They are part of the Kozar military, specially trained for urban combat. Before the Heresy, their main duties were putting down riots, rebellions, cults and the occasional ork kommandos that infiltrated one of the cities. Now they use their detailed knowledge of the city streets and sewers to act as a recon unit in the urban warfare ensuing from the traitors' assault on Berat.
I am happy with the conversions and I think the paint scheme turned out well. I kept the same brown and black colors as my Drop Troopers along with the same blue lenses and the orange regimental color, but I changed the brown/tan scheme of the fatigues and armor to a grey scheme to better fit with the urban surroundings. The bases are a mix of the sand colors used on the Drop Troopers (to help tie them in) along with grey building rubble to show they are urban fighters. I wanted them to fit in with the rest of the army despite being camouflaged for a different environment.
Unfortunately, I had a problem with the primer again and they came out quite grainy. This has been happening to me a lot lately. I actually scrubbed them down with Purple Power to remove some of the worst of it and re-primed them but you can see they still have a pretty rough appearance overall. Oh well. I will just move on and try to do better next time.
These guys were built to use the rules for a Militia Recon Squad from the Horus Heresy Imperial Militia list: shotguns and a sergeant with a breacher charge or melta bombs. With shotguns (probably the worst weapon for guardsmen) I doubt they will ever kill a single space marine, but maybe they can stay out of sight and grab an objective or hit a back line unit with a breacher charge. I doubt they will ever be useful but they look cool and fun, which is my main motivation.
I see one or two details I forgot to paint now that I am looking at the pictures. After that, they need Dullcote and then gloss finish on the lenses and they will be done.
Too bad shotguns stink cause they look awesome! My gaming inclinations suggest that they are much stronger than lasguns. The drum magazines indicate burst fire for extra damage. In most gaming worlds (like FPS's) shottys are among the deadliest weapons.
ReplyDeleteYeah! They are just too cool to be so weak, especially when you have to pay points to upgrade them from lasguns despite being worse in game. In official rules, they are only S3 AP- Assault 2 with a range of only 12". Maybe we can agree on a house rule to make them better. In games like Shadow War Armageddon and Necromunda, they at least have the advantage of a big bonus to hit at short range or negating the penalty for shooting at a target in cover so they have some advantages in urban fighting at close ranges with lots of cover. But then again, grenades are a lot more deadly in real life than in-game, too.
DeleteI was proposing to Pete that we could at least use the rules for a Space Marine Shotgun (same as above, but S4) just to give them some reason to spend the extra points to upgrade from lasgun. Plus, these guns are huge! They are space marine guns in the hands of regular men!
These dudes are the real deal. I'm looking forward to seeing them in battle. Great job Phil! I'm glad our next phase is an urban one. But yeah, those combat shotguns have got to get beefed up.
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