The Beard Bunker

At this point I’ve done quite a run of “Tom fixes a Primaris kit he doesn't like”.  The Desolators , obviously, the Invictor Warsuit , the Aggressors and Incursors …  Quite aside from my constant tweaking and improving of otherwise acceptable units I just want to do my way.  This isn’t that, well, not exactly.  I genuinely think the Lieutenant With Combi-weapon is a great model (with a stupid name).  I used to be an Ultramarine player when I first started (blindly following the box art without understanding, and then sticking with that choice for many years), and I love this call-back to the Tyrannic War Veterans.  However it doesn't really suit my Raven Guard, who don’t often face Tyranids (since I’m the only person I know in this city with a full Tyranid army*).  Plus the model kind of gives off psycho killer vibes, rather than sneaky beaky.  So, as ever, I made my own. Image Credit: Games Workshop, used without permission for illustrative purpo...

As I settle in to write yet another “Tom doesn’t like GW’s design so he fixes it” I feel I have to point out that I really do like most of the new Primaris range.  The core armour designs are excellent and the vehicles are (mostly) great.  They just occasionally have a tendency to stick something pretty derpy on top of that excellent core, and I feel the urge to replace it with something less dumb. Image Credit: Games Workshop, used without permission for illustrative purposes only. Inceptors were some of the very earliest of these derpy designs.  Modelling them in a more upright pose certainly helps with the “floating baby” look, but those stupidly large pistols…  I just can’t get past them.  They’re so massively front heavy, and why a pair of jumbo pistols instead of a sensible weapon?  So I just ignored them. But they kept niggling at me, because they’re a very cool concept that is extremely on-brand for Raven Guard.  A highly mobile jump pack unit ...

 Stupid Tom, doesn't he know it’s a warsuit not a dreadnought?  No shit Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Cluseau.  But Warhammer is all about making it yours, so I made it mine. Why Ok, so, first up, in my mind there is a difference between a Walker, and a Mech.  So for the sake of today’s article I’m going to define a walker as a vehicle with legs, but those legs are basically autonomous and the pilot just pushed the joystick to whatever to “go forwards” and the vehicle automatically makes the legs do whatever they need to do to achieve that.  The Imperial Guard Sentinel is a classic Walker, but also maybe the Aeldari War Walker and the Mechanicus Ironstrider.  Think of it kind of like riding a horse, you have the reins and give directions, but the horse decides where to put its feet. On the other hand, a Mech is, for my purposes at least, a machine that allows a person to directly control a large mechanical body.  This can be via control machinery that rea...

My biggest problem with the Primaris range when it first came out, which held me back from making the shift for a long time, was a lack of anti-tank weapons.  At the start, the only thing I seriously considered to be an anti-tank gun, was the lascannons/las-talon on the Repulsor.  The only other options were plasma, and for all that it might have worked in the rules, I really hated the idea of a crowd of Hellblasters hosing a tank to death with hundreds of tiny shots.  It reminds me too much of the Starship Troopers film, which is not the vibe you should be getting from elite Space Marines.  Thank you 10th edition for killing that off, the tyranny of plasma as the uber-weapon is over! Image Credit: TriStar Pictures, used without permission for illustrative purposes only. Eventually GW brought out first Phobos Eliminators, then Gravis Eradicators, then a wave of vehicles followed, and the range was filled out quite nicely.  That said, there has always been a gap ...