For the first of the Beard Bunker’s temporarily monthly offerings, I thought I’d write about something dear to my hobbyist’s heart: The Imperial Guard. Specifically my Imperial Guard collection, the 31st Nightfall Ranger Regiment. This is the first of a double-bill of posts, with this one talking about the Imperial Guard as a narrative army and my collection as it currently stands, and the next post exploring homebrew rules in the world of modern 40k.
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| Men of Nightfall... Do you want to live forever? |
Ah, the Guard. There is nothing quite like the mental image of a band of poorly equipped and under-appreciated human grunts going up against alien monstrosities, posthuman demigods and nightmarish hordes of daemons. The Imperial Guard channel that “indomitable human spirit” flavour which pairs so deliciously with the relentlessly bleak grimdark of Warhammer 40,000. They’re a whole army of underdogs and that’s what I love them for.
I’ve had a number of Imperial Guard armies over the years, from some intrepid first attempts at miniatures (see below), to the inquisitorial hit-squads of the Militarum Tempestus, and everything in between. I think the thing that keeps me coming back is just how ordinary they are: Being actual humans in a setting as bleak as the far future they serve as an excellent point of reference, grounding the various scary things they encounter by letting players see just how much more dangerous a Space Marine is than some twerp with a laser rifle, in turn elevating how cool and exceptional the other factions they encounter feel too. It is also pleasingly metal, admittedly, when the humble guardsmen bring down their massively superior foes through a mix of human ingenuity, combined firepower and teamwork. Satisfying is the word.
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| My honorary first miniature, since he's the leader of my first army. Charlie once said of this Cadian army that it was as close as one could get to playing warhammer with counters. It was a formative experience that I remind him of frequently. |
Also because they’re humans they are much easier to relate to as characters: Their motivations and objectives are fairly mundane, their lives are measured on a normal timescale, and they are mortal. Because of how diverse the range of regiments within the Imperial Guard is, they’re also a good place to inject a bit of hope and light into the otherwise unrelenting hate dirge that is the Imperium: While they are unmistakably fighting for the “bloodiest and cruellest regime imaginable”, that does not preclude the possibility of more sympathetic individuals within the brutal imperial war machine. I have (sort of) done this with the Nightfall 31st. A bit.
The final thing I want to say about how great the Imperial Guard are as a narrative faction is that they are essentially omnipresent within the Imperium, which is good for two reasons. Firstly, it means you never have to make up too much of a contrivance to add some Imperial Guard to a campaign, and secondly it means you can really play around with stakes, given how many of them there are and how easily humans die in warhammer. Yes, I kill my named characters off if/when they’ve earned it - not the main ones, but I’ll keep a slow churn of secondary characters, much like how the cast of Gaunt’s Ghosts changes over the series. Verisimilitude, baby.
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Commissar Valden and Sergeant Imka face Sirrus Bizniz. Fortunately, Valden is no fool. Retreat! |
I’ve long since sold my previous guard armies, but the Nightfallers are a keeper. They represent the project a teenage Harvey could never have achieved, an elite light infantry regiment full of character and theme, inspired heavily by Gaunt’s Ghosts. The miniatures themselves are mostly from Victoria Miniatures (with a healthy smattering of bits from other sources, such as heavy weapons from Anvil Industry), and I’ve given them a recommendation within Jeff’s Victoria Miniatures review. I won’t repeat myself, aside from to summarise that they’re good rank-and-file miniatures with some casting defects that are probably too much for a novice modeller to safely fix. I’ve tried to avoid using them for characters, so those are mostly GW instead due to the higher quality sculpting and ease of conversion. I’ll talk more about the conversions I’ve done later, mainly for veterans and heavy weapons teams.
The Infamous Deathworld of Nightfall
Nightfall squats ominously within the Graiae of the Eridani Sector, a solitary and heavily forested world within the Keres system prone to random and extended periods of darkness - both due to frequent eclipses and the mixing of thermospheric gases causing opaque cloud banks that at times can last weeks. The planet has consequently developed a nocturnal rhythm: Plantlife is mainly predatory and more dangerous during the day, meaning most animals are active at night (and have also evolved to almost all be either predatory or utterly lethal by way of self defence). In practice this means that, should a cloud bank cause an artificial night for several weeks, the hyper-evolved predatory aliens of Nightfall are active, as if it were truly night, the entire time. It’s fair to say Nightfall is a grim place.
I’ve written quite a bit about it as a setting on the Beard Bunker's lore wiki, should anyone be interested to read in more depth about the nomadic, thinly-veiled-pagan culture of the Nightfallers and how that relates to the wider Imperium, but for the more sensible reader I’ll summarise: Nightfall is a Death World, perhaps the deadliest in the Eridani Sector, and every colonisation, research mission or invasion attempt that has ever taken place on the world has been destroyed, either devoured by monstrous predators or picked off piecemeal by outsider-hating natives. Lovely.
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| Pictured: One outsider. Watch your back Jocastus, Nightfallers love a fragging. |
Naturally, such a harsh environment breeds a ruthless people perfectly suited to life in the Imperial Guard. Nightfaller regiments are invariably light infantry focused, with expertise in reconnaissance and skirmishing but weaknesses when it comes to protracted line combat. Within the Eridani Sector at least, Nightfaller regiments have earned an elite reputation for results within their given niche: But they are not without downsides. Nightfaller culture is extremely abrasive towards outsiders, and insular and protectionist towards each other. This breeds resentment and animosity between their regiments and those they travel and fight alongside, with petty discipline issues such as thievery, brawling and the occasional murder occurring at rates notably higher than with other, less wilful regiments. They are highly skilled elite troops for the canny general that can win them over and get them to buy into an objective, but all too often they resemble little more than an ill-disciplined pack of Deathworlder savages.
I collect the 31st Nightfall Ranger Regiment: A typical light infantry force of approximately 5000 fighting men and women and their attendant light armour attachments. As with their homeworld, I’ve written about the 31st at length on our wiki, which you are free to peruse if you for some reason have a real hankering for fairly meaty homebrew. My collection represents L Company, or Leshen Company as they call themselves: Named for the absolutely, definitely not sapient deer-headed bipedal apex predators from their homeworld. They started life fairly light on history as I wanted to build a narrative of who they were and what they’d achieved through my games and campaigns, and over time they’ve earned their reputation as elite recon infantry, making several friends and enemies of fellow Bunker dwellers’ armies along the way. Forge that narrative.
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Ex Tenebris Militarum |
Below you’ll find a whole bunch of shots Charlie and I took of the army as it currently stands, and I’ll give a little bit of lore and maybe a chat about any significant conversion work as I go. I’ll also separate it into characters, platoons, specialists and armour.
Characters
The characters in the army are mainly based upon GW's Gaunt's Ghosts line, with both Captain Raan (the "main character" of the army, if there is such a thing) and Colonel Raikonnen, along with Lieutenant Kyrie, all coming from the new plastic sprue with minor conversions. The main cast are an eclectic bunch, each of them well suited to their current postings in one way or another. Oddly enough for this army the characters, while still a welcome break from batch painting, at times felt like a distraction from my true purpose: Spending a week at a time painting a 60 point infantry squads.
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| Colonel Cass Raikonnen, commanding officer of the Nightfall 31st. He is a canny senior officer who encourages initiative in his subordinates, and who takes it upon himself to act as an ambassador for the regiment in their dealings with outsiders. Consequently he wears slightly finer fatigues: Not for the comfort, or to set himself apart from his men, but to try and ingratiate himself a little with the sometimes snobbish Imperial officers of high command. |
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| Captain Hakkonen Raan. Raan is written about in more detail on the wiki, being both the commanding officer of Leshen Company, and being the main character of the stories I tell with the 31st. Through their campaigns he has risen from an enlisted sergeant to company commander, and he (usually) never fails to stick his power-knife bayonet into an unsuspecting enemy warlord. After said warlord has been heavily wounded by Raan's men, of course... A fair fight would be out of character. |
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| Lord Commissar Emil Valden and Commissar Kessia Ward, the 31st's attached morale officers. Lord Commissar Valden is a strange contradiction of a man, being both a famous Imperial hero and an unashamed admirer of Nightfaller culture. He is as underhanded in his barrack-room dealings as he is bold on the battlefield, and is a rare example of an offworlder who has gained full acceptance into the regimental family. Commissar Ward was until recently Valden's junior, and is much more of a traditional authority figure. Time will tell whether the 31st will smooth down her sharp edges, or if a stray frag grenade will end up between her feet mid-firefight... |
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| Missionary Angelica Vane, Exile from the Order of the Thorn and former Sister of Battle. Angelica is a broken woman who knows she will never again walk in the light of the Emperor in the same way that she once did, and throws herself into her work among the thinly-veiled heathens of the 31st with the desperation of one seeking absolution for her own sins. For their part the Nightfallers think Angelica is mad, and they're not entirely wrong - though they're quick witted enough to never be caught saying so. |
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| Lieutenant Jann Kyrie, Leshen Company, 1st Platoon. Kyrie is L Company's chief scout: A consummate infiltrator, ambusher and assassin. He trains his platoon of reconnaissance veterans to make the most of their unique skillsets, applying asymmetric thinking to firefights he would otherwise be outmatched in. Kyrie was the only other consideration when Raan was promoted to captain of L Company, but was passed over due to him being much more comfortable hiding in a sewer behind enemy lines than he is giving a company-wide tactical meeting. Kyrie may be a better killer than Raan, but he is a worse leader. He is, therefore, well suited to his role as the junior officer of L company's most elite fighters. |
Companies within the 31st are split into 4 platoons of roughly 40 troopers each: 2 And 3 platoons are known as "line" platoons, and form the backbone of any given company. They are comprised of basic infantry, sniper-scout specialists and a command team, and can be expected at times to function independently of their company: Such is the organisational structure of the 31st always focused on small scale operations, in line with their regimental niche. More than my other characters, the officers in charge of these platoons are in real danger should they die on the tabletop: I may just consider them dead for good and rename the miniature in charge of the platoon. I even intend, once the army is completed, to have a small surplus of junior officer miniatures, so I can keep changing faces as characters die off.
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| 2nd Platoon, currently commanded by Lt. Anrei Kai. Kai is a dependable junior officer who places an emphasis on rifle drill, and is a close friend of Captain Raan, who he served with when they were both enlisted men. |
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| 3rd Platoon, currently commaned by Lt. Makiela Micah. Micah's command style is confident and assured, and should she not die she may have a promising career ahead of her in senior regimental command. |
Support elements
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| Also, abhumans. I love Kronk squad, and I cannot wait to get some ratlings. The 31st would really get on with ratlings I feel: Very similar vibes. |
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| The 31st employ semi-autonomous mortars for supporting fire, both to cut down on manpower expended crewing and firing such guns, and to enable their use as a tempting target to offer an enemy in order to open them up to a counter attack, without risking the lives of the crew who are well used to simply fleeing the moment any fire comes their way. The auto-mortars themselves are from Anvil Industries, and I am a big fan - both of the miniatures themselves, and of the added flavour they offer the army in terms of a unique piece of equipment. |
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| A squad of 1 Platoon recon veterans. Stealthy killers, thieves and hunters all, the 31st's veteran platoons epitomise the Nightfaller way of war. The miniatures are Victoria Miniatures, but with relatively heavy kitbashing with hooded head swaps and some Anvil Industries backpacks and rifle attachments. In game terms I use these either as Kasrkin or Tempestus Scions (with their deep strike ability representing a squad lying in ambush). I love them, and need the rest of the platoon: In time I'll be able to play a game based entirely on a 1 Platoon ambush by using a Militarum Tempestus detachment. |
Armour
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| Weasel Squadron are legendary among the 31st. Sgt. Korhonen is an ace sentinel jockey and drills her subordinates relentlessly, the better to give L Company an answer to enemy heavy armour or alien monstrosities: 6 hunter killer sentinels drawing a bead on the enemy's weak points, bursting from cover and blasting it, hopefully before it can return fire. Such is her skill, she has even earned the respect of House Ulfir. |
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| Ghoul Squadron make up the rest of L Company's hunter-killer sentinels. Anti-tank armoured sentinels are common among Nightfaller Light Infantry regiments, as while they rarely need the additional scouting abilities lighter sentinels can provide, armoured sentinels can be used as a replacement for heavier tanks, in a pinch. Also, the old, slightly more angular sentinel design I really prefer. |
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| Wendigo Light Tanks. Instead of standard Chimera IFVs the 31st make use of these up-gunned variants, both to try and compensate for their lack of heavy armour, and for the Wendigo's superior operational range making it less reliant upon supply lines. The downsides are that the Wendigo's main gun is in truth only equivalent to an autocannon in terms of stopping power, leaving them undergunned as a true tank replacement, and the passenger compartment is extremely cramped leading to issues in the event the tank needs to be exited in an emergency, leaving them less safe than a Chimera. Despite these drawbacks the Nightfallers swear by them, citing the times a Wendigo has managed to keep up with a ranging company well beyond the distance other armour would have been capable of. Yep, they're Storm Chimeras: Legends only dies when we stop using it, folks. |
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| Hellhounds are often the heaviest armour available to a Nightfaller regiment, and the 31st are a classic example. The only other equivalent guns the regiment has access to are light field artillery, and Hellhounds provide crucial mobility where a field gun is static. They are invariably named for either fire-breathing or caustic predators from Nightfall, as is the regiment's custom. |
Awesome stuff, really enjoyable read that captured why the guard are so good for narrative
ReplyDeleteThanks! They're excellent for narrative gaming, I'm glad I was able to get something coherent out!
DeleteGiven Nightfallers' habit of naming things after local fauna, the implications of a Sentinel named "Bowel Spawn" are unsettling at best. The little drawing of a worm-like creature does not help.
ReplyDeleteBowel Spawn do exactly what it sounds like they do: Spawn from your bowels - like a tapeworm mixed with a lamprey. Honestly some of the best fun I've had with the 31st is not only naming the vehicles, but figuring out what manner of horrendous Deathworld alien said name belongs to. I should really do a Nightfall critterpedia at some point...
Delete