option for extra-sneakiness somehow. 

Either way the force looks fantastic.  Great job.